this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2025
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 hours ago

Thats nothing, the Play Integrity API is trying to block usage by other operating systems like CalyxOS and Graphene. Imo much more insidious and opaque.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Is it bad that I stopped using Google docs and plan on moving to OpenOffice instead?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago

Why would that be bad?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

I'd recommend libreoffice, because oracle also kinda sucks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago

Every Google Drive action I do now is shifted over 20% for ✨

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago

I tried to ask it how I could remove it, Gemini told me that in order for me to help it I needed to active some of the "smart" features I didn't have active on my account, essentially helping do the opposite. It follows the ever increasing practice of trying to shove basically illegal behavior into "it's just the algorithm, bro, there was no intent!"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago

The good news is that this may cure my laziness. I've been preparing to leave most of google service for a while now.

[–] [email protected] 85 points 23 hours ago (6 children)

to be fair, Microsoft is also shoving Copilot down our throats. They keep adding unremovable Copilot buttons to Outlook.com

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago

They replaced the "M365" app icon with "M365 copilot" and the copilot icon on android the other day. I Uninstalled it.

It's nice to be able to use copilot in some of these apps, it is shit to be forced to have it everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

I would say that neither corporation forcing AI on us is fair by any stretch

[–] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago

Oof, luckily I don't have to use o365 at work anymore.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 21 hours ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

Or I ask to go to Costco, and where Assistant previously would route me to the nearest one, Gemini sends me to one 80 miles away

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

I love the dedicated piracy folder lmao

[–] [email protected] 18 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

This is probably the most 'old man yells at cloud' thing about me but I hate voice assistants and they have yet to work consistently enough to be worth my time.

It is completely insane to me that something simple like "Add ____ to the grocery list" has worked and stopped working nonstop for years now. How hard is that to get right? Cannot believe such a simple action is so inconsistent.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago

My Google smart speaker used to integrate with my shopping list app. The loss of that integration and other features makes it basically a glorified white noise machine now.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 17 hours ago

I think a lot of that has to do with that Google used to be a company with engineers wanting to make the best software.

Now it's an ad agency that happens to have some software to make money, and they don't care about the software anymore. Money is not only bottom line, it's all the lines. You see the results in the quality of their software, it's all gone down hill.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

That's my biggest gripe with Gemini; it's not a proper replacement for Google Assistant and yet it's still treated as such.

Feels like Google took at least two steps back when it comes to Gemini on Pixel devices...

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Google was "cool" 2 decades ago... or before they combined both monetization (through ad) with power (through monopoly) they inexorably transformed EXACTLY to Microsoft the same way Facebook/Meta did the Google playbook.

Those huge tech corporations are pulled by the market to follow the same, sadly successful, strategy playbook and keep no uniqueness.

Google has been the new Microsoft for years already but through careful marketing consumers somehow believe they aren't.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 21 hours ago

Google is slipping. Duck duck go is a better search engine. There are better mail systems as well. Meta is done as well.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

When the leaked internal video came out about Google’s real vision, everyone said it is fake. It does not look that fake now.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 22 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 day ago (2 children)

We don't "get" tech anymore. Tech happens to/at us. We are already getting AI generated ads. Where are the AI based ad blockers?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 17 hours ago

Already happened. It died because it turns out the AI was funneling all of your browsing data to the servers running the AI instead

GPT-AdBlocker for Chrome promises to block all ads, including ads in videos - gHacks Tech News - https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/19/gpt-adblocker-for-chrome-promises-to-block-all-ads-including-ads-in-videos/

[–] [email protected] 6 points 17 hours ago

They'd be useless. Unless you trained it yourself there would 100% be a whitelist you couldn't see, or it'd be gobbling up all your data.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

there is nothing forcing you to keep using google though

[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Apple Intelligence too. Thankfully you can still disable it

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

disable it

Un install, delete, remove 👀

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago

Imagine the next one's gonna be named Mario lmao.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago

When AI appeared in my android text messaging app was the day I relented and installed GrapheneOS. Between Graphene and Bazzite on laptop/desktop, and NixOS for homelab/self hosted tools,.couldn't be happier to be free from all big tech BS while still getting tech benefits on my own terms

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago (10 children)

I'm being serious with this comment. In no way have I felt like Google has forced Gemini on me. I barely notice it exists. Can anyone give me examples?

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 day ago (3 children)

They’ve stuffed it into every page in Google cloud and workspace.

I tried it in sheets one time and it literally made up fake data for my analysis. Never trusting that again.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It "messaged" me in Google Messages today introducing itself and how it could summarize text messages on my phone for me

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

if a human sends me a text long enough to benefit from a summary that's a human that is being removed from my contacts.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Gemini 'messaged' me in google messages introducing itself a couple months ago. Just appeared like a normal text conversation with any other contact, but as soon as you click on it you're presented with a wall of T&Cs.

Deleted the 'conversation' and it's stayed gone; though there's an option for it in settings.

The only other place I've see it is an on-screen reminder every time I use Google Assistant. (usually just triggering home automatons)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's why.

I don't use Google messages, don't use the Google Assistant... am barely aware that Gemini exists.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My job uses the Google suite and it feels like it’s gotten a bit excessive recently. Just this week I have gotten multiple popups on my work email and in Docs and Sheets. It has been present in Chat for a few months.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

All of it is. Or pushing copilot into all Microsoft products like anyone is using this shit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 19 hours ago

Every time I've opened an Office app this week it has given me some copilot welcome screen and opened it's own sidebar. I tried to use it to proofread a word doc and got prompted to purchase a license. So they basically just filled 1/3 of my screen with an ad.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Problem with Gemini is that is sucks badly in comparison with more mature solutions.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Wanted to say it feels like Microsoft doing same thing with Copilot, but at least you can disable that. At least on enterprise plans, home / small business apperently is a different story now.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 22 hours ago

I wasn't able to disable Copilot in Office without threatening to cancel via my account management page. It's only then that they give you the option to fall back to the originally priced plan that specifically doesn't include Copilot. And even after that, Copilot apparently won't be removed from my locally installed copies of the Office apps until my plan renewal date in April! I'm pretty sure I'm gonna use the time to transition all my documents to LibreOffice and fully cancel my MS Office plan before it renews.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Use a hardened Firefox, use a different search engine

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