I'm writing this post here today in hopes to bring some attention to something that is near and dear to my heart, and that's an update to the current situation with Nova Launcher, that I worked for and with for nine years up until August of 2024.

For those that haven't seen the news, Kevin Barry, the founder and developer of Nova has left Branch which in turn means he's now no longer involved with Nova Launcher in any way going forward.

https://teslacoilapps.com/nova/solong.html

For the past year or so Kevin has stated that he was working on the open source version of Nova Launcher so that if/when this time came, it would be out in the open and the community could take it over and contribute to it and have it continue being developed.

However, it seems that Harish Thimmappa and others at Branch had told him to stop working on that effort as they didn't want him to continue doing that for unknown reasons. This is sad news because this was something that former CEO, Alex Austin, h ...

...ad promised both via a contract and publicly that if Kevin were to ever leave Branch, Nova Launcher would become open source. You can find that quote here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/w2q6al/comment/igzoniu/

and another very similar quote with similar conversation here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/w2q6al/comment/ih25ntz/

The reason for this post is to try and draw some attention to the folks at Branch, specifically folks like Harish Thimmappa to do the right thing and honor these promises and any writings in the contracts from 2022 and to fully focus on releasing Nova Launcher as an open source app.

The community deserves this more than anything, since that was something that Kevin was very adamant about when he allowed Branch to acquire Nova Launcher back in 2022. Plus, this is just something that Branch should do since it is something that has been promised.

There is currently a petition on Change.org to try and get Branch to do this as well. After only 3 days of it being posted to Change.org, it sits at almost 1,500 signatures, and that's with very little to no press coverage at this time, which is something that would be super useful to bring full attention to this situation. You can find the petition here:

https://www.change.org/p/make-nova-launcher-open-source-let-the-community-continue-its-development

I ask that everyone who sees this post can share it with their followers as I would love to see Branch do the right thing and follow through with their promises that were made back in 2022 when they acquired Nova Launcher and release it fully as an open source app now that Kevin is no longer working for Branch and not involved in Nova Launcher.

I'm going to tag some folks below that I worked with at Branch in hopes of getting this post seen by as many folks there as possible.

#NovaLauncher #Nova #Branch #BranchMetrics #OpenSource #OpenSourceNova #Petition #Android #Apps #Google

Nova Launcher’s founder and sole developer has left https://www.theverge.com/news/773937/nova-launcher-founder-left-kevin-barry-branch-open-source-android

One of the ways that LLM-authored code improves productivity is by merely SAYING it does things. It's way faster than the whole time-consuming process of actually doing things. This is real code someone sent to me for review.

the lack of self awareness is insane



RE: https://mastodon.cloud/users/slashdot/statuses/115174477453853435

Pixels have provided hardware memory tagging (MTE) support since the Pixel 8. GrapheneOS deployed it in production around a month after the launch of the Pixel 8 and we use it for the kernel and nearly the entire base OS. We use it for some third party apps and users can opt-in to using it for all.

Unlike iPhone users, GrapheneOS users have been well protected by attacks from Cellebrite and other exploit development companies.

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/14344-cellebrite-premium-july-2024-documentation

Apple talks a big game but consistently fails to protect their users against broadly deployed exploits used at a large scale.

Le operazioni politiche spesso vengono ‘nascoste” da altre presunte notizie. Non vi sembra strano che il presidente UE di turno della Danimarca il 1 luglio abbia chiesto di reintrodurre il Chat Control entro il 14 ottobre, se ci sarà voto a maggioranza mentre nella stessa data Microsoft abbandonerà Windows 10? Un problema per nasconderne un altro più importante!

Potete agire andando sul sito!!!

https://fightchatcontrol.eu/

#privacy #freedom #nocontrol

If you upload a video to #PeerTube and spot a mistake in it after publication, don't panic!

You may be able to replace the video file without breaking existing links or comments:

1. Log into your PeerTube server's website

2. Go to "Videos"

3. Click "Update" on video to correct

4. Click "Advanced Settings" tab

5. Under "Replace Video File" click "Select file", choose corrected video file

6. Click "Update"

If you don't see this option, ask your PeerTube server admin as they can activate it.

🗃Android 16 QPR1’s source code is nowhere to be found, but Google swears it’s coming

Google's latest AOSP delay has reignited fears about Android's open source future. Hopefully this delay doesn't become the new norm!

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-qpr1-source-code-delay-3596650/

I just managed to get Oracle VirtualBox with KVM patches working as a Flatpak! Honestly kinda crazy that this can even be done

https://github.com/tulilirockz/VirtualBoxKVMFlatpak

#virtualbox #vms #vmm #kvm #qemu #linux #flatpak

https://mltshp.com/p/1R9IG “Teams team”

🇪🇺The EU Commission seriously claims: "There is no such thing as #ChatControl.”

Their fantasy: A magic, 100% perfect algorithm that only finds CSAM.

The reality: To find anything, you must scan everything.

Stop the mass surveillance lie! #StopScanningMe

https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/@EUCommission/115180569539039179

Germany is AGAINST Chat Control as currently proposed!

This is a critical step, securing the blocking minority required to stop this illegal mass surveillance for now! However, the LEWP meeting is tomorrow: do not stop fighting!

https://fightchatcontrol.eu/

Source: https://www.bundestag.de/presse/hib/kurzmeldungen-1108356

We have an official new announcement from #StopKillingGames!

See:

https://www.reddit.com/r/StopKillingGames/comments/1nfvxk1/campaign_update/

In summary:

- Verification of the ~1.45 million signatures are now underway. Early reports from several countries show ~97% valid signatures

- Signature verification will take ~3 months.

-The next phase is:

• Legislative outreach to Members of @europarl_en@respublicae.eu and the @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu

• Countering misinformation and industry lobbying.

• Strengthening our community structures

- Expect more frequent updates

🇪🇺EU Commission on #ChatControl: "We just scan like a spam filter; your messages are still encrypted." It's a Trojan horse! 🐴 That's like someone reading your letter before it's placed in your mailbox!

EDRi mythbuster: https://edri.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Briefing-on-the-fundamental-differences-between-spam-malware-filters-and-CSA-detection-in-private-communications.pdf #StopScanningMe

Danish Minister of Justice and chief architect of the current Chat Control proposal, Peter Hummelgaard:

"We must break with the totally erroneous perception that it is everyone's civil liberty to communicate on encrypted messaging services."

Share your thoughts via https://fightchatcontrol.eu/, or to jm@jm.dk directly.

Source: https://www.ft.dk/samling/20231/almdel/REU/spm/1426/index.htm

🇬🇧👍Estonia won't be approving #ChatControl either.

👎But Germany's vote on Oct. 14th is still up in the air, risk of a dangerous coalition compromise.

💪28 days left to increase the pressure on your government and defend digital privacy and security: https://chatcontrol.eu

Linux phones are more important now than ever

Link: https://feddit.org/post/18353777

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45256651