7 ms·
They have the ecosystem by the balls. Phone manufacturers in recent years have been making unlocking & modifying their devices more and more difficult, google a
by mid-kid 1y ago
They have the ecosystem by the balls. Phone manufacturers in recent years have been making unlocking & modifying their devices more and more difficult, google and app developers have been cracking down harder on modded devices by implementing TPM equivalents in the hardware to sign and verify that your system is a google-appproved one, and alternatives still are decades behind in terms of app ecosystem.
I think they might just get away with it.
- jojobas 1y agoI don't think Google can be blamed for this - their own phones are one of the last which can still be unlocked.
- ChadNauseam 1y agotrue, and recently they deserved a lot of credit for publicly releasing their device trees and drivers. unfortunately, with the 10 series pixels they no longer will be releasing device trees, which makes it much more difficult to maintain custom ROMs
- mid-kid 1y agoThey're also the best equipped to tell if you've done so, and restrict access from critical functionality needed by many in their day-to-day lives if you've done so. The intentions behind all the security hardware they introduced in pixel phones first, and is now required by play integrity to function might've been well-meaning, but that doesn't really matter in the end. Security features that the user can't control and bypass aren't security features - they're digital handcuffs.
- ocdtrekkie 1y agoI would say this is a bold choice for a company whose existing restrictions around third party apps and stores and in-app purchases has already been found illegal. While it doesn't look like they're pushing for it right now, forcing Google to sell Android was something the DOJ has considered as a penalty. I'm not sure Google still has the ecosystem by the balls. It's very possible whatever Googlers who made this decision are the type of folks who don't comprehend they work for a monopoly that like actually can't do things like this anymore.
- actionfromafar 1y agoMaybe they gave a political donation?
- ahartmetz 1y agoIt may also help to push things one way to prevent them from going the other way.
- donmcronald 1y agoDon’t worry though, the TPM requirements in everything are for your protection.
- chasil 1y agoUnless they give F-Droid access, the antitrust prosecution will double.
- rpdillon 1y agoYeah, I'll just ditch Google over this. The only reason I put up with their crap is because I can actually just install software on my phone. If they take that away, there's no motivation to stay.
- glenstein 1y agoI rely on fdroid and am not sure what I'll do with this pixel 6a. I sometimes root, sometimes don't but I may have to get on the lineageos program full time. And I'm hoping for a rumored last batch of pinephone pro phones to be available later this month although I have no illusions about it being a real daily driver.
- stockresearcher 1y agofdroid is based in the EU and the Cyber Resilience Act was already going to force them to either make their filters more strict (absolutely prohibit anything with any sort of "monetization"), or start collecting this data. If they have anything on the platform that is subject to the CRA, they are a distributer: https://www.cyberresilienceact.eu/cra-guide-for-importers-distributors-resellers/ https://www.cyberresilienceact.eu/cra-guide-for-importers-di...
- chasil 1y agoLineageOS currently says that it won't install over the latest update on the 6a. You can try it, but don't cry if it bricks. The newish one I bought got GrapheneOS instead. That worked without a hitch, but it's got more than a few problems.
- gaudystead 1y agoWhat problems are you running into on Graphene OS? Maybe we have different workflows, but it works just fine for my purposes.
- cesarb 1y ago> and alternatives still are decades behind in terms of app ecosystem. That's if they're available at all. In my country, only cell phones certified by the telecommunications government agency (ANATEL) can be imported, so the alternatives (Jolla, PinePhone, Fairphone) simply don't exist.
- SpaghettiCthulu 1y agoIf you don't mind sharing, which country is that?
- Vvector 1y agoWhen I google ANATEL, it comes up as Brazil
- Y_Y 1y agoIt takes less time to search and find that Anatel is the Brazilian telecom agency than it does to type that comment. They do marvellous things like mandate weird Brazilian Android games on the phone I bought in Brazil.
- ripdog 1y agoIt's incredibly obnoxious when people type "in my country" as if we're all supposed to just... know where they live. It's also incredibly common. Why do people do this?