Tag: google

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From Brad Linder at Liliputing:

The Amazon Appstore allows you to download and install apps on Amazon Fire tablets and Fire TV devices. But the Appstore actually predates the Amazon Fire ecosystem. Amazon first launched the Appstore in March, 2011 as an app that could be installed on Android phones and tablets. The first Amazon Fire-branded tablet didn’t launch until half a year later. Fourteen years later Amazon has announced that it’s discontinuing the Appstore for Android.

I learned two things here. Firstly, while I know that Amazon’s Fire OS is based on Android and I have run F-Droid (a free and open source Android app store) on Fire devices, it had never occurred to me that Amazon promoted its Appstore on regular Android devices. Note that I run GrapheneOS on my phone with no Google Play Services, so I am not up to date on the proprietary app stores. Secondly, I was even more surprised to learn that the Amazon Appstore pre-dates the first Fire OS device, meaning it was originally released for main-line Android devices. Go figure. I have some limited experience with the Amazon Appstore from my old 2013 Kindle Fire HDX (see my one and only Amazon Appstore visual novel review) and BlackBerry Classic, both of which ran Android-derived operating systems and shipped Amazon Appstore as their default app stores.

[Source: Brad Linder for Liliputing (February 20, 2025)]

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Amazon is selling the Google Pixel Tabel for $280. It supports GrapheneOS and I have been tempted to buy one because my preferred feed reading set-up uses Handy Reading (a free and open source Android feed reader) and the Pixel tablet would be a reading upgrade over my Google Pixel 3a XL (running DivestOS, my main “phone” is a Pixel 6a running GrapheneOS). But $280 is still steep. I just can’t quite get there. We’re sticking with the 3a XL for reading, although I need to work on a more ergonomic reading set-up to avoid right hand cramps.

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I saw on Hacker News that a law firm leading a lawsuit against Google for purportedly misleading claims about Chrome’s “incognito mode” is looking for plaintiffs who, among other things, used Chrome’s incognito mode at any time between June 1, 2016, and December 1, 2023. While $5,000 would be nice (note I’m not following the suit so I do not know any of the particulars and am not interested in them), it couldn’t give me more satisfaction than noting that I am pretty sure I have not used Chrome on one of my computers in the June 2016-December 2023 time-frame. That’s right: I figured out Chrome was bad well before I switched to Linux in August 2020.

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I subscribe to the AlternativeTo.net RSS feed. A new feed update appeared in my reader a couple of days ago: Google Shuts Down Adsense Accounts in Russia Impacting Youtubers and Content Creators. I have two questions. First, what is the difference between a Youtuber and content creator in the context of someone who is trying to make money posting videos on Youtube? Second, this didn’t already happen? I thought that that all of this stuff was shut downn two years ago between the big tech companies and the actions of the Russian government. Go figure. (PS: AlternativeTo’s speculation that Google’s decision was prompted by one of Russia’s myriad new foreign agent laws seems to be over the target to me.)