Android

I've been unable to use it for weeks now, anybody knows if there's something wrong? Or is it just on my end?

That’s why later this summer, we're launching a refreshed Find My Device experience that makes it easier than ever to locate your devices and belongings quickly and securely by ringing compatible devices or viewing their location on a map in the app – even when they’re offline. The new Find My Device network will harness over a billion Android devices across the world to help you locate your missing belongings like headphones, tracker tags, or even your phone via Bluetooth proximity.

This earlier announcement about a joint effort with Apple to work out how stop stalkers and other criminals from abusing these networks now makes a bit more sense: https://security.googleblog.com/2023/05/google-and-apple-lead-initiative-for.html

We can take a few guesses as to why things are so big. First, Samsung is notorious for having a shoddy software division that pumps out low-quality code. The company tends to change everything in Android just for change's sake, and it's hard to imagine those changes are very good.

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Unlike the clean OSes you'd get from Google or Apple, Samsung sells space in its devices to the highest bidder via pre-installed crapware. A company like Facebook will buy a spot on Samsung's system partition, where it can get more intrusive system permissions that aren't granted to app store apps, letting it more effectively spy on users.

Urgh, it's so frustrating that Samsung is the leading Android manufacturer, the market is rewarding greed and incompetence

Huh, I have mixed feeling about Google doing this

Yay that Apple isn't the only game in town for this functionality

But then it's this functionality in particular with all the horrible stalking that it facilitates

This is the MessagEase layout for the MultilingO keyboard.

Unfortunately MessagEase development (which is the fastest android keyboard), died several years ago, and we're in dire need of a replacement.

We need to reclaim Android from Google. Until we do, they will keep doing things like this.

I experience that my memory is used up on my android phone, but I dont understand what drains the memory.

I only found AnotherMonitor on fdroid, but it doesnt appear to show which app is consuming memory. Only total consumption.

Are there any good apps or solutions for this? Or at least as autonomous slash private as possible.

From here.

Fair play; I don't own a Fairphone, and I'm hoping to keep my current Android alive long enough to be able to go straight to a Linux phone. But this is another demonstration of why it's good to support outliers

I use one called X-Plore. It's actually very good. Even has a WiFi server, conpressed archive support, etc. but the downsides are that it's close sourced and some features are behind a paywall (though IMO they are worth it).

So I was thinking of moving to some free or open source software. Any recommendations?

Defeating Huawei’s draconian security measures wasn’t an easy task, but a developer named Andrey Smirnoff actually managed to decipher the bootloader unlock code generation algorithm for devices that are based on HiSilicon Kirin 960/659/655 chipsets. Apart from that, what makes PotatoNV possible is a low-level bootloader flashing method discovered by XDA Senior Member hackintosh5. The tool, which makes use of the VCOM_DOWNLOAD mode, requires users to open up the target device and access the test points on the motherboard.

With the release of PotatoNV, owners of the aforementioned Huawei and Honor devices are finally able to flash all the custom ROMs and kernels they desire. So this can mean being able to replace the Huawei software with a custom ROM like LineageOS or others, where you can optionally install the Google apps if you wanted to. Point is Huawei still gets to sell their hardware device so there is no loss to them, it just opens up additional options for users.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/huawei-honor-bootloader-unlock-potatonv/

#technology #mobile #huawei #rooting

My old phone's battery has given up the ghost. Can someone recommend a current generation smartphone, preferably Android, that strikes a good balance between usability and privacy? I'm also fine with an Android phone that's not that great with privacy out of the box, but has good support for third party ROMs like Lineage or Copperhead. Even better if the phone's chassis and battery can just unscrew so I can replace it myself.

I've looked into the Pinephone and other Linux-only phones, but I'd like to wait until the app ecosystem is more mature. At least with Android I can use the F-droid apps for privacy consciousness.

Hello! This is my list of my preferred open-source apps for Android. Tell me in the comments what are yours and I will add them.

• 10 000 sentences : Learn new vocabulary in many languages

• Alarmio : A alternative alarm clock

• AnkiDroid : Virtual flash cards to learn faster your courses

• Audio Recorder : A simple audio recorder

• Aurora Store : Get access to play store apps without the official app

• Briar : Send messages in peer to peer way, using bluetooth, current network or remotly.

• Camera : From the simple app list. A simple and easy to use camera

• CameraRoll : Alternative gallery app with a beautiful UI as a camera roll.

• Chubby Click : Metronome

• Counter : Explicit name, just counting stuff

• DiskUsage : Scan your disk to find the biggest folders and apps in a advanced way

• F-Droid : A app store with only open-source apps

• GitNex : A Gitea client for Android

• Goodtime : A pomodoro app

• JitSi meet : Alternative to Skype or Zoom

• KISS : A cool simple launcher with only a search bar and a history

• Lightning : A fast and lightweight web browser

• Loop Habit Tracker : A very cool and handy habit tracker with statistics

• LTE Cleaner : Like CCleaner, but easier

• MAPS.ME : OSM client that I think is better than OSMand

• MasterPassword : A sync-less password manager

• MoneyWallet : A budget manager

• NewPipe : My most used app so far, you can download, listen in background, popup or fullscreen for MediaCCC, Peertube, SoundCloud or YouTube.

• Open Note Scanner : Detect papers to scan them using your phone, unfortunatly there is no export to PDF so see the next app.

• PDF Converter : Convert images to pdf

• OpenFoodFacts : Scan codebar of food products to get simple and easy to read nutrition facts.

• OpenRecipes : Add your own recipes

• Markor : A simple note taking app

• Red Moon : A blue light filter

• ScreenCam : Record your screen (no root required)

• Shattered Pixel Dungeon : A dungeon RPG

• Signal : Alternative to whatsapp but you can also use it as SMS Not available on F-Droid

• Slide : Reddit client (oopsie)

• Tasks : The best todo app I found

• TrebleShot : Transfer files to other devices through the same network.

• Tusky : Mastodon client

• Vectorify da home! : Create your own wallpapers using simple SVG

• Vinyl : Music player

• Yaaic : IRC client

• AnySoftKeyboard : A simple and powerful keyboard

• AfWall+ : ip tables based firewall Require root privileges

• Otter : front-end music player to Funkwhale instances

• Aurora Droid : Alternative F-Droid client

• Firefox Preview : Future version of Fennec on Android, support 6 privacy-related extensions and has been re-written with Firefox's new GeckoView

• Mattermost : Beta client for Mattermost

• FOSS Browser : Simple browser based on Android's WebView. The intention is to provide a simple and light weight but powerful browser with a nice looking user interface.

• Rocket Chat : Rocket Chat client

• Delta Chat : ???

• Mumla : Voice chat on Mumble servers

• RadioDroid : Browse internet radios

• Conversations : Encrypted, userfriendly XMPP instant messaging client for mobile

• Exodus Privacy : Exodus Privacy helps you to know which trackers and permissions are embedded in apps installed on your device.