330
My blood glucose monitor is not on the play store. So one dy next year I'll wake up and no longer be able to get that data...?
this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2025
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Privacy
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Sorry, your survival is incompatible with this version of Android.
You are probably half-joking, but.... yeah.
I fucking hate this timeline. Actually, scratch that, that is way to placid and abstract.
I hate the assholes in charge. Fuck all of them. Luigi did nothing wrong.
Yeah sorry, I feel you. Things like these make me really cynical.
Fühl ich, Bruder.
Yawn. Guess more people will just have to not install gapps..
I'm probably going to spam this around a bit, since most people don't seem to know about it, but a reminder that FuriLabs has a (GNU+)Linux phone with decent spec.s and the ability to run Android app.s (from what I've heard) pretty decently: https://furilabs.com/
Biggest drawback is it's based on Halium. Usual growing pains of a new product/company apply but apparently the company is pretty responsive and their dev.s have worked with customers to get things like calling working with the carrier and bands of their country where it hasn't worked before so improvements move pretty quickly.
Collection of different experiences I've variously seen online over the last year or so:
- https://clehaxze.tw/gemlog/2025/07-20-flx1-actually-usable-linux-phone.gmi
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41839326
- https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1fa1ljn/furilabs_flx1/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1j46f2w/flx1_linux_phone_display_out/
- https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/03/furiphone_flx1/
I don't own one, myself, so I can't give any personal experience but I've seen it around for a few years now but most people don't seem to even know about it. Maybe there's a reason for that? But none I've ever seen anyone say.
Why does every interesting / unique phone have to be phablet sized. ;(
With a microSD slot and a 3.5mm jack, too. I'm just gonna go ahead and save this
The terrible risk that you install apps which don't use google-tagmanager, googleanalytics and don't send logging and user data to Alphabet.
It seems Google has been tightening control over Android in recent years and this looks like the next major step. Most people probably won’t care and the only realistic option for users who value software freedom and privacy is to wait until Linux or another free and open-source OS becomes a viable alternative. Overall a disappointing turn of events for the mobile computing space
FairPhone with /e/OS by default is the EU answer by the e-Foundation
They're closing in on alternative ROMs with their fucking shitty device integrity checks, I'm afraid it's only getting worse. I literally had to switch back to stock Android because none of the e-government apps of the country I live in NOR two out of my three banks work on /e/. Literally impossible to participate in society unless I sell my soul to Google, sadly.
I really hope we're able to fight back and win the war.
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Fuck off. This is my last android phone
What would you get instead? I think if Google actually follows through with this, I'll switch to LineageOS, which is still Android. Obviously, iOS is much worse on this front.
Honestly, I don't know. I'll find something. Let the recommendations begin!
There's no alternative that won't have major limitations. I predict it'll just be more like going back to the days of jailbreaking to install unsigned apps. Unfortunately AOSP is already pretty much unusable without Google services installed for the vast majority of apps.
I'll thank you to not rain and piss facts on my moody parade. Just leave an irrationally cranky old man his delusions. Lol
A phone that isn't smart, probably
I've already gone to an analog pocket watch. Might as well go that route
Let Google know what you think about this: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfN3UQeNspQsZCO2ITkdzMxv81rJDEGGjO-UIDDY28Rz_GEVA/viewform
So I guess my next phone will be a Chinese phone. Even if it spies on me, I'll have the freedom to install whatever I want from anywhere.
The Chinese have a golden window of opportunity. Let's hope they don't mess this up.
My personal favorite is how they are doing it to prevent data theft and malware. All they have ever done is trick people out of data. All of their shitty apps that I can not remove from my Samsung phone ARE the malware I do not want. Fuck Google and every person that works there!
Time to fund /e/OS GraoheneOS etc but also bridges like Waydroid until we can use e.g. PmOS and avoid Android altogether.
Time to fund /e/OS GraoheneOS
no.
those are just android with some modification. two years from now google can easily disrupt them too.
phones need a copyleft new OS. not a foss one, an actual copyleft one. with an independent group managing it.
an OS that a company can decide what app I can run on it is just a surveillance apparatus gadget.
google never wanted user to have control of their phone even 10 years ago.
the easiest way to check this is to see if you can stop an installed app to ever do stuff without you explicitly opening it. they are so many "triggers" that apps can register and run based on them that user cant do anything about them. "wifi connected" "wifi disconnected" and so on.
if an app can "listen" to these triggers and I cant disable it from listening to them (even for non-system apps) them I don't really own my phone. then android is just a attention stealing spam machine at best and spying and terror gadget for world's supremacist regimes too.
I think even apple iOS has that option (disabling backgournd refresh per app ) and in that regard is better than android. If I wasn't against non-foss software and I didn't live in Iran, at this point apple iOS is not that different fro google and is more polished too.
Sure I'd support that, is there such a project or starting one? If not what's the closest?
It might just be time to kick that "smartphone" addiction and just use burner phones.
Aside from Signal messenger, I feel like I could go back to having a casio watch, some sort of GPS in my vehicle, and a dumb phone. My phone is ancient and hasn't gotten a security update in years, I was thinking of going Graphene next but maybe the solution is to just dump it and go full 1990s again.
Maps and encrypted messengers.
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