Hond

I wasnt even aware that Surface hardware was still a thing.

Well, i wont watch ads. If it comes to it i’d rather have a program thats recording videos in real time so i can skip the ad segments later in my recording like in the good old vhs times.

I still use my old google account for youtube. It isnt flagged as underage so i can watch every video even though i never gave them proof.

Signal shouldnt be an issue at all. You can even download the apk(installation file) from their website. Unpaid apps can be obtained via the Aurora Store without an google account. But some apps require the play store services and wont without them. Tbh idk if you need to be logged into an Google account or the play store/ services just need to be installed in those cases. Banking apps are known to be really picky when it comes to custom roms/rooting/no play services. My banking apps arent happy about the lack of play services on my device but so far i can do everything i want even though the apps complain everytime via pop ups. But ymmv.

To clarify Obtainium is used to get and update apps from github/gitlab/forgejo/dev website directly and somewhat comfortably. Instead of using f-droid as an appstore. Why you might want to do that is eg explained in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAoCfrqxIEg Personally(!) idgaf and just use f-droid. This is no security advice because am dumb.

Depends. My threat model is practically: I want to avoid Google, i dont want to see ads, i avoid tracking as much as comfortably possible, i liek open source. Thats it. Theoratically it would be safer to have a burner google account(created on a public wifi) and get those apps via the playstore integration of graphene and only use the phone via a vpn you trust. Or smth like that. Dont trust me because i consider myself dum too. Personally(!) i like the Gcam and G Photo Gallery app so much that i dont want live without them. And they live happily sandboxed by Graphene on my phone without internet access. But i once used the playstore integration and all the google apps started happily sharing my information between them. Like beeing logged into my google account magically in the photos app. Which is exactly what i dont want. So i rather just use Aurora Store once or twice in a year if i need some stupid app for one reason or another. Heres a youtube channel which i consider good for Graphene stuff: https://www.youtube.com/@sideofburritos Also dont forget to read the great resources on graphenes website like: https://grapheneos.org/faq and https://grapheneos.org/usage

• Accrescent of the GrapheneOS appstore, its another appstore
• Ironfox(accrescent) as my main browser, hardened firefox
• Aurora Store for the very rare case i need something from the playstore
• Comaps for navigation
• Etar, calender
• Quillpad, note taking
• Breezy Weather, weather…
• Material Files, file manager
• KDE Connect, connecting with pc, file transfer, virtual trackpad, etc
• Tubular, YT with background playback, only audio, downloads, sponsorblock, adfree
• VLC, for local video and music playback
• Google Cam and Photos from the aurora store. I just dont give them internet access.
• Image Toolbox, i dont really need/use it. But it has cool tools for image manipulation
• Silicone Calculator, …
• Duckstation, PS1 emulator
• PPSSPP, PSP emulator

I slightly customized my KDE taskbar by centering it with panel spacers because that was the only thing i liked about Win11. Set it to auto-hide for OLED reasons. I dont remember if the slightly floaty style was standard with my distro or i did it? Then like two tweaks to dolphin to make it look more like the ‘detailed’ view in windows explorer which is the only legit way to view files. Everybody else with these giant folders is fucking crazy. Probably the only thing where i’m not open minded. Uh, yeah thats it. Havent changed anything else in almost two years on two different distros.

All Pixel phones with Tensor SOCs have “AI” Chips. So even the Pixel 6 and 7 come with a NPU.

I’m a huge nerd so take everything with a grain of salt how my experience translates to a non-techie. Storing and playing music with Android is pretty straightforward. You just copy your music into the music folder. Then use either the media player your phone comes with or choose one of the 1 million other options on the playstore/f-droid. But i never liked Itunes to begin with. Not with the Ipod i had 20 years ago and not with the Ipad i had 10 years ago. It just gets in my(!) way of how i want to do things. If your whole music library and management revolves around itunes… uuh yeah, idk its going to be a new learning experience i guess. Good quality camera shouldnt be an issue. Especially coming from a SE. Look up Samsung/Google/Apple camera blindtests on Youtube. The differences are minuscule and mostly about how they handle whitebalance (yellowish/blueish tint) and how pronounced the contrast in the shadows is. The UI of the camera will be different. But if you just point and shoot without needing more advanced settings it will be just fine. If you want to use GrapheneOS or a custom ROM in general: Buy a Pixel and flash GrapheneOS. If your not a nerd other custom roms will be a huge pain to install. Graphene has a pretty straightforward web based installer which guides you through the process. The cheaper “A” models had pretty often issues with their batteries. But atleast Google just reimbursed everyone in those cases. I’m still on my Pixel 7 and i dont see any reason to upgrade until its support ends. Camera is still great, performance is still great, screen is great, battery life is okay. Choosing anything between 8-10 series Pixels should be just fine. Older ones have a shorter support period. Newer ones a slightly more expensive and a bit better. Pro models have a bit more ram and a telescopic camera for more zoom. Nice to have but i(!) wouldnt pay extra for that.