"Your app tracking the Nazi invasion of France is endangering SS officers and has been removed at the request of the government." When human rights are being ignored any speech in defense of those...
"Your app tracking the Nazi invasion of France is endangering SS officers and has been removed at the request of the government."
When human rights are being ignored any speech in defense of those rights is inherently an expression of freedom.
When laws cease to be enforced except as tools of oppression we have to look beyond their scripture and instead at their original societal intent. In this case protecting the rights of people against a tyrannical government.
Excuse any hyperbole, but this is not a situation where any law can be referenced as the arbiter of morality, and in matters of human rights morality is all that matters.
Freedom of speech protects from one entity: the government. If Facebook doesn't like my post and removes it, much as I might dislike that, they are a private company and that can be their...
Today, Bondi took credit for the app’s removal, saying to Fox News Digital, “We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so.
Freedom of speech protects from one entity: the government. If Facebook doesn't like my post and removes it, much as I might dislike that, they are a private company and that can be their prerogative. But if the government doesn't like something I'm saying, they are constitutionally obligated to kick rocks.
This is a crowdsourcing application. People are sharing public information with each other. Just because the information is coordinates doesn't mean its not speech. Freedom of speach is an...
This is a crowdsourcing application. People are sharing public information with each other. Just because the information is coordinates doesn't mean its not speech. Freedom of speach is an inalieable right. It's not a thing granted to us by the government, but is codified that the government can't strip it. It's still a violation of free speach if a private entity is doing it. That's why the government has been using private companies to whitewash rights violations for decades.
That brings the inevitable arguememt about censorship and moderation. Yes, moderation is censorship. It is good and useful, not all censorship is bad. The problem is when censorship is on such a broad platform that someone is essentially silenced everywhere, forever. Used to be only the government could ban all available forms of public discussion, but that is no longer true. We now have like 3-5 megaconglomerate companies that essentially own all modern communication platforms. Most of this was badly paraphrased from Cory Doctorow.
For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. --Audre...
For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. --Audre Lorde.
We need to stop thinking about cell phones as personal communication devices.
If the masters truly owned the tools, they wouldn't be freaked out everytime people record ICE doing fascist stuff. They wouldn't be frantic to call out undesirable photos as AI everytime someone...
If the masters truly owned the tools, they wouldn't be freaked out everytime people record ICE doing fascist stuff. They wouldn't be frantic to call out undesirable photos as AI everytime someone takes a peek at someone from the wrong angle.
They are bringing changes in ways not anywhere near as accessible 80 years ago. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. These aren't tools anyone can control anymore.
Saying that Google pulled it is incorrect. It was never on Android to begin with. See https://www.iceblock.app/android. I agree with the sentiment that they probably would have pulled it, but...
I haven’t daily-driven Android for years, and when I do use it, it’s without push notifications, so excuse my off-topic question but: Is that really the case?! Can an app actually not have push...
I haven’t daily-driven Android for years, and when I do use it, it’s without push notifications, so excuse my off-topic question but:
To manage these device IDs effectively and allow users to unsubscribe or manage their notifications, we would need to create user accounts. This includes storing usernames and passwords, which further violates our commitment to privacy.
Is that really the case?! Can an app actually not have push notifications without also needing a user account?
I don't personally have much experience with per-platform push notifications as the systems I've used mostly were abstractions that treat them the same from the outside and so only use lowest...
I don't personally have much experience with per-platform push notifications as the systems I've used mostly were abstractions that treat them the same from the outside and so only use lowest common denominator features. My understanding is that it is partially true, but more in the "someone needs to store the user's notification subscriptions and on iOS you can potentially have Apple store it rather than yourself" sort of way than the implied "somehow no one is storing said data". I suspect it could also be implemented just fine with topic subscriptions that could presumably be done without any fancy token or account management.
GrapheneOS called out that page specifically and I assume they know far more about push notifications than I do. https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/114789468054239286. The GrapheneOS post indicates that most of the ICEBlock Android claims are wrong. You don't manage device ids, you manage push tokens. Both Android and iOS push tokens can be queried for user info by law enforcement. Unlike iOS and Apple, Android doesn't even require using Google's push service.
Ah, my mistake, they removed a similar app from Android a day later, but not ice block. I had only seen the headline in my RSS feed but didn’t care to actually read it....
Ah, my mistake, they removed a similar app from Android a day later, but not ice block. I had only seen the headline in my RSS feed but didn’t care to actually read it.
Meanwhile, people want me to trust that it's perfectly fine for phones to require mandated android distros, apps to refuse to run on modded phones, and developers to have to register with google...
Meanwhile, people want me to trust that it's perfectly fine for phones to require mandated android distros, apps to refuse to run on modded phones, and developers to have to register with google before their apps are allowed to run...
I have had Pinephone (not Pro) as my daily for a year in 2022-23 before I dropped it and damaged the digitizer (touchscreen). There are many reasons why you could like Pinephone and there are many...
I have had Pinephone (not Pro) as my daily for a year in 2022-23 before I dropped it and damaged the digitizer (touchscreen).
There are many reasons why you could like Pinephone and there are many reasons to hate it. I will start with the latter.
Why NOT Pinephone:
bad cell reception, if you get bad signal at your place, it will get worse/unusable with Pinephone
bad battery life, expect one day with light use
no background listening to music or podcasts, the phone must be fully awake to play (LCD can be turned off), which decreases battery life even further
it is Linux PC with phone capabilities, not the other way around. This means two things:
Expect trouble getting your apps running, as they would likely have to run in some kind of Android emulator
You can probably try if/how your needed apps would run on your Linux PC - preferably make new install of some Linux distro, ie. Manjaro as it is one of the distros for Pinephone, on spare drive to try it around
specs are tragic, but the 5Mpix camera without autofocus is even worse and the front facing one wasn't working in 2023 (due to lack of software support)
Why to get Pinephone:
The phone actually works, you can call, do SMS, run (some) desktop Linux apps like Element (Matrix.org client, so IM actually works on the phone), you can listen to music, watch videos, use it as Linux terminal, whatever...
You are enthusiast who can see through/get over the cons and want to try something atypical
It can run either from built-in memory or microSD card meaning you can swap different systems/images really fast and/or have two different OS in the phone (one on card, one in the built-in memory)
It truly is what you make it to be, you are independent on big corporations and their software, but you pay the price (and I'm not talking money here)
I'm not saying don't get the phone, just be ready for what you are about to get. Think about it as Raspberry Pi + LCD + wifi + BT + headphone jack + 2G/4G modem + battery. This is basically what you are buying with Pinephone - a dev-kit that works on the hardware side and has some software support.
Feel free to have questions, I'd love to share my hard-earned knowledge.
Most of your cons seem akin to things I do anyway (on my desktop/GrapheneOS, aka "why it doesn't just work..?" Because I want control!). I'm already familiar with Arch and found it via Manjaro, so...
Most of your cons seem akin to things I do anyway (on my desktop/GrapheneOS, aka "why it doesn't just work..?" Because I want control!). I'm already familiar with Arch and found it via Manjaro, so no issues there.
The downside for me is that I require certain app store apps on my phone for my job, and I need a decent camera for said job. I am fine with a crap battery life and all the other drama, but... I have to have Outlook, MS Authenticator (I believe I could use another, but ...), and a few others I don't have to have but definitely help and so while I have the Play store installed...
I may reach out if/when I give up on my poor beaten-up Pixel 7a (which magically had a camera destruct, which honestly is the only reason I need another phone because... work requires me to take pics).
I didn't even try running Android apps on Pinephone, so I will leave you alone in that. As I said, you could probably try on desktop/laptop in Linux via some Android emulator (I didn't do that...
I didn't even try running Android apps on Pinephone, so I will leave you alone in that. As I said, you could probably try on desktop/laptop in Linux via some Android emulator (I didn't do that either).
The camera is really bad.
If you still want to try it in the future, feel free to contact me - even here in this thread. I may dig it up somewhere in my pile of tech stuff, try to flash new(er) image on it and may take a photo for you and give overall feedback about current situation. Yes, digitizer doesn't work (around 10-20% of the screen), but USB still does and bluetooth mouse should work too, so I could get it running.
Quick EDIT: If you are running GrapheneOS on Pixel, I'd suggest getting used Pixel and continue running it that way - it will be much faster for you to adapt (because there would be no need for adapting) and will save you a lot of time. I currently run Pixel 6a with Graphene and it is lightning fast compared to Pinephone, which is really slow/low-end. I don't think Pinephone Pro would be that much faster to spend double on that.
I found some tutorials on that, but it didn't seem terribly user friendly and while I'd love to delve into it (especially with it being a phone I don't need), I just don't have the time these...
I didn't even try running Android apps on Pinephone
I found some tutorials on that, but it didn't seem terribly user friendly and while I'd love to delve into it (especially with it being a phone I don't need), I just don't have the time these days.
And yes, I'm on a Pixel 7a whose camera magically shattered back in May whilst I was on vacation, so the camera lenses got scratched until I got back and got a replacement, then realized there are still slivers of glass when I put the replacement in and... I can't get the replacement out though I did not heat it to seal it. grumbles I ain't got time for it.
If you don't have time for that, then I strongly advise against buying Pinephone :-D I also bought it kinda as a phone that I don't need and it was very onteresting year using it. But you have to...
If you don't have time for that, then I strongly advise against buying Pinephone :-D
I also bought it kinda as a phone that I don't need and it was very onteresting year using it. But you have to have time and dedication and be ok with you being unavailable for others through the phone at times (low signal, fiddling with distros, update-gone-wrong etc.).
It is very unususal thing to use and if you are tinkerer and curious, it certainly is worth trying. Especially if you can get like-new used Pinephone for 100€. I got even the dock in that price, so I sti consider it a win as I use the dock for Steam Deck and sometimes with Pixel for backup connection for my home (USB-LAN-router).
Freedom of speech for me, but not for thee.
This is not a freedom of speech situation.
"Your app tracking the Nazi invasion of France is endangering SS officers and has been removed at the request of the government."
When human rights are being ignored any speech in defense of those rights is inherently an expression of freedom.
When laws cease to be enforced except as tools of oppression we have to look beyond their scripture and instead at their original societal intent. In this case protecting the rights of people against a tyrannical government.
Excuse any hyperbole, but this is not a situation where any law can be referenced as the arbiter of morality, and in matters of human rights morality is all that matters.
Freedom of speech protects from one entity: the government. If Facebook doesn't like my post and removes it, much as I might dislike that, they are a private company and that can be their prerogative. But if the government doesn't like something I'm saying, they are constitutionally obligated to kick rocks.
This is a crowdsourcing application. People are sharing public information with each other. Just because the information is coordinates doesn't mean its not speech. Freedom of speach is an inalieable right. It's not a thing granted to us by the government, but is codified that the government can't strip it. It's still a violation of free speach if a private entity is doing it. That's why the government has been using private companies to whitewash rights violations for decades.
That brings the inevitable arguememt about censorship and moderation. Yes, moderation is censorship. It is good and useful, not all censorship is bad. The problem is when censorship is on such a broad platform that someone is essentially silenced everywhere, forever. Used to be only the government could ban all available forms of public discussion, but that is no longer true. We now have like 3-5 megaconglomerate companies that essentially own all modern communication platforms. Most of this was badly paraphrased from Cory Doctorow.
For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. --Audre Lorde.
We need to stop thinking about cell phones as personal communication devices.
Time to bring back walkie-talkies and encoded messgaes.
Graffiti is never a bad option.
The Horn Blows At Midnight.
If the masters truly owned the tools, they wouldn't be freaked out everytime people record ICE doing fascist stuff. They wouldn't be frantic to call out undesirable photos as AI everytime someone takes a peek at someone from the wrong angle.
They are bringing changes in ways not anywhere near as accessible 80 years ago. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. These aren't tools anyone can control anymore.
This is why it's vital that consumer devices are capable of sideloading apps - anything in the walled garden exists at the masters' pleasure.
Google has also pulled it from their store as well.
Edit: I was mistaken, it was a similar Android app called Red Dot, a day later: https://www.theverge.com/news/791533/google-apple-ice-tracking-app-store-red-dot-iceblock
Saying that Google pulled it is incorrect. It was never on Android to begin with. See https://www.iceblock.app/android.
I agree with the sentiment that they probably would have pulled it, but still best to be accurate.
I haven’t daily-driven Android for years, and when I do use it, it’s without push notifications, so excuse my off-topic question but:
Is that really the case?! Can an app actually not have push notifications without also needing a user account?
I don't personally have much experience with per-platform push notifications as the systems I've used mostly were abstractions that treat them the same from the outside and so only use lowest common denominator features. My understanding is that it is partially true, but more in the "someone needs to store the user's notification subscriptions and on iOS you can potentially have Apple store it rather than yourself" sort of way than the implied "somehow no one is storing said data". I suspect it could also be implemented just fine with topic subscriptions that could presumably be done without any fancy token or account management.
GrapheneOS called out that page specifically and I assume they know far more about push notifications than I do. https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/114789468054239286. The GrapheneOS post indicates that most of the ICEBlock Android claims are wrong. You don't manage device ids, you manage push tokens. Both Android and iOS push tokens can be queried for user info by law enforcement. Unlike iOS and Apple, Android doesn't even require using Google's push service.
Ah, my mistake, they removed a similar app from Android a day later, but not ice block. I had only seen the headline in my RSS feed but didn’t care to actually read it.
https://www.theverge.com/news/791533/google-apple-ice-tracking-app-store-red-dot-iceblock
Meanwhile, people want me to trust that it's perfectly fine for phones to require mandated android distros, apps to refuse to run on modded phones, and developers to have to register with google before their apps are allowed to run...
Feels like they play a game of chicken over whoever does this stuff first.
I need to figure how this Pine Phone actually works I suppose.
I have had Pinephone (not Pro) as my daily for a year in 2022-23 before I dropped it and damaged the digitizer (touchscreen).
There are many reasons why you could like Pinephone and there are many reasons to hate it. I will start with the latter.
Why NOT Pinephone:
Why to get Pinephone:
I'm not saying don't get the phone, just be ready for what you are about to get. Think about it as Raspberry Pi + LCD + wifi + BT + headphone jack + 2G/4G modem + battery. This is basically what you are buying with Pinephone - a dev-kit that works on the hardware side and has some software support.
Feel free to have questions, I'd love to share my hard-earned knowledge.
Most of your cons seem akin to things I do anyway (on my desktop/GrapheneOS, aka "why it doesn't just work..?" Because I want control!). I'm already familiar with Arch and found it via Manjaro, so no issues there.
The downside for me is that I require certain app store apps on my phone for my job, and I need a decent camera for said job. I am fine with a crap battery life and all the other drama, but... I have to have Outlook, MS Authenticator (I believe I could use another, but ...), and a few others I don't have to have but definitely help and so while I have the Play store installed...
I may reach out if/when I give up on my poor beaten-up Pixel 7a (which magically had a camera destruct, which honestly is the only reason I need another phone because... work requires me to take pics).
I didn't even try running Android apps on Pinephone, so I will leave you alone in that. As I said, you could probably try on desktop/laptop in Linux via some Android emulator (I didn't do that either).
The camera is really bad.
If you still want to try it in the future, feel free to contact me - even here in this thread. I may dig it up somewhere in my pile of tech stuff, try to flash new(er) image on it and may take a photo for you and give overall feedback about current situation. Yes, digitizer doesn't work (around 10-20% of the screen), but USB still does and bluetooth mouse should work too, so I could get it running.
Quick EDIT: If you are running GrapheneOS on Pixel, I'd suggest getting used Pixel and continue running it that way - it will be much faster for you to adapt (because there would be no need for adapting) and will save you a lot of time. I currently run Pixel 6a with Graphene and it is lightning fast compared to Pinephone, which is really slow/low-end. I don't think Pinephone Pro would be that much faster to spend double on that.
I found some tutorials on that, but it didn't seem terribly user friendly and while I'd love to delve into it (especially with it being a phone I don't need), I just don't have the time these days.
And yes, I'm on a Pixel 7a whose camera magically shattered back in May whilst I was on vacation, so the camera lenses got scratched until I got back and got a replacement, then realized there are still slivers of glass when I put the replacement in and... I can't get the replacement out though I did not heat it to seal it. grumbles I ain't got time for it.
If you don't have time for that, then I strongly advise against buying Pinephone :-D
I also bought it kinda as a phone that I don't need and it was very onteresting year using it. But you have to have time and dedication and be ok with you being unavailable for others through the phone at times (low signal, fiddling with distros, update-gone-wrong etc.).
It is very unususal thing to use and if you are tinkerer and curious, it certainly is worth trying. Especially if you can get like-new used Pinephone for 100€. I got even the dock in that price, so I sti consider it a win as I use the dock for Steam Deck and sometimes with Pixel for backup connection for my home (USB-LAN-router).
i haven't used it, but I think https://briarproject.org or something fancier using meshtastic would be great in this sort of situation.
I assume this can just be passed around as an APK instead, right?
It's never been available as an Android app, as far as I know.
Example number 1 of why side loading is important