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So there are a number of Android-based tablets on the horizon. These are presumably envisioned as intermediate devices to fill a niche between the smartphone and laptop, similar to the iPad. I'm not starting a thread to debate whether this niche exists, or the design of any specific device, but rather on how well Android and its apps can adapt to being used across multiple devices by the same user.
For me, when I try to envision a tablet in my life, I find it difficult to think of things that it could do but my phone (a Nexus One) can't. I think the point is a tablet doesn't really do new things, but it does them slightly better because of a larger screen. The thing is, I will likely want to switch back and forth between my phone and tablet depending on my real-world context, and I will generally want the state of those applications to stay in sync.
Take reading an ebook, for example. I will still want to read on my phone sometimes, when I just have a minute to spare and don't have the tablet with me, but when I sit down to a more lengthy reading session, I want the tablet to remember where I am in the book. This should be automatic. Similarly, any games I play should have my progress saved, and my bookmarks/history/etc should be synced too. The simple fact is, the additional value of a tablet seems so small, that if I have to put up another non-synced device in my life, it won't even be worth bothering. I'll just keep using the smaller screen of my phone.
Now, of course there are already things that DO sync. Email, calendar, contacts, etc. But those are distinct things with custom implementations specific to that type of data. Certainly every app developer could add a web service that syncs their app data, but why make everyone do that individually. Does anyone know of any plans to create a generalized Android app sync solution? (let me know if there's something out there and I missed it) This seems like something google would want to build at the OS level, but I haven't heard of anything like it.
Thoughts?
I just came across this post after running up against this problem in the real world. Just received my Notion Ink Adam and quickly started looking for a solution to sync things like my eBook placement and game save-state between my Nexus One and the tablet. Titanium Media Sync looked promising but as the product description indicates, it is only capable of one-way synchronization. This means you would have to manually run the sync task each time you started using one device or the other. Perhaps something that could be achieved with tasker and some scripting, but that's more management overhead than anyone would want.
I wish I was better at software development cause this is not a solution that could be tackled with the app inventor.
This is going to be a big shakeup for awhile... SugarSync, Dropbox, Bump, Hoccer, Titanium, Listables/BlueMuze (my apps), Amazon cloud sync, Google Books -- there are 100 solutions coming from different directions and for different puposes.
Then there will be video (which is even more insanely competitive) as everyone trys various DRM, cloud hosting and streaming. Then you have the carriers sitting in the middle putting data caps on stuff wondering if they can get a slice of the pie. Roku, SlingBox, Tivo, Boxee, TimeWarner, Viacom, NBC-Comcast, Verizion, Cablevision, ATT, Apple, --- SO MANY companies in this market.
This is partly why I created my apps, so that people could send data without the cloud sync ideology/methodology forced on them. But that's sort of tangential to the conversation, and specific for types of media as you said above.
Anyways, I think the competition will be good mostly. But we'll have to be careful to reward those who dont try to restrict usage arbitrarily. And be sure to punish those that stand in the way.
Also with regards to programming sync oneself, beware that it's one of those things that's deceptively simple sounding until you try and work out the actual code/details of how to do it.
We need this now more than ever!
Any new products out there that can help me synch my Captivate with my Color Nook?
Seraph321 said:
I find it difficult to think of things that it could do but my phone (a Nexus One) can't. Thoughts?
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I can't agree with you more. I came to the same conclusion when I was looking at tablets.
However there are certain things I don't use right now because my battery temp will exceed 103°F when I'm using them (music apps, navigation, etc.) Phone is overclocked to 844 MHz so that obviously plays into the battery life, but if I had a tablet I could use those apps on the tablet to conserve my phone battery; currently my phone battery won't last more than a day :^(
There's also the possibility that because tablets would be more powerful than my MyTouch 3G Slide that I could scale back my phone CPU and use certain things on the tablet.
I'm holding off on tablets right now, I want to see where they go with the capabilities first before I jump on board.
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App
You said "I'm holding off on tablets right now". If you want to get your feet wet on the cheap, pick up a Color Nook of Craigslist. I've bought 2 now for $170 each.
At that price, who cares where the tablet market goes. When something comes along you like better, buy it, and give the Color Nook to someone as a gift.
I'm pretty confident the community will make a tablet more than worth owning. Even without the source code the xoom has been pretty handy. But from the first day of ownership I was wondering why it wasn't built in to have the phone and tab sync up. Even something more basic like chrome to phone for the phone to tab would be nice.
Just thinking out loud mostly.
My favorite tab sync mod,
Grab Google voice and grooveIP and have texts and voice calls come to the tab at the same time as the phone.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App
Great topic! As a developer and Droid X owner, I've been debating about getting a tablet, but my tablet would be an iPad so I can cross-platform develop.
Still, a very valid issue as to iPhone/iPad or Droid/Xoom synching. Haven't given it much thought, but the OP brings up some valid points.
If you have an e-book, grocery list manager and any other number of apps, *physical* synching would be a PITA in my opinion. I think some cloud-based solution like DropBox would be the best solution.
How this gets implemented is surely open to debate.
I haven't tried it yet but there's an app on the market called SyncIt Beta:
https://market.android.com/details?id=jug6ernaut.net.syncit
It's supposed to be able to sync your app data across multiple devices.
^ Shift Faced
I am sorry for bringing back a dead thread, however this is still something i am in looking for. I have a nexus S and a toshiba thrive tablet. As opposed to cloud based or something along those apps, i think an even easier solutions would be a device direct streaming type service so to speak. Have the devices communicate directly with each other over wifi or bluetooth. I mean to be perfectly honest, if i use it on the road, my phone is with me anyway so bluetooth is perfectly acceptable. and when i am at home, both are connected to wifi even if they aren't close enough for bluetooth. That would remedy the need of a cloud based service, and the issue of data privacy. As long as the data gets synced locally to the device, i should be able to break the sync and still continue to operate, then when the 2 devices are reconnected to each other they can just update the changes. I am not a developer, so i apologize if these requests seem monumental. However i was going to make the change to webOS because it natively had support for these features, which were immensely helpful. Until webOS sort of fell off the grid obviously (even though it was never really on it to begin with)
Try "Tablet Talk" the paid app is really worth it, it allows users to communicate from tablet to phones.
It's well worth the money
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Old thread. New Idea.
I came across this thread while searching for a solution to my problem. Thought it appropriate to post here.
Does anyone know of any virtual assistant apps or anything of that sort that will sync with other versions of the app on other devices?
For example, I have two android devices. I want to be able to talk to one and set a reminder at the house, and have the reminder come to a different device i have on me elsewhere.
So far the only way I can come up with to do this is to set a reminder through Google Calendar but was wondering if there was any other less clunky alternatives.
So I have a note ii and a precedent. Here is a list of things id like to do
Sync my note ii audio a2dp out to play ober the precedent
Sync alert and alarm awnsers n dismissals across devices as well as read emails
Power off device remotley [power on?]
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2
Questions should be posted in Q&A forums, not Development forums.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/announcement.php?a=81
See rule #15
Thread moved.
I know we are all android fans, but I thought this was an interesting read. I know this is just a rumor, but it may have some credence. Microsoft is trying to defend mobile user privacy. Verizon is saying no, they would rather share your info to advertisers.. Makes me wonder about that last update....
Microsoft vs Verizon
Another article
I've come to the conclusion that the only way to minimize invasion of privacy is to not use electronics technology. Credit cards, cell phones and computers give thieves the opportunity to steal. I can't live without these so I opt out when it's convenient to do so and live with the risk otherwise. We don't really have much choice. The alternative would be too time consuming.
I wonder what others think.
Sent from my HTC Incredible 4G on Verizon's periodically blazing fast and mostly reliable 4G LTE network using xda-developers app
Nyobie said:
I've come to the conclusion that the only way to minimize invasion of privacy is to not use electronics technology. Credit cards, cell phones and computers give thieves the opportunity to steal. I can't live without these so I opt out when it's convenient to do so and live with the risk otherwise. We don't really have much choice. The alternative would be too time consuming.
I wonder what others think.
Sent from my HTC Incredible 4G on Verizon's periodically blazing fast and mostly reliable 4G LTE network using xda-developers app
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I agree with that. I buy stuff on line, too. I used to be concerned, but haven't had a problem (yet).
Sent from my Fireball using Xparent Blue Tapatalk 2
Knock on wood.
Sent from my HTC Incredible 4G on Verizon's periodically blazing fast and mostly reliable 4G LTE network using xda-developers app
Nyobie said:
I wonder what others think.
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Click to collapse
Anyone who has ever entered information on the internet has left a digital fingerprint of one form or fashion. Companies keep all records for years, so if you bought something online, they still have record of it. Using a cell phone, law enforcement agencies can petition the company for which towers you were connected to during a given time, and if you have GPS enabled, that information as well, and use it against you whether you are guilty or not. Every text message, its contents, every phone call, and more is tracked and stored by your company for years, despite claims by the company to the contrary. I know a guy who had text messages subpoenaed by the court from over a year before used in his child custody case, despite the company saying it only saved them for a week. With smartphones, any app you download with the right permissions can steal all of your data, or utilize a known exploit and do it without the right permissions. There are apps which can prevent certain apps from performing functions you don't want them to, like access the internet or your GPS, but that's assuming it obeys the normal rules.
I've been working with computers for over 20 years and know the risk that revealing personal information can pose. I change my passwords every couple months, and for some sites, change my username on occasion. Every website you visit is tracked and stored by your ISP, and every download you make, including torrents, is tracked. I don't enter credit card data online, I'll pay someone the cash and get them to make purchases for me with their card if I need something. I don't reveal my real name or much personal information about myself, other than basic things like that I work and have kids. Your IP address is stored by almost every website you visit, and if you allow cookies you are being tracked by multiple websites across your entire internet experience until you delete them. All this may sound extreme, and it is, but it's all true. Now, is it really that bad? If you're not smart about it, yeah, it can be. I can name over a dozen people I know that had some form of identity theft or credit card fraud in the last year alone, some due to sheer stupidity, others due to bad luck.
Now, whose spyware is worse, Microsoft or Verizon? Microsoft forces you to make a new account when you have a new installation of Windows, generally leaving the default Administrator account created but disabled, unless you're savvy enough to enable the default Administrator account during installation and use that one as your primary account, thereby leaving the computer open to anyone with a Windows boot CD able to take over your computer with admin rights. While not technically spyware, it's a dumbass move. Verizon stores everything you do, every website you visit, every text you send, and then lies to you about it. Still, not technically spyware, but shady to say the least. Microsoft can remotely access any computer with Windows on it, even if you have it disabled, and now Verizon can access our phone, even if we don't want them to. Both claim they wouldn't use this without our consent, but how do we really know? Once again, bleak, but true.
So, you want to use the internet, but don't want your information stolen or used against you. How do you minimize personal information on the internet? Don't use your real name, don't use your credit card to make purchases, use a proxy server logged into another proxy server to prevent website tracking, don't text or instant message any information you don't want police to see, use the default administrator account on Windows with a password, preferably a 12+ character password with capital letters and symbols. Don't use the same username across many websites, alternate difficult to crack passwords and change them out on a semi-regular basis. Never store passwords on your computer! That's one of the biggest problems I've seen. Perform full-drive encryption on your hard drive, turn your computer off when not in use. Don't leave webcams plugged in when you're not using them, and just don't be stupid.
In our society, it's really difficult to not use electronics, and eventually something about yourself is going to come out. When you've been working with computers and their users as long as I have, it's hard not to have seen so many horror stories which spawned this post. Most people aren't going to have a problem which requires all that, but I've taken a largely preemptive stance toward privacy on the internet. If I Google my name, I get a few references in family tree websites, which don't really uniquely identify me, and am mentioned in a couple posts on a few websites, like a company I used to work for which hasn't updated its site in years but keeps paying for web services. While this type of severe privacy isn't necessary for most people, I've never had a single account hacked, never been a victim of identity theft/fraud, and still manage to enjoy myself on the internet. Sure, a Facebook with my real name and a picture of me wouldn't be the end of the world, but I just don't need that to continue enjoying myself. Randomly-named Facebook with a few close friends and family and a picture of the sunset from the beach in California I took last summer while on vacation with my kids are enough.
Sorry this rant has gone on so long. I just have strong opinions due to scenarios I've seen first-hand, and don't want that to happen to me. I guess I'm a privacy freak. lol. It's all your fault, Nyobie, you opened up a can of worms!
IceDragon59 said:
Anyone who has ever entered information on the internet has left a digital fingerprint of one form or fashion. Companies keep all records for years, so if you bought something online, they still have record of it. Using a cell phone, law enforcement agencies can petition the company for which towers you were connected to during a given time, and if you have GPS enabled, that information as well, and use it against you whether you are guilty or not. Every text message, its contents, every phone call, and more is tracked and stored by your company for years, despite claims by the company to the contrary. I know a guy who had text messages subpoenaed by the court from over a year before used in his child custody case, despite the company saying it only saved them for a week. With smartphones, any app you download with the right permissions can steal all of your data, or utilize a known exploit and do it without the right permissions. There are apps which can prevent certain apps from performing functions you don't want them to, like access the internet or your GPS, but that's assuming it obeys the normal rules.
I've been working with computers for over 20 years and know the risk that revealing personal information can pose. I change my passwords every couple months, and for some sites, change my username on occasion. Every website you visit is tracked and stored by your ISP, and every download you make, including torrents, is tracked. I don't enter credit card data online, I'll pay someone the cash and get them to make purchases for me with their card if I need something. I don't reveal my real name or much personal information about myself, other than basic things like that I work and have kids. Your IP address is stored by almost every website you visit, and if you allow cookies you are being tracked by multiple websites across your entire internet experience until you delete them. All this may sound extreme, and it is, but it's all true. Now, is it really that bad? If you're not smart about it, yeah, it can be. I can name over a dozen people I know that had some form of identity theft or credit card fraud in the last year alone, some due to sheer stupidity, others due to bad luck.
Now, whose spyware is worse, Microsoft or Verizon? Microsoft forces you to make a new account when you have a new installation of Windows, generally leaving the default Administrator account created but disabled, unless you're savvy enough to enable the default Administrator account during installation and use that one as your primary account, thereby leaving the computer open to anyone with a Windows boot CD able to take over your computer with admin rights. While not technically spyware, it's a dumbass move. Verizon stores everything you do, every website you visit, every text you send, and then lies to you about it. Still, not technically spyware, but shady to say the least. Microsoft can remotely access any computer with Windows on it, even if you have it disabled, and now Verizon can access our phone, even if we don't want them to. Both claim they wouldn't use this without our consent, but how do we really know? Once again, bleak, but true.
So, you want to use the internet, but don't want your information stolen or used against you. How do you minimize personal information on the internet? Don't use your real name, don't use your credit card to make purchases, use a proxy server logged into another proxy server to prevent website tracking, don't text or instant message any information you don't want police to see, use the default administrator account on Windows with a password, preferably a 12+ character password with capital letters and symbols. Don't use the same username across many websites, alternate difficult to crack passwords and change them out on a semi-regular basis. Never store passwords on your computer! That's one of the biggest problems I've seen. Perform full-drive encryption on your hard drive, turn your computer off when not in use. Don't leave webcams plugged in when you're not using them, and just don't be stupid.
In our society, it's really difficult to not use electronics, and eventually something about yourself is going to come out. When you've been working with computers and their users as long as I have, it's hard not to have seen so many horror stories which spawned this post. Most people aren't going to have a problem which requires all that, but I've taken a largely preemptive stance toward privacy on the internet. If I Google my name, I get a few references in family tree websites, which don't really uniquely identify me, and am mentioned in a couple posts on a few websites, like a company I used to work for which hasn't updated its site in years but keeps paying for web services. While this type of severe privacy isn't necessary for most people, I've never had a single account hacked, never been a victim of identity theft/fraud, and still manage to enjoy myself on the internet. Sure, a Facebook with my real name and a picture of me wouldn't be the end of the world, but I just don't need that to continue enjoying myself. Randomly-named Facebook with a few close friends and family and a picture of the sunset from the beach in California I took last summer while on vacation with my kids are enough.
Sorry this rant has gone on so long. I just have strong opinions due to scenarios I've seen first-hand, and don't want that to happen to me. I guess I'm a privacy freak. lol. It's all your fault, Nyobie, you opened up a can of worms!
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amen
You can now use TOR on your phone. Search for it in google play, or better yet, download the APK online without letting google know. I'm pretty sure root access gives you much more control as well. It will be the first addition to my new unlocked phone. We are living in an age where privacy is almost nonexistent. Entire personal lives are at our finger tips... Call me paranoid, but I just don't like being spied on or tracked. Proxify yourself. Use TOR + widecap. Learn how the internet operates. You never know who is watching..
Whenever my automated system finds an Android App Review online it sends an email to the developer telling the link to the review.
Each day I get between 5 - 10 thank you mails from both large app companies and indie developers, which I guess is a good indicator that it's a great tool in order to be able to take advantage of the review in their marketing. (I know how hard it is to be seen with a good app)
The question is, how do I monetize that service?
You have to pardon me if I sound desperate, but I actually am desperate and starting to worry about my ability to provide for my family.
Do you have an idea on how I could either monetize the service, or give it away to someone who can actually afford running it?
There are three main problems with it:
- Donations doesn't work (noone evidently donates anyway, so that went down the drain)
- Advertising, might have worked but there are far too few visitors.
- Most dev's have an invalid email address specified for their account at google play, which makes them not receive the notice from the service,
They can however subscribe for reviews of a certain package name, but how the heck could they when they don't even know the service exists?
I feel so stupid for having these great ideas and realize them, just to later find out that the only thing I've gained is more time away from my kids. I am honestly starting to loose all energy for the creation process of apps, web sites and services, just due to the fact that I can't even reach out enough to make anything out of it. And I can't afford advertising the services/apps/whatever crap I've made. Which even might be an indicator that I should stop trying, but I can't really do that either since I struggle to even afford the food for the month, yeah it's gotten that bad, and I hate sounding this pathetic.
Anyway, the link is in my sig called something like 'Android App Reviews' if you wish to have a look in order to give feedback on my question.
Maybe it's just a bad day 'cause I'm not usually this whiny, but even on a good day, the question stands.
Ah.. whatever. You have a good idea, let me know.
Later
very nice idea, perhaps most of your emails mistakenly get weeded out as SPAM. I have an APP published on Google Play with our company gmail address there, but in more than one ocasion we had people trying to contact us and those emails got to the SPAM folder automaticly by mistake and we never saw them.
DarknessWarrior said:
very nice idea, perhaps most of your emails mistakenly get weeded out as SPAM. I have an APP published on Google Play with our company gmail address there, but in more than one ocasion we had people trying to contact us and those emails got to the SPAM folder automaticly by mistake and we never saw them.
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Thanks, actually I was very glad myself when I got an email from my own service once, so yeah I think it's a great idea also.
So yes, one problem is, as you mention that most emails probably ends up marked as spam.
The other problem is money, it's running in a very low priced environment and actually doesn't require much juice to run but I can't afford maintaining it if it doesn't generate enough income to even support itself.
I would consider running it for nothing and I could even spend some personal money just for the satisfaction and appreciation, but given the gravity of the current financial situation in my family I can't do that.
So let's just see what happens, and thanks for taking the time to read.
Cheers
have you tried selling it? For about how much would you be willing to sell it? As i said the idea is pretty awesome and you got it pretty much nailed down. Perhaps with a few tweaks to the search algorithm it could be the next Google for Apps!
have you tried selling it? For about how much would you be willing to sell it?
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Click to collapse
- Actually, no I haven't tried selling it yet as I don't have any experience selling these kinds of things, and don't really know where to turn.. So I haven't really thought of for how much I should sell it for,
what do you think something like this could be worth?
Thanks again
Actually i have no idea loool
I would buy it if I had the means.
The value of it probably based on how many views does your site has per day, how many apps does it have categorized, how many it crawls per day... idk.
For example i tried searching it and it seems to have few apps catalogued... my app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rtt3ch.suecaonline) isn't there.
EDIT: About how much do you spend on it a month? If it's not much and you're willing to give it away because can't afford it I wouldn't mind getting it lol, i think i can keep it alive.
If you want to generate income from your site, you have to run your site like a business. The ideas you have in your first post are too linear, especially for a small website with limited exposure (i'm sure you'll know ). Websites and youtube channels grow in exposure and size exponentially. Your site is still in the growth state of a business life cycle (the slowest, most challenging phase of business), so it's best to get as much exposure as possible, which means expanding.
- Try to create some sort of quasi-partnerships with other sites by sharing content or linking to each other. I've noticed you have some links on the side of your site, but try to get in contact with 'bigger names' out there
- Create a youtube channel and start reviewing apps like that. That way you have another avenue of traffic to your site
- Reviews of products may also be an idea.
Hope this helps It's what I can remember from business studies classes >.<
sup MetalDroid, any news?
I'd go with what SammiSaysHello said, you need to run it like a business. Personally I'd make the homepage look more like a professional a sales page and introduce a subscription fee if you want to use it for more then one app. Or even a one time fee for more then one app. I end up logging onto my developer console several times a day so I'd gladly pay a couple bucks a month to have the reviews sent straight to my inbox.. Just my two cents
Hey!
Sorry for not posting an update, I've been having the mother of all flues on and off for the past several weeks now!
sup MetalDroid, any news?
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Well, actually yes. The associated twitter account is growing, and the number of web page visitors is also increasing. Very slowly but I'm still positive about it. I've also, shockingly, had a few interesting partnership/business proposals drop down in my mailbox, so I'm gonna have a look to see what is offered there..
If you want to generate income from your site, you have to run your site like a business.
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I'd go with what SammiSaysHello said, you need to run it like a business
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right, that seems like a logical next step. I might add a low subscription fee if you wish to use for more than one app,
that seems like a very good suggestion, I'll have to wait a couple of days though to see how things turn out from some of the email proposals
I've had.
If you're interested I'll keep you updated on what happens, and I'm very grateful for your input,
Cheers
I searched the web (and the thread suggestions are not similar) and found very little on these matters, so...
Some background first -
I have now owned the G3 for 6 days. This is my first android os phone and first "smart" phone I have owned. The closest thing I've owned to this was an apple iPod touch. I'm not a big apple fan, (its the only device I own sporting their logo) but I have to say after spending some time with this G3 for the last few days, I am beginning to appreciate some of intuitive elements of their design. I didn't consider the apple phone due to their "proprietary" connects, no readily available battery removal, no flash and no microSD. These are all features I feel really should be very "basic" at this stage of tech. However, after spending a few days with this unit, I'm not thinking these phones are as "smart" as the marketing selling them. Perhaps I'm wrong. Please feel free to offer a different viewpoint!
Now, don't get me wrong, while the layout is fairly decent, the camera is nice, the phone (telephony) seems to work fairly well so far, and the screen sure looks pretty - even if a bit huge to get a comfortable grip on - but customization (at least in stock form) seems somewhat limited. This phone seems setup to waste time not to conserve it.
2 days ago I wrote my first post on this forum - stating that basically, from my perspective of a short time with this phone and furthering research - this thing needs rooted just to customize it to the level I think might lead to a productive mini-computer and that seems like a whole lot of time expenditure for a device of which the battery only lasts a short workday and one that you have to keep protected from pretty much anything (bumps, water, etc.).
So here are some questions that I have not found answers to:
1. Why does this phone disallow me to edit a contact?
considerations: Some contacts have the "edit pencil" available and some do not. I have some contacts synced from facebook which I cannot edit (no pencil icon appears), yet my wife who has recently obtained a samsung note 4 & she has the edit pencil on all of her contacts, even the facebook synced ones. Not only do I want to sync the contacts from facebook (and other places), but I want to remove the facebook app and then keep the contacts on the phone. Is there a way to do this without adding yet another app?
2. Getting rid of "Rachel from card services" - yeah tell me you people haven't dealt with this lady burning up your phone - chief call spammer of USA... No offense to Rachel, but I'm tired of answering her calls. Why is it that allegedly on other non-Verizon versions of the G3 the user is able to block spammer's calls (call blocking), yet this one doesn't? Where is this feature of this phone? Am I missing something here, because I have looked all over and I have not found this feature on the phone.
Multiple cases of lockup - meaning I tap on the screen on an icon designed to make something happen and yet nothing happens. No response. Zero. This seems to be intermittent, but it happens. Is this a typical experience with these phones?
I was sold on the G3 because I noted & appreciated some of the features that came with it - but now I find myself seriously considering returning this phone - but then if I did, what would I even replace it with?
Hello, I am currently a privacy novice trying to learn about different avenues of where I can get help to better protect myself. I see apple devices and I like the fact that they have a closed ecosystem per device, but I don’t like the fact that they are all interconnected with each other; it freaks me out that someone else with an Apple device could very easily connect to mine. That’s why CalyxOS stood out to me, because what it looks like from the outside-in is a decentralized form of android device, without all of the Google strings attached. I’d honestly rather use it than Graphene, because the people over on the graphene forums are kinda toxic to be honest. I have no knowledge of how to install operating systems, however, and I’m afraid that I could easily screw it up. Does Calyx sell any Pixel 6/Pixel 6 Pro models that I could buy to get started?
Welcome. I'm probably a terrible example but oh well. I had time to kill and been stuck on this topic myself since the early 90s.
If you're serious about privacy to the point that you are worried about other devices as you mentioned, I highly suggest (seriously, not trying to be a ****) you take some online courses on the fundamentals of telecommunications, and do some "light" reading on topics likeLinux Kernel, enterprise networking, Signals Intelligence, and Section 215 metadata collection. thats a decent starting point to the state of things. Though it's just a shinny coin on a string to distract while the real work continues. It must always continue. It will never stop.
I'm sorry to tell you.
It's too late. In any practical sense short of finding somewhere to go love in a cave until you starve or die from a infection a 99¢ tube of cream could have prevented.
You can have a privacy focused phone. It can keep certain things safe. Stop some people from doing things. Delay an outcome. You're gonna need to learn about installing an OS though. It gets pretty complex rather quickly.
Nothing is safe. Every lock can be picked or bypassed. There is no such thing as a door only you can use. The last place anything is truly a secret is in your head. When you are the only person in the entire world with the right permissions.
There was a window when we could have made meaningful and lasting choices in how protocols, standards, regulations, and laws were adopted. Back when it was all just a few hundred trunk lines, IXPs and NOC with good intentions, and tragically short sight. Lots of people screaming at the top of their lungs about the potential outcomes. Tinfoil hats were worn. Turns out we were right.
When you wrap your brain around what the "internet" really is...it's similar to getting a small sliver of understanding; grasping ever so lightly; the brain breaking inconceivable scale of the infinite universe and how infinitesimally small we are. The remnants of a dead stars clumped together pondering its own own existence. Connecting wires together and making things beyond our capabilities. The amount of data being exchanged right now ain't ****. It's bonkers, but it won't be next year, or next or the next.
The rate at which machine learning and the race to general AI is going, watch for the casualties along the way. one example is encryption as we know it. Gone. It'll be rendered trivial by 2040 MAYBE. Honestly that's a really high estimate. Likely before.
Post quantum encryption is just about as experimentally verifiable as string theory. Won't be long though before we get a chance to see if itll hold up. The Xbox is older than the time we have left. The Patriot Act as well.
Practice basic OPsec. Best Practices. Trust few, tell fewer. Read. Read some more. Then read the book. Every question you could ever think of likely has a 12 year old thread at a slackexchange site and no shortage of users ready to remind you how tired they are of duplicates. The community at grapheneOS is similar. On that though. Best to just go to the source. He tries to explain things without just speaking in jargon. Daniel Micay himself on the matter of android security.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GrapheneOS/comments/bddq5u
and
https://www.reddit.com/r/GrapheneOS/comments/du23la
There is no shortage of people currently who disagree with him even though they have little to no grasp on the complexity of what it is he actually intended. Ran into one of them myself, on this site, just the other day. Sure, It's hardneded, but what that means from user to user is drastically different.
It's more than some. It'll fit some use cases. But it's just a speck in a cloud. If you attract the attention of a human being with skills and motivation...good luck my dude. Godspeed.
The real thought experiment and one of my favorites to fall asleep to on nights I actually sleep is "what are they going to do with all the encrypted data they hoovered up and have been storing for the last 30-40 years? Once AI turns the encryption algorithms that humanity runs on into a half finished cheap dollar store sudoku." How long does any one reckon that'll be the case before us plebs hear about it. We got a good track record, as a collective species in doing the right thing, right? No way they will actually use what is functionally a rewind button on...well everything. Nah, it'll be fine.
Oh look, Lapsus$ group woke up, posted a new dump... Wonder how much Globant spend on securing their stuff. Probably more than me.
--just a jaded old man