Reasons:
Mass surveillance
30% on app sales
Sell all your data
Remove any and all ad blockers
Etc
the other reason that they're killing something - it's a day ending in a "y".
To get more control and more money. Saved you a click.
Yeah it's a real same thing we do every night pinky vibes.
Is there any partition in the E U to stop Google from implementing their developer verification system?
Like Stop Killing Games?
Telling people to file DMA complaints may be a start, ostensibly it was passed to prevent monopolists from locking things down like this, a stick that has already been used on Apple with some success: https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/contact-dma-team_en
Done
Done
When will this game of endless ping pong with big tech overreaching human rights end
As soon as big tech ends, no sooner.
It's the very nature of power. I don't understand why people are still surprised by this stuff.
The EU hasn't even been able to stop Apple, who's been doing this for 20 years.
And yet the EU did force Apple to goddamn finally use USB-C in their phones. It wasn't out of their own goodwill.
And to allow installing non-market apps. Apple wasn't happy about that in the slightest.
And implemented it in the shittiest way possible
And got away with it, which probably assured Google that they can do something similar (though coming from the opposite direction) without upsetting the EU...
Rumor has it that sideloading will still be possible using ADB, that is the shittiest way possibile
These companies and their enshittification have kinda killed the broader concept of phones in my mind.
What is my phone? It's my worst computer, proprietary and closed, and which I have been actively avoiding using all year long in order to improve my mental health. It's a tool that makes it easier to exist in modern society, not something that enhances my quality of life.
So I'm not thinking about whether I need iMessage vs Android openness like I might have a decade ago. I'm sitting here wondering if I even need a phone number in the first place! But, even with some wonderful Linux phone device that's like a 6" laptop with a touch screen and LTE/5G, I guess you'd still just have a number associated with your service.
I think this is an exaggeration. Smartphones are one of the greatest inventions in human history, the problem is corporate control, the actual device is amazing.
I have a smartphone, just like there is no more need for a dedicated music player and a portable game console, I can play games and music on this as much as I want. A question popped into my head? I can look it up immediately. Love reading books? You now have effectively infinite space for them and don't need to carry them around, trying to make sure they don't get damaged. Want to watch a movie or a series? You got it. You even used to be able use it as a VR viewer! How cool is that?
If you suffered from social media addiction and just can't use the device without risking a relapse I can sympathize with that. But that's big tech's fault, nothing necessitates smartphones being that way apart from corporate desire for infinite wealth.
Most of the world will not have access to phones that put freedom first, but if you have access to them they can remind you how amazing these things actually are.
I have actually made comments very similar to yours. Basically how phones are a technological marvel but are ruined by greed.
Google made Android to get a foothold into the market. The free and open model was only because they were up against Apple. Don’t nobody kid yourself into thinking their intent was all along anything other than being able to rake it in and have total control just like Apple. They just needed an in to get big. Now Android is huge and now they wanna slam the door and lock everyone down and start really fucking the cash out of everyone’s asses.
Embrace. Expand. Extinguish.
I started using Android in 2011, IIRC, the enshittification has hit hard.
Everyone is suggesting LineageOS, but my big questions are:
Maybe - the community tends to patch out these kinds of things
probably not as they aren't very mature
This is only affecting roms that are Google approved and have Google play services installed meaning that going to a custom rom will fix this but also that any device currently supported by GPS will be affected. Therefore even old unsupported devices which are no longer receiving updates from their manufacturer will be locked down without the user's choice
GPS is usually decoded to global positioning system, which all phones use. Your usage of the acronym for something else is needlessly confusing. You could avoid the confusion by decoding the acronym yourself: ... Google Play services (GPS)...
Google "certified" is the proper terminology. But no, it will affect the entire Android ecosystem, because people won't develop FOSS apps for the <1% of users on uncertified devices.
even old unsupported devices which are no longer receiving updates from their manufacturer will be locked down without the user’s choice
Source?
This kills Aurora store and other alternate play store frontends that are entirely based on spoofing your identity when you download an app. Of course, you can still install these things on Custom ROMs I assume, since those aren't going to be verified Android or whatever google is calling this bullshit, right?
Shi, this kills Aurora too. Didn't occur to me. My whole phone might just become unusable, if I can't get apps semi-officially or from alternate sources
Yeah, I'm fixing to move to either /e/OS or LineageOS. I'm leaning /e/OS, but I'm worried it's less supported than LineageOS for a newbie like myself. On a side note, I also need to go through all my Authy 2FA keys and refresh them because Authy is too locked down to work on anything but a "real" android phone. That's going to be another PITA.
I am enjoying /e/ on the Fairphone.
Im very tempted to just get a small cyber-deck setup and "call" it a day ;). https://www.clockworkpi.com/shop is VERY close to what I want.
Serously, the only people that "Call" me are spam callers. Everyone SMSs or something similar. A small linux device can do the same when you think about it. The only thing I am missing is a directions app and Ill personally be fine.
Google's version of android isn't the "real" one, it's the (soon to be even more) defective one.
Next version of Android 14 Graphene OS flavored with desktop mode and Linux apps will give plenty of time to wait for my next phone.
I hope this leads to a LOT of people moving to iOS.
If we have to pick between two overpriced Fisher Price Phones, I'll go for the one that was always against its users on the hope that there's still a chance they'll change...
Ideally, we need affordable Linux phones ASAP.
While I do not prefer either of them to an open platform, I think the more common draw of iOS is that you know what you're getting versus the bait and switch that Google always seems to bring.
Time stamp is about 7 minutes to 18 and a half minutes.
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