Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS • Hacker News Board

Re: Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS

#491

Post by n8cpdx » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 4:51 PM UTC

razingeden wrote: post #448

Zak wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just the average consumer. I continue to be surprised that so many developers and other tech nerds - the type who post on HN - chose and continue to choose the iPhone over Android when Apple dictates what apps they can install and locks third-party accessories out of certain features. Current times do present the opportunity to raise awareness of the issue though. App store bans for apps like ICEBlock, and v…

Apple is doing a marvelous job of destroying the whole “it just works” or “it’s easy to figure out how to ____” thing they had going on. I would get over on an android 10-12 years ago and get exasperated about even trying to send a text message on the damned thing. Which, unfortunately can also now be said about the Apple experience. Apple doesn’t care what I think about their battery draining bloated garbage softwar…

The problem is as bad as Apple has become, it has a long way to fall before it reaches the depths of Google/Android. We could have six more iOS 26 style disaster releases and I suspect it would still be better than putting up with Android.

I tried to switch to graphene for similar reasons to you. It just wasn’t viable, as you’re discovering.

And if you want to even attempt to have a modern smartphone experience, you’re logging into Google account, which is an “out of the frying pan, into the fire” move.

Re: Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS

#492

Post by malfist » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 4:51 PM UTC

pentae wrote: post #152

dmos62 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

70% of the world runs on Android. Do you think they get their banking information stolen every 6 months?

A quick search resulted in this: "Android malware saw a 67% increase in 2025, with over 40 million downloads of malicious apps targeting banking and stealing data, frequently hiding in "Tools" and utility apps on the Google Play Store." So no, I don't think that's a small amount of risk, even if there's billions of Android users in the wild. Especially considering how much money can be stolen from peoples bank accoun…

A 67% increase of a 0.001% chance is just 0.00167%.

67% of android users in 2025 did not get their banking credentials stolen.

Re: Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS

#493

Post by rewgs » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 4:52 PM UTC

neya wrote: post #216

BatteryMountain wrote: post #108

If anyone from Motorola reads this thread; the market is beyond ripe for a good shake up. Going full open source and pushing updates & openness, user control and freedom, you will gobble up a good chunk of market share. Make MDM easy & first class (no third parties...), and a ton of corp will roll it out too. We need you more than you think.

This is just developer fantasy. The average consumer doesn't care even one bit. Is the phone smooth? Does it have a good camera? Does it have a good battery? Does it last more than 2 years? Go to some developing countries around Asia and you'll be surprised how people prioritise features when buying a phone vs developed ones. The developing countries account for most of the sales of most phone manufacturers. Phones t…

The article specifically talks about B2B and MDM-like features. The "average consumer" isn't the point here -- rather, governments, defense, high-security corporations, etc.

Re: Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS

#494

Post by jjice » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 4:54 PM UTC

Zak wrote: post #350

neya wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just developer fantasy. The average consumer doesn't care even one bit. Is the phone smooth? Does it have a good camera? Does it have a good battery? Does it last more than 2 years? Go to some developing countries around Asia and you'll be surprised how people prioritise features when buying a phone vs developed ones. The developing countries account for most of the sales of most phone manufacturers. Phones t…

It's not just the average consumer. I continue to be surprised that so many developers and other tech nerds - the type who post on HN - chose and continue to choose the iPhone over Android when Apple dictates what apps they can install and locks third-party accessories out of certain features. Current times do present the opportunity to raise awareness of the issue though. App store bans for apps like ICEBlock, and v…

> I continue to be surprised that so many developers and other tech nerds - the type who post on HN - chose and continue to choose the iPhone over Android when Apple dictates what apps they can install and locks third-party accessories out of certain features.

I ran Android since the beginning because I wanted to write my own software when I was in high school. I was on Android for something like 14 years. The other software I ran was never as good as my iOS compatriots. My software would crash, it looked worse, and it was generally lower quality.

Of course, there were exceptions, but not enough.

I switch to an iPhone a bit over a year ago and, while still having issues (especially recently), it's just such a better experience.

My computer is where I do my fun software development. I just want my phone to work, which my Android phones weren't. Whether the hardware, the OS, or the applications were at fault doesn't matter to me, because I just wanted it to work.

Re: Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS

#495

Post by linhns » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 4:55 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #153

ternwer wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Motorola phones are Chinese, aren't they? They mention being a Lenovo company in the article.

Yes, Motorola is a Chinese company.

This is a shame for the American old mobile phone industry. There was always potential in the brand and the phones they produce that deserved to be saved.

Now hopefully Lenovo does it justice, unlike Thinkpad which they have milked and diluted everything out of.

Re: Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS

#496

Post by n8cpdx » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 4:55 PM UTC

drnick1 wrote: post #462

wolvoleo wrote: post #81

Hmm the one thing I'm kinda missing with grapheneos is mobile payments. The banks here in Europe used to have their own nfc apps but in my country they've all moved to Google wallet :( or Samsung pay. I don't want Google monitoring my payments so I'm using Samsung now but I'd love to have something more open for this. I was kinda hoping the partner would be Samsung so they might collaborate on a payment system too. I…

If you don't want your payments to be tracked you need to use cash or crypto. Otherwise, just use a credit card. I really don't see how unlocking a phone is easier or more convenient than using a credit card.

The watch is on my wrist, or the phone is already in my hand. The credit card is buried in a wallet that needs to be taken out of and put back into a pocket.

Also “unlocking” isn’t an inconvenient step, on iPhone it just happens automatically. As it should on android if the fingerprint sensor is in a convenient location.

Re: Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS

#497

Post by MeetingsBrowser » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

Zak wrote: post #430

afavour wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I continue to be surprised that so many developers and other tech nerds - the type who post on HN - chose and continue to choose the iPhone over Android when Apple dictates what apps they can install and locks third-party accessories out of certain features. I bought a Nexus One the day it became available, installed endless third party ROMs on it, tweaked it to my heart's desire. Got a Nexus 4, then 5. Today I hav…

> Also FaceTime for calling distant relatives. Are your relatives unable to install Signal or WhatsApp? Yes is a possible answer here, but installing a messaging/video-call app seems pretty low effort. I've had several elderly relatives do it and none required hand-holding, just the name of the app.

Even starting a FaceTime call is a struggle for lots of people.

Installing an setting up Signal or WhatsApp is out of the question for a huge portion of the population.

Re: Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS

#498

Post by smm11 » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC

BatteryMountain wrote: post #108

If anyone from Motorola reads this thread; the market is beyond ripe for a good shake up. Going full open source and pushing updates & openness, user control and freedom, you will gobble up a good chunk of market share. Make MDM easy & first class (no third parties...), and a ton of corp will roll it out too. We need you more than you think.

People threatened nope-ing themselves if TikTok was removed. The percent of people who care about this sort of stuff is beyond miniscule.

Re: Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS

#499

Post by swiftcoder » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC

sho_hn wrote: post #396

Zak wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just the average consumer. I continue to be surprised that so many developers and other tech nerds - the type who post on HN - chose and continue to choose the iPhone over Android when Apple dictates what apps they can install and locks third-party accessories out of certain features. Current times do present the opportunity to raise awareness of the issue though. App store bans for apps like ICEBlock, and v…

> so many developers and other tech nerds - the type who post on HN The average developer stopped being a "tech nerd" around 2010 or so. I think older developers sometimes don't understand how the ranks have swollen and how many, many more people are in software now that don't have the "I was a nerdy kid in the 90s, loved computers and chose the career" upbringing. The average developer now has a MacBook, went to a b…

Back in the 90s, Macs were mostly used by the "tech nerds". Normal people ran windows 95/98. It's still kind of weird to me that Macs became sufficiently mainstream as to lose their tech nerd cred :)

Re: Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS

#500

Post by yownie » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC

mcdonje wrote: post #371

stavros wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's been trying to get passed for years and hasn't yet, I think it's fair to say the EU very much doesn't want.

If they can't get it passed because the people don't want it, then why do they keep trying to pass it? Some entities with a lot of power or influence clearly want it. This is the same thing we see in the US. We keep saying "no", and they keep trying. Maybe the EU people don't want it, but at least some governing body of the EU clearly does. There's a comment not too far up in this thread saying this is more of a US t…

if you truly dig down it's the US and of all people Ashton Kutcher (https://mullvad.net/en/why-privacy-matters/going-dark) who are pushing this. So they can then point to the EU and say ”they do it so why not do it here?”