Google says it can’t fix Pixel Watches, please just buy a new one | With no official repair program and no parts, broken Pixel Watches are just e-waste.::With no official repair program and no parts, broken Pixel Watches are just e-waste.
Google says it can’t fix Pixel Watches, please just buy a new one | With no official repair program and no parts, broken Pixel Watches are just e-waste.::With no official repair program and no parts, broken Pixel Watches are just e-waste.
Google support for literally anything is non existent. Same could be said about Meta.
I am slowly shifting away from Google. Gmail and Google Photos is going to be the hardest. :/
You could look at trying immich. I haven’t set it up yet, but it seems to be the solution to me moving away from Google photos. https://github.com/immich-app/immich
You can find more info on these
https://matrix.to/#/#selfhosted:selfhosted.chat
https://forum.r-selfhosted.com/
https://discord.gg/UrZKzYZfcS
I did set it up. Survive multiple upgrade in place just fine.
I can say it beats all my apps until now. The best part to me is delete from app request to delete from my Android as well. So unlike most, it works ironically like iPhone. And I prefer that
Yup, I am aware about it. It’s just dislaimers that look a bit scary (not production ready), even tho multiple users reported using it without any issues.
Proton if you want email, privacy and cloud storage.
Edit I use murena and it comes with cloid storage and online only office suite
I pay(my inner pirate is screaming) for proton’s subscription and so far it’s absolutely worth the cost. The only issue being, I have yet to make it work on my Orange pi. Other than that it’s all smiles.
Already thinking about proton:)
I’ve had acceptable support for the pixel phone. I forget what went wrong, but I had a problem with one of my pixels, needed repair and they replaced it when it was just shy of two years old.
It sucked, because I had to send it to Hong Kong from Australia, and they then promptly sent me a replacement. But I was 5 days without a phone.
With Apple support, they have local presence and I’ve had same-day repair.
I have no intention of shifting away from Google. Their cloud service is great. I pay for it and my only complaint is there are stricter privacy policies on gsuite accounts that mean some Google services are incompatible. Which is a very clear endorsement of the old adage ‘if you aren’t paying for the service, you’re the product’.
I’ve heard this story: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/22/google-csam-account-blocked
Imagine your primary email is no longer accessible. Your memories (images/video) is no longer accessible that dates back to 2014.
I am scared it might happen to me, so I am strongly considering moving away from Google products.
Yes, writing this from my pixel. Luckily, I can flash alternative OS to my Pixel, so I don’t really mind having Pixel, but Google services? Nooo…
At the very least, periodic visits to Google Takeout.
I am in the Apple ecosystem, but this strategy is universal. Every month I am reminded by my calendar to make a backup. That means:
A Photos export to flat file format for photo and video
An iCal backup (easily imported elsewhere)
A vCard backup of contacts
A bookmark backup
A to do list export by pasting to a .md
Same for notes
I like the easy way an ecosystem lets all my things play nice together, but I don’t want to be beholden to it. This is an acceptable workaround to me.
For those thinking of moving away from Gmail… I strongly recommend buying your own domain name so you actually own your address and can switch e-mail services whenever you want without needing a new e-mail address. Hell, I’d recommend this even if you’re planning on staying with Gmail for a while.
Honestly, aside from having to point people at your new e-mail address… Gmail is not particularly hard to move away from, especially if you already use an external mail client. I don’t really miss it, anyway. The only pain point I experience is that if somebody sends you a Google Doc / Sheet you need a Google account to edit it, but that’s not a huge concern for me personally.
I’m self hosting my personal e-mail right now, and it’s pretty great if you know how to do that stuff. Super cheap to host, and I can have as many aliases and send as many e-mails as I want. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s very doable if you already host your own stuff. Otherwise there’s a bunch of e-mail services like Proton (kind of expensive, and a little annoying in that it’s not just IMAP), Tutanota (dunno much about it), Fastmail, etc… But it’s also worth mentioning that if you have a domain / VPS already your VPS provider and your registrar may both provide e-mail services that you can use… And if you just want to get out of Google and you have an iCloud+ account already (which is very possible if you have an iPhone and wanted more iCloud storage, but otherwise it’s $0.99/mo) you can also use iCloud+ for e-mail with a custom domain.
I moved from Gmail. I’ll link to my previous comment to save trying it out again…
https://lemm.ee/comment/3347046
If I ever move away from Protonmail it will take about 5 mins for all my 300 websites to start sending emails to the new mailbox.
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LoL…so you gotta pay for a service? That’s just crazy!?!
S/
For Gmail, I switched to fastmail. For google photos, I switched for immich.
The services that I still use from them are google maps, YouTube and SSO. They are all services that I wouldn’t mind them shutting down. It’s just that I find them much better than any alternatives.
How is immitch for you? I’ve been considering this for quite awhile.
I installed this week, so I’m not a long time user. But it’s by far the best self hosted photo app that I’ve used. Before that I used nextcloud, but the user experience isn’t as good Imo.
The only things that I miss are automatic albums based on face recognition and pet recognition. I still use google photo to share with family though.
For SSO, are you talking about Google Authenticator? I was able to switch to Aegis, which is just an open source alternative, but does the same thing, except you are not forced to back up to Google.
try with apple
I was considering this on and off, but never really attempted to do this.
Biggest dealbreaker was lack of USB-C cable, but here are few other issues:
Mostly done by ad-blocking DNS server at home (or via VPN when I am away), but yeah - no ability on Apple. Also impossible to root.
I don’t do root anymore, but I would love to have this available as an option. Opens much more possibilities.
This just, isn’t true? You can just download the Ad Block Plus Safari extension, just like you can on a desktop/laptop machine. You could even add a user script manager to block ads yourself if you’re so inclined. This has been in iOS for years, at least 4.
That only blocks Safari, no? Whah about the rest of the apps?
You can also use the system-wide ad blockers that function via iOS’s built in VPN functionality. That’s how Android does it too.
I always found the VPN solution felt really heavy. I remember on Android you could at least also have hostfile and DNS blocking too… But maybe that was only because I was on a rooted device?
Apple doesn’t allow “questionable” apps like emulators, bit torrent clients on its store and of course you can’t sideload them either.
Yes, that’s what I am saying. Apple decides for you. You are not the one who decides how to use your phone.
Can you repair android phone nowadays? Afaik, they are just as hard as apple
Never had a problem
this should come before March 2024
True for the gadgets, smartphones are just in line with other android phones but at least the phone is supported for 5-6 years and it doesn’t go to shit after a few years of use
Preach.
Then buy no phone and remove google, etc. For a computer, buy a System76 et similia -but do not use Nvidia/AMD/intel GPU/CPU; no Samsung for SSD, no Intel network card etc.
But you can?Maybe it’s new, idk
True. I use iCloud webApp on Linux or transfer the files on Mega
It works for the most basic use cases
True, but on the other hand iOS is the reason you would buy an iPhone. I’m a power user on desktop but I can’t be bothered on mobile: back when I had an android, I used the stock apps too and never did anything “”“weird”“”. I’m a desktop user throughout, so if I have to do anything I will just use my PC instead of relying on my phone
– That said, if you don’t mind paying:
So you basically confirmed my points 😅
Never said you were wrong lol
If you value freedom over comfort, then obviously an iPhone doesn’t cut it
With freedom comes the confort. It’s me who should decide what I need, not Apple. Apple should adjust to my needs, not me to Apple.
lol, tell me that when you use a banking app outside the Google play services
Freedom [to install your own OS on a mobile device] for sure won’t bring me any comfort, and in fact it’s something I don’t care about.
Beside, it’s a naive take: Apple doesn’t force you to buy its phones so you can just go wherever. And I doubt most people who buy an android do so for the freedom to install their own OS