by manveru on 4/30/22, 11:20 AM with 52 comments
by nonrandomstring on 4/30/22, 1:02 PM
I don't wish to knock this great project, but I'm growing weary of reading what seem to be almost obligatory structures;
1) Initial platitude about how smartphones are ubiquitous,
inevitable, inescapable centres of existence without which humans
would die within seconds.
2) Tragic self-mocking account of how we're all idiots without
self-control who can't work these things, but remain utterly
dependent on technology we have no clue about.
3) Confusing, terrifying litany of all the evil-doers, hackers,
cybercriminals, corporations, agencies, and other bad guys f-king us
over, while trying not to sound paranoid and hopeless.
4) Optional apologetics justifying unconscionable shitshow of (3) on
the basis of convenience and getting stuff for free.
5) (Point at which most normies stop reading) Solution involving
jaibreaking, firmware updates, running a private VPS server,
building your own DNS network and soldering in some new chips using
dangerous solvents, X-Rays and a x100 bench microscope.
6) Shrugging summary about how this "probably isn't for everyone".by Aachen on 4/30/22, 2:25 PM
They're powerful enough for me, and simple enough that I install them for my mom and grandma (grandpa can't read, dad chose the dark side), and my brother apparently also discovered them independently. Few months ago I figured I should take stock of how many of these apps we use together and did a donation for us collectively. One benefit for family members is that now they don't have to get used to a new interface if they get a new phone, so they're less locked into one brand. Android UI always changes and just gets worse imo, and unfortunately you need the stock camera for good quality pictures, but at least things like their gallery always looks the same.
by kkfx on 4/30/22, 1:19 PM
It might sound sterile polemics but it's not, I'm really curious how techies can talk about privacy on Android, iOS etc. My sole opinion there is just avoid using them.
by butz on 4/30/22, 4:22 PM
If anyone has made a simple reminder/note app, similar to ones you'd find on smartphone pre-installed - please share. No idea how many apps I already tested, and each one has some annoying issues. I just need a simple Google Keep clone without sync, location features.
by davidkuennen on 5/2/22, 8:02 AM
by pyaamb on 4/30/22, 3:11 PM
by weberer on 4/30/22, 12:57 PM
by adalu on 4/30/22, 12:30 PM
I have a Samsung phone, s10+. I've not tried this app yet, but I will. However all apps I've tried so far got my steps wrong. I imagine because it's something that isn't documented by Samsung and they know exactly which values to use to calculate the steps and distance and speed.
So essentially you buy a product with the right sensors but there is no documentation for you on how to use those sensors to have near accurate conversion results if you're going to write software that uses those sensors.
If you know better, please let us know.
by ranger_danger on 4/30/22, 12:06 PM
by als0 on 4/30/22, 1:25 PM
by motohagiography on 4/30/22, 2:57 PM
One startup idea I briefly pursued some years ago was developing privacy focused work-alikes for common utility apps, and what I sensed from it was after "flashlight," "calendar" and "QR code reader" apps are their own contained brand experiences. There is no messenger workalike, each game is itself the experience, and playing a clone is less satisfying, and there's a quality to apps that is as intrinsic and unique as a story that you can't just replicate.
The business model was to charge for privacy focused work-alikes of popular free utility apps as an effective luxury privacy brand for apps, but even this misunderstood luxury products (an area I had some experience with, in addition to security and privacy). Luxury goods represent stories of aspiration and belonging, where privacy is a reactionary value that needs a foundation of something valuable beneath or behind it to protect. It's a quality and a feature, but to succeed, it can't be the reason.
To be valuable, privacy needs to socially elevate the user, similar to how the whole apple brand experience does, and distinct from the way someone using Tor/Tails all the time would relate to the world. Privacy as a concept has acquired the vibe of an inferior good, something you want when you don't have power, and so it's not something used for elite signalling the way exclusivity was just 20 years ago.
In this sense, privacy must be attractive, which is a real magic sauce. To do that, what people mean when they say something is cool or sexy is that it is powerful. Together, it means that for a privacy centric tech to succeed, it must first be powerful. Blockchains and cryptocurrencies were technically powerful, but their bar to entry meant they were adopted by unpowerful people first, and are still percieved as an economic "inferior good." Power over things is just leverage, where desirable power is necessarily status over other people. There's a lot of opportunity to refine this still.