Or, you could just, you know, eat my shorts, GOOG.

Man, they used to let you search without JS.

Nerfherders.

#NoJS #Google #DilloBrowser

Alt...

Dillo browser screenshot of a google search page saying: Turn on JavaScript to keep searching The browser you’re using has JavaScript turned off. To continue your search, turn it on. Learn how for Google Chrome 1. Click on the then Settings. 2. Click Privacy and Security. 3. Click Site Settings. 4. Click JavaScript. 5. Select Sites can use JavaScript. (You may instead enable JavaScript only for google.com) Learn how for Microsoft Edge 1. Click on the More menu then Settings. 2. Select Cookies and site permissions. 3. Select JavaScript. 4. Select Allowed (recommended).

Android will *not* be getting most of the Unicode 17 updates.

Some of its fonts are over a decade out of date - and Google refuses to re-use its own Noto font stack.

I've raised the issue at:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/366415133

If you're a Googler please ask someone to prioritise this issue. Can everyone else please hit the +1 button.

#Google #Android #AOSP #Unicode

Great write up by Jay Peters of The Verge with regards to the Nova Launcher/Branch situation that I wrote about this morning.

Dominic reached out to me via LinkedIn this morning and asked some questions to get some insight.

You can read that here:

https://www.theverge.com/news/773937/nova-launcher-founder-left-kevin-barry-branch-open-source-android

#NovaLauncher #NL #Android #Apps #Google #Branch #BranchMetrics #News #Tech #TechNews

Just remember that your voice can be cloned.

9to5Google: You can now upload audio files to the Gemini app https://9to5google.com/2025/09/08/gemini-audio-upload/ @9to5google @technacity #Google #AI

I'm writing this post here today in hopes to bring some attention to something that is near and dear to my heart, and that's an update to the current situation with Nova Launcher, that I worked for and with for nine years up until August of 2024.

For those that haven't seen the news, Kevin Barry, the founder and developer of Nova has left Branch which in turn means he's now no longer involved with Nova Launcher in any way going forward.

https://teslacoilapps.com/nova/solong.html

For the past year or so Kevin has stated that he was working on the open source version of Nova Launcher so that if/when this time came, it would be out in the open and the community could take it over and contribute to it and have it continue being developed.

However, it seems that Harish Thimmappa and others at Branch had told him to stop working on that effort as they didn't want him to continue doing that for unknown reasons. This is sad news because this was something that former CEO, Alex Austin, had promised both via a contract and publicly that if Kevin were to ever leave Branch, Nova Launcher would become open source. You can find that quote here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/w2q6al/comment/igzoniu/

and another very similar quote with similar conversation here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/w2q6al/comment/ih25ntz/

The reason for this post is to try and draw some attention to the folks at Branch, specifically folks like Harish Thimmappa to do the right thing and honor these promises and any writings in the contracts from 2022 and to fully focus on releasing Nova Launcher as an open source app.

The community deserves this more than anything, since that was something that Kevin was very adamant about when he allowed Branch to acquire Nova Launcher back in 2022. Plus, this is just something that Branch should do since it is something that has been promised.

There is currently a petition on Change.org to try and get Branch to do this as well. After only 3 days of it being posted to Change.org, it sits at almost 1,500 signatures, and that's with very little to no press coverage at this time, which is something that would be super useful to bring full attention to this situation. You can find the petition here:

https://www.change.org/p/make-nova-launcher-open-source-let-the-community-continue-its-development

I ask that everyone who sees this post can share it with their followers as I would love to see Branch do the right thing and follow through with their promises that were made back in 2022 when they acquired Nova Launcher and release it fully as an open source app now that Kevin is no longer working for Branch and not involved in Nova Launcher.

I'm going to tag some folks below that I worked with at Branch in hopes of getting this post seen by as many folks there as possible.

#NovaLauncher #Nova #Branch #BranchMetrics #OpenSource #OpenSourceNova #Petition #Android #Apps #Google

Alt...

A banner image for the Android app Nova Launcher.

It becomes crystal clear why #Google has steadfastly refused over the decades to have an Ombudsman, or a single individual in charge of AI Ethics today. Ethics? Customer service? Those parts of Google's DNA have been on the chopping block ever since Billionaire CEO Sundar took over.

#Google #Chrome is now popping up a "let us help you cheat on your school work" popup in the URL bar when it thinks you're on a school site. OK, actually it says "homework help" but it amounts to the same thing. It's driving schools crazy because it's even popping up on quizzes and tests. There appears to be no way to reasonably disable it, and responses from Google suggest they don't give a damn as long their horrific AI gets used more. It's even popping up on sites that have NOTHING to do with schools -- I'm getting it on technical sites that happen to have the word "tutorial" in their URL. More nightmare sauce from #Google.

AOSP gets four months! Delays in security updates due to Google's deliberate sabotage system of verified developer procedures

Google is actively destroying the project!

With 4 months of security patch delay you might as well throw your Android device away

#AOSP #Android #programming #Google #updates #delayed #InfoSec

https://xcancel.com/grapheneos/status/1964561043906048183

#COVID #vaccine locations vanish from #Google #Maps due to supposed “technical issue”
#googlemaps #maga

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/09/covid-vaccine-locations-vanish-from-google-maps-due-to-alleged-technical-issue/

With a couple of days of delay, the @EUCommission just hit #Google with a €2.95B fine for abusing its dominant position on the online ads market. 👏

After some bad press according to which the Commission had delayed the fines to appease Trump, this is a welcome development. Google now has 60 days to propose remedies. (I had hoped the Commission would order a breakup directly but hey....)

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-slaps-google-with-2-95b-fine-for-adtech-abuse/

#adtech #competition #antitrust #alphabet #breakupbigtech #bigtech

"Google deletes net-zero pledge from sustainability website" https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/09/04/investigations/google-net-zero-sustainability (JavaScript pay-wall). Archive : https://archive.ph/jlHRt #climatecrisis #aihype #datacenters #capitalism #Google

#GoogleAI Falsely Says #YouTuber Visited #Israel , Forcing Him to Deal With Backlash

#Science and #music YouTuber Benn Jordan had a rough few days earlier this week after Google’s #AI Summary falsely said he recently visited Israel and caused people to believe he supported the country during its war on #Gaza. Jordan does not support Israel and has previously donated to #Palestinian charities.
#artificialintelligence #google #privacy

https://www.404media.co/google-ai-falsely-says-youtuber-visited-israel-forcing-him-to-deal-with-backlash/

https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/03/google_doj_antitrust_ruling/ “The lack of any restructuring of Google, or even a ban on the massive revenue sharing payments to Apple and others for default search placement that were at the heart of the government's case, mean that Google's incentives won't change, and the data-sharing remedies may be undermined." #EFF #Google #AIBubble #monopoly #investing

US judge in antitrust case rules that Google can keep paying Mozilla (and other companies) for default search placement — it also won't be forced to sell Chrome or Android.

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/09/google-antitrust-ruling-firefox-search-deal

#google #mozilla #tech

Is anyone else tired of the internet’s doom spiral over #Google blocking the installation of unsigned APKs on Android? Yes, it’s concerning. I use #GrapheneOS and rely on F-Droid, so I too care about this. But I’m seeing wild takes that PCs will soon have locked bootloaders and #Linux will be outlawed. That’s… a stretch.

The concern is real, but catastrophising helps no one. #FOSS isn’t going away, and panic only fuels paranoia while giving Big Tech ideas. I expect people to push back, I certainly will. But right now it feels like we’re manifesting a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I usually don't endorse or link YouTube videos, but this is golden:

Google: 'Your $1000 phone needs our permission to install apps now'". Android users are screwed

by Louis Rossmann

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBEKlIV_70E

It's like we are living in the enshittified version of a whole timeline.

#android #google #grapheneos #privacy #enshittification #control

Is it possible to allow sideloading *and* keep users safe?

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/is-it-possible-to-allow-sideloading-and-keep-users-safe/

In which I attempt to be pragmatic.

Are you allowed to run whatever computer program you want on the hardware you own? This is a question where freedom, practicality, and reality all collide into a mess.

Google has recently announced that Android users will only be able to install apps which have been digitally signed by developers who have registered their name and other legal details with Google. To many people, this signals the death of "sideloading" - the ability to install apps which don't originate on the official store

0

.

I'm a fully paid-up member of the Cory Doctorow fanclub. Back in 2011, he gave a speech called "The Coming War on General Computation". In it, he rails against the idea that our computers could become traitorous; serving the needs of someone other than their owner. Do we want to live in a future where our computers refuse to obey our commands? No! Neither law nor technology should conspire to reduce our freedom to compute.

There are, I think, two small cracks in that argument.

The first is that a user has no right to run anyone else's code, if the code owner doesn't want to make it available to them. Consider a bank which has an app. When customers are scammed, the bank is often liable. The bank wants to reduce its liability so it says "you can't run our app on a rooted phone".

Is that fair? Probably not. Rooting allows a user to fully control and customise their device. But rooting also allows malware to intercept communications, send commands, and perform unwanted actions. I think the bank has the right to say "your machine is too risky - we don't want our code to run on it."

The same is true of video games with strong "anti-cheat" protection. It is disruptive to other players - and to the business model - if untrustworthy clients can disrupt the game. Again, it probably isn't fair to ban users who run on permissive software, but it is a rational choice by the manufacturer. And, yet again, I think software authors probably should be able to restrict things which cause them harm.

So, from their point of view it is pragmatic to insist that their software can only be loaded from a trustworthy location.

But that's not the only thing Google is proposing. Let's look at their announcement:

We’ve seen how malicious actors hide behind anonymity to harm users by impersonating developers and using their brand image to create convincing fake apps. The scale of this threat is significant: our recent analysis found over 50 times more malware from internet-sideloaded sources than on apps available through Google Play.

Back in the early days of Android, you could just install any app and it would run, no questions asked. That was a touchingly naïve approach to security - extremely easy to use but left users vulnerable.

A few years later, Android changed to show user the permissions an app was requesting. Here's a genuine screenshot from an app which I tried to sideload in 2013:

No rational user would install a purported battery app with that scary list of permissions, right? Wrong!

We know that users don't read and they especially don't read security warnings.

There is no UI tweak you can do to prevent users bypassing these scary warnings. There is no amount of education you can provide to reliably make people stop and think.

Here's the story of a bank literally telling a man he was being scammed and he still proceeded to transfer funds to a fraudster.

It emerged that, in this case, Lloyds had done a really good job of not only spotting the potential fraud but alerting James to it. The bank blocked a number of transactions, it spoke to James on the phone to warn him and even called him into a branch to speak to him face-to-face.

Here's another one where a victim deliberately lied to their bank even after acknowledging that they had been told it was a scam.

Android now requires you to deliberately turn on the ability to side-load. It will give you prompts and warnings, force you to take specific actions, give you pop-ups and all sorts of confirmation steps.

And people still click on.

Let's go back to Google announcement. This change isn't being rolled out worldwide immediately. They say:

This change will start in a few select countries specifically impacted by these forms of fraudulent app scams, often from repeat perpetrators.

…

September 2026: These requirements go into effect in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. At this point, any app installed on a certified Android device in these regions must be registered by a verified developer.

The police in Singapore have a page warning about the prevalence of these scams. They describe how victims are tricked or coerced into turning off all their phone's security features.

Similarly, there are estimates that Brazil lost US$54 billion to scams in 2024 (albeit not all through apps).

There are anecdotal reports from Indonesia which show how easily people fall for these fake apps.

Thailand is also under an ongoing onslaught of malicious apps with some apps raking in huge amounts of money.

It is absolutely rational that government, police, and civic society groups want to find ways to stop these scams.

Google is afraid that if Android's reputation is tarnished as the "Scam OS" then users will move to more secure devices.

Financial institutions might stop providing functionality to Android devices as a way to protect their customers. Which would lead to those users seeking alternate phones.

Society as a whole wants to protect vulnerable people. We all bear the cost of dealing with criminal activity like this.

Given that sideloaded Android apps are clearly a massive vector for fraud, it obviously behoves Google to find a way to secure their platform as much as possible.

And Yet…

This is quite obviously a bullshit powerplay by Google to ensnare the commons. Not content with closing down parts of the Android Open Source Project, stuffing more and more vital software behind its proprietary services, and freezing out small manufacturers - now it wants the name and shoe-size of every developer!

Fuck that!

I want to use my phone to run the code that I write. I want to run my friends' code. I want to play with cool open source projects by people in far-away lands.

I remember The Day Google Deleted Me - we cannot have these lumbering monsters gatekeeping what we do on our machines.

Back in the days when I was a BlackBerry developer, we had to wait ages for RIM's code-signing server to become available. I'm pretty sure the same problem affected Symbian - if Nokia was down that day, you couldn't release any code.

Going back to their statement:

To be clear, developers will have the same freedom to distribute their apps directly to users through sideloading or to use any app store they prefer.

This is a lie. I can only distribute a sideloaded app if Google doesn't nuke my account. If I piss off someone there, or they click the wrong button, or they change the requirements so I'm no longer eligible - my content disappears.

They promise that Android will still be open to student and hobbyist developers - but would you believe anything those monkey-punchers say? Oh, and what a fricking insult to call a legion of Open Source developers "hobbyists"!

I hate it.

I also don't see how this is going to help. I guess if scammers all use the same ID, then it'll be easy for Android to super-nuke all the scam apps.

Perhaps when you install a sideloaded app you'll see "This app was made by John Smith - not a company. Here's his photo. Got any complaints? Call his number."

But what's going to happen is that people will get their IDs stolen, or be induced to register as a developer and then sign some malware. They'll also be victims.

So What's The Solution?

I've tried to be pragmatic, but there's something of a dilemma here.

1. Users should be free to run whatever code they like.
2. Vulnerable members of society should be protected from scams.

Do we accept that a megacorporation should keep everyone safe at the expense of a few pesky nerds wanting to run some janky code?

Do we say that the right to run free software is more important than granny being protected from scammers?

Do we pour billions into educating users not to click "yes" to every prompt they see?

Do we try and build a super-secure Operating System which, somehow, gives users complete freedom without exposing them to risk?

Do we hope that Google won't suddenly start extorting developers, users, and society as a whole?

Do we chase down and punish everyone who releases a scam app?

Do we stick an AI on every phone to detect scam apps and refuse to run them if they're dodgy?

I don't know the answers to any of these questions and - if I'm honest - I don't like asking them.

1. Post by @Gargron

   View on Mastodon

   ↩︎

#android #google #rant #scam

🆕 blog! “Is it possible to allow sideloading *and* keep users safe?”

In which I attempt to be pragmatic.

Are you allowed to run whatever computer program you want on the hardware you own? This is a question where freedom, practicality, and reality all collide into a mess.

Google has recently announced that Android users will only be able to…

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/is-it-possible-to-allow-sideloading-and-keep-users-safe/
⸻
#android #google #rant #scam

TIL that one person has been maintaining drivers for Google's AIY hardware for Raspberry Pi ever since the tech giant dumped the project in 2021.

I kind of wish I'd known about this a couple of years ago when I finally threw out a bunch of AIY Voice Kit and AIY Vision Kit hardware, thinking it was boat-anchor material.

https://github.com/viraniac/aiyprojects-raspbian

#RaspberryPi #Google #AIYVision #AIYVoice

Breaking up with Big Tech: A human rights-based argument for tackling Big Tech's market power - Amnesty International

https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/POL30/0226/2025/en/

#privacy #bigtech #alphabet #google #meta #microsoft #amazon #apple

Been logged out of #Google on my Android phone for a coupla years now for #privacy reasons. Beginning to wonder if there are really any advantages to doing this. I use #Fastmail rather than #Gmail so no problem there. But I'd like to start using a wallet app rather than carry credit cars. Google Wallet's probably the best one.

Thoughts? #ChunderRoad

Thank you @grote for sharing this.

In addition to telling #Google that locking down #Android is bad, I'd also recommend every app developer to write to the @EUCommission's #DMA enforcement team and tell them that this practically circumvents Article 6(4) of the #DigitalMarketsAct, which was supposed to *enable* 3rd party app (stores).

The EC is discussing the same question with #Apple atm and they have to understand what happens if they let this happen.

Contact form:
https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/contact-dma-team_en

#Google: We need to limit #sideloading, #GooglePlay is so much safer!

Meanwhile in the real world:

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/26/apps_android_malware/

The worst part? It's the growing loss of trust in @EUCommission, driven by a dangerous slide into proposals like "Chat Control" and their dystopian approach to age verification which, laughably, would require a Google a/o Apple-approved device and account.

Data, service sovereignty, my ass.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/google-will-block-sideloading-of-unverified-android-apps-starting-next-year

#alphabet #google #android #eu #europe #privacy

The fact that Google may be ending sideloading apps on Android forever is another reason we should donate more to @postmarketOS

With 1-2 more years of work, it could reach a state similar to Desktop Linux or Android ROMs, where everything works, at least on a good number of devices.

Can't donate? That's okay. What they really need is contributors anyways. Together, we can beat Google!

#Google #Android #Sideloading #Linux #postmarketOS #MobileLinux

"Sideloading" is the rentseeker word for "being able to run software of your choosing on a computing device you purchased". There is no reasonable case for an operating system developer having a say over what programs you run on your hardware.

#Android #Google

***** Google's plans to restrict sideloading on Android are an authoritarian wet dream come true *****

Let me be really clear about how horrifically dangerous #Google's plans are to restrict #Android sideloading to "verified developers" (that is, entities for which Google has full verified identity and associated information that they could hand over to authorities on demand).

This means that even though you own your Android device, you cannot install apps obtained from ANY source (except perhaps apps you build yourself that will only be permitted to run on your own device) unless Google knows pretty much everything about who created that app.

The ways that this could be abused are so numerous I won't even start listing them here, other than to note that it is absolutely horrific overreach by Google and at least appears to be Google bending over for abusive government demands, and could put already vulnerable individuals and groups at even more risk.

Absolutely disgusting.

L

The only acceptable name change.

Please take note, #Google

Ok, the whole time I was on #CalyxOS, I had both WiFi and #Bluetooth set to turn off automatically when not in use.

Wifi was a little bit of a pain because you have to jump into the quick toggle, but bluetooth was a huge pain, because the toggle is now hid behind a pop-up menu (thanks for the #DarkPatterns, #google).

Now that I've switched to #IodéOS, I haven't turned on the features to shut off the radios when not in use, and I'm feeling too lazy to switch that on. XD

Like, I totally get that it's broadcasting all my SSIDs to the universe while I walk around and also giving BT trackers a MAC address to track, but dang it, that new sub-menu really sucks. XD XD

#LazyPrivacyWarrior #Android #FOSS

I've updated my article on #Google killing the #openWeb

https://wok.oblomov.eu/tecnologia/google-killing-open-web/

with some additional moments I had forgotten or didn't know about (thanks to the people who pointed those out to me), and a few additional remarks in an afterword.

I also rediscovered how much of this I had actually predicted in 2013, when classic Opera died.

I'll probably be less active here today because I'm trying to finish a blog post where I pour all my hate for #Google's decade-long history of attacks to the #openWeb and #indieWeb and it's taking way longer than I expected.

EDIT: you can now read it here https://wok.oblomov.eu/tecnologia/google-killing-open-web/ and now I'm going to go over a full day of backlog here on‌ Fedi 8-D

And it's done

https://wok.oblomov.eu/tecnologia/google-killing-open-web/

If you spot any errors (e.g. in my recall of history) do let me know. If you know of additional additional (direct or by proxy) examples of the war of Google on XML, RSS and/or XSLT do let me know.
If you know of more interesting use cases for XSLT, do let me know.

Also, I'll probably add a post-scriptum in the coming hours or days, but I wanted to get this out now.

#Google #openWeb #indieWeb #XML #XSLT #selfHosting #RSS and many others

If I can already 🚩 smell the red flags as a human, how come #Google…. with all their 💸 billions in ad revenue and 🤖 billions pumped into AI can’t seem to notice them?

Give me a dirt-cheap speaker at Kit and Oliver on some other domain with Lidl logo’s where they sell IKEA cabinets… NOW!!

Me: 😭
Google: 🤑

#NoNAT Saturday

Looking for a new computer on the modern internet?

It is either #Framework , #Apple, #Microsoft or #Google

The usual suspects and mini-pc manufacturers are all not available via #IPv6