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Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

arstechnica.com

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Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#851

Post by kro »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #477
plst wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by impossible in this case? Can't you just have the coin-operated parking meters back? Where I live, in EU, parking meters even take cards. EDIT: I guess "just" is doing some heavy-lifting, so I won't argue this further, but "impossible" isn't the word I would use either. The city could revert this decision, definitely if enough people wanted them to (that's... I know, the hardest part). I just agree…

> Where I live, in EU, parking meters even take cards. Unfortunately, a more accurate way of putting it is: stuff takes cards in lieu of coins . Like, where I live (also EU), ticket machines in buses and trams have gradually been upgraded over the past decade to accept cards, and then to accept only cards. It's a ratchet. Hidden inflation striking again. Cashless is cheaper to maintain than cash-enabled, so it preten…

Not advocating for cashless only, but cash also has costs: banks charge for deposits and coinrolls, and you need to protect against robbery

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#852

Post by bitexploder »

b112 wrote: post #607
al_borland wrote: post #579

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate this pop-up so much. I don’t even have Chrome installed on my phone. How about open up on the only browser I have installed… This kind of thing should be illegal. The default browser is the default for a reason, to avoid this kind of stuff. I think I’ve reported this as a bug to Google a couple times, in a couple different apps… as they do it in their other apps too. The only thing that bothers me more are the…

It's OK. This is the dying, last gasp effort that a company makes when it has no way to innovate, no way to add any real value, no capacity to drive change internally, and has become completely non-user focused. In short, it's what companies like IBM and Broadcom are now. Shallow husks of their former self, mere holding companies for patents, with a complete lack of care and concern about any end-user retention. Goog…

This narrative has some critical flaws. Google is not just search or Android and hasn’t been for a while.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#853

Post by ninjagoo »

Anonyneko wrote: post #850
ninjagoo wrote: post #845

It is way past time to build a 'people's phone', funding it through a platform like LiberaPay [1][2] or Open Collective [3][4], with a requirement for the device to be completely open-source. [1] https://liberapay.com/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberapay [3] https://opencollective.com/ [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Collective If we start today, we could have a new phone in 2-3 years. Future generatio…

Open phones are all fine and well, but good luck convincing banking and government applications to work on those (especially in countries where bank login is used to access government services).

> Open phones are all fine and well, but good luck convincing banking and government applications to work on those (especially in countries where bank login is used to access government services).

First phones, then lobbying. As citizens of an open society, government exists to serve us, not the other way around. With enough users, they will have to respond. As I said, there are a number of areas that need attention and a coordinated effort across the breadth of society to restore, maintain and improve the foundations of an open society.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#854

Post by rawbot »

poulpy123 wrote: post #840
wswin wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's your solution to combat scammers?

Are scammers using sideloaded apps when they can use whatever remote connexion the apps in the store allow ? I think a big warning in red "Warning :If you don't personally know the person asking you to install this app, you are getting scammed. No legitimate business or Institution will ask you to install this app"

Why would you need to sideload anything when scammers can just use Teamviewer or any remote operation software, readily available in the Play Store, that will surely pass whatever "checkmark" process Google uses to validate "safe" apps?

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#855

Post by daemin »

Nursie wrote: post #589
daemin wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you phrase it as "sideloading" then probably not, since it doesn't sound like something they might want to do, it also sounds difficult and technical. If you phrase it as installing your own software then it might garner some interest from the general populace, as who wouldn't want the option to install their desired software.

A lot of people won't even understand the question, because they can install their apps from the app store, because that's where the apps come from, the app store has what phones crave. Some of them will even be frightened by the question because they consider their devices scary and dangerous enough already.

A lot of people don't need general purpose computing devices either, but some people, myself included, do want them. I want to be able to install applications from any source of my choosing, including developing my own software.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#856

Post by Psype »

ninjagoo wrote: post #853
Anonyneko wrote: post #850

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open phones are all fine and well, but good luck convincing banking and government applications to work on those (especially in countries where bank login is used to access government services).

> Open phones are all fine and well, but good luck convincing banking and government applications to work on those (especially in countries where bank login is used to access government services). First phones, then lobbying. As citizens of an open society, government exists to serve us, not the other way around. With enough users, they will have to respond. As I said, there are a number of areas that need attention…

it also makes it urgent to have a platform with leverage under 3-5 years, with a whole lot of countries pushing for digital ID globally.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#857

Post by basilikum »

yaro330 wrote: post #781
grishka wrote: post #87

At this point I'm convinced that there's something deeply wrong with how our society treats technology. Ruining Android for everyone to try to maybe help some rather technologically-hopeless groups of people is the wrong solution. It's unsustainable in the long run. Also, the last thing this world needs right now is even more centralization of power. Especially around yet another US company. People who are unwilling…

You live in a bubble. The roles are inversed. This is "ruining" Android for the 0.001% of power users that install .apk files and improving it for the huge chunk of population that are still getting hit by malicious ads that try to push app installs onto you.

Who is hosting these ads? Might it be Google?

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#859

Post by basilikum »

iamcalledrob wrote: post #779
creshal wrote: post #740

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But putting my design hat on here: couldn't this be the whole approach? No, because protecting users is just an excuse. The overreach is the goal.

Having worked in big tech, my money would be on Hanlon's Razor here -- "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence"

It isn't adequately explained by incompetence. This is out of the playbook of boiling the frog. Nothing about this is new or unexpected. We have plenty of history about how these things go down. First they make installing device owner chosen software ridiculously laberous. Then they will remove the option altogether.
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