A quick way to test would be installing the Flatpak version of FF. As far as I know it should contain everything you need in one go, plus super easy to uninstall.

The data would have to be scaled back, no doubt about that. Right now they collect everything under the sun because they can. Remember, this would be data they otherwise wouldn’t get at all.

If I were to predict how it would work I would say they would continue to send back full fidelity data over Wi-Fi the same as today, but mesh would be used as a fallback if nothing is available. That data could be bundled to once a day, or week or whatever they decide makes sense and would only include summary information like, how much time spent on each channel per day, SSIDs scanned in the area, etc.

Are you using Linux? Do you have the right codecs installed? Firefox shouldn’t be jerky.

It may not be that way for much longer. Take a look at Amazon Sidewalk. They’re using low power, long range mesh technology so Ring Doorbells and Echos can communicate without access to the internet. That may not sound like a big deal, but the potential is huge.

If companies like Amazon/Google are able to create a “side network” they could use it to provide low bandwidth backhaul for other companies that want to get telemetry from their airgapped devices.

So, for example, you get a new Roku smart TV and don’t connect it to your Wi-Fi, but your neighbour has a Ring doorbell so it just uses that.

Mesh tech is awesome, and so is tech in general, but we are so slow at regulating it. This stuff needs to be opt in at the absolute minimum.

I’m not a big social media user myself. Lemmy is pretty much it, unless I count watching videos on YouTube social media. I still feel a lot of the points he makes in the video.

Richard Stallman is a household name to tech enthusiasts, but there’s a whole young generation that’s being brought up in a world where this stuff was already there. I’m lucky I remember not having the internet as a child and I worry about how this is effecting the people who are oblivious to it.

I can’t even follow your arguments anymore.

As a user, I want as many options as possible, but if I can get a phone that’s $100 cheaper because it doesn’t have a headphone port, I’ll definitely choose that option.

You’re the one that implied headphone jacks add cost to phones. I’m saying that they don’t, and whatever cost they do add is minuscule. The implication that any cost savings is being passed to you is laughable.

Look, they killed the jack because they could save a couple bucks of design time and get a few cubic millimeters of space, but most importantly they could softly force their users to buy wireless headphones (maybe even the ones they sell and bundle?!). The former outcomes being happy accidents in order push the latter. It’s win win for them, and lose for the customer.

They know that their price concious customers are still using wired headphone and unlikely to take them up on their bundle, so they keep including it there. The affluent ones are the ones with cash to burn and little care for this issue. I get you like BT headphones, so do I, but there’s simply no good defense for the 3.5mm removal other than shilling.

And yet headphone ports are on all the cheap phones and lacking from the high end phones. Your argument just doesn’t hold water.

You’re missing the point again. It’s not one or the other. We used to have BOTH. I use BT headphones day to day because I like the convenience, like you. However there plenty of times I wished I had an aux out or forgot my BT buds and wanted to use a pair of headphones I had at the desk.

We deserve BOTH.

Yeah, that’s a good analogy.

Well, I mean it kind of is a solution. It’s a cloud backup solution. OneDrive doesn’t just keep a single version of your file, there’s versioning, retention policies, etc.

Cloud makes a lot of sense for businesses with small IT staff and a lot of users because while it’s not fully in your control, it comes with all the things being discussed here “out of the box” and scales infinitely.

For self hosters there’s some fun and power in doing everything yourself, but even then adding cloud as part of your backup (if done securely) is usually a pretty good idea.

I’d love for that to be the case, but without a lot more polish and the ability to run Android apps in some kind of sandbox I don’t see it happening.

No, and if it does it would be an unnoticeable amount. I’ve run custom launchers since the Nexus days. If I ever load the stock launcher it’s slow to start so that indicates it hasn’t been sitting in RAM.

There’s so many extra things you can do with custom launchers that I would have a hard time going back. One thing I like about Nova that I haven’t seen anywhere else, is folders within icons. So I can make a folder called “Messengers” and put all my different messaging apps in it. I then put Signal as the first in the folder (because I use it most) and in the folder setting select “launch first app” as the tap action and “open folder” as swipe up action. The folder then just becomes a Signal icon and works like a regular Signal icon, but if I swipe up on it, all my different messaging apps come up. Its great and I have these hidden folders for everything. My camera app is actually my gallery, picture editors, etc. My Phone app is also my contacts, meeting app, you get the picture. Keeps my home screen nice and tidy but I still have everything categorized and easy to reach.

That’s a feature of the launcher. I use Nova Launcher, but there are plenty of others to choose from that don’t do that. The launcher is essentially the “home screen or desktop” of your phone, including the app drawer. It can be swapped out depending on taste. So with that changed the only thing that remains “Samsungy” is the notification shade and the main settings menu.

I have a Samsung S23 and literally none of the issues you describe. I swapped the launcher out but other than that it’s stock. I don’t use any of the Samsung services so yes, there is some bloat there, but it takes up minimal storage so it’s not a big deal.

I have sideloading, don’t have any subscriptions, have amazing Work/Private sandboxing, and I have DeX which is so damn good. I came from Pixels and I honestly thing a lot of the tweaks Samsung makes to Android are real fixes to things Google ignores. It’s not perfect, of course, but I’m not seeing much better from Apple or Google right now.

You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.

Look, I see what you’re getting at, high end GPU improvements have slowed to a trickle and they just keep charging more. You’re not wrong that the business has changed and NVIDIA and AMD are squeezing.

However that is NOT what is happening with the Steam Deck. This is a simple engineering limitation. You cannot have a super powerful GPU in the form factor of the SD due to size, cooling, and power constraints. They can’t just magic these limitations away or throw money at it. To get what you want would not only cost more, but the SD would be twice the size if not more, sound like a jet engine, and have a 15 minute battery life.

Fibre is an investment that can be used and upgraded for decades. Starlink is a subscription service forever to a private company.

The Steam Deck is still king to me due to it’s controller setup. Nothing comes close to the versatility. But I do agree with you, if OP is a console player and only cares about thumb sticks then there are better options.

He means that windows is built on a fairly open system that allows too to install and manage your own drivers, updates, etc. Over the last several years MS has been trying to lock this down and be more like a managed service/phone, not a computer you own.

If the PC were to be invented today, he’s saying it would be like a phone with limited freedom and most people wouldn’t care. He’s right and that’s sad. We take for granted what we have with older versions of Windows and Linux. It is being pulled away from us and that’s why I’m trying to move off of Windows instead of go to 11.

Lol, I love NonStampCollector. Great to see other people still watching it.

That doesn’t make a lot of sense. 3840x2160 is cleanly divisible by 1920x1080. You should just have pixel doubling happening. Check that you don’t have some sort of scaling turned on in the TV.

It wont magically look high res, it’ll be 1080p, but there shouldn’t be any blurryness, just the blockiness of 1080p on a large display.