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from the avoided-Betteridge's-Law-of-Headlines dept.
I've been an Android user since Froyo, over several devices. I'm beginning to think that there must be a better way.
First, although I liked Android, especially the part that was Open Source, I'll suggest that the whole Android ecosystem represents a dead end.
At a minimum, it seems like madness to rely on two or more layers of outside partners to deliver software patches and updates. It's just not reasonable or safe for end users to wait for months or years until device makers and wireless carriers deliver patches from Google - if they ever do.
That there's no way a user can update their system without their cooperation is just not acceptable today.
Second, even if an update or patch does arrive, it brings with it the likelihood that some feature or application that you have been using will be hobbled, eliminated, or just plain be made unusable by Google. Services provided by Google are subject to changes that, depending on your circumstances, make them significantly less usable. (Gmail being a prime example) Standalone apps like Reader or MyTracks may just stop working one day if Google loses interest.
Finally, there's the Play store, and the millions of apps available to users. I think that most people would agree that trying to find a usable app for a specific purpose is an exercise in frustration.
[Continues...]
The current system pretty much requires you to guess on a search term to find an app, then wade through dozens or hundreds of possible results.
App ratings are filled with obvious astroturf, or one word disses - neither of these help you tell if an app actually works. Without someone actually moderating the ratings system it is pretty much of no value.
There's no practical way to tell if an app is a finished product, or an abandoned half-baked pastime. Our only option, even with paid apps, is to install it and find out if it works.
There is speculation that Google may be preparing to abandon Android, but will a new Google OS really be any better for end users?
The problem is that Android has more or less become the only game in town, so what alternative will we see emerge?
Obvious notes:
a) Cyanogenmod - been there, done that. Not a realistic option for the vast majority of end users. And honestly, I just don't have the time and inclination to root and install it these days.
b) iPhone - actually owned a Powerbook for three years as my primary machine. Gave it my best go, but just don't like the way Apple machines do things. YMMV.
c) BlackBerry - actually really loved the BlackBerry, except that it REALLY didn't play well with Google contacts, and they refuse to support either Linux, or individual end users.
c) Linux - yup. Guess I'm spoiled. Stuff generally doesn't break, and if I need a specific tool or function — someone, somewhere has almost always created it.
(Score: 2) by goodie on Monday September 12 2016, @04:30PM
I have tracking which tells me how frequently each OS and paid vs free version is used by the owner
I have 2 questions WRT this quote:
1- Out of curiosity, I was wondering about those sort of things. Are those embedded by developers or reported by the Apple or Android as part of "sales analytics" or whatever mumbo jumbo they use?
2- Do users know that you track this? I mean is that the kind of thing that has to be disclosed even if at the bottom of an EULA or is it something that is implicitly known etc.?
I don't know much about mobile, I'm curious :)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by waximius on Monday September 12 2016, @06:39PM
Glad you asked, there's a few things going on. Keep in mind this is just my perpective, everybody has their own way of developing.
Apple does give you metrics around how many downloads of which versions of the apps you have gotten, what region they are in, and more. And the now defunct iAd system did also provide a little more insight when it was active (for monetizing free apps with ads). This is standard data you get with every iOS app.
Android does it a little differently, they provide all the same as the above, but they also show you app activity. They can tell within a reasonable accuracy whenever your app is started up, how many people still have it installed on their phones, and some other interesting bits of info. It's not perfect, but good enough, and the standard metrics on Android are much more comprehensive than iOS in my opinion. Once you throw in AdMob you get even more analytics, it can get overwhelming.
In my case, I got all of the above and built some of my own. The app was for location sharing and the payload needed to travel through my server (for lots of reasons) to be truly cross platform across Android/PC/Apple/blackberry/whatever. I was able to tag each encrypted payload with a number (1, 2, 3, 4, etc) to identify "iOS-Paid", "iOS-Free", "Android-Paid", "Android-Free", "Special builds", blah blah. So, that little tag (and Google Analytics) let me see precisely how active my app was. The amount of metadata a developer can obtain around app usage is out of this world.
There is no legal requirement to do so, but I disclosed all of the above things in a privacy policy online, unfortunately not everybody reads that. I tried to make a "lay man's" version of the privacy policy too, non legalese, so everybody could understand it. I did as much as I felt I should (ethically) to let people know: "Yes, we collect your data, but its just for providing the service." Which is true.
The data collected is purely for me to monitor how much people "like my app", the greatest indicator of that (in my opinion) would be actual usage. Aside from my personl ethics around this, no, there wasn't a legal requirement to do any of this. In fact, it's very scary to me how much data can be collected from an app and how free developers are to use it for any purpose they want.