My experience

Posted Jun 19, 2014 11:25 UTC (Thu) by job (guest, #670)
Parent article: Android without the mothership

I used an Android phone for a couple of years without the Google parts and found the experience overall quite smooth. Just like the author I used a plain Cyanogen install.

At the time Android was version 2 and sync of contacts and calendar had problems, even with the available third party tools. Since version 4 Android has much better support for this, but if backups are all you need you could always just copy them to the SD card. You also don't need to use an app store, just download the apk files in the web browser (or install with adb).

Most of the recommended software in the article is what I used. I also used SMS Backup + to sync call history and SMS.

In the end I found that I could continue to live happily self-hosted, even on Android, and it's so easy anyone could do it. The only service I really longed for was actually the Play store. There are so much software you need on a daily basis where I live, to pay for the subway, do your taxes, use library services or whatever and it's all distributed through Google Play. Having a modern smartphone and not being able to use those services made me sad, and I have since caved in for that.

My experience

Posted Jun 19, 2014 16:46 UTC (Thu) by njwhite (guest, #51848) [Link] (12 responses)

> here are so much software you need on a daily basis where I live, to pay for the subway, do your taxes, use library services or whatever and it's all distributed through Google Play.

Out of curiousity, how are any of those applications worthwhile? I don't have a smartphone, and I sometimes struggle to see what the fuss is about.

For the subway and library, is the benefit just one less card to carry around?

And what tax preparation stuff is good to do with a phone? That sounds like a very odd way to do taxes to me.

My experience

Posted Jun 19, 2014 17:04 UTC (Thu) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

> For the subway and library, is the benefit just one less card to carry around?

While traveling, an app which told me where various the public transit buses were was nice to know whether I had time to grab something to eat before it arrived.

My experience

Posted Jun 20, 2014 2:27 UTC (Fri) by dvdeug (guest, #10998) [Link] (10 responses)

As a bus rider, being able to be at a random location late at night, and plot a course home keeping in mind which buses are running when is invaluable. I could carry the big bus schedule, but that's not exactly something you can shove in a pocket, nor does it automatically look up every intersection of the buses and find the optimal changes.

My experience

Posted Jun 21, 2014 9:38 UTC (Sat) by niner (subscriber, #26151) [Link] (8 responses)

But can't you just use the web site for these?

My experience

Posted Jun 21, 2014 9:58 UTC (Sat) by dvdeug (guest, #10998) [Link] (7 responses)

If I went out to dinner with friends, I'm not going to have my computer with me, and even if I did, I would have had to have paid for a mobile Internet connection for my laptop. There's no way a computer that weighs a few ounces and doubles as a cell phone doesn't beat a laptop that weighs five pounds and has to have its own mobile connection separate from my phone in these circumstances.

My experience

Posted Jun 21, 2014 10:03 UTC (Sat) by niner (subscriber, #26151) [Link] (6 responses)

But why not use your _phone_ to access the bus company's web site? After all mobile web is one of the main uses of smartphones.

My experience

Posted Jun 21, 2014 10:35 UTC (Sat) by dvdeug (guest, #10998) [Link] (5 responses)

That implies I have a smartphone, and the question was why do people have smartphones. If you find that the bus company site is as easy to use as Google Maps, including accessing your current position, go for it.

My experience

Posted Jun 21, 2014 10:41 UTC (Sat) by niner (subscriber, #26151) [Link] (4 responses)

I understood the question to be about why do people need those specialized apps (e.g. for bus schedules): "Out of curiousity, how are any of those applications worthwhile?". That the original poster does not have a smart phone was just the reason for his ignorance about possible advantages. The question has also to be seen in the context of using Android smart phones without Google apps/accounts and thus without a large part of the choice of apps.

With the context now hopefully more clearly defined, I can only echo the original question: why does one _need_ all those specialized apps, if the services are usually available as web sites as well?

My experience

Posted Jun 21, 2014 12:07 UTC (Sat) by dvdeug (guest, #10998) [Link] (1 responses)

Why does one need anything? They work better then fighting with a webpage on the Android browser.

(I did not mention bus schedules. I mentioned the computation of finding the optimal set of bus routes and times to get from one place to another, a frequently very different problem.)

My experience

Posted Jun 21, 2014 13:11 UTC (Sat) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

One thing I wish did exist was "how much will I need this weekend on my transit pass?" Factoring in transfer rates and zones (e.g., Seattle) is non trivial :( . Montreal got it right and have unlimited passes for a weekend (though the price is steeper, I have zero worry about being stranded with 25¢ short).

My experience

Posted Jun 21, 2014 15:12 UTC (Sat) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

With the context now hopefully more clearly defined, I can only echo the original question: why does one _need_ all those specialized apps, if the services are usually available as web sites as well?

Because UI designed for a desktop is usually hard to use on a smartphone. And when companies are faced with a dilemma: to create a mobile web site or to create an app they often create an app—because it's simpler. Apple initialy favired mobile web, but quickly found out that it's just does not work.

Mozilla tries to make creationg of a mobile web sites as easy as creation of a mobile apps but gap still is stricking.

My experience

Posted Jul 2, 2014 13:41 UTC (Wed) by nye (subscriber, #51576) [Link]

>why does one _need_ all those specialized apps, if the services are usually available as web sites as well?

You mean like e-mail, feed readers, text editors, IDEs, word processors, image editors, games, etc?

Basically every application category has a web equivalent - why does one need any application other than a browser at all?

My experience

Posted Jun 27, 2014 11:19 UTC (Fri) by MKesper (subscriber, #38539) [Link]

For many places (US not (yet) included), you can use liberario now: https://github.com/grote/Liberario?files=1