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Google Play Services Supplants Android As Google's "Platform"
exomondo writes "Google has a plan to circumvent the problem of fragmentation of its Android operating system across the installed base by using its proprietary, closed-source Google Play Services. Play Services is a privileged service that runs on Android and provides the sort of functionality to applications that would generally be seen in operating system updates like cloud backup, remote wipe, push messaging, etc... This service can be updated silently and independently of the operating system and runs on almost every version of Android out there allowing Google to add functionality to Android devices without having to go through the OEMs so having an up-to-date version of Android is looking like less of a necessity."
It might be worth noting that Google originally rejected copyleft in favor of permissive licensing in the name of giving OEMs and carriers more control over Android on their devices.
It might be worth noting that Google originally rejected copyleft in favor of permissive licensing in the name of giving OEM sand carriers more control over Android on their devices.
And thus /. hath bestowed upon us a new name for companies peddling crappy hardware.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
What are these sand carriers and how can I get my hands on one? Is it something from Dune?
Fortunately, I keep "Google Play Services" cut off from the net via Droidwall. That should keep Google from fscking with the software on my phone without my review and permission.
*My* computer. *My* choice about whether to apply a software change.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
The manufacturers and carriers have ZERO interest in supporting devices after the ink is dried on the contract. The manufacturers want to be apple and sell a new phone every time the O/S gets even the most basic of incremental improvements to functionality. The carriers are right there with a fresh contract extension and a kriss bladed knife ready to seal the deal in blood.
The rooting community is the only group actively supporting devices. Google on the other hand has almost zero stake in contracts or hardware sales. Their profitability is tied to the services and ad revenue which comes with loyal devotion to their brand's ecosystem. The same brand that the carriers and manufacturers are more than happy to piss and shit on with their stupid & unwanted modifications from the stock Google release.
Samsung is the only manufacturer that doesn't have their head up their ass which is why the Galaxy S is on version 4 instead of these retarded Beta releases from every other manufacturer which get aborted as a brand out of shame and distrust like Diebold/Blackwater/Xe/Academi.
HTC is currently the only brand I'm willing to buy because unlike Samsung, they have figured out that locked boot-loaders are bad for business.
After the raw OS, Google needs to have something unique/proprietary to offer users. That's all the google play interconnected stuff... The Google-specific stuff is... in the Gapps. It makes sense... that's where Google's ecosystem integrates with the OS.
That's not exactly true-- try running a Cyanogenmod build sometime without Gapps. It still works well-- just as you'd expect, you don't have the Google-related things, but there is a non-branded browser, and it's still a very usable device. But yeah, you don't get the benefits (or risks, depending on your POV) of using Google's services.
Still, it's an interesting theory that the OS work is basically done now so new feature work is going to be piled over google services/gapps. I suspect it's a bit overstated as I'd think there is plenty of platform/OS-level and basic framework improvements still to do. Many of the UI advances in the Google services have been built in tandem with corresponding framework development (though much of it is backported all the way to v4),
HTC is currently the only brand I'm willing to buy because unlike Samsung, they have figured out that locked boot-loaders are bad for business.
Yeah HTC's profits are plunging while Samsung's are soaring, locked boot loaders are *so* bad for business.
It might be worth noting that Google originally rejected copyleft in favor of permissive licensing in the name of giving OEM sand carriers more control over Android on their devices.
They did, but that practice of benevolence was quickly up once the time from code release to users adoption became astronomical, causing pitchforks and branding irons labled 'fragmentation' to bought out by every fanboy and 'industry expert'. Something had to be done.
.apk and it seems like you have the Android version of a rootkit.
Besides, Android as a pure OS is still freely available so that hackers and researchers can continue peacefully using the software. As for this new play services app, I'm a little concerned about what possible exploitable backdoors this might enable. Infect a phone with a modified play services
A good chess player can still win against a weak opponent despite letting them take their queen. That doesn't mean that playing without a queen is a good strategic decision.
Which just for the record probably means he is on the latest Chromium branch or one of those based on Chromium as i have noticed the "weird spacing error" thing since the last update, and instead focus on this great news?
As someone who owns an Android pre-paid (finally got out from under that contract, praise the FSM) this is great news but I have a few reservations...does this mean they'll be forcing updates to ICS on devices that can't run it well? Will they just abandon all but the latest and greatest? or will they do like I hope they would and take all those 2.x and 3.x devices and update to the last release in that branch?
Because looking around when i was shopping for my phone it amazed me how many Gingerbread (most 2.3.X based phones) there are being made and sold and moreover...how fricking well they run! When I was first looking at Android a couple years back it was when the market was crapflooded with 1.x devices and I have to say they ran like absolute dogshit. They were slow, buggy as all get out, the screen response was pathetic, they were just total shit, but these Gingerbread based phones? They are snappy, great battery life, plenty of apps for it,decent touchscreens, etc. While the 1.x devices i'm sure soured some on Android based on how shitty they were the 2.x devices are a nice experience all around.
So while its nice that Google will be able to do an end run around the OEMs, which i have noticed really don't give a rat's ass about support once they have sold you the phone I do hope Google doesn't "pull a MSFT" and drop all support and access to Google Play for those using older devices. I live in a rural state where many are working poor and they just can't afford to go out and spend $300+ on a phone and the contracts are legalized assrape so all those $50-$100 Android 2.x phones give the working poor the chance to enjoy what many of us have enjoyed for ages, the ability to have the Internet in their pocket.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
So Google is following the FreeBSD way by keeping the base system separated from the userland? This allows upgrading user-facing programs and APIs even when the base OS is in "stable" mode. In this case, anything after Gingerbread is considered "stable" and everything else can be updated by the Google Play service.
Very well done. Now let's see you do this on Enterprise Linux 6 by porting a recent version of Google Chrome.
Grammer Nazism is a staple of geeks.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
I first go to google play and download all of the updated versions of the software I use...
Then I root the device, backup all of the downloaded apks and install a clean operating system.. Something WITHOUT gapps.
Then I side load all of the applications I downloaded.
You would be amazed how much better the device works when all of that CRAP isn't running in the background eating resources and using bandwidth.
The manufacturers want to be apple and sell a new phone every time the O/S gets even the most basic of incremental improvements to functionality.
How exactly is that being like Apple other than in your invented version of reality? The iPhone 4 was discontinued October of 2011 and is slated to also get iOS 7 coming out later this year. The 3GS got discontinued in September of last year it still received iOS updates to 6.1.3 from last March. The 3G was discontinued in June 2010 yet continued receiving iOS updates until November of 2010. And the original iPhone was discontinued July 2008 and still received iOS updates until February of 2010.
And, yes, the iPhone 4 and 4S will not get all features of iOS 7 but they are still getting a large portion of it along with the security fixes.
Samsung is the only manufacturer that doesn't have their head up their
Well they are not keeping up. I have wonderful phone from Samsung
and the base OS is locked at old and musty. Worse the graphics code
does not take advantage of the graphics hardware as it should.
One of the critical buggers in phone land is the big system lump upgrade.
The Android team apparently elected to structure things to exclude modest updates
and fail to establish a path for trusted updates.
But this stuff is all new. A couple turns of the crank and good things are possible.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
they'd like you to keep your phone, thank you very much. Even at $600 bucks some of them still have a subsidy.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Every time Google Play Store and Google Play Services update they install as a removable update in the non-system area of my phone. The phone's memory is small - just a few hundred 185MB of user space available and I have it jam packed with apps. So every time I get an update I go from having 25MB or more to having under 12MB. The Android operating system does not like this. On my wife's phone I've had this cause a reboot cycle - I had to reset the phone to get out of it.
To make matters worse a bug (or feature - don't know if it was intended) means that updated versions of Google Play Store have not honoured the preferences for application update of user applications. So even though I've set the thing to never update, I on two occasions upon establishing a wireless connection I have had a bunch of apps update themselves with newer larger versions quicker than I could notice and shut down the phone. The end result once again is a phone with too little user memory to run. I've heard this has happened for others when not using wireless and that it has resulted in expensive data downloads.
I HATE not having control of my phone. I HATE idiotic updates that break it. I HATE Android. There's just nothing better out there. Give me back control!!!
HTC is currently the only brand I'm willing to buy because unlike Samsung, they have figured out that locked boot-loaders are bad for business.
It is one thing or another with these vendors.
I would have an HTC one right now but the friggen battery can't be changed and I refuse to be at the mercy of battery gods/planned obsolesence.
You can get a cool new device with lots of features except the loader is locked, or it is unlocked and does not support US LTE frequencies or the battery is non-removable or it does not have SD slot.
I won't even consider a device where cyanogen can't be installed and google play is totally out of the question.
Settings > Apps > Google Play Services > Disable
Fuck Google.
here are a few problems: The NSA can now install software on your phone, world wide. If you don't pay Google a monthly fee all your apps and data gets lost in the cloud. They can read all your data, remotely, and give you targeted adds. You can only buy apps from them, unless they let you. Always on the network DRM.
That will still need proper OS-level support, and vendor/hardware specific upgrades, to fix.
I like Android, but the VM layer philosophy just isn't suited to realtime audio apps. I'd be excited to see apps as bulletproof and useful as the Mackie iPad-mixer setups bands are now using in live settings, on Android tablets.
The 8GB iPhone 4 is still in production (rumored to be replaced at the bottom end soon by the iPhone 5C). Only the 16GB and 32GB versions were discontinued to make way for the 4S. Apple has consistently released major OS upgrades only for models that are current on the day of the announcement (including models that are discontinued as of that same date due to simultaneous new product announcements). Ask any iPhone 3G user that upgraded to iOS 5 whether they think this is a good or bad thing.
I can see the utility in google being able to push out new services and frameworks via Google Play.
However it seems like the danger as far as Android being a more open system, is that now you can't change or examine Google Play yourself.
I did try googling for Google Play source, but it seems the sort of thing Google would not likely provide source for... they may very well for embedded frameworks it pushes out I suppose, but then how would you load modified versions?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A quick check on XDA Developers suggests that many ROMs are having problems with Google Play Services right now: excessive battery usage, high data usage. It is hard to tell because the simple monitoring tools don't break down what this mysterious piece of software is doing. It might be some subtle version incompatibility.
So what happens when a monolithic chunk of software has a *really* bad release? Putting all your eggs in one basket is a serious risk.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4335148?start=0&tstart=0
"The manufacturers want to be apple and sell a new phone every time there is the most basic of incremental improvements to functionality."
FTFY
I can't tell the difference between an iPhone 3G and an iPhone 5 was my point. Cue the Galaxy SIII commercials. I'm sure to your discerning eye the differences are obvious and well worth the purchase price. I'm glad you're happy. I'm sure by version 8 you'll get shit like facial recognition unlock and eye tracking. Personally, I'll be sipping on cutting edge in Google-land. You can probably find it on Apple Maps if you drive to Hawaii first.
Pushing updates means your phone or apps break, just one day for no apparent reason. It's why I don't have a smartphone. My SOs sucks so bad we had to buy her a tablet just so she could use her apps and read her books.
My dumbphone is good enough . I look forward to Ubuntu tablets and phones.
HTC is currently the only brand I'm willing to buy because unlike Samsung, they have figured out that locked boot-loaders are bad for business.
Non-carrier branded Samsung phones don't have locked bootloaders.
Dropbox drops it like it's hot.
Don't forget to include the differences between the Galaxy S1/2/3 and an S4 is:
Infrared blaster
NFC support / S Beam / Android Beam
Visa PayWave compatible (yes, you can use it as a credit card)
One touch pairing (BT, wifi)
Group Play / Media sharing
S Health support
Hand-side detection (you swipe the side of your hand over the screen to take a screenshot and not some arcane key combination)
Air Gesture (you don't actually have to touch the screen, for when your hands are dirty and whatever you want to do isn't supported by voice commands)
Burst fire camera
My Sony RX100 / Playmemories transfers images and engages the remote viewfinder between camera and phone with one touch.
Meanwhile, iUsers have to:
0) If you haven't installed PlayMemories, go to the store. Search for playmemories, hit install.
1) If you're already connected to an access point, hit settings, hit wifi, hit disconnect (however you do it).
2) If you haven't set up the wifi access point on your phone yet, you'll have to do that. Hit Settings, hit wifi, hit the entry after doing #3
3) On camera, hit menu, scroll to Transfer page, hit "Transfer to Smartphone"
4) If you did step 2, enter the randomly generated password without making a mistake.
5) Hit home, scroll to where ever you put the PlayMemories app. Click on it.
6) DONE!
For me: ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hyqmWX3aLc )
1) If I haven't installed PlayMemories, just touch the phone and camera together. It opens the Play Store to the Playmemories app. One button to press: Hit install.
2-5) Touch the two devices together.
6) DONE!
OMG SO EASY...
the definition of open: "mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make"
Don't quote me on this.
Exactly this doesn't fix any of the users issues. It only helps Google. The carrier, manufacturer, and google will still be adding in programs the user doesn't want or need on their phone. More control of the OS is desperately needed for the users. Especially where it is tied to performance and battery life
I do think there were some bugs to be worked out because they patched the app signature stuff, but the reality is that those ROMs are not getting Google Play from Google, nor do they officially support them.
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Gapps
Incidentally, on any given day any quick check of XDA will show ROMs with a wide variety of bugs. Many of the ROMs on XDA are put together by hobbists who have figured out how to build AOSP from source. Many are quite talented and experienced but do not have a staff of QA testers, nor the inside knowledge of closed source driver APIs. So many bugs on custom ROMs revolve around the hardware driver issue. The hardware driver stuff is the bigger concern (IMHO)
Granted, it would be nice for customers to have an official way to obtain Google Play (as they do for many other gapps)
PocketPermissions Android Permission Guide
I don't use the Google Play store - I don't have an account with Google
For people who choose not to have an account with Google, what alternative to YouTube have you found useful?
He didn't say anything about how Apple supports their devices, just that manufacturers and carriers want to sell devices as much as Apple does. He then notes that but they want to do it without having to upgrade the older ones. I think you're being a bit defensive there bud. The only misconception of reality here is in what you think he said. Apple's support of older devices is great. Google's is getting much better, especially given the logistical challenges of Android. (This is the whole point of the article). It's other manufacturers and carriers that are terrible.
PocketPermissions Android Permission Guide
F-Droid has a pretty good catalog nowadays. I've eliminated everything proprietary from my phone life except for Google Maps and those pesky hardware drivers.
Has the community figured out a business model for funding development of a video game for distribution under a license for free software and free cultural works? Or do you just choose not to play video games more complex than Solitaire?
The iPhone 4 was discontinued October of 2011 and is slated to also get iOS 7 coming out later this year.
The fourth-generation iPod touch was discontinued a year later, in October 2012, and isn't getting iOS 7. This means that for example, someone who bought an iPod touch a year ago won't be able to use a game controller, as game controller support is new in iOS 7.
I'm not sure what I'm missing out on by having not installed Gapps.
If your bank makes its check/cheque deposit application for Android available only on Google Play Store, not on Amazon or direct APK download, you'll have to take the bus to the ATM to deposit a payment that you receive from a relative.
"Of course it's an open-source OS! But we moved all the important parts to a closed-source mega-app which can give itself permission to do anything it wants."
Having said that, I'm not sure I want to start bashing Google too much. People complain about fragmentation and feature exclusion, but complain again when Google introduces a work-around to deal with slow vendor updates. Damned both ways, and if there was a simple, easy solution that did not entirely lock down the OS, it would have pushed out already.
Updates are not mandatory, and you can easily install old versions of Google apps. I am currently running the last V6.x issue of Maps, for example, because the new V7.x ones don't have the navigation without destination feature I use every day.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
And since they own it and update it any time they feel like it might it be used to :
Install/uninstall Spyware when they feel like it ??
Applications that use it be locked out unless the App seller come across with some CASH at any time Google chooses??
Seriously -- parts of the OS or App services that change constantly without the users permission ... great way to make it an even bigger moving target for developers.
Visa PayWave is based on NFC, so, basically any phone with it will work, same for "one touch pairing".
"Burst fire" for cam is purely software feature.
Take a look at Nexus 4, then back at your G4, then again at Nexus 4, then look at the price of Nexus 4, then at the price of your G4, then go in the corner and wheep. On the way there you might buy an aftermarket Qi charging coil for your G4.
Grammer
I like to think I'm not normally a Grammar Nazi, but that made me twitch.
HTC also didn't really "figure it out". About 40000 people posted complaints on their FaceBook page.
Your answer to "fragmentation" is here
All your laziness has led to proprietary, closed-source services being dropped on the phone to cover your asses.
Going through the comments, it seems as if I am the only person who seems to think this is a good thing. I got a name-brand phone, but its on a discount carrier. Surprisingly, Cyanogen does not have a fork for my phone (apparently, even though this phone is the most popular Samsung Galaxy my carrier carries, it is still not popular enough for a Cyanogen Mod ROM). My phone is stuck on 2.3.6, meaning that I can't use TWC app on it. I don't think my provider has EVER pushed out an OTA update for any of their phones. My old phone was on 2.0, but luckily there was a Cyanogen Mod for it (actually, it was not an official release, had to dig through forums to find people working on it), and was able to get it to 2.3
My tablett is worse - it is made by an off-name brand chinese company (actually considering wiping it next year and giving it to a friend and picking up a Nexus), and it is only that they released a VERY SIMILAR tablet with a newer OS on it that I was able to get the thing to update to 4.1, otherwise I would still be stuck on 2.1. However, because the phone is rooted, I cannot view Ultraviolet content on it. (Stupid, really, as Netflix works just fine)
So to get updated features, I have to root my device, mess with half a dozen ROMs before finding one that works, go back into the Cyanogen Mod settings (if there is a Cyanogen Mod ROM, otherwise whatever ROM you are using) and punch in my carrier details, hoping my data and texts still work, and run the risk of possibly bricking my device.
Now Google is talking about pushing out updates through the Play Store? What a brilliant idea! Give people new features without them having to Root their phones or install custom ROMs. This will also mean for app developers that more devices will have newer features, allowing special features of your app to run on more devices. This sounds like a VERY good thing.
If you don't like it, block the updates. But for the rest of us, this sounds like a great idea, and I can't wait for Google to push out thier first new updates, and hope this means better app support on my devices.
I've been running CM 10.1 without GAPPS and I love not having Google controlling my phone remotely.
I can't tell the difference between an iPhone 3G and an iPhone 5 was my point.
Are you legally blind? Different case design and materials, larger screen, higher resolution screen, faster CPU/GPU, etc. You're being intentional dense.
I have a low-end phone. It came with a number of google apps that "work" (google play music/books/mags, youtube, google+). When I set "automatically update" it gives me new versions that eat up the battery, run in the background when I don't want, or fail to update because they are too big. I can't disable the new apps unless I uninstall back to the original and I can't uninstall the original but only disable it. So I have to update manually and only get the apps I want to update.
Google OPEN! Made in USA! Google! GOOGLE! SERGEY! MOTOROLA!
Apple! China! Evil! Closed source! Walled garden! Sheeple! Google!
Apple doesn't do what you claim. They release major OS versions along with new hardware but they do release point updates in between. Major versions generally work as far back as four hardware generations and all devices can be updated as soon as updates are released. It is by far the best update situation in the industry.
"which is why the Galaxy S is on version 4" - bullshit. The original Aries family deadended at Gingerbread, despite the fact that they were nearly identical spec-wise to the Nexus S which made it as far as 4.0 or 4.1 (I can't remember if crespo got 4.1 or if it EOLed when 4.2 was released...)
This is despite the fact that the community had 4.0 running within a few weeks, has released 4.1 and 4.2 for that device, and even 4.3 seems to be coming along OK so far.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Right now, as much as I dislike Samsung, I have to give them credit with respect to bootloader locking. Verizon devices were the ONLY bootloader-locked Samsungs until the Galaxy S4, when AT&T was added to the list. Note that pretty much all HTCs on these carriers have been locked down too. (The One on AT&T is strange, I think HTC intentionally "made a mistake" by whitelisting these devices.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Jobs laughs
Or anybody with an original iPad ... iOS 5.5 is a crashy pile of junk, and I wish I could roll back to an older version, but sadly 'wiping' the device just deletes everything but doesn't affect the version of the OS.
To me, two years was far too short of a time to support the device given what I paid for it -- so my iPad has largely been relegated to a corner and my Nexus 7 gets used in its place.
The only thing I miss is support for Digital Copies I got with DVDs/Blu Rays that I bought, because I have quite a few of them. If Apple would just put iTunes out for Android, I'd be set, but somehow I doubt they'll do that.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I'm fairly certain you don't understand the difference between the artificial world of chess and the very real world of business, in which there are no queens, and Samsung is soundly whupping up on HTC's ass.
There is no iOS 5.5, the last version of iOS 5 was 5.1.1.
Come to the Dark Side... we have "whom".
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Honestly both iOS and Android have something to offer.
For the "I just want it to work, when I email, (use the phone, text, tweet, keep my calendar) and not to have to think about it. iOS is your friend. plan on paying Cupertino and to a lesser extent you wireless service provider your unending high rent rental.
For those (ahem geeks) who don't mind paying that some of that rental fee in mental sweat (learning), you can use Android, CM and potentially Linux if Ubuntu or FoxOS plays their cards right. Which of course requires Opensource hardware (drivers) and the Opensouce coders. Then you get back the ability to use 'your' hardware as you see fit; Where you largely own the keys to your closed garden. Of course this isn't possible without Google staying committed to hardware where you can boot the OS which you prefer.
I've been in the iOS world, but with the possibility of Linux running my smart phone, which is a practical non-starter for an iOS device? Google and Android get's my next upgrade.
That doesn't make you a Grammar Nazi. That makes you a Spelling Nazi.
Would you name some notable Free video games that were funded through Kickstarter, so that I and other developers who are first-time users of Kickstarter can understand how this tool was used successfully in the past and in this way figure out how best to use this tool? And what's the best way to approach establishing a US, UK, or Canadian subsidiary in order to qualify under KS's guidelines?
Spelling is part of grammar, you Stupid Nazi. I apologize for offending your Nazi self with these anti-stupid statements. I expect that you'll point out the lack of stupidity therein.
This move by Google may be the best thing to happen to Ubuntu's OS. I know that, personally, Ubuntu's offering hasn't interested me at all -- but if Google really wants to go this direction, I'll have little choice but to go with Ubuntu.
Tempting.... tempting...
bad news for android owners.
F-Droid has a pretty good catalog nowadays. I've eliminated everything proprietary from my phone life
Look at [these games] for examples of commercial free software but not necessarily free culture.
Reliance on proprietary data appears to mean that the developer has to list anti-features. For example, an application distributed as free software that relies on non-free assets would need the NonFreeAdd anti-feature. The F-Droid client defaults to hiding all apps with anti-features. How many people set it to show apps with anti-features?
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4162427&cid=44754641 = "better" (than yours on the 'point' you made), "young lad", lol! Try to see MY point there though (not a toy but can't let him *think* that, with 1 liners). "Touche", my boy...
APK
What I find interesting is that three months ago, when the PRISM news started and people were all paranoid of anything the NSA did (including writing code for Android), one of the arguments against NSA bugs in Android was "yes but Android is all open source, anyone can review the code and check there are no bugs there". While that may be true in itself (and I'm not suspicious of the NSA contributions to Android itself, much like I'm not paranoid of SELinux), if the NSA or other intelligence services did want to hide bugs in everyone's phone, Google Play Services would be the perfect place to do so. Closed source, system level, granted pretty much every Android permission, can grant itself new permissions without user consent... I could be being paranoid here, and I'm not saying Google Play Services is definitely bugged. But this does clearly show that the argument "there can't be any NSA bugs in Android because it's open source" is false, since while the base system is open source, almost all Android devices have this closed source, system level, highly powerful binary blob.
No doubt: Seeing as it struck you "speechless" there... not to worry - it's a common result of those attempting to 'troll me' being schooled (as you were, easily).
* "You know it, I know it - now? Anyone/Everyone else reading will too...
(Hard results, facts, truth, & "better technology" always does the job!)
APK
P.S.=> It's not easy, being 'world-class', like me (@ being unable to silence trolls such as yourself)... apk
Sorry - had to do typo correction before grammar/spelling nazis do! See my subject-line for correct spelling of "Magnificence"...
APK
Play updates itself, in the background and without asking the user. Even when you configured, that you need to confirm updates, the play store updates itself silently in the background.
You may lose features of old versions, get annoying new features, but the worst is, Google is part of prism, and can execute any new code on your phone, anytime they want.
F-Droid is cool, but missing the commercial apps.
Amazon appstore could be an option, because it needs to use the android "install APK" Function with a confimation dialog, while google play can not only update itself, but even other apps without showing this dialog.
Maybe ROMs like cyanogen should alter Android, such that the play store has the same restrictions as other apps.