Don't even talk to me about Google forcing things on you. Over the weekend I discovered that despite all my attempts to disable Gmail on my phone it was still running and still adding everyone who sent me an e-mail to my phone contacts automatically.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
Gmail is adding a feature that allows you to send money via gmail - so you will have a sort-of PayPal thing automatically wired into your gmail account.
I cut my ties with Paypal after I got scammed and they cost me more to try to get a refund that they then refused. So Google payments might ease some of my problems buying things online.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
I've been using Chrome for a while, but I may have to switch browsers again. It's become slow on my Mac (a 2010 MacBook Pro), but it's become almost useless on the Nexus 7.
Actually, the whole tablet has become nearly useless. I have the display set to turn off after 1 minute. Chrome was running so slowly that the Android dialog box came up saying "Chrome isn't responding" I chose the "Report" option, and that took so long, the tablet display turned off. I then spent the next 5 minutes trying to get the tablet to unlock. Every time I hit the power button to wake it back up, the tablet took so long to recognize the "unlock" gesture that the display would go dark again.
I went with the Windows solution of turning it off and turning it back on again.
I'm not sure that it's only Chrome, though. I think the latest Android OS itself is causing the tablet to run too slowly.
Yeah, I have the same problems with my Nexus 7 after installing the (recommended by notification) latest O.S. update - I think it was called 'Ice Cream Sundae'. (Edit: no - I think that was the old one - maybe the new one was 'lollipop' ) To try to improve things, I did a complete reinstall of the tablet to the latest factory image (which means reinstalling all your apps - but you don't have to pay for them again) - and lost all my app settings in the process. That did help a bit but it's still much slower than before the upgrade Unfortunately, I don't know a way to go back to a previous faster version of Android without jail-breaking the tablet.
If you find a way of improving performance, or a browser that works faster than Chrome on the Nexus 7, please let me know.
I just went through the slightly painful process of doing a factory reset this morning. It hasn't entirely helped, although there is probably still crap being downloaded in the background, so I'm not yet willing to say it was a total bust.
An interesting aside, while restoring my apps, it didn't automatically install Facebook. I wonder if I'm going to have even more trouble when I do.
Unfortunately, I don't know a way to go back to a previous faster version of Android without jail-breaking the tablet.
Can't you download the factory images from here and install them just in developer mode? (Go to Settings, then tap About Tablet like seven times or something until it tells you you're a developer.)
There's supposed to be a Lollipop 5.something official roll out some time in February that will (maybe) fix the bugs. I'll wait and see how that goes first. If Google haven't fixed my Nexus 7 by the end of Feb, then I'll try what you suggest.
Oh cool! I've been in one of those procrastinating modes where I have so many stupid things to do that I've decided not to do any of them, so this will give me an excuse to put off messing with my tablet a little longer. I just don't want to risk the chance of having to go out and get a new one right now.
It seems super unlikely that the update will do anything to address my issues, but it works as an excuse.
I just went through the slightly painful process of doing a factory reset this morning. It hasn't entirely helped, although there is probably still crap being downloaded in the background, so I'm not yet willing to say it was a total bust.
An interesting aside, while restoring my apps, it didn't automatically install * Facebook. I wonder if I'm going to have even more trouble when I do.
How is this a bad thing? Facebook is a cancer on the internet.
*Emphasis Added
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Allan Glenn. 1984-2005 RIP
Under no circumstances should Quentin Tarantino be allowed to befoul Star Trek.
OK so what's up with google - i am getting occasional emails from them warning me someone has been blocked trying to access my account - I go to the security settings page and look at device activity, and the warning is about a "unknown device" on the same IP address as the machine I am now typing on, which is also listed, with same IP address. anyone out their in google security land know if anything changed that could cause this? machine is an old macbook, with google account access since the year dot. for what its worth, i also had one alert a couple of days ago claiming another device (same IP as my motoG) was being blocked too....was looking at that gmail from google on that device at the time...so something in google security land is broken, methinks?
If it uses cookies to identify known devices, and you sensibly blocks cookies, you could get this false positive error. Facebook is crap at this so I've had to turn off its unknown device reporting.
I don't know the specifics on how the tubes work on the internet, sorry. Google can know that [thing] is connected to [internet] whether it leaves/reads cookies or not.
How does it (what it are we talking about here?) keep track by IP of the identity of the same device that it says is "unknown"?
Well, it can record the IP address of devices that log in. And it can flag it as "unknown", in its own impenetrable sense, if a cookie is not presented.
It's all about selective forgetting. They really want to allow cookies. After all, if you don't have anything to hide ...
Well, it can record the IP address of devices that log in.
Yes, I understand that.
And it can flag it as "unknown", in its own impenetrable sense, if a cookie is not presented.
I get that too.
What I don't get is how it can ever have recorded an identity for the device if cookies are needed and there are no cookies. I am pretty sure my friend hasn't recently changed his Google cookies policy/settings.
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... it's just an idea
Last edited by mickthinks; 02-10-2015 at 12:31 AM.
They were offering free storage space if you did their security check-up, so I tried it. I learned two things.
1) Even though I refuse to give them my mobile number, they just went ahead and harvested it anyway when I got a smart phone.
2) My mom's computer reads as being in Florida for no particular reason, and her unidentified Linux box for old people browser reads as Chrome.
__________________
"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
Changing their algorithm this week I heard, to prioritize mobile friendly pages when searches are done on a mobile device. Apparently 40% of Fortune 500 websites will lose ranking when users are on their phone and stuff...which is like half of people doing searches.
To be fair, loads of corporate websites are utter shite on small screens. If this leads some of them to get their web people to actually do the fairly trivial work, it will have been partly a good thing.
Also 100% of The History Blogs will see a painful decline in traffic and will finally be forced to change their decrepit theme even though readers of The History Blogs are even more reluctant to embrace change than people are already.
Re: WTF happened to Google?
upgrade
Unfortunately, I don't know a way to go back to a previous faster version of Android without jail-breaking the tablet.
Linear Mode
