Are Lock Screens About to Change? (cnet.com) 75
"The lock screen is about to change," writes CNET — both for iOS and Android devices.
Apple's iOS 16 update, which launched in public beta on Monday, will bring more customization options and new widgets to the iPhone's lock screen when it arrives this fall. You'll be able to see more information quickly and apply stylistic effects to lock screen photos similar to the iPhone's Portrait Mode photography feature.... Like the Apple Watch, the new lock screen should make it easier to see crucial pieces of information without having to dig into apps or even unlock your phone.
And for Android phones: Glance, a Google-backed subsidiary of mobile ad tech company InMobi, also reiterated its plans to bring its lock screen platform to the U.S. [though the company also says there's "no definitive timeline."] And Google is reportedly planning to incorporate more bits of information into its own lock screen widget for Pixel phones.... Glance's lock screen will appear in the form of what it calls "spaces," which are essentially curated lock screens designed to fit specific themes. A fitness-oriented lock screen, for example, would show statistics such as calories burned and exercise goals alongside a music player. A news "space" would show headlines and the weather, while a music version could surface live concerts....
The TechCrunch report about Glance's US arrival sparked concerns that advertisements would be coming to the lock screen, too. Glance's business page shows examples of advertisers that have used its platform to reach potential customers on the very first screen they see when picking up their phone. Intel, Zomato and Garnier are among the listed case studies. But Rohan Choudhary, vice president and general manager of the Glance feed, told CNET the US version would be ad-free. "We are very clear that in the US, we will not have ads on the lock screen at all," he said....
The company says it plans to monetize its service through news subscriptions and commerce links from shopping platforms that are surfaced through Glance.
Glance's motto? "Transforming lock screens into smart surfaces."
And for Android phones: Glance, a Google-backed subsidiary of mobile ad tech company InMobi, also reiterated its plans to bring its lock screen platform to the U.S. [though the company also says there's "no definitive timeline."] And Google is reportedly planning to incorporate more bits of information into its own lock screen widget for Pixel phones.... Glance's lock screen will appear in the form of what it calls "spaces," which are essentially curated lock screens designed to fit specific themes. A fitness-oriented lock screen, for example, would show statistics such as calories burned and exercise goals alongside a music player. A news "space" would show headlines and the weather, while a music version could surface live concerts....
The TechCrunch report about Glance's US arrival sparked concerns that advertisements would be coming to the lock screen, too. Glance's business page shows examples of advertisers that have used its platform to reach potential customers on the very first screen they see when picking up their phone. Intel, Zomato and Garnier are among the listed case studies. But Rohan Choudhary, vice president and general manager of the Glance feed, told CNET the US version would be ad-free. "We are very clear that in the US, we will not have ads on the lock screen at all," he said....
The company says it plans to monetize its service through news subscriptions and commerce links from shopping platforms that are surfaced through Glance.
Glance's motto? "Transforming lock screens into smart surfaces."
Change never changes (Score:5, Insightful)
>Glance's business page shows examples of advertisers that have used its platform to reach potential customers on the very first screen they see when picking up their phone.
If something on a smartphone, browser, or subscription service is changing it means it's changing for the worse. Kind of like climate change, it's always just getting worse. Maybe we should invent a new version of "change" for this. "Baddening," perhaps. My phone got a new baddening, and now it displays advertisements on my nightstand. Chrome got a new baddening, and now it won't show full URLs in the address bar.
Re:Change never changes (Score:5, Insightful)
I want my lock screen to be a lock screen. Not a battery guzzling display of "Important Things (TM)".
If something is actually, really important, I'll have it set to notify me audibly/haptically. Doing that on the lock screen is just utterly pointless and wasteful.
Re:Change never changes (Score:5, Interesting)
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I feel the same way about my personal phone.
I've gone through great lengths to turn everything that can display on a Lock Screen OFF.
It actually took a bit to find everything, but I thought
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I'm surprised at the amount of crap that Android and some phon
Re: Change never changes (Score:2)
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Aww, look at that product thinking they're customer. Aren't they cute?
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I like having a few things on my lock screen.
- Clock
- Selected non-private notifications
- Upcoming calendar events
- Media controls
- Charging/battery status
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Not a huge surprise, given that team ad-tech grows like a bacterial biofilm on every available surface; but infesting the lock screen is not about serving your interests.
Especially when, already, both iOS and Android offer
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Doing that on the lock screen is just utterly pointless and wasteful.
Could not disagree more. Importance isn't a black and white concept, and it's a fantasy that even you only have "important" things notify you haptically.
One of the best features of some after market hacking to the lock screen was to show basic information that would allow you to not have to go through the process of unlocking your phone for nothing.
e.g. displaying upcoming appointments, and active notifications on your lockscreen.
Ads can fuck right off, but your all or nothing approach to importance may sui
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I didn't get it. What's the difference between "baddening" and "worsening"?
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They're a Capitalist business operating in a for-profit environment. Not sure why you're seeking to blame anything other than obscenely predictable Greed for any change, especially to default settings. Otherwise known as the setting to capture from every competitor. Since consumers are far too lazy to change,The Default Setting on modern electronics has become a multi-trillion dollar industry.
They also know how ignorant consumers are about privacy, so that whole we'll-just-put-this-on-the-outside purchas
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Can I get *either* a case with a James T Kirk style hard flip up cover *or* a lock screen that doesn't accept touchscreen input? Butt Dialing is a thing that needs to be ELIMINATED!
An unnessary speed bump to getting into your phone (Score:1)
Ever since upgrading to an iPhone with face ID, the lock screen just seems like a holdover from an era when you had to actually take some sort of action to unlock your phone (entering a PIN or futzing with the fingerprint reader). Now it's just something I flick out of the way without even thinking, and if I want to see the notifications or what not that I may have missed since last looking at my phone, I pull down the notifications center.
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It's a most necessary "speed bump": it prevents randos from using your phone. Very important since the platform's security model acts as one of the factors in most app's MFA schemes - or said another way, when you unlock your phone, you've already proven "what you know" (PIN) or "what you are" (face recognition) to, say, banking apps.
I for one most definitely want to know when I go over that "speed bump", and I want to do it deliberately, because it's important to be conscious of the security implication.
An
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it prevents randos from using your phone.
You're misunderstanding, I'm saying that the phone's face ID feature is so fast there's no reason to even display a lock screen that I have to swipe away. It could simply open right to SpringBoard after successful authentication.
And as a side note, if you trust face recognition to be more secure than a PIN, you mustn't be very concerned with security (or privacy for that matter...)
It's good enough security. I can remotely wipe and brick the phone if it is lost/stolen, and I have zero liability if someone does somehow manage to get into my bank or credit cards with it. I'm not stupid enough to keep cryptocurrency or anything like that on my phone.
I get that
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unwise. You think "zero liability" is good enough, but how abou thet risk of having zero money and zero credit for weeks until the liability matters are settled?
You are wrong about having nothing on your phone that could be fundamentally life changing. Being made a patsy for a crime and getting "swatted" can definitely be life changing, for example. As in being locked up or shot dead. Don't be so naive.
Facial recognition is insecure and primitive technology that can't be trusted in the present.
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unwise. You think "zero liability" is good enough, but how abou thet risk of having zero money and zero credit for weeks until the liability matters are settled?
Get a better bank. My bank immediately issues a provisional credit as soon as you report fraud.
You are wrong about having nothing on your phone that could be fundamentally life changing. Being made a patsy for a crime and getting "swatted" can definitely be life changing, for example. As in being locked up or shot dead. Don't be so naive.
There is nothing on my phone that would cause me any such trouble. I can’t speak for you.
Facial recognition is insecure and primitive technology that can't be trusted in the present.
Works fine for 99% of us. The rest shouldn’t be using it anyway.
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Facial ID has been defeated. You mean 99% of people are trusting in an insecure and defeatable tech and imagine happy thoughts and hope will protect them.
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not paranoid, the steps are out there any street punk can pull off, using prints of person's face taken from several angles. Take the pics (maybe with partner(s)) steal the phone, maybe do something so the victim doesn't call in for a while or ever (!) and unlock the phone later
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Defeated as in simple enough steps a street punk can do with multiple photographs of you, all online for the curious ... or enterprising street punk.
Basically, target random person, get the pics maybe working in group to quickly get all angles, then rob the phone off the mark.
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You think "zero liability" is good enough, but how abou thet risk of having zero money and zero credit for weeks until the liability matters are settled?
Banks and credit card companies have become surprisingly good at flagging fraud before someone can drain all your money. My mother actually had her card skimmed a few years ago, and the crooks were only able to buy about $300 worth of gasoline before the card was automatically locked. That's another thing - until we have something resembling real security for our credit/debit cards in the USA, an iPhone with face ID and FMI enabled is like Fort Knox by comparison.
Being made a patsy for a crime and getting "swatted" can definitely be life changing, for example. As in being locked up or shot dead.
You pretty much have to be an extremely co
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No, I'm talking of things that can befall a random person when their phone account is taken over and used for fraud and crime. The wheels of justice can move slowly, or backwards, or sometimes run an innocent person right over.
Yes credit cards themselves are bad.
Re: An unnessary speed bump to getting into your p (Score:2)
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Ever since upgrading to an iPhone
Cue the fanbois...
Now it's just something I flick out of the way without even thinking,
You have to flick something out of the way? My Android phone is just there for me when I pick it up.
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I dunno if I'd consider faceID or other biometrics as an "upgrade".
Translation (Score:5, Insightful)
Your lock screen is about to be invaded by ads.
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Your lock screen is about to be invaded by ads.
Reality: Your battery is about to give you a dozen more reasons you'll be shopping for The New Cellular Hotness (Now with Advertisement-Grade Battery Capacity!) by Labor Day.
Along with a billion other consumers.
Call it the COVID "catch-up" tax. Seems Greed didn't quite steal enough from the pandemic.
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Unlikely.
First of all, I never update Android, because whatever exploits gets plugged aren't worth the slowdowns and refinements in surveillance and advertisement technology the update usually installs alongside the fixes. Or said another way, I dread Google more than I dread hackers.
Secondly, my cellphone is a Ulefone Armor 3W [gsmchoice.com] with a 10,300 mAh battery.
Pointcast is back! (Score:2)
Remember pointcast, the company whose business was advertising on screensavers, the thing that is displayed on your screen when you are not there? Now glance, the company that advertises on the lock screen, which activates when you're not using your phone... ... we have learned nothing.
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Remember pointcast, the company whose business was advertising on screensavers, the thing that is displayed on your screen when you are not there?
Actually no, I do not. Looking them up - they failed in 2000, probably because no one wanted their “service”. I’m guessing the same thing will happen here.
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I may have been reading too much into it, but I kinda thing that was his point...
It's called a LOCK screen for a reason. (Score:5, Insightful)
The lock screen is a barrier between your private information and anyone who may come in the posession of your device. Allowing any applications or other private information to be placed on the lock screen is therefore a very bad idea. No one should be able to extract any information from your device without proper authentication. Furthermore, any applications embeded in the lock screen may prove to be vulnerable and become a potential authentication bypass vector.
Have you seen how Apple manages this? (Score:3, Insightful)
The lock screen is a barrier between your private information and anyone who may come in the posession of your device. Allowing any applications or other private information to be placed on the lock screen is therefore a very bad idea.
Have you seen how Apple handles notifications already in iOS 15? I think the approach is pretty good, you get just a general message there is a notification on the Lock Screen, and you can only read contents if FaceID authenticates it's you looking at the screen...
In the case
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I also recommend Wasted (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/me.lucky.wasted/) and companion apps. Together they let you set a duress password that can do a variety of things, including wiping your phone.
Re: Have you seen how Apple manages this? (Score:2)
The only thing I provide on my lock screen is fake info to trigger a duress situation.
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Heh... now your "personalized" ads will be shown to everyone!
And to think, people used to worry about family members snooping through their browsing history.
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That's probably also made very clear on page 274 in the EULA too. The end result was lock screen banner notifications that didn't exactly fall off the feature cart yesterday.
Yes, some may vehemently agree with you, but consumers prefer convenience. Sure they were forced to shut down PRISM. Oddly enough, Project "Social Media" kicked off a week later...
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The lock screen is a barrier between your private information and anyone who may come in the posession of your device. Allowing any applications or other private information to be placed on the lock screen is therefore a very bad idea.
There is no black and white scale for importance of private data. There are many things you can display on the lockscreen which are completely irrelevant to 3rd parties, such as many pointless notifications, and some which do have a point. There are also some things you may want to flash up on your lock screen where you think the benefit of not having to unlock your phone outweighs the risk of someone else seeing it.
Black and white thinking doesn't belong in a discussion about technology and its use. The wo
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I think this is a very individual thing. Security always comes at the cost of convenience and flexibility. Different users have different use cases and may want a difference balance.
Sure, "literally nothing but the unlocking mechanism" should be an option for the ultra-security conscious. That wallpaper and clock display are just needless attack surface! On the other hand, I like seeing summary notifications and events.. I live the kind of life where someone stealing my phone and seeing the subject of even
Time-aware lockscreen (Score:2)
All I want is a time-aware lockscreen.
If I entered my difficult passphrase 2 minutes ago, let me bang in a 4-digit pin.
A two minute lock is a different security context than a two week lock.
All we do is discourage people from using decent security.
Customers: "We want more battery life!" (Score:2)
Apple/Google: "OK, cool here ya go. But also here's some cool new features that will use that extra battery life."
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Good luck trying to serve me ads... (Score:1)
...when my phone isn't connected to any data networks. I keep it offline all of the time, unless I am actively using it. Then it gets disconnected again as soon as I am done.
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So you're saying they need to cache ads while your phone is connected to a network? Ok, they've already implemented that feature.
Line them up against the wall Bill (Score:3)
"We are very clear that in the US, we will not have ads on the lock screen at all," he said...."
Oh, so the fact that you are only scumfucks to a small subset of the population (reads, the least profitable ones) somehow makes this better?
Another marketer for Mr Hicks to dispose of.
Ya, hard no. (Score:4, Insightful)
Glance's business page shows examples of advertisers that have used its platform to reach potential customers on the very first screen they see when picking up their phone.
(a) Don't want ads on my lock screen -- ever.
(b) Don't want my lock screen wasting my data plan or bandwidth -- ever.
Summary: It's a frelling Lock Screen -- on a phone *I* own -- not ad space.
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That's the problem. In modern world, you don't actually own your phone. You de facto lease it. Just look at terms of service on the OS.
Re: Ya, hard no. (Score:2)
It's a horrific mess unless you're a teenage girl that does stupid things just because your high school friends are also doing stupid things. (Like using China-controlled TikTok.)
About Glance -- So much wrong here ... (Score:2)
From the Glance home page referenced in TFS:
Bringing Internet to Smartphone Lock Screens Globally
Glance is a consumer internet company that has created two of the most disruptive digital platforms - Glance and Roposo. Glance has redefined the way internet is consumed on the lock screen, removing the need for searching and downloading apps.Over 400 million smartphones now come enabled with Glance’s next generation internet experience.
So much wrong here ...
most disruptive digital platforms
Doesn't sound like something I would ever want.
redefined the way internet is consumed on the lock screen
Don't want Internet on my lock screen.
removing the need for searching and downloading apps
Not sure what *that* means, but pretty sure I don't want it.
Over 400 million smartphones now come enabled with Glance’s next generation internet experience.
I better be able to uninstall or, at least disable this -- on the phone *I* own.
Sounds like a sales pitch for CalyxOS or LineageOS (Score:2)
Both are easy to install.
Re: Sounds like a sales pitch for CalyxOS or Linea (Score:2)
Actually it's hard to install anything if you don't know it exists and most Android users know nothing about CalyxOS or LineageOS. Also it looks that they're easy to install if you have the right device, which is a huge "if".
Just a way to show more ads... (Score:2)
"People are still jailbreaking?" - Apple (Score:2)
"I guess we'll have to add some of their ten year old features." *heavy sigh*
Customizable ... by whom? (Score:2)
You, your phone provider, the manufacturer of the phone or Apple/Google?
I'm nor sure which one it will be, I only know which one it will very likely not be.
Wonder how long until this is killed... (Score:2)
I'm reminded of when Google allowed push messaging in Android. Of course, every advertiser not just had their app spam with it, but would install secondary apps which were hidden on the device, solely to continue spamming even if the main app was yanked.
Wonder how obnoxious lock screens will become, especially when ads start pushing 4k video 24/7. For those who are on metered plans, or those who will get throttled after 20-50 gigs... kiss your allotment goodbye.
The good news about Android is that so much
Rebel (Score:2)
Rebel against it. They only push shit like this when they know people will passively accept it.
If you must own a smart phone, pick one that doesn't do this. Choice is there, you just have to show some character.
Sigh. (Score:2)
How many times are you going to keep trying to sell me Active Desktop in different forms and form factors?
My lock screen is blank, because I want it to be blank.
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Cool, leave it blank. More power to you. Mine displays time, calendar, and notifications because I want it to be useful.
Not everyone is selling *you* something. You're not the only person in the world (though you may be the most self important one).
Android Notifications (Score:2)
This is nothing new. Android already allows you to customize notifications on your lock screen if you're the kind of schmuck who can't take 5 seconds to unlock your phone first. This is really like having two tiers of Kindles.
not changing for me. (Score:1)
My droid phone is running an ancient android and hasn't had any update in something like 4 years. It's so peaceful.
Even their explainer lists an Ad! (Score:2)
Their explainer:
Glance is a smart surface, not an ads platform. Glance has no intention to show ads on the lock screen surface.
Later in the same paragraph:
they could choose to buy products from merchants when the product drop of the day surfaces on the lock screen.
That's .. an ad. Shoving a product they want you to buy on the lock screen is an ad.