That is an insanely short time to use a phone. Especially such a relatively expensive one.

I use Sponsorblock, but still hear ads sometimes because it’s not applied to downloads.

Maybe they mean ads by the creators themselves, which I do understand. While my Freetube has Sponsorblock, I am still exposed to ads - Sponsorblock is not applied to downloads.

I saw something like this happen (major social media gor blocked). Can confirm that those sketchy free VPNs are now on seemingly every phone and it is worrying as hell :/ At least some people use charity censorship evasion projects instead.

I just assumed they operated by collecting and selling user data. So while I knew the business model was unethical, I didn’t expect them to get more creative!

“Flagship” is doing a lot of work here. Most people here use cheap phones. My Pixel 7 was already $300, which is a bit hard to swallow, and it was not the newest model at the moment. Pixel 9 in the same place is close to $1k now, which is completely out of reach for a lot of people including me. That is frankly an insane sum to spend on a phone.

A lot of couriers in my area are also using ebikes now. At least in winter, it seems like even more than regular bikes.

That support is about as long as it goes on mobile. An average poor person can’t afford to just buy new phones as soon as the support ends. Some updates is still better than no updates in this case.

Not really. Stock OSes are really bad in terms of privacy, maybe with a few exceptions - I wouldn’t be able to trust them with any personal info. Just like Windows. So a custom one is a must.

Eight years, minus the few years you’d have to wait until the phone is close to affordable. And updates via LineageOS is still way better than just using a phone with no updates when it hits EOL like you normally would.

$25 is already a crazy enough sum for a phone bill, what you’re talking about is outrageous. Also, I’ve heard that such devices are often carrier-locked, and that carrier-locked devices often also have locked bootloaders.

I bought a Pixel because of how universal its support is with custom OSes. What features are broken there?

Ah, so not that significant and fixable? GOS has an assortment of calls home as well (to their own servers at least, but still a third party).

Is it an expensive contract? I doubt my $3/mo plan would ever have perks like this lol. Especially given that Pixels here are only sold unofficially.

Yes, I know about them extending it. For me, for example, that means four years of official support, which is much less than a usual lifespan of my phone.

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What privacy issues are you talking about?

Graphene has a relatively short support, especially given that the phones for it are completwly unaffordable new so it’s effectively shorter than advertised. I am now spoiled by using a device that is not EOL so I think I will be switching when GOS’ support ends.

I only recently learned that English word for “Passport” refers to the document needed for travelling - and yeah, ours also have a plastic card like this. But weirdly, the actual internal ID which is used a lot more just has a laminated paper page in this place.

Plus, people are fighting detection too. Where “normal” VPN protocols are recognized and blocked, like China, people are trying to make them indistinguishable from normal HTTPS traffic.