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With Cyanogen Dead, Google's Control Over Android Is Tighter Than Ever (greenbot.com)
Last week, Cyanogen Inc announced it is shutting down all its services. A day later, CyanogenMod announced that it is going away too. Regardless of how you found Cyanogen's commercial operating system or open source fork CyanogenMod, the demise has bigger implications. From a report on GreenBot: Cyanogen might never have seriously threatened to take control of Android, but the upstart's shutdown still represents a major victory for Google. As Google showed with the launch of the Pixel, the company is taking steps to ensure no one ever gets close to stealing Android's soul ever again. [...] In many ways, Cyanogen encapsulated more of the spirit of Google's mobile OS project than Android itself ever did. As an early offshoot of the mainstream project designed and supported by habitual modders, Cyanogen was in many ways more aligned with the iOS jailbreaking community than Android proper, bringing customization and features far beyond those available in the stock OS. But almost as quickly as Android took off, Google began reining it in. By implementing stricter rules for manufacturers to prevent further fragmentation -- including licensing of its apps and mandatory inclusion of its search bar widget -- Google actively worked to keep deviant versions of Android on the fringes. Nonetheless, CyanogenMod persisted, surviving cease-and-desist orders, takeover rumors and general Google-led consternation. And now it's all over. Google won, not by waging war with Cyanogen but by doubling down on its own vision, forging partnerships with manufacturers, and working to ensure that Google's Android remained the world's Android.
Only instead of the carriers telling us what we can do with our phones, it's Google and Apple.
Goolge needs to ban carrier builds and let people update there os with out needing to wait for the carrier to do it.
How many more instances of Google fucking you freetards over does it take before you stop sucking their dick?
Despite the CEO of cyanogen claiming they were taking away Android from Google, they were always irrelevant. They may have had a few wins with minor players consumers had no relevance with consumers and were never going to replace Google services.
What does this mean for the One Plus line of phones? They were running Cyanogen right?
Google won't do a damn thing to flex that muscle on something as simple as forcing the carriers to not stymie any updates. I have an unlocked LG G5 and all of the carrier versions are getting updates rolled out. I contacted LG and asked the WTF is going on that my unlocked RS988 is not getting the update. Their response to when it'll be allowed? \_()_/
Unless you want to be accused of contributing the the Google-FUD, be sure to make mention of this whenever Cyanogen/CyanogenMod is mentioned:
https://github.com/LineageOS
http://lineageos.org/
http://lineageos.org/Yes-this-...
Why do they "need to"? You can buy a Pixel phone if you want an iPhone-like carrier free experience.
I thought Cyanogen was open source? If there is so much traction, another player will pick up where Cyanogen left off and the whole thing will continue.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
So CyanogenMod is only closing-down due to trademark stuffs surrounding Cyanogen. The actual OS is going to live on as LineageOS, still organized by Steve Kondik.
Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
"their", raisin-nuts.
The name is dead but the software itself isn't going anywhere. Ass kissing is only necessary to distribute Google Play Services (GPS)... a proprietary bundle of Google malware otherwise Android is open source and there isn't shit they can do about how you use it.
The only real competition Google has ever had with respect to GPS was from Amazon who operates their own app store separate from Google.
Personally I will never use an Android phone with Google Play Services installed. For me it isn't a choice between a custom mod and Google it is a choice between no GPS or nothing at all.
except google won't do it because they are like the old Microsoft. no retail presence and they are content to let others sell and support their product as long as they control it
Over time, every human venture goes to a bad place. Why?
Because suddenly it has dependents, and those tend toward rent-seeking, and then that influences leadership to try to "keep the herd together" instead of admitting that it must cull the weak.
So now Google is an abusive monopolist because its leaders look out there, and see all those smiling hopeful faces, and realize they have to keep growing in order to keep everyone happy, even though that means (1) worse things for the consumer and (2) eventual doom.
They just can't stop themselves... ah well, it takes a tragedy for humans to learn, and even then, it only takes for awhile. If we filtered out the stupidity, we would be working 2-hour days and enjoying life, but why not suffer for the pretense of equality.
Alternative Right.
Android's Done.
And nothing of value was lost.
Goolge needs to ban carrier builds and let people update there os with out needing to wait for the carrier to do it.
I was told that Google couldn't do that, because Android was Open Sores.
Given the reason Cyanogen is dead (their major customers started maintaining their own Android forks), I'm not sure the conclusion in the summary is actually true.
Then Android wouldn't be open source anymore. Which do you want? An OS which is open and that anyone can fork and modify if they don't like how the original author made it? Or an OS which is closed and proprietary so you have to take it the way the original author made it, no alterations?
Way I see it, the carrier problem isn't Google's responsibility. It's a market problem - vertical integration causing lack of customer fluidity. The carriers own the towers, the service, and also sell the phones. GSM tackled the problem by requiring SIM cards, basically forcing all phones to be interchangeable between carriers. The U.S. doesn't have that so your phone is frequently tied to your carrier, giving them an unprecedented level of control over your phone.
So long as the OEMs continue to control whether or not, and when, security patches are installed, Google can claim all the control they want. But they do not have that control. Android customers are left in the lurch, subject to the whims of the OEMs and to security issues from unpatched vulnerabilities.
"there" instead of "their" and "with out" instead of "without" - And you focus on the typo in Google?
Android security is falling apart and MediaTek actively subverts Google's attempts at security. The FTC investigation is still ongoing.
Like Microsoft, Google is turning into a self-correcting problem.
If you live in Australia, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, or United States, then yes, you can. If you don't, you can't, at least not easily.
The number of countries the iPhone 7 was available to pre-order in five times the number of countries the Pixel is available in two months after release.
Is this correct for AT&T? When I have experimented with non-AT&T phones, AT&T will not allow access to their LTE service, so always end up stuck at HSPA+.
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
FORK! U! Teh G!
I live in Spain. I can't get the Pixel unless I import it.
The US uses gsm, we've just figured out how to make it so that even gsm is carrier specific.
Sure, you can use an at&t gsm phone on t-mobile, but the data uses a different frequency range, so you can only use the slowest speed data
And open source so people can fork doesn't help. It doesn't matter if someone can fork the operating system if every phone and tablet comes with a locked bootloader. Do they not pull that crap in Europe?
The US is muddied with Sprint and Verizon's CDMA crap, but you can have universal US phones. The Nexus 6 is and example I still use. It works on any US carrier. You need a different model for good international support, but that's true for any radio device in the US vs the world. TV's just the same. It's a pain to near impossible to find a good cheap USB ASTC tuner for the US that supports Linux, but there seems to be swarms of DVB ones for the rest of the world. :(
This varies by phone. Non-AT&T phones that support the proper frequencies should work just fine on AT&T with LTE. There can sometimes be some drama getting the APNs set up just right, but it's usually not hard. Also, some features like HD Voice or VoLTE may or may not work depending on the rom and software support - those usually need a stock AT&T or AT&T-derived rom, but it may be possible to install one on an unlocked device and make it work.
I used to be an AT&T customer, and I never had problems with third party phones.
companies like Samsung & etc.. and other hardware makers of Android phones made their own OS based on Linux. and it was a open source co-op method of development where everybody pitched in to develop the OS & apps so they can have something on their phones that was not controlled by another company
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
"w/ out" instead of "w/out"
--
FTFY - unixisc
Cyanogen Inc. had three paths to profit:
* Two paths with low-hanging fruit, but requiring hard work to yield near certain success -
Path A - Port CynogenMod to new platforms for pay
* Lowest risk, uses the skills and the community they already have
* Profitable from day one
* Takes a few years to grow to a meaningful size - like CyanogenMod!
Path B - Sell retail installation kits for "normal" mainstream people
* Requires hiring the right channel manager, spending money on advertising etc.
* An initial hit would make a pile of money, but future growth would require continuous innovation
* One path with high-risk high-return:
Path C - Sell CynogenMod Phones
* Requires starting a business using completely different skill-sets from that used to produce CyanogenMod, such as, cell-phone carrier sales, hardware quality assurance, world-class product design, electronics supply channel management, electronics design, manufacturing, etc.
* Piles of money to hire the right people, but with a return to justify the expense.
* The Cyanogen advantage would be having the best software, obtained by having the best developers, IF AND ONLY IF, they do not alienate said developers.
Cynogen went with Path C, without hiring the right people, and also ALIENED THE DEVELOPERS.
Follow-up attempts, to reinvent itself, involved neither fixing the mistakes for Path C, nor switching to Path A or Path B.
Google is doing the typos!
I really just want to write "WRONG" as the entire content of this post and just leave it at that. The article seems to have some of the facts, but not all. Yes, Cyanogen the company has decided to shut down. And CyanogenMod, the open source version of the OS released by Cyanogen based on Android also decided to change their name because they don't want to get sued. But facts seem to end there. CM will continue on under another name. If you are running CM on any of your devices, rest assured, aside from a name change, the next build will be more of the same.
Where I am getting frustrated with this article is the notion that this is a big win for Google. I have to disagree. Google or alphabet or whatever they want to call themselves may have created the android OS, but they release it in an open source format. They do this to get it out there on as many devices as they can. More importantly, they do this to get it into the hands of as many developers as they can. There are a number of things that I actually thought were part of android, that only later when reading stock android was adding certain features did I realize were actually only part of CM. That's really what open source is about, the ability for a wide variety of people to work to better something together. A lot of times things seem to make sense when one person is working on them, but later we come to find out that they don't make sense to others.
If Google actually wanted to rein in android, they would simply retool with proprietary code, and release the next version of their OS closed source. The only thing they actually seem to be concerned with are phones that are still running old versions of the OS. This makes is hard not for them, but for application developers to support their applications in that ecosystem. We have seen Google take steps in the recent year or two to modularize some of the core components of Android so that those pieces can be updated even if the OS itself has not been.
Did the phone actually connect and state LTE? HSPA+ and lower work without issue, but LTE I have yet to see work, including a friend who has one of the OnePlus phones.
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
Goolge needs to ban carrier builds and let people update there os with out needing to wait for the carrier to do it.
As a long time Android user about to go iPhone, I have to ask wasn't the customizability and user tweak ability the original selling point of Android? I am ready to trad that for compatibility with a larger array of devices.
Maybe some big company could make its own version of Android.
You can throw away your Android phone after six months, because of security issues and lack of upgrades. As long as Google and manufacturers allow this to happen, Android will remain a worthless pile of shit anyway. Yes, people buy it, yes there will probably be lawsuits against manufacturers and Google some time.
Something like Maemo, Meego, WebOS, Tizen, DebianARM; but real Linux, with a real X11(not surfaceflinger) so the established base of programs will compile. I am using Cyanogen for now on one tablet, and sticking with Maemo on my still unreplaced N900. Cyanogen mostly works as long as you have F-Droid rather than G-Play, and with the sandboxing I can get apks for the services I really need on the tablet. But it is a pain to have to work with a system which uses all the wierd mutation of android, unfortunately Ubuntu touch falls into this mess too using an android kernel and surfaceflinger so it can access the android blob drivers.
I mean, it's not like this is peanuts compared to a walled garden that Apple can use to retaliate against you if you want payment for patents (even if they're BS patents, this doesn't stop Apple demanding them too). Or if you don't agree to buy their patents, probably.
No, this is a real bad thing, and therefore is EQUALLY bad as Apple's actions, therefore we just have to put up with What Apple Did, because at least Apple don't run a search engine we use...
Cyanogen died from a terminal disease it contracted when it got into bed with Microsoft.
just block them from using the trademark.
I mean Android is just a use of an OS kernel and some standard services, including application security, and some UI conventions.
Everyone's free to write their own apps for it to make phones do whatever.
And that's much easier to do (and get wide user adoption) because the apps can target Android standard services.
If anything, there's too much diversity (not enough lockdown) due to carrier and/or phone maker mods of Android.
So users can get befuddled when they get something different and thought they were getting Android.
And developers have to target many different versions to reach a big market.
That's all because of too MUCH freedom (about when to push OS updates etc), not too little.
If you want to tinker with an alternative or forked OS, nothing is stopping you.
And if you do it significantly better than the prevailing standard, and also have the organization and business network to make it grow and stick, then more power to you. The core is all FOSS so embrace and extend and modify to your heart's content. I don't see the problem here.
The overwhelming number of users want something functional, regularly improved in the same way as their friends' phone, and something which supports the apps they and their friends want to use together. Are you people just cranky? What's the big problem with monolithic Android where the name means something singular and predictable?
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
now, on top of carrier control, we have google and apple inc.
just look at the new google phone that used to be sold by them. Pixel, the dumbed down Nexus, is now sold exclusively on Verizon.
dear troll, user customizability is very different from carriers disabling stuff and adding bloat while denying you access to your own phone.
everyone here probably rooted their phones and used it as the full featured computer it is.
Fragmentation killed J2ME like a cinderblock out of a 4th story window. Splat. Google obviously learned this and quite a few other lessons from Sun on how to create and nurture an ecosystem. The best lessons are those you learn from other's mistakes..
And yet Apple's market share continues to decline. Funny how that works out.
I was told Tim Cook had open sores.
No it doesn't. Just look at all of the phones they osbourned and didn't update to windows 10 mobile. Besides, their toy OS is a POS anyway.
Maybe you need a new SIM?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Googl...
I've had similar experiences: employees claiming falsely that the phone is blocked on their network when there actually is a simple technical problem (like a new SIM).
fuck those greedy anticompetitive n i g g e r s at google.
Filter error: Lameness filter encountered
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free speech wins again
captcha- overjoy
Time for an OpenBSD Phone?
My favorite phone is still my Kyocera DuraPlus that I use on Ting. Battery lasts ~2 weeks. It does have Bluetooth and a bare bones browser for when I *need* to see something on the web. It would be nice to plug it into my laptop and use USB or bluetooth as a LTE modem, when I have the opportunity.
I would absolutely pay for an OpenBSD phone in the same form factor that worked and was as secure as the Kyocera. You could also use the same software/hardware to make a secure IoT device. There are a lot of devices out there running cell modems attached to questionably secure Linux distros.
At a recent news conference in Hell, Satan, CEO of Hell praised Google for its progress in being Evil. However, Satan said that Google is still not as Evil as Microsoft.
Doesn't the GPL3 have a clause to forbid device lock-in? What if all the parties involved in making Android had chosen that license? It would have been better at least for the users.
And a lot of other people who hate GPL3 because of RMS. And the BSD people too. They seem to feel that gpl3 is wrong because it's not limiting itself to merely copyrighted works, ergo won't sign up. Ergo won't get accepted into the Linux kernel as "GPL3 or later", so can't be in the Android set AND in the kernel at the same time without assessing two different licenses and not letting Google use the GPL2 version code (which the license doesn't allow).
And,if you decide to avoid the traffic jam you can see ahead, drive away and, well, navigate via the map to beyond it. How did you think it was done before there were live updates on traffic news?
Which do you want? An OS which is open and that anyone can fork and modify if they don't like how the original author made it? Or an OS which is closed and proprietary so you have to take it the way the original author made it, no alterations?
I want an OS with a license that mandates hardware openness, like the GPLv3: so that, if the carriers put their crapware on the phones, the end users can take it off.
It's funny. I keep thinking that Stallman is ridiculous - like when he wrote GPLv3 in 2005 - only to find out, a decade or so later, that he was right on the money.
you can have universal US phones. The Nexus 6 is and example I still use. It works on any US carrier.
The same is true of the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Pixel and Pixel XL, FWIW.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Moto G purchased unlocked direct from Motorola happily using LTE to post this comment.
Why do they "need to"? You can buy a Pixel phone if you want an iPhone-like carrier free experience.
AFAIK Motorola sells phones that are near stock android. I'm replacing my worn out nexus 5 with a Motorola z play tomorrow. I'm still half betting I'll regret the 5.5" size as cumbersome, but verizon does have a good deal on them. (Free with contract.) That one can get a wireless charging mod pack, that I'm tempted to get for it. I was tempted to get the pixel, but it didn't have wireless charging, and would have been $10 dollars a month and I believe the sale is gone as well. I had previously looked at the S7 for $10 a month, but again the sale is gone.
My best guess is that it is worthwhile to add a tempered glass screen protector, but not a bumper case. I'm not sure about the mod pack either. Fitting it in ones pocket is likely already difficult. The screen protector should give the screen some protection, without significantly increasing the phones size. Interestingly enough, some of the other Motorola Z phones I believe have more crack resistant screens.
Of course, I'd like google to sell a stock android phone for say $200. It doesn't have to be state of the art. I just prefer one that actually gets updated. I know I didn't pay $600+ for my original nexus 5. The Huawai (sp?) honor 5 I bought and returned seemed a decent phone, save for bluetooth appeared unrealiable.
Not exactly, troll, I use w/o
I wouldn't mind carriers owning it if they were prompt about supporting every model w/ the latest version. I am w/ Verizon, and for a while, when I owned a Lumia Icon, I couldn't get it upgraded from 8.0 to 8.1. Both Verizon and Microsoft kept tossing the blame on each other. I know that Google too let the carriers own the version releases: I had an Ellipsis 7, which I could never upgrade to Lollypop or Marshmallow.
I prefer the new scenario, where starting from Lollypop, Google makes it easier to upgrade to Marshmallow, and has a tighter control on the upgrade process. I actually don't see why that should be in the hands of a carrier, unless they change something about their network that requires them to rig the OSs of all their phones. In fact, not just Google, but even Microsoft in Windows 10 Mobile is now in complete control of the upgrade process, and can therefore enable end users to automatically upgrade just like they would their laptops.
Actually, 2 of the 4 US carriers - AT&T and T Mobile - are GSM, while the other 2 - Verizon and Sprint - are CDMA. While that terminology is 2G and dated, since all 4G and beyond phones are OFDMA, the reason different chipsets are still needed is compatibility w/ older networks in places that have not been upgraded to 4G.
AT&T and T Mo can be used w/ any unlocked phone that you bring in, so that the OS upgrade responsibilities rest w/ the manufacturer. Verizon and Sprint phones don't, so unless one uses an iPhone, a Pixel or a Windows 10 Mobile phone, one is SOL
everyone here probably rooted their phones and used it as the full featured computer it is.
Except when you do that, you're stuck on an old OS, because OS updates disable the phone rooting and close the security holes that allowed the root to happen in the first place.
I'll expand on this and say it should be made illegal to lock the owner out of their own devices. Root should be understood.
Digital is, by definition, imperfect. Analog is the way to go.
Why do they "need to"? You can buy a Pixel phone if you want an iPhone-like carrier free experience.
Let's wait and see how long that crap will get updates from Google before calling it iPhone-like experience.
One year from now Google will abandon Pixel and come out with all-new Shnitzel phone.
What is it with the bad story editing? CyanogenMod is renaming itself, but that is it. It is not "going away".
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Android From Scratch is right around the corner.
With CyanogenMod dead, all we are left with is a Jailbroken iPhone and lets be honest. Google's OS sucks. They are handing Apple the win... Stupidity for Google seems to know no bounds...
How about banning *commercial* deviant builds and allowing any free build
Without a unified kernel for ARM we won't be able to get away from the OEM controlled updates.
So the Microsoft money is gone ?
The more you tighten your grip, the more operating systems will slip through your fingers.
~ OpenSource Leia.
A carrier/vendor build ban is too much, but each android phone should be flashable so that you can install at least a basic android as released by Google (and any OSS custom rom projects).
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Goolge needs to ban carrier builds and let people update there os with out needing to wait for the carrier to do it.
I can update my Sony Xperia Z5 Compact directly from Sony through a vendor provided PC based tool (Xperia Companion), without having to wait for the carrier.
It's funny. I keep thinking that Stallman is ridiculous - like when he wrote GPLv3 in 2005 - only to find out, a decade or so later, that he was right on the money.
I remember the criticism 10 years ago too. I've come to think that it may have been a coordinated assault by a party that had a lot to lose.
Tighter than before Cyanogen existed?
For a phone to work with LTE on AT&T, it has to support the correct bands. An LTE phone bought outside the US or intended for a non-US market is unlikely to work. (Notable exceptions: recent iPhone models and some Samsung and LG flagship phones.) A OnePlus phone that was sold directly to a US customer should be fine. Phones bought from Chinese resale sites like Banggood and AliExpress are pretty much guaranteed NOT to work. Phones from eBay and Amazon Marketplace may or may not work; check the for-sale posts carefully to make sure you're getting a phone that will work in North America. Phones sold directly by Amazon to people with US addresses are fine unless the offer specifically says they are not.
Band 12 support on T-Mobile has an additional requirement. T-Mobile will not allow a phone to be used on band 12 unless it has VoLTE (voice over LTE) and e911 support. The reason is that T-Mobile has no non-LTE spectrum on the 700MHz and 850MHz bands. A phone without VoLTE support might work for data in some locations where it would be unable to make voice calls, and that would violate the emergency service mandate.
Typos in the subject line are more visible than typos in the body. Thus the focus on that one.
Except unlike Apple, Google has no leverage over the carriers to enforce that. People switch carriers en masse for an iPhone, but no one does so for an Android phone.
Um of course they do - they can just sue to pull their OS. though the bigger question is why they would do it - it means absorbing more bandwidth cost, supporting a larger pool of hardware configs (metro, boost, etc have a lot of models specifically sold to the carriers), etc - the thing about google pixel or the nexus lines they were doing and such is that the hardware is a known quantity
Many times when people were done with their OS installing Cynogen used to give it a new life it's a sad day :(
Finally Baidu no more.