
Android 10 - Aissen
https://www.android.com/android-10/?
======
est31
> Now, you can share your Wi-Fi details with guests via a QR code while
> keeping your password secure.

This is terribly misleading. The format used does contain the password so your
password _is_ still being shared:

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code#WiFi_network_login](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code#WiFi_network_login)

* [https://github.com/zxing/zxing/wiki/Barcode-Contents#wi-fi-n...](https://github.com/zxing/zxing/wiki/Barcode-Contents#wi-fi-network-config-android-ios-11)

I'm saying misleading because there is an interpretation of that sentence that
is technically correct: Some people might use short passwords so that they can
tell them to guests. With this feature, they can use longer _secure_
passwords. In this interpretation, "keeping your passwords secure" would refer
to the entropy of the password instead of how shared it is. However, when you
normally read this sentence, this isn't the interpretation that comes to your
mind.

I guess that some internal document written by people who understood the
difference had something like "with this feature you can have now secure
passwords and you are still able share them with guests". Then someone without
awareness of this difference reformulated it into the current form.

~~~
coryfklein
Security is and always has been a sliding scale, despite always referred
colloquially as being either present or absent. "Keeping your password secure"
in English really means, "improving the security of your password".

~~~
shkkmo
Except this feature doesn't add security, it just adds a tool for reducing the
usability trade-off of having a long hard password.

I think it is very misleading phrasing.

~~~
ehsankia
Does the person who scanned the QR code have access to the wifi password after
the fact on their phone? From what I remember, there is no way to access saved
wifi passwords, you can just modify it but can't see the stored one.

This way, if you just have them scan the QR code on your phone (and don't let
them photograph it), technically you have securely given the password without
them knowing it, right?

~~~
bscphil
If they use the most popular QR code scanner on Android [1], it shows the
password in the scanner (IIRC), along with a button to connect to it. There's
no acceptably secure way to give someone a WiFi password without ... giving it
to them. QR codes are a simple graphical representation of text, they don't
encrypt that text in any way. Sharing a password this way is not _more_ secure
than them handing you their device and you typing it in - and if you do that
you should regard the other person as in possession of your password.

[1]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxi...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxing.client.android)

------
alistproducer2
I recently bought a Nokia 2.2, which in in the Android One program. Two main
reasons: a removable battery and OS updates for two years and security for 3.
At this point, there's very little difference between the hardware of
flagships and commodity, especially considering the real-world use of
smartphones. I mean, is anyone compiling programs on these things or doing
anything particularly intensive? Not really. So given the choice between a
$1000 phone and a $140 one, I choose the latter because in 2019 your really
paying for the software.

Since Android 9, I really enjoy Android. It feels like a totally different
experience with things like split screen, gesture nav, and smart replies. The
Android team is doing a great job as of late. I look forward to getting this
update. I hope we get to a point where the OEMs stop being the gate keepers of
our phone's OSs and these devices become more like laptops, in the sense of
being able to run whatever we want.

~~~
unicornporn
> a removable battery and OS updates for two years

This provokes me. Are we supposed to be happy with _two years_? The
environmental impact of e-waste and the production of electronics should not
be understated. I have a Nexus 5 as a backup phone. It works just as well as
my main handset. I know how to duck the G-surveillance and I'm able to keep it
alive because I have the knowledge to install roms. Not everyone does.
Personally, I much prefer Android over iOS. But when someone asks me what
phone they should get I always tell them to buy an iPhone. This is one of the
reasons why.

~~~
coryfklein
> Are we supposed to be happy with two years? The environmental impact of
> e-waste and the production of electronics should not be understated.

Can you elaborate on this? Because I'm thinking of the amount of garbage I put
in the bin over a period of two whole years, and the size of my phone, its
packaging, chargers, cables, and manuals all together is just not even
comparable. Even if you add in the environmental cost of the manufacturing I
can't imagine it's even a drop in the bucket compared to other waste.

I'm sure it is a good idea to optimize for waste in some respect, but cell
phones seem like they must contribute such a minuscule relative amount so as
to be safely ignored for now.

~~~
thekid314
The lifetime of most electronics is much longer than 2 years. The only thing I
need to replace regularly is headphones.

~~~
sundvor
My Hifi system is 22 years old now, and going strong. Rotel and Infinity built
some seriously good stuff back then.

I'm afraid of how much it'll cost me to replace it when it eventually breaks,
if I can't fix it. Have already refurbished the speaker surrounds once, about
10 years go.

Guy at Speakerbits (Melbourne AUS) said the speakers would be worth more than
when I bought them, as the mid range quality market just didn't exist anymore
- either cheap throw away after a few years crap, or you'd have to go really
high end.

I thought I'd check, and it seems like Speakerbits have now closed down.
That's such a shame, they did a most excellent job. I guess that's a
reflection of the times, people aren't willing to repair anymore. :(

~~~
sundvor
Correction: Speakerbits went offline for a while a couple of years and that
was talked about - then silently came back it would seem.

Great, at least I know where I'll go if I wear out the current surrounds or
anything else.

------
vladdanilov
The website assets are optimized in a rather strange way. The total page
weight of ~20MB is huge for mobile. The images are heavily compressed using
WebP lossy with quite noticeable blockiness and washed out textures and fine
details, but squeezed into 1MB, yet the videos are only lightly compressed,
and make up most of the page weight. Had they been compressed with libx264 at
good quality, the page weight would be more than 70% smaller, and there would
not be any need to ruin the image quality that much.

~~~
codedokode
The images are awful (at least in Firefox). They are compressed even worse
than Google Developer Insight usually recommends. The text in screenshots is
barely readable.

The dark theme is uncomfortable for my eyes (ok, maybe it's fault of my poor
quality TN matrix, but anyway I don't want to see it). I doubt anyone wants to
read white text on a black background.

The letters are gigantic and are optimized for hi-resolution monitors.

Also, as I understand despite new release Google still haven't solved the
problem of apps and Google itself siphoning all available data from the phone.

Also I hate how Google manages updates. I had to install a Hangouts app.
First, it copied the Google Account details I entered into it, into the phone
and now all other apps can access them which I never wanted. Luckily I was
smart enough to make a separate account for this purpose. Second, sometimes
when I start it it says that it is updating Google Play Services (so I have to
humbly wait until Hangouts does its important business) without even asking if
I want that or not. Why does the messenger takes a work of a package manager I
cannot understand. Probably, because they need to install new telemetry
modules even if the user didn't activate Google Play. Very unpleasant
impression.

~~~
derrikcurran
> I doubt anyone wants to read white text on a black background.

I do! Much less eye strain and easier to read for me. In fact, I read your
comment in white text on a black background. My eyes are very sensitive to
light in general though.

~~~
nudpiedo
I hope you know that black color light doesn’t mean less light.

~~~
derrikcurran
* "black color light" does not exist. Light cannot be black.

* Each pixel in an LCD has 3 subpixels (red, green, blue). There is a light source behind the pixels. To display black, white, or anything in between (gray), all 3 subpixels allow an equal amount of light through. What controls the shade is the amount of light allowed through each. For black, the lowest possible amount of light is allowed through.

* On an OLED display, like the one in my phone, each pixel emits its own light and can be controlled independently. A black pixel on an OLED display emits practically 0 light and even uses less power as a result. This is why blacks look way better on OLED displays.

* See for yourself. Use your phone in a dark room and fill the screen with white only and then try again with black.

* You know how black absorbs light and white reflects light? Black does not absorb light because it is black. It's black because it absorbs light.

------
pranau
I wonder how many of the features advertised here will make it onto the
Android 10 release of other OEMs. In Android 9 for example, the ability to
select text via OCR in the recent apps screen was limited to only the Pixel
devices for some strange reason even though all Android devices had access to
that feature prior to the release of Google Assistant via the Google app.

In a similar vein, Digital Wellbeing was officially limited to Pixel devices
and Android One devices although it could be sideloaded onto other phones
(where it ran perfectly fine) running Android 9+.

~~~
izacus
Most of them are choice of the OEMs - e.g. Samsung held back Digital Wellbeing
on their S9 phone updates so it could market their own reimplementation on S10
series.

Everything marketed here is available to all OEMs - Pixel specific features
are marketed on Pixel marketing pages.

~~~
ant6n
... We're getting more and more into an age where mobile hardware doesn't
matter anymore, because it's become so fungible. And Samsung will do very
badly, because they're hardware is good, but their software sucks so bad.

~~~
vetinari
Comparing Samsung's OneUI and stock Android, I would pick OneUI without
blinking.

I used to hate Touchwiz.

~~~
jm4
It more comes down to the permanently installed crap software they bundle like
it’s a 1998 emachine. And the lame Samsung account requirement. And Bixby.
There’s that weird rewards program thing where you earn xp for using different
features on the phone. The updates are slow. It feels more like spyware than
standard google stuff. The whole thing is a pretty terrible experience.

~~~
vetinari
So, if some apps are bothering you, disable them? I routinely disable
everything I won't use, and it's not only the vendor crap, but Google crap
too.

It works perfectly fine without Samsung account. I couldn't be bothered to
make one, and I'm not missing anything. If you do not have Samsung account,
Bixby won't bother you either. Just because there was a step to make one in
the OOBE, doesn't mean you have to make one, you can skip it.

Updates are there at the beginning of every month, I have no idea why you
think they are slow (and for some reason, S8 updates are there day or two in
advance to S10 updates... go figure). Samsung doesn't insist on using cloud
services, unlike Google, where Google Photos nag the user to enable upload to
cloud, even if the user never intends to do so. Google apps do not know the
answer "no", Samsung (or Sony) apps do.

------
JoshTriplett
The way they show and demonstrate gestures, along with the UI at the bottom,
strongly suggests that they intend to eliminate the semi-"hard" buttons in
favor of gestures. That would save space, give people a bit more control over
fullscreen apps, and provide a less "modal" UI where the same gestures
_always_ work even if the buttons aren't available (such as when playing
fullscreen video).

Also, "Get security updates faster." is _huge_ ; this is effectively saying
"no matter who makes your phone, you still get updates".

Deprecating "Device admin for enterprise" makes it much safer to access work
resources from an otherwise personal Android device, without giving your IT
department the ability to remote-wipe your entire device.

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
9 already implements the swipeable "pill" navigation. It isn't on by default
if you upgraded from 8.

~~~
TremendousJudge
I tried the pill, couldn't manage to get used to it. I just hope they don't go
"we know what's best for you" on this one.

------
garysahota93
As a recent iOS user coming from Android, this _almost_ makes me want to go
back. I really do miss the Smart Reply and native Google Assistant features.
But alas, iMessage pressure is real in my friend's group.

~~~
kbenson
> But alas, iMessage pressure is real in my friend's group.

Man, in my extended family SMS text group, this comes up once every couple
weeks. One of us will note they aren't getting a random message, or someone
will send a video and the quality will be crap, and the iPhone users will all
mention how if we all had iPhones, this wouldn't be a problem.

Cue a few of is getting kind of triggered because it's only Apple's co-opting
of SMS on their phones that those people think that's really an Android
problem and not some slick marketing on Apple's end to get their users to tell
other people how their SMS texting is so much better. Not that we couldn't
_all_ just switch to some third party app (or hangouts even), and then we'd
all have a comparable experience, but that's entirely lost on most of them,
and not worth griping about after the first or second time or you come across
as that weird relative that can't just do the easy thing[1]).

I can't wait for RCS messaging. I'm honestly wondering it Apple will support
it, or try to segment the text messaging market even more.

1: As if buying a $750 phone is the "easy thing".

Edit: Changed $1000 to $750, since that's the lowest cost I could find for a 1
year old phone, and I don't think buying multiple year old hardware is
something you can _expect_ out of someone else, even if it might be my
preferred strategy).

~~~
wyldfire
> Man, in my extended family SMS text group, this comes up once every couple
> weeks. One of us will note they aren't getting a random message, or someone
> will send a video and the quality will be crap, and the iPhone users will
> all mention how if we all had iPhones, this wouldn't be a problem.

IMO a reasonable compromise is WhatsApp. Rich features like iMessage's but
portable and lots of people already use it.

I have never had a Facebook account and I've always been wary of them. I think
it's fair to be concerned about privacy w/WhatsApp but I'm torn because it's a
very practical solution.

~~~
gnusty_gnurc
Telegram is the best compromise imo

~~~
dochtman
Please stop advocating for Telegram:

[https://gizmodo.com/why-you-should-stop-using-telegram-
right...](https://gizmodo.com/why-you-should-stop-using-telegram-right-
now-1782557415)

[https://twitter.com/tqbf/status/987372998935105539](https://twitter.com/tqbf/status/987372998935105539)

Signal is definitely the more secure choice, but Whatsapp is still king of the
network effect at least in my neck of the woods.

~~~
novaRom
Update 8/31/2019: After publication of this article Telegram’s creators
implemented several changes that are recognized by qualified cryptographers as
a vast improvement to its encryption scheme. Since 2017, for example, the
MTProto protocol has been recognized as IND-CCA secure.

~~~
nickik
Its still not actually on by default and you can't use encrypted chat synced
between your desktop and phone. Group chats also don't have encryption and
(last I checked) count be run e2e encrypted.

Probably 99%+ of conversation on Telegram are visible to the Telegram company.

------
wnevets
I know this is silly but losing the dessert codename is kinda sad.

~~~
dugluak
I was rooting for Quindim

~~~
SwiftyBug
Queijadinha wouldn't be bad either

------
jhack
Can't wait to try it out in three years when I replace my eight-month-old
phone that won't be getting an update.

~~~
treelovinhippie
My 20-month-old Pixel 2 got the update today.

~~~
ehsankia
Pixel 1 is also getting Q update, which is now 3 years old.

------
uncheckederror
Nice to see Signal (not the default Messages app) in the Smart Reply demo.

~~~
headmelted
Is it?

I use Signal because I don't want Google reading my messages.

~~~
sschueller
If you use the build in keyboard they can read your messages.

~~~
propogandist
Yep. Just like spellcheck in Chrome that will communicate contents to Google
servers, unless you opt out.

------
mfontani
> Android’s new Dark theme uses true black to keep your battery alive longer.

None of the screenshots around the caption seem to use "true black", though!

~~~
readams
Note that "true black" saves almost no additional power on an OLED vs a dark
grey.

~~~
Someone1234
Indeed. But it does look nicer/work better for what black themes are actually
good at: Using at night.

So while the additional battery savings between "true black" and grey are
within the margin of error, the battery benefits remain for both and the non-
battery benefits remain for our eyes.

~~~
mopay
Feels like "dark mode" is an advertisement gimmick more than a useful feature
for some products now.

~~~
bmurphy1976
No way, dark mode is great. Combine it with an internet browser that has a
night mode (Samsung's fork of Chrome) and the phones are significantly more
pleasant to use at night.

~~~
mopay
Dark mode is only great if absolutely every single website and app you use
support it, and you are never shown bright images ever, because then your eyes
explode. This is, it's useless.

~~~
Someone1234
That's a fallacious argument. Imperfect solutions can still be superior to the
unmitigated problem, and they are in this case. You're essentially arguing
that unless the solution is perfect, they shouldn't even try, and I'd point
out you haven't justified or even tried to justify that black or white point
of view.

~~~
mopay
In this case, yes. I think it's better to use light apps at a low brightness
level than to use dark apps that might or might not blast a white screen at
you. I think that flash of light is terrible for your eyesight, much worse
than constant light apps.

~~~
bdefore
I'm inclined to agree with you that sustained periods of darkness that include
rapid change of light level may be less healthy for the eyes than consistent
levels of overall brighter display with such shocks, but I'd like to see some
research to back it up.

------
matchbok
It's always nice to see how each Android release compares to iOS. Usually
about 10% of the features while releasing to about .05% of the active phones.
The vast majority of people won't see these features for another 3 years.

~~~
flixic
Hoping to be wrong, checked the data. It's been about a year for iOS 12 and
Android Pie. According to the latest numbers, iOS 12 is at 84% [1] and Android
Pie is at 27% [2].

I also don't think that waiting 3 years will push Pie percentage much higher.
Android 6.0 is more popular than 8.0 and 7.0.

I don't envy Android devs... Can't imagine it's fun to develop apps when you
have to target OSes released 4+ years ago because 21% of devices still run
them. For iOS the "4+ years" number is way below 1%.

[1] [https://david-smith.org/iosversionstats/](https://david-
smith.org/iosversionstats/) [2] [https://gs.statcounter.com/android-version-
market-share/mobi...](https://gs.statcounter.com/android-version-market-
share/mobile-tablet/worldwide)

~~~
graeme
It’s 88% for ios 12 now, apple keeps a tally here:
[https://developer.apple.com/support/app-
store/](https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store/)

Only 5% are on earlier than ios 11.

------
mopay
Just at the top of the page there's a screenshot of the Assistant. If you
toggle dark mode (there's a floating button at the bottom of the screen to do
so) the text changes from "when is my flight" to "what time is my flight".

------
jl6
Did HEIC support ever come to Android? I recall it being announced for Pie I
think, but cannot find any evidence of people using it.

I’ve been hoping that Android adoption of HEIC would increase the availability
of software to view and manage such files.

~~~
cosmotron
From the article (if you scroll down to the Camera section and expand it):

> HEIF Imaging

> Support for new file format (.heic) to save still images.

------
cowmix
When does ChromeOS get Android 10? I'm sick of being at 7.X.

~~~
iamnotacrook
I'm not sure I could tell you which version of Android is on my chromeos pc.
The apps are each in little Windows. Are some apps not supported because the
version of Android is too old?

------
BlackLotus89
Some of the features sound amazing "sound amplifier" sounds like a hearing aid
like function. If it has a low audio delay and good function set to filter
noise it could be revolutionary. I was looking for something like this in app
form not too long ago.

I wonder how gesture navigation will work with some apps.

I wonder which features will make it into aosp/lineageos. I'm missing android
smartlock in limeageos. If I could wish for a feature for android it would be
"game mode" from oxygenos.

~~~
derekp7
Too bad it the sound amplifier app only works with wired headphones, with
Pixel 2 and above not having a headphone jack. So now that they got me to
switch over to bluetooth headphones, I have to dig out the USB adapter and an
older pair of wired headphones to try it out.

Not sure why some apps such as this hate bluetooth, since this app would be a
perfect match with bluetooth earbuds.

~~~
BlackLotus89
Good thing that I won't buy a phone without a headphone jack. I didn't even
saw that piece of information. It's probably because of the delay thought, it
can get very annoying if you add bluetooth delay to the processing delay.
Let's see if we can find more information on that. Maybe it can even remove
your own voice

------
mpalczewski
I guess I'm not impressed. - Edit: not a bad release

Live caption on device: Sounds great. Very useful if you are hearing impaired.
If you just want captions for the words the are difficult to make out, some AI
isn't going to help there. AI's are currently worse than I am at detecting
words.

Smart reply: This looks useful. Not having to lose info as you create an
appointment or less clicks copying and pasting directions. Yeah, great
feature. Good job here.

Sound amplifier: Remember when everyone was up in arms because iPods could
boost sound way too loud. (disregarding different source volumes and headphone
sensitivity). So everyone limited the power output of their headphone jack.
Well, now we've come full circle and we can blast our ear drums the way god
intended, it just takes more button presses. This is like yeah, we took away a
feature because of hysteria, now it's back.

 _Edit:_ Thanks for explaining this to me. This feature does indeed seem
useful. Audio that is more clear, being able to hear what's around you, yeah
this is great.

Gesture navigation: I hate this. Maybe some people like it. If you are one of
those people, I'm happy for you.

Dark theme: I originally though this feature was dumb. Next we'll have gray
theme, or blue theme. Battery savings just didn't seem that great. After using
this for a while, I like dark theme, in an unexpected way. I find that the
black colors are less stimulating and the phone is less of a distraction.

Digital wellbeing: I haven't found these features all that useful. Perhaps
someone else makes use of them. I mostly see this as shaming for using the
phone too much.

Focus mode: Remember that one android release that made it so you can easily
block all notifications from an app. Well, later they made it so you can only
easily block a category(can still block all just more presses). Then apps can
create as many categories as they want(so you keep getting spammed). This time
they didn't do the user friendly release, in order to focus you have to check
each app you have installed. Completely backwards like they didn't really want
to do this feature.

Family link: I'm not a parent, kids and phones sound like a nightmare to me. I
hope this helps you parents. No opinion from me.

~~~
skybrian
This is really quite cynical, particularly about sound amplifier. It should be
very useful to the millions of people who are hearing impaired, but haven't
gotten a hearing aid yet. (Most people tend to put this off for a while.)

There's some irony that some folks might have gotten hearing loss from
headphones in the first place, but it sounds like a useful feature.

~~~
mpalczewski
It will be useful to me, but there's already a volume button. Would be nice if
that just worked, instead of it being nerfed.

The volume limitations only made sense if you never used headphones less
sensitive than the oem ones and listened to source audio that was only at
maximum volume all the time.

~~~
justusthane
But Sound Amplifier isn't about making the phone's audio louder - its purpose
is to amplify the sound in the room around you and filter background noise. I
think you're misunderstanding the feature.

~~~
kmnt
they call it an amp but store description makes it seem like it compresses

------
dddddaviddddd
This should be available for Pixel phones sometime today, right?

~~~
TwoNineA
Yes, and other Android phones probably never, except some current flagships
who'll get it in 6+ months.

~~~
siffland
Looks groovy, but my 2 year old LG is stuck at Android 8 with Security updates
stopped in January.

I wish android hardware was better supported for the long haul. I would even
go as far as saying i would pay yearly for android maintenance than to pitch
my phone for a OS update. My phone has plenty of power....at least we have XDA
forums.

~~~
izacus
So why not buy a phone that has guaranteed updates? Like a Pixel or one of the
Android One series? That's how you vote with your wallet.

Android 10 will be deployed to 1st gen Pixels today too.

~~~
siffland
Your right I used to have a Nexus tablet, it was great and well supported,
until it kept running out of space. I require something with a microsd card
slot, i travel to a lot of places with zero internet access and any
information or media or whatever i need needs to be on my phone (i carry a
work laptop, i am not going to carry 2 laptops). When i looked none of the
google phones provided that, maybe they do now.

Also 2 years ago i paid $700 for the phone. There is nothing wrong with the
hardware, so i should pitch it to get another expensive phone? There is
android 9 on the XDA forums for my phone.

Off topic, but i find it commical that my 17 and 18 years old kids yell at me
because my 14 year old car gets about 27 miles to the gallon and pollutes so
much, but every year they beg me to buy them a new phone so they can junk
their old ones......

~~~
thekyle
I'm sure you could find an Android One phone with a MicoSD slot. My new Nokia
7.1 has one and is Android One.

[https://www.androidauthority.com/nokia-7-1-specs-909661/](https://www.androidauthority.com/nokia-7-1-specs-909661/)

------
integrii
Wait a second. The back button is being replaced with a swipe from the left
edge of the screen???

What if my phone is really wide? What if I miss that gesture 40% of the time?

~~~
markmark
On my pixel at least you can select to use the new gestures, the previous
pill-style gestures, or the old three icon method. I use the pill-style ones,
because I have other actions triggered on edge swipes that I want to keep.

------
whalesalad
Great to see more attention being put on reducing distractions. The 'Digital
Wellbeing' features are great, as well as the name itself.

------
pilif
Is it just my imagination or did that “smart reply” video teaser feature an
Apple emoji thumbs-up emoji as an UI element of Android?

~~~
vesinisa
You're right. It's the Signal IM app, which seems to use the iOS emoji pack.

------
wozniacki
Has someone done a thorough deep dive into both iOS and Android's privacy
stances as of current writing?

I ask the following since most of my friends just don't know which of the two
to trust anymore although they clearly dont trust Google more. Not so much
that they would consider getting a Librem 5[1] but are very wary of either OS
given the spate of privacy violations in general, off late and given the
heightened concerns over the surveillance era we currently live in.

So I ask, have they found conclusive evidence for either iOS or Android to be
putting money where their mouth is, exclusively in the areas of privacy and
customer data protection?

Or is it just mostly glib statements with not much in the way of substantive
deployments to safeguard users?

Sundar Pichai recently said something on the lines of "Privacy should not be a
luxury good", subtly taking a dig at Apple.

    
    
       "To make privacy real, we give you clear, meaningful 
       choices around your data. All while staying true to two
       unequivocal policies: that Google will never sell any
       personal information to third parties; and that you get
       to decide how your information is used.[2]
    
    

Is there any meat to any of this, as of this writing?

Simply put if you didn't mind sacrificing a few bells and whistles which of
the two OSes would your next phone have? Android or iOS?

[1] Librem 5 smartphone

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Librem#Librem_5_smartphone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Librem#Librem_5_smartphone)

[2] Google’s Sundar Pichai: Privacy Should Not Be a Luxury Good

[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/opinion/google-sundar-
pic...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/opinion/google-sundar-pichai-
privacy.html)

------
trulyrandom
Factory images are also available now for Pixel devices:
[https://developers.google.com/android/images](https://developers.google.com/android/images).

~~~
vesinisa
It seemed to come to my German Pixel 1 as an over-the-air update straight away
as well, currently downloading it. Nice job, Google!

------
butz
Still, only 10.4% of Android devices are running version 9.

~~~
flixic
The data I find says 27%: [https://gs.statcounter.com/android-version-market-
share/mobi...](https://gs.statcounter.com/android-version-market-share/mobile-
tablet/worldwide)

------
ericfrederich
I remember reading somewhere that a future version of Android would be able to
tether an existing WiFi connection but I can't find the article. I hope this
Android 10 contains this. It's painful to go to a hotel that has a captive
portal and not be able to use something like a Chromecast. Would be super
useful to sign in once on your phone and then share that WiFi with other
devices.

~~~
shadeless
Both my Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 9 do this, they call it Wi-Fi
sharing:

[https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-do-
i-s...](https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-do-i-set-up-wi-
fi-tethering-on-my-samsung-android-device/)

------
MrMetlHed
How will Google avoid being sued (like Amazon / Audible is being sued
[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-
lawsuit/top-u-...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-lawsuit/top-
u-s-publishers-sue-amazons-audible-for-copyright-infringement-idUSKCN1VD1ZY))
for the "Live Caption" feature?

~~~
pgeorgi
For example by making it a feature that isn't exclusively used for books?

I suspect it's implemented using the new Playback Capture API
([https://developer.android.com/preview/features/playback-
capt...](https://developer.android.com/preview/features/playback-capture))
which provides an opt-out, too.

~~~
inlined
Seems dangerous to opt out of what is arguably an accessibility feature.

------
autoexec
> So, if a friend asks you out to dinner, your phone will suggest you text "".
> Then, it’ll also pull up directions right in Google Maps.

"Smart reply" sounds like a privacy nightmare. Now just opening a text causes
unsolicited connections to made to Google's servers and other websites
containing the contents of your messages. I hope this is something you can
easily disable.

~~~
spiznnx
It's completely on-device [0]. The prediction models have been shrunk [1] so
no connections are made (Google has enabled lots of shrunken on-device models
with TF Lite [2]) . I'm not sure why this page doesn't call that out
considering how privacy-focused the other features are.

0\. [https://www.androidauthority.com/smart-reply-
android-q-98364...](https://www.androidauthority.com/smart-reply-
android-q-983647/)

1\.
[https://www.tensorflow.org/lite/models/smart_reply/overview](https://www.tensorflow.org/lite/models/smart_reply/overview)

2\.
[https://arxiv.org/pdf/1708.00630.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1708.00630.pdf),
[https://www.tensorflow.org/lite/guide](https://www.tensorflow.org/lite/guide)

~~~
autoexec
That sounds way more reasonable!

------
KoenDG
Just a thought: how's the integration with the Linux kernel going?

I recall reading a few months ago that

1\. There are significant differences between the "main" kernel and the one
android uses.

2\. This was a choice in early development.

3\. Efforts are underway to largely undo this, making them as similar as
possible.

And as per usual, I can't find the article anymore.

~~~
shmerl
Google were pushing for better upstream usage. For example they are backing
Freedreno driver for Adreno (Qualcomm) GPUs.

------
19870213
I wonder if my Moto Z2 Force will get this (probably not), only got Android 9
a couple of weeks ago. If it does get it, then I hope the update will fix the
wonky wifi issues that I'm having that weren't present in Android 8...

~~~
19870213
What you know... The security update for July just dropped and my wifi starts
working better. No mention of it in the release notes (just that it's the
security update for July)...

------
Causality1
The rate limiting of wifi pinging means Google just ripped the heart out of
wardriving.

------
wdfx
So how much padding is in the release package to make the update sized 1337 Mb
? :P

------
Siecje
> HEIF Imaging

> Support for new file format (.heic) to save still images.

What is the advantage of .heic images?

~~~
ASalazarMX
A modern, patent-encumbered standard brought to you by The MPEG Group™

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Image_File_For...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Image_File_Format)

~~~
out_of_protocol
They chose it over patent-free AV1-based AVIF :(

[https://aomediacodec.github.io/av1-avif/](https://aomediacodec.github.io/av1-avif/)

P.S. AVIF-related discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16803250](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16803250)

------
xtat
99% of what I do with my phone worked great with all the features of ICS.
Today its just very slow and I have to buy a new one.

My Thinkpad has outlasted 3 phones.

I want so badly to nope out of this whole ecosystem.

Don't even mention IOS.

------
B1FF_PSUVM
_" Contaminant detection:

If moisture or debris is detected in your USB port, a notification will be
sent to you and accessories will not function."_

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."

~~~
grawprog
This new feature fills me with foreboding.

I really miss the days phones came with covers for the USB ports. They were
annoying as hell due to my lack of finger nails, but damn the port stayed
spotless. Every phone I've had lately the usb port gets so full of dust and
crap chargers stopped working properly unless I fucked around and balanced it
just perfectly.

~~~
techntoke
You can buy female dust covers on Amazon. I haven't really had issues. My
biggest complaint was how susceptible USB micro was to breaking, but no
problems with USB Type-C phones.

------
buildzr
Glad to see a big push for security updates directly from Google here, any
further details on how this will be implemented and if device manufacturers
will screw it up?

------
c-smile
Any hope for getting native Graphics API on Android?

Or is it too much to ask and so each native app shall reinvent the wheel by
its own?

12 years and no such basic stuff ...

------
Willson50
Is there a way to run Live Caption on a command line?

~~~
jpadkins
[https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/](https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-
text/)

~~~
izacus
Live Captioning is on device though - works even in airplane mode.

------
burtonator
Can they PLEASE get Android Auto to work over bluetooth? I want to wirelessly
charge in my car and wirelessly navigate too.

~~~
izacus
AA will never work over Bluetooth because BT isn't a technology capable of
reliably streaming a video stream AA requires.

There is a wifi version though, but due to regulation and unreliable drivers,
it's not widely deployed.

------
enjoyyourlife
Still no way to block network access to an app

------
shmerl
Good to see even stronger push for Vulkan. Now the main remaining offenders
who still refuse to support it are:

* MS (Xbox)

* Sony (PlayStation)

* Apple (iOS, macOS).

------
alinspired
even old google pixel 1 (2016) got android 10!

and there seems to be a re-spin already:

[https://developers.google.com/android/images#marlin](https://developers.google.com/android/images#marlin)

------
coding123
The only thing I want in Android next is native call blocking similar to Hiya
but integrated. They did a good job with my last request of being able to turn
off all notifications. Happy Android user (except when voice assist fucks up
then I'm all rage)

(Edit Ok and iPhone like messaging)

~~~
jlmorton
Pixel 3 integrates call screening very tightly, which is not quite the same
thing, but is in many ways better.

------
totaldude87
i feel odd about this timing.. why not release it with new pixel phones (like
apple does), or there is no new software gimmicky on new pixel phones?

anyways started downloading this for pixel 3a, thanks google!

------
n8hunzaker
Sitting happy on a Pixel 1 from 2016. Android gets better and better.

------
Nimitz14
Goddamnit. I just released a on-device speech-to-text app lol.

------
MayeulC
Interesting. Some of these improvements are great, others are more of a mixed
bag. To point out some of the latter:

> heif support

A shame they didn't put their weight behind avif for this one. Maybe there are
some "lobbies" at play?

> Live caption

I love it for accessibility. I loathe it for privacy. Local, self-hosted, or
bust. Same for Live Transcribe. Awesome and scary.

> Family link

It was about time google shared a tiny bit of the data it has on us, so that
we can put it for good use. Of course, this really shows the level of control
and insight Google has on us.

> Smart Reply

Some commenters here wrote that this was done locally. I would like some
source on this (is training also done locally? Nothing is sent back?). If so,
this might be interesting. Otherwise, that's plain scary.

> Keep your data private with more controls

More control is great, but that's still not enough. The app may refuse to
launch if denied a permission, we would need an option to "lie" about it. "ad
retargeting and personalization", from the screenshot, sounds like preventing
apps (or maybe just asking) to use the advertizing ID for such purposes. Of
course, they can still do it with everything else.

> Get security updates faster

Everyday Android strays further from the GPL. The way forward should be to
help manufacturers play nice (use a few persons full-time for support, promote
"mainline" devices to the public as the ones that will always receive
updates). I haven't looked into the details, but this sounds like furthering
their "trebble" HAL to run (and update) closed-source blobs on an outdated
kernel (but who cares, right? because they put less and less stuff in the
GPL'ed kernel).

\---

My apologies if that reads like a rant. The level of control Google has on our
(digital) lives is downright horrifying. I'm honestly pulling all my weight
behind free software alternatives to google, both donating and contributing,
but that's not nearly enough, as the vast majority of people simply don't
care. You know what they say about putting all of your eggs into the same
basket? One that will not hesitate to blackmail you to get them back, and
maybe taste one or two. And now, how about putting yourself into that basket,
for good measure?

I'm quite interested in alternatives such as postmarketos, pinephone, librem
5, plasma mobile, ubports, lineageos, replicant, mycroft, mozilla voice,
firefox, peertube, nextcloud, collabora online, openstreetmap, Matrix, and
countless others. Most projects lack manpower and funding, unfortunately. Yet
most of the ones I quoted are quite likely to succeed, IMO.

~~~
izacus
> Live caption

>I love it for accessibility. I loathe it for privacy. Local, self-hosted, or
bust. Same for Live Transcribe. Awesome and scary.

Uhhmm... Live Caption is running on-device speech recognition model. So it's
local only.

>Smart Reply

>Some commenters here wrote that this was done locally. I would like some
source on this (is training also done locally? Nothing is sent back?). If so,
this might be interesting. Otherwise, that's plain scary.

No, the model is built ahead of time from other sources then downloaded and
applied locally. Data isn't sent anywhere.

>Everyday Android strays further from the GPL. The way forward should be to
help manufacturers play nice (use a few persons full-time for support, promote
"mainline" devices to the public as the ones that will always receive
updates). I haven't looked into the details, but this sounds like furthering
their "trebble" HAL to run (and update) closed-source blobs on an outdated
kernel (but who cares, right? because they put less and less stuff in the
GPL'ed kernel).

It didn't work for last 15 years, why do you think it'll suddenly start
working now?

~~~
MayeulC
Al right, if those are ran locally it's great. But I take issue at the fact
that they make it difficult to tell. And I'd be really surprised if they
didn't try to leverage an internet connection when available.

A pre-trained model sounds a bit less useful, but that's likely a better use
of the energy that would otherwise be spent training individual models.

> It didn't work for last 15 years, why do you think it'll suddenly start
> working now?

Well, it seems to be kind of working with chromebooks. The market has changed
since then. And Google really didn't do a thing about it for that whole
time... Also, legislation is slow to catch up, but I would have hoped for some
"right to repair" or similar to chime in at some point, and change the cost-
benefit analysis.

But it might yet change. Lima, Freedreno, VC4 are slowly becoming usable for
the GPU, and there is a slow but steady uptake of devices getting their
drivers mainlined. It's a shame that mostly concerns older devices, as people
don't necessarily like to tinker with their $1k+ devices.

------
tidenly
This update just bricked my Pixel - are Google even testing these things?

------
conradfr
I guess they ran out of new feature ideas ... and release names.

~~~
theandrewbailey
They announced the release name thing a week ago:

[https://www.blog.google/products/android/evolving-android-
br...](https://www.blog.google/products/android/evolving-android-brand/)

~~~
conradfr
Yes I missed that. Makes sense I guess but I still think the name and logo
were a fun and lovable part of Android, and a popular tourist spot at the
Google campus.

------
llampx
Wow, the bar at the bottom is a rip-off of iOS

~~~
gowld
Which bar?

~~~
placatedmayhem
Not OP, but I think they're referring to the task-switching thin line at the
bottom.

------
rvz
> With Android 10, you’re in control of your privacy.

With privacy being the latest buzzword in the tech industry and all this news
about privacy blunders I keep seeing, For Google to market something like this
for Android makes you wonder what other nefarious features that have been
added to Android that they didn't tell you about.

In terms of privacy, Android 10 instead screams "Upgrade and lose control of
your privacy".

~~~
readams
Actually there are a number of new privacy-enhancing features in this release.
Probably the most prominent is that it will help you choose which apps should
be able to get location information in the background. Google obviously has a
tricky relationship with privacy, but as far as I know Android 10 is strictly
better in that regard.

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
Better would be adopting the permissions controls that LineageOS provides.

~~~
thekyle
You mean Privacy Guard?

