Vanadium. It is supposedly quite secure. Comes with GrapheneOS. So far I’m very happy with it.

It is funny, pixel phones gaining popularity due to de-googling. Something seems very wrong with that haha

I’m influenced…

degoogle yourself

I hear you. And it is ironic, I agree. The way I deal with it in my head is: I use nothing google in my life. (Except for YouTube via NewPipe). And I purchase a Pixel pro used from eBay when it is 1 year old, and keep it until I feel the need to upgrade. New pixel pro’s here in the UK sell for £900-£1000, but you can pick up a used one on eBay only 1 year old for £300, and the money does not go directly to google. So my contribution to google is tiny compared to most people. If GrapheneOS ever do support another flagship phone with good cameras then I will gladly swap. But for now I don’t see an option where I can have it all. There has to be a compromise somewhere. But I applaud your anti-googleism!

Here in the UK we would say “I will visit you on the 19th of September” for example. I have never heard anyone say the month first. It’s just different custom. We also drive on the other side of the road…! At the beginning it would have been helpful if the world would have agreed on a standard either way. Then it would stop confusion. (And less car accidents from people on holiday/vacation on the wrong side of the road! 😅

There is a lot of truth in this picture. 2 sides, both shit for humanity. It’s a big problem really… Divide and conquer tactic… proven tactic.

Not me. That’s for sure. I don’t fancy a heart attack right now…

I see a lot of doom and gloom in the comments here. Correct me if I’m wrong, but is not the main concern being that sea levels will rise and flood costal cities? Plus some parts of the world will be too hot to comfortably live? Human beings are remarkably creative when they need to be. Right now most are overweight watching TV and worried about stupid unimportant things. But if the need arose to build new towns/cities in higher and cooler locations, we have the man power. Literally BILLIONS of humans, some smart ones to plan it all, and the rest to build it. I don’t see an “end of humanity” or “don’t have kids” as being reasonable. Humanity will adapt. Please correct me if I’m missing something here.

“Kagi Search” looks cool. The examples of searches look far superior to even that of google.

But it’s $5 per month. (No ads) Or $8 for couples. Even so I think I will try it. The search results look really good.

Has anyone here used Kagi Search?

Yeah I’m with you there, the pixel camera app is a must for me too. What I love about GrapheneOS is how easy it is to block permissions. So with google pixel camera app, no network and no location permissions means that it cannot report back to google unless I allow it to. It’s a safe way to use the odd google app in a limited way when you need to. The other google app I use is the g-keyboard, because it is so much better in some ways. But again it is very restricted and I turned off the features I don’t want, like voice typing.

I use Organic Maps. But it does not YET have traffic data. So if it’s an area with traffic jams, I use Google maps. But most of the time organic maps is great

I came across “Organic Maps” and it’s really impressive. I now use them 50/50. The only real difference for me is that Google maps shows the traffic jams. So if it’s a long journey I use Google, but if I’m not in a rush and just need directions I use Organic.

“Brave search” seems to work good for me with Firefox. Protonmail is awesome yeah 👍🏻 There are alternatives to everything, just finding the good ones!

+1 for GrapheneOS on a Pixel. I use GrapheneOS on a Pixel 7 Pro. It’s just awesome. I will never go back. Camera is awesome too.

Second picture theme is called: Clearglass. Icon: Glass icons by Palko drawing.

…For anyone interested

I loved this theme! I remember upgrading from XP to Vista Aero (later win7) and being blown away! Aero based themes are still my favorite. Windows 8 and 10 looked cheap and boring.

Poke 👉🏻

Wow you use a lot of tech! Good share, thanks. I’m with you with Google maps, however check out “Organic Maps” I was very impressed with it (here in the UK) it finds shops and businesses, but no reviews obviously. I still use Google maps most of the time (on a separate phone that lives in the car), but Organic is really impressive, way ahead of the other map apps, definitely one to watch. Paying for YouTube is a great idea. I may do that also actually. I run a server with Mail-in-a-box for email. Yes it is just email basically, but I personally do not need or use more than that. And I love having unlimited aliases that all point to my main email. Also NextCloud is amazing yes. I love NextCloud. The other services you use I just don’t have a need for. But yes google = convenience. I bet there are good alternatives to document sharing. And I use Hover.com for domains.

I am one that switched. I have Linux Mint which I use 99.9% of the time, and a windows 10 laptop that I use 0.1% for that one windows program.

I think more people are wanting to get out of the grip that google, apple, and Microsoft have over them. Many are overwhelmed because they are in so deep. It took me months to get out, which I did about 6 years ago. I never looked back though. I know people that want out, but are not strong enough to commit to switching all their services and apps.