Android 14 adds support for using your smartphone as a webcam
Too little, too late for me... I hate to be the guy having those "hot takes" or whatever, but hear me out for a sec:<p>I didn't get a cell phone until 2013. (Yes I used land lines until then.) It was a Nexus 4 (still love the grippy sides and sleek glass back). Every 2-3 years I traded up, all the way until Pixel 6.<p>Tomorrow my first iPhone will be delivered. Why? A lot of reasons, but some are:<p>- I can't just plug my Google phone into an external display to mirror it. Uh, hello?? DisplayPort out is explicitly disabled in the source code with no reason given: <a href="https://twitter.com/MishaalRahman/status/1189998588023234560" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://twitter.com/MishaalRahman/status/1189998588023234560</a> -- yet this works great in other phones.<p>- I can't access my text messages from my Android phone (without a separate app like SMS Backup & Restore) -- go ahead, try it. Yeah, do an adb backup. Maybe rooting your phone would give you access, but it's impossible otherwise AFAIK. And I think rooting your phone deletes everything in the process.<p>- I can't access my phone backup. It's ONLY stored on Google's servers. The only way to even get close is to restore it to a phone. This is a physical device I bought and literally am holding in my hand but can't access all the stuff on it! Did you know you can just plug in an iPhone into Windows or Macs and dump a backup to your computers? It's all right there, text messages, system settings, contacts, photos, databases, EVERYTHING (except maybe hardware-protected keys). It's amazing.<p>- Do I even need to mention all the Google shenanigans? We all know what I'm talking about, right? The mess of messengers... the killing of various services, the lack of support, the stronger integration with ads and tracking.<p>Apple's not perfect either, but I feel like it's worth a shot inside the walled garden for a bit. I like that some of these common sense things are not a problem with iOS:<p>- Display out.<p>- Accessing your own device.<p>- Messaging that actually makes sense.<p>- At least it feels like Apple cares about privacy; counterintuitively, I feel way more in control using Apple products than I do Google ones.