[HardtailHack]

I was interested in the new Volla phone but the cameras will be worse than the Pixel I have now, so I started looking at De-Googled Android.
After a quick search, GrapheneOS looks like a pretty decent option.

Has anyone tried it or anything else worth having a look at?
No I don't want an iPhone and I have used Sailfish but I haven't had any luck with midrange Sony phones so I gave up on it.

 

[jonKranked]

i'm about to give up on smartphones and get a jitterbug

 

[Pesqueeb]

i'm about to give up on smartphones and get a jitterbug

I've considered digging out, rooting and replacing the hard drives in the old ipods. I don't use the phone much for anything except surfing teh at work and music, and all this "smart" technology has become so pernicious that it's starting to make sense to me to ditch it.

Oldmanyellsatcloud.jpg

 

[jonKranked]

My biggest current concern with Android is that they seem to be going all in on AI. Kill list.

 

[Jm_]

Am I the only person that thought this would be about an Absolute Black OverSize Graphene pulley or something?

 

[johnbryanpeters]

My biggest current concern with Android is that they seem to be going all in on AI. Kill list.

Disable Google Assistant.

 

[HardtailHack]

I've considered digging out, rooting and replacing the hard drives in the old ipods. I don't use the phone much for anything except surfing teh at work and music, and all this "smart" technology has become so pernicious that it's starting to make sense to me to ditch it.

Oldmanyellsatcloud.jpg

My TV hasn't been connected to the internet for a couple of years, figured I'd see if there was an update that would make it look less 1990's.
Seems there was an update and there was an agreement for all of the snazzy LG "Services", it said you could agree to each one individually but that was a lie, it was all or nothing.
It's pretty nuts that you can't just buy a TV and that's the end of the deal, but no, they have to make money off you post purchase.

For a phone I need to be able to use Android Apps for my multimeter, amp clamp and thermal camera, they will hopefully work as sandboxed apps. If not I can just put an old phone in my electrical bag.

 

[jonKranked]

Disable Google Assistant.

i'm talking about upcoming versions its becoming more integrated and might not be easy to disable.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

i'm talking about upcoming versions its becoming more integrated and might not be easy to disable.

Unfortunately true.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

There would be a strong market, I think, for dumb and secure phones.

 

[HardtailHack]

There would be a strong market, I think, for dumb and secure phones.

Yeah it seems to be the current trend for the organic, locovore, tiny home tribe.
There's lots of dumb phones on the market, there's some decent sounding e-ink phones out there.

How secure they all are, I'm not sure.

 

[HardtailHack]

Sort of unrelated but my mom was going to update her Nokia 5.4 or change carrier as it couldn't make calls on the 4G network.
This let me turn VOLTE and WiFi calling on.

The only issue is that it resets every time you cycle the power, hers no longer gets updates so it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[HardtailHack]

Haven't done anything with the phone yet.

After switching the laptop to Linux Mint I can't see myself switching back to Windows any time soon.
It's good.

 

[HardtailHack]

I got a Nothing Phone CMF cheapie as it will support e/OS soon, but the phone sucks.
You can't force the screen in to a high refresh rate, so my thumbs strobe as I type. Doesn't sound like a big issue but it really messes with the brain/eyes.
Had to turn HDR whatever off as some images on here would rapidly switch between HDR and standard, again, hard on the eyes.
Then the auto dimming wouldn't drop below 21%, also hard on the eyes, sometimes the phone won't auto change aspect.

So I'll wait for the Pixel 9 to drop in price and go to Graphene OS, Android 15 sucks more than 14.
I don't want to AI anything, maybe autofocus, but that's it.

 

[binary visions]

I've been waiting on my phone upgrade to see how the satellite messaging thing shakes out. We carry an emergency transponder when we hike, which is great if one of us has a "send the helicopter" crisis.

Since we always hike together and are fit and prepared, that is probably enough but it'd be nice to have something a little less extreme without paying yet another monthly fee for something I will almost never use (i.e. Garmin inReach). Right now the Pixel 9 and iPhone 15+ have it as a device-specific option but some of the carriers are starting to deploy it as well.

My patience for going with something like Graphene will probably depend strongly on how annoying the AI integrations become. I like LLMs as a tool, but so far all of the OS-level integrations have been summarizing things I don't want summarized, or trying to help me write emails and texts which I absolutely don't need help with. In theory I like the idea of Graphene, but in practice my experience with them was that it turned my phone into something of a hobby. I don't want another hobby.

 

[jonKranked]

My patience for going with something like Graphene will probably depend strongly on how annoying the AI integrations become. I like LLMs as a tool, but so far all of the OS-level integrations have been summarizing things I don't want summarized, or trying to help me write emails and texts which I absolutely don't need help with. In theory I like the idea of Graphene, but in practice my experience with them was that it turned my phone into something of a hobby. I don't want another hobby.

AI integration is something i'd like to avoid as well. unfortunately it seems like everyone is going this way

 

[johnbryanpeters]

AI integration is something i'd like to avoid as well. unfortunately it seems like everyone is going this way

I'm trying like hell to stay away from it.

 

[HardtailHack]

I've been waiting on my phone upgrade to see how the satellite messaging thing shakes out. We carry an emergency transponder when we hike, which is great if one of us has a "send the helicopter" crisis.

Since we always hike together and are fit and prepared, that is probably enough but it'd be nice to have something a little less extreme without paying yet another monthly fee for something I will almost never use (i.e. Garmin inReach). Right now the Pixel 9 and iPhone 15+ have it as a device-specific option but some of the carriers are starting to deploy it as well.

My patience for going with something like Graphene will probably depend strongly on how annoying the AI integrations become. I like LLMs as a tool, but so far all of the OS-level integrations have been summarizing things I don't want summarized, or trying to help me write emails and texts which I absolutely don't need help with. In theory I like the idea of Graphene, but in practice my experience with them was that it turned my phone into something of a hobby. I don't want another hobby.

I ran Sailfish for a year, it was a bit clunky but it worked.
After Sailfish allowed you to run Android apps it was fine for me, but they only support phones that mostly won't work in Australia. Providers are blocking a lot of non Aus domestic market phones, which is annoying as I don't think I can run any of the fair(er) trade phones.

I still need to do some reading about CalyX OS to see if it's comparable to Graphene.

 

[HardtailHack]

ASUS phones went on special and are easily the best value upper end phones here, so I thought I'd see if you can unlock the bootloader.
That's a hard NO!

Asus loses court battle to Zenfone owner over lack of bootloader unlock

Asus loses a court battle to a Zenfone buyer in the UK who demanded bootloader unlock tool

www.androidpolice.com

 

[HardtailHack]

Had enough of the cheap Nothing phone, I'd had cheap phones in the past and didn't hate them, but that thing is a POS!
Got a Pixel 9 today on special, still can't change the stock camera app without root or have an auto flash, so I went straight to Graphene.

Seems fine, it's just Android 14 without all the bad bits.
I set Proshot as the default camera app which accesses all three cameras and takes photos that aren't turds rolled in glitter.

Graphene is a good amount better than Sailfish OS, sailfish's gestures make it feel old and clunky.

Edit- And Square Home launcher works, coz I still miss Windows phone.

Not a single mention of AI seen so far.

 

[binary visions]

I really feel like Microsoft missed an opportunity on Windows Phone. It was a genuinely good UI, and as ARM processors bring together mobile and desktop CPU architectures, they would have had a huge chance to be the Apple alternative to a unified ecosystem.

 

[HardtailHack]

I really feel like Microsoft missed an opportunity on Windows Phone. It was a genuinely good UI, and as ARM processors bring together mobile and desktop CPU architectures, they would have had a huge chance to be the Apple alternative to a unified ecosystem.

But they kept with tradition, promised loads, delivered half then pulled the pin.
It's the MS way.
If there was a second gen HP Elite X3 I think it would probably have been pretty useful, but the X3 was too slow to be used as a daily device.


Seems Graphene chugged 50% battery overnight, will have a look at what did that later on.
Also, should have bought an XL, having alligator heads for thumbs makes typing a bit shit on a little phone.