Google has been slow to provide details of the verification system. However, you can sign up for the early access program. During that process, Google does ask if you are able to pay registration fees in US dollars, which suggests there will be a cost for developers in the program. We’ve reached out to Google for more information.

A plea for regulation

F-Droid’s position is clear: if you own a device, you should be allowed to decide what software to run on it. To force everyone to register with a central authority is an affront to the ideas of free speech and thought, says F-Droid.

So what’s the solution? In the blog post, Google is accused of using security as a mask for what is really an attempt to consolidate monopoly power over app distribution at a time when its power is being suppressed by antitrust actions. F-Droid is calling on regulators from the US and EU to take a close look at Google’s plans before it’s too late.

Google is currently on the verge of massive court-mandated changes to the Play Store. After losing the antitrust case brought by Epic Games, Google went on to lose the appeal. As it explores further legal maneuvering, the firm may have to begin opening up its app distribution system by promoting third-party stores in Google Play and mirroring Google Play content in other storefronts. This will reduce Google’s monopoly power in Android apps, which is the court’s intention. However, the company’s new goal of locking down sideloading could maintain its central role in Android software.

F-Droid calls on concerned developers and users to contact their government representatives to demand action. Specifically, the site suggests invoking the European Commission’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) to keep FOSS apps free from Google’s gatekeeping.

While the pilot verification program is set to launch next month, it will be almost a year before unverified apps will be blocked. That will start with a handful of markets, including Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. The restrictions are expected to expand globally in 2027.

The post F-Droid says Google’s new sideloading restrictions will kill the project appeared first on MASSIVE News.

As you can see in the included charts, SteamOS showed noticeable frame rate improvements in four of the five games tested. Only Borderlands 3 showed comparable performance across both operating systems, with Windows eking out ever-so-slightly higher frame rates in that game’s benchmarks.

For the other four tested games, the stock Lenovo Windows drivers were sometimes significantly worse than those included with SteamOS. When playing Returnal at “High” graphics presets and 1920×1200 resolution, for instance, changing from Lenovo’s Windows drivers to SteamOS meant the difference between a hard-to-take 18 FPS average and a downright decent 33 FPS average.

Sideloading the updated Asus drivers showed a noticeable improvement in Windows performance across all tested games and even brought Homeworld 3‘s “Low” graphics benchmark test to practical parity with SteamOS. In all other cases, though, even these updated drivers resulted in benchmark frame rates anywhere from 8 percent to 36 percent lower than those same benchmarks on SteamOS.

These results might seem a bit counterintuitive, considering that games running on SteamOS must go through a Proton translation layer for every native Windows instruction in a game’s code. But Valve has put in consistent work over the years to make Proton as efficient and cross-compatible as possible; not to mention its continued work on Linux’s Mesa graphics drivers seems to be paying dividends for SteamOS graphics performance.

Running SteamOS also means eliminating a lot of operating system overhead that the more generalist Windows uses by default. Microsoft seems aware of this issue for gamers and has recently announced that the upcoming “Xbox Experience for Handheld” will “minimize background activity and defer non-essential tasks” to allow for “more [and] higher framerates” in games.

The post Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds appeared first on MASSIVE News.

You might sideload an Android app, or manually install its APK package, if you’re using a custom version of Android that doesn’t include Google’s Play Store. Alternately, the app might be experimental, under development, or perhaps no longer maintained and offered by its developer. Until now, the existence of sideload-ready APKs on the web was something that seemed to be tolerated, if warned against, by Google.

This quiet standstill is being shaken up by a new feature in Google’s Play Integrity API. As reported by Android Authority, developer tools to push “remediation” dialogs during sideloading debuted at Google’s I/O conference in May, have begun showing up on users’ phones. Sideloaders of apps from the British shop Tesco, fandom app BeyBlade X, and ChatGPT have reported “Get this app from Play” prompts, which cannot be worked around. An Android gaming handheld user encountered a similarly worded prompt from Diablo Immortal on their device three months ago.

Google’s Play Integrity API is how apps have previously blocked access when loaded onto phones that are in some way modified from a stock OS with all Google Play integrations intact. Recently, a popular two-factor authentication app blocked access on rooted phones, including the security-minded GrapheneOS. Apps can call the Play Integrity API and get back an “integrity verdict,” relaying if the phone has a “trustworthy” software environment, has Google Play Protect enabled, and passes other software checks.

Graphene has questioned the veracity of Google’s Integrity API and SafetyNet Attestation systems, recommending instead standard Android hardware attestation. Rahman notes that apps do not have to take an all-or-nothing approach to integrity checking. Rather than block installation entirely, apps could call on the API only during sensitive actions, issuing a warning there. But not having a Play Store connection can also deprive developers of metrics, allow for installation on incompatible devices (and resulting bad reviews), and, of course, open the door to paid app piracy.

“Unknown distribution channels” blocked

Google’s developer video about “Automatic integrity protection” (at the 12-minute, 24-second mark on YouTube) notes that “select” apps have access to automatic protection. This adds an automatic checking tool to your app and the “strongest version of Google Play’s anti-tamper protection.” “If users get your protected app from an unknown distribution channel,” a slide in the presentation reads, “they’ll be prompted to get it from Google Play,” available to “select Play Partners.”

Last year, Google introduced malware scanning of sideloaded apps at install time. Google and Apple have come out against legislation that would broaden sideloading rights for smartphone owners, citing security and reliability concerns. European regulators forced Apple earlier this year to allow for sideloading apps and app stores, though with fees and geographical restrictions in place.

The post Android apps are blocking sideloading and forcing Google Play versions instead appeared first on MASSIVE News.