
A killer Android app - pufuwozu
http://arcriley.blogspot.com/2010/05/killer-android-app.html
======
teilo
He is running a hacked firmware that apparently does not have the native
Android dialer, and then wants Google to remove the app that didn't run right
with his hacked firmware? Sorry, but that's not Google's fault.

~~~
Batsu
You don't need to hack your firmware to install other dialers. There are
dozens on the android market.

Edit: Dialer One's release notes for v1.2 say that an issue was fixed
regarding United States emergency numbers. Not sure if that pertains to this
issue, though.

~~~
usaar333
That's correct.

You do need to hack the firmware though to not be able to access the default
dialer (which he had done).

I just tried on my phone: even if I install Dialer one, I can always go to all
applications and run the default phone app.

Without the modified firmware, he could have realized the 3rd party dialer had
a bug and immediately switched to the default in seconds.

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jrockway
_Dialers available on the app store should be screened by Google to ensure
they comply with US laws._

What are the applicable US laws? If they say "a cell phone must be able to
make calls", then Google and the carriers will just sell a "PDA that has a 3G
connection" instead. If it makes phone calls, excellent... but if not, well,
it's not supposed to. (Reminds me of these stickers that came with my VoIP
phone. The instructions said I was _legally required_ to attach them to "any
device that could not call 911 during a power failure". That day, my alarm
clock and microwave got a new sticker. They cannot, sadly, call 911 during a
power failure!)

(Remember how HDTVs were required to have an HDTV OTA tuner? So the HDTV
manufacturers just sold "HD monitors" instead, which weren't required to have
the pricey tuner. You can't extract blood from a stone.)

Incidentally, one time, I witnessed a mugging and all I had was a coffee cup.
I tried to use it to dial 911, but it didn't work and the victim died!
Starbucks should ensure that their cups comply with all US regulations!

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kylemathews
That article was 100% different than I thought it was going to be.

~~~
msg
Remember Nelson in Ep 3F17 after seeing Naked Lunch with the fake ID: "I can
think of at least two things wrong with that title."

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jpcx01
A good reminder that hacking your phone (jailbreaking, rooting, etc) can cause
serious problems outside of just the technical realm.

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alanh
Reminds me of an old Baseline Magazine cover story about how poor software can
kill. The poster child? Software that calculated radiation doses for cancer
patients which produced results off by ~1000% when the lead pads were entered
counter-clockwise instead of clockwise (!). It caused dozens of deaths in
Panama.

The unforgettable cover photo was a dead body under a white sheet, with a toe
tag.

(Ironically, it seems this article was drastically truncated during a website
migration: [http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Projects-Processes/Why-
Softwa...](http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Projects-Processes/Why-Software-
Quality-Matters/))

~~~
callahad
Haven't heard of that particular case, but the Therac-25 caused six people to
receive 100 times the amount of radiation intended, killing three of them.

There were a number of issues, many UI-related, but what I found most
interesting was that the prior Therac machines, which ran the same software,
had hardware interlocks that allowed them to operate safely, masking software
bugs. When the hardware interlocks were removed in the Therac-25, the buggy
software was able to make the machine misbehave dangerously.

Citation: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25>

~~~
extension
Therac-25 is the most famous incident, but it's just the tip of the iceberg.
This is still happening, and it happens _a lot_.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/health/24radiation.html>

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moe
Despite the linkbait headline I found this to be an amusing take on the whole
smartphone craze.

Sure, his own fault for running custom firmware I suppose. But I wouldn't have
been surprised if the story had ended with "but the battery was drowned"
either...

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castis
I really expected this to be about an app that impressive to the point where I
had to get an android..?

~~~
pwhelan
Voting down someone for saying it is linkbait? I don't get that. The title is
entirely misleading in this community.

~~~
pufuwozu
Sorry for the link bait - I just didn't feel it was right to create a new
title after the author of the blog post had spent time to come up with one. I
was wrong and should have come up with a different title when I submitted it.

I'd be happy if a moderator changed it.

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thinkcomp
I have a Droid for Android development. During the time it was activated the
dialer crashed frequently. I wasn't impressed and definitely wouldn't depend
on it in an emergency.

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there
i guess that's slightly less bad than actually rebooting

<http://code.google.com/p/cyanogenmod/issues/detail?id=388>

(this was a problem with the official android code, not cyanogenmod)

