Thoughts on my smartphone
Fri, 06 Feb 2026 18:00:57 +0100

I have a Samsung A53, and I realised that I've been spending too much time lamely scrolling through
youtube instead of going to bed. So I deactivated the app, because Google doesn't want you removing
apps through which they gain a good chunk of your personal data, that would be silly of them, right?

So why don't I remove the root of the evil?

Ideally I should use an alternative OS such as Graphene OS ot LineageOS, but unfortunately LineageOS doesn't have a ROM for this model, and Graphene OS is for Google Pixel phones only. But a new phone isn't cheap, and I started wondering if I even need a smartphone, I mean hold on, what do I use my smartphone for?

- protonmail
- bank app
- comaps/osmand
- web browser
- mastodon
- Wotsap sigh, getting my family to use something like Deltachat is mission impossible.

oh and er, phone...

I don't use phone payment apps, I dumped facebook years ago, no instacrap, etc. Protonmail because I used to run my own mailcow mailserver but as the entire OVH ip range is blacklisted I got annoyed with bouncing emails and gave up. 

I had a slew of other apps that I dumped as they were just sitting there unused after the first use.

I could just get a dumbphone, keep the A53 in a box, and use the rest on my laptop.

The clients of personal mobile computers/phones have been trussed up like a pig on a spit. 





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