Hi,
I'm really into the functionality of Siri, S-Voice and Google Now. I find it curious that Siri has a couple of advantages over Google Now in as much as it can be accessed and used from the lockscreen of a password protected device (only asking for the password when necessary) and that it also uses Wolfram Alpha's knowledge base.
Now, I'm guessing the lack of Wolfram integration is simply down to negotiation. But I'm confused as to the lack of access on the lock screen. This might seems minor, but it greatly reduces its perceived usefulness and slows down interaction. Any ideas why this hasn't been implemented yet? And will this be coming in future updates?
Thanks,
MikusP
Related
Hi!
For privacy reasons, I'd like to use my CM7.2 Atrix [Neutrino ROM] without any ties to Google. I've got all servers set up myself [Contacts, Tasks, Mail etc.], so this would be perfectly possible, except that I basically need the Play Store. ATM, it's still the only decent source for apps at least here in Germany, so I'd like to retain the functionality somehow while being able to remove it and the Google account it requires from my device.
Are there any decent solutions for that? I know that there's been some work going on to get it to run in an Android emulator, but this seems to include a lot of unreliable hacking, and I'm not sure how usable it would be for practical purposes. Basically, I'd just like to have some way to retrieve the APKs for free apps and those I paid for without resorting to dubious third-party download sites.
Please not that I'm not trying to do anything illegitimate here, for some reasons someone looking for privacy seems to get accused of that a lot. I could just get the APKs from the phone itself if I wanted to redistribute them or similar.
Thanks!
David
Is there an app available which provides similar features to ios restrictions, such as being able to prevent changes to accounts and contacts, meaning for apps such as hangouts or messenger i can prevent my brother from only contacting existing contacts and prevent him from adding random people (hes autistic...) Im currently using Norton parental controls and this allows me to block certain websites and send me usage reports, however i would like for him to be able to actually contact his family on the tablet, however being able to add people is a big no-no as he can become abusive to people. I managed this perfectly fine on his Ipod as within Ios restrictions you can simply turn on the option to prevent changes to accounts...
I'am quite an advanced android user and i cant seem to find a way to do this... i also cant believe people are praising the restricted profiles in android 4.4.2... i think it is awful only allowing you to block apps... there are numerous apps available to do this anyway.
Another issue i have is with the play store not asking for a password for apps even though this option is selected in 4.4.2. I know this is a reported issue as i have found a forum on the issue however no one had a solution.
Any help would be appreciated
Hi there,
First off I don't have an Android phone, I only have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, so my knowledge of Android is entirely based on what I was able to test with this so far.
I am in debate on what to get for a new phone, and I have been leaning on an Android based phone, but the more I read the more I get this feeling that Androids are still are inferior to an Iphone when it is Jailbroken (even when Rooted). Take for example Firefox and Chrome. While they are two different browsers, MOST OF THE TIME I can find extensions for both browsers that has the same functions, with some minor exceptions. And the two can generally perform the same tasks with some pros and cons between them.
Now with an Android and Iphone, that doesn't seem to be the case. The app selection seems much smaller on Androids, and ROMs don't seem to do anything useful from my point of view (all they seem to do is mess around with the UI of the OS). And what strikes me more is how there isn't much "equivalency" between the two. What lead me to come to this assumption, was that there is no real way method to achieve "true multitasking". What I mean, is the ability to switch between apps without them having to "pause itself in the background" as many times as you want so long as you have RAM available to do so before it force stops an app. Right now I use an iPhone 4s and I am using a Cydia app (or tweak?) that allows me to do this, but since I have had this for well over two years, it most likely is out of date (plus I haven't updated my iOS since I've had this tweak as well). However, in my quick google search, I've found that tweaks with the same features, which were Dissident, and Watchdog Pro. In contrast, I've spent two weeks trying to find something similar in Android, and the closest thing I've come across is the concept of "Multi Window". While it allows multiple apps to be run at the same time, from what I have tested you cannot really "minimize" applications while windowed, or have this be compatible with EVERY APP. Unless you use a thing called XMultiWindow, for Xposed Framework. Unfortunately, it seems like this method seems to be extremely buggy, and the development for the XMultiWindow has been halted for a while.
I feel that this "true multitasking" thing is very much achievable in Androids, but it feels like its not available because not enough people are R&D'ing it to make it a reality. Its not a new concept or anything.
Which begs the question: How does the Android homebrew community's size compare to the iOS Jailbroken/Cydia community? Is there a reason why there is so much of a lack of apps/tweaks that allows you to do things with an Android device?
I've heard so many times that people switch to the Android because it's so customizeable. But the way I see it, the thousands of tweaks on Cydia makes it seem like iOS's are much much more customizeable with what it can do. So why do people prefer the Android over iOS? Or am I misinterpreting this? Was the term "customizeability" simply referring to the look of the UI, or did it mean that "people with heavy programming knowledge could easily alter an Androids functions while non tech savvy people cannot"?
Can someone please clear this up for me? Thank you so much in advance.
PS: I tried to add links to what I am referring to for clarification, but since I'm a new user I apparently am not allowed to do that. My apologies.
Looking for advice on how to make my phone as secure as possible as far as it not spying on me. I was a privacy freak before, but now with last weeks Federal judges saying we have NO legal expectation of privacy on our phones I seriously want to lock this thing down.
I'm thinking encrypted VPN for my traffic and I already use Signal for my texts (most of my contacts are on it as well, so that's good) I'm pretty strict with who I give my info too, but as far as the OS itself that's where I'm iffy. Does running AOSP based ROMS offer less google spying than one based on stock? I may understand that wrong. Would running an AOSP ROM and never installing the GAPPS be the only way to get google out? I'm not sure how usable the phone would be with NO google in their since the alternative app stores aren't as good but I'm assuming that aside from the playstore itself that a lot on the backend is the problem. I'm open to suggestions and to know what other privacy freaks are doing.
Hi there everyone!
As a learning exercise I've attempted to exorcise(zing!) all Google apps from my Samsung S7 Active(not rooted). I have managed to find replacements for everything I need except for one thing: Speech-to-text. I very badly need the ability to speak my texts and emails due to hand tremors. I've done a lot of searching but can't find any solution other than Dragon but that doesn't seem a true solution as it seems to require you do everything in that app and I need to be able to choose to speak in my texting and email apps.
Is this something I can do? Is there a way to get a STT engine on a non-rooted phone without installing Google? I'm using Yalp and f-Droid to manage my apps but have no issues with installing apk's outside of an app manager.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time!
wow i see no replies, i have the same issue, any ideas at all?
the original purpose of google was to feed huge amounts of learn-able data into what will ultimately become AI; nothing can compare to the unimaginable amount of data google has learned from already. It is very hard to replace that; especially for "free" (of monetary charge) or even small fee; because we are paying with currency of privacy and insight into humanity.