Google: 'Your $1000 phone needs our permission to install apps now'". Android users are screwed - Louis Rossmann
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Sideloading being so easy on iphones and now becoming very difficult on android. Wow
They are converging to become the same thing.
Its not any better on iOS, fyi, they too require Apple's final approval.
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No, but limited thinking sure as fuck is. If everyone jumped on to say, cheap iphones, the android market would suffer greatly, forcing the company to rethink its position on anti consumer practices. You dont have to stay on the cheap shitty iphone, you just need to stay on it long enough to make your voice heard.
This is the problem with everyone. You all just moan about enshittification, while doing nothing at all to combat it. Its always a list of terrible excuses. No one takes short term pain for long term benefit. Pussies.
Cheap iphone?
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Bluetooth alternatives aren't better, that's laughable.
You cant buy beyerdynamics DT-990s with Bluetooth, you cant get Sennheiser HD 490 Pros with Bluetooth, you cant buy Audeze LCD-5s with Bluetooth. I could go on and on but you get the point. Good headphones don't use Bluetooth.
The nice headphones a lot of us have had for years, well before the headphone jack was removed don't have Bluetooth.
So when you say they're better 1. You're wrong. And 2. You're missing the point.
If you prefer Bluetooth, fine, but phones with headphone jacks still have Bluetooth. You're only ok with it because it doesn't effect you and I think that's appalling.
Imagine phone manufacturers remove the ability to use Bluetooth headphones and I say "that's fine, wired headphones are better anyway". It's not about that, it's about removing your freedom to choose and it should NOT be tolerated
There are a lot of very good Bluetooth headphones from Bose, Sony, and the like. If you take a look at lab tests, most of lf them got a frequency response pretty close to the ideal curve, and ANC helps a lot to isolate outside noises that would drown out the music on wired headphones.
But I do agree about choice, just not on the blind refusal of using USB-C adapters. That's unfortunate that they removed it, but it has some good reasons. A headphone jack wasn't made to be waterproof, and if some managed to make some of them waterproof-ish, it is often by enclosing it into its own little sub-enclosure, with a good short-circuit protection (because even a tiny water drop in there mean a short), both of which takes place.
Same goes for the DAC, we got so far into miniaturizing it, and inside interferences are so high now with new technologies, it probably wouldn't be viable anymore to have it inside the phone itself. Even larger device, like the Steam Deck, have problems preventing interferences on the headphones jack, so that must be an even bigger problem on something as tinny as a phone
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Phones that run Linux and have a headphone jack:
2026 will be the year of the Linux phone!
wrote last edited by [email protected]2026 will be the year of the Linux phone!
or 2027. Or some Chinese variant of android on Chinese/Taiwan phone that allows sideloading, perhaps with alternate playstore and maps. I don't yet understand how draconian this actually gets implemented, but death of android/google (to me) is possible. If hardware is good enough, then android emulator will be fine for legacy apps.
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If Google is going to lock down my device to the point where I can't install apps without their permission, I might as well dump Android and go straight to Apple. I sacrificed my phone being good for the openness of the platform, but if Google loses that openness, why shouldn't I go with Apple?
Because the cheapest new iPhone is $600 and you can get a cheap new android phone for around $100-$200 and get 6 years of security updates (Galaxy A16 for example)
If a smartphone is no longer a computer where you can install whatever you want, why bother investing so much money on a very locked-down phone? You can use the hundred of dollars you saved to spend on a small portable PC or something to run any software you want.
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Sideloading being so easy on iphones and now becoming very difficult on android. Wow
Yeah but don't you have to boot up your PC and connect your phone to iTunes once a week to re-enable developer mode to be able to sideload? Is there a more permanent method that I'm unaware of?
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Because the cheapest new iPhone is $600 and you can get a cheap new android phone for around $100-$200 and get 6 years of security updates (Galaxy A16 for example)
If a smartphone is no longer a computer where you can install whatever you want, why bother investing so much money on a very locked-down phone? You can use the hundred of dollars you saved to spend on a small portable PC or something to run any software you want.
$600 is pocket change for a phone these days. And for that $600 you're getting a flagship phone. You couldn't pay me enough money to put up with a non-flagship. Been there, done that. They're too slow and frustrating, and apps keep closing due to lack of RAM. Never again. I much rather spend $600-800 on a high-end device that's a couple of generations old.
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You can have both or you can deny people who like wired. You are choosing denial.
Those who like wired aren't out of option either. Adapters exists, are cheap, and have often a far better audio quality than integrated ports due to not being as size constrained as the main body itself, and being further from interferences.
You can quite easily find some that allows to charge your phone at the same time (even if the usb-c norm do not allows it on paper). -
$600 is pocket change for a phone these days. And for that $600 you're getting a flagship phone. You couldn't pay me enough money to put up with a non-flagship. Been there, done that. They're too slow and frustrating, and apps keep closing due to lack of RAM. Never again. I much rather spend $600-800 on a high-end device that's a couple of generations old.
wrote last edited by [email protected]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.
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As a user I don't have a problem with this , as long it's used ethically. The question is if Google can act ethically.
You don't have a problem with Google dictating what you can and cannot do on your own phone? Seriously?
What's the benefit of that?
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so is this why my phone updated and then took seven hours to connect to the network the other day?
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There are a lot of very good Bluetooth headphones from Bose, Sony, and the like. If you take a look at lab tests, most of lf them got a frequency response pretty close to the ideal curve, and ANC helps a lot to isolate outside noises that would drown out the music on wired headphones.
But I do agree about choice, just not on the blind refusal of using USB-C adapters. That's unfortunate that they removed it, but it has some good reasons. A headphone jack wasn't made to be waterproof, and if some managed to make some of them waterproof-ish, it is often by enclosing it into its own little sub-enclosure, with a good short-circuit protection (because even a tiny water drop in there mean a short), both of which takes place.
Same goes for the DAC, we got so far into miniaturizing it, and inside interferences are so high now with new technologies, it probably wouldn't be viable anymore to have it inside the phone itself. Even larger device, like the Steam Deck, have problems preventing interferences on the headphones jack, so that must be an even bigger problem on something as tinny as a phoneciting bose and sony vs sennheiser audeze and beyerdynamics, dude, you don't know headphones
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Wasn't always the case (I think it changed within the past two years), but upon doing research on when it changed I stumbled on this gem.
It's been the case ever since I started using Android (and modded APKs such as old versions of apps re-signed to not update) in about 2011.
Some of the root apps back then such as Titanium Backup had features to "unhook" an app so it wouldn't appear as installed in the store, but my experience was that it never lasted long enough to be worth doing.
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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.
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.
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How does this affect "second-party" apps (i.e. apps you have created yourself)? Are you still allowed to go to Android studio, make an APK, transfer it to your own phone, and install that app? If no, this spells the death of experimental indie developers on Android.
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You can get Android phones with reasonable specs around $200. No need for the so called "flagships".
Oh, I was comparing flagships, because iphone doesn't have a non-flagship to compare to.
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i heard they were softlocking the OP soon in the newer models, but hopefully they dont compeltely lock it down.
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Will this kill FDroid ? I imagine yes since you have to install it from a download.
And especially any youtube app that blocks ads. OF COURSE Google will never allow Newpipe, Revanced, FreeTube and so on to be installed on Android phones ever again.
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This is redicolous
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(non-Android) Linux phones aren't really ready for daily driving even for relatively advanced users - but it looks like we're gonna have to deal with it anyhow
Yes, in a way it's like linux more than a decade ago. Kinda fun tbh, looking forward to giving it a try.
