As a word of caution: AI is a buzzword. Currently it gets slapped onto all kinds of things. Also to old things that are now marketed as AI. It might still be the exact same product as 5 years ago. Or they came up with a new feature. Both happens.

I’d like Google Lens and Translate to work locally without sending anything to Google. And it’d be nice if it were to translate speech directly. I think that’d be a useful AI feature. Or translating Japanese websites. I don’t really care for face-unlock or if I can ask my phone to set a timer in natural language…

Tablet: Read magazines and watch TV shows. You might be fine if you own a large phone, though.

I also like the Pixels and own a 4a. You’re right, but I’d advise against buying it, due to it being end of life. You won’t get proper security updates anymore. It dropped out of official support, and even some big aftermarket OS dropped support. So even the tinkerers amongst us should think twice before buying it.

I think OP be better off re-evaluating the requirements. They could get some USB-C headphones and buy a device with 256GB of storage. And that’d allow several decent and modern Android phones. Otherwise it’s just complicated to find a proper phone these days and it likely includes paying extra and making other tradeoffs, when you could simply buy a pair of new headphones.

I got a Pixel 8a. That’s slightly bigger, doesn’t have headphone or sd-card but seems to be a nice device.

Yeah, your original post didn’t include your reasoning. I wasn’t sure if you were going for something like this or talking about the occasional Maps or GMail post, or just didn’t know who’s behind Android.

I think this isn’t a community like the political ones where you argue and get banned. I think you can talk openly here. Best, include some reasons why you think something, and I think people will understand. A lot of us are in the same boat.

These topics are closely related, as Android is a Google product. They develop Android. And they’re regularly leading the way with new developments. Good and bad. I think that’s why you see a mix of Android and Google news here.

Btw, there are like 10+ different camera apps on F-Droid that are Free Software.

I read about some PCBs that let you repurpose old laptop screens but I’m pretty sure that’s more complicated with phones and tablets. These have tiny and very specialized electronics. Oftentimes not built in a modular way. And people tend to break them, give them away or dispose of them. I don’t see people repurposing these devices.

And it’d be hard to bypass the boot time and Android experience. Sometimes you can flash a custom ROM like LineageOS. Though, that’s still Android. Other operating systems aren’t really a thing within that ecosystem.

I like to flash LineageOS and then use extra phones/tablets as a kitchen radio or TV or as a TAN generator.

You could also install Termux and install Linux software. Like a webserver or something like that.

If you don’t know what it is, I’d say click “Desactivar”. You can later on re-enable it if you find something is missing. But certainly a good idea to check whether it’s bloatware or spyware, maybe someone knows more. You can also check how much data usage an app caused, see if it sends lots of data somewhere.

If you google Ulephone and alarm clock, you’ll find some more people complaining. It’s likely something the manufacturer did to save battery. I’d say the preinstalled (native) alarm clock app is most likely to work, maybe they tested their own apps. Everything else is likely to be nuked on inactivity during the night.

Wasn’t MediaTek abusing the GPL and bad for custom roms, meaning no aftermarket support possible for those devices?

Good idea. I think GrapheneOS won’t work with that as they’re focused on the Google Pixel devices. But you could have a look at the LineageOS compatibility list. Just the manufacturer is a bit unspecific. But you can look up the exact model in that list.

I can’t really comment on all of the other Android variants. There are so much of them and I’m not up to date anymore.

Before getting your hopes up: Check if your specific phone model is supported by any of them. On lots of phones you can’t change the software and you’re stuck with the manufacurer’s version.

Yes. You can open a website in Firefox and choose “Add to home screen” from the menu. That’ll do something very similar to what native alpha does.

Depends on the circle of people you’re talking to… I’m not buying any phone without custom ROM support. And haven’t done so in ages. I know several other people who’ve used LineageOS, GrapheneOS or Calyx at some point. I wouldn’t say it’s normal, but definitely not a unicorn encounter either. Just embrace it. You’re a hacker now. Maybe this is a good thing. (Most certainly.)

I feel I should also say, times changed. Back in the day it was either impossible to run a Custom ROM because of some locked bootloader. Or it’d run perfectly smooth. Sometimes you’d be running a ROM of some 15 yo because that’s the last person supporting that device. Today some things have changed. Security works differently. Lots of people use things like NFC payment that doesn’t work that well without stock. More and more stuff has moved into the proprietary Google services. Cameras have become super complicated and AI enhanced. Running a Custom ROM feels very different from what it was 8 years ago. If you own one of the well-supported devices anyways. Because that was always an issue.