GadgeteerZA

I use read-it-later services extensively to save any news I want to do blog posts about later, or something I want to look at in more detail when I have time (and three monitors).

I had been self-hosting Wallbag for quite a while, and did a video about it too, but I had some issues re-installing it when I moved to Docker container hosting on my VPS.

Ominvore certainly looks very interesting, with a modern interface and quite a few useful features. I'm starting so long with their free cloud hosted service, and could register with ease, and even initiate an import from Pocket. They do have a docker-compose file for setting up containerised self-hosting, but I'm going to wait a bit just to see if that matures a bit, as it seems it is early days still and no proper guide has been completed yet for it.

Apart from the usual saving links for reading later, with tags, archiving, etc, it also supports a clutter-free reader view for easy reading without adverts. In the reading view you can also change formatting, highlight text, add/view notes (in a Notebook view), and track reading progress across all devices (each note also shows a yellow progress line on its tile view to indicate reading progress).

It also has a feature for subscriptions via e-mail. Omnivore can generate unique e-mail addresses you can use for subscribing to online newsletters, and it is intelligent enough to realise that if a mail contains a welcome message, note from the author, etc that will be forwarded by Omnivore to your main e-mail address (without exposing that to the newsletter service).

It also has integration with Logseq, Obsidian notes, webhooks, and more.

You can save links by adding them in the app, using a browser extension, or by using the share option on mobile devices and just selecting to share to the Omnivore app.

There is no price model yet set up for the service, but I'm pretty sure they'll have an ongoing useful free tier with their online service, and probably only charge for some more advanced functionality. There is always the self-hosted option too. But for now, this looks very functional and useful to me, and I've started using it.

See https://omnivore.app/

Value your health by keeping track on your training. It records as you go running or walking, and gives you a bike computer with a bigger screen for cycling. You can even mark interesting locations along your way with pictures. The app keeps recorded statistics in great detail for analysis.

It also has voice announcements, and supports Bluetooth LE sensors for heart rate (Polar, Wahoo Kicker/Ticker, moofit, Mi Band 3, Amazfit Neo, Garmin HRM, and more), speed and distance (running and cycling), cadence (cycling), and a power meter (cycling). It measures altitude gain/loss via the phone's barometer sensor. You can export data without any restrictions, as tracks either as KMZ (incl. photos), KML, or GPX.

It requires no Internet access, or extra permissions, and there are no adverts nor in-app analytics. You share only the data you want others to have. It can be installed from the Google Play Store, but also from the F-Droid store, with all Google services excluded.

It is not aiming to be a direct competitor to Strava because there is no public website, and also no iOS app. Strava's website does help create more of a social and peer pressure type motivation for many, across both Android and iOS users. But OpenTrack is focussing more on preserving privacy by not using such a service, although one can import the recording into other apps and share from there. Regarding iOS, well the app is fully open source, so maybe someone could consider compiling it for iOS if the dependencies are not an issue.

See https://opentracksapp.com/

#technology #fitnesstracker #health #OpenTracks #opensource

All things amateur radio at this instance. So if you're interested, you can follow from any existing Lemmy instance you're at. I see the following communities already there:

• Amateur Radio at [email protected]
• Lemmy talk
• Homebrewing
• Digital Modes
• Rag Chew
• CW Talk
• Weekly Net
• Macs in the Shack
• VHF+
• SOTA
• Shack Pics
• POTA
• DMR

Today, most messaging apps have true end-to-end-encryption (Telegram's must be activated per contact for Secret Chat), but what really differs now is how many can tie your communications back to you through metadata. Obviously those which require a phone number or an e-mail address, do have your activity tied to you potentially.

WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and similar do require this for registration. Partly it is for authentication, finding friends, and also for resetting access if access is lost. What data you can see after a reset, gives an indication of what the provider has access to. For Signal, you won't be able to read any of your older messages. Signal indicates in this linked article, though, that they only keep the very minimum of information (tested by a legal subpoena). Telegram has more access as that is how all your chats get restored, but they have been banned in various countries because they don't hand over the information. WhatsApp, of course, we all know about their passing of detailed metadata upstream to Facebook (it's in their terms and conditions). I've done a post before about the risks and the monetary rewards around harvesting metadata. Just by registering on WhatsApp, you have also shared all your friends' phone numbers to Facebook, along with how often and how long you contact them, where you are when you contact them, etc.

We've also seen lots of secure messengers emerging that require no phone number and also no e-mail address, eg. Briar, XMPP, Jami, Threema, SimpleX, Nostr, and many more. Many mainstream users don't adopt them because the common problem is, you can't find your own friends easily (who do you chat with then?).

So this is one of the reasons why Signal has been pretty popular as a secure messenger. It requires a phone number, but retains virtually no information about you to sell or leak, and you can very easily find all your friends using it. So no, it is not THE most secure messenger, but it is certainly the most secure of those requiring a phone number or e-mail address for registration.

But the main takeaway is, unlike with an SMS app where only one app may be the active SMS app, your phone can have 10 or more instant messengers installed, so there is no reason not to also have Signal installed. It helps your friends, who are more privacy conscious, to stay in contact with you via Signal. Whether a message notification pops up via WhatsApp or Telegram, It's still going to pop up, unless you have a friend that insists on contacting you through two apps at the same time. Most modern messenger apps use push notifications, so they are not constantly polling, which uses data and battery all the time.

Go ahead, try more than one messenger, and you may be amazed that there are often better and more interesting features to try. Many of your friends will thank you.

#technology #privacy #messengers #chat #Signal