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I am seriously saddened by the complete takeover of mobile computing by Apple and Google. There is no freedom on your own device to choose your own software, ex
by boplicity 1mo ago
I am seriously saddened by the complete takeover of mobile computing by Apple and Google. There is no freedom on your own device to choose your own software, except inside the very narrow constraints allowed.
- shevy-java 1mo agoThat's what de-facto monopolies do. What is more surprising is that competitors do not arise. Democracies in general have totally messed this up. The USA should be fined for exerting a monopoly onto other countries. And then fined for penalising US customers with that monopoly at home.
- metalliqaz 1mo ago"the US"? fined by whom?
- carlosjobim 1mo agoBy the king of England of course.
- connicpu 1mo agoOther countries are free to find a way to incentivize building home-grown equivalents and prioritizing that software or even applying tarrifs to foreign software.
- karlgkk 1mo agoWe were fine without it, we can still be fine without it. Nothing is stopping you from buying an mp3 player, a small point and shoot, and running Linux on a 12 in ultra portable.
- lukan 1mo agoWhy would I want 3 or more devices, when I want one device capable of it all and under my control?
- braingravy 1mo ago[dead]
- karlgkk 1mo agoCongratulations on missing the point entirely. You don’t NEED a smartphone for daily life. It sure is convenient though!
- lukan 1mo agoAnd who are you to tell, me what I need?
- carlosjobim 1mo agoGo and visit some places in the world were people struggle for the basic necessities of life and God himself will tell you.
- lukan 1mo agoBeen there. And I don't feel the need to be in that situation, but life is more about survival.
- karlgkk 1mo agoYou went from want to need. Maybe you should self inspect about want versus need.
- terribleperson 1mo agoLots of things are stopping me. Like needing a smartphone to read a menu at a restaurant, or replace a lost credit card.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- 0cf8612b2e1e 1mo agoOr passes to buses, trains, planes, concerts, sports arenas, and possibly soon government identification. There was a recent story about some guy who had been buying season tickets for decades by paper ticket. The stadium shutdown the paper ticketing and left him without an option, except to purchase a smartphone.
- rpcope1 1mo agoMust be a Europe thing, as RealID pissed enough boomers off here in the States that I doubt anyone would push harder than that, and outside of very stupid ticket apps that occasionally won't let me print, I can't recall the last time a paper ticket and my drivers license didn't work. I also can just walk into a bank branch and raise a stink whenever I need something banking related, I guess all of this feels really contrived.
- terribleperson 1mo agoI think they're referring to LA Dodgers fan Errol Segal. Also, plenty of businesses have very few physical offices.
- karlgkk 1mo ago> Like needing a smartphone to read a menu at a restaurant, Every restaurant I’ve been to like this has a menu somewhere. > or replace a lost credit card. The phone numbers never stopped working. You just stopped calling
- Telaneo 1mo ago
- type0 1mo agoAnd how would I make calls with it?
- karlgkk 1mo agoThey still make dumb phones. And you can get a voip client on Linux.
- Zambyte 1mo agoFor voip, I recommend jmp.chat and cheogram. I've been using it for years now.
- type0 1mo agoMany so called dumb phones are just Android phones with buttons, real dumb low powered devices are being phased out because you don't get support for VoLTE Emergency
- ninalanyon 1mo agoMy Nokia 105 has 4G (as well as 3G and 2G) and is definitely not a smartphone and absolutely not an Android. It runs S30+. What do you mean by: > support for VoLTE Emergency
- inigyou 1mo agoIf it can't call 911 you're not allowed to sell it as a phone. Phone calls use VoLTE which is newish technology. Therefore it's illegal to sell older technology as a phone.
- ninalanyon 1mo agoWhy would I want to call 911? The number here is 999, or 110, 113, 113 in the rest of Europe. And of course I can call it.
- 1mo ago
- to11mtm 1mo ago> a small point and shoot, Actually the Point and shoot market has largely dried up, even the 'fancier' point and shoots. Apple did a very smart thing, using Sony BSI[0] and Stacked[1] Sensors in their phones. As the 'Camera Snob' in the family my Brother recently asked me to help look for a small point and shoot for his wife for their child's events, and I was shocked at how few options there are compared to a decade ago (And how little most have improved since!) To be clear, the 'ILC' (what many might think of when they think of when they say DSLR) market has continued to advance and the tech is better than ever, but the simple built-in lens point and shoot market has gotten very small outside of certain markets. [0] - Back Side Illumination, basically a way to build the sensor that allows more light to hit it, but has some yield implications [1] - Stacked sensors is again another sensor-build optimization, but it allows for faster readout of the full sensor with less rolling shutter, makes 'computational photography' feasible.
- Zambyte 1mo agoOn MP3 players: I specifically got bone conducting headphones with on board storage so I could listen to music without carrying another device with me. Look for ones that are targeted towards swimming, they are the ones that tend to have on board storage. On small point and shoots, I have a Sony ZV-1. It's marketed as a video camera, but I mostly use it for photography. It's great quality, and pocketable. On compute, I don't really have a phone at all. I carry a Daylight Computer DC-1. Which as a device I recommend, but unfortunately the company backs anti-vax efforts which I found out about recently :\
- lern_too_spel 1mo agoWhat freedom do you need beyond replacing the OS, which is possible on all phones Google sells? If you want to replace the radio firmware, that isn't something that would be possible without that duopoly either.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- NegativeK 1mo agoThe Pixel line is, from what I can see, a tiny part of the smart phone market share. So, yes, I can buy a phone that I can mostly control (at the risk of losing access to some draconian apps). But most devices being sold don't allow consumer control.
- attila-lendvai 1mo agoconsumer control begins by chosing what you give your money for.
- xorcist 1mo agoNot having a constant remote root open for the mothership and whoever works there? Doing crazy things like taking a backup of the phone which you paid full price for?
- lern_too_spel 1mo agoIf you replace the OS, you don't have remote root open, and you can back up whatever you want.
- d3Xt3r 1mo agoThankfully, Linux phones are becoming more and more viable as a daily-driver. We just need more folks to start using them.
- cesarb 1mo ago> We just need more folks to start using them. I would if I could. Which non-Android Linux phone can I buy here in Brazil? Importing from outside Brazil doesn't count unless it has ANATEL certification, customs rejects any non-certified phone.
- herbst 1mo agoIf not for online banking I probably wouldn't even have a smartphone, however none of my banks supports anything other than recent androids. I feel stuck
- attila-lendvai 1mo agothen look for alternatives to banking itself! that impulse will shape the world even more.
- inigyou 1mo agoPrimarily, that would be cash.
- attila-lendvai 1mo agopieces of paper is certainly better than bank database entries, but it's still fundamentally the same game: you need to work for something that they can print.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- herbst 1mo agoI wish it were that easy. But you get constantly flagged, questioned and banned from things if you don't play the traditional banking rules. I am trying, that's why I know
- ksudb 1mo ago[dead]