Is ist just me or does anyone else find smartphones less and less appealing?
Yup. iPhones were interesting when they came out, but I wasn’t a fan of how they were essentially pocket computers that you had no control over.
Android came and solved that problem… And now Google is trying to make Android into another iOS.
I’m seriously considering a dumb phone for my next device unless we have an affordable option for a Linux phone, because I have little faith that Android will still be worth my while in another 5-10 years.
I’d miss a few features like Maps, Didi, & having the internet at my fingertips for novelty questions. Other than that… Yep. Less & less appealing.
Embrace. Extend. Extinguish.
I remember back in the days there were Chinese phones that were straight up running Cynogen mod with gapps. And that helped Android break into a lot of low income markets.
It is comical that Google is trying to be Apple except they can’t mimic any of the good parts (processors, polish, etc) and have a miniscule market share.
Miniscule market share? 68-73%.
They probably mean the Pixel phone hardware itself, which has less than 5% of global smartphone use.
They really suckered us in good. A company that makes all it’s money selling ads and data making the hot new browser that blocks ads and smart phones you can control completely and customize however you want.
And then they were everywhere and decided to kill v2 and good ad blocking in their browser, and lock down their phone OS completely so no one can avoid giving them all of the data about all of the things all of the time.
We should have all started bailing the second they stopped letting people play music on youtube unless they had their screen on to see ads or paid money.
The ol bait and switch.
I’m ready for my Linux phone now.
TBF they did provide competition to iOS at a critical time. Without Android we’d all be living in Apple’s walled garden right now. There hasn’t been any other significant effort to get another mobile OS underway in all these years, save for blips here and there like Microsoft’s aborted attempt, or Meego.
I am hoping sooo much that those LinuxPhone projects get to basic call,network and photo functionality before Google completely locks down the ecosystem. GrapheneOS and LineageOS have served me well up to now but it looks like the noose is getting too tight.
Hell, my wife is even asking if she can or should get a 5G ‘flip phone’ as she’s heard how bad it might get soon.
Neat! Thanks. They really sold this to me
Hmm, that could be neat thanks!
Wish there was an Atari version though :)
Yep, I’ll definitely be getting a Fairphone 6 next: https://catcrafts.net/posts
I made the mistake to trust Fairphone when they released the Fairphone 3. They gave a shit about the Linux kernel and did not give you access to the source. It took heavy customer protest until they eventually complied to the GPL.
I’m holding out that more manufacturers will see the demand for Androidless phones and will either partner with some OS like Motorola + GOS or maybe sell them with bootloader unlocked to install whichever OS is preferred.
You think Nothingphone might be next candidate for GOS? Their concept phone shipped without an OS at all.
That video that they showed about that phone was 100% satire. Not to mention Nothing unfortunately is looking more and more like an Apple wannabe. Not trusting that company anymore after that crap.😒
For real? That concept phone really checked a lot of boxes for me haha
Yeah…it really did. Thats the phone that you, myself and so many want and they really dont realize how big of a customer base they would get if they put that plan into action.
If the phone was real, i was so ready to be a customer of theirs. Ive been waiting for them to “make” a resonable size phone and not the phablets they have. Instead, they came out with the shitty Nothing 4b for their India market, which showed how bad in quality they’ve gotten. I highly dought after the phone 3 if theyll make good phones again. In the US market, only phone you can get of thiers is the Phone 3 and 4a pro (good luck trying to find the others) 😅
Depends on if future Nothing phones meet GrapheneOS’ standards for hardware security, or if the Graphene team decides to partner with Nothing like they’re doing with Motorola.
I just hope someone fights google. They destroy everything I grew up loving.
I was hoping you were fighting…
I don’t think I can legally fight google
Sailfish OS does have that functionality already and is not Android based but it does get a lot of hate for having some closed source UI components. So I guess it is a matter of requirements and priorities
you can get some phones with lineage and /e/os preinstalled. Look at the fairphone or the swiftphone. A 5G flip phone is coming from commodore. Its called the Callback.
I’m perfectly happy with my Fairphone 6 with /e/OS
Ok it’s cool and all but I am NOT paying fucking $400 for a flip dumb phone, that’s also entirely plastic.
they did lower the price and preorders get another 100$ of i think so you can get ist for 200$ i think.
What’s the proportion of tinkerers among the pixel users? Is it enough for this to backfire? I’ve never seen another pixel user here.
I have the 10 pro. Id sell this pos in a minute if they block gOS
Pixel 9 Pro XL here. Running Graphene because I don’t hate myself. If this is true I probably won’t buy another one.
GrapheneOS, the security hardened community Android spin, is released almost exclusively for Pixel devices.
Typing this from a Pixel 9a running GrapheneOS
I meant “here” as “in my vicinity”. Of course I can find some online. I can find sexy MILFs that yearn for my embrace online, so pixel users are downright easy.
Ohhh I see, thought you meant this forum lol. It’s definitely a rarer choice in the broader world, my circle has a couple but we’re very tech-y, activist types, and privacy oriented so ik that’s non representative.
I’m also a pixel user. However I’m running stock Android.
