I like using Lubuntu because it’s lightweight and feels pretty snappy on my 2009 laptop.

This is more scary than creepy, but I got stuck in a tropical depression on an island. Thunder everywhere, pouring rain. No shelter other than a tarp. Only way to get off the island is a canoe.

Listening to music in a different key or pitch can make it sound quite different, almost like you haven’t heard it before. I mostly use it for fun.

I have 240 total apps on my phone, so probably about 210 non system apps.

For apps I use the most currently, here is my guess:

1. Firefox
2. Jerboa to kill time. This used to be Reddit.
3. Music Speed Changer: An app to playback local audio with a different speed and pitch with minimal distortion. This is my primary music player.
4. FX file manager. I use it to look at photos and local videos.
5. An app to get directions from point A to point B using public transit in my city.
6. GSMArena: An app for phone news and reviews. One of the rare cases where the app is actually naturally better than the mobile website.
7. Google maps. I want to degoogle but I literally use this app for work.
8. Messages. For text messages.
9. Camera. Interesting that it’s this far down.
10. NewPipe for background playback of music found only on YouTube. It barely edges out the official YT app to get on this list, as the amount of ads on mobile YT is too much (especially the homepage, ugh) unless I’m watching a creator that I know deserves the ad revenue.

1. Firefox with uBlock origin (a must for browsing the web)
2. Bitwarden (for passwords)
3. FX file manager (fast and powerful file manager)

Honorable mention to Music speed changer (uses an advanced algorithm to change the pitch and speed of locally stored audio with minimal distortion)

#1, #3, and the honorable mention are Android only. This is a huge reason why I stay on Android.

I disabled the Google app on my phone and my phone still seems to work fine

It’s everywhere in the US. People really care about this, and this is why iPhones have 90% market share in both my high school and at my university.

Android 12 on my Moto G Stylus 5G (2022).

This phone is an overall excellent value in the US. A drawback to some is the paucity of Android updates, but the new restrictions present in Android 14 have me relieved that I bought a phone that will never “upgrade” to that OS.

Depends on your budget and location.

Unlimited budget: Sony Xperia 1 V ($1400). Has almost anything you’d want. SD8G2, MicroSD slot, etc.

High budget: Asus Zenfone 9 ($700). Great compact phone with a headphone jack. Alternatively wait for the Zenfone 10 to come out as it’s coming out this week.

Or even the Xperia 5 V ($1000), a slightly downgraded version of the 1 V.

Lower budget: Sony Xperia 10 V ($450). Expensive for the specs but you get outstanding battery life, 25-50% more than any other phone on this list. And it’s the only budget phone with a telephoto lens.

USA pick: Moto G Stylus 5G (2022). Can be picked up for $250 on Amazon and has excellent all-around specs for the price.

Europe/Asia picks: Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro+ ($350) if you want good cameras for the price. However the chipset might struggle with MIUI from time to time.

Xiaomi Poco X5 pro ($300). Good all-arounder at this price.

Xiaomi Poco F5 ($400). Best chipset out of all of these budget phones, at nearly flagship levels.

Late to the thread but here’s my thoughts on everything I’d like in a phone. Having just a few of these would make a huge difference in how much I’d want the phone.

Hardware:

1. Standard features like a 3.5mm jack and MicroSD slot.
2. Multiple USB ports (especially on tablets)
3. Thunderbolt port
4. Here’s a simple idea: Instead of making a thin phone with a massive camera bump, you make a thick phone with the camera flush with the back, and use the extra space for a bigger battery?
5. User-replacable battery
6. Modules like the modo mods
7. Battery passthrough when charging
8. Upgradable SoC, RAM, internal storage???

Software (here lies my hopes and dreams that will never be manifested):

1. Starting off simple, a feature that lets you manually limit how much you charge your battery.
2. Manual over/underclocking controls for the CPU
3. Separate WiFi/data toggles
4. More control over how big or small icons and text is
5. Easy root access with app makers not getting all “you sus” over the fact that your device is rooted
6. No data harvesting (duh)
7. Better file management (and removing scoped storage)
8. Multiple logins to a phone (like what you can do with a desktop)
9. One app, multiple accounts
10. Just having the software take less system resources.
11. Open sourcing hardware drivers
12. Multiple floating windows like with a desktop OS
13. More than 3 split screen options
14. I’m sure there’s a lot more I can’t think of now

This almost sounds like what could happen to the Fediverse. It’s decentralized just like crypto, but the majority of people won’t know or care about how the Fediverse works, they will just want to communicate online.

This is old news from a month ago.

And here’s my hot take on YT ads: They need to make money somehow, but unfortunately they are subject to “ad creep,” where they slowly increase the intensity of the ads. I’ve gotten 15+20s unskippable ads before.

But what really grinds my gears are how the ads almost seem designed to annoy you. If you commonly skip ads, that’s when you get unskippable ads all the time. And if you try to listen to YT in the shower expect the ads to come and go like radio, you come out listening to some skippable 30 minute long ad.

And I hate how the ads on mobile decide to cover the comment section. That’s ridiculous, like imagine if you’re reading a newspaper and when you get to an ad the ad suddenly expands to fill the entire page.

And the forced ads on unmonetized channels is plain cruel.

So, as much as I want to support creators (and I do leave AdBlock off on YT most of the time), I’ll come out against YT over this decision. My usage of it will drop, but only minorly.

You now can’t even sideload an app with a target SDK level that is too low. This locks you out of a bunch of older abandoned FOSS apps that often are very lightweight on storage.

But of course the restriction to sideloading older apps exists for all Android 14 phones…