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| tomman |
Posted on 19-10-24, 11:35
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Dinosaur
 Post: #578 of 1317 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 1 day Last view: 11 hours |
The ZTE saga is over for now... as I lost my phone yesterday :/ The Fine Citizen that found the phone did the right thing: Yes, the phone had a lock pattern (annoying, but it was the only way to ensure that it wouldn't start turning on/off things while on my pocket), but as I refuse to give Google full control over my device, I guess that I get no FRP protection. Personal information lost: some recent photos of things (as I don't photograph people, EVER), SMS (mostly from banks), and a perfectly good 32GB Sandisk MicroSD card that somehow had survived without getting lost or damaged on my ol' RAZR. I hope the battery was defective and the phone goes BOOM~ on the fucking asshole that found it, because this country is full of very shitty people willing to extend communism to year 2050 at least! Fun fact (and by "fun" I mean "not at all!"): Called Movistar to suspend/disable the SIM card, the routine procedure anyone that gets their phone lost/stolen would do right at the spot. They can't, because like everything on this shitty country, every single internal support application on their internal networks were "experiencing technical problems". They want me instead to visit a customer care center. Except that they closed down the one in my city 3 years ago, and the nearest one is like ~250km away! But why would they care anyway? As long as THE billing system works and they get paid, they don't give a fuck if your phone dies, gets lost, stolen, or seized by the commies. Bunch of greedy bastards. Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| Duck Penis |
Posted on 19-10-24, 18:27
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Stirrer of Shit
Post: #656 of 717 Since: 01-26-19 Last post: 1765 days Last view: 1763 days |
Posted by tomman How do you know that though? There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this. |
| CaptainJistuce |
Posted on 19-10-25, 00:21
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Custom title here
 Post: #744 of 1164 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 65 days Last view: 2 days |
Posted by sureanemHe checked the cameras. --- In UTF-16, where available. --- |
| tomman |
Posted on 19-10-25, 12:15
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Dinosaur
Post: #579 of 1317 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 1 day Last view: 11 hours |
Posted by sureanem Because this is Soviet Venezuela, where there is no honest people left. Finally managed to get the SIM deactivated and the IMEI blacklisted at Movistar (I had better luck calling yesterday). Too bad carriers don't share IMEI blacklists over here, but then, good luck getting a nanoSIM at Movilnet (they're unicorns). Your other option would be Digitel, except that since they were the GSM pioneers over here, they chose to use the Euro GSM frequency bands, which means that unless you buy a top-of-the-end quad/pentaband 3G/4G handset, all you're going to get is craptacular GPRS with our proper American-spec phones. But opportunists only see "hey free phone!". Once again, to the dipshit asshole that STOLE my phone: hope a truck crushes it, then the battery goes Samsung all over your shitface! We have a saying in Spanish for that: "lo mal habido no luce". But then, noone cares about being honest anymore :/ Yes, I'm well aware that IMEIs can be changed on those Qualcomm devices. No, unlike Mediatek phones, you can't do it at home - you need Very Expensive Gear for that (the same magic boxes that can also defeat FRP and dump your lock pattern, but a backalley guy with a table full of stolen phones can at most have a soldering iron and a USB cable). Which is kinda amusing, because losing your IMEI is nearly trivial on those firmwares (damage your EFS -> no IMEI -> you're fucked if you don't have a backup) Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| Duck Penis |
Posted on 19-10-26, 03:10
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Stirrer of Shit
Post: #658 of 717 Since: 01-26-19 Last post: 1765 days Last view: 1763 days |
Posted by tomman Yeah but I mean doesn't that go for the authorities too? He could very well have turned it in and then had it stolen by a different scumbag. It sucks to hear anyway, man. How do these things work over there? I mean, I'd imagine a smartphone is still worth like $50, but the monthly wage is far less than that. Are smartphones trading at an extreme discount, or did you just lose X months of salary? There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this. |
| kode54 |
Posted on 19-11-17, 02:51
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 Post: #9 of 105 Since: 11-13-19 Last post: 1463 days Last view: 1463 days |
I'm glad tomman narrowed down the issue with the tablet soft-bricking itself to SuperSU's latest version being a piece of shit, possibly just on that device, possibly on all devices it's system-installed on. I have a different tale to contribute. My BF and I both own 32GB 2018 iPads, both cost about $330 (for him, $400 or so, due to import duties). Rooting is possible now, but I don't think we'd bother with that. They're both pretty stable. I find I almost never need to reboot mine, and the only times I've ever reinstalled it during its life is when I was backing off iPadOS 13 beta to iOS 12, same for his. We now just "put up" with iPadOS for the most part. He ends up rebooting his way more than I do mine, but possibly related to his more frequent use during the day time, while I only use mine at night for about 3 hours daily, for the most part, during which we're both on our tablets, in a FaceTime call, Picture in Picture, while we use various apps. He also uses the split screen feature, which I'm content to not bother trying to find a use for. For anything really serious, I just use a desktop, I have yet to find a use for the drag and drop modus on a tablet. I suppose this is useless info for you anyway, was just to say that some of your troubles may be the Allwinner device being crap, and some may be "typical Android" issues. I mean, damn, I have an old Android tablet, and I don't even think I can root it, and I never thought I'd have a reason to do so. I think it just sucks that a device you intend for use by a computer novice requires so much complex preparation before it's even remotely usable. The tech savvy in every family should help with setting up devices, but it shouldn't have to be something that requires constant babysitting. There should be a happy medium where you help them at first, but then they don't need you for weeks at a time. And when something actually comes up, it's actually something that's not the device's fault, but the user's, or the services they're using are crapping out, and you can happily explain that to them. Computers were a mistake. (Just kidding. I love this shit.) |
| Nicholas Steel |
Posted on 19-12-05, 05:15 (revision 5)
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Post: #306 of 426
Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 501 days Last view: 16 days |
"Smart" TV doesn't navigate channels correctly... https://old.reddit.com/r/bravia/comments/e6bkml/what_is_the_best_method_for_reporting_a_software/ Also had some technical problems with the TV: When I first bought my Sony KD 8500G 55" TV (Australia) during last Black Friday we had severe nasty issues within 2 days where the TV would suddenly display garbage with a maximum volume squeal of corrupted audio from the speakers for several seconds before the TV automatically rebooted. Very alarming, very startling, painful to the ears, a punch to the senses, extremely uncomfortable when it happens. After enjoying that experience multiple times in a single day I took it back to the place of purchase and they swapped it over for another of the same make & model. Within 10 minutes of completing the Firmware Update a less severe version of the same symptom occurred! This time I did some googling and found not one, not 2 but at least 5 articles on the Sony Australia and Sony UK support websites that all suggested that performing Firmware updates can cause numerous issues (why are you not Quality Assuring your firmware updates!?) and that you should perform a Forced Factory Reset followed by a Factory Reset to maaaybe resolve the issues. So erase all your hard work setting up your TV settings for every Input Source, channels, favourites, apps... should you ever decide to install a Firmware Update. That's a pretty ingenious way to discourage people from performing firmware updates! So far, our replacement TV is working after performing the Factory Resets but we aren't yet satisfied that it won't suffer the same issues. There has been at least one moment where I was in an App screen and the entire display flickered solid red for 1 frame. In my case however, my place of Purchase offers a 5 year warranty with them for an additional small fee so... unless they go out of business like BFGTech did I should be okay to suffer through the problems I guess? AMD Ryzen 3700X | MSI Gamer Geforce 1070Ti 8GB | 16GB 3600MHz DDR4 RAM | ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero (WiFi) Motherboard | Windows 10 x64 |
| tomman |
Posted on 20-04-23, 17:35 (revision 2)
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Dinosaur
Post: #672 of 1317 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 1 day Last view: 11 hours |
Status of the Smartdisease, 2020 edition volume I: * $MOM Allshitter tablet: - Just finished reloading it. Didn't bothered rooting this time, but you can easily debloat over ADB as you're already root on these firmwares anyway (adb remount, delete CCP spyware from /system/(priv-)app, reboot). Backed it up everything I could, saved some of those APKs for reinstall, reflashed with PhoenixSuit, copied everything back to the tablet, installed Total Commander, and uses that to update/reinstall every relevant bit (Google Spy bits, Chrome vomit, WhatsFuckingApp) * Me: - Since my life is destined to suck and BOTH of my RAZRs finally died rather unceremoniously (goodbye forever, CDMA2000! You served me well for over a decade, despite Qualcomm's greed and Soviet Bolivarian Movilnet negligence), $GENEROUS_UNCLE sent me another special American Telephone & Turds prepaid special: another MSM8909-based thing, this time a root-proof Alcatel CameoX/xciteIDEAL/whatever shitty marketdroid name. Internally, it's an OT-5044R. This is pretty much the same thing as the Z835, save for a shittier camera (no autofocus), older Android release (7.0), absolutely NO factory ROMs or factory flash tools (so the day this firmware goes bust, so does the phone), and naturally, no root choices whatsoever as noone gives a flying fuck over $FREE-with-fries prepaid phones. - However, this thing is marginally better than the Z835 in other aspects: the preloaded base apps are closer to Android stock rather than abominable mutations by some Chinese OEM. And that's nice, coming from yet another Chinese OEM (TCL). The phone dialer and SMS app are less terrible (but still terrible!). It came with the usual suite of AT&T spyware (Fecesbook, Uber, Twatter, Yelp, DirecTV... but surprisingly no CarrierIQ bits!). Debloating is same as any non-rooted phone: user-level uninstalls over ADB is your only option. - TETHERING IS NOT BLOCKED! Repeat: Tethering. Is. Not. Blocked! I can use this shit as a mobile hotspot without getting my ass in a plane to whoever AT&T headquarters are located! I guess that the poor Chinese engineer that forgot to enable the Deathstar killbits on this firmware was already sent to a concentration camp :/ Too bad you can't use those modern Android phones as good ol' USB modems, instead you're forced to shove yet another layer of NAT in the middle :/ - F-Droid (+ Aurora Store for the Play bits) is all you need. I've yet to enroll this phone in the Googleborg™, so all they will get from me are those forum posts. - You can't turn off LTE on this thing, as the Settings app doesn't have an option for network mode selection on this firmware, which doesn't help this phone's already terrible battery life (seriously, it feels like a gas guzzler every single minute the display is ON). There is a supasekret network diagnostic activity buried on Android that you're supposed to access via *#*#INFO#*#*, but naturally AT&T/TCL blocks that code. Luckily there is F-Droid to the rescue: look for de.mangelow.network (it's simply named "Network", so it might be hard to find by name alone), which allows to trigger said activity. BAM! You can now test ping, switch network modes, etc. This is a godsend as there is a fat chance in hell for us to get Movistar to properly deploy VoLTE (if the phone picks LTE, you can't receive voicecalls!).. - For whatever reason, this thing refuses to roam in 2G (it CAN list networks, but refuse to register on Movistar 2G). Dunno if it is the firmware, the SIM (I heard Movistar now locks out 2G for new postpaid 4G SIMs for whatever stupid reason), or just bad luck. Not that I actually want some GPRS action anytime soon (I always keep my phones in 3G-only unless if I'm going to travel to some location where I actually know in advance that 3G won't work), but it's not unusual to have UMTS/LTE faill and leave you with nothing but GSM coverage over here. - This firmware ships with some crappy French audio FX garbage, Arkamys Audio. You can't disable it (even if you disable the APK as this thing seems to have some native bits scattered somewhere else), which means that if your music player features an equalizer, Arkamys will ensure that your music will sound like garbage as it will don't let the player app do its work alone. BUT! If you take apart the Arkamys system APK, you will find a whitelist of popular apps exempt of having their audio crapped by Arkamys. Naturally, there is no opensource player present... save for one: VLC. This led me to the rather rare scenario of actually being forced to switch to VLC as my main music player. As I've said previously, VLC is a fine video player, but it sucks as a MUSIC-ONLY player (slow, bloated, and in rare cases, crashy). But if I have to pick between "reasonable audio" and "UX nightmare"... well, that's a tough call, but at least you get the opensource exit. FUCK ARKAMYS, and fuck TCL! - Apps installed: Firefux (still sucks hard, but it isn't Chrome), bank mobile pay apps, VLC, Total Commander, Google Maps, Simple Mobile Tools series of core apps (Gallery, Calendar, Draw), some random test stuff and games from F-Droid (unlike the ZTE, GPSTest and Tower Collector WILL work properly on the 5044R!), and of course, Puyo Puyo Fever. Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| Nicholas Steel |
Posted on 20-05-16, 08:19
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Post: #360 of 426
Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 501 days Last view: 16 days |
A recent system update to the Samsung Galaxy S10e (or the Samsung Pay App) puts a bar along the bottom of the Home Screen and swiping it up opens Samsung Pay. I was trying to get rid of this from the Home Screen and it seems the only way to do that is to either sign in to Samsung Pay & configure it or uninstall it. Since we never use it we had to go the nuclear option (easier than going through some Sign In/Set-up process, figuring out where the relevant options are and then logging out). AMD Ryzen 3700X | MSI Gamer Geforce 1070Ti 8GB | 16GB 3600MHz DDR4 RAM | ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero (WiFi) Motherboard | Windows 10 x64 |
| creaothceann |
Posted on 20-05-16, 10:20
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 Post: #271 of 456 Since: 10-29-18 Last post: 46 days Last view: 3 days |
Posted by Nicholas Steel related: I recently installed Windows 10 on a company laptop. Seems like they now you have to use a Microsoft account, the option to skip that requirement seems to have been removed... "If you’d prefer not to have a Microsoft account associated with your device, you can remove it. Finish going through Windows setup, then select the Start button and go to Settings > Accounts > Your info and select Sign in with a local account instead." My current setup: Super Famicom ("2/1/3" SNS-CPU-1CHIP-02) → SCART → OSSC → StarTech USB3HDCAP → AmaRecTV 3.10 |
| funkyass |
Posted on 20-05-16, 10:34
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Post: #137 of 202
Since: 11-01-18 Last post: 662 days Last view: 18 days |
on the screen where it ask you for the login details, there should be an offline account option in the lower left-hand corner. I just did a fresh install of win 10, tho I did use the personal path. |
| creaothceann |
Posted on 20-05-16, 12:18
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Post: #272 of 456 Since: 10-29-18 Last post: 46 days Last view: 3 days |
Posted by funkyass There wasn't... I was online and using the latest W10 installation ISO. My current setup: Super Famicom ("2/1/3" SNS-CPU-1CHIP-02) → SCART → OSSC → StarTech USB3HDCAP → AmaRecTV 3.10 |
| Kawaoneechan |
Posted on 20-05-16, 12:41
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Always checks behind the chair
 Post: #490 of 599 Since: 10-29-18 Last post: 198 days Last view: 8 hours |
I was specifically told to keep my new HP laptop offline on first boot so I could have an offline account. And now I have one. |
| funkyass |
Posted on 20-05-16, 12:56
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Post: #138 of 202
Since: 11-01-18 Last post: 662 days Last view: 18 days |
Posted by creaothceann 1909 or 2004? |
| tomman |
Posted on 20-05-16, 13:39
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Dinosaur
Post: #699 of 1317 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 1 day Last view: 11 hours |
Windows 10: because asking for consistency and control are now considered war crimes. ...just like cellphones! Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
| creaothceann |
Posted on 20-05-16, 18:35 (revision 1)
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Post: #273 of 456 Since: 10-29-18 Last post: 46 days Last view: 3 days |
Posted by funkyass Is there a way to tell afterwards? I just used the Media Creation Tool and let it create an USB boot stick. That was on 2020-05-08, about a week ago. EDIT: Just tried a fresh ISO created by the 1909 Media Creation Tool with VirtualBox, and it offered an offline account. So... dunno? My current setup: Super Famicom ("2/1/3" SNS-CPU-1CHIP-02) → SCART → OSSC → StarTech USB3HDCAP → AmaRecTV 3.10 |
| Screwtape |
Posted on 20-05-17, 04:53
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Full mod
 Post: #402 of 443 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 1103 days Last view: 174 days |
Posted by funkyass I recently installed Windows 10 in a VM, and when I got to the part about setting up a Microsoft Account, there was no way to create an offline account. I hard-shutdown the VM, disabled the emulated network adapter, and booted it up again. This time, I could only create an offline account (which is exactly what I wanted), and once I got to the desktop I re-enabled the emulated network and all was fine. The ending of the words is ALMSIVI. |
| funkyass |
Posted on 20-05-17, 13:52
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Post: #140 of 202
Since: 11-01-18 Last post: 662 days Last view: 18 days |
if you got cortana during install, its 1909. she's absent in 2004 but that the option to skip needing a MS account isn't present in the 1909 ISO, its there in 2004. |
| kode54 |
Posted on 20-06-02, 04:08
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Post: #67 of 105 Since: 11-13-19 Last post: 1463 days Last view: 1463 days |
The option to install with an offline account exists even if you have network, if you use Athe’s recommended SKU, Pro for Workstations. Plus, you also don’t get the crapps like Candy Crush installed by default. Of course, they’ll still install OneNote by default, along with the Office launcher. |
| tomman |
Posted on 20-11-11, 00:41 (revision 4)
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Dinosaur
Post: #817 of 1317 Since: 10-30-18 Last post: 1 day Last view: 11 hours |
BANKS! CELLPHONES! GAAAAAH! Yes, it's that time of the year, when banks ensure your life is as miserable as possible. And cellphones empower them to fullfit that mission. Remember last time when I was dealing with some mobile payments app which had some stupid native bit which Aurora failed to install and forced me to pull the app from another (rooted) device? Thankfully Aurora has gotten smarter and split APKs are no longer a problem (they're still a bad idea, but I digress), but today's pile of suck doesn't involve installation troubles. No, it goess deeper... The story starts an hour ago or so, I was dicking with another Puyo Puyo-related crapp, and some shady Soviet crackware. Since I trust nobody, I always keep an "adb logcat" console open with my phone tethered when doing those kind of installs (Spoilers: I chickened out, and this specific Puyo quest ended being a lame Solitaire clone with annoying login prompts, not worth the download). I cleaned up everything, rebooted the phone to ensure I had not let the Soviets in... and then, I saw THIS: Wait, WHAT?! I thought I had safely defused all and any traces of the AT&T-preinstalled Fuckbook trojan! A look at my app managers effectively confirm that the Zuckerborg is "not installed", so this shit had to came from somewhere else. And if you scroll down, here comes our next hint: /data/user/0/com.bancoactivo/lib-main So here is our suspect, the mobile payments app from this stupid bank. Yes, we have banks with really silly names, in this case, a bank whose slogan is literally "It moves with you" (spoilers: they don't - their ATMs in this city have been out of service since early '19, and they just closed one of the two local branches prior to COVIdiots-19). Their mobile payments crapp has been by far the WORST piece of shit I've used so far, and it only gets worse with each update: - Initial release: It couldn't even get payments done! - Update 1: Cool, you can actually pay people! It had some minor quirks, but nothing THAT bad, really. - NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION TWO POINT ZERO: Bloated to hell and back! The login screen no longer scrolls, so good luck typing your password on this thing. - NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION TWO POINT ONE: Even more bloat (but it now has native notifications which tell you when someone sends you money, because the SMS from this bank actually never arrive). - NEW AND whatever 2.2: It stopped working recently with a "Push valido1" error (whatever that means), but on the flip side the logon screen now scrolls again - Latest version (2.2.23 as of today): The "Push valido1" error is now gone... but the crapp now takes FOREVER to start (last time I tried to use it, it took well over one minute to reach the logon screen - I wish I were making this up, but I was actually trying to pay someone else) The reason of all this bloat? Facebook, of course! (React Native, actually... but those idiots also brought in the Fuckbook SDK for no good reason!). Plus a pile of hipster frameworks which bring the app install size to ~157MiB on MY device, making it one of the heaviest apps on my shitphone (only Firefux, the Google Play Services spyware, and VLC are heavier, and the latter is due to VLC insisting of having its own media database for my >7000 song collection. But then, FF is an actual web browser, VLC plays nearly every media file format known to mankind, and the Google bits are a collection of slimy tentacles, while this "Pago Activo" shitware only lets you... send money to strangers). Check the stupid by yourself. They can't even make up a proper identity for their digital signature:  Yes, this is a fail as ridiculous as a bank using Let's Encrypt or self-signed certs... oh wait. Please tell "carlos" from "ti" (that's Spanish for "Idiot Turd", I guess?) that he should stop pretending a bank is a college internship, kthxbye. And yes, all of this crapfest happens in the middle of yet another "the PoS ate my money again" paperdance ritual with this EXACT SAME bank, because fail always ship in pairs. (Actually on this specific bank they don't make you go to the nearest branch, just spend two hours on the phone and email them the PoS receipt, if you have one. And here comes the trifecta: Hotmail blocked my account from sending mail because they thought I was a robot sending spam since I rarely send mail, and when I do, I actually use a proper email client and not some webshit bloatfest, so the sekuritah theater was invoked... and I'm still waiting for a code over SMS that will never arrive thanks to Movistar. Yay me) This bank is not alone in its DLL fuckery: let's recap the bunch of mobile payments app I have installed on this phone (Yes, I really have that many bank accounts, but that's because our banking system is a house of cards, therefore you need to have your eggs in many baskets. Back in the good ol' times opening a new bank account was easy - you just needed a job, and some money. Not today, because banks over here have become closed private clubs, except for a certain gub'mint-owned bank): - Mercantil: about 10 native libraries, but amazingly the app itself is not a bloaty pig. Uses Kony framework, which apparently ships with its own build of V8 because JAVASCRIIIIIPT EVERYWHERE!!!! - Banesco: No blobs! This is the one that lets you make small payments without having to login. In general this is the least sucky one from all banks I've tried so far... when it works! Oh, it doesn't like rooted devices that much, but it doesn't go beyond a simple logcat warning, thankfully.... for now. - Plaza: I thought this bank had forgotten they had an mobile payments app, but last week they shipped a v2.1 update, for the first time ever! This update got rid of the useless SQLite native driver, bringing down the total of native blows to ZERO. Too bad it's yet another canned Cordova HTML/JS "app" :/ - Activo (the one detailed on this post): UGH. A React abomination, complete with the Zuckerborg spybits. - Venezuela: The flaghship state-owned bank from the Bolivarian Revolution™ surprisingly doesn't have a mobile payments app. Instead, you're supposed to pay over SMS (unsafe, but not because of what you're thinking!) or using their hipster Web 3.0 online banking site which now believes everything is a phone, while you enjoy communist propaganda when entering and leaving the site. If only we could have the awesome tech from Japan contactless payments (FeLiCa/Suica and friends), no bank and no app needed - just any phone! Even a dumb one would do. But I guess this beats whatever non-interoperable clusterfuck they have up at the Land of the Liberty *shudder* BTW: These couple of handy apps from F-Droid were used to unmask the stupid: - apps_Packages Info: WOW! Not only this lets you know more about permissions, signatures, services and the like, it lets you invoke most activities built into any app! Plus more. Must have. - CPU Info: Not only it lets you take a look at your system resources, it also tells you more about your apps, including native library names. Also very handy to have. F-Droid makes more palatable having a smartdevice. Almost. Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™ |
