Yeah and it feels like there’s a “study” coming out every other month how many hundreds or thousands of apps on the playstore are filled with spy- and malware, I’d think that can also “really compromise your safety, very significantly.” So 🤷♀️
<pre style="background-color:#ffffff;">
<span style="color:#323232;">• Drag down your quick settings and long-press the Smart View tile.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">• Tap on the three-dot icon in the top right and open settings.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">• At the bottom of the screen, open the about Smart View menu.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">• Rapidly tap on the part of the screen that says Smart View 10 times.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">• When prompted, enter the password: #00rtsp00
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">• When the developer options menu opens, enable the Google Cast toggle.
</span>
I love how Google's original intent of simply cataloging the net has now turned them into a net nanny whose job it is to prohibit vile copyright scofflaws from infesting others with their demented thinking.
I’m annoyed that this article doesn’t explain at all 1) how governments are actually using push notifications to spy, 2) what apps they’re using, and 3) how users can protect themselves.
The government is spying on me and you’re not going to tell me how they’re actually doing it? Not helpful.
Even that won’t protect you. They still have analytics on billions of websites since they offer a robust free analytics interface for small webmasters, and have a paid tier for enterprise level websites. They still track everything that goes through Gmail and Gmail is used by billions of people. Your emails are still being read by Google every time you email someone who uses Gmail. Even if you refused to email a Gmail user, many small businesses use Gmail without you even knowing, passing their custom domain name through the gmail servers. Your web activity is still being tracked by Google every time you visit a website or use an app with Google analytics on it. Not personally using Google products, or not having a Google account does nothing to protect you from their tracking.
Edit: that’s without even mentioning their Android OS.
Those who complain about iOS being a “walled garden” should understand why Apple doesn’t allow sideloading.
We already know. It’s because Apple wants their 30% cut, you fuckin’ dunce.
What makes Apple think they’re the only ones who can “keep their users safe” from malware? Google can’t do it just as well? Amazon can’t? Samsung? Sony? Wal-Mart? F-Droid? Plenty of malware on the Apple app store.
By the traditional definition they are kind of wrong. I don’t agree at all with Googles relentless data harvesting and ads, but the software isn’t going to make copies to hide itself on your phone and make it difficult to remove. You would be able to uninstall it like any other app without it leaving anything behind.
What about on a Huawei phone? If it wasn’t there to begin with and had to be installed I’d expect it could also be uninstalled. I don’t have a Huawei phone to test it out.
That is insane. Straight up blacklisting popular software because they don’t want people to look too closely at what they purchased. It’s amazing what the public is willing to accept, just such a constant stream of reports about bad behavior from companies that most people can’t find the energy to care.
The app hasn’t been updated but the Play Store block has indeed been lifted. People were sideloading without issue. Perhaps Google intended for the block to only last until launch to prevent reviewers only.
Android 14 uses new APIs and Google requires everyone to update their SDK to say whether or not it uses the new APIs. If they did nothing it was flagged as an incompatible app, but if they don’t use the APIs it will run fine.
You can usually adjust your app and publish an update without needing to change the app’s targetSdkVersion. Similarly, you should not need to use new APIs or change the app’s compileSdkVersion, although this can depend on the way your app is built and the platform functionality it’s using.
Yes. I have a personal app that I made many years ago and used on my Pixel 4 and 6. It would not work on my 8 until I updated the sdk version and some of the tooling.
There is actual compatibility, and official compatibility.
The updated apps likely didn’t have any code changed. (why they still worked when side loaded) Instead, the Play Store listing updated the compatibility filter to include Android 14, so 14 users could now see them in the Play Store.
It’s not an uncommon practice. Many apps might simply have a compatibility filter like “yes if [OS version > X]”. But that can be a problem if some future OS breaks compatibility. Especially in the case of a benchmark app that’s supposed to give comparable results between OS versions. If the new OS tweaks something that doesn’t fully break the benchmark, but causes inaccurate numbers, that would need to be checked before it gets approved.
I imagine it could. It would be strange need to upload a “new version” of the app, when nothing actually changed accept approving a new OS for that version. Then you need to track which version numbers are real changes, and which aren’t. That would be weird.
Ah, so I fell for reactionary bs assuming that a fairly well written article had good information? Dammit. =P Thanks for the info, that sounds a lot more plausible to me.
At least you acknowledged it. The title of this post should have a misleading tag at best. There’s no wonder that no other major outlets have reported on this.
And as Rick Osterloh, Google SVP of Devices & Services, stated in a recent interview with Michael Fisher (MrMobile), “You probably use YouTube, you probably use Google search, you probably use Gmail. You already use Google; if you want the best place to use all of your Google products, it’s going to be on a Pixel.”
Just like Apple, Google would ideally want full capture of their ecosystem.
The AI features seem useful but Google will likely do one of the following with it within 3 years of release:
A. Kill the feature
B. Nerf the feature to an unusuable level
C. Shove advertising into the feature at every possible opportunity
It’s partly why I haven’t bought an Android phone, ever, and have stuck with iPhones. I know Apple is going to keep supporting the phone and apps within for many years. It’s encouraging that Google will support the newest Pixel with software, but they really need to work on their hardware quality and support now. This has been a consistent sore spot since inception.
Not how Android works, but ok. Android is just an OS. Each specific combo of OS and phone is unique. You can modify Android to the point where it's a completely different user experience between two implementations nominally using Android.
Maybe you just like iOS, that's fine, but it's good to understand why you like it. Personally I've been saddled with an iPhone for work and I hate the GUI, but I can appreciate the materials and some design choices.
C and B are definitely happening in the next months, A will start by the end of next year, as support for Bard dwindles and Google moves on to the next AI assistant that has half the features and polish of the previous one.
That’s from that Diablo presentation back then right? The audience wasn’t too happy, lol. But looking where we are now Diablo seems to be doing great on desktop and mobile.
IIRC what made the immortal announcement so incendiary was that fans were anticipating a Diablo IV announcement and Blizzard had teased something Diablo related. Had they just said “btw Diablo 4 is in production, in the mean time check this out” it would have gone over much much better.
And every time you do, the next shit has a harder time sticking.
Stadia was doomed from the start because nobody was willing to commit to it in fear of Google killing it, and that meant it wouldn't get enough users and would get killed.
The developer goes into the situation in a reddit thread.
I had got the same stalkerware policy. The problem was not the app itself but the description. In my case “friend” and “track” or “monitor” keyword can’t be used together.
If your app description includes “monitor” or “track”, don’t include any person related keywords such as “friend”, “people”, “human”. If not, google considers your app can monitor the somebody’s activity.
Stupid take to be honest, real people getting trafficked and stalked, domestic abuse victims being tracked for control by the abuser, and you think that’s fine because google has that data about you even though nobody can use it so why shouldn’t all apps be able to? Go to a women’s shelter, touch grass.
This issue is far more nuanced. No it’s not good Google has that data on you.
No it’s not fair that automatons caused a small developer to have their entire amount destroyed without a proper review.
Google took its time stepping up, but it’s better late than never
So Apple completely fails to give any kind of fuck that some people don't use their products but might be affected by them... and Google is the bad guy for not being timely enough to account for Apples douchebaggery? I mean, I'm no google fanboy, but jesus christ that's some shitty logic.
Google took its time stepping up, but it’s better late than never
And Google is postponing the launch of their trackers compatible with Google Find My network (Chipolo Point, PebbleBee) because Apple didn’t get around with adding stalking detection for these in time.
In this case if someone needs to step up and get their shit together, it’s Apple.
Apple created an app to detect airtags for Android but…
It takes 2 full minutes to do a scan (only manual scans are supported)
For some reason you need to wait a timer of TEN FUCKING MINUTES before make the tracker beep (close the app and you need to wait the ten minutes again)
It’s the most minimum viable product that they could ship, I think the long waits are all artificial because there’s no way that someone actually waits all that time each time that wants to check if he’s stalked by an airtag. It’s clearly designed for compliance “see? We made a detection app for Android users” and not for being actually used
Any form of Android compatibility must be maximally enshittified to encourage switching – see iMessage. Unless of course it generates revenue for Apple – see Apple Music. Not being stalked/murdered using Air Tags does not generate revenue for Apple: next time buy an iPhone.
Google do it to some as well so they’re just playing the same game.
See Picture in Picture - it’s an OS level greater yet google went out of their way to disable it for YouTube so they could sell it to you via YouTube premium.
Including the most basic task of plugging in an Android phone to access files on MacOS. It just works on Linux or Windows, but with MacOS I had to go the extra step of having to download and install Android File Transfer. And then wasn’t even able to preview pics from the phone storage and had to move the files to the PC.
Apple probably wants people to go I should get an iPhone. But, given the experience of how it just works on Windows and Linux my thought was wow Apple is shit at compatability with everything that isn’t Apple.
Most people aren’t plugging their phones into their computers. I’m an IT guy and I’ve never plugged my iPhones into my pc, nor the last 5+ android phones.
Okay? I wasn’t asking about other people, but expressing something I expected to be a basic function. And it was an Android phone I was talking about not an iPhone.
The comment chain talking was discussing how Apple will make things slightly less functional for products that aren’t Apple. Not an inquiry about how others use Apple products.
Speaking generally about ads, the issue is that people (a) don't like ads, but (b) also don't like paying for things that could be ad-supported. And the money for things that are ad-supported is going to come from one place or another, or they won't be done.
Wanting to get rid of ads is a legitimate preference -- but I'm saying that that probably comes with paying for something that wasn't paid for before.
My experience with so many things starting as pay instead of ads, but then ads being added over time, is why I reject ads outright. I don't trust companies to not double dip.
That said, I do pay for streaming services to avoid ads and refuse to pay for the ones that still have ads after paying.
See, this is what I think people get wrong about ad tech: the problem are not the ads themselves, but the tracking. I’m completely fine with ads, as long as I’m not tracked by their provider
I am ok with ads personally as long as it is context based ads with no data collections. So If I visit a tech website, I get tech ads. I understand running these servers cost money. Either you pay or ads. Currently, the issue is privacy.
Give OpenBoard with gesture typing a shot. No gifs and stuff, but gesture typing works together with suggestions, unlike either base OB or Floris. Someone casually mentioned it a few weeks ago and damn how much my life changed.
I’m glad the word is spreading, i also found out a few weeks ago through Lemmy. The only bug that drives me up the wall is when trying to delete backwards to fix a word. It eventually eats the space to the PREVIOUS word, joining them together and making an even bigger mess. It also looks like it never got an update after September :(
I guess you’re using Jerboa? Apparently that’s a bug between WebView Webkit and the AOSP keyboard (which OB is based on), or something… I don’t quite get what’s going on…
Voilà ! My first great piece of advice found on Lemmy! So thankful for this, and for witnessing the sudden growth of a great community here on Lemmy <3
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