This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Gross.
I'm currently in the process of moving everything over to a pixel running GrapheneOS and am glad to be doing so because of shit exactly like this.
I just want technology that does what I want it to and doesn't spy on me. Shouldn't be this hard especially if I pay for the product.
Did the same thing last September, my S21 Ultra's battery was getting tired and I was tired of the Samsung bullshit. So far it's been great and so has battery life, plus it's a breath of fresh air to only have apps I want installed without needing ADB to remove them after Google/Samsung decides they want them reinstalled every few weeks.
Only downfalls have been my broken banking app (which might be the actual app being broken based on Google Play reviews) and the amount of tweaking I needed to do to get OSM as my default map for Android Auto.
I finally have a phone that actually feels like mine, not just a leased device from the manufacturer.
who the fuck asked for this
Samsung's board of directors. Of which half are probably using iPhones.
They probably saw the Virtual Try on from Google I/O and shit their pants
That's crazy.
Anyways I'm gonna pitch never buying a Samsung phone again to the HR people if this comes true.
Just a little bit more privacy invasion. C'mon, juuuust a little.. 'till you no longer notice.
This is excellent.
Our entire internet ecosystem is the "frog in boiling water" metaphor.. They just keep turning the heat up.. we need to delete the entire internet and re-work it from the ground up... somehow
I actually don't agree with this, because while Facebook, X, Amazon, Ai and Google are all the front of the internet, they still aren't all of it. The small web is still churning along with selfhosted blogs and neocities, selfhosted apps are everywhere, some, like Disroot, even open to the public.
People willingly choose to use this garbage and let it into their lives. There's millions of sites and services to see, but people stick with familiarity.
It's like everyone is eating the same meal, even though there's other restaurants everywhere.
Glance says it will retain the biometric data used to create your digital avatar for 12 months from your last interaction with the service or until you manually delete your account. The company claims that your images won't be used for any other purpose or shared with third parties without your consent.
Thousands of pictures of regular people's faces, not just professional models, is valuable data. They're definitely selling that shit or using it for their own AI training.
Thankfully, this is a fully opt-in experience.
And how long before they decide to make a default instead of opt-in?
opt-in:
Can we take all your stuff?
Buddy had the nightmarish idea a while back with all the new generative ai stuff for video chat services injecting ads using the faces/voices of the participants in lieu of payment. Just, regularly-schedule ad breaks in your call where "your friend" suddenly starts talking about how excited they are about Raid: Shadow Legends
Or the other way around.
Remember those atrocious sexist Axe body spray ads where men get rejected by women until they shower themselves with deodorant? Imagine that but with your own face. And the face of your crush as the women rejecting you because the algorithm knows anyways.
Delightfully devilish...
The moment I see myself in an ad, I'm giving up on technology and joining the Amish.
Don't do that. The Amish are not good people.
https://www.grunge.com/268104/the-dark-truth-about-amish-country/
We should all be more like the actual Luddites - they destroyed technology that was being used to exploit and/or displace workers.
Whelp, I guess I now own my last Samsung phone. It was a good run. I've been considering going pixel for a while so I can put graphineOS on it. This just helps me make that decision.
Running GrapheneOS on a Pixel is incredibly easy. You don't need to be technical at all to get it set up. The instructions and the process are simple. Get on it!
It's more a matter of running out the clock on my S22. When this puppy is dead, pixel is next.
I'm thick as mince and am running GrapheneOS, AND I came from 16 years of iPhones.
If I can do it, anyone can.
Are techbros so bland that they really can't think of literally any fucking way to make money that isn't just 'ads'?
Well I guess I'll never buy another Samsung.
Why would anyone opt in 😭
Is this just so they can wait a few months and say, "Not enough people were discovering this Great Feature, so we're enabling it by default"?
I've already been getting the itch to leave Samsung and try something different. I'm keeping my eye on the upcoming Nothing Phone 3, if it's genuinely a "flagship" for £800 I might jump ship.
I know a bunch of folks who will opt in because their thought process regarding technology is pretty much "new = good."
I was just sitting there looking at the cool art I have as a lockscreen wallpaper and im thinking, man I wish my phone would scan my face and place an ai slop image with my face badly right on my lock screen. Thank god Samsung is so in touch with what features consumers want added to their $1000 devices.
Absolutely wild clown show we're living in
This is what makes me excited for Linux phones to finally become viable. Every major phone manufacturer is making their UX worse and expanding their hidden spyware for the sake of profits.
Graphene os is great but you can only install it on a Pixel. But they give extended support for older devices which is nice. HOWEVER, people are making Linux builds for even older devices, including the iphone 6. Getting a new phone after 7 years might not be necessary in the future.
I hate everything about this title.
, and so the enshitification of what once was a great phone continues.
Oh good, another reason not to buy Samsung anything. I already just didn't like their UI.
Just want to say that Call of duty Black Ops II was pretty fucking accurate up to this point.
But I guess Treyarch was too optimistic about having a women as a POTUS
LOL. New phone cases are going to have little privacy sliders to go over the cameras.
Minority Report, the bad parts.
Edit: glad I'm using a deGoogled Android phone, can't trust manufacturers not to enshitificate.
Yet more discrimination against faceless people
That's gonna be a yikes from me dawg
What the fuck.
Could they not?
If companies don't push the envelope, nobody will mark it return to sender.
So...what'll probably happen:
I have a galaxy. I disabled the Galaxy AI. I disabled the Google AI on my phone, and I blocked Google search AI. I disabled Microsoft AI. I think ATT has one that listens in on calls to warn you of a call being a scam, but I haven't figured out how to disable that. Many of my calls are privileged under atty/client privilege, so have someone or something else in on that risks waving that. I want to disable it, but I don't know how. I tried to disable Yahoo's email AI. But, now there is yet more AI for me to disable?
Dear tech companies, please stop shoving AI down my throat. I really don't want it.
sighs....typing this on an S23 Ultra. I can't wait to get a pixel to degoogle.
