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20 votes
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Microsimulation of traffic control: Onramp
8 votes -
Google suspended a popular Android podcast app because it catalogs COVID-19 content
11 votes -
Opportunities for watchOS 7
3 votes -
Will Facebook’s oversight board actually hold the company accountable?
5 votes -
Here’s what an antitrust case against Google might look like: Two DOJ veterans lay out a roadmap for cracking down on the company’s digital advertising juggernaut
4 votes -
The need for software testing: Neil Ferguson's unstable epidemiologic model
10 votes -
Edison Mail vulnerability allowing unauthorized access to email accounts of other users
4 votes -
"Couchsurfing needs your help" - Couchsurfing has changed to a subscription model
4 votes -
Lemmy: A link aggregator/Reddit clone for the fediverse
15 votes -
NewsGuard and Microsoft team up to make NewsGuard free for Microsoft Edge users, Bing integration
5 votes -
Do antiviruses still slow your computer down?
9 votes -
Beaker Browser 1.0 Beta
25 votes -
The secrets behind the runaway success of Apple’s AirPods
14 votes -
Ameelio, a startup backed by the Mozilla's 'Fix the Internet', aims to provide free video calls and messaging to prisoners in the US where video calls can cost as much as $25 for 15min
11 votes -
Tech companies are pretending to be on their best behavior: Big tech is watching its step and trying to appear ethical during coronavirus. Don’t be fooled
8 votes -
The workplace-surveillance technology boom
4 votes -
Algorithms associating appearance and criminality have a dark past
5 votes -
A highly efficient, real-time text-to-speech system deployed on CPUs
2 votes -
Facebook to buy Giphy for $400 million
25 votes -
Nitter, JS free interface for Twitter
15 votes -
Victory! ICANN rejects .ORG sale to private equity firm Ethos Capital
22 votes -
Reddit releases "community points", tokens on the Ethereum blockchain awarded for posts - currently available in /r/cryptocurrency and /r/FortniteBR
20 votes -
Have you tried degoogling your Android?
In a pursuit of a more privacy-oriented mobile computing I've installed LineageOS ROM on my phone and decided to try living without Google Play Services, which usually provide aGPS (cell tower...
In a pursuit of a more privacy-oriented mobile computing I've installed LineageOS ROM on my phone and decided to try living without Google Play Services, which usually provide aGPS (cell tower geopositioning), push notifications and lots of other frameworks like Google Maps that apps use as libraries.
My phone has 4 primary uses:
- Communicator - mostly Telegram, WhatsApp and Slack. Email of-course.
- Navigator - GPS and Maps are an irreplaceable tool if you're living in a modern metropolis
- Internet browser - obviously
- Music Player - music on the go
So let's see how you're supposed to tackle each of the uses, while using as much FOSS as possible.
- System functionality - both push notifications and aGPS can be solved by microG - fake Google Play Services library. Not sure how it implements push, but aGPS is checked against Mozilla's geolocation database.
- Communications - Telegram is available on F-Droid (OSS app store), but everything else is not. The solution here is to use Aurora (Play Store front-end to rip APKs) and install them manually. Push notifications might be broken even with microG (WhatsApp is missing notifications for me, sometimes). AOSP email is fine, K9-mail is ugly but works somewhat better.
- Maps and navigation: OpenStreetMap is the obvious choice here and OsmAnd delivers the frontend. It has enough metadata for businesses to get you around, but compared to Google Maps it's can be sometimes lacking and/or out-of-date. Navigation itself is decent, but it's missing timetables for public transportation compared to GMaps, which can be a problem, especially if trains are cancelled or delayed. Overall it's very usable, almost feature complete, but I've found myself falling back to Google Maps in my browser when it comes to using public transport.
- Internet browser - Firefox, with uBlock Origin installed (yes, it works on Android) it's really good.
- Music Player - there are tons of music players available on F-Droid, you can pick whichever suits your needs. Here I actually stepped away from the FOSS and bought myself a PowerAMP license on developer's website. One of the rare moments where paid Android software is available outside of Play Store.
Now that the primary use cases are solved, let's try some other useful apps:
- E-banking? Broken without Google Play, app refuses to even start properly.
- Bike sharing? Taxi app? Public transport app? Broken without Google Maps libraries for the obvious reason. You might or might not be able to use the browser version, depending on the app.
- Reddit Relay/any app that requires the license? Okay you've ripped the APK with Aurora, but you can't buy the license to remove the ads.
- Ebook reader? Nothing good on F-Droid, have to rip something off Aurora.
Basically you have to be prepared to use your mobile browser a lot. And for some of the sites, do it in a "desktop mode" with tiny text, since the mobile version will just nag you to download the app, that might be broken.
The takeaway is simple - you give up A LOT of convenience just to cut off Google analytics (which you still might get with apps like Slack). It's certainly usable, don't get me wrong, but I still feel kind of stupid fumbling with OsmAnd when I'm out with my friends and trying to look something up. I'll probably end up going back to the stock ROM, or just installing the Google Apps. For me it was an experiment and I think I've got a general feel on how much information and use I'm actually getting out of GApps.
So Tildes, have you tried degoogling your phone? How did it go? Are you still using it?
28 votes -
California police used military surveillance tech at grad student strike
11 votes -
Apple Store's temperature checks may violate EU privacy rules, says German data protection office
5 votes -
Pushbullet: Let's guess what Google requires in fourteen days or they kill our extension
19 votes -
So this is how privacy dies
8 votes -
Chrome to start throttling resource-heavy ads in August
10 votes -
The confessions of Marcus "MalwareTech" Hutchins, the hacker who stopped WannaCry and was arrested by the FBI in 2017
33 votes -
A hacker is trying to break Ohio’s tool for reporting workers who quit during the pandemic
23 votes -
Twitter will allow employees to work at home forever
16 votes -
Zoom acquires Keybase and announces goal of developing the most broadly used enterprise end-to-end encryption offering
38 votes -
Uber-Grubhub: How the pandemic is launching the era of online platform regulation
6 votes -
The Beaker "new web" project
10 votes -
Has DuckDuckGo recently started giving you significantly worse results?
Over the last week or so, I have been noticing that the majority of my searches in DuckDuckGo have been completely failing. For example, I was searching for a specific Firefox extension api and it...
Over the last week or so, I have been noticing that the majority of my searches in DuckDuckGo have been completely failing. For example, I was searching for a specific Firefox extension api and it only brings up a list of Firefox extension. If I put the exact same query into Google, the second result is exactly what I wanted. Before this last week, I have being using DDG almost exclusively, but know I am need to add the Google bang before nearly every query. Am I the only person that is having this experience? I really prefer using DDG to Google, but I can't if the results stay this way.
28 votes -
CISSP qualification given cert status equivalent to Master’s degree level in Europe
3 votes -
Anatomy of an internet shutdown
7 votes -
1998: Apple's iMac is full of flash, dash, but has a few big holes
6 votes -
A high-level overview of the background of the ".org" top-level domain and what happened with its recent attempted sale to a private equity firm
12 votes -
Facebook is helping to set up a new pro-tech advocacy group
6 votes -
If one of your teammates falls ill, is someone prepared to step up? How to minimize the “bus factor.”
6 votes -
Adobe patches sixteen critical flaws in Acrobat and Reader, Digital Negative SDK
5 votes -
Political consultant suggests rallying dems with giant, 'Fortnite-style' holographic Biden
4 votes -
Paul L. Vasquez, creator of ten-year old 'double rainbow' viral meme video has died at age 57
15 votes -
Microsoft and Intel project converts malware into images before analyzing it
10 votes -
Welcome to the age of privacy nihilism
13 votes -
What are your internet time sinks?
Where do you all waste away most of your time on the internet? I hate to sound like a hipster, but I've come to avoid and/or dislike most main stream content aggregators. Reddit, Twitter,...
Where do you all waste away most of your time on the internet? I hate to sound like a hipster, but I've come to avoid and/or dislike most main stream content aggregators. Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, etc. are all platforms I no longer participate in because of privacy and quality reasons. I like Tildes and all, but the community is small (and I like it this way) and that means the content isn't always fresh. So where else do you all hang out?
31 votes -
Hey, what's that?
11 votes -
Jukebox - Neural net that generates music
14 votes