Google Keeps Making Smartphones Worse
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Organic Maps is great in many ways. It's maps are so much better. But the lack of traffic data is a killer for route planning in the UK. All the open source maps suffer this. There needs to be open access traffic information for there to be competition.
As far as I know, traffic data is gathered via spying on users—Google Maps and similar apps sending device location to a central cloud service. Maybe somebody could provably anonymize the data somehow to make an alternative service for the open competitors to use.
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As far as I know, traffic data is gathered via spying on users—Google Maps and similar apps sending device location to a central cloud service. Maybe somebody could provably anonymize the data somehow to make an alternative service for the open competitors to use.
That's what we need.
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Would be really curious to find out how that works. Got any good sources?
Installing apps through alternative app distribution in the European Union - Apple Support (MK)
If you’re based in the European Union, you can install apps from sources other than the App Store on your iPhone or iPad.
Apple Support (support.apple.com)
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GrapheneOS: the private and secure mobile OS
GrapheneOS is a security and privacy focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility.
GrapheneOS (grapheneos.org)
/e/OS - e Foundation - deGoogled unGoogled smartphone operating systems and online services - your data is your data
ECOSYSTEMKEY FEATURESGET /E/OSNEED HELP /e/OS is a complete, fully “deGoogled”, mobile ecosystem /e/OS is an open-source mobile operating system paired with carefully selected applications. They form a privacy-enabled internal system for your smartphone. And it’s not just claims: open-source means auditable privacy. /e/OS has received academic recognition from researchers at…
(e.foundation)
be free
i'm currently using redmi note 13 pro, can i install any of these OS?
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i'm currently using redmi note 13 pro, can i install any of these OS?
Yes, with a heavy grain of salt.
First- it seems like a huge pain in the ass to get your bootloader unlocked (a locked bootloader can not have custom ROMs installed) Relavent XDA thread
Second- None of the ROMs I listed officially support your device it appears. However, there are other ROMs available for the device. I can not speak to their reputability or trustability. XDA thread of various ROMs available for the device.
The only ROM I listed which can be used on your device is an unofficial LineageOS port.
A great place to look, ask, and get help is at the XDAForums for your device. They usually have helpful and friendly people who can help you as long as you read their previous relavent threads first.
If at some point you are looking to replace your current phone, a good place to look for recommendations is CalyxOS' modern devices page. The reason I recommend using CalyxOS' device page over something like Graphene's is because in many parts of the world Google's Pixel is not available. Calyx includes devices that are easier to get such as some Motorola's, and other OEMs on a best-case basis.
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That's what we need.
feat: Traffic and road closures data
comaps - The main code repository of CoMaps, a community-led fork of Organic Maps. Reinforced with commitment to transparency, privacy and being not-for-profit.
Codeberg.org (codeberg.org)
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feat: Traffic and road closures data
comaps - The main code repository of CoMaps, a community-led fork of Organic Maps. Reinforced with commitment to transparency, privacy and being not-for-profit.
Codeberg.org (codeberg.org)
Interesting. Fingers crossed!
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I know, and that's exactly my point. They used to be in the user space, now they are in the system partition. They CHOSE to do this.
Yeah. That's a good point. I don't know why anyone would put any frequently updated app in squashfs.
I guess you can use the app right after you factory reset even if you don't have much data which might be something? Are updates smaller since they're just deltas?
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Yeah. That's a good point. I don't know why anyone would put any frequently updated app in squashfs.
I guess you can use the app right after you factory reset even if you don't have much data which might be something? Are updates smaller since they're just deltas?
In all honesty, I have no idea. I didn't give the stock firmware enough time on my phone to check on anything other than the amount of tracking and the move to the system partition.
As for the reason for putting them in this partition, I'm sold on the idea that it's to keep the levels of invasion as high as possible while removing the user's options to get rid of them.
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So far it's been good for about a week. Highlights have been the easy install, secure by default but lets me override when I want (block app network access on install is awesome), and getting access to the other app repos than Google's I haven't seen since I installed dirty unicorns years ago. I setup multiple users so I can keep my primary like a root which was also simple to do.
Only complaints I have are when I get messages on another user than primary I can see the messages in the app but not the message content in the notification, its just a generic alert message like new messages received. Nice to have but not going to make me switch back. And the keyboard doesn't have swipe typing so I use gboard with network access turned off.
Also I did install the Google app store to get a couple paid apps and calendar/contacts I need to move out of Google. It does sandbox by default which is really cool and i think should be required for phone manufacturers. I just disabled services/store/calendar access to the network after I let it download everything.
Edit: also not a OS thing but I tried switching VPN to orbot/tor at the same time and it is still really unreliable for that use with the way so many sites try to sniff out your location
Some alternative for you for the keyboard:
GitHub - Helium314/HeliBoard: Customizable and privacy-conscious open-source keyboard
Customizable and privacy-conscious open-source keyboard - Helium314/HeliBoard
GitHub (github.com)
FUTO Keyboard
FUTO Keyboard is a modern, privacy-focused keyboard that runs fully offline. Enjoy swipe typing, autocorrect, predictive text, and more—no internet connection required.
(keyboard.futo.org)
Edit: Check out their other apps too, you might find something you like
https://futo.org/