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Comment by JPKab | Hacker News Reader

I have, in the past 3 months, been forced to work in a location where the only internet access is on machines with IE8 on them (and no ability to install Chrome Frame). The loss of Trello has absolutely FUCKING sucked. I'm sorry for the profanity, but it is an abysmally awful process to have to STOP using Trello and go back to emailing spreadsheets back and forth or shudder MS Project.

I think this huge drop in my productivity is a testament to just how awesome Trello is.

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Have you considered the Trello apps for smartphones and tablets as an alternative?

Less than 2 years ago, I bought a "cutting edge" Android smartpone, called the Samsung Infuse. Almost two years later, Samsung has yet to release a single update to Gingerbread (from Froyo) over the cell network. A few months ago, they were nice enough to put out a buggy Gingerbreak update to the device, but it was hosted on their website, required me to install software on my computer just to load it, and it then failed (repeatedly) to install on my phone. The Trello app won't work on Froyo, so, no, thanks to the fact that Samsung doesn't give a shit about its customers, I don't have Trello on my phone. I just want to add that the Samsung Infuse, at the time of purchase, was a top of the line phone in the store. Same (subsidized) price as an iPhone. Within 6 months of purchase, it was completely abandoned by Samsung. HTC will be getting my business for the next purchase.

If you're waiting for corporations to "do the right thing", you're going to be waiting a long time. At least with most Android hardware you can DIY:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNFSAxi8Wpg

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1776129

Why HTC? If staying up to date is the most important criterium for you, then you should buy a Nexus phone.

My Nexus S is almost two years old and runs Jelly Bean (4.1).

HTC Thunderbolt here ... but the same problem. I bought what was supposed to be the next big thing, but next time I'll wait and buy what is the big thing.

Heh, I have the same problem with my Galaxy S1... Count yourself lucky, I'm still stuck on Eclair!

No Cyanogenmod for that device? I had a Fascinate which I believe is Verizon's version of original Samsung S, went to Gingerbread and Jelly Bean well ahead of Verizon's OTA updates.

Samsung is frequently referred to as "the only android carrier that makes any money". One wonders whether such Apple-sque upgrade forcing has contributed to their financial success.

Apple doesn't 'force' upgrades anything like what every Android vendor does. The iPhone 4 is now 2.5 years old and still happily runs iOS6 - I can't find anyone with a 2.5 year old android phone that's running current software that hasn't modded it.

even the 3gs runs ios6 and it's from 2009!

HTC Desire Z here... they never updated past 2.3.

The iOS app still requires an internet connection to sync anything.

also, its not fun to use. i do have one suggestion for the trello team: please make the mobile app faster. the UI, in terms of moving cards to different lists is really hard to use and lags a lot. i suggest finding a better solution for that feature, instead of trying to replicate the desktop experience. i rarely use the mobile app for this reason.

Well yeah, but if you've got an iPhone, chances are you have a cell connection. If he can't access the internet, even over the cell network, I'd be curious to know what kind of environment he's working in.

IE8 only, no internet / cell access at work... I'm from the DC area and all of my friends that have these issues work for "the government".

You nailed it brother. I'm not a government employee, but for the time being, I'm forced to work in their facility. I do have my own Macbook here which I use for all my scripting/data analysis/etc, but I have to leave the building to get to WiFi. It is infuriating that these idiots have been fooled into thinking that they are more secure by using IE8 over.... anything else.

I really look forward to a time where "the government" doesn't mean IE8 only. I've been bit by this myself, at the state level.

"The government" doesn't mean that. My wife works for the DOI and their entire bureau uses Chrome and their government email and other services are managed through Google Apps, her cubical contains a typical locked-down Windows PC and a Red Hat workstation, the workstation runs Chrome and FF which are only as behind the curve as far as the stable releases are. I knew some guys who worked for NOAA as contractors who said they were pretty modernized as an agency too (running modern web servers on Python, vs the gigantic legacy J2EE apps I maintained during my stint as a government contractor).

The agencies you mentioned are less than a hundredth the size of the agencies in the US Gov which are using IE8. The smaller agencies have the luck of getting to be forward thinking. The rest are crushed down by bureaucratic inertia and Microsoft development cultures (with some of the J2EE thrown in too). The IE8 stuff is mainly because they have built so many shitty .NET apps that won't work properly without IE.

Fair enough, there are plenty of organizations both inside and outside the government that have sane technology standards that contradict my cheap generalizations.

You can also use the app on an iPod touch, which doesn't have a persistent connection

Why can you not run Chrome portable or Firefox portable from a USB flash drive?

You don't have your own machine?

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