My elementary school in Utah, we also called them portables. Ah the memories!

Happy to be part of the top 1% in this case.

No, I setup a MacOS VM on my home Linux server using docker-osx which runs a bluebubbles server. It doesn’t use Matrix.

This is cool but I’m happy self hosting bluebubbles.

If I’m home, I use just one towel and keep using it for like a week or two. If I’m in a hotel, they usually have so many towels so I’ll use the whole variety and fresh ones each day. It’s nice, but too lazy to constantly be washing towels when I’m home lol.

I installed nameless on my 8t. It works well but Google Pay breaks occasionally with a “Device doesn’t meet security requirements”. On both instances, was able to fix with using a play integrity module but kinda annoying knowing it may not always be reliable.

Might regret it but I just ordered an S23 after trying it out at BestBuy. I saw that Samsung had a Black Friday deal for $200 off with trade-in of an old device. I have an old Galaxy S7 just sitting in a drawer and was amazed to see it on the list of accepted devices.

I’ve really been wanting a smaller phone as my OnePlus 8T gets really uncomfortable to hold after a while. Love everything about it except the size.

I also looked at the Pixel 8 but the S23 felt like the better choice with less compromises. Pixel 8 Pro is even bigger than my 8t, so no-go there.

Really wish the S23 was rootable (in US at least). That’s prob the biggest drawback for me. Will see if I can live without that.

Yes, you should support open source when possible if the project(s) you use are beneficial to you! Your dollars are far more valuable to help out a small team of independent volunteers vs multi-billion dollar corporations that really don’t need it.

If you can’t donate money, donate your time / skills or do both! Make the world of software a better place, one small contribution at a time!

Used to hate it being on the bottom but now prefer it as it’s easier to reach. All the way at the top with as large as phones are these days isn’t as convenient. But ya, at least they give the option for either.

I had a flip phone up until 2012 and then got an iPhone 5, then switched to Android in 2016 with the Samsung Galaxy S7. I really liked my iPhone 5 but have stuck with Android since then.

I got my first taste of Android in 2008 though when my brother bought the T-Mobile G1!

Might as well make it a burst of 9 presses, wait, and then 2 single presses /s

For the technically skilled, there is BlueBubbles to get iMessage on Android. I set this up recently and it works quite well. I’m running a MacOS Ventura virtual machine using docker-osx on one of my personal servers and pretty much all iMessage functionality is available. I modified the Android (flutter) project locally to get my own push notifications working using my self-hosted ntfy instance as a UnifiedPush provider instead of needing to use Firebase.

There is also Beeper which bridges iMessage and many other chat services in one app, but I wanted something fully open source that I can manage myself, plus I think there’s still a wait-list and I didn’t want to hand over my Apple ID to a third party.

It’s hard trying to convince people (esp. iPhone users) to use a cross platform solution because they perceive us Android users as the problem and they know iMesssge just works. And for the non- technical, that’s understandable even if frustrating. So as a software engineer, I am the one making accomodations so they can still use iMessage. But it also made for a fun project for me to learn about.

Ya Plex vs Kodi is really more an apples and oranges comparison. Should be Plex vs Jellyfin.

That said though, I did start off with Kodi as my own media center on a Raspberry Pi, but eventually discovered Jellyfin and have really enjoyed it. Kodi is great too, but I think Jellyfin is the more refined modern streaming equivalent akin to Netflix that’s fully open source unlike Plex.

Glad it has an actual display as compared to all those previous imposters /s.

I really want to get one, mainly because of the smaller size. The only thing holding me back is lack of video out over USB-C. If they had that, it’d be perfect for me.

It’s a good feeling knowing that my basic non-internet connected car can’t receive an OTA update to make me start paying a subscription to use something I already have just because the company decided they want more money.

I def agree that there needs to be major interoperability improvements between platforms. Though I do not want to be locked into using Google Messages to get RCS. I wish they’d open their API to other apps and even more so allow self-hosting your own RCS server but I don’t foresee the latter ever happening.

Ya there’s Matrix and whatnot which I use with some people, but most everyone just wants what works by default. I like to tinker and have options, but most people don’t.

Till then, I’ll enjoy postage stamp resolution videos from my Apple friends /s

While Termux doesn’t require root, my device is rooted which allows for a lot more.

A few examples:

• Using mitmproxy to capture and analyze app traffic from phone apps (automated w/ a widget shortcut to configure android proxy settings on launch and then reset back when I’m finished).
• SSHing into my servers (mosh is useful to keep connections alive if network cuts out). I have my own homescreen widgets to automatically launch for specific nodes. Also use tmux everywhere to handle multiple sessions.
• Scripting my android phone as a USB keyboard input (simulating BadUSB).
• I’ve implemented my own “lost phone rescue” so I have a way to remote into my device if I lose it.
• Reading man pages about a command
• Git cloning projects to examine source code when I’m feeling curious
• Running web servers for sample projects
• Managing files on device (sometimes easier with CLI)

Termux

This app alone is one of the huge reasons why I prefer Android. I love that I can natively run a bunch of Linux utilities directly on my phone and use it like I would a regular computer. Everything from Vim, Python, and various networking utilities, I’ve played around with so many different tools which has helped expand my skillset over the years.

I also use the Termux-X11 addon to have a full xfce desktop environment running on an external monitor with HDMI out over USB-C.

Phones are quite capable devices and using tools like these really unlocks their full potential.

Ya my paranoia only allows me to expose Wireguard to access everything. I sleep better at night knowing that’s the only thing exposed. Too many instances of major companies getting hacked who have dedicated security teams to manage that. I am one person, learning to manage my own stuff in my free time.