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Apple is considering letting users change default email, browser, music apps in iOS:
Apple is seriously considering the possibility of allowing users to change the default apps for Web browsing, mail, or music on their iPhones. The company might also allow users to listen to Spotify or other music streaming services besides Apple Music via Siri on the iPhone or on the HomePod smart speaker.
These revelations were outlined in a report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman this morning, who cited multiple people familiar with Apple's internal plans.
[...] Currently, iOS users can download third-party applications for mail or Web browsing like Outlook or Firefox, but they cannot set them to be the default apps that the system opens when a link or email address is tapped in another application, for example. Apple does allow users to do these things in some cases with its macOS software for desktops and laptops, even though it's not possible on the company's mobile platforms.
[...] And as Bloomberg notes, more elegant support for streaming services besides Apple Music would almost certainly be a boon for sales of Apple's HomePod smart speaker, as that lack of flexibility is a major limitation for that product compared to its competitors. Yes, HomePod users can stream Spotify to the HomePod using Apple's AirPlay technology, but many users may feel that is not a complete solution.
[...] Bloomberg's sources were careful to clarify that no final decisions have been made yet, but given Apple's longstanding commitment to a different philosophy, the fact this change is being seriously considered at all is on its own a major development.
When it released iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 in 2019, Apple already began lifting some smaller limitations on how users could customize the mobile operating system. So if these changes for default apps do go forward, they could herald a dramatic shift in Apple's software strategy—whether they're made to make things better for users, to appease regulators, or both.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 22 2020, @10:50PM (10 children)
I don't - I'm just reporting the verdict of the marketplace over the last 30 years or so.
They failed at "successfully producing a laptop". Read the complaints on their kickstarter page [kickstarter.com].
People who never got theirs, people who got theirs in pieces, poor performance because it was seriously obsolete by the time they started shipping, would only run 1 distro, people demanding their money back, etc.
Safer and cheaper to just take an old android phone, jailbreak it, and install a linuxOnAndroid image.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:07PM (9 children)
Stop spreading FUD. Unboxing and reviews of their products are all over the internet. Their laptop is now on its second iteration.
A repurposed Android device won't run mainline Linux 5.4 It seems you've missed the entire point of the project.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:25PM (8 children)
So all those complaints are fake? Unboxing reviews mean shit. You know that, I know that, cut the crap.
Also, why should I care what version it runs as long as it's at least 3.0? It's not like end user experience has improved since.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:40PM (7 children)
A few people lodged a complaint on a website (out of how many orders?) - you're saying the whole company is a sham? For heaven's sake.
If you're not just here to troll then I suggest you educate yourself about maintaining legacy devices with old kernels via lineageos, halium, replicant, postmarketOS. It is a significant maintenance burden, when they could be contributing to improving the end-user experience - which you suggest is what they should be polishing.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday February 23 2020, @12:00AM (6 children)
Why bother. Old distros run just fine on newer hardware. Security updates? Don't need. Feature updates? Don't want.
Don't need, don't want. Why would I want a phone that runs linux anyway? The only thing I use my phone for is half a dozen websites, a couple of news apps, wikipedia, a weather app, apple's maps, safari taking a few pictures (dogs and kangaroos mostly), email, notes, reminders, and the apple health app to keep track of walking distance.
So wtf would I do with a pinephone? Nothing. If I want to use linux, I'll use it on a proper device. I want a real full-sized keyboard and an oversized screen.
It's sad that distros from the early years of the century are more polished than today's offerings.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @12:37AM (5 children)
It's all about you?
A community of nerds from ubports, luneos, plasma mobile, maemo Leste, manjaro and others do want to run free software on their phone.
Not to mention folks that just want the latest Android release long after their manufacturers have abandoned them. Backporting kernel features and security fixes is a pain.
Running a current kernel is the optimal solution.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday February 23 2020, @02:02AM (4 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by janrinok on Sunday February 23 2020, @08:23AM (3 children)
He's making a valid point though. Just because you don't want such a phone doesn't mean that there isn't a demand for one. You probably don't tinker with Raspberry Pis. I do, I have 8 currently doing useful jobs. You might not like trying different distros but many people do. And many people would like a hardware phone on which they can install whatever they want. More bright ideas come from people than come from companies. After all, it is the people in companies that have all the ideas that companies' make money from. Why is that so difficult to understand?
Your viewpoint is valid - for you. It doesn't mean that other viewpoints are invalid.
And, as a digression, why is it that every discussion on technology ends up with you including the fact that you are trans? So what? If you want to be accepted for what you are it has to be nothing special - you don't have to remind us that you are different and then wonder why you get treated differently. Your sexuality is completely irrelevant - unless of course you think it makes you special.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Sunday February 23 2020, @04:38PM (2 children)
To be fair, didn't the AC bring up the trans fact first on this page? It wouldn't be the first time that's happened either, and it sucks. Other than that, at worst it's just off-topic if it doesn't relate to TFS in some way, but that's why we've got journals.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @08:59PM
Very true, not Barbara's fault someone doesn't believe her back story.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday February 23 2020, @10:38PM
The PinePhone shill posts the same thin all the time - "You should have bought a PinePhone " - on any topic even remotely connected. Considering how low-volume the product is, any sales by any means is welcome to them, but I see it as forum spam.
Now I will bring up being trans when it's relevant, such as in discussions of pay discrimination between the sexes. We've all heard the arguments about how it's not possible to make a 1-to-1 comparison to pay better the two sexes for various reasons (the last time I pointed out that even if you hold all variables constant, women are still paid less, TMB said I was full of shit. But consider this - we have people who have the same work experience before and after transition, the same qualifications, the exact same capabilities - and yet in the case of trans women, we either end up being paid less via an imposed job change or fired, whereas trans men generally either continue to receive the same or more pay.
Same with bathroom bills. There has never been a politician or religious leader who has demanded that trans men use the bathroom of their birth sex. These are not trans issues - they are examples of how women in general are more easily discriminated against.
BTW, if number here are anything like the rest of the industry, there's 10 more here who stay in the closet, usually posting as males. They won't feel safe coming out, even if only behind a bum. I know one from the green site that, 14 years later, is still totally in the closet at work and online, and after bringing up the topic with his wife, had to choose between contact withthe kids and staying in the home or transition. They're still in the home. Gotta hate blackmail.
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