I don’t like horror games but Viscera Cleanup Detail I can accapt.

The only horror elements are the aftermath of a big and bloody gun fight and you’re tasked to clean up the mess. ;p

The side mounted finger print reader / power button on my old Sony Xperia XZ 1 Compact was great. Wish more phones had side mounted FP sensors.

Civilization 6, Cities Skylines 1 and Space Engineers

Any recommendations on which DLCs to get?

OMG. I recall playing a Tarminator game in the 90s but was too young to care about the developer. TIL that it was made by Bethesda.

We need a Command & Conquer Remastered style treatment.

Tipping is like paying for DLC / microtransactionw but not getting anything out of it.

Yeah… NAH!

I used to, but ever since I started using a Sony Xperia Z3 Compact followed by the XZ1 Compact and now the Zenfone 8, ive never rooted it since it’s not as easy to do so compared to my old Nexus 4.

Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact.

The very last true compact phone with a 3.5mm jack, FM radio, in-device noise cancelling (only with proprietry 5-pole earphones) and hardware camera shutter button.

Oh, not to forget tool-less sim tray removal. This phone had it all.

My thoughts about the removal of the buds too. Really shitty move. Pretty sure people will still buy the buds if they like it even if the phone still has the 3.5mm jack.

I actually upgraded to the Zenfone 8 from the XZ1C. I still miss the size as well as the dedicated camera shuttrr button. I also find it amazing that Sony went with a pull out sim tray. No more needing to poke a small pin just to eject it.

I too would like a smallerphone as well. Bringing back the 3.5mm jack would be a bonus, but a smaller phone is higher on my priority list. Even better if it’s the same size as my old Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact.

Brotato

Using a Zenfone 8. I like that they are keeping the 3.5mm plug. I don’t use it very often but it is nice to know i have a backup. I still have the bundled earbuds from old phones in my bag as spare.

Having upgraded from a Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact, I would have preferred another phone with the same physical dimensions but we all know that’s not possible. It is a nice screen, no doubt about it but I prefer pocketability and useability over a nice screen.

I was initially a bit apprehensive after reading all the reports about the ramdump issue but it seems to have been blown out of proportion?

My Asus Zenfone 8 has a 3.5mm audio jack. I believe the Zenfone 9 & 10 do as well. No removable battery or memory card slot but should be dual sim. My Zenfone 8 even has FM radio LOL.

There’s also Minuum if you’re interested in trying it out.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whirlscape.minuumkeyboard

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I doubt I’ll ever need to downgrade it to Oreo so it’ll be nice to try out a cuatom rom. I have heard quite a bit of /e/ os and it might be interesting to try it for myself.

The XZ1C has a lot of features I value. The small size, a 3.5mm plug and a camera shutter button. I’ve since upgraded to the Asus Zenfone8, but I still find it to be too big unfortunately. :(

Excellent points. As an ex-user of the XZ1C, I like to surprise people when I show them that I don’t need a sim card ejector when travelling. The sim card tray is such a neat feature.

Since it is now my spare phone, i’m a little tempted to try one of the many custom roms out there. However the rooting / downgrade procedure has always kept me away.

How do you find the camera quality? I remember reading a long time ago about drm keys being wiped during the rooting process. Is it still the case?

Been using Florisboard for a few months and really liked it. Just a couple of days ago I discovered “Unexpected Keyboard” and I’m giving it shot. Very different.

It was back in the day. You’ll need to see if there’s a local group in your area organising it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Pants_Subway_Ride

Maybe the “No pants subway ride” will be held next year. You should join them. :p

Not too sure how up-to-date or accurate this is, but I happened to come across this a few weeks ago and am sharing it again.

https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compatibility-with-grapheneos/

It’s good that developers make it easy to customize the soundtrack, although I didn’t feel the need to as I found the songs for Rebel Galaxy exceptionally good. Have not played Outlaw yet. I’ve read reviews that gameplay wise it wasn’t as good as the first one.

Interesting that no one mentioned Rebel Galaxy. Granted that the songs are probably not to everyone’s liking. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRMcXkadosW43B18ZSbYFqBnFn2myQwRw

Well, not all the gameplay loops have been fully fleshed out yet which is why it is still in the alpha stage. Database resets happen as festures are added.

I don’t know if i will go so far as to say they are incentivised to keep it in alpha.

You purchase the base game which comes with a starter ship. In the game, you can do missions or do cargo trading to earn in-game money which you can use to buy ships.

You can absolutely use real world cash to purchase additional ships, which funds the development of the game. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. Almost all the ships can be purchased with in-game currency.

The main plus point for purchasing ships with real money is they are acvound bound and will stay with you after a database reset.

Hopefully in the years to come they’ll slowly reduce the size of the phone. 162mm tall is just too big for comfortable single hand usage.

Exactly. I still cannot fathom why a company which prides itself on sustainability ditch the headphone jack. Granted, I don’t use the one on my phone often, but I’m very glad that it’s there when I need it.

Best guess is they wanted a very well defined and controlled file structure, where there’s a place for each type of file, and the only way to do that is to lock it down and have their tool do all the work. Good for some people, but heck, I bloody well want to store my MP3s together with my photos, even if it means I can’t find it later. :D

I borrowed an old iphone 4 (or was it iphone 5? Can’t tell the difference) about 7 years ago when i had to send my Sony Xperia Z3 Compact in for repair). Couldn’t get it to work thw way i wanted it to. There was no way to properly configure the notifications. I think i could not have the vibration on for messages but not calls or something silly.

I also don’t like being forced to install itunes just to copy music from my computer to phone. No idea if that is still the case nowadays.

There are people who like that convenience and that’s ok.

I ended up using my Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact for 4 years, waiting for Sony (or any other manufacturer) to release another phone of the exact same size. No, the Xperia 10 is not compact at all. I ended up with an Asus Zenfone 8. I still miss the dedicated shutter button the thw Sony.

What I don’t like about tge Fairphone is the size. Coming from a Sony XZ1 Compact, it’s just gigantic.

Unfortunately Fairphone just doesn’t have the economies of scale to be able to release 2 phones of different sizes.

The fact that when you purchase a game on Steam and it gets aasociated to your account is a form of Digital Rights Mamagement. Not as bad compared to Denuvo (depending on who you ask), but it’s still technically DRM, just not as intrusive.

Game purchases on GOG on the other hand, while the purchase is associated to your account, the game can be installed on all “your” computers and can be run simultaneously.

Depends on thw game and what sort of mod support it has. Obviously on Steam if it has Steam workshop support. DRM free on GOG is good but at the same time Steam has been doing quite of lot of good things related to gaming on Linux and I would like them to continue doing it.

Good to know (regarding Lutris and GOG). I’ve always stuck with Steam because of the ease of running games on Linux).

Personally I find the current range of phone options simply too huge. Having owned a Sony Z3 Compact followed by the XZ1 Compact, I didn’t have many choices. I ended up with the Asus Zenfone 8.

I really like the formfactor of the Oppo find N where in it’s folded form it’s a really usable size and I can unfold it if I need a bigger screen. I don’t mind the Samsung Flips or the Motorola Razrs but I think the outside screen can be bigger. There’s a market for the Samsung Folds but it’s not for me.

Tl;dr - my idea of a foldable should be a good sized phone which folds down to something very compact and pocketable.

Time to kick some ass and chew bubblegum. And I’m all outta gum.

• Duke Nukem 3D

We get signal.

Keepass with key file. I synchronise only the database with cloud servers while the key file stays on my devices and never gets synched. I think that’s a good tradeoff for security and convenience.