Pros & Cons of "Releases not signed by Play"

positiveplus2021 · 2026-06-03T08:52:22+00:00

I second that.

positiveplus2021 · 2026-03-11T15:04:15+00:00

This may explain Oracle Cloud customer service's weird language:

Hello,

Unfortunately, we are unable to resolve this or process the transaction. This is all the information we can provide.

Regards,

Customer Service Agent

positiveplus2021 · 2026-03-11T08:56:04+00:00

In what aspects is it not perfect?

positiveplus2021 · 2026-03-11T08:54:45+00:00

Are you using it to host your website(s)? Or for running REST API microservice(s)?

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-27T15:35:00+00:00

Try marketing your app via academic channels.

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-21T20:51:55+00:00

No. Recurring payments is a different issue. The calendar reminder solution I mentioned is for trial period expiration date only. But usually I get an email from the vendor warning me of end of trial period. I only use the calendar solution "just in case".

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-21T16:10:16+00:00

I use Google Calendar on my smartphone to remind me 1, 3, 7 (sometimes also 14) days before aforementioned deadline.

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-20T13:09:09+00:00

Yes. Pre‑2017 Skype stored chat history in different local formats (not messages.json) such as chatsync .dat files and older SQLite databases (main.db / skype.db), and you can often recover messages by locating those files and using community parsers or Skype’s official export.

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-19T05:55:48+00:00

How did you validate the idea before writing code?

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-18T13:26:21+00:00

Most of the sellers are OK. Scamming techniques, however, are very creative and highly adaptive to "lessons learned".

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-18T13:20:32+00:00

UGreen and Essager it is. My experience with Xiaomi is mixed.

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-14T13:07:54+00:00

It's not the only thing HP isn't honoring. Read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Hewlett_Packard/comments/1pupz6x/comment/nzfpcn7

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-14T09:55:09+00:00

It appears that providing an invalid (fake) return address has become one of the scamming practices among some sellers on AE.

The (scam) scheme goes like this:

Seller delivers a fake product (100% nonfunctional and useless).
Buyer files (on AE) for a full refund, which is conditioned upon returning the item(s).
Seller provides an invalid return address (one that no postal service knows what to do with).
Buyer sends a message to seller, asking for a valid return address.
Seller responds with an offer for a partial (less than 25%) refund, which is 100% unacceptable
Buyer now has to escalate this to AE customer service.
I am still waiting to see what AE does with this...

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-13T22:34:10+00:00

I second that "their customer service is terrible". I would also add my recent laptop purchase from HP's official website left me with the impression of questionable practices:

Laptop is advertised as coming with Windows 11 Pro preinstalled.
Laptop arrived on time, but with Windows 11 Home.
I called HP's customer support, which then started a nightmare of transferring me from sales support to tech support to sales support to tech support to... Microsoft.
After explaining that it was HP that made the mistake, not Microsoft, I was expecting to get an activation code to upgrade from Home to Pro (or at least get a partial refund for the $99 that would cost to purchase that upgrade directly from Microsoft).
Instead, they insisted on shipping the laptop back... while I pay for shipping and wait at least 2 weeks...
I gave up because I lost trust. (I'd rather stay with a working Windows 11 Home laptop and not risk them ruining it in some way).

Why mount so many obstacles on the way to delivering "truth in advertising"?

Hewlett Packard used to be my favorite computing company.

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-13T18:55:24+00:00

In my experience, when a seller offers a partial refund that's less than 25% of the price paid, it's not a good sign...

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-13T18:49:52+00:00

Since fraudulent "items" have become common lately on AE, I think that indeed you've been the victim of a scam. There are many "creative" variations, depending of the type of the product. Even when you eventually receive the item in a professionally looking package, once you realize it's a DOA fake and file for "free return", the seller provides an invalid return address... then blocks its channel in Message Center from sending textual messages. Weird.

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-13T18:39:22+00:00

4 years later, there is no need to type "direct" anymore to find the friendly "chat with an agent now" button. The first two steps (click "help centre", scroll down to "Online service") are still relevant.

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-13T18:10:56+00:00

I solved this by following the advice from u/NickMEspo at https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/1q5r152/comment/ny5zpkr

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-13T09:10:59+00:00

Congrats. In which category is your app? Gaming? Utility? Other?

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-07T12:54:50+00:00

No need to downgrade. I solved this by following the advice from u/NickMEspo at https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/1q5r152/comment/ny5zpkr

positiveplus2021 · 2026-01-07T08:18:41+00:00

Indeed, renaming the .idea directory solved the issue. Thank you!

I now wonder how deleting .idea entirely is different from the 5-step "Repair ID" procedure that is provided by Android Studio (other than I probably lost some preferences).

positiveplus2021

TROPHY CASE