MargotRobbie

Promoting products on reddit by blatantly advertising in the comment section? Who would do such a thing?

The Fairphone 4, as nominated by @be_gt@lemmy.world!

As promised, you will be receiving 1 Lemmy Silver, and of course, bragging rights.

But, we also have an honorary Golden Lemmy award, which goes to...

Every Android device that is not the Samsung Galaxy S22+, as nominated by @OpenStars@discuss.online!

You get 1 Lemmy Silver (and bragging rights) too!

That's it for this year's Golden Lemmy, folks!

(Nomination thread is here for future references.)

To celebrate a particular movie's nominations for the Golden Globes next Sunday, Jan 7, we are hosting our very own Golden Lemmy award for Best Android Device on !android@lemmy.world.

Rules are simple, tell us about your favorite Android phone from 2023 in the top level comment, and the device with the most up votes wins the esteemed and coveted Golden Lemmy Award, along with 1 Lemmy Silver.

Our regular discussion will resume in 2 weeks.

Previously on Lemmy: Tablets

Let's talk about deGoogling Android this week, since it's a common topic of interest around here to talk about GrapheneOS and CalyxOS.

I feel like Google services has been lacking for the better part of a decade to the degree that I am reluctant to rely on most Google services nowadays. However, I don't think I have the effort to actively remove all traces of Google from my phone, as the cost of bootloader unlock and rooting is a bit too much for me.

So, I would like to hear what your deGoogling experiences, since I'm unlikely to do it myself.

Past Discussions

• Asus
• Productivity
• Emulators
• iPhones
• Repairability/Build Quality
• Google Pixel
• Foldables
• Samsung
• Sony
• OnePlus
• Motorola

Previously on Lemmy: Asus

Android tablets are devices that I don't know a lot about. I've seen plenty of them around, but I haven't seen many people actually use them, but I've seen plenty of iPads and sometimes Surfaces out in the wild. Many large Android manufacturers have tried, like Samsung and Huawei, but reception to them seems lurkwarm at best.

Tablets, to me, are more of media consumption devices than productivity devices. So, I guess the questions of the week would be, what is your experiences with Android tablets, and what are some features you are looking for in an Android tablet to make it worth buying?

Past Discussions:

• Productivity
• Emulators
• iPhones
• Repairability/Build Quality
• Google Pixel
• Foldables
• Samsung
• Sony
• OnePlus
• Motorola

I didn't even realize Qualcomm removed the built in FM radio from their chips. Huh.

Previously on Lemmy:

• Buying Guide: Low End
• Buying Guide: Midrange
• Buying Guide: High End

Past Discussions:

• iPhones
• Repairability/Build Quality
• Google Pixel
• Foldables
• Samsung
• Sony
• OnePlus
• Motorola

Now that our buying guide (or a first draft of it) is done, let's get back to our usual discussions. This week's topic is emulators, by request of u/AlmightySnoo. As emulators could not be loaded on iPhones without jumping through many hoops, Android remains the preferred OS for emulation on smartphones.

(Reminder, rule 2 is in effect, so please don't give out links to ROM sites.)

Now, as we all know, the mobile gaming landscape in 2023 is not great exactly. Most of the games in twr Play Store are designed for frustration instead of fun, littered with microtransactions, timegating, and of course, ads. Even the good games have terrible monitization practices, and there are a lot more bad games than good.

But emulated games are a way to get away from that, and let us remember a time when games on the go are simply games that are fun and nothing else, the nights when you are sitting in the backseat of your parents car with only the glow of your GameBoy and the passing streetlight as you play Pokemon. Nostalgia from a time when we didn't have grownup things to worry about.

But of course, many emulators didn't only aim to "emulate" the original console, but to enhance them into the modern age: Save states, rewind, enhanced graphics, texture replacements, easy cheats, touchscreen and gamepads. Things we could only dream of as kids are now reality.

So, please share your experiences with emulation on Android and give out some cool tips and tricks here.

(A special shoutout to RetroArch for having the (dis)honor of staying as one of the most frustrating software that I have ever used.)

Previously: Submission Statement Edition

Haven't done these in a while, so let's get started.

1. Since we haven't really heard any feedback one way or the other, rule 8 is now official. To be fair, we've had a lot less microblog posts than I expected (only one Twitter/X post in the last month even after I waited longer than the initial 1-2 weeks expected, and that was a crosspost.)

• Again, the rules are always a work in progress, feel free to give your two cents here whenever you like.

2. As you guys know, PipedLinkBot went completely insane 2 days ago and looks like it's temporarily shut down. So, I'd like to use this opportunity to explain why I banned the bot pretty much immediately after our community reopened. (And gloat a bit, of course)

• Even though I do agree with the principle of using open source, privacy focused frontend instead of using Youtube directly, I have a real problem with using a bot to respond every time somebody posts a Youtube link. It feels like spam, and it doesn't feel like it serves any utility besides pushing an agenda (even though many people here would agree with it). Most people have seen it around here enough to use pipedvideo if they wanted it to use it already.

• I think it's always been a rage inducing part of the reddit experience that you see you received a response to your comment, but only have it been a bot smugly correcting your grammar or tell you all your letters are in order or something useless like that. So, for this place, I would like to make sure that everyone you talk to here is a real person as much as possible, because people inspire people to be greater, but bots don't.

I feel like there hasn't been enough fun shenanigans in our community recently (and I love shenanigans.), so, we are doing a mini-contest to replace a word for our sidebar description.(Because I'm bored with it).

As usual, post your entry in the top level comment, and the entry with highest uplemmy (within reason) wins.

No time limit on this.

Maybe poppy seed or chia seed?

Previously on Lemmy:

• iPhones

Past Discussions:

• Repairability/Build Quality
• Google Pixel
• Foldables
• Samsung
• Sony
• OnePlus
• Motorola

Every hobbyist forum needs their own guides and resources, and we are no different. I think it's finally time for us to all pitch in and make an Android buying guide that's 100% Lemmy over the next couple of weeks, since buying recommendations are commonly requested here, and it's also a way for us to get more friends to talk Android with.

So, over the next couple of weeks, we are going make our own guide piece by piece: Low-end, Midrange, High-end, and Android Accessories.

We are going to use the following price range definition in terms of USD, use this as a general guideline for price range estimates in your local currency, (Probably not a direct conversion, since purchasing powers are different in different countries.)

• Low-end: 0-300 USD
• Midrange: 300-700 USD
• High End: 700+ USD

Rules are simple:

1. For all top-level comments, you should include the model and brand of the phone, your own recommended price range (i.e. This phone would be a good deal at 200 dollars, OK at 250, but a terrible deal at 300.), and anything else you would like to add to justify your recommendations.

2. No direct links to products. Prices changes too much, and having affiliate links opens up another can of worms about how sincere our recommendation intentions are.

And we are going to start with the hardest price range to recommend first: Midrange.

Have fun.

Surprise.

Bet you didn't see this one coming.

This week's post has been pretty late. I'm a bit troubled by yesterday's thread on Apple. So, a foreword: It's OK to prefer something over another, it's not OK to say people who like different phones than you are somehow more childish or less intelligent than you. Again, we are going for casual, yet intensely helpful here, so please don't call people names over petty reasons, we have rules here.

Previously on Lemmy:

• Repairability/Build Quality

Past Discussions:

• Google Pixel
• Foldables
• Samsung
• Sony
• OnePlus
• Motorola

In this post, it's not about saying how bad iPhones are, but I'd just like to hear the perspective on iPhones from Android users. I, for one, had an old iPhone 4 for a long time (call it nostalgia, or laziness, or just being cheap), and it was my general frustration with the device that ultimately led to my preference for Androids, (It was quite a while back though).

• It was absolutely painful to transfer files from the phone to my computer (Ugh, iTunes).

• I got it pre-jailbroken and didn't realize you can't just update the system casually, so it was really fun trying to find ways to downgrade the system until I realized that I can't and have to pray for the next jailbreak to get half my things working again.

• The 40-pin cable wears out so fast, and always in the same spot on the strain relief. I swear I've gone through 3 of these cables in one year just from normal use.

• All the browsers are somehow flavors of Safari. To do anything, I will have the choice of ad-filled websites, or ad-filled apps.

It always just seemed like I'm fighting against the system. Never did I have that "it just works" moment, until I've got my first Android, and realize I have the freedom to do whatever I want with it, and I can install what I want, and if there's a problem, I can look things up and fix it myself.

(Having a back button is also a game changer.)

Of course, there is a lot that Android manufacturers can learn from Apple as well, one of the most obvious one is the time for software support: I think my old iPhone has gone through like 3 version updates over the years, whereas currently I'm lucky to get 2 out of any Android manufacturer.

But it seems that Android manufacturers are more content on copying things that works for iOS, but doesn't work for Android, like removing the headphone jack. Or big notches. (It makes no sense to do that because of Android's notification system uses the full length of the bar.) It's gotten to the point that I don't think people who makes Android phones actually uses Android but are content to copy superficial features from Apple without understanding why Apple do them.

Like a bunch of lemmings. (Heh)

Again, these are my personal preferences, I have nothing against people who prefers iPhones, nor do I think they are lesser for it, but it's just not for me.

I'd use a one as a work phone/for iMessages though.