I'll just buy and use decade old phones with unlocked bootloader till I can. There's barely any innovation in phones these days and I'm sure someone will come to fill the gap Android left (hopefully Linux). I'm still using my 5 year old phone degoogled with custom a16 and still going strong. I also have a backup pixel 6 in case the current one breaks. I can easily wait 10-15 years.

Does this mean the end for YouTube Revanced on Android?

Openness isn't just a nice to have. It is essential.

The difference between general purpose computing and gatekept walled garden computing is night and day.

Identifying the devs is not in the "need to know" for Google. Google sells or helps to sell a general purpose open device where it is on us to exploit that device however we will.

Now Google wants to switch to a walled garden, moderated development model.

If Google promises it won't use those dev IDs to moderate development, their promise is only worth the wind it moves and the sound it makes.

they are cable-less, thus need to be charged separately

Not a major drawback, IMO.

they are cable-less, thus it is easier to lose them

True, but I haven't lost any in the something like 6 years I've been using them.

bluetooth implementation is a potential security vulnerability

What's your threat model? Who's going to be attacking your security via your headphones? What happens if they succeed?

IMO this is a pretty ridiculous drawback, it's like saying "wired headphones are worse because the wire can be used as a garrote", which is true, but not an actual drawback for 99.999% of people.

transmission by radio will always be less energy efficient than transmission by wire

So what?

IMO the drawbacks of wired headphones are:

• The cable often gets tangled, and it's a pain in the ass to untangle it
• The cable can often get snagged on things, and if that happens the best thing that can happen is that the headphones can go flying out of your ears. The worst thing that can happen is that the phone goes flying out of your pocket and smashes on the ground.
• The cables can get dirty and frayed, and if they get too frayed they can break or get worn down so they have an iffy connection.
• Even when the cable isn't tangled, just arranging the wire so it's out of the way, long enough to get to your ears, but not so long it gets tangled can be frustrating.
• Trying to use your phone for anything else while your headphones are attached can be a problem. Say you want to take a picture of something, or pay for something using NFC, you have to be careful of the cable. If you had the cable tucked into your shirt or zipped up in your jacket so it's out of the way, now the cable might not be long enough anymore.
• Because of the wire, you're limited in where you can put your phone, and your head has to always be within a short distance to your phone. With a wireless headset you can choose to put the phone in a knapsack if that's more convenient, and when you put down the knapsack you can take a few steps away from it without losing your connection and interrupting whatever you're listening to.
• If you're doing something like working in the kitchen while listening to music or a podcast, you can't put your phone down on the counter and use it to look at a recipe, because as soon as you have to move to go get another ingredient, or to move from the cutting board to the sink, you have to pick the phone up again. And that can be a real issue if you have goop on your hands and you're moving to the sink to wash them off.
• In cold weather / winter you might want to have your phone in a jacket or something. If you go inside and take the jacket off you either have to pause things while you transfer the phone to another pocket and rearrange the wire, or you have to do this complicated dance where you clear the wire and move the phone without accidentally yanking the wire out of the phone or out of your ears. With a wireless headset you just take the phone and move it to a new pocket whenever that's convenient.
• The headphone wire is a potential personal security vulnerability as a ninja can use it to garrote you.

The drawbacks for a wireless headset are:

• They tend to have batteries that can't be replaced, so eventually they lose their ability to hold a charge and need to be replaced. It can get really annoying to use them when the batteries are starting to fail and they hold less than an hour of charge.
• They tend to be much more expensive than wired headphones.
• Wireless buds are easier to lose, and easier to drop. If you drop them they can bounce and roll under things, or into the street or who knows where.
• They do eventually run out of charge, and you do have to charge them, and sometimes they can be low on charge / out of charge when you want to use them.
• There's a fair amount of lag, which can be annoying when you're trying to skip commercials on podcasts and so-on.

Not really, it is more like saying "I am going to move to another dictatorship". In both cases, lose enough of your "members" and your organisation becomes significantly weaker.

Also iPhone has been quite constant about its motivations and priorities quite from the start (even if did not announce it publicly lol). Android however was a product of a company who started its life with the motto "don't be evil" and is now trying to monopolize the shit out of everything, including its users free time. I am not even sure this can even be classified as a lesser of two evils scenario anymore.

Have fun drinking your wine from the toilet bowl.

I never had one of my wired earbuds fall off the platform at the train station and disappear in the gravel, nor did I ever have isues with forgetting to charge them, let alone their case being brolen and not charging at all. And if I want to switch my favourite headphones over from my PC to my phone, I'm really glad my old phone still has a jack.

Someday you will have to buy a new phone.

You probably didn't do it on purpose, but you made a comparison on Apple's terms, thus implicitly priveleging Apple.

Last thing Apple needs is us priveleging it.

Apple now allows sideloading of apps and Google is trying to get rid of sideloading.

What... the Fuck?

Jesus, how the heck is this called "sideloading is so easy on an iPhone"?

That's a nightmare procedure, and completely unnecessary.

Obviously Apple makes sideloading as hard as possible.

Shit, I hadn't thought of that.

Apple hardware ahead of Android? I'll have what you're having!

I make $19/hr and live paycheck to paycheck. I'm just being realistic about the current cell phone market.

In all fairness to smart watches, mine is what turned me on to regularly checking the UV index. That's an important thing for all people, but especially me because I have an increased skin cancer risk due to unrelated medical stuff. And it was extra-extra important this year because I have done a ton of good work outside this summer.

And to be more specific about my watch situation, there's more going on than just avoiding notifications. I have been minimizing the amount of stuff I keep on my person in general, right down to finally getting my wedding ring tattooed on this year. There are various reasons ranging from abstract introspective life improvement stuff to the practical where that outside work I mentioned was constant and pretty rough on anything on my hands/arms.

So even if I wore a nice mechanical watch, I'd probably still be going with the double bare wrists right now.

Now we have to get EU on the case

Please show me a single benchmark with a flagship android beating a flagship iPhone.

They don’t care about those.

They want revanced and other ad circumvention tools out.

They ARE an ad company, you know?

I'm just saying Apple doesn't make anything close to a cheap stripped down $200 model.

I made the comparison based on feature set. For that you need an android flagship phone. Android DOES make cheap phones....but therexs no 1:1 comparison for Apple.

They won’t become “removable” like in ye old Nokia days. It’s not like you can carry extra batteries and just swap them on the go.

They just have to be swappable without special tools or specialist equipment.