🆕 blog! “Notes on installing GrapheneOS on a Pixel 8 Pro - some bugs & oddities”
These are notes to myself - and anyone else who finds them useful. Before starting, I booted the Google OS to install the latest firmware and an eSIM. After a few days of enduring Google's naggy software, I was ready to commit to installing somethin…
Rechnungen/Kassenbons scannen. Hat da jemand eine App-Empfehlung (Android)? Ich würde gerne ein Foto machen und daraus direkt ein PDF generieren, dass ich mir dann über einen beliebigen Kanal auf den PC übertragen kann.
I've setup and started using my Pixel 8 Pro with #GrapheneOS yesterday.
I'll make this into a thread of all of my impressions so far.
Note that this will also necessarily generic #Android observations, as I've been an iOS user for the last 3 years.
Also without anything installed #GrapheneOS is such a nice example of how energy efficient #Android can be. The idle battery drain is basically nothing. Of course it started to increase, when I loaded it with apps that sync in the background, but purely stock it's crazy efficient and I know many Android phones with vendor customized OSes can't do that.
But now we have to get into the #Android side of things and this is where things become a little more of a mixed bag for me.
I knew what I was getting into with this, so most of these things didn't come to me as a surprise, still I want to mention them all.
Android apps just look worse. I like having good looking apps, and many Android apps are very much function over form. This isn't a huge deal, but I would prefer more nice looking apps.
Gestures. This is my first #Android phone with the new gesture controls and frankly: I absolutely hate them. The back gesture is mapped twice, to the right and left side of the screen, which is just plain redundant. On iOS the left side goes back and the right side forwards, especially in a web browser I use this ALL THE TIME.
Also on #Android, apps can't do their own left and right gestures anymore, if they would make more sense. On iOS, depending on the app, I can pull in sidebars. Here, it just goes back.
I've heard that a lot of people like this consistency and hate that iOS seems all over the place for them. But for me the iOS way just makes more sense, because I feel like most developers put proper thought into what each gesture does and they are always useful.
Smaller nitpick, probably more of a #GrapheneOS thing, because it could probably be implemented pretty easily:
I can't control the brightness of the flashlight, there just isn't an option for it. Even though I know #Android could address it with at least 256 different brightness levels.
Oh and another smaller thing about VPNs. On iOS there is an option to configure a VPN to auto start on different WiFi networks or the cellular connection.
I just kind of expected #Android to have the same thing, but somehow no. I tried out an app which does it on its own, but didn't like it, so I ended up just using #Tasker and automating it with that.
I have access to some amazing apps again.
I missed #FairMail for so long, it is my favorite E-Mail client. It is also one of the apps that doesn't look good, but functionality wise it is top notch, everything I could ever ask for is included.
#Tasker is another one. Amazing automation app. Love to have it again.
I'll be looking into some modded clients also to improve my experience with some services, but I haven't gotten to that yet.
Also what keyboards do people use on #Android?
I am currently using the default on #GrapheneOS and it doesn't do multi-language without switching and that's pretty inconvenient.
I often hear about GBoard, but I would like to know if there are other good alternatives nowadays, maybe even #OpenSource ones that I just don't know about.
Many thanks to @GrapheneOS ! The (new?) WebUSB-based installer is a spendid tool! It makes installing #GrapheneOS super easy. When I can do it without headache every poodle can!
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"My other 'iPad' is a #Google#Pixel tablet 📱. It's good, different but good 👌. One thing though - I seem to have to double-tap harder on it than on my iPad 🤔. Also, it seems that I have to tap in the middle of the screen. Is it just me, or is this #TalkBack standard? 🧐 #TechLife#Accessibility#Blind#Android
Eine traurige Wahrheit: Bei der Analyse/Überprüfung des Datenverkehrs einer App, lautet die Frage nicht, ob man Datenschutzverstöße findet, sondern wie viele und wie schwerwiegend diese sind. Davon ausgenommen sind Apps aus dem F-Droid-Store. 🧙♂️
I find it odd that a #Mastodon app on #iOS which charges a subscription fee is so popular that an update post makes the trending page. I've used Ivory, and apps on #Android like #Tusky and #Pachli are just as good plus completely free. :ablobthinkingeyes:
POV: a few years ago you uploaded a bunch of games into Google Play that:
are fully Free Software
don't gather any user data
are fully local, no ads
are complete and finished
don't really need updating.
One of the games was removed because of "missing privacy policy". Others - I don't even know, they didn't bother to tell me 😜 Seems like the idea that some apps may simply respect the user and not exist to mine for data is unfathomable to Google.
Das alternative Smartphone-Betriebssystem LineageOS gibt es jetzt in Version 21 auf Basis von Android 14. Zu den Neuerungen gehört eine frische Fotogalerie-App.
Any other decent #Mastodon apps for #Android? #Tusky is OK, but it never remembers its place. Open it, start reading, background it, then open again and it jumps to the top of the timeline. I'd love to see #Tweescake for #Android!
What (free and open-source) applications do you use on a daily basis?
Try to avoid duplicates, keep it interesting.