• 3 Posts
  • 25 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • Yes, it talks about ownership, because the original poster talked about ownership.

    Google hosts files, and thus needs to have some semblance of control over what actually is hosted on it, or they become liable for the same content.

    Pirated material? Child pornography? etc. It all needs to be scanned and determined if it violates rights/laws and be dealt with.

    Google has always done this automatically, because the sheer scale of content they host is overwhelming.

    I totally understand the ‘own everything’ mentality that some hold. That’s fair – then host it yourself, encrypt it, and you can hold the key to your little kingdom. For most people, that isn’t a factor.

    To get back to the original claim – they don’t claim rights over what you post. It is yours. You just can’t host other people’s stuff. The definition of that is incredibly broad and largely commercial. 99% of people will never, ever run into the issue. 99% of the remaining 1% will discover it innocently (such as another poster trying to back up office). The remaining will already be versed enough to encrypt their data locally before uploading.





  • It’s articles like this that make me glad there are numerous horses in the race.

    Autonomous driving is an incredibly complex problem. We have people like Musk who thought they could throw money at the problem and have it solved in a few years, with disastrous results.

    We’ve lost Uber, and Cruise is flagging. Both had been touted as examples to follow. Both have had some serious safety problems from moving too quickly and lacking caution.

    Behind all of this is Waymo. Plodding along, gathering vast amounts of data and experience and iterating slowly.

    I think they, out of all these players, understand the stakes at hand, and the potential profit on the other end. But you have to get it right. It has to be nearly perfect, because people need to trust it, and our emotions are fickle.





  • Hook, line, and sinker? No. But Pixel Pass was a money thing, this promise is a brand thing.

    Most people didn’t know Pixel Pass exists. They drop this promise, and I guarantee you your grandparents will know about it. It’s a brand killer kind of moment.

    All I’m saying is the scales tip in favour of them holding this up. We’re on the 8th generation of Pixel phones now. Generations 4&5 we’re rough, but they stuck it through when it would have been easier to walk away.


  • This is a great move for Google, and goes beyond the minimum of what they needed to do. That’s a huge step forward for them, Pixels, and Android as a whole.

    Right from the first Pixel, Google was seeking (for better or worse) to take a bite out of Apple’s pie. They’ve largely been successful in that. Without Google entering the fray, it would only be Samsung left.

    They’ve elevated the hardware expectations of Android devices. Pushed the envelope of software integration. Shown that a bloat free experience is preferable and possible for the consumer (even though many here on Lemmy want a Google free device, that is a different discussion).

    Now they didn’t merely match other OEMs, but exceeded their updated promises by years.

    Android isn’t going anywhere. This is a pillar of their company now, and Pixels are a key part of that strategy. If Google dumped making Pixels, the whole Android ecosystem would be in doubt, because who would make phones if the maker itself doesn’t believe in them? Google, by jumping into the fray, has moved from a platform provider to a pillar of the hardware ecosystem.

    So despite all the cynicism, which is justified for all but their core software, this promise has teeth. If they don’t follow through on this, we’re likely seeing the demise of Google as a company, not just the Pixel line.



  • The idea of the product is really great. The cost is prohibitive for all but major corporate customers.

    Add in Google’s track record of killing products… just like this… and why would you invest?

    Jamboard needs to be a tablet companion app first, and the hardware can follow. If they’re going to keep coming up with these halo products, then they need to support them for the long term. They also need to be willing to bite the bullet and give these away to lock people into Workspace because it’s unique and no one else does it.

    Now it’s another reason to not buy in.






  • You’re referencing a different thing. This is the open source version bundled into AOSP, not the Google Play Services version.

    Directly from the source:

    So, as I suspected, Fast Pair code was deleted from AOSP because it wasn’t being used by anyone.

    And because it wasn’t being used, it was just taking up space unnecessarily. Although HalfSheetUX was only a few megabytes in size, Mainline modules are served to many millions of people, a decent portion of whom are on metered connections.

    Note: This has no implications for the Fast Pair feature you’re already familiar with. Fast Pair started out as a feature bundled in Play Services and will remain that way for the foreseeable future. This news just means there’s no longer an open source version of Fast Pair.