At this point, if people still decide to go ahead and buy a Zenphone even after all of this, then they deserve to get what’s coming for them

I disagree with you last point.

If it wasn’t the default, people with poor vision would most likely wouldn’t even know how to activate it by themselves.

Most regular users, especially older ones that are more prone to these conditions, aren’t technically savvy enough to rummage through app settings to learn how to toggle accessibility features.

They’d just try to put on reading glasses and then struggle to use the app as it is.

I think it makes more sense to have sensible defaults like that be activated and make it opt-out for those that don’t like it

Maybe the argument is to aid the people who have poor vision

That’s kind of a moot point seeing how it will be adopted by 100% of phones at one point (except for phones which are out of support, but those won’t get used at all after a certain point)

The good thing about open source is that anyone can contribute.

Yeah, you won’t make any money out of it, but if your goal isn’t to make money, then you can team up with others to create your own Android dialer from scratch and that will be adopted.

There’s no vendor lockins possible

Not to burst your bubble but SMS is even less secure than WhatsApp. In fact, SMS is among the least secure communication avenues on a phone, since your telecommunications provider has the ability to keep logs of what you send, when you send it and to whom you send it to.

Not to mention how insecure 4G is and how easy it is to intercept other people’s messages

Also for streaming.

Streaming on a phone (even a 6.6 inch phone) is annoying.

The screen is too small for comfort and it’s very difficult to make out small details which are important that are shown literally onscreen

I don’t think that’s anything new.

My LineageOS phone also has that. I’m inclined to believe that this is available on all newer Android phones

Fair enough

I think that, rather than using Gmaps WV, one should rather opt to using Osm maps.They client is free software and the map data is collected by volunteers all around the world, doing their best to contribute to the project.

That way, you can still use navigation and you won’t ever need a Google account (or an accoint for anything, really).

As for Google play, yeah, I definetely recommend Aurora store.

Personally, I use Aptoide to get my apps from, because that’s entirely independent of Google servers and it’s its own thing, so it’s even better. However, I wouldn’t recommend it personally because a lot of apps that existed on Google Play don’t exist on Aptoide’s apps repository and the third party repos are not very trustworthy

Gestures is the only way forward, I feel.

Once you learn them they are fast, simple and highly efficient.

The 3 buttons navigation feels like what we had to use in the past so that it would be easier for anyone to use.

However, I feel like the buttons are a very primitive way of doing things

Maybe for Java but Python does have Flask, which is anything but bloated.

Django, from what I heard, may be a bit bloated, but, from what I heard at least, it has some very useful tools

This episode is brought to you by Surfshark VPN

The Internet Historian learned how to program. Neat

I currently have a Fairphone 4 device.

Hard to say about loyalty, since this is the only time I can say I’ve personally been attached to any particular phone brand. And if their device will prove to be very badly designed then I’ll obviously go back on my decision.

I guess what I like about them is their stance on various social issues, like the sourcing of raw materials that go into manufacturing a modern smartphone, and how they commit to improving themselves based on that.

For example, they talk about forming the Cobalt Fairtrade foundation, in the hopes of promoting the ethical sourcing of the cobalt that goes into your phone’s battery, so that it doesn’t involve child labor.

Or how they claim to pay factory workes a better wage that most other manufacturers, even though this can only be achieved by overpricing their own phone, which makes it less attractive.

Granted, you really have to care about this stuff yourself to become invested in the company because the phone itself is very bland and, otherwise, quite overpriced

Fairphone 4. What I like about it is it’s modularity and the fact that you can find spare parts for it on the official store, to order.

What I dislike about it is it’s thickness and weight

As a fairphone 4 owner, I can vouch for them.

Yeah, their hardware is pretty bland and unimpressive but sometimes a boring phone is a good choice for some people.

The Fairphone 4 doesn’t have a headphones jack, nor does it have wireless charging. It also only has 1 SIM slot (I think it was micro-SIM: either that or nano-SIM, I can’t remember) but it also supports e-SIM natively, so that you can have two phone data plans simultaneously: one with a physical SIM and one with an eSIM.

It also works quite well and it allows you to unlock thebootloader using an automated online tool, where you have to provide the serial number and some other number on the phone box.

Also, the battery life is quite decent, and it supports fast charging

Sorry, but that’s not true. While technically true, that full disk encryption doesn’t exist anymore, they use file based encryption which, functionally, is the same thing. Source: https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-encrypt-android-device-326700/

Pretty much my thoughts, yes.

In order for the FDE to have any usefulness, the key has to be derived from a secret that only the user of phone knows (I.e. a secret PIN, password or pattern)