Monero? First I’ve heard of this

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

This is part of a significant Overton window shift.

In 2017, Mozilla fans criticized the addition of data collection by default.

Then we slowly slid towards acceptance of data collection by default, with people saying “stop complaining, you can turn it off manually.”

Now it’s 2025, and you can’t use some features of Firefox unless you opt in to data collection.

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

I did try one of these, but I noticed that I would end up moving the camera enough for a visible “shake” effect in most pictures I took. And this was outdoors in open areas with plenty of daylight.

Macro photos on it are great, though, and the working GPS was lovely. Shame about not having luck with most else on it. I have no idea how my phone manages to make things look better

Is there a such thing as a recent PEN from OM or Olympus (I’ve actually looked at their stuff, but I’m somewhat confused about which name their cameras get)? I was leaning in their direction, too - I saw they have a camera with a GPS and great macro photography, but I think its sensor is smaller than my phone’s.

(FWIW the OM-D relies on a smartphone for GPS tagging apparently, and I have no idea how that’s handled with an app, especially because the data handoff is whar I’m trying to avoid)

OpenStreetMaps has had decent Android clients, I can’t speak to the state of iOS ones though. If you can pinpoint your destination before departing to it, that’d probably serve you best…

But Google Maps has been hard for me to abandon too

Firefox exists in name as a thin wrapper over the Apple iOS WebKit engine. I personally don’t think that counts, although it’s arguable I guess.

There is no Tor Browser for iOS. There is an alternative, but it is notably hacky and flawed, due to iOS itself. The app also originally cost money in an attempt to recoup Apple’s developer licensing costs, before becoming free in 2017.

(IMO, this paints a picture of antagonism between Apple vs its users having nice things in general.)

AltStore (classic) is something I’ve tried, but it’s incredibly janky and painfully limited and, last I checked, kinda costs money every month. ?AltStore PAL operates only in Europe and at the express allowance of Apple itself.)

Again the antagonism of Apple against the iOS user rears its ugly head:

Apps installed with AltStore expire after 7 days, at which point they can no longer be opened…

Due to restrictions by Apple, you can only have 3 sideloaded apps installed on a device at a time.

And the file system with Apple iOS is not something I have a lot of experience with, but my expectations are below sea level…

If you’re expecting anything remotely like an Android experience on Apple’s devices, you’re going to have a horrible time. Anything even vaguely resembling your own file system, or non-Apple browsing engine, or alternative app store is basically nonexistent. And the way Apple squeezes indie developers means you’ve got less choice between decent apps even if you look on their store.

Among other missing apps, you get no Syncthing, no Firefox, no Tor Browser, nothing remotely like F-Droid or Obtainium…

… And as far as I can tell, there’s no such thing as an alternative to the Apple App Store (which mandates an identity and a signin), which isn’t also run by Apple…

That is sneaky. I might need to give that a shot… Although I have the feeling it might not like whatever VP and I sign onto first

I imagine they might care because advertisements are their source of revenue on that platform, which I believe loses money regardless. They’re also getting increasingly adamant about breaking people’s ad blockers.

It also appears to me that every combination of functional use requires some form of identification:

• If you’re logged out, they’re okay with you browsing from an identifiable home IP address.
• If you’re on a VPN, they’re okay with showing your videos if you log in so they can track your viewing habits.
• If you’re on a VPN and make a new account, they want your phone number so they can tie your identity to an actual human being.

It might be a bit paranoid, but these factors combined suggest that Google does not want us to watch videos without providing some form of (inferrable) personal identification. And if Google can’t get what it wants, specifically data and ad revenue, they might be very willing to terminate an account that’s draining their coffers.

I’m personally just not that excited about needing a YouTube account to be signed in, in order to view/download videos. I imagine they wouldn’t take too kindly to that if they caught me. My existing account kind of matters, and apparently now you need a phone number to register a new one

With or without cookies?

I’ve recently been told to sign in when trying to access YouTube videos not just on a VPN, but now at my own residential location

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

I don’t trust myself to handle secure encryption. Nextcloud has given up on providing client-side encryption at all… So the obvious choice for me is Immich.

Although since I’ve fallen for Ente, I’d probably use that instead.

Unfortunately, Nextcloud has given me so much pain in my attempt to make it E2E that I’ve basically given up on using it at all. For stuff that’s not images or passwords or notes - which is a fleetingly small list of things - I tend to use either Filen or Proton’s services.

I can’t say the image, but if you are using a Samsung device, you have to re-enable notification categories (because for some reason Samsungs just disable this option and hide away the ability to return it).

It’s at the bottom of Settings > Advanced Settings