There’s a certain “people’s republic” where they introduced a new government signature on all android apps. For “safety”, as they “check” the apps for you 😉
For now it can be bypassed after three pages of scary warnings but in the future?
Maybe it could be a big reason of why they’re liking harmony os that much, you don’t need to manually approve android apps if android apps are completely unsupported
TBH, I’m mildly surprised that this is a recent change. Signed binaries are neither new technology nor all that difficult.
Compared to all of the other crazy things that government does, this seems like relatively low hanging fruit.
PS don’t give our orange leader to be (or congress) any ideas…
Where do you live that you are being governed by the Insane Clown Posse?
Suburban Michigan
Juggalopolis.
People’s Republic of the Clown.
shepooh regime
Infamous Cave of Pooh
I need to know where this is so I can make sure I’m very far away from where this is
China
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Yeaah… im starting to really dislike phones tbh… i might start sticking to my laptop from now on, infinitely less restrictive
That’s a perfectly acceptable plan, were it not that a laptop is much less handy. It’s cumbersome to use a laptop while standing in a crowded bus, for instance, that’s what a phone is good for.
I did exactly that many years ago. Ditched my phone and went with x86 UMPC with builtin 3G modem, the name of which I don’t remember because it was some random Chinese no-name. Unfortunately that experiment coincided with the era of “fuck websites, we’re going app-only because we’re so hip”. I was in a world of pain right off the bat when I got a carrier plan, specifically marketed for usage on PC’s, and it did not work. I called them and they said to me:
- Do you have Android or iOS?
- I only have Windows
- Windows phone?
- No, Windows 8…
- Well, you’ll have to use the app to activate the SIM card…
Turns out, the usage on PC’s meant tethering…
Lots of online things, if they were even available as websites, were highly cut down versions of apps. And SMS 2FA, goddamn. I remember not being able to buy booze and shoes because, apparently, phone confirmations were required in those establishments. Good thing they’re fading out in favor of TOTP and passkeys. But, at a time, I had to swtich to a carrier that allowed me to use “corporate” features like SMS forwarding and SIP telephony. Also, fuck WhatsApp, that shit can burn in all fires of hell.
On the other hand, I really miss that time. It was liberating, just not having like, a few dozen malwares in my pocket tracking me down just to track someone’s dog, or a bus, or to spy on someone’s buying preferences or whatever. But things have gotten quite a bet better over the years, so I’m kind of inclined to repeat the experiment with my new-ish OM3S which I carry because I still cannot imagine going out without a proper PC on me (don’t buy it, though, it is severely underpowered, better get something GPD instead).
I don’t think much has changed since then. There are still many services around that require an app, because it’s cool
And also there’s a million things that are app-only. You can use an emulator, I guess, and I suppose on a newer laptop than mine it might even run smoothly.
You’ll be treated as a freak if you can’t produce a smartphone in certain situations, though, and the impact of that is underrated.
What about a mini laptop?
Or, alternatively, one might opt to look at the world around them whilst they are using public transportation, instead of solipsistic immersion into a screen.
I was led to understand that “terminally online” was an undesirable state to exist in.
“Terminally online” is, indeed, an undesirable state to exist in, but so is the urban hellscape in which public transportation operates. The screen is a far lesser evil.
Fucking Smart Phones, how do they work?
Why is your phone half a meter long?
That’s only on their local android varieties though. That looks like a Xiaomi/Redmi phone? In that case head over to xiaomi.eu, download the EU version of the ROM, and flash it following the instructions there, it’s very straightforward.
With Oppo and OnePlus phones it’s equally simple, there are a ton of how-to’s over on https://forum.xda-developers.com/ for all models. If you stay in China, best get their Indian ROMs, the EU ones have some mobile bands inactive that are not in use there, but are in Asia.
For other phone manufacturers, it’s anywhere between trivial and impossible (Huawei for example). Xda-dev is your best source of info usually.
More recent Xiaomi phones for the Chinese market have locked bootloaders. Their European counterparts can still be unlocked, but they have tightened that as well, supposedly because the CCP told them to.
Typing this on a Poco F6.
Crap. I got OnePlus 7 pro and 10 pro in China and could still unlock them easily, haven’t checked since.
Global users can unlock Xiaomi phones, but have to jump through more hoops and deal with restrictions. For example, there now seems to be a daily limit on how many devices their server accepts to unlock. Took me three tries to be successful in the “first come, first serve” line.
Afaik, Chinese users are now dependent on paid services to unlock their phonew for them. How they get around the official restrictions? I don’t know.
I mean, there are sellers on Taobao and such that sell imported versions from HK and Japan, but I doubt that’s what the majority does. Most locals probably never get tempted to install some Western apps that won’t work without a VPN anyway, and if they have the knowledge and skills to install and use one, they know what to look for.
Augh i hate xiaomi so much.
Businesses tend to follow local laws, even outside China.
I hate Xiaomi for other reasons aswell,
Why have we given juggalos so much power?
Because there’s magic everywhere in this bitch
Hot lava, snow, rain, and fog. Long-neck giraffes and pet cats and dogs.
B A R S
It was always going to end this way.
It must run on magnets.
ICP - The Loons
Well you bought a Chinese phone. The Chinese government likes to restrict what its people see like all authoritarian governments.
Get something with stock Android or iOS. Better yet, go foss droid
pixel with a custom ROM for OG freedom lovers!
I feel your pain. Went to have a wank last night before bed and went to pornhub and my state government wants to verify age via ID card. So pornhub just said fuck that shit and my ip address is blocked from visiting the lovely site. Am sad
Would mobile data work? Websites always think I’m in Colorado
They just want to see your face before you masturbate. ;)
Wait until they start demanding an “after” picture.
VPN?
VPN works just fine, as long as you can set your location. I know this because some sites are blocked in my area, and I can get to them when I change my location in my VPN.
Or just use tor. Be careful when searching nsfw stuff mind you.
As someone who doesn’t know tor well, why be careful? Just the normal prudence when looking up xxx, or something specific to tor?
Depending on what search engine you use. One that also searches .onion addresses. You could end up finding some illegal nsfw material.
Thanks
Isn’t that too slow for streaming video?
True, forgot about Tor.
Yeah, good point
So, have you bitched at your state rep about it yet?
Oh you though state bitch works for you? You got it backwards.
State Rep is corpo bitch. Better take the complain to porn hub, they would then order state bitch to fix it.
You just gotta send an email with videos and pictures of you having a wank that only say “This won’t stop until I can watch porn freely again” .
Like they’d listen. I’m in Oklahoma, liberals don’t have a voice here.
Xnxx and xvideos don’t give a shit where you live friend.
Tor
For Tor to work, you have to reduce your security settings, and allow javascript; that’s not generally a good idea when you’re using Tor. Even when you do that, the network is slow enough that videos don’t seem to complete loading. (I just checked.)
Texas?
Oklahoma 🙃
Can you get some of the native legislation in on this? Would be hilarious if pornhub was available on the reservation but not in the rest of Oklahoma.
Oof sorry to hear that, friend 😞
At least your country is down with the clown.
Fucking phones, how do they work?
Whoop Whoop
Why did you even buy a phone meant for the Chinese market in the first place?
Could live in China.
Odd since he is on an Italian-speaking instance
Plenty of foreigners live in China and sign up with smaller lemmy instances that aren’t blocked (yet). lemmy.world (and funny enough,.ml) are. I also chose mine because it wasn’t blocked, spent almost 7 years in China and only left in July.
Okay, then the question becomes “you moved to an oppressive authoritarian regime and are surprised they are oppressive and authoritarian?”.
Could be a descendant of Marco Polo.
Might want to get out of china.
China also ends in-a the vowel!
random arm flapping
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Presumably because it’s much cheaper.
There are reasons why it’s cheaper, and none of them improve your life.
There are plent of cheap chinese phones supported by lineage os tho.
Eh BIOS level rootkits have been around for a while. If uncle sam wants to watch you, believe me they will, just the same way uncle china does.
Uncle Winnie
Well today it’s maybe a bad idea (I havent really digged through it all recently but it seems to be a not good idea), but back in the day Xiaomi was the beast phone for cheap, with all the bells & whistles like swappable battery, sd card, good CPU & RAM etc. for a fraction of the cost of an iPhone or Samsung.
So well, time changes!
My 5 year old Xiaomi I got for €350 has about the same specs as an iPhone 16, except for the much better chip in the iPhone.
Don’t buy Xiaomi.
I used MIUI.EU on Xiaomi phones for some years and it was pretty great (and inexpensive). But I wouldn’t suggest it in the USA because the carriers here don’t always play nice with them.
