The best value proposition a used Pixel. Get 5 years of security patches, much better point and shoot camera for basic everyday stuff.

And 40% cheaper at MSRP compared to Samsung and they don’t have mid-range phones with bad chips like a54.

Pixel 6 Pro can be found on the resale market for like $275 bucks. It’ll still get three more years of software support. r a Pixel 6a for 200 on Amazon renewed will get four more years.

You just can’t get the same kind of value with Samsung because once you’re down to 300 400 bucks you’re stuck with the a series. The a series just doesn’t retain the stuff that makes Samsung worth it like dex.

Might be helpful if you have more than one phone so if the learning curve ends up screwing you up you still have some kind of functional phone to use in the interim

It can be done, there are some challenges of course and some improvements and some downsides.

It’s worth trying if you’re interested.

Yeah I’ve noticed that I can no longer add floating bar for LG v30. I can use it on phones where it’s already downloaded but I can no longer add it to any new phones and if I delete it I can never use it again.

Which is strange cuz it’s still completely functional

Yeah I’ve had this problem with video games in the era of live service. I bought this game memory from Mars, I never really played it and when I finally went back to play it it was completely dead.

I have recently pivoted to proton…

Yeah those are all huge. Camera app is pretty good important too.

I was trying to think of stuff beyond system apps but point taken

Nova, Firefox nightly, kiwi browser

Those browsers allow desktop extensions. The only two that I know of on Android…

As much as I hate that Nova launcher was bought by Branch analytics… I just can’t find a suitable replacement that that matches it.

I just developed a muscle memory to be able to swipe down or up on any app to trigger a specific task. It allows me to really keep my home screen clean.

I’ve turned off automatic updates to try to limit branches intrusiveness but I’m eventually going to have to move on.

After that kiwi browser or Firefox Nightly. I need at least one of those. Those are the only browsers that allowed desktop extensions.

I guess I would choose with Firefox Nightly as it gets updated much more frequently and isn’t chromium.

Musicolet has been a real eye-opening experience. It sinks up to recently downloaded music so easily. It’s become my go-to for offline music. Works great in combination with new pipe which lets you download the audio version of any video

On this topic I wish there was a definitive place to find Android games that have controller support. No microtransactions… I will have to download and try again first and then 90% of the time it doesn’t meet my criteria for playable.

I quit like 6 months before Elon musk ever even mentioned buying Twitter. This is all pretty hilarious for me. Although I did occasionally poke my head in using a front end open source alternative like fritter or nitter or you don’t need to log in.

But those haven’t been working either because of the latest s***

To the extent I still have to use it I use red reader or Firefox nightly with an extension that automatically switches it too old Reddit.

I was using Infinity for Reddit but it’s going to become paid after July 1st. Trying to detox Reddit not invest in a page third party API.

I watched a night to remember the 1958 movie about the Titanic. It’s out this morning on YouTube remastered with color. Phenomenal movie, there’s actually no fictional characters or fictional side plot, it’s basically just a docu drama. Most of it focuses on the most senior surviving staff member who had a pretty wild story of survival that night.