Any software recommendations and stuff? I mainly want to use it for streaming videos and playing ps2 emulator, not so much emulating but just to try it out. Anti virus stuff, things in this realm- been using banana phone for years haven’t had android since high school.

  • hexinvictus [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    No one uses an antivirus on their phone.

    Check out stremio. It’s great for pirating movies and tv show. If you’re in the US. I’d invest in real debrid($3 a month) which converts torrents to regular links so it doesn’t look like you’re torrenting to your ISP

    Jerboa is my favorite lemmy app

    Trunks is my favorite mastodon app

    • Southern Boy
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      2 months ago

      Great recommendation. Keepass can do a lot more than password management, you can store documents and contact information etcetera, plus their little gadget keyboard is far more precise than autofill.

      Firefox default by itself is basically Chrome these days with the amount of Google crap in it, but at least you can use good addons.

      Also get Seal on Fdroid yt-dl is way versatile outside of youtube. Has sponsorblock in it. Phenomenal.

          • someone [comrade/them, they/them]@hexbear.net
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            2 months ago

            Closed software, proprietary software: You buy a loaf of bread from a business. You’re not allowed to figure out the recipe, you’re not allowed to share it with friends and family, and the bakery has the right to take it away from you if they don’t like the way you’re eating it. Examples: Windows, MacOS, Adobe’s various software.

            Freeware: You get a free loaf of bread from a business. You’re still not allowed to figure out the recipe or to eat it in a way that the bakery doesn’t like. Depending on the license you might be able to share that bread with friends and family, but it might instead limit you to telling them where they can get their own free loaf of bread. Examples: First-party apps on phones, such as Google’s own Android apps or Apple’s own IOS apps.

            Free software: You get the loaf of bread and the recipe for free. You can share either as much as you want with anyone. You’re free to tweak the recipe and share the tweaked recipe with others. The only thing you can’t do is distribute bread made with your tweaked recipe without also providing that tweaked recipe for free. Sometimes developers use the word “libre” instead of “free” because in many romance languages it has the right connotation that’s missing from the english “free”. Think “free speech”, not “free beer”. Examples: Firefox, VLC.

            “Open source” is a term that’s more nebulous. Depending on the specific software license it may or may not work like the “Free Software” above. It’s honestly a rather meaningless term these days.

            The recipe above is the program’s “source code” - the human-readable programming that can be turned into a working program for a computer to run. Free software has a side benefit of allowing programmers to check for deliberately-planted security flaws. Such a check (often called a “security audit”) can take a long time and requires trusting the people doing the audit. But at least it’s theoretically possible to check for such flaws in free software. In closed proprietary software, checking for such deliberately planted flaws is far more difficult.

              • someone [comrade/them, they/them]@hexbear.net
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                2 months ago

                If you just want to run ad-free and reasonably-privacy-friendly apps on your android phone, no. If you stick to apps you can find on F-Droid when possible, and use only apps from the Google play store if there’s no alternative, you should be OK.

                If you have more specific security/privacy concerns then things get more complex.

  • Weedian [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    I use the Connect lemmy app and an app icon changer to have a hexbear app

    Instander 3rd party Instagram app, no adds and you can watch things without showing you viewed them

  • Lawn_and_disorder [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    Adblock by DNS or VPN, GOS, Calyx , or other Decent rom. Neo store for apps, gapps on separate profile, none on main. Keepassdx, syncthing, newpipe, email with k9, tutanota or proton. Shattered pixel dungeon 😃

  • pnwml [she/her]@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 months ago

    F-Droid or Obtainium for applications. Decouple and log out from the Play Store, if you need a proprietary app there’s proxying through the Aurora Store.

    For PS2 emulation, theres the NetherSX2/GrindrSX2 community that picked up where the AetherSX2 left off. For streaming it’ll depend on what service you’re using. F-Droid has alot of Youtube Frontends.