• Through the years

    From MajorLanGod@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jul 11 17:44:25 2023
    I've been using PDAa just about as long as they have been around. I started with Steve Job's experiment, I forget its name, and liked it. But one has
    to admit it was definitely clunky. And when Apple abandoned it, I did too.
    So it was on to the ubiquitous Palm Pilot. I had several, including a
    Color. For reasons I don't remember except maybe to move up in the world, I switched to Google's Nexus 2013. Believe it or not, I still have it, and it still works. But OMG it is S L O W! I've been playing with it a little bit lately, and I don't remember if it was always that slow, or what. In 2017 I upgraded to an ASUS ZenPad S8. It was nice but. I really don't remember why
    I upgraded to my SAMSUNG Galaxy Tab S6 Lite in 2020, but I had the money so
    I went for it. It is my current tablet/PDA, and I don't have any complaints
    so I'm going to stick with it for a while, probably until the next
    generation of Android omes out. I bought a full-size bluetooth keyboard and used the Tab as my quasi PC for a while. Not as useful as a full-size
    laptop, but it does travel better.

    So who is doing third-party Android builds these days?

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  • From VanguardLH@21:1/5 to MajorLanGod on Tue Jul 11 13:19:30 2023
    MajorLanGod <lonelydad58@gmail.com> wrote:

    So who is doing third-party Android builds these days?

    I did an online search on "android distro", like:

    https://www.google.com/search?q=android+distro

    A Wikipedia article lists several:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_custom_Android_distributions

    Several hits were on LineageOS which, as I recall, might've been
    discussed here already.

    Another article mentiond de-Googled Android distros at:

    https://itsfoss.com/android-distributions-roms/

    From what I understand (never much delved into rooting my phone or
    replacing the OS), you have to change the firmware code; i.e., you get different ROM code (and to flash it means it must be EEPROM).

    As the above article recommends, you should do this on a spare
    (non-critical) device since you could end up bricking it.

    If you go that route, you might also want to go with de-Googled apps
    (obviously acquired outside their Play Store), like a replacement for
    the Play Store app.

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  • From Dave Royal@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jul 11 21:17:56 2023
    On 11 Jul 2023 17:44:25 GMT MajorLanGod wrote:
    I've been using PDAa just about as long as they have been around. I started >with Steve Job's experiment, I forget its name, and liked it. But one has
    to admit it was definitely clunky. And when Apple abandoned it, I did too.
    So it was on to the ubiquitous Palm Pilot. I had several, including a
    Color. For reasons I don't remember except maybe to move up in the world, I >switched to Google's Nexus 2013. Believe it or not, I still have it, and it >still works. But OMG it is S L O W! I've been playing with it a little bit >lately, and I don't remember if it was always that slow, or what. In 2017 I >upgraded to an ASUS ZenPad S8. It was nice but. I really don't remember why
    I upgraded to my SAMSUNG Galaxy Tab S6 Lite in 2020, but I had the money so
    I went for it. It is my current tablet/PDA, and I don't have any complaints >so I'm going to stick with it for a while, probably until the next
    generation of Android omes out. I bought a full-size bluetooth keyboard and >used the Tab as my quasi PC for a while. Not as useful as a full-size
    laptop, but it does travel better.

    So who is doing third-party Android builds these days?

    PDA: not an abbreviation you see much these days!

    Do you mean the Apple Newton? That was not Steve Jobs.

    I had a Zaurus SL860. It ran Linux - and (desktop) Firefox. I used it
    tethered to a Nokia phone to get weather forecasts when sailing.
    Unfortunately I plugged the power adapter in with the wrong polarity and
    blew a fuse which I couldn't replace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zaurus_sl-c860.JPG

    Then a Nokia 810 running Maemo, also tethered to a phone. The first device
    to get mobile Firefox.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:N810-open.png
    Then several Samsungs and Nexuses, most of which still work, and were
    rootable. The Pixel C was the best, but it broke.

    I also now use a GT S6 lite as my main device.
    --
    (Remove numerics from email address)

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  • From Theo@21:1/5 to MajorLanGod on Wed Jul 12 10:06:53 2023
    MajorLanGod <lonelydad58@gmail.com> wrote:
    So who is doing third-party Android builds these days?

    I did LineageOS (formerly CyanogenMod) for a while. Unfortunately my phone
    at the time (Galaxy Note 4) wasn't officially supported so I was on a build from a community developer, which was amazing that it was possible but every build would always have something not working. It kept the Note 4 going for
    5 years after release which is a lot longer than Samsung did. I also have
    an S4 which is officially supported and that's much better (and still
    getting monthly builds).

    Been playing with GrapheneOS lately and it looks good. A Pixel seems to be
    the phone to get if you're interested in third party Android as it's the
    most well-supported - others have varying levels of support for different phones. It seems like GrapheneOS picks up new Pixel hardware very rapidly - they had test builds available for the Pixel Tablet and Pixel Fold a few hours/days after their release, despite never supporting tablets before.

    Theo

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  • From MajorLanGod@21:1/5 to Dave Royal on Wed Jul 12 20:18:05 2023
    Dave Royal<dave@dave123royal.com> wrote in
    news:u8kgu4$3102m$1@dont-email.me:


    PDA: not an abbreviation you see much these days!

    Do you mean the Apple Newton? That was not Steve Jobs.

    Yeah. I just assumed Steve sine it was Apple. The Newon was a nice box
    until Apple dropped it and the rest of the industry started catching up.

    It got me started on rechargeable AAs :=)

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