From e284bbff1b160f644f56ab1549cb4987bbdeb328 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: will Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2023 03:52:25 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] updated /about/uses with my new keyboard and phone --- about/uses/index.php | 35 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------- 1 file changed, 28 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) diff --git a/about/uses/index.php b/about/uses/index.php index 614af1d..ff2bdb3 100644 --- a/about/uses/index.php +++ b/about/uses/index.php @@ -116,16 +116,23 @@
Peripherals
  • @@ -165,12 +172,26 @@
  • - My phone is a 128GB LG K61 LM-Q630. + My phone is a Google Pixel 4a running Graphene.
    More details -

    It's fairly mediocre, but it's not like I'm doing anything important on it. The standout feature for me is - the headphone jack. That, above all else, remains non-negotiable for me. I intend to keep using it until it - becomes unusable or breaks, then replace it with something I can install a custom ROM on.

    +

    I said I was going to wait until my old LG K61 became unusable before replacing it. I thought I'd failed to do that right up until + its replacement, a used flagship from nearly three years ago, arrived and blew it out of the water in almost every way. I never noticed + up until now just how painfully unresponsive my old phone was. Mobile websites are, like, usable now!

    +

    Performance was never a consideration in buying the phone, though. I'm not a huge fan of the idea of using a Google device, but the Pixel line are the only devices supported by + Graphene OS, possibly the single most secure and private mobile OS currently on the market short of full fat Linux on something like a Pinephone. + It's got a number of nice features: the OS has been fully stripped of all of Google's slimy little rootkit tentacles, and even if you do need + to install Google Play Services for something like an app that relies on it for push notifications, it's as aggressively sandboxed as any other app. + That's another thing - Graphene has powerful per-app permission settings, allowing you to turn off network and even hardware sensor access for apps you + don't trust, and every app you download has almost no permissions by default. I'll stop gushing about it here now, Graphene's features page has its own comprehensive overview.

    +

    So I kind of had to get a Pixel if I wanted Graphene, but why the 4a in particular? There are more recent, largely better models within my price range. + Mainly, I chose to get the specific model I did because it was the last Pixel device to be released with two important attributes: the presence of a headphone jack, + and the lack of 5G support. The headphone jack, I think, is self-explanatory. I never intend to purchase a phone without one if I can avoid it. As for the 5G, I don't trust it. + Basically, much of the performance improvement 5G offers comes from a new transmission technique called beam forming, where instead of blasting every signal equally in all directions + like a radio tower it specifically calibrates the signal for a given device such that it's effectively focused in a narrow cone directed at that device, and for this to work properly + the tower needs to know where the phone is at a level of precision that is within inches. I feel like I shouldn't need to explain why that's scary. +

    +

    Yeah, so in summary, phone's good, installation process is easy, I recommend it if you can deal with the small amount of jank caused by the Android ecosystem's dependency on Google Rootkit Play Services.

  • I have a Nintendo Switch that, admittedly, doesn't see much use. Kirby and the Forgotten Land was good,