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Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19 content

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1525 points garyclarke27 | 2 comments | 18 May 20 07:37 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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choward ◴[18 May 20 08:50 UTC] No.23219999[source]▶
I've been getting away from apps installed from the play store over the years. This is one of the 2 remaining apps I have that I paid for. This is appalling behavior my Google. I can't wait until I can make a real Linux based phone my daily driver.
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tjhrewr234234 ◴[18 May 20 09:52 UTC] No.23220384[source]▶
> I can't wait until I can make a real Linux based phone my daily driver.

Alas, all the competitors are now moribund, and much of the market couldn't give two hoots about privacy issues.

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amenod ◴[18 May 20 10:01 UTC] No.23220449[source]▶
What do you mean? Pinephone is alive and well and you can get your own Linux "toy" for $150. Can't say much about Librem 5, but afaik they are also shipping.
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m4rtink ◴[18 May 20 10:32 UTC] No.23220653[source]▶
You can also get officially supported Sailfish OS on a couple Xperia devices:

https://jolla.com/sailfishx/

Perfectly suitable for daily use, typing from such a device just now. :) IIRC there is a community port for PinePhone as well.

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1. simonbh ◴[18 May 20 21:13 UTC] No.23228443{3}[source]▶
From what I can read, the use of Sailfish is only allowed in certain EU countries. Why is that? Their site does not address this.
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2. m4rtink ◴[23 May 20 20:28 UTC] No.23286113[source]▶
I'm just guessing but one reason could be to avoid having to support foreign payment, tax and possibly warranty regimes (Jolla, the company behind Sailfish OS, is based in Finland).

Also they might want to avoid doing business in countries that support software patents and are over litigious over that (eq. USA).

But this limitation is pretty much artificial - the only thing you need to do from the EU is buying the image. This can be achieved via an EU based VPN (reportedly the built in VPN in Opera works) and AFAIK any mainstream payment card will work (does not have to be from an EU country).

Once you got the license and installation image, there are no real EU specific limitations. I have used Sailfish OS twice while on a trip in Japan and all worked just fine - repo access, etc. Also from the download statistics from OpenRepos (a community package repository for Sailfish OS), you can see there is a lot of users from countries that are not officially supported:

https://openrepos.net/statistics/global