Unihertz is a Chinese company.

The Jelly Star is even smaller and released last year. Not that I would recommend it to anyone concerned with updates or custom ROM support, because it probably won’t get any lol

He wants a small/compact phone

Sorry if I’ve misunderstood what you were trying to say. I interpreted that quote from you as suggesting the last true compact Android phones (the Xperia Compacts and, to a lesser extent, the S10e) don’t have custom ROM support. If you were instead saying the most recently released “compact” phones (which are really just medium-sized phones) don’t have custom ROM support, then that would also be partially incorrect since the Pixel A series is widely supported and the Xperia 5 III has official LineageOS support.

They specifically said “not second hand” so I assumed not.

Compact phones are dead now and the last ones don’t even seem to support degoogled custom ROMs.

The XZ2 Compact still has LineageOS and DivestOS support and there are ongoing unofficial iodéOS builds for the XZ1 Compact (which I am using). The S10e has decent support too, although it’s a bit larger. But yes, modern compacts are dead in the traditional form factor - it’s now flips or a niche micro-brand phone like the Unihertz Jelly series.

Yes, that is too old for a new phone considering it’s already past its end-of-life for both official support and your OS. I’m not sure why you’d recommend them to buy new either - a phone like that is only going to be good value if you pick up a used one for cheap. A new model will be massively overpriced for what it is (and may not even be new, just refurbished and repackaged).

I’ve had issues with instances in the past too, but there’s now a percentage next to each one displaying its uptime which I’ve found useful for stability.

I’d actually consider that larger outer screen on the 50 to be a downgrade from the smaller screen on the 40. One of the things I really appreciate about the 40 is how easy it is to ignore, because it requires opening to do almost anything beyond checking notifications.

The design is also noticeably softer and cuter than previous Pixels, which may appeal more to some.

It’s not a “problem”, as such. As I said, I created the account to view the pages and groups of small businesses and organisations that have no other online presence. I don’t use it for the doomscroll algorithm. This was just my observation of what kind of content is targeted towards males in my location by default.

I found this article quite interesting, as I deactivated my main Facebook account around the time the article asserts Facebook was still “trying” and only recently created a new account under a generic pseudonym to access all the community and small business information that is still locked entirely to the platform. Because I have basically nothing in my feed on this account, Facebook backfills it with “recommended” posts and I was pretty shocked at how universally terrible they are. I guess the algorithm uses my location and gender to generate these recommendations, since I’ve provided very little in the way of alternative information or interaction for it to use. As a result, my default feed is basically just a wall of misogynistic and highly sexualised slop and even the few genuine recommended posts (like backpackers looking for travelling buddies) are clearly being recommended because they feature young women with a bunch of older men thirsting over them in the comments.

Really great article, and thanks for posting the text of it.

You’re welcome. It was their daily free article to email subscribers. I can’t afford to pay a subscription fee for full access but I find the combination of their mailing list + podcast is a good way to keep up to date with their investigations.

Smartphone camera systems have been using AI for many years. It’s only recently that companies started adding the buzzword to the marketing material to make it seem like there has been some massive leap forward. It’s likely this camera will function like any other.

Safe and official are not the same thing. I’m not sure there is any pirate site that is 100% safe when downloading applications. You are always taking an educated risk based on the history of the site, the moderation, the users and the application in question. It is not a good habit to think of things as clean or unclean, safe or unsafe, because circumstances can always change and you need be actively on the lookout for warning signs.

The Fairphone 4 also has a possible 5 years of warranty (2 years standard + 3 years complimentary extended).

I am mostly concerned with tracking from the private sector; I see privacy as more of an ethical dilemma than an immediate threat, although the corporate surveillance business model is contributing to problems in the real world (data drives social media algorithms which brainwash and radicalise people, leading to increased violence and social chaos). If there is a better alternative to some privacy-invasive big tech app or service then I will make the effort to switch to that. I am willing to sacrifice convenience to support projects that I believe are doing things the right way, or at least putting some effort into being better. However the reality is that most people, whether it’s my friends and family or just acquaintances, do not share my ethical concerns and/or are unwilling to make personal sacrifices and this means I will always need to remain open to compromise to avoid isolating myself socially.

When it comes to the public sector, I am mostly interested in circumventing the federal government’s mandatory data retention laws. which were imposed by a conservative government I didn’t vote for. Again, this is more of an ethical decision; I believe I should have the right to opt out and if the government won’t allow me to do that then the next step is to use tools like VPNs to ensure that data is less personally identifying than it otherwise would be. And again, like data collection from the private sector, my attitude towards government data collection varies depending on whether I see a reason for it to exist. Mandatory data collection of lawful civilians for vague “national security” reasons is overreach and doesn’t have an obvious practical benefit, but during the worst of the COVID years I was okay with the compulsory government tracking of where I had been and when. I saw the pandemic as an immediate challenge we needed to overcome as a society and I was willing to sacrifice my privacy to contribute towards the collective effort.

SolidTorrents is a pretty good aggregator. You can also search on non-English sites (I use Korean ones).

There’s probably something in the terms about it

2.3 Geographic Restrictions

The Paid Services, and certain content available within the Paid Services, may only be available in certain countries. You agree that you will not present any false, inaccurate or misleading information in an effort to misrepresent your country of residence, and you will not attempt to circumvent any restrictions on access to or availability of the Paid Services or content available within the Paid Services.

Terminations and Suspensions by YouTube

YouTube reserves the right to suspend or terminate your Google account or your access to all or part of the Service if (a) you materially or repeatedly breach this Agreement; (b) we are required to do so to comply with a legal requirement or a court order; or © we believe there has been conduct that creates (or could create) liability or harm to any user, other third party, YouTube or our Affiliates.

I don’t understand these surprise pikachu reactions from some people. If you break the terms of service you are running the risk that the company in question will terminate your service or account at some point in the future. There is nothing controversial or surprising about this, other than the fact that Google has taken so long to get around to it.

That’s a poor reason. Google takes a big cut, just pay the YouTuber(s) directly through their favourite donation service; most have at least one these days. This is like when people claim they pay for Spotify because they “care about supporting musicians”. It’s delusional at best and a straight up lie at worst.