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9 votes
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What's the last piece of technology that truly impressed you?
I recently got the Galaxy Fold and I am genuinely fascinated by it. A folding screen phone is just wild to me. It's a crazy concept and every time I pick up the Fold, I feel like I'm touching the...
I recently got the Galaxy Fold and I am genuinely fascinated by it. A folding screen phone is just wild to me. It's a crazy concept and every time I pick up the Fold, I feel like I'm touching the future.
It got me thinking about how technology is so ubiquitous nowadays that we take so much for granted. The fact that we have high speed Internet access from anywhere on earth was totally unthinkable 20 years ago, yet today it is a reality.
So when is the last time you were truly impressed by a technology or technological breakthrough?
33 votes -
Don't fall for Bloomberg's effusive Elon Musk profile
16 votes -
Nearly half of accounts tweeting about coronavirus are likely bots
12 votes -
Interview with Musk on his Twitter usage, selling off his possessions, and the historic upcoming launch
7 votes -
Nvidia’s AI recreates Pac-Man from scratch just by watching it being played
12 votes -
We have to talk about failed streaming app Quibi
17 votes -
Investigate bugs together
@b0rk: investigate bugs together
5 votes -
The mobile testing gotchas you need to know about
5 votes -
CNBC reporter makes fake news website with plagiarized content, gets approved by ad tech companies
10 votes -
Gopass - The team password manager
7 votes -
Grandmother ordered to delete Facebook photos under GDPR
12 votes -
America’s deadly obsession with intellectual property: Privatizing life-saving technology like vaccines and clean energy is bad both for the coronavirus and the climate crisis
9 votes -
The Joe Rogan Experience podcast will be exclusive to Spotify later this year, with a multi-year deal
17 votes -
Appropriate technology
6 votes -
Tracking the location history of military and intelligence personnel using the Untappd beer-rating app
11 votes -
The wonderful world of Chinese hi-fi - The world of good and cheap headphones from anonymous Chinese companies
20 votes -
The art, science and politics of electronic components
8 votes -
It's called artificial intelligence—but what *is* intelligence?
4 votes -
New York Times phasing out all third-party advertising data
21 votes -
Why NetNewsWire is fast
5 votes -
Introducing Signal PINs: A method of storing some account data (profile, settings, etc.) securely on Signal servers in case you lose or switch devices
16 votes -
Microsoft is bringing Linux GUI apps to Windows 10
16 votes -
DirectX is coming to the Windows Subsystem for Linux
7 votes -
Microsoft announces the Windows Package Manager preview
20 votes -
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