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Your phone is about to stop being yours

keepandroidopen.org

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Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#451

Post by matheusmoreira »

pngwen wrote: post #68

This change has served me well! I have been a Mac OS X users for years who used an android phone. As soon as google announced their impending walled garden status, I went out and bought into the ios eco system. I have really been enjoying my iphone, ipad, and apple watch. You see, the only value that Android really offered me was the ability to run my own code on my own device. Since they are taking that away that ju…

I will do the same if they lock down Android. If I must be in a walled garden, then I'm going to choose the better kept garden, and it sure as hell isn't Google's. There is absolutely zero reason to tolerate the shittiness of Android if they take away the relative freedom it gives us. GrapheneOS is the last hope of the Android ecosystem, and if Google keeps locking things down that's not going to last either.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#452

Post by kulahan »

GroksBarnacles wrote: post #449
pngwen wrote: post #68

This change has served me well! I have been a Mac OS X users for years who used an android phone. As soon as google announced their impending walled garden status, I went out and bought into the ios eco system. I have really been enjoying my iphone, ipad, and apple watch. You see, the only value that Android really offered me was the ability to run my own code on my own device. Since they are taking that away that ju…

Dumb question, can you explain the benefits of IOS? I've only tried using an iPhone ~10 years ago before I got into tech

It's unbelievably useful within its own walled garden. There are lots of instances where commands, tabs, and other pieces of data transfer seamlessly between your phone and computer. You can bring your phone up as a digital version ON your laptop so you can call, text, etc. straight from it while your phone sits in the bedroom charging or whatever. Everything works really, really well. Their walled garden has always been pretty top-tier.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#454

Post by roysting »

pzo wrote: post #403
quantumleaper wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With a free account, it needs to be reinstalled every 7 days because the signature expires. It's hardly convenient for personal use.

even worse - if you need to build some app with entitlements or some features likes push notifications etc then you need non-free account

I would like to mention that although I’m aware of the limitations, I think it is worth designing and advocating for web app standards that could even at some point become a viable competitor to native apps, especially for apps that really don’t need to be native/wrapped apps in the first place since most are CRUDs anyways.

Maybe this will be a catalyst towards further evolution of the web app as Android devs want to carve out some freedom from the world domination corporate shadow government walled gardens.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#455

Post by WarmWash »

This keeps coming up and I just want to point out that it's the result of one judge using the book rather than their brain to make a ruling.

Google asked (the appeals judge) why Apple was not a monopoly with the App store. The judge told Google it was because they cannot be anti-competitive if they have no competitors.

Well, here we are.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#456

Post by jagged-chisel »

imoverclocked wrote: post #128

"Tap the build number 7 times" ... "wait 24 hours" Throw a pinch of salt over your left (wait, no ... right) shoulder. Spin around clockwise 3 times. Read the Rosary twice. AHA! So, they are allowing users to keep doing what they want.

Start again. But this time, align your left top molar with the lower right canine.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#458

Post by thinking_cactus »

criddell wrote: post #139
rcxdude wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The openness of Android also acts as a check of sorts on how restrictive the walled garden can get. If google were to clamp down on useful functionality in the play store, then you could always install apks yourself. But if the latter is no longer an option, then there's much more temptation to google for the former.

I get the feeling that clamping down on useful functionality is often an unfortunate side-effect of closing down paths that are being exploited by criminals to harm users. What should Google do when a change they are making to protect regular less-technical users breaks functionality needed by more advanced users?

What's the threat model here?

If the user must click through a tons of disclaimers (including locked 60-second timeouts with huge WARNING: SCAM ALERT or something) in something buried in settings to get scammed, I think the few edge cases may be worth the tradeoff of being able to install apks.

Remember there is already malware-scanning by default (by Google play), apps need to ask for permissions, they generally can't read other app data or control say banking apps, modify system data (at all), etc..

The threat vectors seem already restricted. I haven't met anyone which has fallen to actual Android malware ever (that I can remember), but I can remember several close family members which were victims of simpler social engineering scams (mostly unsuccessfully) recently.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#459

Post by jwrallie »

Anonyneko wrote: post #133

I've resigned to the fact that I'll need to use two phones, one with locked down Android/iOS for banking applications and government services (those require strong bank ID around these parts), another with some kind of a Linux or unlocked Android for literally everything else. Oh well, such is life, most people don't care enough about this to pressure Google/Apple/banks/governments into yielding. A big reason why a n…

I think this is the only long term solution, even if cumbersome.

I’m curious what secondary devices people are using. I have a second hand Surface Go running Fedora 43 with Gnome, it’s a bit big but it’s doing its job well.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#460

Post by juliangoldsmith »

handedness wrote: post #450
fsflover wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except Librem 5 has been created and is usable by the HN people.

Does the Librem 5 not rely on any non-free code or infrastructure?

No true Scotsman would ever use binary blobs.
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