After the recent news Apple are removing Damus unless they remove LN (which is utter BS) why can’t we as a decentralised community come together and build a new phone. There are so many amazing tech/engineers/hardware folks in this space.
This has to stop. I’m fed up of this monopolising bullshit controlling our right to use a fricking app….
I also (perhaps I’m a conspiracist) believe there is a back room deal happening from Twitter to make this happen. They do make an awful lot from Twitter in app purchases….
Anyway, this is bullshit. Let’s stand up to this corporate bullying and fuck them all in their wallets… (was gunna say arse but stopped)
Oh… I also said fuck.
Oh wait.. this isn’t controlled - I can say it :)
Peace out y’all.
Pine and Purism already have put out "privacy" phones built on Linux. The reviews are mixed at best. It is a very difficult undertaking.
I'm going the pixel/graphene route, but that's a compromise also. There are no really good solutions
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What's the compromise with GrapheneOS?
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I am also curious.
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Graphene IS the solution.
It's apple that is compromised.
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If you want a closed ecosystem targeting a very specific user experience, go Apple. This has always been the case and it is unclear to me why anyone is shocked?
If you want anything else your only other choice, unfortunately is Android. So get a phone you can root and install graphene on. For the app store use F-droid. Encourage everyone else to do the same.
Tools are already out there. Most people really just don't care. So just figure out ways to take care of yourself and really let the rest roll off your shoulder.
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why can’t we as a decentralised community come together and build a new phone. There are so many amazing tech/engineers/hardware folks in this space.
Simply because it's not that easy.
Just think about all the engineering, financing, marketing, coordination required etc.
Also, there are already alternatives like Graphene OS which seem to solve most of the problems. I don't use it yet though.
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yes you are drunk
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Ha! That is true…… I can’t deny it (in the spirit of transparency)
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No conspiracy here. This is Apple being Apple. They may reverse this but I would not be surprised if they don't. Best move is don't use Apple IMO. Or, if you choose to use Apple this is what you get.
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Smartphone OSs are walled gardens because the two companies behind them learned from the "mistakes" of early PC operating systems that were intended for hackers and builders. The challenge in building an alternative today isn't technical. Google and Apple have very powerful network effects on their side, at least for now.
So I'll suggest an alternative that I might get a lot of flack for (and it's an ideal I strive for but have not yet achieved): avoid smartphones altogether. Get a simple KaiOS dumbphone (they still hasve GPS and some other conveniences), and just use a laptop with a hotspot from the dumbphone if needed. If you really need Android, use an emulator.
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I read Digital Minimalism and have been "smartphone free" for six months and am loving it. However, I pulled it off using an Apple Watch with LTE (which still requires an iPhone). I don't use the iPhone to read Nostr or SN - I use a laptop instead. So for me, Apple products are fine as I just want a watch that has GPS, calls, and texting. Admittedly, it's a really expensive way to be a digital minimalist, but is has gotten me to avoid wasting as much time online.
I'm hoping that Apple makes the Watch more of a standalone device as I really have no use for the iPhone anymore. I wish the company that makes the Light Phone would make a watch.
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I bought a Nokia flip phone during the covid lockdowns. I figured I could make everything work; the only irreplaceable app was WhatsApp, but I mostly use the web version which only requires the phone app to authenticate, and KaiOS had it pre-installed. I thought I was finally free, but sure enough, the KaiOS version of WhatsApp doesn't support authenticating the web app.
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I don't use WhatsApp but most chat apps don't work stand alone on Watch, which is a bummer, but hasn't been a deal breaker for me.
My favorite thing about the watch is that I put it on and I'm good to rush out the door at any time and I also enjoy not having a phone taking up space in my pocket.
I've thought about a flip phone since it'd be much cheaper, but I really dig having a phone in my watch (super convenient). Just wish there were more smart watches with LTE as options out there.
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AOSP is not a company tho. Its just a linux fork. No reason you can't have an android phone with just f-droid installed. In fact, that's what I do.
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I run CalyxOS. They did a great job and I have mad respect for them. But certain apps, like bank apps, don't work. (And yes, I use bank apps.) Most of the apps that justify using a smartphone in the first place require a lot of effort to use on a de-googled phone, if they work at all.
When my coworkers see me frantically reinstalling Aurora Store because it can't connect ans I need a specific app right now they laugh and tell me to get an iPhone. And I work in tech so these are people that could handle Calyx.
The point is, the smartphone ecosystem does not serve my needs so I would love to kick the habit as soon as is practical. I make an effort in this direction at least twice a year.
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Calyx was too much of a compromise for me. I moved off Apple to a GrapheneOS phone, and my banking apps work fine.
There's a lot of small things about android that are frustratingly worse than ios, but I'm sick of the privacy LARPing from Apple.
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Why was Calyx too much of a compromise? Isn't Graphene even more locked down?
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I'd read that Calyx doesnt work well with gapps, including banking apps. Graphene and Calyx have a different approach to wrapping Google services. Don't know the details, but I haven't had a single app not work on graphene, and I don't think the same can be said about Calyx
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Maybe I'll give it a shot. Thanks!
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As someone who has never used an ios device, I have no idea what you're talking about.
Yeah, I use GrapheneOS too, no google play store tho.
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I log in to my banks website rather than using the app. I use obtainium to install apps from the github repo. I forced myself to learn to drive with OSM& instead of google maps.
I changed the way I lived my life, because I knew the way I lived my life was not good for me.
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Well I sorta agree on the last point. The way I live my life is sub-optimal. But if I'm reexamining it, maybe I should go all the way. Does a smartphone with only apps benefit me? Maybe I'll be happier with a dumb phone and occasionally running not open apps in an emulator.
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Only open* apps
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I miss the 90’s
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Me too! Those good old days you could do everything on a desktop pc, with all the comfort that comes with it.
These days many services have gone mobile-only, so typing is a nightmare and you have to install bloatware apps on your phone that have to be updated every other day or they stop working, often with no search feature, no copy & paste, no multiple tabs or instances, no undo.
A world designed for tiktok half-brains.
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Companies like coinkite might start working on this soon.
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In my opinion the solution is to use Android📱
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Act with your wallet and F them, there are alternatives ... maybe some "inconveniences" involved but it is worth your freedom, IMO
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I remember seeing a project in Make magazine, or on Adafruit, or Hackaday (one of those), for a modular cell phone that I thought was a great idea. DIY cell phone is certainly doable. Pine phone, as someone else mentioned, is an option which I really hope gains more traction. (but I doubt it will ever become more popular than it already is)
I personally cast my vote for just not using cell phones quite so much. I still rely on my good, old-fashioned, chunky, clunky desktop for all my really important stuff; bills, taxes, passwords, anything with encryption, etc... And that is made all the easier as my eyesight deteriorates (thanks, "smart" phone) and I can't see the tiny little screen.
Desktop PC was my first #1 as a kid. Then when I was eventually able to afford a laptop, after getting over the initial oo-la-la feeling of the fancy new gadget, I found myself still preferring the PC. My phone could never replace that in any truly satisfying way.
That's true for almost all use-cases, too. Whether for gaming, business, hobby, or casual browsing, nothing beats modular, and customizable. Until we find a widely adopted solution like that, I'd say the sleek, fancy, big-brother cell phone is here to stay.
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𝐇𝗼𝐰𝐝𝐲 𝐝𝗼 y’all, I’m pretty drunk myself? 🤠 👋
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At some point we all need to make the choice between convenience & freedom
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Grab a Pixel phone, load GrapheneOS on it. Done.
You now can use an excellent smartphone without relying on any big tech company to use it.
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Drunken rants are the best. Take my sats good sir/madam
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you're theory about twitter doesn't seem right, unless elon is playing 4D chess here... https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1668686662212132876?s=20
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I dream of a browser OS
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Damus dev already confirmed it will stay with only zaps from profile.
If you don't use iPhone this shouldn't matter and move on.
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The alternative is just to use an android device. I'm sure a new phone OS could gain traction, but that's not how most people will use Damus/nostr.
Epic games removed Fortnite in protest from iOS, it still lives on all the other platforms and it's not going to sway significantly. The Apple ecosystem is just too good.
I think nostr clients can just live as Progressive Web Apps. That's one form of protest.
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I think this is a really good idea. And I think it could work with enough community support, and with donations from people like Jack.
The cell phone industry is difficult. It requires a lot of relationships and deals with suppliers. A lot of software and hardware integrations. It would be very difficult to do. Then again, there are a lot of successful open source projects that people originally said would never work. Bitcoin itself being a good example of such a thing.
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Yeah, there is something to "us" being able to afford it.
Personally I think it's time to go L4 microkernel instead of Linux monolith and adapt the OS for today's adversarial environment. Maybe along the lines of RedoxOS but without as many unsafe {} blocks.
Not try to support all kinds of different hardware, just focus on one configuration to begin with.
We would have to accept not having many apps and having less slick UI for a long time. And also plan ahead for how to manage a possible onslaught of patent lawsuits from both Apple & Google.
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Good riddance , no one using it anyway . UX/UI are awful and unusable too
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Don’t forget to tip me bro
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What I find weird is why Damus is not on android?
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Not weird at all. Plenty of apps are not cross platform. Its hard and/or requires compromises.
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I mean, is easier to get approval on the android store. I think fighting with apple when you are too small its a no no.
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I'm referring to writing the code for a cross platform app. Not the app store part. Many projects in the bitcoin space are cross platform but it presents technical challenges/compromises. Nostr is new and if a dev knows iOS dev but not Android it makes perfect sense that they would go iOS only, at least at first.
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I understand this.
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