That's why for me "unlocked bootloader" and "community support" are key aspects when selecting a new phone.
FWIW, I used a Samsung S5 running LineageOS 14 (Android 8.1) this October to replace my dying Nexus 5, and it was a pretty good experience (OLED screen, replaceable battery, wireless charging).
I use Tiny Tiny RSS (http://tt-rss.org). Better than Google Reader, self hosted, keeps track of article status across multiple browser and app instances, allows to extract the message body from the web page using XPATH expressions.
Slightly off-topic: with email delivery times being almost instantaneous these days, wouldn't it possible to write an email client (or app) that provides, for all practical purposes, an IM system based on SMTP and IMAP?
Essentially, conventions like: 1. A set of recipients is a "group" 2. Replies are never quoted 3. The client always shows the full email thread (the "conversation") 4. The Subject line is a magic string to allow filtering on these IM emails
The specialized client would provide a very Whatsapp-like interface, while a normal email client could be used in a pinch as well.
If they manage to add a Transporter to Android, with just a software update no less, wouldn't it make more sense to beam the phone's owner to emergency services instead of her location?
What the new feature in Android N is about is the ability to add cross-block redundancy to the system image so that a few defective flash blocks can be corrected. There was a posting on the official Android Developers blog that went into quite some details about how they reduced the storage overhead and prepared it for the typical failure scenario of Flash memory.
13 marathons in 5 years, 2 of which were 50 milers, 3 sub 3:00 hours, 5 bostons, 7 bqs, so some running experience... but thru it all, still a slashdot reader and a nerd....
Here: 13 marathons in 14 years, most just under 4:00 hours.
anjrober, it seems our running cred and our Slashdot IDs are aligned.
I know, I know - Blackberry isn't really that hip anymore.
But the renders I saw of their passport (essentially, a phablet with a square screen and a physical keyboard) looked intriguing from a usability point of view. Now, a Nexus device with that form factor...
I'm pretty sure that the ADB commands will just do a low level format, they will not physically overwrite the sectors holding your personal data (which is difficult on Flash memory anyway).
IMO the only safe method is to use Android's device encryption, but of course it's too late for that once you can't access the tablet any more. I learned this the hard way (a dead Nexus 7 which I probably will end up physically destroying).
What really pissed me off was that the deep packet inspection requirement is very well hidden on their webpage and promotional material. They only mention that the offer comes with "internet options" (!), and it takes you several clicks to discover what this implies.
While $70 + $5 for a VPN service is pretty competitive pricing, I really don't feel like giving them my money.
Keep in mind that to Google and Facebook, each user is a product, not a customer.
They do have business presences in most European countries to interact with their real customers, i.e. advertisers. It sounds reasonable to expect them to adhere to local laws in countries that they do business in.
Our neighborhood terminated a negotiated deal with TWC last year, and people calling TWC for a quote received different offers. I head two different prices for the same package on subsequent calls.
Taking Google's service as an example, how is the FBI to know whether john.doe@gmail.com is a U.S. citizen or not? When signing up for service, all Google asks for is the location, not the country of citizenship.
Even if John Doe accesses his email from a non-US ISP, he might well be a citizen traveling abroad.
That's my thinking. If all you have to do is a quick rejig and recompile because the APIs are so close to the Android ones, then it's a near-zero effort situation. I don't know much about the new platform, but I thought I had read that it would support Android apps out of the box, so it may literally may be just pushing a button.
Not that there's a damned wrong with that. If Android compatibility or portability is good enough, then you already have thousands of apps ready to go and you don't need to put massive amounts of effort into convincing developers to support your platform (like Redmond is doing).
BB10 contains the Android Player, which essentially runs repackaged Android APK files (I'm don't know if the reason for the different package format is technical or not). This is different from the native APIs, but the user experience is quite seamless. I "ported" one of my apps to the Playbook, and it was not even a recompile - it is a package converter.
Android already uses different Unix user IDs ("accounts" if you will) to isolate different applications from each other. This gives you better protection than a desktop operation system, because applications running on the same screen are more isolated from each other.
I'm pretty certain every app under this Toggle scheme will also run in its own context.
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That's why for me "unlocked bootloader" and "community support" are key aspects when selecting a new phone.
FWIW, I used a Samsung S5 running LineageOS 14 (Android 8.1) this October to replace my dying Nexus 5, and it was a pretty good experience (OLED screen, replaceable battery, wireless charging).
I agree, I'm still hanging on to my Nexus 10 with CyanogenMod, but with 1.5GB of RAM it has its fair share of lag.
DTACK Grounded newsletter ... wow, that brings back fond memories about cutting edge algorithms from the FNE, printed on red paper to thwart copying ...
I use Tiny Tiny RSS (http://tt-rss.org). Better than Google Reader, self hosted, keeps track of article status across multiple browser and app instances, allows to extract the message body from the web page using XPATH expressions.
Can't imagine life without it.
Slightly off-topic: with email delivery times being almost instantaneous these days, wouldn't it possible to write an email client (or app) that provides, for all practical purposes, an IM system based on SMTP and IMAP?
Essentially, conventions like:
1. A set of recipients is a "group"
2. Replies are never quoted
3. The client always shows the full email thread (the "conversation")
4. The Subject line is a magic string to allow filtering on these IM emails
The specialized client would provide a very Whatsapp-like interface, while a normal email client could be used in a pinch as well.
Am I overlooking something obvious?
If they manage to add a Transporter to Android, with just a software update no less, wouldn't it make more sense to beam the phone's owner to emergency services instead of her location?
Locked bootloaders are nothing new.
What the new feature in Android N is about is the ability to add cross-block redundancy to the system image so that a few defective flash blocks can be corrected. There was a posting on the official Android Developers blog that went into quite some details about how they reduced the storage overhead and prepared it for the typical failure scenario of Flash memory.
13 marathons in 5 years, 2 of which were 50 milers, 3 sub 3:00 hours, 5 bostons, 7 bqs, so some running experience...
but thru it all, still a slashdot reader and a nerd....
Here: 13 marathons in 14 years, most just under 4:00 hours.
anjrober, it seems our running cred and our Slashdot IDs are aligned.
And what is it like to give up all the apps you use on a daily basis and replace them with links to mobile versions of that app's website?
Some would consider this an advantage. I'm quite happy to use the web versions of e.g. Facebook and Twitter on my smartphone, and not their apps.
Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1174/
Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/925/
It exists! It's called the Blackberry Passport :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
I'm not sure about what they mean by "socket", but I think the smallest Power-8 system has 8 cores, going up to 24.
I know, I know - Blackberry isn't really that hip anymore.
But the renders I saw of their passport (essentially, a phablet with a square screen and a physical keyboard) looked intriguing from a usability point of view. Now, a Nexus device with that form factor ...
I'm pretty sure that the ADB commands will just do a low level format, they will not physically overwrite the sectors holding your personal data (which is difficult on Flash memory anyway).
IMO the only safe method is to use Android's device encryption, but of course it's too late for that once you can't access the tablet any more. I learned this the hard way (a dead Nexus 7 which I probably will end up physically destroying).
Austinite here as well.
What really pissed me off was that the deep packet inspection requirement is very well hidden on their webpage and promotional material. They only mention that the offer comes with "internet options" (!), and it takes you several clicks to discover what this implies.
While $70 + $5 for a VPN service is pretty competitive pricing, I really don't feel like giving them my money.
I looked it up, so for the benefits of others: according to http://www.math.uh.edu/~tomforde/hquotes.html, the quote is from Time Enough for Love
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Dianne_Feinstein, she acquired a permit in the 70s and surrendered it in 1982.
Keep in mind that to Google and Facebook, each user is a product, not a customer.
They do have business presences in most European countries to interact with their real customers, i.e. advertisers. It sounds reasonable to expect them to adhere to local laws in countries that they do business in.
Exactly.
Our neighborhood terminated a negotiated deal with TWC last year, and people calling TWC for a quote received different offers. I head two different prices for the same package on subsequent calls.
Taking Google's service as an example, how is the FBI to know whether john.doe@gmail.com is a U.S. citizen or not? When signing up for service, all Google asks for is the location, not the country of citizenship.
Even if John Doe accesses his email from a non-US ISP, he might well be a citizen traveling abroad.
That's my thinking. If all you have to do is a quick rejig and recompile because the APIs are so close to the Android ones, then it's a near-zero effort situation. I don't know much about the new platform, but I thought I had read that it would support Android apps out of the box, so it may literally may be just pushing a button.
Not that there's a damned wrong with that. If Android compatibility or portability is good enough, then you already have thousands of apps ready to go and you don't need to put massive amounts of effort into convincing developers to support your platform (like Redmond is doing).
BB10 contains the Android Player, which essentially runs repackaged Android APK files (I'm don't know if the reason for the different package format is technical or not). This is different from the native APIs, but the user experience is quite seamless. I "ported" one of my apps to the Playbook, and it was not even a recompile - it is a package converter.
How can you support a man that wishes to take away the right of an ISP to properly manage a network?
You seem to confuse the right of the ISP to properly manage a network with the right of the ISP to manage the network content.
I'm all for the former. Not so much for the latter.
Wouldn't that be the IBM 5100?
Minor correction: you don't really compile the app twice, rather RIM provides a postprocessor to convert APKs into their own format.
Using their web-based converter it literally took 10min to get one of my apps to run on a friends Playbook.
Android already uses different Unix user IDs ("accounts" if you will) to isolate different applications from each other. This gives you better protection than a desktop operation system, because applications running on the same screen are more isolated from each other.
I'm pretty certain every app under this Toggle scheme will also run in its own context.