FriendOfDeSoto

I fear there won’t be a solution that doesn’t cost money somewhere. Please don’t buy 3 burner phone numbers at once. I would feel bad if it didn’t work and/or you get suspected of being a criminal.

Check your current phone subscription if you have one. There might be a way to get an additional number for free or very little extra. And it might be a good backup emergency service to have just with your parents maybe even if you go down a different route for the rest.

Anything other than Signal seems unadvisable from a privacy POV. Do you have a way of talking to them live on the phone, at the same time? You can try and register their Signal on a burner phone wherever you are. As they sign up, you sit on the call and give them the phone number and security code when it comes through. Unless having Signal on the phone is itself a reason to get arrested in Russia, which frankly wouldn’t surprise me either.

I don’t know if this will work. I did it on a different service using the number on a dumbphone to register for use on a tablet once.

Is there something wrong with making a new account to make a discussion post about a video?

If the video is from a platform whose algorithm thrives on controversy, is presented in a context of controversy, on a new account, it’s at least suspicious here on the lemmyverse.

So you’ve been thinking about joining the fediverse but it was this video you wanted to share with us that finally made you pull the trigger? It’s a sequence of events I find inherently sus.

Is this not a forum website?

Yes, it is. And as such it is sometimes abused by people with ulterior motives.

This is ridiculous behavior.

That is both your prerogative to think so and a matter of opinion.

I’ve been respectful and open to every single person I’ve responded to. I am not creating drama or name calling.

Your eagerness to engage virtually any comment on this niche subject is what I find suspicious. It’s the eagerness you also see by people who abuse Lemmy for rage bait.

If there’s drama being created on this post, it’s because people can’t stand Mutahar. And I agree with them! But as someone who refuses to be an ideologue living in an echo chamber, I watch content from sources I don’t agree with too, and I discuss it. I don’t get what problem you have with this.

I don’t know who that is and don’t care enough to find out. I refer you to my criticism of the source of the video. My suspicion, which I have to say your comments have not diminished, is that you created this account and this persona to generate more views to feed the algorithm on YouTube and not because you wanted to have a serious discussion about the subject.

Correction: so you made a new account on this instance and then posted it.

I’m just spit balling here. Is it possible that the intent of this post is not to have a discussion about OSs but to boost the YouTube views? It’s just a vibe I’m getting. New account, very eager to reply, posting this out of the blue.

If the video is on YouTube, they make a thumbnail pulling a dumb face, and it gets presented in a forum like this with a whiff of controversy about it, personally, I’ll refuse to look at it.

It’s nice that an American company will enforce a 24-hour cooling-off period for the installation of a few 1s and 0s on a device I already own.

They wouldn’t do this for the purchase of a firearm.

This biting satirical take is brought to you by a disillusioned Android user seriously thinking about switching to an iPhone. If a walled garden is inevitable I might as well go where most stuff gets developed for first.

One thing that what they call agenetic AI will undermine might be a lot of the subscription based biggies of the industry. I’m thinking about Adobe in particular. They charge a monthly premium for having user-friendly, low learning curve software that often has become industry standard. But there are open source alternatives for many of their big hitters (Inkscape, GIMP, etc.). If the agenetic model needs a tool to design a logo or expand an image - and you probably already pay for the privilege of using the agent model - this may prove to be a boon to the open source development of these intermediary software tools. Because the relative difficulty to use them as we hear from Adobe heads all the time won’t matter to the computer. And they are free (with a request to donate). So a chunk of interest and probably money and effort will move from those subscription services to open source alternatives and their development. This is just one positive effect so-called AI could have for some open source projects.

Sadly, at the same time we squander resources and kill polar bears.

I’m not an Apple user so I cannot answer your question there. I just wanted to add another way to get ad-free podcasts. If the podcast offers a patreon feed, any RSS-based podcatcher anywhere will be able to do this.

I think you’re onto something here. It may have to do with containing RAM.

I’ve been thinking about strategies to get Google to back down on this. And I think the most viable strategy is to let them know that we will all move to iOS if they go through with it. If they lock down their OS, then we might as well use the OG locked down OS and turn to Apple. We only have to make this convincing enough.

I don’t want to go to the dark side either. But as the light is going out on this side: I’m gonna need a new phone within the next 12-18 months. For the first time since ditching my blackberry I’m thinking about switching again. And for the first time ever I’m seriously thinking about an iPhone. All my purchases and what not be dammed. LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO, GOOGLE!

Seconded! LMMS is a good free DAW to get started.

Is this happening even for their premium subscribers?

It turned out to be a Twitter clone from ten years ago and I realized I didn’t need that any more. If I didn’t need to reach some people who cannot overcome the hurdle the fediverse proper puts up before being enjoyable, I would not be using it today. But media popularity post-Elon-Twitter and relative ease of setup have given the platform relative heft. But it’s not open and not really federated so it’s masquerading and we don’t really want you know whose money is paying the bills behind the scenes either. If anything, the fediverse can learn from Bluesky a thing or two about onboarding people who cannot be asked to invest the time to make Mastodon enjoyable. It will take time, much more time, to get people, especially non-techy ones, to the new normal of being your own algorithm. I see Bluesky as a stepping stone in that direction that will survive in its own niche.

This feels like an ad.

Hoisted by my own methtard.

Hmm sound like something a meth dealer would say

I assure you. I’m not a meth dealer. Really. I don’t know what else to tell you!

Thanks for answering my question.

If I were a breaking bad meth dealer and had all my buyers as contacts on that phone and all my incriminating chats, I wouldn’t use biometrics to unlock it. But I’m not a meth dealer (and I’m not just saying that because that’s what a meth dealer would say).

There is a spectrum of convenience vs. security. It depends on where you sit. I’m okay with the fingerprint, wouldn’t go for the face.

Doesn’t Android have the panic/cop switch where you force password over biometrics unlocking? It’s not a 100% failsafe but it is a start.

All the best for your furry friend.

One batch of the 4A’s batteries have become a fire hazard. That’s why Google (near)bricked the phones to prevent that.

These delayed notifications sound like some background processes get killed. I hazard to guess that’s why you get all at once once you wake up the phone. So look for items like background and battery optimization in the settings and see if you can re-enable some of these.

It’s been a minute with the 4A. I think it’s great that you keep extending the life of the phone and thus reduce e-waste. But I think it might be time to look for another phone.

My review came with an asterisk. I mainly wanted to point out how to get it free so you can make up your own mind.

I don’t remember if I bought it on Google Play so I don’t know if you would need to. You can though test drive it guaranteed for free if you sideload the F-Droid app store and get it from there.

I stopped using it about two years ago because it felt it took forever loading feeds and switched to Tusky, which has less functionality (e.g. no post scheduling) but loads faster, I think, and works well for my limited needs. Fedilab’s menus never put me off. But I never went back.

So that’s a review that needs a pinch of salt or two.