fpgeek

50 ms·

421.
by fpgeek 13y ago
It think the timing (days before the Adobe Flash CS5 launch, the first release that included iPhone application support, IIRC) and the eventual reversal makes it clear that this was about making life difficult for Adobe and Flash and not mu
422.
by fpgeek 13y ago
No one here is arguing that Apple shouldn't offer a standard in-app purchase option. As you describe, there are substantial benefits. The issue is with the way they mandate it, even in situations where it is actively harmful. Amazon (t
423.
by fpgeek 13y ago
If Apple didn't have this restriction, it wouldn't just the Kindle app, of course. It would also be Nook, Kobo, Google Books, Amazon Cloud Player, Google Music, HMV, ... Superficially, this sounds even worse, but this is exactly t
424.
by fpgeek 13y ago
Android devices have similar failsafes (e.g. recovery, fastboot mode), but since they're part of the infrastructure that validates that you're only flashing authorized changes, you are often working around them when you modify you
425.
by fpgeek 13y ago
> Most of Apple's decisions are about the end user, often to the detriment of the developer. Mandatory app review, Apple deals entirely with customers, unified in-app purchase interface. Please explain to me how Apple effectively bl
426.
by fpgeek 13y ago
> It makes sense the same way that installing Linux and/or wiping Windows > doesn't void a PCs warranty. Have you ever actually tried getting warranty support for a Windows PC you installed Linux on? The last time I tried ev
427.
by fpgeek 13y ago
> Why haven't more video sites emerged with a similar ethos? Because if they touched commercial music or video at all (even by accident or if it's fair use), they'll be sued into oblivion and/or asked to implement the
428.
by fpgeek 13y ago
I have several with time-varying bonuses (Discover and at least one other change their bonus categories quarterly and there are other specials for other cards). Beyond that, many of the bonuses have caps and other interactions (e.g. sometim
429.
by fpgeek 13y ago
A lot of the complexity comes from this being the first case to deal with this kind of issue. That means a lot needed to be sorted out along the way (even such simple things as which legal issue should be considered first). Now that this ru
430.
by fpgeek 13y ago
And, in this case, the pubic interest aspect comes from the US Constitution ("promote the progress of science and useful arts").
431.
by fpgeek 13y ago
Without the court case hanging over this, I'd expect Google to offer authors something an opt-in "Google Books Upgrade" including things like: - we'll use our scans to make a decent ebook for you (ideally better than you
432.
by fpgeek 13y ago
The Moto G launch featured a large number of accessories (covers, shells, headphones, ...). I suspect part of the plan here is to price the phone aggressively so they can make more money on accessories.
433.
by fpgeek 13y ago
There are a lot of non-abusive reasons why Motorola might start by pricing the Moto G as if it were imported, even if most of them will be manufactured locally. For instance, depending on how far along local production is, Motorola may well
434.
by fpgeek 13y ago
What's the user experience around using the local contact store? It seems to me Google Maps would have to preemptively request permission to access local contacts because it wouldn't know in advance if a particular search should m
435.
by fpgeek 13y ago
Why not? Apple can certainly afford to, and if they're serious about maps...
436.
by fpgeek 13y ago
Um, Firefox works just fine on XP and Vista, just like Chrome. I'm sure Google would be happy if people switched to Chrome for Docs, but they're not forcing anyone to.
437.
by fpgeek 13y ago
If you believe the threat is a government agency splicing private, unshared fiber to capture your traffic between data centers, why in the world would you trust equipment from Cisco (who lists "Government" as one of the industri
438.
by fpgeek 13y ago
> If Aliyun does not pass CTS, it's good enough to run those stolen apps. I don't think we know that. Just because APKs were listed in a store doesn't mean they did anything useful when installed. I don't recall any e
439.
by fpgeek 13y ago
It wasn't ASUS that got slapped down, it was Acer. ASUS, Samsung, Huawei (and probably others beyond Lenovo) have had no trouble distributing AOSP-based products without Google services. Acer's situation was different for two reas
440.
by fpgeek 13y ago
Consider this: Company 1 has a history of monopoly abuse (including giving OEMs financial incentives to not ship computers with competing OSes pre-installed). Company 2 has let at least two (probably more) new mobile OSes bootstrap themselv
441.
by fpgeek 13y ago
Thanks for the extra detail. It's good to see that Google is clearly doing more than just signature-style checks. I knew they could do that sort of thing in Play Services, but, based on past coverage/discussion I wasn't con
442.
by fpgeek 13y ago
When checking #8219321 and #9695860 did you make new APKs that were never "in the wild" or did you rely on existing examples? While they haven't gone into details, I've gotten the impression that their checks are primari
443.
by fpgeek 13y ago
Honestly, the number of times I switch apps when I meant to switch tabs in Firefox, I'd be pretty interested in a Firefox-based launcher/recent apps picker. Especially since Firefox has gotten better with the "open in an app&
444.
by fpgeek 13y ago
Have you checked if APKs that take advantage of this bug are flagged by the Google Play Services verifier? I can't imagine a legitimate reason to use these zip file corner cases, so it seems like the perfect sort of issue to detect and
445.
by fpgeek 13y ago
The groundwork for these measures was laid a long, long time ago. Many of the patents Apple has used against Android OEMs have gone back to the mid-90s - when Apple v Microsoft was recent history and their inability to get "patent-like
446.
by fpgeek 13y ago
You forget about "Unknown sources". In practical terms that is substantial freedom (see: Amazon and other app stores) that makes Android phones qualitatively different from phones with an overload (OEM, carrier or otherwise).
447.
by fpgeek 13y ago
> You can fork android and not license the google services, but it means doing without youtube, maps and chrome. That's a horrible experience. Not to hundreds of millions of Chinese Android users.
448.
by fpgeek 13y ago
Do you really think Microsoft and Apple don't sell "you" too? They have (admittedly less-successful) advertising businesses that they show no signs of abandoning, they boast about the number of accounts and/or the number
449.
by fpgeek 13y ago
I'm not sure about Sony. I can't remember any non-Android smartphones they had in 2011.
450.
by fpgeek 13y ago
I agree that this will hurt Apple's reputation, but, in my opinion, this should already have been "priced in". Apple never really repented after the "look-and-feel" lawsuit. Many hackers just didn't notice beca

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