Hi there,

I'm considering purchasing a used Galaxy S7 and moving to LineageOS and would like to hear about similiar experiences. I currently own a iPhone 5S (only my second smartphone). I plan to continue using Ting as my provider.

I am attracted to LineageOS because it's open source and allows greater control than the standard Android-build I'd get from an ISP. I'm not afraid of installing ROMs or tinkering - I know I'll be doing a lot more of that by moving to an open-source OS.

I was looking at Galaxy S7 because it's well-known and has wide support/information available on forums, etc and of course because it's relatively cheap to get a used one ($200-ish).

I'm in the US and use Ting as my provider.

So some questions I have are:

• Should I expect to use the standard Google Play store? I'm still a little unclear on this after looking at the LineageOS website and wiki. The best I could find for an answer is this article talking about installing default google apps. I think my question is so basic it's not addressed on their site lol.
• Can I drag and drop MP3s from my computer to the phone? In other words, can I get my music on there without having to install something dreadful like iTunes or use Spotify/Amazon Music?
• The LineageOS project looks healthy to my untrained eye...any rumors that it'll vanish overnight?
• I found these instructions for a Galaxy S7 Anything else I should know or look out for?
• Any general thoughts/advice about moving from the Apple to the Google ecosystem? I'm entrenched in Google everywhere BUT my iPhone where I mostly use Google apps.
• What else should I look out for? See any gaps in my understanding?

In the rare chance you haven't heard of Flutter, here's the link: https://flutter.io

Flutter just officially left beta with v1.0 December 4, last year. The code is written in Dart, and deploys on Android, and iOS (and will run natively on the rumored Fuchsia OS).

So for those of you that have used Flutter or are currently using Flutter.

• What are you working on?
• Why'd you choose Flutter?
• What do you like about Flutter?
• And what do you dislike about Flutter?

I'll start:

I'm working on a niche art app. I myself do not do that type of art, but knowing people that do, I wanted to create a tool to fill in the lackluckster market for Chromebooks and Android.
I chose Flutter because:

• I wanted to try something new, and what newer than something that was (at the time) in beta?
• Custom Views in Android are a hassle.
• I will be able to release on both Android and iOS (semi-)natively without having to code it twice.

Here's what I like about Flutter:

• Layouts are really simple.
  (though you can easily let it get clustered if you don't think too much about it.)
• Design isn't an afterthought.
  Animations are built in (and simple), themes aren't hard-coded, and Material Components get more attention here. (Still waiting for Shapes on Android)
• It's fast by design.
  Flutter uses its own custom rendering engine (Skia). I've never experienced any stutter with the built-in components, and when I caused lag (with heavy I/O) Flutter/Dart had tools in place for me to narrow down exactly what was causing it.

What I don't like about Flutter:

• It has poor mouse/trackpad support.
  Right clicks, not a thing. I can workaround this with a double-click/long-click, but for a desktop OS, this isn't optimal. Scrolling, that's panning, this should be differentiated. There's a difference between using a scrollwheel and moving finger around on the screen. According to Flutter there is not. There's also currently no support for mouse hovers which I have needed very much.
  There is a pull-request for adding support for all of these, but the developer hasn't done anything since code review.
• Keyboard support, while there, is lackluster.
  Ctrl, Shift, Alt. These have to be gotten with the meta code. There's no built-in function for checking those. Text fields don't support the tab key to navigate. And text formatting (bold, italic, etc.) isn't possible with text fields without the use of a library (or making it yourself).

I was trying to think of a third dislike, but I can't. My complaints are on missing APIs for Chromebooks. That's it. I really like Flutter, I plan on using it more, and if they won't add support for mouse/keyboard, maybe I'll have to contribute.

I'd love to hear what your thoughts about it is.

Last month my dad had a stroke. Miraculously he didn't lose much functionality at all, though he does have some minor cognitive issues that we're working on in rehab - mainly memory. Accordingly, we want to find some games he can play on his tablet to help keep his mind active and focus his attention. But the mobile game market is hard for me to navigate and sort through for what I'm looking for.

I need games that're about a dollar or less and don't have in-app purchases. Basically games you could give to your kid and trust that they're not gonna be psychologically manipulated into wanting to empty your bank card or something like that.

Brain teasers and simple puzzles are ideal for sharpening his mind but any game that's good clean straightforward fun will work. I don't think he's going to be able to handle anything with a whole lot of moving parts like an RTS right now, for instance.

I can't afford to spend much on this and I don't know what kinds of games will interest him most so I want to give him a lot of choices. I've already looked through a couple of the other mobile game rec threads on here and I'm checking out the games listed there, but I was hoping you all could help me think of some stuff more geared to my situation. Any pointers even just on where to go looking or what to google would be appreciated. Cheers!

Edit:

Thank you all for being so supportive! I've added a bunch of the games you recommended, and I also found a couple nice lists that I thought I'd add here for anyone else interested.

Short List of Totally Free Games

10 Completely Free Mobile Games

Stay awesome tildes!

I am generally dissatisfied with my phone options today. I want a phone that meets these requirements:

• microSD card slot
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Unlockable bootloader without having to ask the manufacturer (i.e. fastboot oem unlock)
• Either LineageOS support or Android 8+
• Screen smaller than 6" (preferably smaller than 5.5")

I'd also prefer not to have a notch but it's not a dealbreaker. I don't really care much about having the thinnest phone, or the biggest screen, etc. I'd much prefer having more control over my device and the way I use it.

Does such a phone exist, or do I have my standards too high? I haven't seen a phone like this that came out 2017 or later.

Hello, ~tech!

I've been really interested in the Google Pixel 3 (non XL) for quite some time, mainly due to my boredom of the Apple ecosystem. I've been primarily an iPhone user since 2014 (currently stuck on the iPhone 6S) and I've recently been eager to make a switch to Android. The Pixel 3 seems to be exactly what I'm looking for. Stock Android experience, a beautiful camera, modern device, and I'm already pretty integrated into Google's ecosystem of services, and I feel the transition will be very smooth.

So, for any Google Pixel 3 users, non XL or otherwise, what do you love and/or hate about your device? Were you in my shoes as well?

I was looking to maybe cut down on my Googleness and replacing Keep seemed like a good start. I need something that has a simple interface and most (if not all) of the same features as Keep. Any suggestions? Also I'm on Android btw.

I've been using the Hermit app for Android to make a lite app for Tildes. It's awesome. Just one main problem. Because of some Android limitation shortcuts aren't allowed to be put in the app drawer. I wanted to keep it there to make everything more organized. Does anyone know if it's possible to make an apk (so it can go in the app drawer) that will just link to my Tildes lite app?

Or phone, or after an OS reinstall, etc. Just got to thinking about it because I did a fresh install of Arch on my chromebook the other day, and I'd be curious what other people's priority software installs are. For me, after the basics like drivers, it's xfce, Firefox, Transmission, Libreoffice, and VLC on linux. Pretty much the same on Windows, plus a few utilities like 7zip, PuTTY, and notepad++. For Android installs I grab nova launcher, Hangouts Dialer, F-Droid, NewPipe and MoonReader before anything else.

EDIT: Forgot firefox on android, as well as ublock origin on all platforms.

Also not completely sure if this belongs more in ~tech or ~comp.

I've played a few games on Android that are bizarre and wonderful, and nobody else seems to know them. Philipp Stollenmeyer makes nice, tactile, casual puzzle games with a clear and chunky aesthetic and great sound. Verticow, Zip Zap, Burger, and Okay? are four I can recommend. His art is very Monty Pythonesque, and the games just feel cool to play.

I also tell everyone I know about a game from 2014 called Always Sometimes Monsters. This game was telling an inclusive story before it was cool. It seems to have been made in RPG Maker, and is set in a modern city. There is no combat, just being a person, having conversations, running errands, and trying to accomplish your goals. The dialogue is realistic and sharp, and the story unfolds in a very satisfying (if a bit tropey) way.

I made a friend online a couple weeks ago -- this guy posted his game called Amethlion to an android forum. It's an open world crafting RPG and he was selling it for a buck fifty. I jumped at the chance to play a cool little pixel art adventure and actually get to interact with the creator. It's buggy as all hell, but it is very cute and pretty fun. The creator is a very nice person and has been very grateful to hear my bug reports. Dynamic Zero is the name of his company, and he made the game solo with his brother making the music. It's a family affair and I think that is just so sweet.

What mobile games are you all into these days, if any? And if the answer is none, how come?

I'm using an Android phone with Chrome 65.0.3325.109 installed.

There's an option in this browser to add a page to the home screen. This creates a shortcut on my home screen. When I tap on that shortcut, it opens the saved page in Chrome.

I had done this with Tildes. However, I deleted the shortcut and made it again. The behaviour has now changed.

Previously, this shortcut opened Tildes as a tab within Chrome. Now, it opens Tildes as its own separate "application". It's not in Chrome. That means I don't get the functionality that comes with Chrome, such as opening a link in a new Chrome tab. In this pseudo-application version, I'm stuck with only one window. I can't open other tabs. I can't simply copy links from one Chrome tab (news website) to another Chrome tab (Tildes).

Did you change something in the past week or so? Can you please change it back? I want a shortcut to a web page to open something that behaves like a web page, not a stand-alone application.

A sentence from this article on Ars Technica about the new Android Messages web interface really jumped out at me:

Android Messages started as a simple SMS app, but, with the Web client, it is turning into Google's ninth messaging service after (deep breath) Google Talk, Google Voice, Buzz, Google+ Messenger, Hangouts, Spaces, Allo, and the Slack-like Hangouts Chat.

Nine different chat services from a single company is just wild. How did Google let such an important aspect of the Android platform become such a mess, and what should Google do about it?

I'm going to be flashing a custom ROM on my Nexus 5X device, and I was just curious if I'm understanding all the components involved. I currently have CopperheadOS on my device, but that ROM may be dead based on current events. I'm not switching because of this news, but mainly because I just want to try something else for the hell of it. I think I'm going to make the switch to Lineage, but there are way more options involved versus flashing CopperheadOS.

It seems the main components to consider when flashing are the following:

• The ROM itself (CopperheadOS, Lineage, PureNexus, etc.)
• The custom recovery (TWRP, etc.)
• The kernel (ElementalX, Franco, etc.)
• root (magisk, etc.)
• Play Services (OpenGApps, etc.)

CopperheadOS was kind of it's own package, so I didn't have to consider all of these other options.

My understanding is the minimum decisions I need to make if I want a custom ROM, is picking the ROM itself, and a custom recovery. In my case I'm going for LineageOS and TWRP.

Choosing a custom kernel seems to be optional. I think I might go with Franco on this one based on the little research I've done. But to flash a custom kernel, I think I need root, right? So now I'll need to get root access which requires another tool. I was going to go with Magisk based on not much. Just seems to be common. So that's 4 main things there. The ROM (LineageOS), the recovery (TWRP), the kernel (Franco), and root (Magisk). I personally don't want any Google services on my device, so I'm fine with skipping that part. I currently don't have any installed, and I'm doing fine without them.

So does my view on this seem correct? Are all the things I mentioned necessary for what I want to do? If I want LineageOS then I need a custom recovery right? If I want a custom kernel, then I need root which requires a separate tool, right? Just making sure I'm not doing more than I need to if I decided to go through with this. As a side convo, please recommend whatever ROMs, kernels, or root tools that you want. I have a Nexus 5X, and I'm hoping it doesn't bootloop after I'm done doing all this flashing =)

I was wanting to look into how to make one for this website because I'd like to browse on my phone. We got a lot of tech people here. What do you think?

Edit: I know it's not likely now, but I mean in the future. Is this something we could do when this turns open-source?