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Comment by mrgordon | Hacker News Reader

Google bricked my Android phone many years ago by deactivating the auth server used for logging into the phone with your Google account. The phone didn’t support Cyanogen so I literally just had to stop using it purely due to Google deciding it was time to kill it.

So don’t give me this nonsense that Android phones live forever.

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hmm. google didn't brick mine. i don't have a google account, or any google services on my phone. that's like saying microsoft bricked your windows laptop, so don't buy laptops with linux or bsd.

cyanogen? there are a hundred other builds. google your phone model and custom rom.

they don't live forever but they do live over 10 years on the latest android. which beats apple and their security patches any day.

Google hasn’t bricked your phone (yet) and they bricked mine so you expect me to be excited? You said any old Android phone could run the newest stuff but it’s a lie. I can still use my original iPhone other than it being slow but I literally cannot use my HTC phone that Google deactivated the auth server for. There is no “update to the newest Android” because the hardware is “too old” for modern Android and they cut the phone off from upgrades. Which is fine, except they also cut off the DNS for the “login to Android” feature so it’s bricked. It would have been a great travel phone still as it had been for many years, but Google got greedy.

There was no cyanogen or other alternative supported. It’s not a matter of googling more. They didn’t support the phone model.

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