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Android P

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61–70 of 316 posts

Re: Android P

#61

Lots of slick UI stuff, but no meaningful updates to things that are well overdue: - Encryption of specific secrets for each app. - Fine grained control of what information is shared with apps. - Ability to selectively deny particular data (and have the app keep working, e.g by giving it an empty contacts list, fake phone ID, etc). - Ad and js blocking capable browser. Why should installing e.g. the facebook app, all…

> Fine grained control of what information is shared with apps. No, they won't willingly destroy a major revenue source.

I don't understand this request? Apps are sandboxed, and there's relatively granular permission control now. What is this referencing specifically?

Re: Android P

#63
post #58
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many of these features could be implemented (far sooner) if a universal UI scripting language was available for users...

You know, I'm pretty sure anyone could have built these apps on Android You can overwrite the screen in Android. You can replace the home screen in Android. You can scrape running apps in Android. There's a high degree of flexibility Unfortunately this is probably one of those problems where the cost of building the app is relatively high (because the domain is complicated to get right!) and it would be hard to make…

it's hard less because of Android and more because you have to support hacked up vendor distros of Android if you want to see any adoption, looking at you Samshit Touchwang

Re: Android P

#64
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fine grained control of what information is shared with apps. No, they won't willingly destroy a major revenue source.

I don't understand this request? Apps are sandboxed, and there's relatively granular permission control now. What is this referencing specifically?

this applies only to installed apps from the store, not system apps like googles or oem apps. you cant disable background activity of any apps. dont want an always listening ai helper from google? too bad for you.

Re: Android P

#65
post #42

While I appreciate the concept of learning things like "common next steps" to make a device more usable, going by the history of devices like Google Home or the Google Assistant, I also wonder how much of this is going to depend on "give us all your usage history" settings and simply stop working with those settings disabled. The Google Assistant is already unusable without a pile of search history settings enabled;…

Google already has all your usage history. You can view it yourself by dialing # #INFO# # aka # #4636# # and then selecting "Usage data". You’ll see all apps you’ve used, for how long you’ve used them overall, how many times, and when the last time was. EDIT: *#*#4636#*#* This goddamn markup on HN is utterly broken, I wish it would someday get fixed. But no, of course not.

That's local information; the question is, how much of this functionality depends on local information and how much gets offloaded to Google servers?

Re: Android P

#66
post #22

Thought that all new Android One devices should get upcoming updates like the Pixel devices but they don't get Android P Beta (except the Nokia one).

I'm annoyed that my new device isn't covered here, as well. :( I'll clearly survive, but there seems to be no solid reason for why some of these devices aren't more supported.

Re: Android P

#68
This looks awful. I've come to realize that any feature with "smart" anywhere in the name, is something I want disabled.

Smart quotes? Only exist to fuck up copypasta code and SQL statements.

Smart spell check? There's a field of internet hilarity about how bad this is.

Smart restore? Best way to lose my data and fuck up my install.

Smart assistant? I've yet to meet even one person who uses GAssistant/Siri/Cortana for anything more complex than "schedule a meeting" or "set an alarm."

Smart handwriting recognition? Refuses to detect the word "fuck". And my handwriting was perfectly legible anyway.

I want my software to be TOOLS. Predictable, ideally interoperable and chainable, but above all: simple. The best pieces of Ux make technology feel like a simple tool. Cut/paste. Messaging conversation-style, with a simple "send" button. Grep.

I find my best note taking software is a text editor, with all formatting turned off. I use ad blockers to disable as many recommendation engines as I can. I use duckduckgo because it just answers my query, without trying to tailor the answers to what the machine (or the advertiser) thinks I want. To mee, simple tools that behave consistently are infinitely preferable to the game of "guess how the computer is misunderstanding the request." Maybe I'm a curmudgeon.

I work with ML/AI, and there are great benefits in lots of applications. Just not in second guessing what people want to do. Even other PEOPLE are terrible at that.

Please don't make me dance around the quirks of your "smart" AI. I promise, I am smarter. I have better context. I know what I want to do. Just get out of the fucking way and let me do it in the simplest, most direct way.

Re: Android P

#69
post #19

I thought Project Treble was supposed to make the updating process easier from an OEM point of view. If so I wish they supported the Nexus 5X and 6P for one more version.

I don't think those phones ever had Treble.

I figured they received Treble last year with Oreo but looking now that's apparently not the case.
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