meh

  • 4 Posts
  • 61 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 8th, 2023

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  • I file all of this under “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

    • Qwant has claimed since 2016 that they have an index. That lie has earned them investments and funding. They do not have an index and they’ve said so after the fact. They also give data to Bing. They are not private but they say they are because the data they share is anonymized.

    • Ecosia is just a Bing frontend like DDG. Caron offsets never work. In order for Ecosia to work you need to see and click on some ads, so anybody using adblockers will not be helping. Their servers aren’t green either.

    • This is because Bing is going to raise their prices and now these companies need to lure in new investors to keep the lights on. It isn’t about sovereignty or data privacy; it’s just about money.











  • I would let your wallet decide.

    phone, text, camera, GPS, web browser, notes, email, music player

    GrapheneOS and the Librem 5 can handle this. If I hadn’t bought a phone at the end of 2022 I’d likely go for the Librem 5 unless a used Pixel could be acquired.

    I think the only thing you will lose with GrapheneOS is tap-to-pay, if you even use that. Beyond that, if you don’t install GSF or even microG on the device you’re already doing a lot in terms of privacy. You have to look into whether things like Uber would work without GSF (I don’t use Uber so I can’t check).

    Are there other hardware suggestions or setups that you like?

    I was going to set up a Nextcloud server, but ended up just using Syncthing. I thought I would need that full suite of services, but it turns out my workflow just needs a few directories. I use Markor to take notes and write drafts. Before, I did editing on my phone, but now I wait until I am sat down in front of a computer. Syncthing can run on an old Raspberry Pi and requires very little upkeep.

    Another suggestion is to use something like UAD to debloat most any Android phone. It is a bit of a preview of what to expect from many alternative ROMs. You need to switch to OSM and use a different calendar app and possibly a different camera app, contacts, keyboard, etc. and you’ll notice very quickly that…nothing really changes except maybe battery life.







  • This happened to me on a Nokia device as well. It went on for months. You might have to get on the Nokia Discord for more info, but it might be related to geography.

    When it happened to me, the update downloaded and there was an error installing until the rollout date for my country. Then, it worked.

    If I were you, I would try and confirm with other users of the same device in the same country as you if the update is installing.


  • Do smartphone benchmarks matter?

    Maybe? I look at them from time to time. For most people it is just a number and it is nice for an average user to confirm that the new phone is a little better than the previous.

    I recently beta-tested a device (been using it since May). And I ran some benchmarks on it. I noticed that someone else was also benchmarking the device before and after pushing updates. So, I feel that there are companies out there trying to perform well on the benchmarks.

    Are they still a useful reference and do you consider them when shopping for an upgrade?

    I’m mostly concerned about the following, in no particular order:

    • age of the SoC
    • screen refresh rate
    • availability of replacement parts and repairability
    • durability
    • the company selling the device (CSR, ESG, reputation)
    • whether or not the device is an rebranded rectangle from an OED
    • bloatware

    Bloatware removes many brands from my list of potential devices. Yes, I could use adb to remove them, or maybe even root my phone, but I shouldn’t have to buy a device with Facebook baked in.