• aesthelete@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Can someone please come out with a phone that’s an actual computer and help stop this nonsense?

    Phones cost a lot of money at this point and I’m completely sick of them being some locked down, surveillance ridden pile of crap. A reasonably built one would be able to replace a laptop at this point if it weren’t for these artificial constraints imposed by the stupid fucking suits running things.

    • TrippinMallard@lemmy.ml
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      6 days ago

      Battery life is limited by cell modem drivers being closed source and having to be reverse engineered.

      I have been looking into an alternate hybrid radio device using Reticulum. Though with that comes a new less convenient user experience for a lot of apps.

      • communism@lemmy.ml
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        6 days ago

        Pretty sure they meant a smartphone with a desktop OS installed on it (eg Linux phones), not just “phone that looks kinda like a laptop but still uses Android”

        • Fontasia@feddit.nl
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          6 days ago

          https://www.www3.planetcom.co.uk/devices-specification

          That’s why I recommended this, their devices dual boot Android or Linux. One of their older devices quad boots by default

          This isn’t a fly by night operation, it’s got a loyal fanbase, and good hardware and software support. They’ve been manufacturing for a decade, before that this guys were doing PDAs.

      • ranzispa@mander.xyz
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        6 days ago

        As long as your phone model is supported by any custom mod. I have checked compatibility for almost all smartphones I owned, some 7 or 8 through the years.

        Not a single one of them was ever supported by a custom mod.

        • kepix@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          but you did not check custom rom aupport before you bought tgem, cause did not want freedom and moddability. its on you.

          • ranzispa@mander.xyz
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            4 days ago

            I consider price and technical specifications. I don’t have 200€ to spend on a phone. Most phones I bought were less than 100€ new. What I care about a phone is that it supports two SIM cards.

            With such constraints, choice is quite limited unfortunately.

            Is it worth having a free device? Indeed. Is it worth spending 4 times the price just for that? Not to me.

      • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works
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        6 days ago

        Intentionally non-standard hardware does not get a real custom rom. It’s just a mod of Android which Google can render intentionally incompatible any time they want

  • osanna@lemmy.vg
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    7 days ago

    It’s not side loading. It’s installing software on the device you probably paid multiple thousands for that you no longer own.

  • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net
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    7 days ago

    I’m writing an app that I will distribute only through f-droid. The people I would like to share it with are typical, non-technical android users. Before those changes I could just send them a link to f-droid apk and explain it’s just another app store or send a link to the apk directly and probably most of them would be able to install it. Now I would have to tell them to do all those weird things first, things that look suspicious and that they would not understand the purpose of. I don’t think anyone will be wiling to do it. This is not a win. The effect will be exactly the same - serious limits on distributing apps though alternative channels.

  • entwine@programming.dev
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    6 days ago

    If antitrust was being enforced, Google execs wouldn’t even dream of attempting this bullshit.

    Antitrust regulation is probably the easiest way to fix the biggest problems in our society, it is 100% bipartisan, and it is easy to explain to the average US voter. The only group that is against it is the billionaires/ultra wealthy. Instead, politicians are all hyperfocused on culture war mudslinging and bullshit that makes no difference.

    Break up Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta (just to start), and watch how the tech industry explodes with innovation again, and the tech billionaire becomes an endangered species. The AI bubble will burst as companies actually need to compete to survive, and thus won’t be burning as much resources on crap that clearly doesn’t work.

  • Fedditor385@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I, as the owner of my device, don’t want to wait 24h.

    I hope this will popularize the ROM community again. It gradually faded out due to mainstream ROMs having every perk of the custom ROMs but now the custom ROMs can start offering freedom, which no official ROM will offer.

    • aquovie@lemmy.cafe
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      6 days ago

      Is there a tap to pay system that works on custom ROMs? I thought those really required SafetyNet/PlayIntegrity/Whatever-it-is-now.

      I would rather not give up tap to pay but I will if I have to. It seems like trying to Magisk my way into getting Google Wallet to work would be a PITA.

    • signup@sh.itjust.worksBanned
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      6 days ago

      I, as the owner of my device, don’t want to wait 24h.

      then dont. adb is instant

      • Scrollone@feddit.it
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        6 days ago

        Why would I need a computer to do something that the computer that I already have in my hand can and should do?

          • KillerWhale@orcas.enjoying.yachts
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            6 days ago

            Because google is so productive about eliminating malware from the play store and all of its scam advertising. This is not about protecting the vulnerable, this is about control and forcing people into their ecosystem.

  • sonofearth@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    It is always like this. Make a very anti consumer decision that everyone hates, then tone it down so the half of those people will say “we won”. This is a loss.

    • 🔍🦘🛎@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Reading the article it looks like they found a decent middle ground. It lays out how the steps help prevent people from getting scammed.

      • communism@lemmy.ml
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        6 days ago

        The middle ground is the middle ground between user freedom and corporate control. Which is not a spectrum you want to be in the middle of.

        This is like getting a pay rise that’s below inflation. That’s a pay cut. And this is a loss.

  • h4arts@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    6 days ago

    still just not gonna update my phone for a while until they’ve for sure have allowed side loading. Got my pixel because it’s just a nice phone, and i can put graphene on it when it’s paid off. Half of my apps are all from f-droid, too.

      • mememuseum@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Some carriers lock the bootloader until you’ve paid off the phone.

        Phones produced for sale through Verizon have a permanently locked bootloader.

        • Archr@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          Fuck Verizon for this exact reason. Never buy from them direct if you can help it.

          • mememuseum@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            Didn’t realize this when switching. Went through a whole kerfuffle to cancel the trade in deal.

            Phone agent sounded perplexed when I wanted to keep my old Pixel 7 Pro lol.

        • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
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          6 days ago

          Why is that?

          Would you be able to change the IMEI as I would have thought those were encoded on the hardware chip. If you could it means they couldn’t blacklist the phone if you stopped paying.

          Paying you can spoof it

  • fodor@lemmy.zip
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    7 days ago

    Of course we didn’t win. the more hoops you have to jump through, the fewer people who will install their own apps and then you lose all of the community support. And Google didn’t promise not to change their plans in the future. So you know that they’ll promise this now. Maybe they’ll backtrack a little if they have to and they will try to ratchet things up six months later anyway.

    Real solutions involve either breaking up monopolies or breaking up monopolies, which is why some of the other cell phone vendors’ actions recently look positive. If there are two versions of Android that are popularly used, then the banks will have to support both of them and then everyone can run away from Google whenever they feel like it. But if there’s only one popular version and Android itself gets more and more locked down then that is Google seizing the entire market and they will cut out all of the other cell phone manufacturers as soon as they can. that will be just as bad as Apple.

  • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
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    7 days ago

    no.

    i’ll look into this, but they seem to have used the old strategy of announcing something absurd then back down to what they wanted because of “community pressure”

    bonus for not looking bad in comparison, while still being bad.

  • youmaynotknow@lemmy.zip
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    7 days ago

    So fucking glad that GrapheneOS will probably be available for the new Motorola phones next year. I’ve been on pixels since they were Nexus, and if not for GrapheneOS, I would have jumped ship after the Pixel 4 and moved to Crapple.

    • maplesaga@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I too am excited. I wish they’d just put it on a flagship Motorola now so I could buy it.

      • youmaynotknow@lemmy.zip
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        7 days ago

        I feel the same way. As a matter of fact, the moment I heard about the partnership, I started researching the possibility for either the current signature or the razr ultra (I think that’s the name), but it’s confirmed the hardware is not up to GOS standards. We’re basically stuck until next year.