"I get in line to buy shit phones because I'm oppressed, overworked and underpaid". Alright. Hopefully the corporate overlords will do something about it, then.

you'll just have to built your own apps too

We are well on our way.

I was confused before I made the switch. So many of the most useful kinds of apps weren't maintained anymore by anyone on the Google Play store. I had this surreal feeling that the app ecosystem was getting worse every year.

And then I installed F-Droid and figured out where all of my favorite app developers went. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Not sure how pricing/value actually compares, but it does seem like if you want a phone now for emergencies you’re going to get fleeced (also required data package).

What? You need data make calls now?

I’ll break my sons phone the day that he comes phone with a data harvested machine.

Voice over l t e is not standardized and the carriers on the I p to connect to their system. So every carrier has an encrypted blob that only works with whatever version of phone they want to sell. If you have a major phone like an iPhone or a pixel, then apple and Google work to make sure that those seemlessly download.But if you're any other brand you're kind of screwed. Even Samsung has issues since I can't use the Play Store to distribute it in their own app.Store doesn't have good support from the carriers. The carriers really push that only the phones are purchased from them work. Spokennoise, they also pushed it unsecured.Devices need to be wiped, including them voiceover Lte data.

Look at the issues with australian service right now , they are even trying to stop iphones from other countries from using it. Apple has a whole system to make sure that all phones work with the same voice over lte stuff following the bands match and auto download the blobs.

Even with Graphene, it's increasingly likely that it'll be dead to new Pixels in the coming years. And I say that as someone posting this from a Pixel 9 running Graphene.

If you're fine with buying and carrying around a flip-phone or something, no.

If you want the inactive smartphone you already have in your pocket to receive calls yes, because it will not work with the non-data SIM card. Even if you have 0 interest in data. EDIT: SIM compatibility might be part of that too, like how dual SIM adds another layer of bought-the-wrong-thing.

Similar to @[email protected]. I am sure better plans exist here (like another user pointed out), but aside from device type it may depend on what store you're at or just how much research you're willing to do into if certain options are still good.

Wait what ? Side loading blocked

Well it was a good run, time to look into custom roms…

For those wondering what happened, the Android Open Source Project (ASOP) launched in 2007, but started decoupling major parts of the project from the main in 2012 instead forcing them to update through Google Play store and over time restricting access to the codebase before just this year deciding to shut down the ASOP.

In their defence, they've also made lots of changes to make android compatible with more devices and to make third party stores work better, but they've just as often made changes that intentionally harmed development of alternative android-based OS.

I’m glad I chose iPhone instead!

I left them only because Pixels were good enough, clean enough, and custom Roms couldn't update themselves.

If there's one that can, I'll happily switch back.

Bootloader is blocked so no custom roms. You will take whatever shit they are slinging and like it.

To add to this, the only redeeming quality of Android is that the Google Play Store developer account currently only costs a $25 one time fee, meanwhile the Apple App Store costs $99 per year. Google also seems a bit more permissive with its apps. You can still use an adblocker extension when you download firefox, even torrent clients are there. Apple doesn't really allow alternative browsers, every browser is just Safari reskinned, no extensions, absolutely zero usable torrent clients whatsoever. And, there aren't really any Tor browsers on iOS (probably because of the same reason why iOS browsers have no extensions), those that do exist seem very badly built, not officially made by the Tor Project, and some even require you to pay for it (which make sense given the $99 yearly fee).

But you know, its capitalism and the current pricing could soon change...

(Edited phrasing for claification)

Capitalism is never going away unless people build a system to redistribute wealth and so far they're doing the opposite lately.

I bought the Murena One since it was the cheapest model that was close to the specs of my phone at the time. Figured $500 was already overpaying considering how much lower cost my previous phone was, but also, who the hell thinks about a $500 phone bricking in a month? I just find it inexcusable regardless.

I remember wanting to get the removable battery, but they didn't offer that with the One, and I'd be losing specs if I got a model in my budget that did have one. I also wasn't going to spend over a grand for a phone with the Fairphone models available through them at the time.

I mean that the pricing of the dev account could soon change because of the fact that we live under a capitalist society, not saying that capitalism is itself is going away.

There's so much bullshit with smartphones now that make them a pain to use, I'm honestly considering at this point to just get a flipphone and buy separate devices for the things it can do. Get a camera, MP3 player, and portable DVD player and live life the way people did 20 years ago.

Oh its very cool. Have you seen palantir's

Oh. You meant cool for you. No. Jo they have not

Huh? I'm fairly sure Lineage does OTAs and has been doing it for a loooong time. And there's other ROMs that have OTAs too.