Fucking Cell Phones

[Brantly B.]

I suppose it's asking too much for the Shield Portable to be compatible with the Shield Controller, huh? At any rate most Android devices including Shields should be compatible with Bluetooth mice/touchpads/trackballs/whatnot.

[mharr]

Well, the portable is essentially a Shield Controller with a flip top screen attached, so that would be pretty redundant under most circumstances. That being the case it probably works without a hitch.

I've been pointed towards a very cool piece of software that fixes this problem though, AppGround IO's Serverless Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse. Like it says on the tin, it turns an android phone or tablet into a generic wireless keyboard and touchpad mouse, with options for media buttons, back, home and menu, etc. Accidentally launching Chrome no longer feels like falling into a pit on the Atari ET cart, and if I buy a decent bluetooth dongle I'll have those devices in my pocket for troubleshooting at all times and look CRAZY CYBERPHREAK HAXX PRO.

[Thad]

So with today's release of Android 11, I got to thinking, hey, that invisiblek build of LineageOS I'm using hasn't been updated in four months, and that's not great.

Fortunately it appears that LineageOS now officially supports the Pixel 3a, so I wonder if I can dirty flash it. Guess I should have a backup plan just in case I can't -- I guess that's what the dual-firmware is for, though, right? Rolling back a botched update?

[mharr]

Hey does anyone have ideas for cleaning out 5g of 'System Data' from an old Android Nvidia Shield? I don't think I can risk trying to root it or even just factory reset since its only working display is the hdmi port. Developer mode ADB shenanigans, maybe?

Edit: The solution turned out to be using AndSMB to back up all files to a network drive, followed by a factory reset.

[Thad]

Note to self: updating Android overwrites the hosts file. If I start seeing errors that nextcloud.localdomain doesn't resolve to an address, that's probably what's happening. (And if I see them on my desktop, remember that I get notifications from my phone on my desktop.)

Process for replacing the hosts file is

Code: Select all

adb root
adb remount
adb push hosts /system/etc

ETA Couldn't find this with the board search. Maybe search ignores code tags? That would be dumb. But in case that's the problem, here it is outside a code tag:

adb root
adb remount
adb push hosts /system/etc

ETA and since I can't seem to do it via USB anymore, go to Wireless Debugging on the phone, then look at the IP address and port and connect with

adb connect IP:port

and if that doesn't work, pair it; select "Pair device with pairing code" on the phone and then on the PC do

adb pair IP:port
and then
adb connect IP:port
(the port number on "connect" isn't the same one as on "pair")
and then the root/remount/push.
(may need to reconnect between root and remount; the port number may change)

[mharr]

The real trick to buying Android is getting hardware that'll talk to adb without any arseing around, which is not a feature the sales leaflets tend to focus on.

Sony are definitely shit at it, big surprise there.

[Thad]

Android's definitely got the potential to be a good power-user OS, though it largely depends on the vendor and the phone, and the farther along they get into automatic update management the more power-user features they break. I haven't even tried to root my Pixel 3a; it looks like way too much hassle.

Of course my view is that system updates shouldn't wipe user-modified configuration files. In this case: I've got Nextcloud set up on my home network; I've got it mapped in my router, but my phone doesn't use my router for DNS, it uses Adguard, so I need to map it in my hosts file.

From what I've read, that's pretty much the issue with rooting a modern version of Android: you have to patch from recovery after every update.

[Grath]

From what I've read, that's pretty much the issue with rooting a modern version of Android: you have to patch from recovery after every update.

Well that's simple to solve, just don't update.

[Yoji]

Sorry if I asked already, but does anyone have a go-to video chat app for their phone? The kids have a doctor's visit soon, but they only allow one parent at a time because of... (gestures at everything)

My wife seems to think Skype is the easiest, but I have no idea. Can't remember the last time I could even figure out my login, and I haven't seen the name in a long time.

[JD]

Signal and WhatsApp are the popular apps. The main difference is that WhatsApp is run by Facebook, and Signal isn't.

[Upthorn]

I didn't realize Signal did video. Here I was about to recommend Zoom like some sort of zombie moron.

[mharr]

Maybe this should be more in one of the games threads idk but I recently stumbled across the MiniReview app and it's freaking great. This is the discovery feature the Android store always needed but will never get, real ass reviews by actual people and filters for single/multiplayer, online/offline, monetization bullshit, portrait/landscape, 30 genres and 64 tags.

No Bullshit Games is real good too and also covers iThings. https://nobsgames.stavros.io

[mharr]

Okay so I assume after a year of lockdown everyone has their once-real-life social contacts spread over at least a half dozen different messaging services, each corralled into it's own dubiously usable and determinedly non-interoperable application, right? Half of which don't even have a usable summary screen for manual checks?

I was thinking the one universal feature is those bloody notification popups, and that with a bit of filtering and logging those could form the basis of a central register of who the fuck is trying to get hold of me today and where. It hasn't been a great success.

Apparently some versions of Android on some brands of hardware have a hidden notification log that can be added as a home screen widget, but naturally this doesn't apply to any of the devices I own so I tried installing the most trustworthy looking third party logger, a University of Stuttgart hciLab project simply titled 'Notification Log'. This looked like it was going to work for a day or so, then it stopped logging anything else, the existing log was deleted and now that phone has stopped notifying me of anything even after an uninstall.

Back in the IRC days there were some pretty good programs available to centralize instant messaging under a single UI, but I'm guessing the modern advertising based internet is extremely resistant to that sort of user focused design.

Has anyone gotten further than me towards solving the general problem?

[Grath]

Most of my friends are standardized on Discord (which means it's about time for Discord to become unusable garbage - possibly with a Microsoft acquisition) other than direct family members and one friend who use Facebook Messenger (I'm trying to shift the friend over to Discord, at least, since he actually uses Discord too.)

[mharr]

Okay on the offchance this is helpful to anyone else, I think I have this working. After an uninstall, system update and reboot notifications are back and this time the application hasn't nuked anything. Looks like the bugged part of Notification Log is deleting individual notes, don't do that - back up any information you need and delete the entire log instead.

It's actually a really good interface for managing notifications generally. You have to activate 'continuous' mode to get mentions and direct messages logged but it doesn't take long to stem the tide. Opening the app brings up a list of what's been trying to bug you recently and clicking any message jumps straight to the preferences panel for telling that source to shut up. Probably going to stick with this on any future phones that have logging built in.

Of course having claimed victory it'll all go wrong in the next 24 hours.

[Yoji]

Dammit, it happened again

I don't know how, but this is the second time my Chrome tabs did this weird side-by-side grouping thing and I don't remember how I fixed it

[nosimpleway]

This chrome has a new feature, and it's a shitton more annoying than letting you know a key is nearby.

chrome://flags/#enable-tab-grid-layout
Then set tab grouping to Disabled, ought to do it. (May take more than one relaunch of Chrome before it works.)

[mharr]

Sooo my beloved has a passionate hatred of smartphones that has led to several being trebuchet'd into the ocean after interrupting oil painting flow state with some bullshit notification, but using the internet without Android is getting to be like using it without a browser - apps are now the only security check offered by our bank account and electricity company.

I'm genuinely looking forward to Microsoft's new Android App compatibility project, which is a first.

Meanwhile, we've picked up the most basic phone we can, switched everything to STFU mode, used adb to uninstall all the crapware, annnd discovered a uniquely shitawful thing Sumsung do on setup these days. Ignoring all "do not populate contacts" settings, their built-in SMS text messaging app automatically raids your google account for every email address you've interacted with in any way for the last hundred years and floods the Messages front page with them in alphabetical order.

So the first thing she sees on this new and already unwelcome device is a long-gone 'family' member that once kidnapped her young children and told them she was dead. (Plus years of gaslighting and abuse from them and theirs that ultimately broke her second son's mind, he's blanked all his siblings now and belives mum was the real bad guy all along.)

In hindsight, I recommend disabling Samsung messaging and replacing it with the default OS application before this happens.

[Silversong]

My phone has been doing a new, cute thing, where frequently when I leave wifi it says it's off data and cannot do anything except make phone calls, not even send texts. It does this now even in places where I have not had problems before (or while I was in Chicago, where I did not have problems later on.) Today while I was out I tried restarting my phone, and it fixed the problem. I have a Moto G and use Republic Wireless, and I have no idea if this is a problem with my phone or my provider. I feel like I'm already with the lesser evil, so I kinda hate to change providers but can if I must. They don't really have customer support which is annoying.

[Mongrel]

So, lololol, my phone is actually considered to be so outdated* that my carrier refuses to support it. AFAIK, you could in theory probably still use an old Nokia brick so long as it was a model which used a SIM card, but okay, sure, whatever.

I'd be mad at this forced obsolescence, but my phone IS kind of on its last legs. The browser isn't recognized by two thirds of the sites I visit, there's effectively no App store nor has there ever been one, the battery's dying, and most importantly the phone call speaker has died so I can only make phone calls on speakerphone. So, okay, fine.

Anyway, not asking for specific individual phone recommendations (though those are welcome), but really want I need are general recommendations for a manufacturer/keyword/archetype/OS/category that I should be looking within.

I really don't do much with my phone, so I tend to have extremely low requirements for cellphones.

- Small/medium in size
- Low cost... like damn cheap, I really can't justify or afford putting much into something which sees such limited use.
- Simple operation & OS; low maintenance software.
- Easy and unrestricted file transfer to desktop.
- Good battery life (doesn't have to be outstanding)
- Good signal (again, doesn't have to be outstanding)
- Reliable manufacturer/reasonable quality parts
- Rugged, as in able to to be carried without a case (I like the sort with rubber/rubberesque coatings over the shell). Doesn't mean I'm subjecting it to excessive abuse, I just don't want to add bulk in my pocket.
- Apple can fuck right off
- Huawei can double-fuck off

Actual functions really don't have to include much at all. I make only intermittent calls, do a fair bit of texting, and a tiny bit of occasional browsing only when needed. During the plague I usually leave my cellphone at home (I got sick of gingerly wiping it down early on) and seldom miss it when I do. I need it to be there when I need it, but want to forget about it when I don't.

What should I be looking at? I have my Costco membership if that matters at all?

*It's a Z10, the last generation Blackberries to use the proprietary Blackberry OS, rather than the current Android-based ones. haha, currants, blackberries, haha