Neo Backup is the new titanium as of about 5 years ago. Now, if only i could get TWRP back…

Neo Backup on F-Droid. Backs up everything based on how you configure it. Copy the backupsvto your new phone and restore.

It requires root, of course. Yet another reason to have root. I run backup before flashing and copy it to a flash card in case i have to reset or wipe the phone as part of the process, or i screw it up and have to start from scratch.

I feel the way you do. I always keep some cash, don’t bother with those cash apps, and use a credit card with a good cash back plan. To me the cost of going digital in this area outweighs all benefits.

This. This, this, this, this!

My linux computers are rooted. I can get root any time i need it and nobody is refusing to offer their sevices on linux because it is vulnerable.

Nobody ever points out that when any app wants root, you get a dialog to ask if it can have it. If you don’t know why it’s asking, say no. It ain’t rocket science.

Now, if you are going through customs and you don’t want them to copy your phone and read all your personal documents, that is a different situation. Lock your bootloader unrooted and encryped to the nines. Preferably use a phone with almost nothing on it.

Enjoy the much safer Chinese military spyware.

Those of us who actually use VPN don’t have that option since only one can be in use. Magisk + AdAway, for me.

It’s painful disabling knox so you can root or flash custom roms.

This is what i motivates me, too, though you go in more than i. I love having my degoogled pixel 2xl on Android 14 and running almost as snappy as my pixel 6.

I finally gave up on my moto x 2013 about 2 years ago, but i still have it. It’s like holding a river stone that perfectly firs my hand.

Yep, it’s that easy. I have it on my pixel 2xl, degoogled and it’s still usable {android 14)

We aren’t third-world yet, but if we can’t excise the political cancer soon, we will be.

Android CUPS Print, on F-Droid.

This app provides a Print Service to Android. This means that once it’s installed, you need to enable it in the ‘Print’ section of the settings app. Once the service is enabled, printers are automatically discovered using the mDNS protocol. You can print anything you want from any app, as long as the print service is enabled.

If you take a look at their list of features, you might grudgingly be willing to go without uBlock. It uses Adblock plus, and it allows you to Define your own custom block lists. I agree uBlock Origin is probably the better tool though.

I second this. I discovered it a few weeks back, and it’s impressive and fast.

Lots of mentions of OpenBoard here. There is a fork that is under development now, and I am writing this with it now. It is not on F-Droid yet.

FlorisBoard and AnySoft are good, but each has enough annoyances that I come back to OpenBoard, which has its own annoyances, but for me are a bit less annoying.

Pixel Dungeon is a good option.

Remember that to stay in business, they must sell something. Since they are selling something designed to last a very long time, they need to expand their customers and sell other products, or both.

Some consumers want to get new product regularly. There is reason to stop them. As long as they continue to make their products to last, the rest of us get what we want, and the company is more profitable, sounds like a win-win.

This appears to be an effort to convince people to try their products - good for them! My answer to your last question is yes. Capitalism is not bad - amoral or unregulated capitalism is bad.

I second the vote for cheogram. As for the pending conversations ui overhaul, of which I know nothing, that should automatically transfer over to cheogram once it goes public. Cheogram extends conversations, wndci don’t think they changed ui code.

That depends on how well it blocks adware and malware at the system level, and how much control it has over individual permissions for each app.

I’ll take a closer look at Grapheme since I’m hearing a lot more positive reviews lately.

By optimizations, do you mean the malware blocking, audio improvements, and CPU tweaks?

Most work through Magisk. I flash a kernel from the pixel 6 XDA forum that uses a magisk module to help it work. That has optimizations and I can use a kernel manager to tweak it’s settings. And I use adaway which is a DNS level ad blocker. ViperFX4Android is a godlike audio transformer.

Still using xprivacylua to restrict apps’ ability to track, use camera and speaker, and get my contacts. I have a tool that stops phone charging at 90% so I don’t over-wear the battery.

I use NeoBackup to backup all my apps with data, plus some system data like WiFi hotspots, call history, Bluetooth pairings. When I factory reset or otherwise have to start over, I restore that to get everything back. On older phones, I use TWRP to flash and do nandroid backups, etc. I’m not sure why TWRP is still not available on Pixel 6.

With root, I can do all this, without it I can’t even backup the apps, and any ad block I can use makes it impossible to run a VPN to protect my privacy as they use VPN to block the sites.

If I can’t unlock the bootloader, then when the OS becomes too bloated to be useful, I have to toss my phone instead of stripping the bloat with a degoogled ROM. I get another 3 to 5 years out of it by replacing stock. That’s a boat-load of money, right there!

For example, I’m still using my Pixel 2XL as a viable device (minus Sim). That is about 6 years old now. It is on the 7/23 patch of android 13 right now. It might get 14.

My AdAway host lists block over 650,000 known malware and ad sites.

I’m pretty happy with my setup, and have confidence I’m at least partially protected from the crap out there.

Perhaps. I’d have to see how it blocks ads and malware. If I can get the features I want, I’d be happy to remain unrooted because I am taking risks if I lose the phone or it is outright stolen.