julian

android

Are you asking yourself,

“What's it to be: Android or iPhone?”

Actually, NO! There is another way.

Time I Learned: there are freedom-respecting phones.

I'll tell you which one you need.

What's the problem?

It's not about the hardware. Well, there are certainly important issues about the hardware — and you might want to discover PinePhone and FairPhone. But I'm here to talk about about our freedom in using the product.

What's so bad about choosing either Google or Apple?

It's about who controls our use of the device after we “bought” it. Do “they” remain in control of what we do, or are we in control?

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Resources around development of camera apps, camera API standards, and photos management, in Indie Phones, degoogled Android, Murena /e/-OS, Purism Librem, etc.

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Independent smart-phones have recently become a reality for those of us unhappy with the way Apple and Google seek to control, own and use us. We can now choose a user-respecting alternative, thanks to Murena /e/-OS, Purism Librem 5, LineageOS and more.

With sustained dedication from their producers working with very limited budgets, these alternatives are coming along nicely and by now are certainly usable. Understandably, however, they are not yet as slick as those funded (and controlled) by the mega-corps Apple and Google.

There is much more to be done to bring the indie phones up to a level of sophistication that ordinary people find a pleasure to use and to trust. In this article I look at one rather technical aspect of it: what developments do we need on the infra side?

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From: Google

Your Google Account will soon be considered as inactive

”... if you don't sign in soon”

“Is this a phishing scam?” was my first thought. But no, it's true! This officially confirms I am freed at last from Google's clutches on my data, on my digital life.

Hurray!

I once thought Google was my friend. The most convenient email, the most convenient search, a great phone, with a feeling of being quite open-source-y, not too locked-in. But of course their lock-in is immense, almost inescapable, just like all the other Big Tech silos. Once disillusionment set in, it was hard to leave that all behind. Took me five years.

Now, for months and months I haven't signed in to my gmail, to play store, to youtube, nothing.

And I feel great!

Want to know more?

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Thanks to Automattic, the strongly open source company behind WordPress, another great product Pocket Casts goes open source! Awesome!

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“What's it to be: Android or iPhone?”

Actually, NO! There is another way.

Time I Learned: there are freedom-respecting phones.

I'll tell you which one you need.

Read more...

This is an informal summary of my recent (2016 ~ 2023) experience and explorations in the areas of Matrix and Android and self-hosting. For my employment history please see my more formal CV/resumé at https://blog.foad.me.uk/cv/.

Passions

  • Matrix, FOSS, services-as-FOSS, digital Freedom for everyone

Recent skills

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Bitwarden is a decent modern password manager. While it is available as a cheap hosted service like many other password managers, the awesome thing about Bitwarden is it is commercially developed as open source software that optionally can be self-hosted. The perfect combination. Hurray!

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This Diary app for android, by Bill Farmer, has made it a pleasure to keep a diary of short observations. I wasn't a diary writer until I installed it about two years ago and now I have been using it nearly every day, ever since.

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Organic Maps is a great open source app for casual every-day navigation. It has an easy-to-read map display, navigation directions with voice, search for places, save favourite places and add new places, and not a lot else. The usability is decent and it looks good.

It's become my default mapping app, and it makes me ever so happy to have such a good open-source solution.

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