New Phone Today

[Grogan]

It is a "Samsung Galaxy A36 5G"

Bigger and better, but every stupid fucking new version of anything takes shit away from you.

[Grogan]

Well, I was bound and determined to make one post from my phone, but that's enough of that lol

We used the transfer app to transfer data and settings (my nephew was here and he did it) but that doesn't get everything. I lost my Vivaldi settings and speed dial tiles and shit, so I decided to just shit can that browser since it's a pain in the ass to go through all the settings etc.

Now that mobile Firefox is back to their own engine, all the good settings are back again and it's a nice mobile browser again. I'm glad they gave Google's browser engine the finger. So I'm back on that, and it looks great and behaves the way I want. It seems they have fixed the performance too, it used to be a slow renderer.

[Grogan]

I have to find a replacement for the SMS messaging application. There's no more Samsung Messages, It's "Google Messages" now and I hate it, especially since I had no choice but to agree with Google spying on my messages. They don't include "phone numbers" but they upload and analyze your SMS messages now ("in cooperation with your carrier"). Fuck the living snot out of that.

There are a bunch in the Google Play store, but they all have ads and in-app purchases. Also, why would I trust them not to do the same or worse. There's a nice open source one called Quik SMS but it's not in the Play store, I'd have to install the F-Droid app installer. I'm considering it, but I really hate installing things on devices I have poor control over.

[Zema Bus]

Yeah that's the thing about phones, the poor control we have over them. I got a Pixel 9 about a month or so ago, I wanted to do it before the tariffs would potentially raise the prices. My old phone is now my backup phone.

I switched carriers too, Ting has gone downhill since they were acquired by Dish Network, their help forums and customer service techs who were also in the forums were great, and I could always get a new SIM on Amazon whenever I needed one. But that's all gone now. And now the parent company is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. I went to get a new SIM after getting my new phone but Amazon stopped carrying them, the only place I could find them was directly from Ting. But, their site was broken so I couldn't update my address. It was then that I read about what was happening, and so it was time to move on. I went to US Mobile, which is like what Ting used to be. I went with the eSIM option, so no more messing with those tiny SIM cards. Plus I can switch between three different networks if I'm in an area with poor reception on one of them.

There are some alternatives to Google Android, like LineageOS and GrapheneOS. There are others but these two I've heard the most about. It may not be a good idea to do something like that until the warranty has expired though.

[Grogan]

I'd love to have a Linux phone, but around here you'd have trouble finding a carrier it works on. Proprietary protocol stacks etc.

I'm probably going to install that F-Droid repo app to get access to better software. I'm going to have to load it with an APK file and allow the phone to install unauthorized software etc.

[Grogan]

Well I did it, I installed that F-Droid repository app (nag, nag, nag to get the OS to allow installing software... and I also turned off Auto Protection which was getting in my way), so I could install Quik SMS

This article is what sold me on it:
https://news.itsfoss.com/quik-sms-app/

I set it as default SMS application and replaced the Google Messages thingy on the bottom widget bar (don't know what it's called lol)

It's a good, straight forward SMS messaging app. I haven't really looked into the features, it does what I want out of the box (very simple, display my texts). If I didn't know better I'd think this was the original SMS app I've been used to for as long as I've had a phone.

quiksms.jpg (110.03 KiB) Viewed 206 times

[Grogan]

One setting I found in that Quik SMS program is confirmation that the text was successfully sent. I remember never knowing if it was sent or still pending at times when I had weak signal (reason to suspect). Now it shows "message successfully sent" on completion with this program.

I'm very happy with that SMS interface. The font looks super nice too (that screenshot is scaled down to 600 x whatever).

I tested a message tonight. I used my mother's phone with Google Messages and I'll be damned if I could figure out how to send a text. It was misleading because it was calling it "Start Chat". If you enter a phone number, it's automatically a SMS message. I was thinking "I don't want a fucking chat, I want to send a message". I don't use contacts, but what does it do if you choose one? lol

Anyway, I sent myself a text from her phone, and my Quik SMS behaved as expected. I got a notification that there was a text, and I went to it and replied. No smoke and mirrors or hoops. It does one thing... SMS!

[Zema Bus]

Cool! I've heard a lot about F-Droid over the years but I've never tried it.

[Grogan]

Android has gotten as bad as Windows 11. It makes you jump through hoops to turn off spying and other obnoxious behaviour like notifications.

I'll be fucked if I'm buying a $500 phone and having "Galaxy Store" spam me with push notifications about new, more expensive phones. I was busy so I just cleared the notifications and they came back. It is not an app that shows up in Settings/Notifications. Going to Apps, and tapping it, under Notifications, "turn off notifications" was greyed out. Can't remove the app, can't disable it. I don't want anything from the Galaxy Store, ever. I mostly detest Samsung's rubbish, so I won't be installing apps from there.

Yes, that's Samsung's doing, but it's also Google's doing in allowing your device to be locked down by a vendor to force their shit in your face. Google's software does similar asshole things... can't be removed or disabled etc.

Anyway, I figured it out. I had to enable "Notification Categories" in Advanced notification settings and then in the App settings for Galaxy Store, view Notification Categories. There, I was able to turn off everything except "Important Updates". THAT is what made "disable notifications" greyed out.

[Zema Bus]

I get slightly less of that with the Pixel phones than I used to with the others, just Google's own store. Only way to get away from all that stuff in Android is with one of those deGoogled versions of Android like LineageOS and GrapheneOS. One of these days I'll play around with those on an older phone.

[Grogan]

I could flash another OS on my old phone, and just play with it like a tablet (wifi, no sim card)

What I'd really like to have is one of those Linux phones.

Like this (lol because it costs like 2100 USD)
https://puri.sm/products/liberty-phone/#tech-specs

[Zema Bus]

About 6 years ago I got an early PinePhone phone, it wasn't intended as a "daily driver" phone since it still had a long way to go at that time. They mainly wanted to get it in the hands of developers. Battery life wasn't very good but it was fun to play around with. It was also fairly cheap. No telling what they're like now. Here's some of the different ones out there.

[Grogan]

Well, for $399, the PinePhone Pro comes with Manjaroo on it

I don't know about compatibility with carriers though. There can be proprietary protocols and shit that Samsung and other big vendors license.

I have this now though, maybe next time I'll consider it again at that time.