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Why I'm Ditching Android

kevq.uk

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Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#71

Post by kevq »

diminish wrote: post #23

I won't ditch Android for Apple. Apple is restricted, Safari is a tragedy for the web and prices are too expensive for the value. Somehow I dislike everything Apple represents, and reminds. The design, the simplicity which comes from restrictiveness. Even the lightest Linux window manager like i3wn, is better than all of os/x does. I will just wait till a true open source option comes.

Simply install Firefox and your problems are over. That's what I do on my iPad, and what I intend to do on the SE when it arrives.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#72

Post by j605 »

swozey wrote: post #46

He missed the thing that's getting me really close to leaving Android after being a devout user since the G1 (with a short 3-5 month stint on an Iphone 6). I really, really dislike IOS and I absolutely don't want to be more tied to Apple than I am with my MBP and Hackintosh (technically I'm just tied to OSX right now). RCS (the Android attempt at iMessage) is STILL not a real-world thing. Txt messaging and MMS on And…

If you have a smartphone, people invariably have one or two messaging apps in my experience. If it is not Whatsapp then it is something else. You need to figure out what everyone in your circle is using and switch to it or resort to sending blurry SMS. I've found sharing google photos links is much easier since it backs up anyway.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#73

Post by dredmorbius »

me551ah wrote: post #56
Zenst wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notifications need teirs. You have notifications, that are not important, so low priority. But equally you have notifications that are important, those should be sent and logged message queue style, so they stay on the send queue until processed and processing acknowledged by the client.

Actually Google does have the concept of priority in Notifications. https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/concept-opt... . On a Google/Stock Android OS and on some good manufacturers like motorola notifications do work as expected. It's just the custom battery saver stuff that some manufacturers implement on top of Android which causes issues. Google doesn't have much control over the privileged process th…

User- or sender- determined?

One of those never works.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#74

Post by jasonvorhe »

It's rather common knowledge that most vendors that aren't Google or Nokia put a load of crap ware on their devices that can't be removed. Duh.

He also hasn't really ditched Android yet, since his iPhone hasn't even been delivered yet.

I don't get the point of this blog post.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#75

Post by arminiusreturns »

The second a pure linux phone without googles bullshit (which includes allowing manufacturer and carrier bullshit) comes out, I'm switching. Until then I'm sticking with my blackberry android because at least I have a linux underside and a foss appstore.

Google had such a good opportunity with android, and shit the bed with it, abusing users and letting manufacturers and carriers join in on the abuse.

There should be a "Right to Root".

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#76

Post by dorfsmay »

jimktrains2 wrote: post #59
asveikau wrote: post #29

I put lineage on two devices and I must say it's shockingly refreshing to be able to have some say in how much Google you get. I am used to the idea of OEM and carrier bloatware but it's surprising how much unwanted Google software appears in a stock image. On lineage I am pretty happy with the "nano" set of OpenGApps which is about the amount of Googleyness I want. I install a few more from Play on top.

I've been using CyanogenMod and now LineageOS since my first Android phone, and I love it over OEM. I'm unfortunatly still tied to GApps, but at this point it's basically contacts and calendar sync along with Maps, along with a random Play-store-only app (e.g. Transit). (I find almost everything I need in F-Droid.) (Yes, I have OSMand and offline maps, but I still like Google Maps for some things.) My biggest problem…

I hate how Google Contacts and Calendar are so much superior to any other offer. I can easily find alternative to everything google except for those two.

Especially true with Contacts I feel like I'm doxing everybody I add to it. I have tried many alternative, but nothing even remotely measure to it.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#78

Post by jefftk »

beatgammit wrote: post #47
ChrisRackauckas wrote: post #11

Honestly, who really cares that much about what smartphone you have these days? You have one with a good enough battery and the same apps as anyone else, and the speed is all fast enough to not notice. At this point the technology has converged.

Yup. I just bought a $250 Moto X4 to replace my Nexus 6 and it feels faster. My Nexus 6 cost $450 a couple years old, and my new phone was new. I don't see any reason to pay $1000 for a phone these days, and I probably could have gotten the same experience from the Moto G at $200. I just want a phone that: - can last the entire day - can run a browser reasonably well - has decent reception - will get security updates…

For me the camera is the main thing: smartphone cameras have been getting really good. Examples of my phones:

2017, Pixel 1: https://www.jefftk.com/pictures/2017/20171228_091058.jpg

2017, Galaxy S6: https://www.jefftk.com/pictures/2017/20170312_123314_030.jpg

2014, Moto X: https://www.jefftk.com/pictures/2014/stevie-lily-ball.jpg

2011, Galaxy SII: https://www.jefftk.com/images/2011/all/IMG_20120115_202514.j...

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#79

Post by fiddlerwoaroof »

tootie wrote: post #28
SamWhited wrote: post #12

I've been coming around to this way of thinking more and more lately. Apple has a clear business model that involves selling high-end phones and other hardware and taking a percentage of app sales, not selling me to advertisers. I've found at least 5 different privacy settings buried in various places around the Android menus in a confusing way (instead of just having a single switch in the privacy settings menu), an…

I think you can say that if privacy is important to you, then you are probably more aligned with Apple's business plan. The article says as much. It's not like Apple are being more magnanimous, it's just that they don't profit off of user tracking so they use it as marketing ammo against Google users. As a developer, it constantly burns my biscuits that Apple software only runs on Apple hardware. The fact that I have…

To some degree, a company that makes money of devices rather than ads will always charge more for the devices since they can’t really sell the device at or below cost and then make the profit from showing ads to their users.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#80

Post by HillaryBriss »

me551ah wrote: post #4

Notifications, as you rightly mentioned, are a huge problem with Android. Some manufacturers implement battery saving measures which force kill applications so they can no longer process notifications. I used to work at a team messaging startup Flock and we used to get a lot of complaints from users about missing notifications. We were able to detect impacted users and reduce complaints substantially using duplicate…

> force kill applications so they can no longer process notifications

I saw your article about push notifications on certain android phone manufacturers and found it interesting -- something I hadn't seen before. Nice!

But, if I'm not mistaken, the OP is focusing especially on android notifications raised by the app itself rather than push notifications. I'm not sure, but it seems like the problem he highlights involves compatibility-mode changes to the way apps run code while the app itself is also in the background.

Or, it could be that the app developers are not using the officially recommended soup of background processing job scheduling classes the way Android says they should.

Or, maybe that soup of classes isn't always as reliable as advertised.

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