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> These days the smartphone is boring. I'd like to respectfully disagree, as I think that there are many people out there, a notable example being the XDA foru

by b_b 8y ago

> These days the smartphone is boring. I'd like to respectfully disagree, as I think that there are many people out there, a notable example being the XDA forums[1] for many people intensely modifying and changing their android devices. Smartphones and their apps have gotten so much more complex and capable since their inception, someone could pretty much manage all the basics of their online life on one. > It intentionally falls to the background...It is minimalist and inoffensive and ever-present. I wish :) There is a real problem of smartphone addiction, where the phone and its apps try its best to entice you into spending as MUCH time as possible, definitely not in the background or minimalist. > Even apps are supposedly on their way out. Given the ever-growing user base and size of the Apple and Google app stores, I don't think that's true, people just may just be looking to launch or access their functionality a tad-bit faster (if at all in truth). Also, the general user adoption sounds a lot like you're describing the general trend mentioned here: https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths, although smartphones aren't necessarily a subculture (more specifically, android and iphone rooting/modding communities might qualify however.) [1] = https://www.xda-developers.com/ https://www.xda-developers.com/

batteryhorse 8y ago
There's something that was magical about jailbreaking iOS, because of the way Objective-C allowed you to modify the system by swizzling methods. This can't really be compared to people modifying their Android devices, it's just not the same because it's such a pain to compile Android and flash it everytime you want to change something. Jailbreaking is dead, and Swift does not allow swizzling. I agree, smartphones are boring, it's too locked down. Not many people had the skill to write quality apps in Objective-C, so now we're stuck with apps written using React Native. This makes smartphones more complex, but the quality is worse.
- pritambaral 8y ago
  > it's just not the same because it's such a pain to compile Android and flash it everytime you want to change something. One does not have to recompile and flash Android just to change something. Bytecode can be redirected at class load time and native binaries can be individually "replaced" by mounting over them. This is how Xposed and Magisk work, respectively, BTW.

by b_b 8y ago

batteryhorse 8y ago

There's something that was magical about jailbreaking iOS, because of the way Objective-C allowed you to modify the system by swizzling methods. This can't really be compared to people modifying their Android devices, it's just not the same because it's such a pain to compile Android and flash it everytime you want to change something. Jailbreaking is dead, and Swift does not allow swizzling. I agree, smartphones are boring, it's too locked down. Not many people had the skill to write quality apps in Objective-C, so now we're stuck with apps written using React Native. This makes smartphones more complex, but the quality is worse.

pritambaral 8y ago
> it's just not the same because it's such a pain to compile Android and flash it everytime you want to change something. One does not have to recompile and flash Android just to change something. Bytecode can be redirected at class load time and native binaries can be individually "replaced" by mounting over them. This is how Xposed and Magisk work, respectively, BTW.