Sur-Pies! Google shocks world with sudden Android 9 Pixel push Google today somewhat unexpectedly started rolling out to the masses its latest version of Android – dubbed Android 9 Pie. This major build of the mobile operating system is right now being released to Pixel devices as well as the Essential Phone. Google says other Android devices will get the update over the course of this …
Probably not.
Apart from actually getting the updates when they are released. I could (on a 6s, coming up on 3 years old) have access to the iOS12 beta, should i so wish.
I will have access to the full release on the day it is released, as will devices as old as the 5s (5 years old?) and the iPad mini2. Even the last iPod touch will get it.
Are we any better off from the meaningless spying? maybe, slightly, but probably not.
little bits of applications shown in context of other apps. I can see why it sounds enticing, but let's see how long before it fails in one of two ways:
- either it's an even-more-walled garden that G sells like ad space to "trusted" parties, so miraculously, my BongCineMaster ticket app won't integrate because G only likes (i.e. is paid by) GaaFlixDeluxe for movie tickets
- it's some sort of self-registration-by-app thing, and we get a cute new vector for ads and malware.
'As a Brit (from Yorkshire, specifically) the word "Pie" evokes thoughts of savoury dishes like pork pies, chicken pie, etc.'
I believe that in USA "pie" is another word for pizza. Though they also have apple pie. In Australia, we agree with the Brits, especially the good old Aussie meat pie, AKA mystery fun bag. We also have apple pies and fruit pies. Six of one, half a dozen of the other, would feed a family.
I habitually have to turn up phone brightness (my Sony is almost unusable in bright sunshine) and I habitually use CCleaner to hibernate FB, Play Store, Amazon Prime, my most used apps! What sort of psychopath will I be turning my next phone into?!?
And as far as Google Maps, I recently had to use it offline (download a section of our fine capital city), because I'd run out of data and only had hotel WiFi. Only to find it was useless, as it hadn't actually downloaded any side streets and pedestrian areas needed on my "walking tour" of London one afternoon!
If you want offline maps I can recommend both Here and OSMAnd. Here is very fast and has great navigation if you're driving, OSMAnd has all the details (and more) and is what I use when cycling, but there are plenty of other apps that use Open Street Maps.
Open Street Maps is great in areas it covers well, but there are lots of areas that it doesn't cover well. If you use an OSM based nav system, and you are going to an area you're unfamiliar with, you probably want to check how good OSM is for the area you'll be in.
I'm immediately wondering if malware can be created to train it to disable security features by giving false haptics, camera and mic inputs etc. That would be fun for them to patch, does anyone fancy re-programming the neural net? Or block swathes of features instead. Age-old functionality versus security blah blah.
Wondering if Raspberry Pi Foundation should sue, or at least be asking Google for a hefty donation here? The BBC article even features a number of red fruit android-themed pies (one of which I'm still trying to decide whether it's meant to be raspberry or strawberry)
Even if they had the same name, there's no confusing an OS for a piece of hardware, so no. In any case, Pi and Pie are spelt differently, mean different things and the former uses a picture of a raspberry and not a slice of pie.
Which is probably why Google where happy to have Android Key Lime Pie eighteen months after the first Raspberry Pi.
Not sure it's that clear cut here. Pi and Pie may be spelt differently, but they're homophones and Raspberry Pi was always clearly a pun on raspberry pie with a mathematical tilt. It's not called raspberry 3.14 or raspberry 3 arctan 3^(1/2). As for confusing a piece of hardware with an OS, I think most people have heard the term "android phone", google even sell one themselves. Android Key Lime Pie is quite a bit different from Android Pie. I'm not saying google have set out to copy RPF here, but if you don't defend trademarks against infringement you lose them, and this is pretty close.
It seems doubtful to me. The key for a trademark infringement isn't that there's similarity between marks. It's if someone could reasonably buy one thing thinking it was the other. In this case, it's hard to see how that would happen.
The purpose of trademark is to prevent consumer confusion. In this sense, it's less an "intellectual property" thing and more a "consumer protection" thing.
The purpose of trademark is to prevent consumer confusion. In this sense, it's less an "intellectual property" thing and more a "consumer protection" thing.
Not really, otherwise what's the justification for companies being able to sue over infringement? Trademarks exist to stop people trading on the reputation of others, which has both a business protection aspect and a consumer protection aspect. Consumer protection laws protect consumers, if a product isn't fit for purpose it doesn't really matter what company you bought it from in that respect. If you thought you bought it from a reputable company, but it was actually counterfeit, then the counterfeiter has taken business away from them by taking advantage of their better reputation and damaged that reputation.
It seems doubtful to me. The key for a trademark infringement isn't that there's similarity between marks. It's if someone could reasonably buy one thing thinking it was the other. In this case, it's hard to see how that would happen.
Both are basically small format computer devices. You might argue that Android is an OS, but most consumers will find it on a device, you don't buy an Android Pie CD or download. Say I now come along with a cheap android IOT platform with an app that lets you do some simple scripting to send out messages in response to signal on a couple of pins, and sell this on eBay as a Tweety Pie, what's RPF's position now? Has that position been weakened because of Google's product name?
"Trademarks exist to stop people trading on the reputation of others, which has both a business protection aspect and a consumer protection aspect."
I believe that we're both saying the same thing here.
"Both are basically small format computer devices."
Yes, but that fact alone doesn't mean anything. What is meaningful is the potential for consumer confusion.
What if I didn't use Lyft. Would I be able to specify Uber, or my local taxi company?
What if I don't want the thing suggesting a new way to work, or what to try in my lunch box?
The problem I have with this, is that instead of letting me live my life, these technologies risk tying me into google's partners for services and interfering with my life, instead of letting me live it.
Obviously, the devil's in the details as to how much of this stuff can be turned off, of course. But I'm very sceptical.
"The problem I have with this, is that instead of letting me live my life, these technologies risk tying me into google's partners for services and interfering with my life, instead of letting me live it."
You can always ignore it, or feed it bogus info and laugh at it's silly results.
I really don't get this predicting game. Windoze tries it all the time. I expend more mouse clicks undoing what it thinks I want to do next than if it just pissed off and let me do my own thing. The arrogance of these system designers astounds me. We're free thinking, creative humans, not machines. Give us stuff that helps, not hinders. Just get out of our way.
I thank you ;)
I hate it. I'm still running a custom Jelly Bean ROM (ViperOne) on my 3.5 year old HTC One M9. Even this old version bundled in a load of this predictive shit I'll literally never use.
I've had to install Greenify (rooted) to manage apps running in the background (i.e. disabling everything that sucks battery when the screen is off!) as well as disabling auto-updates on everything possible (big battery drain). I get about a day and a half out of it with moderate use, which isnt bad for a 3.5yr old handset with a sealed in battery!
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