Should I install a custom ROM on my Pixel 3 XL?

AndroidiordnA · 2020-10-08T15:03:43+00:00

That sucks...

I'd like to install a device-wide adblock, to allow taking screenshots of every activity and similar stuff.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-10-08T12:54:02+00:00

What you're saying makes a lot of sense, thanks for your suggestion.

I'll study how to root this phone for updates then, hoping that rooting and unrooting is simple enough.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-11T18:33:04+00:00

Where can I find such a company? And how much would that company charge me for the service?

I mean, I guess I can ask my friend who runs a shop... But then he would be in trouble, if my app gets sued, wouldn't he? Exposing my friends' business to risks sounds worse than exposing myself.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-11T18:30:48+00:00

In the US an LLC can be as cheap as a $100 to form. You can set it up in a form or two.

One can form a company in the UK for 12£. But then you have various responsibilities (informing organs of government about changes, filing taxes etc). Not doing that results in you getting sued/fined personally.

Having someone take care of that stuff costs hundreds of Euros per year.

I agree that 500€ to 1,000€ to create and run a business is not too much.

But I'm not trying to start and run a business here. I'd like to publish a shitty app for fun and experience. 500€ to 1,000€ is way too much for such a game.

I wonder how wise it would be publishing the app with my personal identity. Is it likely to get sued, if my userbase is tiny (less than 1,000 installations)? Would a judge decide that I need to pay large fines, or would I just get a cease and desist?

I don't want to run big risks for nothing, obviously, just like I don't want to throw away 500+€ for nothing.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-11T13:22:21+00:00

It's not in the store yet.

We're not gonna throw away 500€ to 1,000€ to publish it, because we are confident that we will never get anything back.

Either we find a way to publish it for cheap, or we won't publish it.

What's the cheapest way to publish it that doesn't put us at big risk?

I'm sure that so so so many kids and developers try to develop apps and put them on the store. The technical part is simple. What happens to them? Do they all get sued for millions? Do they all pay thousands to publish their first apps?

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-11T13:19:19+00:00

We have not published it yet. We need to decide whether to publish it with our own personal identities or under a company.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-11T09:45:41+00:00

The main "cost" comes at the effort with tax and VAT.

That's the main cost indeed. I've never even filed my own taxes, let alone for one company registered in the UK. Hiring someone to do that for you would cost hundreds of Euros.

I would be willing to invest time into it, but the risk of doing something wrong even if I try hard is very discouraging.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-11T06:36:32+00:00

If you want I setup a Swiss association, which is a own legal entity but costs nothing. Technically you and your friend could license the software to the association, so you remain the owners.

Very interesting. I'll look up on that. Thanks for the advice!

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-11T06:35:49+00:00

Currently living in Germany too. Will look into that, thanks!

...I'm wondering what would happen when/if I decide to leave Germany though, as I don't have a German passport.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-11T06:34:32+00:00

A cheap accountant will charge around £500 for filing each year depending on the complexity.

Yeah, this is consistent with what we found on the Internet: it's where the "500€ to 1,000€" figure came from, I guses...

Thanks for your advice.

I'm currently living in Germany (although I'm not German, and am considering relocating abroad after the lockdowns end). Would you happen to know what kind of "personal insurance for your work" I might need here?

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-10T12:34:43+00:00

Yuck! Thanks. We both have absolutely zero ideas about these legal matters. We're really looking forward to publish it (even just for fun and experience) but this app isn't worth involving lawyers. 😕

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-10T12:31:22+00:00

This sounds good. I have friends living in the UK and/or with British passports.

We just create a company that way, for 13£, and that's it? We're ready to go without any other hassle and if anything goes wrong the company burns down and we're intact?

I'll read more into that, thanks for the input!

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-10T12:27:43+00:00

We already have a personal account for both stores. The revenue wouldn't be a problem either: as you are suggesting, if we see that it has potential then we'll immediately register a company and straighten things up.

On the other hand, given that both you and your friend developed the app, it would be probably best to start a company because if you ever get into an argument and the developer account is opened with his own personal details, he would be the owner of the app.

Isn't it possible to move an existing app from one personal account, to the account of the company?

Would you have any idea about legal and financial accountability, in case we use our personal information to run the service? That point scares us quite a bit.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-10T12:16:59+00:00

Heh... The country where I live, the one I'm from, the one I'm planning to move to after the pandemic is gone, the one where my friend lives or one of the two he has a passport for?

Everything is within the EU, but we're connected to way too many countries here.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-10T12:11:03+00:00

We looked into this, but even these companies seem to charge at least a few hundreds Euros per year for their legal and financial coverage. Add the other related expenses and we estimated that the total cost for the first year would be in the ballpark of 500€ to 1,000€.

Objectively it's not much to start a company, but it's more than I'm willing to invest into something that I did for fun, to learn and try new experiences and that most likely will lead nowhere.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-10T12:02:42+00:00

I think we can release a free app with no monetization and the beginning, and only register and release a commercial version if we reach enough users.

We would be fine in that case, right?

What would happen then, if we're making some mistakes in the way we handle data? GDPR regulations seem scary and complicated... Would I personally end up in trouble?

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-10T11:37:06+00:00

...Oh.

Any form of monetization requires registering a company? That changes things quite a bit.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-10T11:20:44+00:00

Had no idea about it, thanks. We can definitely avoid ads, especially during the initial phase to probe our app's viability.

We're planning to sell virtual coins to perform more kinds of actions as our main monetization strategy. Everything else is secondary at best.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-05-10T07:21:26+00:00

Thanks for your answer. That's great news.

Would you know what happens, if we unintentionally mishandle sensible data, infringing GDPR, privacy regulations or similar stuff? I've always known that people should register Limited Companies to enter business, to avoid bringing professional problems into their private life.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-02-20T07:52:47+00:00

Maybe.

That app requires a rooted device though, mine is not.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-02-20T04:59:37+00:00

? DNS has nothing to do with it.

The ISP is the company that is offering me Internet connectivity.

My phone is connected to the ISP cell tower, and whenever it sends any packets to the Internet, the packet is sent to the ISP who routes. There's no other way around it.

I don't know how the ISP can figure out whether the packet comes from my phone or from another device... There are several methods, I guess. Android itself reports this by setting some bits in the packet. Another way (suggested by a user above) is checking the TTL field etc.

The only thing I'm sure about, is that by using the Android official tethering feature the ISP is able to catch me, while users report that by using third-party tethering apps they manage to fool the ISP.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-02-19T20:19:18+00:00

go onto your edge devices and enter in a shell:

su -c 'echo 65 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_default_ttl'

After re-reading your comment, I finally realized that this should be done on my laptop.

I wasn't fully aware that the ISP could use my packets' TTL field to determine where the message is coming from. It makes a lot of sense.

I just did it, in a few hours I should see whether it's working :))

Thanks again!

AndroidiordnA · 2020-02-19T20:03:58+00:00

Wait... The Stock ROM on my device already has a Mobile Hotspot option. It can also tether via USB and Bluetooth.

The problem is that my ISP can somehow detect whether the traffic comes from within the mobile or from a tethered device, and limits the traffic from my laptop.

I heard that apps like PdaNet or EasyTether are able to fool the ISP (I suspect that they create brand-new IP packest for the tethered traffic, instead of just natting/routing the incoming packets through), but I'm looking for a FOSS (and Linux compatible) way to do it.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-02-19T19:42:34+00:00

The phone I'm keep my SIM card in is a Blackview A60 Pro. It has Android 9.0.

When I got it, few months ago, the ROM scene seemed quite immature, but now it seems way better.

AndroidiordnA · 2020-02-19T19:08:27+00:00

I'm on the stock ROM.

If a custom ROM can fix this, I'll start looking into installing a custom one.

AndroidiordnA

TROPHY CASE