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15 Years of Android Memories

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Re: 15 Years of Android Memories

#41

Post by Dah00n »

tornato7 wrote: post #7
psbp wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android 14 has been a buggy mess for me on the Pixel 7 Pro. It's confounding that Google is still pushing out buggy Android releases.

I really liked Android, but at a certain point I just couldn't deal with the constant buggy releases, security flaws, and short update cycle anymore. Especially things like the Pixel phones crashing when calling 911 seems ridiculous in 2023. Maybe 10 years ago when I had time to play around with ROMs and nobody really needed to reach me 24/7 that would be fine, but now I need a device that "just works" and that's iPh…

It is great that we have choice, but "just works" is not really the whole truth. It just works as long as you do exactly as Apple wants you to do. Any misstep or need for choice outside what they deem correct usage and Android "just works" much, much better. For you this might be perfect, but to me having zero choice is perfectly bad. A phone without F-droid is to me a brick.

Re: 15 Years of Android Memories

#42

Post by Dah00n »

kaba0 wrote: post #15
hulitu wrote: post #8

> our mission has always been to bring computing to everyone Yet if you try to do computing on Android, you hit a wall: file access is absymal from a user point of view (virtual folders ?). Text editors are terrible. The only thing existing are some BASIC interpreters, terrible to use. Combine this with the unaccessible GUI (small scroll bars, widgets too big or too small) and everything tells you to go away and neve…

As opposed to what? Your Linux desktop that will readily allow sending your browser cache, ssh keys, family photos to anyone with a simple ‘npm install’, nothing at all preventing it? Also, if you call that GUI inaccessible, you write from a place of privilege: mobile platforms absolutely beat the shit out of any desktop computer on accessibility count, hands down, any people with some kind of disability will tell yo…

>Your Linux desktop that will readily allow sending your browser cache, ssh keys, family photos to anyone with a simple ‘npm install’, nothing at all preventing it?

Either you are using it wrong (su) or you are describing the exact same behaviour as Windows and MAC. Is it perfect? No. Is it worse than any other mainstream product? No.

>Also, if you call that GUI inaccessible, you write from a place of privilege: mobile platforms absolutely beat the shit out of any desktop computer on accessibility count, hands down, any people with some kind of disability will tell you as much.

Really? A thread on HN a few weeks (months?) back about this did absolutely not show any such consensus. Many loved Apple products for accessibility, but even more commented that Windows was by far the best product available, far ahead of Mac and iPhones.

Re: 15 Years of Android Memories

#43

Post by codethief »

plugin-baby wrote: post #33
archeantus wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first smartphone. I started working at Tmobile in college as a sales rep when the G1 came out and I immediately was smitten with it. The functionality and experience was so much better than anything that BlackBerry had to offer, yet all of the seasoned reps scoffed at the G1 and continued to push and sell Blackberries. They thought I was crazy to carry and sell the G1. I think I got the last laugh.

How was UI responsiveness vs blackberry? And keyboard?

Not OP and I also never used a Blackberry but, man, the G1's keyboard was so so good! I could (and did) type for hours and could even type blindly (without even looking at the screen).

Re: 15 Years of Android Memories

#44

Post by GTP »

hulitu wrote: post #8

> our mission has always been to bring computing to everyone Yet if you try to do computing on Android, you hit a wall: file access is absymal from a user point of view (virtual folders ?). Text editors are terrible. The only thing existing are some BASIC interpreters, terrible to use. Combine this with the unaccessible GUI (small scroll bars, widgets too big or too small) and everything tells you to go away and neve…

Smartphones and tablets, no matter the OS, are mainly suited to consume contents, not to create them. Sure, if you had a traditional Linux distro on your device you would be much less constrained, but then you hit other limitations like the lack of a physical keyboard and a small screen size.

Re: 15 Years of Android Memories

#45

Post by numpad0 »

baz00 wrote: post #30
taspeotis wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t forget you can’t call emergency services if you had Microsoft Teams installed. Also you still can’t call emergency services due to some other bug? One year they forgot December existed in the Contacts app. Also wasn’t their permission model terrible from the start vs. iOS’ fine grained prompts?

Also Google Pay stops working half way through a journey across London meaning you end up in a massive human pile up. SMS messages stop getting received suddenly at least once a quarter usually when I'm in the middle of fucking nowhere and need to so a 2FA bounce requiring a reboot. And that time it destroyed the filesystem on an SD card resulting in the loss of two weeks of irreplaceable holiday photos in Australia.…

4. Don't ever buy Google in-house hardware.

0. This may be an unimaginably reckless contribution to techno-totalitarianism, but just get an old iPhone. They just work.

Re: 15 Years of Android Memories

#46

Post by numpad0 »

fomine3 wrote: post #29
petepete wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incredibly US-centric, the line between manufacturer and carrier is much clearer just about everywhere else in the world.

Manufacturer and career relationship was very strong in Japan ,because career was a new service developer and order what to make. iPhone did great here too.

Still is. iPhone never allowing carrier-customized ROM changed everything. At least now we can disable ~stupid~ sheep wandering homescreen on localized Android phones.

Re: 15 Years of Android Memories

#47

Post by walteweiss »

numpad0 wrote: post #45
baz00 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also Google Pay stops working half way through a journey across London meaning you end up in a massive human pile up. SMS messages stop getting received suddenly at least once a quarter usually when I'm in the middle of fucking nowhere and need to so a 2FA bounce requiring a reboot. And that time it destroyed the filesystem on an SD card resulting in the loss of two weeks of irreplaceable holiday photos in Australia.…

4. Don't ever buy Google in-house hardware. 0. This may be an unimaginably reckless contribution to techno-totalitarianism, but just get an old iPhone. They just work.

SE series is great. I’m still rocking the very first SE, and apart from OS software updates (I still have security updates sometimes) it’s fine. Given the broken protective glass screen, it doesn’t look very attractive. The same could be said about modern SEs with the looks of iPhone 6.

I bet something that looks like iPhone 5/5S/6 in 2023 isn’t that attractive to steal, even compared to modern Android phones.

But if we stay on the subject of travelling, I would definitely took _at least_ two phones, an iPhone for stability and an Android for functionality.

Re: 15 Years of Android Memories

#48

Post by walteweiss »

glandium wrote: post #34
anotheronelost wrote: post #3

Missing from 2014: pushed out Lollipop release to OG Nexus tablets, destroying performance, leaving only those technical enough to downgrade with any way to keep using the devices. 2023: pushed out Android 14 update, removing access to any additional profiles used on the devices. TBF they still have time to deal with this one, but their response so far has been terrible. And yet I still buy the damn things because th…

I'm glad I have a Pixel 3a, which Google doesn't care about anymore, and won't get Android 14.

What’s so special about Android 14, compared to other versions?

I’m still on Android 8, with my Nexus 6P that happened to be lucky and have no bootloops. Curiously, it still covers everything I need, has a quick charge, nice stereo speakers, and is updated with everything (all the apps, including built-ins), but the OS. Even the camera is great for my use case. A have an old Pixel camera mod, back from those early days.

I want to upgrade to a Pixel, but I have nothing else to do with my Nexus, so I try to keep it as much as I can.

Re: 15 Years of Android Memories

#49

Post by walteweiss »

Dah00n wrote: post #41
tornato7 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really liked Android, but at a certain point I just couldn't deal with the constant buggy releases, security flaws, and short update cycle anymore. Especially things like the Pixel phones crashing when calling 911 seems ridiculous in 2023. Maybe 10 years ago when I had time to play around with ROMs and nobody really needed to reach me 24/7 that would be fine, but now I need a device that "just works" and that's iPh…

It is great that we have choice, but "just works" is not really the whole truth. It just works as long as you do exactly as Apple wants you to do. Any misstep or need for choice outside what they deem correct usage and Android "just works" much, much better. For you this might be perfect, but to me having zero choice is perfectly bad. A phone without F-droid is to me a brick.

That’s why I simply rock two old smartphones (an Android, Nexus 6P, and an iPhone SE, 1st Gen.). And as I look around, I use them much effectively than everyone I know with much more modern phones, when they have just one device. My iPhone just works (and it does it very well), while my Nexus can do whatever it wants in terms of instability, I don’t care. I use it as a pocket computer, with F-droid and its wonderful apps. On top of that I have an old low-end Samsung smartphone (someone just gave it to me), I re-flashed it with Lineage OS and it has its use-case, slightly different from Nexus. I really cannot see any need in one extra phone, as those 3 cover all my use-cases at the moment.

Re: 15 Years of Android Memories

#50

Post by marak830 »

Dah00n wrote: post #40
taspeotis wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t forget you can’t call emergency services if you had Microsoft Teams installed. Also you still can’t call emergency services due to some other bug? One year they forgot December existed in the Contacts app. Also wasn’t their permission model terrible from the start vs. iOS’ fine grained prompts?

>Don’t forget you can’t call emergency services if you had Microsoft Teams installed. That was on Microsoft – not Google, though. >Also you still can’t call emergency services due to some other bug? FUD. >Also wasn’t their permission model terrible from the start vs. iOS’ fine grained prompts? If you want someone to tell you (read: decide for you and leave zero room for choice) what permissions are Good and which are…

You will need to back this up a whole lot more for 'app installed blue coed ES call'.

Now as a MS customer it would not surprise me. But data makes arguments.

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