I think this comes down to two things:
If we define "polish" as: consistency+predictable UX+aesthetics
1. openness involves interoperability, and polish is more expensive to achieve when interoperability is a requirement
2. the primary market for polish tends to value exclusivity, which—while not entirely contradictory to openness—tends towards non-openness
The combination of these two means that when you focus on polish you end up with a product line that is likely to be non-open.
The fact that the primary market for polish also tends to be economically comfortable also conveniently leads to margins that allow for privacy, but I think this is just a happy accident.
It's my belief that if we want a private + open platform we need to:
- Accept very large sacrifices* in polish because doing both is only economically viable when catering to a market that doesn't want/need openness
- Choose a different economic model where resources are available to do both simultaneously.
* Also worth noting that sacrificing quality and/or UX can lead to less privacy given that privacy depends on security and security depends on both quality, and also on UX to prevent social attacks.
Modern windowing systems are also very similar. A Windows 3.1 or early MacOS user would have no trouble using a computer today.
Touch and phone interfaces will get there, too, as both software and culture evolve together.
I can't wait for, and would love to support, the Debian of phone architectures. In past HN threads, it has been suggested to me that the real blocker for a good open phone OS is at the hardware/kernel level. That was the state of the hardware environment in the late nineties and early 2000s.
Give it time, effort, and support, and a great and open OS will emerge.
I would like to be that optimistic, but I am not. The PC has always been a fundamentally open platform and hardware has been supported by many OSes for a long time. When I was young, we would run MS-DOS, DR-DOS, OS/2 and Windows 3.x (which was strictly spoken not an OS). After 1994 I also ran Linux and BSD and I never had any real problems hardware-wise. There was a difficult time around the turn of the century with WinModems and printers that only supported Windows. But that was more of a temporary regression.
The biggest blocker in our experimental labs for open-source software was always hardware drivers. These days, linux is extremely common and generally well-supported.
Sadly yes, which is why I backed the Librem 5 and hope it pans out, the promise of an open platform that respects your privacy is a really compelling one right now.
- lack of time to implement (this would be great but we have three people on a team, and five features to deliver...)
- lack of people who care enough and have the resources to fix it (this would be great, but manager has other priorities that are more important at the moment)
- conscious choice as expression of philosophy or style (like flat UI)
- conscious technical trade off (like on-device photo analysis)
What are some of the things you think are wrong and would be easy to solve? Openradar links would be useful too :)
There is no way to make the &%*#ing thing stop whining about lack of wifi - it literally waits until I'm trying to do something else to throw up a shitty dialog trying to annoy me into turning it on.
I turn connectivity off for a reason, and no, Apple does not know better in this instance. It is incredibly user-hostile and irritating, and I hope the engineer that wrote that code gets pink eye[2].
[1] I know, I'm a weirdo. Trying to explain how I'm Doing It Wrong will lead me to ignore you.
[2] I kid. It is really annoying, though.
I can't run real Firefox.
I can't route all calls through Google Voice.
I can't run CarPlay without a head unit.
I can't open all map links in my preferred maps app.
I can't create restricted accounts for my kids.
It's essentially unusable as a "smart" phone.
Any claims about privacy fall apart after investigation. Google will still get my location on iOS if I use Google Search, exactly as it does on Android.
Well, unless you pay, or use Swift Playgrounds.
> I can't create restricted accounts for my kids.
Does the standard set of restrictions not do what you want?
> Google will still get my location on iOS if I use Google Search, exactly as it does on Android.
You don't have to use Google…
Separate accounts have separate data, not just restrictions.
> You don't have to use Google…
That's the point.
This is on Google now. Apple provides ways for app developers to use the native phone UI now. If I set up my number with the Google Hangouts app, I can get calls from my Google Voice number via the Voice app or the native UI. You can't do this with the Google Voice app but I have a feeling that's because they haven't updated it to support this API.
If Google Voice has Siri integration which has been around for awhile, you can say “Call X using Google Voice” and it will call using GV and activate the phone Bluetooth protocol if you are connected to your car’s Bluetooth system.
What’s the fundamental difference between clicking on Contacts and making a call and clicking on the GV app?
If the GV app has been updated to take advantage of the latest APIs, calls to and from the GV app will show up in your call history along with the native dialer.
If you like GV, why use the native contacts app at all? Any app that adds to contacts will automaticallly be added to GV.
If Google wanted to since they already have all of the apps, you could completely stay in the Google ecosystem on iOS - Browser, mail client, google voice, etc.
If I trust a phone app enough to use its dialer, I should be able to route all calls through it. If I trust a maps app enough to use it manually, I should be able to set it to open for all address links. It really is that simple.
For somebody who is seriously privacy-conscience, Android is strictly better.
All claims about privacy appear to stem from using fewer Google apps by default. Those default apps (like Safari and Siri) are inferior to their Google equivalents for most users, and for the people who don't want to give Google information, Android users can choose to use non-Google apps as well (like Firefox and local assistants and maps).
[0] https://digitalcontentnext.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/DC...
You can't block ads across all apps without running your own ad-blocking proxy, jailbreaking, or paying Apple for the privilege of building an ad-blocking app on your phone. You can on Android by just installing an app (one example: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.blokada.alarm/).
> and iOS collections an order of magnitude less tracking data[0] than Android.
iOS collects the same data that Android collects. The difference is how much data the default apps collect that go to Google as I stated earlier. The Google apps are strictly better than the equivalent Apple apps for most users (maps, assistant, photos, mail, etc.). For the relatively fewer users who care more about privacy than about their apps doing things for them by knowing about them, Android has more and better options as well (Firefox, local apps, system-wide ad blocking, etc.).
Nope. Google was caught collecting location data even when everything was turned off:
https://qz.com/1131515/google-collects-android-users-locatio...
They also made their settings very misleading: https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/13/17684660/google-turn-off-...
Your first link is about accidental collection that no longer occurs according to the article.
I file radars when applicable, my gripes are more general:
- No universal 3D Touch puts it in a weird spot. I like 3D Touch! Why not say we equip all models with 3D Touch, similar to when they made ips display the standard even for entry level MacBooks.
-prohibiting self signed applications. You have all the right to keep Steam Link off your shop, but not off my device. And if I had the desire to install Alex Jones’ app I would like to do that. You’re not my mom Apple. I’m still hoping the EU will fix this at some point.
-iTunes. I use it. It’s awful. If they would at least kill it off I’d know not to use it anymore.
-Seriously lagging behind in standards like PWAs, wireless charging or NFC.
-iMessage and Airdrop are awesome. Too bad I can rarely use them because the majority around me use Android.
What if, fixing things the way you like breaks these features for someone else?
1. There's really no space for it, if you look at teardowns. So something took its place.
2. It does give better water resistance. Google the water resistance tests between iPhones and others. The difference is night and day in real world performance.
This guy was able to add the headphone jack back into an iPhone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utfbE3_uAMA). The argument that there is really no space just isn't true.
2. No. Samsung phones are far more water resistant than iPhones are with a jack on it. I would love to see your links to said research.
Earbuds that work with the iPhone come in the box (and prior to the just announced models even an adapter was included). I'm not sure how lack of a jack pushes someone to buy AirPods. Maybe it makes them think about buying bluetooth headphones over wired if they were already thinking about third party headphones? Maybe.
Also while you may disagree about the 'barometric vent', it was put in the space that the headphone jack would have taken.
As pictured above, you can see a piece of plastic sits behind the ingress protection (waterproofing!), right where the headphone jack would have been. And (update!) according to Apple it's a "barometric vent." Apparently adding all the waterproofing to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus meant that it was more of a sealed box, and so to be able to have an accurate and working barometer, Apple used that space. The barometer is the thing that allows a phone to measure altitude, and Apple points out that on the iPhone 7 it can measure even minor changes like climbing a flight of stairs.
https://www.theverge.com/2016/9/16/12941040/iphone-7-teardow...
Knowing my altitude is something I need on at least a weekly basis. I'm OK with losing a port I haven't used in a couple of decades.
And AirPods? If you keep them in the case between uses they should always be charged.
How are people being "pushed" to buy Airpods when they can use any Bluetooth headphone, the headphones that come bundled with the phone, or use their own headphones with a $9.99 adapter that they have included up until yesterday?
So, if your headphones don't support AAC, they will (most likely) fallback to SBC encoding with a subpar sound quality. Don't want a subpar sound quality? Buy Airpods. Or Beats. Or some other overpriced thing that understands AAC. There was some 100 year-old industry standard regarding sound transmission, but apparently it's "obsolete" now, because Apple said so. And bundled headphones don't sound too good.
The removal of headphone jack was purely a political decision to spite Qualcomm and screwing over Apple's customers.
But if you aren’t satisfied with the Apple wired headphones, up until the 12th Apple bundle an adapter, you could choose any wired headphones you wanted. After the 12” it would be $9.99. It’s still not forcing you to buy AirPods.
As far as Bluetooth, there are other non Apple/Beats Bluetooth AAC headphones. Nothing forcing anyone to buy them from Apple.
FWIW, my lack of headphone jack had nothing to do with me buying $170 airpods. The product sells itself. It literally felt like something out of the future when it launched. Opening and closing the lid makes me happy on a daily basis. I can't think of a better use for that $170. It's a product that is pure joy to use, and completely eliminates one of the biggest annoyance factor in my daily life: tangled headphones, and worse, that feeling on your ears when you accidentally tug earbuds that are in your ear. So frustrating!
Edit: Oh, and when I broke my older model with saltwater, they replaced it. Twice.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CopperheadOS/comments/8qdnn3/goodby...
Work for hire is a statutorily defined term (17 U.S.C. § 101), so a work for hire is not created merely because parties to an agreement state that the work is a work for hire. It is an exception to the general rule that the person who actually creates a work is the legally recognized author of that work. According to copyright law in the United States and certain other copyright jurisdictions, if a work is "made for hire", the employer—not the employee—is considered the legal author.
I think Daniel's in the process of learning that verbal agreements don't mean anything when the shit hits the fan. IMO that's what he gets for switching to a non copyleft license.
How so? I just upgraded to a Pixel 2 XL from a phone much older than the pixel, a Nexus 6. I would not have even upgraded so soon if I didnt up with one too many crack on my screen when it gave up.
It depends on definition of 'require'. Almost all apps 'require' it in app manifest file. But very many of them actually works perfectly fine with an absense of Google Play Services on device.
http://digitalmortar.com/overview-in-store-tracking-technolo...
You'll be part of the system as long as you have a phone.
(...and as long as you have a face, if projections are to be believed.)
Huh? Isn't Linux (the original one, not derivates like Android) relatively private, while being completely open?
I feel the same way, but I don't feel negatively about it.
I have an iPhone and I treat it like a hostile/suspect device and that is working quite well for me.
Apple has no idea who I am - I have never even typed my own name into the phone. Apple doesn't even know my phone number as my "real" phone number is one I control and forward to the burner SIM (straighttalk) that is in the phone.
My actual phone provider (twilio) doesn't know who I am.
Straighttalk doesn't know who I am - they got an assumed name and email address. Same for the very, very few apps that I use.[1]
So unless Apple decides to acquire twilio and whatever verizon MVNO I am using this quarter and my credit card issuer, all they've got is Fakey McFakefake.
None of this was difficult, aside from building my own carrier inside twilio, but that was fun.
[1] Remember: VISA/MC do not verify names on purchases. The user interface strongly suggests that they do, but they do not - if you correctly enter your number/expiry/CVV/zipcode/etc., you can put in any old name you want. There is really no reason for any app to know your real name.
That's a terribly wrong dichotomie
iOS and Android are the choices. I say pick your poison. If a new choice comes along, I don't see any reason for the dynamics to be any different. People want high quality well-integrated electronics, and you only get that by being beholden to the manufacturer.
By the way, the time when installing an alternative Android distribution on your phone was 'hacky' is past for many devices, several distributions offer OTA updates so it is perfectly possible to run a mostly-open device without ever having to do anything 'hackish'.
As to whether an always-on radio beacon transmitting your location to the authorities can ever be seen as a plus in a privacy context remains to be seen of course, that is something which can not be fixed by either AOSP or Apple.
Those who would give up essential Openness, to purchase a little temporary Privacy, deserve neither Openness nor Privacy. -Benjamin Franklin
Apple do seem to have some respect for privacy at the moment, but it's still a phone that scans the user's face (far too creepy for me) or makes it difficult to restrict outgoing connections (I'm not keen on apps connecting to flurry, facebook and so on).
Upon enrollment, the phone illuminates your face with a grid of dots, and creates a three dimensional depth map of your face from multiple angles.
The results of that are stored in the secure enclave, and when an unlock is requested the device re-scans the face that is in front of it. If the two maps match "close enough" the phone is unlocked.
You cannot recreate a face from the data, and the phone has no idea what you look like unless you actually look like this in real life: https://i.imgur.com/fNBiIUU.jpg
If you're worried about the very low resolution biometric map of your face being used to impersonate you, that can already be accomplished with just a couple of seconds of video, or a photograph and the only known defense against that is never venturing outside a secure perimeter into which camera lenses cannot see.
Face tracking for faceId you can turn off but I agree it can be creepy. So far it's been limited to only on the device and encrypted so I've been ok with it but that's obviously a very personal choice.
Adguard works rather well, but Apple doesn't seem too keen on their product:
https://adguard.com/en/blog/adguard-pro-discontinued/
Of course, there's ad blocking in Safari but tracker blocking in apps also concerns me.
As for the FaceID I would indeed turn it off and use a PIN, but it would be a bit of a faff; a fingerprint plus a means to quickly turn that off is quite convenient.
I then have content rules on the firewall between the OpenVPN server and the Internet.
As an added benefit, this makes the monitoring done by all cellphone providers (not just Verizon!) irrelevant because all they see is a constant, 24x7 stream of encrypted traffic to the same IP address.
Charles: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/charles-proxy/id1134218562?m...
Another that I have heard of but not used (your milage may vary and all that): Alice https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alice-network-proxy-utility/...
You can also run a proxy on a server remotely and intercept all the network calls from your phone, something burp is common in the security industry. It's under your network settings, HTTP Proxy. It's more limited than an app like Charles that inspects all traffic but it's another option.
I think it's come up here a few times, with various anecdotes about surfacing badly behaving apps.
Don’t underestimate the lure of ad money, even to a company as large as Apple. They realize the second you start taking ad money your customers are no longer your customers, but your product.
But I've noticed that more and more, even when you do pay for something there's a good chance your data will still get sold.
Either you choose a somewhat open platform, or you choose privacy. One would have thought/hoped that they were tightly coupled.
As it is today I can not buy a phone without having a deep bottomless disdain for it. Not the hardware but the software. And I don't even expect that much.
I have given up entirely, the slither of hope is that in the future we can decouple the smart in smart phone with the phone. A truly dumb phone that I can interface from another device, a device I have some control over that I don't have to sell my soul to.