Taking a speech class and had a chance to write about the Android platform. Figured I'd share here. Enjoy and comment as you will.
I wish to start off by saying welcome to the future. A bold proclamation yes, but with such experiments and ongoing research by numerous scientists today, technological breakthroughs are vast and epic. One of the many platforms so to speak that is having phenomenal breakthroughs is in the mobile systems department. Here lays a couple companies with R&D plans that carter towards certain parties promising slick user interfaces, application channels, and a complete web experience. Couple that with feature rich phones that allow one to text, call, global positioning (GPS), and well, you have a product to sell. Google has done just that. Taking bits and pieces of everything one could ever ask for, and merging it all into its mobile operating system titled Android. Represented by a green round-headed robot figure, Android is passing its two year anniversary, and has surpassed other prominent mobile architectures like Apple’s iPhone software. But what exactly is Android? Why would one desire to chuck away their limited iPhone, or stray away from the Blackberry Enterprise lineup? One word: Open source. Couple that with the experience (the art of customizing your device), and the synchronization aspects of the device for virtually any account you have on the net, and you have a total package.
Having a total package within arm’s reach, and inside your pocket is quite a powerful tool. With Google’s Android platform, there is never a point where you can say No. Any and every idea can and could be coded into the device if you have the means to do so. Open source is the ticket. Asking yourself what this means is actually a very simple question. Open source is the definition of computer code that is freely available to anyone who wishes to find it. Google has opened up the software to all who have a spirit to create and provide applications (Apps) and programs to others. Hackers, coders, and all techy guros have created a plethora of net-libraries ranging from support groups, forums and websites to further help noobies in the process. Sounds like a lot, but in reality, the experience is quite easy going. Competitors like Apple and Blackberry have limited their system to developers by safekeeping some of its computer code. This limits creativity, as it puts restrictions and limitations as to what exactly what one can create. Add to the fact that companies like Apple also screen apps to a much higher caliber, halting smaller apps without much bang in the beginning to be choked to death. It seems as if anything is available for pleasure with Android though. If it doesn’t exist, pop into a forum and jot down a reply on a thread. If that’s not enough, I’m sure you have one friend that has already found solutions in the “Green-Guy”. There is always someone there who has the tools necessary to create it, or rather has already created it in the first place.
From forums and coders who have the know-how and tools to create a mind-blowing experience, the customization factor of Android is truly one of its largest selling points. To be quite honest, each and every android device could be considered a work of art. It’s all in how the user desires it for themselves…how deep the user wants to venture; how deep goes their rabbit? From changing backgrounds and wallpapers, to adding widgets to your home screen, the android spectrum allows one to make the phone their own, morph it into how they see fitting. But how is this different from other products? Surely other phones allow their users to alter what they see on screen. Yet I assert, the android experience is different. Almost, if not every aspect of android is customizable. Icons can be altered, the font can be changed, dates, times, anything can be tweaked. Sites like XDA, AndroidSpin, and AndroidandMe provide great reviews, heads up, and forums to browse through numerous applications, both beta and final. The options are endless, and it’s open in the air to anyone who desires a bit of change. Many new phones come preinstalled with newer software, as you might here Froyo, Éclair or Gingerbread tossed around. These are simply codenames for newer versions of software from Google. If your carrier doesn’t support the newer software, chances are a coder has already made it available for you. Convenience without a price attached!
Free in price is seemingly synonymous with freedom. Freedom to choose. Freedom to enjoy. Freedom to experience. Freedom from a stationary computer. Android is a thriving system that allows you to constantly stay on the up and up. Synchronization appears a mystery as your Facebook, Twitter, email, and numerous other accounts are integrated into the system via apps or at stock. With live widgets that monitor in real time your accounts, any and all social networks, social feeds, and business/personal accounts are updated instantly. No more carrying around a tiring laptop, or waiting to login the networks at any given campus. 3G speeds and now 4G on some carriers are making mobile devices the in crowd, as speeds are comparable to standard net speeds. As many people day are on the up and up, or rather, out and about, a mobile system that constantly allows access to ones desired feeds is grand. Couple that with ability to alter documents on the fly, listen to your favorite music (via Pandora, or from the Phones Internal Memory…think iPod), you have a complete package. It’s not just a Media Device, a Business Device, a Cell Phone, as it truly lives up to the name of Smart Phone.
For me the choice was easy. I thrive off customization, the ability to make my phone a tad different, even faster, or more efficient then what the original company did for me. But as Android ages, everything looks bright and promising. To proclaim dark clouds linger would be insanity. From its initial creation of being open-sourced, to customizing features and its ability to be versatile, Android has shattered the mobile systems realm. As it races to the top, Android allows users to update on the go, with synchronization from virtually every social feed. When people ask me about phones and what should be right for them, there is no question for me. It’s never been a question about what Android can’t do, but what Android does.
<- Laughing Out Loud.
It's full of grammar faux pas, by the way.
Still very well written *only read first paragraph* but I was impressed, not bad Also maybe a bit many commas...
BTW, shouldve been posted in the off topic section
Nice Speech. I Enjoyed reading it.
Sent from Conical. 07
the original link.....http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/confessions-of-a-google-junkie-or-privacy-what-privacy/3553
Summary: A lot has been made of Google’s new privacy policy and terms of use. I say bring it on.
There are very few aspects of my life that don’t somehow involve Google. My phone runs on Android, my favorite tablet just got an OTA update to Ice Cream Sandwich (!!!), I use Chrome across all of my computers, I develop AdWords campaigns, I use Analytics to develop metrics for the day job and dive into SEO, I handle many of the CBS Interactive Google webcasts, I use Google Docs almost exclusively for productivity, and my wife doesn’t know where I am half the time until she checks my Google Calendar (which, in fact, aggregate two other Google Calendars).
I’m increasingly turning to Google+ as my source of relevant information and opinions, a function previously reserved for Twitter, and I’ve even dispensed with bookmarks, instead using Google Sites to organize important pages and resources.
I live, eat, breathe, work, and play Google and there aren’t many people more aware of Google’s business model and the amount of data it collects than I. So is it just sheer stupidity and naiveté that has me utterly embracing the Google ecosystem and relatively unconcerned about newly announced privacy policies that have caused so much consternation this week? Before you jump down to the talkbacks to tell me how stupid I really am, read on for another couple paragraphs.
As Larry Dignan pointed out in his post about the new policies last night,
Google noted that it already has all that data, but it’s now integrating that information across products. It’s a change in how Google will use the data not what it collects. In other words, Google already knows more about you than your wife.
From my perspective, though, I can live with Google knowing a lot about me. It knows, for example, that I’ve recently developed an obsession with the electric guitar and have been researching inexpensive models that I might just be able to justify as a birthday present to myself. It doesn’t judge, it just shows me the best deals in display ads on the three models of guitar and 2 models of amps I’ve been reading about the most. My wife isn’t aware of this obsession and her take on it would be judgmental (God love her!): “When will you have time to play guitar? And we’re supposed to be saving money! And what’s wrong with your acoustic guitar?”
Taking this a step further, as Google’s new privacy policies and terms of use do, I should expect to start seeing guitar-related apps in my suggestions in the Google Market and the Chrome Marketplace. Guitarists on Google+ should start appearing in suggested people to add to my circles and Google Reader should offer to download Guitar Player Magazine feeds for me. And, more likely than not, I’ll start seeing more guitar-related ads as well.
Google’s goal, of course, is to sell advertising. That’s about 97% of their revenue. By pulling people like me into their increasingly unified ecosystem, they can demonstrate very high click-through rates to potential advertisers and charge a premium to reach highly targeted and yet incredibly vast audiences.
They need to give me something in return
For me to buy into this, they need to give me something in return. Something to make all things Google really sticky. Like a wide array of free tools from Google Docs to Google Music to Google Voice. And cheap tools that I buy for my business like Google Apps and AdWords. Their new policies are designed to be more transparent, but also to pave the way for these tools to talk to each other better, making them even stickier through a unified experience and more relevant services.
Back to the wife comparison that Larry brought up. My wife knows that every Friday night is pizza night in our house. So does Google, since every Friday around 4:30 I pull out my Android and use Google Voice Search to find the number of whatever pizza joint we decide to patronize that week. Fine. Google, however, can actually do something more useful with that information than my wife can (”Where should I order pizza, sweetheart?” “Wherever, just not that place down the road. Or that other place. And make sure they’re having a deal!”).
Come Friday morning, the ads I see on Gmail or Google search should start being pretty pizza-heavy: Dominos, Papa Johns, and a place or two that has an active Google Offer. As I’m driving home that evening, the GPS on my phone should set off an alert when I drive past a well-reviewed pizza place (assuming I’ve set location-based preferences to alert me to destinations with at least four-star average reviews). And the minute I type a P in my mobile browser, Google Instant should leap into action and display nearby pizza places and a news story about a new place to get pizza in the next town.
We’re not quite there yet, but this is the sort of integration and experience that Google is covering in its new policies and terms of use. I know that my privacy red flags should probably be going off. Google has gigabytes of information about me and is using that information to help its advertisers sell products. That’s bad, right?
Guess what, folks? This is the semantic web
And yet, I don’t think it is. Many of the same techies who cry foul over these new policies have also been pushing for the development of the semantic web to make it easier to find what we actually need in the trillions of web pages floating around the Internet. Guess what, folks? This is the semantic web. When our search engines know what we actually mean, when data on the web automagically becomes information we can use easily and quickly, we’ve arrived.
And the semantic web can’t exist without “the web” (whatever that is) knowing a lot about us. It takes data for a computer to understand our needs and process natural language efficiently. Some of those data will necessarily be fairly personal.
Now, if I start getting spam from pizza places or calls on my Google Voice number from Dominos because Google has sold my contact information and preferences to advertisers, we have a problem and I’ll be waving my privacy flag as high as anyone else. However, when I opt in by opening a Google account and staying logged in as I surf the web, I’m not only consenting to the collection and aggregation of data about me, I’m asking that it be done so that the web and related tools can be more useful to me. This sort of data mining lets me work faster, play easier, and find the best pizza in a 20-mile radius.
For its part, Google needs to remain the trusted broker of these data. No, I don’t like the idea that our government could brand me a terrorist and seize these gigabytes of data under the Patriot Act. The alternative, though, is an ever-growing morass of web sites and tools that I get to dig through manually.
And, by the way, even if I’m not logged in to my Google account as I’m doing it, my ISP knows the sites I’ve visited, too, and could just as easily (if not more so) be compelled to turn over this information to the real Big Brother in all of this.
Far more trust in Google than the Feds
Honestly, I have far more trust in Google than I do in the Feds. Google is motivated by money: they need my trust to keep collecting those data to keep making it easier for me to buy things from Google’s paying advertisers. If that trust is broken by inappropriate sharing of data, then my eyeballs go elsewhere and so do the advertisers who target me via AdWords and AdSense. Our government has no such financial motivation. Money talks.
The fact that the speech recognition on my phone kicks ass because I use Google Voice all the time and it’s learned how I talk might be a little creepy, but it’s far more important that I can do a Google search or send a text while I’m driving without taking my eyes off the road.
Welcome to 2012, folks. The semantic web has arrived. Use it well and let’s keep Google’s new policies in perspective. And Google? Don’t be evil. I have a lot of colleagues who will be pointing, laughing, and saying I told you so if you ever are.
Nice article.
I think the key for Google's continued success is to keep the advertising passive, suggestions when you're searching etc. aren't in your face but they work.
You see a lot of people complaining that they've been searching for something online and then all of the adverts on the websites they visit contain something pertaining to that, and they grumble that it's annoying. Personally, I'd much rather see an advert to something that's relevant to me rather than a cluttered webpage of irrelevant information.
By targeting adverts and increasing their relevance to the individual, they are far more likely to be successful. This means that the revenue per advert is going to improve and websites aren't going to need to cover their website in adverts (at the cost of the user experience) to make it profitable.
Plus given the huge amount of free stuff that google gives you, it's a bit rich for somebody to complain that they're trying to get something back off you.
I too would much rather see things directly targeted towards me then just random ads. And everyone is up in arms about google recording what you do. Well i think of it this way, i'm fine with them getting to know me and my behavior and what i do, as long as they keep providing FREE products for me.
Ahh the good old "If they are going to screw me without consent, I would much rather they knew my name, stroked my hair and whispered sweet nothings into my ear while they did it."
I prefer to treat my online habbits like the strange neighbour a few doors down. Say "hi" in passing, and realise that while they probrobly know more than I would want them to from when I've invited them over for coffee and from peeking in my windows as they walk past, know that I don't actually have to put up with their $#!+ if they become too creepy.
Thats why its important there are alternitives and competition, and that we as consumers don't put our eggs all in one basket and be prepared to protest or move on if they stretch the friendship too far.
I know privacy is impossible in this day and age but that doent mean you have to lie back and take it. "because you know it means well and it does give you nice gifts once in a while"
My suggestion is cut your reliance on any one brand and spread out the load.
hungry81 said:
My suggestion is cut your reliance on any one brand and spread out the load.
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I like the author am reliant on Google these days. I'd be happy to look at alternatives. Granted they work on the platforms I needs them to, Android 2.X and 3.2, Linux+chrome, windows XP + chrome, and windows 7 + firefox or chrome. The linux requirement cuts out a lot of things, iTunes/iCloud for example.
Have any suggestions who/where i could go for:
Music
Docs
G+
Gmail
Needs a slick webUI, and the searching ability of gmail
Calendar
I need delegation and the ability for my wife to add me to events and share calendars.
Reader
works on all my devices, and syncs between them
I would very much like my phone to know when I leave work. Now i could do this with some sort of timer, but I end up working somewhat flexible hours, and have a leaving time of anywhere within an hour and a half. I would like it to know that since I now have "buy bread, milk, and eggs" on my to-do list (thanks hun!), that it needs to remind me of that on the way home. Even better if it can just direct me to a store with a deal on one or all of those things.
I like that the first hit in Google I get for cookies is the wikipedia page for http cookies and the second is to pythons cookielib module. Where as I bet my grandmother gets, chocolate chip cookies. The ability for Google search to know that I have a particular artist in my collection, and show me the bind's page near the top of the results without me having to add "band" to my search terms.
Anyways, if and when Google starts selling my data to 3rd parties, I'll export my data and move. Google makes it fairly painless to do that.
Hi guys,
I'm starting this thread to discuss the "eelo" project and post news about it.
"eelo" is an initiative to release a global and appealing alternative to Apple, Google, ... with as much privacy as possible, with open-source as an ideal.
The eelo ROM is going to be forked form LineageOS and won't include anything from Google proprietary services.
eelo web-services will include email, search, online office... as a consistent, sustainable and global offering.
I've been thinking about this project for several years, and now I think most of the bricks for the project are available. They "just" need to be put together and polished as a consistent offer.
This is a non-profit project, in the public interest.
I'd love to read your your ideas/suggestions about eelo!
Cheers,
Gaël
Update: I'm posting here the "foundation" articles about eelo:
1/ Leaving Apple and Google : my “eelo odyssey” – Introduction
In 1998, I created Mandrake Linux, because I was both a Linux fan and didn’t like Windows on the desktop. It’s been a long time, and I’m very happy I’ve been one of the actors who contributed to make the Linux desktop possible, even though it didn’t completely succeed. Since then, the smartphone has emerged. And it’s now a “companion of life” for many of us. On my side, I’ve been using Apple iPhones exclusively, since 2007. The main reason behind this choice is that I like iOS. It covers my needs, it looks great and elegant, and I find it very intuitive to use.
Also, over the past years, I moved from my (Mandrake/Mandriva and then Ulteo) Linux desktop to MacOS. There has been a professionnal reason for that, since I often need XCode for building iOS applications. But also, it’s very convenient to use in conjunction with other Apple devices. I can get my text messages on MacOS, I can answer a call hand-free, I have my notes synced accross my devices.
But talking with friends this year, I realized that I had become lazy and that my data privacy had vanished.
Not only I wasn’t using Linux anymore as my main operating system, but I was also using a proprietary OS on my smartphone. And I was using Google more and more. Search of course, but also Google Mail, Google drive and Google docs. And Google Maps.
I’M DEFINITELY NOT HAPPY WITH THAT SITUATION.
I’m not happy of this situation because iOS is proprietary and I prefer Open Source Software. And Apple is getting crazy, with their latest products. Too expensive, not really exciting. It also has some design issues in my opinion. It has become a social act to buy an iPhone: “see, I can buy it”. Buying an iPhone has become a snob attitude and I hate that.
Also I’m not happy because Google has become too big and is tracking us by catching a lot of information about what we do. They want to know us as much as possible to sell advertizing.
Like millions others, I’VE BECOME A PRODUCT OF GOOGLE.
Last, I think that, in the long run, Apple, Google, Facebook etc. business models are harmful for our economical and social environments.
So I want to stop that. People are free to do what they want. They can choose to be volunteery slaves. But I do not want this situation for me anymore.
Reconquer my privacy
I want to reconquer my privacy. My data is MY data. And I want to use Open Source software as much as possible.
At the same time, what exists at the moment doesn’t exactly fit my needs: of course I don’t want to use stock Android. It’s Google everywhere and its default user interface is bad (my taste).
Also, I’d like to find good online tools such as office, email services etc. that don’t belong to Google.
And I’d like to have the same confort that I have with iOS and MacOS with synchronized services.
I know about a few initiatives, in particular “PureOS” is very interesting and appealing if you want a 100% pure-Free Software. But that is definitely not something I would use daily, at least not in its current state. I need something I could even recommend to my parents or my children. Something appealing, with guarantees for more privacy. Something that we could build in a reasonable amount of time, something that will get better and better over time.
So let’s build something new! “eelo”
My decision is taken: I’m going to build something new that will be open source (as much as possible) and very attractive. At least for me, but probably it could be attractive for a few others as well.
I’ve played with LineageOS for a few months and I think it’s the way to go. You can recompile it, improve it, fork it… and that’s what I’m going to do.
Some nice web services also seem to be viable alternatives to Google apps, so I’m going to explore that and possibly aggregate that into a single service. And offer guarantees to users of this new project.
This is an odyssey, this is a non-profit project
I call the project “eelo” because eels are small fish that can hide into the sea. That’s perfect for my quest of more privacy.
I want eelo to be a non-profit project “in the public interest”. I think operating systems and web services should be a common resource: as I explained a few year ago, this is infrastructure, like phone networks, rail tracks, roads…
Non-profit doesn’t mean nothing will be for sale. Probably some eelo smartphone will be for sale, and some premium services will be available for corporates. But profit won’t be the first focus of eelo.
Eelo will be for users first, for everyone who cares about their data privacy, for everyone who wants to use exciting products, for everyone who wants to join an exciting new project.
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"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
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}
So… starting from now, I will periodically post my progresses to release an appealing alternative for the mobile and for web services.
Next time, I’ll show how LineageOS can be hacked, rebuilt and improved for eelo!
If you are interested in that odyssey, as a potential user or contributor, you can register at the eelo.io website.
Next part in this thread:
- 2/ eelo: the mobile OS
- 3/ eelo: web services
New post about eelo web services: "Leaving Apple and Google: my “eelo odyssey”. Part2: web services"
(URL removed per request from this forum mods)
leaglavud said:
New post about eelo web services:
Leaving Apple and Google: my “eelo odyssey”. Part2: web services
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You write about a new launcher. Can we see the sources?
kurtn said:
You write about a new launcher. Can we see the sources?
We will release sources on GitHun and APK builds of eelo's BlissLauncher on F-droid and APKPure once we think its stable enough and compatible with common screen resolutions.
Click to expand...
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Great!
Please don't use XDA as a way to make money. This includes posting links to crowdfunding campaigns
Thread Cleaned
mark manning said:
Please don't use XDA as a way to make money. This includes posting links to crowdfunding campaigns
Thread Cleaned
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Hello, I don't see where XDA forbids to post links to crowdfunding campaigns. Can you point me to the correct place in your terms of use?
leaglavud said:
Hello, I don't see where XDA forbids to post links to crowdfunding campaigns. Can you point me to the correct place in your terms of use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem mate
13. Advertising and Income Generation
Commercial advertising, advertising referral links, pay-per-click links, all forms of crypto-mining and other income generating methods are forbidden. Do not use XDA-Developers as a means to make money
Click to expand...
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We're not "making money", we have a kickstarter campaign to support eelo, which is non-profit. That's quite different.
leaglavud said:
We're not "making money", we have a kickstarter campaign to support eelo, which is non-profit. That's quite different.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3725368
On the thread above I have briefly explained why the crowdfunding / kickstarter threads are not allowed, as you can see, another user opened it up on the same topic.
No one is directly accusing you of trying to make money, no one said you're selling something and we actually appreciate the project initiative but "donate to us to make this happen" is not allowed as per quoted rule.
The funding goal is the amount of money that a creator needs to complete their project. Funding on Kickstarter is all-or-nothing. ... A creator is the person or team behind the project idea, working to bring it to life. Backers are folks who pledge money to join creators in bringing projects to life.
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I don't really feel happy with keeping this conversation here but as long as you're the OP I feel obliged to do it .
There are hundreds of developers and project initiators around, what if everyone will ask for funding in order to sustain their plans?
The rules says clearly, present / develop the project and if anyone wants to donate is free to do so by freely hitting the donate button, there's no restrictions.
all moderators are illuminati? just 4 gk
:v
Amar 721 said:
all moderators are illuminati? just 4 gk
:v
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No... I'm on the Darkside
xanthrax said:
No... I'm on the Darkside
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what does that mean
dark side of the brightness
:v
Leaving Apple and Google: my “eelo odyssey”: the mobile OS
2/ Leaving Apple and Google: my “eelo odyssey”. Part1: the mobile OS
So I came out about my decision to leave Apple and Google. It’s a lifestyle choice to escape the tech giants that make me a product by privatizing my personal data .And I don’t like what Apple is doing now, Apple’s attitude, new iPhone and their price… It’s also an act of freedom for my children and all the people who will care: I want them to have a choice, and also a clear and informed view on how their choices can impact their life and their economical ecosystem as well. That’s what eelo is all about: offering a viable and attractive alternative to users for their digital life.
In this new post I’m going to describe what I was able to do so far on the mobile to get rid of Google and Apple, and what remains to do (spoiler: there’s a lot). In the next part I will explain what how things will need to be adressed on web services and draw a whole picture of the eelo project.
What’s wrong with default AOSP/LineageOS?
Talking about LineageOS, you might think “why do you want to hack something that is already mostly open source and works well?”
The answer is easy: the core of AOSP/LineageOS is usable, and performing well, but it’s not good enough for my needs: the design is not very attractive and there are tons of micro-details that can be showstoppers for a regular user. Also, unless you are a geek, LineageOS is not realistically usable if you don’t want google inside.
The design point
Regarding design, I know that some Android users like it, but I really dislike the default graphical user interface. I find it ugly: icons don’t look good, colors are sad, and I don’t like the launcher ergonomy and behaviour.
So at least we need a new launcher, and better icons. Default notifications don’t look very good either, and I’m not a big fan of the settings part. Compared to the rest of the UI it could be worse, but it’s still quite sad, with a single green color in LineageOS. I’d like something more appealing, and probably better organized.
“Good news”: you can find hundreds of custom launchers and icon themes in the Google Play Store. But either you have to pay for them, or you get free stuff with lots of ads and possibly scams. So not for me.
Bad news, good news
The bad news is that I’m new to Android development and I don’t consider myself a great developer. I can hack things, I can recompile and integrate stuff, but I don’t have enough practise to program a new launcher from scratch without spending weeks on it.
The good news is that I have found a very talendted full-stack developer who is interested in the project. We have agreed, as a first collaboration, to release a new launcher, new notification system and new “control center”.
First successes
I’ve choosen to test custom builds of LineageOS/eelo on a LeEco Le2. It’s a nice 5.5″ smartphone with a 1080×1920 pixel screen, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, finger sensor in the back, and a 4K camera. It costs about 130€. Yes, that’s about $150. Yes.
Also I’m waiting for a Xiaomi Mi 5S. It’s got a smaller screen and I prefer smaller devices for my own usage. And I’ll probably give a try to the LG G6. (Want to suggest a device? tell me!)
After several weeks of work, we now have a new launcher! It still lacks a few features (such as uninstalling an application), but it’s already fully functional. On this video, you can see the “icon group” feature, and swiping between several launcher pages:
eelo BlissLauncher 1 from eelo on Vimeo.
On this one you can see the “docking icon” feature:
eelo BlissLauncher 2 from eelo on Vimeo.
We call it the “BlissLauncher” just because it’s a great launcher. And we also have a first new notification system and a new unlock screen:
Next time will be to have all that integrated by default in a new fresh build. And at the time of finishing this post, I already succeeded to flash a fresh build with the new launcher and the new notification system.
Getting rid of Google stuff completely
Now we have a better launcher for eelo, and I’m working with a great and very professional designer. He contributed a lot to the Mandrake Linux interface icons in the past, when we redefined all the user interface and all icons. Later he also contributed to first releases of Ulteo, when it was still a cloud-operating system project, and not a Citrix-alternative. We’re working together to redesign default application icons, some wallpapers, splashscreens, and also a first real eelo logo. On the long term, we will have to redesign the full user interface.
But what we want is not only something good-looking, attractive and easy to use. We want more privacy! And Google services are not compatible with my idea of privacy.
Therefore, we don’t want Google Services. We don’t want Google play store. And we probably don’t want most of Google apps such as Calendar, Email etc.
Also, we probably don’t want Facebook either and some other so-called “free” services. This will be user’s choice to install them or not. I know that we cannot change the world in one iteration, this will be step by step.
Each of this point will need to be addressed in Eelo. We will need an independent application repository, an independent and secure email provider, an independent online drive, online office services… All that well integrated in eelo. In the user interest first.
First round without Google
The first time I was able to recompile and flash LineageOS, I soon had to install Google Play Store and Google Play Services to install common applications, or I could do pretty nothing.
But there are some alternative stores. For instance, F-Droid is a very successful APK application repository that provides only 100% open source software applications.
There are other alternative app stores for non-open source applications. For instance there is Aptoide. It provides most common applications such as Twitter, Waze etc. But unfortunately when I checked Aptoide APK packages signatures and sizes, I realized that they were not the same as on Google Play Store. I’m not sure to understand well the reasons behind this situation, at least for common applications, so I looked for other alternatives.
I found APKPure to be a great store for free applications. And trust me, a lot of applications are free! Actually, I realized that on my iPhone I had only free applications. And I know many people who are using only free applications. So APKPure is a great way to go if you don’t want to use Google Play Store and don’t need non-free applications. I checked many of their packages, and they are bit-to-bit identical to the ones available on Google Play Store. There are only official packages.
An alternative to APKPure is Yalp. Yalp is an open source application that is acting as a kind of anonymous proxy to Google Play Store, also providing only official APK packages.
So for applications, I’m now using both F-Droid and APKPure. That’s already very confortable, and I successfully tried dozens apps, including the most used apps (Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, Waze, Telegram, Skype, LinkedIn, Spotify…).
But I think we’d need an “eelo store” that would deliver both:
- official free applications like APKPure
- open source applications like in F-Droid
All that into a single, appealing and fast application, where users could check easily if an app is open source or not, where users could evaluate the application level of privacy, and where users could be able to report some scam issues. We definitely need to add this to the eelo roadmap.
Lovely Google Services
There is a feature that Google has created to jail users within their environment. That’s called “Google Services”. It’s a non-open source service that you have to install if you want to use Google Play Store, for instance. It’s also used by several applications. It provides services such as:
- analytics
- account authentication
- cloud messaging (notifications)
- drive
- geofancing
- maps API
- mobile ads
- games API
…
Developers of Android applications are not forced to use them, but obviously Google is doing their best effort to make them desirable as much as possible, if not mandatory for certain features.
The good news is that many common applications, the ones that everybody is using everyday, are not using Google Services, or they do not rely a lot on them. Probably a lot of developers don’t like to be jailed in a single ecosystem.
As far as I tried, the most problematic applications in this regard seem to be some games, such as Pokemon Go. This one doesn’t seem to be usable unless you have Google Play services installed.
The good news is that there is a nice project that is providing open-source alternatives to Google Services. It’s called MicroG, and eelo will probably integrate it.
Another “great idea” of Google is their SafetyNet Attestation API. It’s something that Android application developers can use to check if the user’s device is an official device that complies with Google’s environment. It examines the hardware, the software, checks wether the device is rooted or not. In the end this can be used to prevent to application to run if the environment doesn’t comply enough with Google’s rules. Fortunately, there is “Magisk” to circumvent this issue. We will probably need to integrate it by default in eelo as well.
What about web search?
Many parts of a modern operating system can lead to “Privacy indiscretions”. So far, I’ve talked about privacy issues that come from within the system.
But if you search for something on Google, it’s very likely that Google can determine that YOU are looking for something in particular. Even if you are not using a google account in you Chrome browser, they can track your IP for instance.
So we definitely need to provide a default search engine alternative to Google search. Probably that we don’t want Bing or Yahoo either, although it’s better to use various search engines so that each of them doesn’t know exactly everything about your searches and therefore cannot consolidate your private information efficiently. We have a few alternatives:
- the well-known DuckDuckGo: even though it heavily relies on Google Search results, it offers privacy guarantees that Google doesn’t offer.
- Qwant is a new search engine that is making big progresses and now has its own index and is offering guarantees on privacy
- there is also the fully open CommonSearch: project, but it’s not ready yet
So I’m considering offering both DuckDuckGo and Qwant as default search engines for eelo search and web browsers that will ship with eelo, while still offering Google (and others) as an option. It’s true that in some cases, it is still offering the best results.
And also…
There is a long list of Internet services that can track you, send and process your personal data in many ways. For instance, using a Gmail (or similar) email account is a great way for Google to learn a lot about you.
But also, some of you probably know about the very fast Google DNS resolver: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. DNS resolvers are used all the time and by many applications. They convert domain names to IP addresses. And I say: DO NOT USE Google DNS resolvers. Each time your smartphone is looking for a domain name, Google knows about it and they can add this information to other information they know about you.
Instead, you can use 9.9.9.9 (or 2620:fe::fe IPv6) which is a fast public DNS resolver operated by a non-profit research institute that does not store your IP. And it be accessed throught a secure protocole (TLS).
Of course, it’s all the web-service ecosystem that we need to address. As I said earlier, eelo will provide a mobile system with better privacy, but also some web services such as an online office suite, some online storage etc. We will aggregate some existing web services, improve them if needed, or build new services if nothing is available.
Still, we will face one dark zone: low-level proprietary hardware drivers on smartphones. They are driving the camera, the GPS, various sensors… Hardware vendors do not provide source code for these drivers. And they are extremely difficult to rewrite unless doing some heavy and resource-consuming reverse-engineering. And of course, some of those “black box” drivers could possibly leak users’ private data.
Future options for eelo to address this issue will be to:
- partner with FairPhone or similar 100% open hardware projects
- audit low-level drivers to detect unappropriate behaviors
- design an eelo phone…
Join the eelo odyssey!
As you can see, eelo is a true odyssey. But I think that, maybe for the first time, all bricks are available to build a new, consistent, attractive, independent and mostly-free digital ecosystem that will be more respectful of users, and respect their privacy. And this could eventually challenge the advertizing model that is probably the source of this such bad and supposedly “free” model.
Again, eelo is a non-profit project, it’s a project in the public interest. Everyone who wants to join, please do!
There are many ways to contribute:
- say hello! ? having supporters help a lot
- contribute some ideas, some resources, what you are good at
- introduce us to people who can help
- talk about eelo, share eelo news and articles…
- offer a few mɃ to pay some servers
Also, I’ve started to work on a crowdfunding campaign for eelo, because some resources are needed to bootstrap this project correctly. I’m not sure exactly what this campaign will be able to offer in rewards, but I’m thinking about it. Anybody’s suggestions are welcome!
Next part: 3/ Leaving Apple and Google: my “eelo odyssey”: web services
Leaving Apple and Google: my “eelo odyssey”: web services
3/ Leaving Apple and Google: my “eelo odyssey”: web services
I’m leaving Apple and Google for those reasons and I’m putting this effort into a new project: “eelo“. For this project, one big part is the operating system, in particular the smartphone operating system. I started to work on this part with others, and had first results that make me feel that maybe my move to a better digital privacy is going to be easier than expected ?
But today, a smartphone without internet services would be like a car without gasoline. We need email, we need online storage, we need advanced online applications… Also people like to access our data from several places and devices. The operating system has turned global.
So eelo needs to provide tools that can be accessed from other places, such as a web browser, but probably also from other computers and operating systems: notes, messages, calendar… And of course, we want all this with full respect of the user’s privacy, and no ads.
Many services to address
We need to address a number of internet services and find good alternatives that we can put together into a consistent, intuitive, secure, sustainable and global eelo service.
Here is a scheme of the eelo global system as I have it in mind:
A web service review
– Email
Email means some postfix configuration on servers, with POP3 and IMAP, all with all access secured over TLS. Plus a webmail access (I’m considering to use Mailpile).
iRedMail can set up all that easily, with DKIM and SPF correct configuration, and will even make possible to offer custom domains for the eelo email service.
But if we want a private service, we’ll need security on servers, where emails are stored. That’s a key aspect and we need to apply the best practises for setting up a rock-solid secure server for storing email.
– Search / Maps
I’ve already talked a bit about search in my previous posts. DuckDuckGo and Qwant have become two excellent alternatives to Google/Bing/etc.
But I think we need to set up a generic wrapper for search, like search.eelo.io, and we’ll put whatever we consider to be good behind. That could be an aggregation service as well.
As for maps, there is an awesome and adorable project that is OpenStreetMaps. It’s growing and is catching more and more attention from users and medias as an real alternative to Google Maps.
It also now offers directions and there is a “street view” ongoing project.
We’ll have to integrate it as maps.eelo.io, probably with some customization and dedicated servers.
Of course, all these default settings will be integrated in the eelo ROM (the smartphone operating system).
– Office
We have two choices for a good and open-source Office alternative for online usage: LibreOffice/Collabora and OnlyOffice. My preference goes for OnlyOffice because it’s attractive, efficient and allows realtime online collaboration between several users on office documents.
I’ve used OnlyOffice on my servers for several weeks now, and beside a few glitches, it’s a fully viable alternative to Google Docs or Office365.
– Drive / notes / calendar
The “cloud storage” service is a big and key part of the project. It needs to be very carefully choosen and integrated because it’s going to be at the center of users’ digital life.
There are several projects that offer these features, such as cozy.io, OwnCloud and NextCloud. For now I have tested NextCloud successfully and I must say that it’s amazing!
You can easily set up a NextCloud client on your smartphone, and do the same on other PCs. Then you get all your content synchronized. Very convenient for pictures, documents, notes… I’ve tried on Linux (and Mac) and it works well.
The good news is that NextCloud can also serve a calendar that can be shared/accessed from various devices.
So for now, I’m going with NextCloud. I’m not sure about OwnCloud benefits over NextCloud. Any advice?
The first goal of eelo will be to offer a fully functional and secured implementation of OnlyOffice+NextCloud. As there is a debate about self-hosting, eelo will also provide the service as software instances that can be installed on a user’s server, in the cloud or at home, if they will so.
– Social / Messaging
Of course you are using Facebook. I do as well, not very often though. There is also Twitter. Facebook in particular is a real nightmare in term of users’ privacy. They know a lot about billions users. If you happened to do an advertizing campaign on Facebook, you probably noticed that you can target people categories. Age, gender, place of living, income, … There are dozens criterias that prove that they really know a lot about people.
So Facebook is something we should stop to use in favor of better alternatives. There is a good news: you can use Mastodon. It’s a decentralized social network. Without any central big brother who can use your data to fuel a business model.
The issue is that social networks have a greater value when you can find most of your friends/family there. Which is not the case yet on Mastodon, but in tech communities.
So we’ll keep an eye on Mastodon and see how eelo can interact with the project and possibly integrate it.
As for messaging, everyone will be able to use their messaging app of choice, but eelo will ship with Telegram by default. The reason is that Telegram is probably the most secure messaging app, and also the most respectful of user’s privacy. It also provides quality voice calls over IP. Last but not least, its client is open source (although the server infrastructure is not).
And also…
– ID / translations / …
We will need an identity provider at some point. It will be a central point for authentication. OpenID is an option, although it clearly lacks some momentum at the moment. Brainstorming is needed on this!
While it may be a more minor aspect we’ll also probably need a translation service, voice recognition service, speech service, video/voice streaming services… There are many initiatives in this field, but they are not a priority for now.
About eelo tokens
I’m thinking about releasing eelo tokens, based on Ethereum. It would be a way to get access to some eelo services, and also to thank contributors. Again, most eelo services will be free because it’s the only way to compete against the so-called “free” services from Google, etc., and it will remain in the public interest first. But selling some premium services, high-end eelo smartphones, consulting… will be part of the model to fuel the project and make possible the free services. I have the feeling that using eelo tokens could help a lot to ease service transactions between all the parties involved in eelo.
Next steps for eelo
As we’re continuing the work on the eelo custom ROM, new launcher, and integration of web services, I’m still listening to user’s suggestions about the project, ideas… Many people have already contacted me and hundreds have registered on the eelo landing page, that’s awesome ?
We’ll also probably have a separate eelo development branch for more advanced projects. Actually, I’ve been thinking a lot for a while to turn the smartphone into a conversational device – text or vocal – with conversational apps instead of legacy applications. But that’s cutting-edge development and won’t be available into eelo by default.
An eelo website is now available at eelo.io and we have a Kickstarter campaign that has already done more than 300% of its initial target. Watch the eelo campaign video.
We're recruiting developers!
- android developers
- LineageOS developers/ROM maintainers
- ...
Contact us at [email protected]
— Gaël (follow me on Twitter @gael_duval / on Mastodon @gael@mastodon.social)
This is old text. Where are the sources for the launcher?
A couple of random thoughts:
1: Eelo is an awful name. It sounds like something a baby would come out with, while learning to talk
2: As well as freeing yourself (ourselves) from the tentacles of Google and, if this is about privacy and freedom from tracking; it should aim to avoid using services based in any of the Five-Eyes Countries
Hence:
* Consider Wire (based in Switzerland) instead of Telegram.
* Quitter..no is a pretty full-featured replacement for Twitter. Running on GNUsocial and based in Norway
* Qwant in preference to DDG [France vs US -based]
* Jottacloud -also based in Norway, is a pretty good like-for-like replacement for Dropbox. Same kind of free/paid account tiers.
3: While we're being all 'European' about this (well, I am), can you make sure and use 'European English' in your documentation when you set up the website? Drives me mad when I see Europe-based companies using "color", "center", "...ize", etc.
4: In the same vein, make sure the website invites people to "Contact" you. There's a special place in hell reserved for anyone who uses that puke-inducing phrase 'Reach out"!
kurtn said:
Where are the sources for the launcher?
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We will release sources on GitHub and APK builds of eelo's BlissLauncher on F-droid and APKPure once we think its stable enough and compatible with common screen resolutions.
xxxmadraxxx said:
A couple of random thoughts:
1: Eelo is an awful name. It sounds like something a baby would come out with, while learning to talk
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Click to collapse
That's not too bad for a just-born project.
2: As well as freeing yourself (ourselves) from the tentacles of Google and, if this is about privacy and freedom from tracking; it should aim to avoid using services based in any of the Five-Eyes Countries
Hence:
* Consider Wire (based in Switzerland) instead of Telegram.
* Quitter..no is a pretty full-featured replacement for Twitter. Running on GNUsocial and based in Norway
* Qwant in preference to DDG [France vs US -based]
* Jottacloud -also based in Norway, is a pretty good like-for-like replacement for Dropbox. Same kind of free/paid account tiers.
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Click to collapse
Thank you for your suggestions. Some of them were already considered actually!
3: While we're being all 'European' about this (well, I am), can you make sure and use 'European English' in your documentation when you set up the website? Drives me mad when I see Europe-based companies using "color", "center", "...ize", etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What would be your suggestion of wording for a project that is not specially "European" or "American", e.g. worldwide project?
4: In the same vein, make sure the website invites people to "Contact" you. There's a special place in hell reserved for anyone who uses that puke-inducing phrase 'Reach out"!
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At eelo.io, we have "contact eelo" and "get in touch"
leaglavud said:
What would be your suggestion of wording for a project that is not specially "European" or "American", e.g. worldwide project?
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Well. Call me a pedant if you like. But if you're offering a language option, you should use the official version of that language, not a regional dialect. As far as I can see, when people pick French, Spanish, Portuguese language options on a website, they're not then given Quebecoise, Mexican Spanish, Brasilian Portuguese... etc. But English speakers are nearly always served up American English --even on sites / by projects that are not based in the US. [Yes, I'm looking at you Ubuntu & Linux Mint!]
It may seem a trivially unimportant point. But, as well as the privacy and data-harvesting concerns, my interest in projects such as yours also stems from a wider worry about the Americanisation of the world, which is being driven by the overwhelming dominance of big American companies in the tech & media worlds. Not automatically defaulting to US English is just one more small gesture non-US-based projects can make towards offering an "alternate viewpoint".
Man, what an undertaking!
Personally, I think the main thing should be to focus on Power Users and Privacy Conscious users, not the masses. Not yet.
First make a 'beautiful' reliable OS according to your desires. Focus on making that the best & a real point of differentiation from what is out there already. Make it as useful and unique as possible. Make it run on the widest range of hardware possible, and as easily as possible. That should be enough of a challenge.
Don't worry about creating cloud services or bundling this-and-that yet. I think that is extremely unimportant to Power Users who will install what they prefer anyway, and use the hardware they prefer ( & can obtain easily or cheaply). It might be useful to sell one model with everything as you envisaged it but I think the main focus should be on testing with a wide variety of phone / tablet hardware available and making it work there.
My priorities go like this:
1. buy cheap Chinese hardware
2. root, remove as disable as much obvious spyware as possible
3. fulfil 95% of app needs from f-droid
4. fulfil 5% of app needs from Play Store using sites such as https://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/
5. use device
If you can make step 2 ( above) easy and painless on as much hardware as possible, then I think that would be the best focus of time and resources.