lemann

lemann, 2 months ago

I like having options and the versatility personally 😁

The 3.5mm jack can also be used to record video audio with a much better microphone, attach a HW infrared blaster, or use your device as a crude oscilloscope im a pinch with appropriate software

The more common use case is people with existing wired headphones - there’s honestly no need to cast aside perfectly good cans for no reason. Yes USB-C DACs exist, but IMO that’s a completely manufactured expense and inconvenience, considering almost all phones still have the 3.5mm dac and amplifier components physically present on the mainboard: only now you must purchase a dongle to access the output via passthrough, or purchase a third party dongle that includes its own DAC.

My pain point though is the fact that users with wired headphones are now being forced to induce more usage cycles on a single connector port (which is not always economically repairable on modern devices), and all the avoidable e-waste produced by these things when the unreplaceable, consumable batteries give up the ghost after two years of ownership

lemann, 3 months ago

Third party apps like AirGuard will track all BLE devices and beacons around you, recording the detection location on a map. I just checked mine and it’s full of random iPhones, “Find My” tags, AirPods, and just 1 Tile

It also has a separate risk analysis section for tracking tags whose identifiers may be randomized for privacy

lemann, 3 months ago

Performance will be interesting to look at, haven’t really heard of any devices featuring mediatek’s Dimensity chips and aimed at western markets

lemann, 5 months ago

Since Android 10 the OS has really gone downhill IMO.

IIRC they have also been ripping out workarounds that people use to keep their apps open, so expect things like Syncthing/OpenVPN/Element/Termux etc to no longer be able to survive in the background - I believe the non dismissable notifications are a part of that too. To me this also means apps using their own push services are now being forced into a position where they’ll need to consider Google Cloud Messaging.

The OpenVPN one is pretty poor because unless you have it set to be always-on, Android can kill it freely now, then completely bypass your VPN preference because “it’s not working”

These new changes in A14 kind of show everything wrong with having an ad company in charge of a mobile OS

lemann, 5 months ago

Set the battery usage of your essential apps to Unrestricted and your persistence problem is solved

The background app battery usage feature (otherwise known as “allow background activity”, “battery care”, or “Adaptive battery”) is a different feature to what I’m talking about here sadly AFAICT, and doesn’t affect the relative importance weight of apps when Android’s memory management is looking for things to kill.

The only thing that the background app battery usage restriction does is stop “inactive” apps from running in the background if they are using up a lot of CPU time, and if the app is not being interacted with frequently: either directly by the user, indirectly via Google Cloud Messaging, or by another app on the device. From what I can tell, it’s completely separate to Android’s memory management and solely exists to extend battery life.

Android has vastly improved its security by cutting off the workarounds shady (and legit) apps have used to persist.

Shady apps already persist using Google (Firebase) Cloud Messaging, and this change does not impact them. Even if they are killed by the separate background battery app usage feature, a simple push message typically brings these back.

The hacky workarounds you speak of to maintain persistence on A14 should be killed off to improve everyone’s privacy.

I wouldn’t exactly categorize this as a hacky workaround, since it follows the documented relative app importance weights used by Android’s memory management. Users can even bypass this themselves by swiping on the persistent notification, and hiding those types of app notifications.

If anything IMO it forces apps to be less transparent about their activity, since they cannot communicate to the user that they are running

If I’m wrong about the background battery app feature’s seemingly lack of impact on Android’s memory management please do let me know - I’ve yet to come across anything suggesting it does ☹️

lemann, 5 months ago

Showing a notification doesn’t “evade” battery optimization - as battery optimization is completely independent of Android’s memory management.

Showing a notification allows Android’s memory management to better assess what apps to kill using a weights system, based on whether they are in the foreground or background, if any of the app’s overlays/notifications are visible to the user, and exactly how visible they are.

Battery optimization will kill any non-system app based on how frequently it is used, dependent on its overall background CPU usage, regardless of whether the app is showing a notification or not.

lemann, 5 months ago

I also use a Fairphone and haven’t encountered issues with gestures while using a third party launcher (previously Niagara, now Kvaesitso)

Admittedly I switched the gestures back off anyway because I’m just used to using the on screen buttons for the moment

lemann, 6 months ago

I’ve used Florisboard on my device for a few years now, and completely shocked at how barebones the stock Android and Samsung keyboards are…

It can undo, redo, cut, paste, select all, view/insert clipboard history, clear clipboard, and swipe to move the cursor within text. Standard stuff like voice input and swipe typing are here too.

Admittedly it’s not perfect, and probably not ideal for most casual users in its current state, but I just can’t go back to a standard keyboard after using this feature rich one for so long

lemann, 6 months ago

Honestly sometimes I get carried away on my device and eat through 20-30% of my battery. And then start thinking it needs replacement because it felt like it’s just been a few mins… before popping open the battery stats and realise i’ve actually been on my phone for hours 🤦‍♂️