And this is why I like Androids feature that automatically revokes permissions after a certain timeframe of not using an app
Except from Google of course, the worst offender of privacy that exists.
They put all these “privacy” features in so other companies can’t do what Google already does.
If you ever tried using a Google phone without Google apps, you realize how completely dependent almost all apps are on Googles API in the background, and most of them won’t work without it.
I am actually using a degoogled phone, and the only thing I’m missing are push notifications, for one single app. Everything else I use works just fine for me, but as always, ymmv
It was a while since I tried it now. I used Cyanogenmod before, quite a few years back. But camera was bad with it.
Yeah, the default lineage cam today can’t do a whole lot either
Signal? microG works great for push notifications
You don’t need thay either. Signal has its own thing, so does whatsapp. And if you use molly, it supports unifiedpush.
I’d love it if Signal officially supported UnifiedPush, it seems to be the most promising direct alternative to FCM. They started talking about quantum-resistant encryption or whatever, but at the same time resorted to using a websocket.
Which is pretty much the least elegant way of doing it. Not something I’d expect from them, to be honest.
Then there’s Tuta Mail, they have a much better way of handling push notifications, but it’s still their own thing too, and instead of promoting something like UnifiedPush, they write blogposts dragging Protonmail for not having an alternative.
(Which I’m also annoyed by, but their posts about it seemed a bit pretentious, which I just hate to see.)
Signals own version used to be really bad for your battery though.
It generally used like 30% of my battery on its own.
Although now it is much better.
What phone and mom are you using? I’m considering this for my next phone
Edit: ROM not mom haha
Reminder to everyone to phone mom though. <3
I’m using DivestOS on a OnePlus 5T, runs like a charm.
But Divest is in dire need of funding right now, and might not be able to continue development, so that’s something to keep in mind, sadly
Do you follow Graphene OS at all? What is your opinion on it?
GrapheneOS seems to be the all out best, from what I can tell. It’s just that their strict requirements needed to achieve this level of privacy and especially security severly limit the selection of devices you can use, which is a bummer.
Thanks! I’ve been looking at graphene os too
I am using Fairphone (great company, they make ethical phones) together with /e/ OS, a fork of LineageOS. The great thing about Fairphone is that they officially support /e/ and offer a waranty of 5 years. In the past, they offered their Fairphone 2 a support of 7 years, including Software and Android version updates , which is absolutely mind-blowing. Also their phones are highly modular, you can switch basically everything (Battery, camera, speakers,…), they actually make an effort to improve production and manufacturing processes by e.g. using Fairtrade certified Gold, they obviously like Open Source,… And /e/ basically goes the route of “degoogling without making life inconvenient”. They have an App Store preinstalled (Aurora Store), with which you can access Google Play apps. They include MicroG, if you wish to, which makes using apps depending on Google services a lot easier. Also they offer their own ecosystem with e.g. Mail, Calendar, etc. And they are nonprofit! So seriously, if you want to get a degoogled Phone, I’d recommend the Fairphone (5 or 4 both are okay, although 5 would probably be better) together with /e/ OS combo without any doubt. The phone is amazing and hasn’t let me down, and although it has been quite a journey, I wouldn’t want to have chocen otherwise.
Just my take :)
I am using lineage os without google and don’t really have any problems. There is an open source alternative for most big apps and if you want to use youtube or something you can just use it in browser or install microG that is basically google services without google.
Or just use NewPipe.
Does newpipe have play in the background and the pop out video player also sponsorblock? Just asking because I have seen a friend using newpipe but I like the fact that revanced offers all of those.
Newpipe X sponsorblock does.
Is that like a fork of newpipe or an addon? I don’t really kbow how newpipe works in that regard.
Fork with sponsorblock added
It’s on izzyondroid’s f-droid repo.
Development of that has stopped, they are currently working on a new fork called Tubular, which has the additional option of being able to login with a YT account.
Newpipe itself is also currently deciding on whether to do a complete rewrite or not, so the coming months might be a bit slow in terms of new features.
Ah good to know, thanks!
It’s bothering me so much that less and less phones are compatible with LineageOS or Postmarket or any custom ROMs.
There’s now some “safetynet” layer or something I hear, where any sort of commerce apps will just refuse to open if they detect a “tampered” device.
You might say “Just use the web view then”, sure, but it depends highly on their implementation whether you’ll have a smooth time or not lol.
These security features sound nice in principle, but if you already know what you’re doing enough to flash a custom ROM, it’s basically just another thing to lock your phone down and force obsolescence when they decide to just stop patching it to force you to buy more e-waste.
I wish there was more I could do to support Linux phones…
Yeah luckily my bank app works fine on the web but some functions are missing so I am forced to use a stock android phone as well just in case I need those features.
Some cheesier financial entities are also just forcing everyone to the app now. No web.
Yeah its so freaking sad. It could be such an awesome platform (in some sense it already is) but of course Google has to put their greedy little fingers on it.
The worst part is that it has tons of literal bloatware. I tried ArrowOS without GApps on a Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, and it was fast while sparing the battery! It had the original battery and I couldnt believe that it could last 2 days easily with light usage.
Then I tried PixysOS and damn, 3GB of RAM was barely enough.
iOS will sometimes ask you even if the app has been using it (for certain permissions), and might even tell you how often the app has used it. Which is really handy.
Like, “this app has accessed your location from the background 48 times in the last month, you gave it permission, would you like to change it to ‘when using’?” Or “This app has had full access to your photos, would you like to limit it?” (Not exact wording, but you get the idea.)
Something that delighted me when I discovered it.
(Android does permissions very well too, I’m in no way trying to knock it.)
With the last update, Android also started limiting apps’ access to photos on a per-photo basis. Not even Google Lens (which I use to copy text from slides) can see all my photos. (Don’t get me wrong, though: I’m not naive enough to believe Google can’t see my photos at all.)
Yeah iOS had had this for 2 or 3 years now, it’s a great feature.
I give a few apps background location access, and for a couple of weeks after enabling each android would occasionally ask if the app still needs background data
wait what android version, my android 13 doesn’t do that
Pixel 6 on current version
I’ve done this on a simple timer app I developed.
Why? Because I want the timer to stop automatically during a phone call. To do this I need to request READ_PHONE_STATE (which bafflingly tells the user the permission is to “make and manage phone calls”). Unfortunately, there’s no way to alter the permission request to tell the user (at least in Android) why you want the permission. They really need to make the permissions more granular and provide some way for devs to communicate what the permission is for.
This is why, on the occasion of necessary permissions not being set, a lot of apps nowadays have a popup which tells the user something like “you need to grant permission for X because it actually lets this app do legitimate thing Y” like you just told us, with a button to click over to do the permissions grab and trigger the OS popup.
Obviously, the calculator app needs camera permission for scanning complex formulas that would otherwise require lengthy manual input and calculating them automatically.
I mean, you can download one in 10 seconds if you really need one (or use Spotlight)
The app I use to write notes needs access to everyone in my Contacts. For “reasons”.
Stop using that app and find a different one.
You know what’s also annoying AF? The number of apps that keep asking permissions when you open then. Doesn’t matter how many times you say no.
Yeah, NordVPN does that now if you have notifications turned off. I turned them off because I would get notifications that were basically ads. Now, I have to dismiss their “please turn notifications on” screen every time I open it up. This will be my last subscription with them.
Friendly reminder to my Android peeps that https://f-droid.org/ rocks!
I think I open up the google play store like twice a year.
Had to get a Gallery app from there last week
gstore idea of gallery app is ads in your stolen pictures
Seriously, is that how far we came?
laughs in LineageOS
But seriously folks, you can survive without Google Play Store. While it definitely is sometimes not easy and there are obstacles put in your way, after a certain time you learn to accommodate. And I have a peace of mind knowing that no one is selling my pictures to data foraging companies God knows where.
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Why do you think LineageOS is way less secure?
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I open F-Droid like every week just to know what’s new. Found some cool apps that way. I’ll drop some recommendations here:
Thumb-Key
Quasseldroid
QRAlarm
Audile
At least you’ve got a calculator app, ipads have never had one. Kind of ironic for a device that has more processing power than 1970’s supercomputers.
more processing power than 1970’s supercomputers.
Doesn’t every computer and computer-like device for the last couple decades or more? Or is that the joke?
The joke is that ipads don’t have a calculator despite having plenty of computing power
Like a watch that doesn’t tell time.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Even SD cards and USB chargers have powerful microcontrollers in them nowadays
Isn’t it better though? You can install it if you want.
It’s just odd, anything ever made with a user interface since the 80’s has had a calculator app. Apple just remove features and charge more for something that is inherently similar to everything else they’ve ever done.
Apple just remove features and charge more for something that is inherently similar to everything else they’ve ever done.
Ah, the joys of walled garden consumer electronics!
Except there are tons of free calculator apps, so they aren’t charging more in this case. Your criticism of Apple, in general, is warranted. Just not in this case.
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… it is a calculator … all it needs is like 15 buttons and a number screen.
It is the most basic program any student programmer creates at some point during their studies. And can be shown on just about every UI you can imagine.
It is also something every person uses.
Those apple excuses you mention, are just rubbish.
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They have gone publicly on record saying they didn’t find an “Appley” way to bring calculator to the iPad. As an iPad user myself who has used 3rd party calculator apps this whole time, I get it. They all suck. The interfaces are all over the place. It is enough for Apple to let users download whichever app best fit their needs, instead of staking their claim, as they do with all their other apps, that the calculator app they made is the best one.
I’m all for choice or whatever, but a simple system-provided calculator should be benign and lightweight enough to be there and coexist with any competing calculator app without much drawback. Like a clock or web browser.
You can use the search bar for quick calculations. That doesn’t escuses Apple from adding an calculator app on iPad! Most calculator apps have ads or are paid
Desmos is legendary.
Nerved had heard of it, looks amazing! Thanks for sharing
And I thought our admins removed it…
Isn’t app store full of calculator apps?
Mostly with ads. It’s easy to argue that a calculator is more fundamental to a functional tablet than a web browser is, and Apple includes one. By all means, there ought to be a market for calculator apps, but it’s pretty fundamental to cover the basics. Also, Apple already has a calculator on iPhone and iPad runs pretty much the same software, so where is it?
Is it really that fundamental? The iPad has been selling quite well with no calculator app.
I feel like most people nowadays are just typing math calculations into their search engine. Which obviously also has massive privacy implications.
Yeah. If a search engine knows you didn’t know 5x(30/47)^2 they might be able to derive your SSN from that information.
Well, if I start converting 23 cm to inches, you’ll know that I have a massive dong.
Once upon a time I wrote an IRC chat bot for my friends and I that could do calculations and convert units (metric -> imperial) with a command.
My friends were impressed that I included units like furloughs, leagues and bushels.
My chatbot was just googling their request and returning the result (which, handily, was done by the google engine itself and was very easy to extract with Beautiful Soup in python). This was 15+ years ago.
This doesn’t really have anything to do with your reply, just a fun memory I guess
Which obviously also has massive privacy implications.
How so? I don’t know much about this stuff lol
I’m mainly concerned with people using it for calculating things personal to them, finances/taxes comes to mind first. While the search engine may not know with certainty what the numbers represent, they have so much data on you that they could very well start inferring what those numbers are to add to your profile. For example if you suddenly do a ton of calculations in the days leading up to when taxes are due and all the numbers have two decimal places, it would be a pretty big hint to them. Or if you always do budget calculations on the days you get paid, they might be able to recognize that pattern and work out when your payday is and what your income, expenses, and savings are. And they definitely have AI to make these inferences for them so they can do it for every single user. IDK I might just be paranoid though.
With all that’s going on to systematically profile each and every person that ever went online, goes online, and will go online, that sounds 100% plausible and realistic to me.
Love your username person
Thank you!
This is one of the many reasons I built my own weather application for Android. Too much crap out there.
Are you willing too share? Been looking for a good weather app.
On F Droid lots of beautiful ones. Breezy, Prognoza, Rain, and more.
Try openweather
I use Openweather and it suffices.
It can be found on Google Play, Weather Warbler. I haven’t put it on F-Droid yet. Still adding features, so it’s not complete yet, but getting there.
Thanks. I just installed it. You’re right, it’s straightforward and no bullshit about it. How refreshing.
Glad you like it.
So now are you spying on me somehow? I don’t understand apps, I didn’t pay for this, so what are you getting out of it if it’s free for me? serious question because I don’t know how the world works.
That’s a great question. I’m using the API from Open Weather. It’s free for the first 1000 requests, then like fifteen cents per 100 after that. They also have a free version of their API.
Eventually, if enough people start using it, I’ll switch to the free, limited version. So I don’t share this app with others much.
What am I getting out of it? I built it because I was tired of other weather apps and also wanted something to add to my portfolio since I’m trying to switch from SDET to Android developer.
Well yeah. So it can look at its work on the paper.
You weren’t expecting your calculator app to do all that math in its head, were you?
It also wants to access your location and nearby devices and wifi
Weather wants your location so you can get weather for where you are
Which is fair, but I’d still like to have the option to manually type in my area code, instead of having to turn on gps.
To be clear, I haven’t come across a weather app that doesn’t allow that, but I also wouldn’t be surpised if there are some out there.
Then deny location access
It still keeps asking or sometimes straight up doesn’t work.
iPads : I’m once again asking you to download a calculator app from the app store
Oh don’t worry, there will be a reason.
F-Droid ftw!
Is this an Android meme I’m too iOS to understand?
Sort of. I don’t remember the specifics, but it used to be that some apps completely unrelated to phone calls had to request access to make phone calls because of some stuff they needed that Google only allowed them access to if they had the phone call permission.
I believe Google has since changed it so most of that stuff is now a separate permission not related to phone calls, so you don’t see it as often now. It can still happen with older apps, though.
How quickly the fan boys come to downvote you for being correct. 🤣
The vast majority of the Android/iOS flamewar is pro Android on fedi (mostly Mastodon for me). I usually don’t bother but I thought my comment was at least sort of funny? oh well.
It was funny! These people act like THEIR way is the ONLY way. Not all of us want our phones to be mobile computers with full feature sets. I just want a simple device that has a very nice ecosystem where everything connects and works together 98% of the time. Apple sucks too, who would’ve thought.
“Android bad, they hate us for being right” --iOS users after pointing out the flaws in a satirical meme
You guys are too funny. 🤣
truly I must bow to your superior intellect. iphones have so many more features, like not being able to sideload apps, not being able to use a terminal or actual filesystem, not being able to install browsers that aren’t reskins of safari, not being able to use apps that would totally work on my device because Steve jobs thought they looked bad with a different screen size, and strawman arguments about what android was like 10 years ago. iOS is clearly superior and I’m gonna sell my phone today
Oh my gosh! All of those would be super helpful if I actually cared to use them! I don’t need my phone to be a mobile computer. That’s why I have a desktop!
I sideload apps like YouTube that has sponsor block and it also blocks ads, just so I can airplay it to my television. That’s all I need.
Some of us just like a simple device. I don’t need the rest of that. My god dude, it was a fucking joke because androids have always had these weird ass permission requests.
I hate Apple as much as the next guy, but I like the ecosystem. That’s all I need for my use case.
Get a grip, and relax. Take a fucking joke. The way you’re reacting is EXACTLY why I made the god damn joke in the first place. 🤯
I have been using android since 2013 and that was legitimately the last time I saw any such “weird permission request”
I hate Apple as much as the next guy, but I like the ecosystem
which is a fancy way of saying “I hate Apple as much as the next guy, but I still bought all their products”
Ah yes. The two things I own. The watch and the phone. That sure is ALL the Apple products available to buy. You got me all right!
I’m not going to sit here and bicker with your dense ass over something as minuscule as what mobile OS we each prefer.
Pull your head out of your ass, learn to take a fucking joke.
Best wishes to you.
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