Too little, too late. I’m helping everyone I can get away from Google services as fast as possible, including that terrible store.

I consider LLMs basically high-frequency StackExchange trading. You gotta be exact and not keep the thread alive too long or driftrot is real though. Much faster to parse, though.

Also, the ones that can access the web are great for “I want specific lib x version y to solve a weird problem, what support libs are needed?”

A narrative the manufacturers push, so not surprising that the thought pattern developed that way.

UI designers hate usability anymore. Is it text? A link? A button? Who knows? Tap and find out you just subscribed to Satan-of-the-month club.

Also, for the ones that support reset after 10 wrong passcodes, enable that shit. SIM PIN too (mostly for various other reasons.)

I just realized how odd it would be to see people walking around in brandless clothes. As odd as when someone removes all the badges from their car.

The advertising has been so prevalent for so long that it has been normalized. Fascinating.

Have you ever watched all the stupid crapware Google pushes on setup? They force-install 12-20 garbage apps that you then have to go delete. Even then, a user can’t delete Chrome, they can only “disable” it - which Google can reactivate whenever they choose. (Although, one could also argue since they can arbitrarily push apps onto phones, does it matter? Like when they pushed “Android System SafetyCore” without consent.)

Google is malware at this point. Not that Apple is any better. Smartphones have all just become this terrible thing at this point, where you’re just renting a pile of software that you get to use in exchange for the company harvesting everything you do, and they change the terms whenever they want, without your consent.

They’re about 2% better at being a telephone IVR than the older ones, probably at 6x the power cost.

I had an AI render a simple diagram for a presentation with explicit instructions. It rendered a Rube Goldberg nonsense graphic. I included it anyway for the lulz. Sure, they will get better, and maybe some day be almost as useful as the Enterprise computer. No way they’ll be Lt. Cmdr. Data this century.

People in the past have used the entertainment bus to get into the flight telemetry data, hopefully only in a read-only state, but that will only be true if you trust the competence of the IT group that set up the programming for the switches.

Just be careful of where you try to write data and you should be fine! (and stay away from /dev/wing0 and /dev/wing1 on the network mount!)

They run Linux now.

Probably around 3GB. I have some cheaper Motorolas with that, usable, but a lot of app reload. Also, stick to older, slower phones to avoid the AI on-device. Otherwise rooting, GrapheneOS, etc.

Never seen any of those Firefox problems in 5 or so years on multiple Android phones including Samsung, and using the native back button/3-icon setup instead of gesture nav. Also using a light combination of privacy plugins. May want to check your phone OS settings and make sure there isn’t a third-party app running an unknown display overlay that is screwing with things.

May I introduce you to what already existed at one time? (Motorola Atrix 4G from 2011 with Ubuntu desktop when docked.)

Only if they have the Exynos variant. Won’t work on the Qualcomm variant, annoyingly.

Late-stage tech bros, devoid of innovation and flailing at their precious cup game.

I’m so over this garbage. RIP smartphones.

Google “SafetyCore” says hello.

The history of large phones, from a technical standpoint:

• LTE required a lot more power than 2G/3G until efficiencies were improved, this required a larger battery to have comparable battery life, doubly so on the phones that ran two modems (mostly Verizon) one for 3G, one for 4G
• LTE required larger antennas as their low band frequencies were lower than previous cellular tech. (750MHz and later 600MHz vs 850MHz being the old lowest)
• Handset manufacturers then stopped making smaller product lines even after efficiencies improved
• People (“consumers”) realized they’d rather not buy a phone, tablet, watch, computer, anal implant, and preferred to just buy one device, settling on an oversized phone was enough between phone/tablet that they only needed to waste money on one device
• The market then went, “people prefer larger phones,” even though smaller phones were waning/outliers
• Tablets outside of Apple’s ostensibly died, although there are a few more choices these days that aren’t Apple
• Now phones have so many antennae
  • WiFi/BT (which are often shared)
  • WiFi 6 new band
  • NFC
  • Wireless charging coil
  • Ultra Wideband
  • 20 or 30 various cellular bands with 4x antennae for MIMO
  • mmWave (in America)
• Phones also have gigantic camera systems (although since Samsung gave up on 10x optical, they shrunk slightly on that platform)
• The cycle repeated itself a bit with 5G, the channels are so wide and huge, they can suck a lot of power when doing large data transfers, and also the addition of needing a separate amp/chip for 5G above sub6 as well as additional cooling
• “AI” stuff that requires more ML compute, and thus cooling and battery capacity, even though again, nobody wanted it
• All the metrics and analytics handset manufacturers constantly run on users, disabling all this alone would probably make your average phone last 3+ days

Since then, more and more people are trying to get flip phones, dumbphones, imported small phones, or giving up on phones entirely and switching to devices like the Lilygo T-Deck LoRaWAN device that has…dun dun dunnnnn…a literal BlackBerry keyboard, as people are sick of that fabled market deciding for them.

Don’t forget BetaMax, MiniDisc, ATRAC, LDAC (which I’m sure is just ATRAC over Bluetooth 😂 ) - amazed they won BluRay, honestly. They also won the 3.5" floppy format, which the kids only know as “the save icon”.

Funny how handset manufacturers keep on designing borderless devices you can’t pick up without interacting with, with unusable and frustrating touch-keyboards, and users of them keep creating cases with grip points, chins, and keyboards.

Almost like the industry isn’t making what people want, and hasn’t in a long time.