Google: 'Your $1000 phone needs our permission to install apps now'". Android users are screwed - Louis Rossmann
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A $200 phone in 2015 is not the same as a $200 phone in 2025. I know from experience.
Those phones in 2015 were awful, but in 2025, they feel more like mid-range phones.
Edit: And $600 is pocket change? Sound like someone lived a privilaged life.
I make $19/hr and live paycheck to paycheck. I'm just being realistic about the current cell phone market.
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I'm wearing my smartwatch as a wristwatch. All notifications are off, but I see the temperature, UV index, step and calorie counters, which is nice. And if I ever want to review my sleep data, pulse, sPO2 saturation and location history, I got it available just in case. And for the very rare case that my phone is charging and I want to access messages from another room, I can do that manually.
In all fairness to smart watches, mine is what turned me on to regularly checking the UV index. That's an important thing for all people, but especially me because I have an increased skin cancer risk due to unrelated medical stuff. And it was extra-extra important this year because I have done a ton of good work outside this summer.
And to be more specific about my watch situation, there's more going on than just avoiding notifications. I have been minimizing the amount of stuff I keep on my person in general, right down to finally getting my wedding ring tattooed on this year. There are various reasons ranging from abstract introspective life improvement stuff to the practical where that outside work I mentioned was constant and pretty rough on anything on my hands/arms.
So even if I wore a nice mechanical watch, I'd probably still be going with the double bare wrists right now.
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Apple now allows sideloading of apps and Google is trying to get rid of sideloading.
What... the Fuck?
Now we have to get EU on the case
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Apple hardware ahead of Android? I'll have what you're having!
Please show me a single benchmark with a flagship android beating a flagship iPhone.
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My suspicion is that the main purpose of Googles decision is to stop F-Droid and Aurora Store from working.
They donāt care about those.
They want revanced and other ad circumvention tools out.
They ARE an ad company, you know?
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You probably didn't do it on purpose, but you made a comparison on Apple's terms, thus implicitly priveleging Apple.
Last thing Apple needs is us priveleging it.
I'm just saying Apple doesn't make anything close to a cheap stripped down $200 model.
I made the comparison based on feature set. For that you need an android flagship phone. Android DOES make cheap phones....but therexs no 1:1 comparison for Apple.
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Removable batteries are coming back, as they become mandatory in the EU in 2027.
Or you can already get one with a Fairphone (which also has SD card slot).
As for the headphone jack, I'm afraid it won't come back. Bluetooth alternatives are far better these days (I got both, so I know from experience), and good adapters (like Apple one) are barely more than $10.They wonāt become āremovableā like in ye old Nokia days. Itās not like you can carry extra batteries and just swap them on the go.
They just have to be swappable without special tools or specialist equipment.
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I make $19/hr and live paycheck to paycheck. I'm just being realistic about the current cell phone market.
Surely cost relative to income is more relevant than cost relative to the rest of the market? Something doesn't magically become cheap just because everything else is ridiculously expensive.
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This 100%
I have used tracfone since 2012 and only bought phones from their store, sub $150. The budget phones today are so much better than the last 10 years.
I just can't wrap my head around sinking that much into a phone when you replace it every year and it cost as much as a decent budget computer, but worse.
I just canāt wrap my head around sinking that much into a phone when you replace it every year
Usually the people who replace their flagship phone every 1 - 2 years aren't paying full price for it, or at least not upfront. They are receiving trade-in and pre-order discounts, or spreading the cost out over a 12 - 24 month period through a plan with their telco.
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wrote last edited by [email protected]
> be me
> buy new phone, chose android cause I can install anything on it
> get free iphone from work
> sell iphone on ebay cause I can install anything I want on my android
> google doesnt want me to install anything I wantFuck me. I kept the wrong phone.
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Does this mean the end for YouTube Revanced on Android?
wrote last edited by [email protected]not necessarily. the developer needs to sign the APK with a key issued by Google. the main issue here is that developers will be forced to identify themselves.
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I'm just saying Apple doesn't make anything close to a cheap stripped down $200 model.
I made the comparison based on feature set. For that you need an android flagship phone. Android DOES make cheap phones....but therexs no 1:1 comparison for Apple.
Iām just saying Apple doesnāt make anything close to a cheap stripped down $200 model.
Yes, I think that's exactly the point people are trying to make to you.
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Sideloading being so easy on iphones and now becoming very difficult on android. Wow
Sideloading being so easy on iphones
Is it easy? Apple has only made that change in the EU AFAIK, it's still a closed system all around the world.
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I'll just buy and use decade old phones with unlocked bootloader till I can. There's barely any innovation in phones these days and I'm sure someone will come to fill the gap Android left (hopefully Linux). I'm still using my 5 year old phone degoogled with custom a16 and still going strong. I also have a backup pixel 6 in case the current one breaks. I can easily wait 10-15 years.
Banking Apps in my country doesn't even install on Android version of previous 2 version, because "security" reasons...not because of their incompetence to make their app more secure. I had to buy new phone to use my own money.
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I liked the whole not having to charge headphones thing more than anything.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I liked being able to accidentally brush up against my headphones or putting them down for a moment without them turning off my music.
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Openness isn't just a nice to have. It is essential.
The difference between general purpose computing and gatekept walled garden computing is night and day.
Identifying the devs is not in the "need to know" for Google. Google sells or helps to sell a general purpose open device where it is on us to exploit that device however we will.
Now Google wants to switch to a walled garden, moderated development model.
If Google promises it won't use those dev IDs to moderate development, their promise is only worth the wind it moves and the sound it makes.
You might say their words are like farts in the wind
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not necessarily. the developer needs to sign the APK with a key issued by Google. the main issue here is that developers will be forced to identify themselves.
So the users will have to get their own key and give it to the patcher/manager?
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Thatās not how you spell UBports.
I do support the PostmarketOS project, but it has much further to go before itās friendly enough for regular people. Short of Valve releasing a Steam phone, I think UBports is better positioned to bring genuine linux to mobile.
Yeah I agree. I've used PMOS as well as Lineage and Graphene.
The latter was the best experience and PMOS was the one that needed the most work, at least to reach any sort of side adoption.I'm actually looking at something running SailfishOS as my potential happy mid-point, but currently the Jolla phone - which would be my preferred device for this - doesn't seem to shop outside Europe yet.
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Now we have to get EU on the case
The EU is no longer an ally in such matters but a bad actor.
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In all fairness to smart watches, mine is what turned me on to regularly checking the UV index. That's an important thing for all people, but especially me because I have an increased skin cancer risk due to unrelated medical stuff. And it was extra-extra important this year because I have done a ton of good work outside this summer.
And to be more specific about my watch situation, there's more going on than just avoiding notifications. I have been minimizing the amount of stuff I keep on my person in general, right down to finally getting my wedding ring tattooed on this year. There are various reasons ranging from abstract introspective life improvement stuff to the practical where that outside work I mentioned was constant and pretty rough on anything on my hands/arms.
So even if I wore a nice mechanical watch, I'd probably still be going with the double bare wrists right now.
In all fairness to smart watches, mine is what turned me on to regularly checking the UV index.
Can't you just do that on your phone? Surely if the UV is high, you just plan accordingly for the day? Sunscreen, wide brim hat, stick to the shade where possible, etc. I can't imagine what benefit constantly checking the UV on your watch gives you. Even if it did happen to fluctuate for some reason, you would be wasting so much time constantly ducking in and out depending on what your watch says at any given moment.
