I honestly just fear updates at this point. They always seem to break more stuff than fix, the only exception to that for me has been PixelExperience custom ROM (discontinued).

Edit: Android is simply missing proper backups. Bad update on my laptop? Timeshift. Bad update on stock Android? It is what it is.

First Moto G5s Plus which got high battery drain, sluggishness and crashes after Android 8.1 update. This was bad enough I had to fix it with custom ROM. Then Poco X3 Pro which reportedly had issues with performance after MIUI 13 update, so I stayed on older software. Now my Ulefone Armor 24, which only has one update primarily to fix Google pay, but also brings a newer security patch, reportedly causing many crashes that make the phone unreliable and a bad experience.
Also many Samsung phones had an update that removed access to manual band mode selection, and if I recall correctly, that update didn’t even revert them to default.

It’s not the best for security, but I basically now just fear any updates. If everything works, then it can only be broken.

Maybe I should at least somehow start checking known vulnerabilities. As of recently, I should probably stop using applock on my outdated Ulefone

Exposed ”com.pri.applock.LockUI“ activity allows any other malicious application, with no granted Android system permissions, to inject an arbitrary intent with system-level privileges to a protected application. One must know the protecting PIN number (it might be revealed by exploiting CVE-2024-13916)

https://cert.pl/en/posts/2025/05/CVE-2024-13915/

Though my device has AppLock v14, so I am not sure.

This makes me worried about the ultra cheap Chinese manufacturers. I mean the likes of Unihertz, Umidigi, Ulefone, Doogee, Oukitel, etc

Usually these don’t get updates at all.
Even weirder, for example I have Ulefone Armor 24. They used to ship with Android 13. They still advertised it with Android 13 when I bought it. Mine like a few others have said arrived with Android 14, but the earlier ones aren’t offered A14 update.
Someone on Reddit contacted support about this and they replied that they don’t provide cross-level upgrades because Google doesn’t allow them to release those to end users.

Anyway, point is, they save on everything possible, starting with software updates. And I have doubts about them changing this, unless EU is a large market for them.

1. Second cellphone.
2. You don’t need a SIM card to call emergency numbers.

2nd is also important in that your phone is always connected (unless in airplane mode) to some cellular network, and can still be tracked the same way (unique IMEI).

There’s also MeshCore, and now the networks are split between these 2.

Just guessing what the links may have been…

Possibly my post on lemmy.world, removed due to breaking rule 2, “Only tech related news or articles”

I’ll copy paste my comment from there:

In the reply to Patreon they mentioned having some automated and manual ways of removing CSAM, plus “closely working with NCMEC”, but I have no idea what that means.
And these statistics of resolved reports: https://www.missingkids.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/cybertiplinedata2024/2024-notifications-by-ncmec-resulting-content-removal.pdf

Total number of reports of 128 resolved on average in 1.91 days. Less than half the time spent by Amazon, Google and Microsoft (for Bing).

The other link might have been to this comment:

The biggest issue is probably the MediaTek chipsets. Unlike Qualcomm, they don’t provide the source code.

I only went with MTK based device for manual band selection. It can be done with root, but the only app for it I could find is network signal guru, and I am not sure about how trustworthy it is to give root access to.

I’d still be using my 2017 Moto G5s Plus if it weren’t for the dead battery and mostly gone (soldered-on) USB port.

It was fine with PixelExperience ROM, and I am sure I could still get something good onto it. But, it is what it is, an e-waste slab. I’ve run the battery down to 2 hours of standby time and the micro USB only works with very few cables at this point.

I do miss the 16:9 and separate navigation via the front fingerprint scanner.

I wonder where something like Unihertz phones could be. Recently a teardown video of one of those surprised me, and it seems they do quite a few phones that way. They have a bunch of rugged phones, and at least some of them appear to be screwed together rather than glued.

Honestly, I haven’t even considered that was a possibility nowadays. Otherwise I’d probably get one of those over Ulefone. Based on videos I’ve seen, my Armor 24 is virtually irrepairable. You have to enter through the screen which uses very strong glue and is recessed into the body. Disassembly thus basically requires destroying the screen.

I wonder how small manufacturers are going to do the 5 years of updates. I mean the brands that typically get no updates at all.

Set to “Enable” to enable the feature.

use a cheap $5/mo VPS that exists purely as your gateway host

Now, why so expensive?
https://racknerdtracker.com/?sort=price
Disclaimer: I never used Racknerd (nor any other VPS).

From: https://support.saily.com/hc/en-us/articles/15751399206172-How-do-I-install-the-Saily-eSIM-on-my-device#Android-Manual

It seems you could install it on different device then. There’s also “share eSIM to other person”, which likely too just shows a QR code.

I don’t know about Saily, but I doubt they would want ID. At least for data-only SIMs, if they do offer ones with phone number.

I did a similar thing with a different eSIM provider when I was concerned about privacy, though eventually I did put it on my phone.

I don’t know what else to use on Linux to get disposable Android containers.

Anyway, while it is not related to privacy, they also seem quite expensive. At least for Europe. I don’t know where you’re going. I’ve used BNESIM, which funnily is cheaper than local SIMs for small data amounts (like 1 or 3GB), especially with SIMs without expiration. That can be used without app for sure, but I’ve had to use non-blocking DNS.

Anyway, whatever you choose, use virtual payment cards. Something like privacy.com. There’s a ton of eSIM providers and I am sure they’re not all super safe and legit. My bank provides those thankfully.

How does DD-WRT fare? I’ve been using that, but I only have old routers. I mean, old. But I only have mobile data, so they’re mostly for playing around. Except for the one which supports Wireguard in DD-WRT. That’s very useful as a client. Unfortunately, it’s also the least stable one, rebooting every few minutes and eventually ending up in a bootloop after 1 to 2 hours.

I’ve got I think 8 routers now, 6 of them have Wi-Fi, 1 has 802.11n (the unstable one), the rest peaks with 802.11g.

Who downvoted you?

Anyway, if you have directory-based music organization, Navidrome won’t take that, sadly. However, it will take m3u playlists.

So I can just ls playlistdir/* > Playlist.m3u and get that directory as a playlist. Simple, lazy solution.
Oh, you can also add internet radios to Navidrome.

And one cool trick, which is also pretty good to test out Navidrome without effort, in Termux it is already in the repos, so you can just effort-free apt install navidrome, run it and play around.

Privacy

Notable config: EnableInsightCollector = 'false'
https://www.navidrome.org/docs/getting-started/insights/

Yup. Most smartphones are very similar, yet I am happy it’s not just one Samsung out there.

Nope, just on the phone. Sometimes I also VNC into my desktop from phone. It’s not that bad for simple mouse-heavy things.

And what about GUI?

I personally use XFCE.

It could also be delivered to a pick-up box in which case it’s at worst illegal or at least against ToS. “Billing address” just sounds like something potentially serious.

I think VLC can also open them on Android.

Actually, 8.5GB. Movies are typically on dual layer discs.