this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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Yea, I hear ya. Lots of shitty apps these days with excessive perms.
I root, run a firewall, and lock the little bastards down. No, you don't get location perms. No, you don't launch at boot, or when I plug in to charge, or when a media button is pressed. So many shitty receiver registrations, and running in the background. Nope, removing that too.
I just don't even want a smart phone. I have one for work because I have to but only work stuff goes on it. Im surprised most will run like that. I have a hard time getting them to run on a tablet.
I can understand the sentiment, for sure.
I just want my pocket computer, with everything controlled by me.
With today's storage capability, I can have all my dictionaries local, I could probably host a decent encyclopedia, and my physiology apps, etc.
Everything else will go through a vpn, with no location/identifiers, etc, being sent.
Lineage with Magisk Root & XPrivacy modules, plus MicroG can do this.
And with self-hosting, I can use messaging apps like Snikket, Litewire, Simplex, etc (the challenge being getting others on board, which is where my self-hosting comes in. I can create accounts for friends/family, and they don't have to do anything).
yeah. One of my dreams is a feature phone with internet tethering capability so I can just use a standard tablet or laptop with it.
Ooh, that's an interesting idea. Not sure if it exists - using my Treo years ago as a Hotspot was pretty challenging, and it was an early smart phone.
Many laptops today have a SIM slot - just get a cheap data plan. You can also get a cell card that plugs into USB. Back in the day we had PCCARD slot cell cards. That was nice.
Xfinity had a deal when we switched from Verizon - a data-only Sim for $10/mo that uses the shared data on our plan. Great for the iPad.
yeah would love to do it though without a smart phone. Oh also im pretty sure it does not exist. I look for something like it every so often. I basically don't bother with a cell phone just use google voice and my work one.
You could get an older pixel, and run Graphene on it. Their goal is security and privacy, to the point of being able to lock down anything/everything.
I prefer the Pixel 4A. It's mostly plastic so lighter, pretty cheap ($120 from Walmart online). OLED screen, so easy on battery.
Without Google services (courtesy of Graphene) battery life should be great, and it pretty much makes it a feature phone since you can lock it down so well. On my test phones, disabling Google services gives me 10-20% more battery time. Screen is the other big user (for IPS screens anyway, OLED is much kinder to battery).
Since you use Google voice, you could get a Sim card that's data only, not even text, so no worries about spam calls/text.
And it could still function as a Hotspot.
Even Lineage could provide what you're looking for, since it also comes without Google Services. Though it can run on more devices, so you can pickup any old device that meets your needs. (Except Samsung, they're a bit of a pain to flash).
GSM Arena has a great search tool for finding the phones that meet your requirements. It's really helped me over the years, since I'm kind of particular (fingerprint sensor n side o back is a requirement, as is Verizon compatibility). Though it's hard to beat the Pixel 4, for size, weight, battery capacity, durability, cost, ease of flashing.
I really think Lineage or Graphene can provide the functionality what you're looking for. And both are super easy to install on a Pixel.
you know I had thought along these lines but had never really thought in terms of using a data only card. thanks.
Your requirements made me stop and think about it. I'd kinda forgotten that Lineage also starts out with no Google Services - they're not permitted to bundle them (by Google), which works out fine.
They do provide links to different GS packages - the factory stuff from Google, as well as several reduced-form, and some open source packages that provide a GS interface for apps, but uses open-source data sources, such as the NLP (Network Location) that doesn't track you.
Your requirements made me stop and think about it. I'd kinda forgotten that Lineage also starts out with no Google Services - they're not permitted to bundle them (by Google), which works out fine.
They do provide links to different GS packages - the factory stuff from Google, as well as several reduced-form, and some open source packages that provide a GS interface for apps, but uses open-source data sources, such as the NLP (Network Location) that doesn't track you.
Your requirements made me stop and think about it. I'd kinda forgotten that Lineage also starts out with no Google Services - they're not permitted to bundle them (by Google), which works out fine.
They do provide links to different GS packages - the factory stuff from Google, as well as several reduced-form, and some open source packages that provide a GS interface for apps, but uses open-source data sources, such as the NLP (Network Location) that doesn't track you.