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Developing for Android is like being a demonetized YouTuber

gbl08ma.com

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Re: Developing for Android is like being a demonetized YouTuber

#71

Post by chronogram »

robin_reala wrote: post #41
chronogram wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boxes and drawers. A sound file could be in a collection of records or CDs or tapes. Making it just like real life is like having your users start off with the manual already read. I’m afraid a general Android VR item picker will be a lot more boring though.

And thus was born Microsoft Bob.

Rather older versions of Macs! With binders where you put files into, and dragging items around, and most of the applications being items on an office desk.

Nowadays I guess the surface studio is a good example. Being laid out like a drawing table and interacting with it like a drawing table.

Re: Developing for Android is like being a demonetized YouTuber

#72

Post by sevensor »

jbk wrote: post #24

After porting VLC on so many platforms, to be honest, working on Android applications is not too bad. Notably compared to other mobile platforms. The tools and IDE are quite good (they need a lot of RAM though), the deployment is easy, the development workflow simple enough and the devices are easy (and cheap) to come by. Even the Play Store console is not catastrophic. A contrario from Youtube, you can get questions…

I quite like VLC on my cheap Android, and I'm glad the development experience has been reasonable! It's just the thing for my SD card full of ogg vorbis files.

Re: Developing for Android is like being a demonetized YouTuber

#73

Post by kitsunesoba »

redleggedfrog wrote: post #56
eh78ssxv2f wrote: post #25

> "Note that all of these things that they are removing for “security”, could simply be gated around a permission prompt you’d have to accept, as with the contact list, or location." I think letting the user decide on permissions works in practice only if (i) There is a good chance that an average user would understand the tradeoffs of giving different permissions to different apps (ii) A large majority of users are…

This is the crux of the problem that gbl08ma isn't realizing. "User choice is what all of this boils down to, really. Android used to give me the choice of being slightly insecure in exchange for having more powerful and innovative features in the apps I install..." You're dead on about the average user. Watch someone install and app, and less than a second is spent looking at the permissions. Google's solution makes…

Is it really that bad to do financial things on one’s phone? I would be pretty annoyed if I had to fire up a browser tab on my desktop/laptop any time I wanted to look over the transactions on my CCs and bank account.

Re: Developing for Android is like being a demonetized YouTuber

#74

Post by gmueckl »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #67
gmueckl wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all a load of crappy workarounds leading to a convoluted and cumbersome user experience. From a usability perspective, I would not consider such a behavior a solution.

The alternative is malware having free reign over the entire filesystem. This is a real problem which is happening today. With your all-or-nothing solution the user has no ability to limit what files an app can access, which is totally unacceptable.

Apps need my permission to access external storage even today. I don't see how a convoluted UI helps here.

Although it may not be international (I think intentions are good), this change will devalue internal device storage to such an extent that people will see themselves forced to store even more data in cloud services of dubious reputation. Technically, they don't have to, but it will likely be easier for the masses.

Re: Developing for Android is like being a demonetized YouTuber

#75

Post by scarface74 »

armagon wrote: post #70
scarface74 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store/ 80% of all iOS devices are on iOS 12. An additional 12% are on iOS 11. Any device that can run iOS 11 can also run iOS 12. By not supporting older devices, you are missing out on at most 8% of the iOS population. But even some percentage of those are able to update to iOS 12. To target anything older than the 5s means you also have to target 32 bit processors. How much t…

80% of all devices that use the app store . You'd better believe there are older devices out there, and people would use the app store with them, iff the app store would only show you apps (or versions of apps) that still run on your device. It is frustrating trying to get games on an old iPad for the kids.

If they don’t use the App Store and that’s the only way that they can get apps, then why would you spend time and money supporting them?

Re: Developing for Android is like being a demonetized YouTuber

#76

Post by fjabre »

fencepost wrote: post #63

Didn't they do some of this kind of storage crap back on 4.x? And for that matter, isn't this pretty much exactly what Microsoft was doing with Windows Phone? My annoying use case for those was ebook readers - I have a pretty massive library of epubs (Thanks Baen Webscriptions!) and have tended to just dump a ton of them into a folder in storage on a device. I can then pull those up in CoolReader, Moon+ Reader (posit…

I think the point you make about walled gardens needs to be addressed more than it is. It seems to have become normalized across all platforms and that is disturbing.

I fundamentally disagree with the premise of a walled garden when there are no other options to install on a device.

The web is the only freedom devs have left and even that is starting to erode - article 13, neutrality etc.

Re: Developing for Android is like being a demonetized YouTuber

#77

Post by joelhaasnoot »

fattire wrote: post #16

Android's Storage Access Framework is really underrated. Just ask the user to choose a document (file or image or whatever) by firing an intent-- then Android's built-in file picker starts up and you don't have to deal with implementing any of that UI experience. After the user picks the file, a content:// URI is returned back. https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/providers/documen... Best part-- along with the…

On new devices, this often opens an empty file picker. That's so helpful to a user...

Re: Developing for Android is like being a demonetized YouTuber

#78

Post by HillaryBriss »

agluszak wrote: post #26

Security on Android is a joke. Google may shut down completely legitimate developers' accounts and remove useful permissions, yet they will still allow malicious apps like Cheetah Mobile's Ram Booster to be in top 10 most downloaded apps of the Play Store...

case in point: the MalwareBytes app is no longer allowed to access SMS message info, so it cannot examine links in SMS messages.

so there's a legit security app which can no longer function as effectively as it did before the Google Play Store eliminated its access to the SMS permission.

Re: Developing for Android is like being a demonetized YouTuber

#79

Post by swiftcoder »

gmueckl wrote: post #74
Godel_unicode wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative is malware having free reign over the entire filesystem. This is a real problem which is happening today. With your all-or-nothing solution the user has no ability to limit what files an app can access, which is totally unacceptable.

Apps need my permission to access external storage even today. I don't see how a convoluted UI helps here. Although it may not be international (I think intentions are good), this change will devalue internal device storage to such an extent that people will see themselves forced to store even more data in cloud services of dubious reputation. Technically, they don't have to, but it will likely be easier for the mass…

> Apps need my permission to access external storage even today. I don't see how a convoluted UI helps here.

Consumers tend to just click past permission prompts, hence granting malware permission to everything. Power users can take care of themselves, of course, but most consumers don't have the technical knowledge to safely deal with this kind of permission prompt.

Re: Developing for Android is like being a demonetized YouTuber

#80

Post by HillaryBriss »

bibyte wrote: post #54

As an Android user it feels like Android is getting more and more IOS like with every new release. Seriously I wouldn't be surprised if they locked down the filesystem (like IOS) in the name of security.

> more and more IOS like with every new release

not disagreeing, but i'm skeptical android will ever attain iOS's level of fan-appreciation or polish. if becoming like iOS is their goal, Google is probably playing a losing game.

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