Yes, that pizza for Bitcoin story is quite popular, though it happened in very early days of the currency. Also, I assume you meant NFTs instead of NFCs :p. For a second, I was wondering what did near field communication had to do with this.

It is quite common, in places like the Indian subcontinent. Though I really doubt Tinder will be able to make any significant dent of it’s own in this domain here.

Yes, this one I think I tried some time before. It is not perfect as you said but it is the closest Firefox has. I think I will give it another go to see how the extension has matured.

Yesterday, I was trying to simply automate turning on/off Wifi via Tasker at a set time. Turned out Google has removed API access for this pre Android 12 only and can’t be done. If Google wants to be make an IOS clone, then it is doing very wrong, IMO.

In android 14, they still allow sideloading via stuff like F Droid or apk’s downloaded from internet? Or does the user has to confirm a prompt everytime? At the rate Google is restricting stuff, maybe some years down the line, the only way to sideload apps would be via adb.

There does exists one. But when I last tried it, the experience was worse than what a native integration would give. It wasn’t streamlined as in other browsers. It doesn’t matter much since I only use YouTube Music as a PWA, which I have a relegated to another window in another browser.

Off topic, but screw you Google, for not giving a native app. Spotify meanwhile has command line third party clients even(looks at ncspot) for Premium users.

I follow Ghacks, a tech site, as well and boy there is a Brave shill on there who attacks everyone there for daring to say anything against it. He knows stuff, judging from his comments, yet is so anti Mozilla and pro Brave that I can’t understand. Almost thinks anyone not using Brave is inferior.

I have Kiwi installed and like that desktop Chrome extensions can be installed on it for the odd occasion. However, IIRC, it is updated infrequently and isn’t recommended as a daily driver.

There is Fennec available on F Droid that is basically Firefox with some blobs removed. Not as hardened as Mull but still a worthy option. There is one more browser based on Firefox called Iceraven for Android but it is not available on F Droid even. Though it supports a much wider variety of extensions than mobile Firefox does as of now. The downside is that it gets security updates usually later than Firefox, being an independent project.

I like Firefox because it allows, Atleast for now, customization via userchrome.css files. I once tried Edge and hated it’s bloated right click context menu. Meanwhile, in Firefox, I can trim down the context menu to only basic elements.

I do wish Firefox had proper PWA support, but otherwise I have been using it as the main browser on both PC and phone(since uBlock Origin is supported on it, the only Chromium browser to support it is Kiwi Browser on Android).

The company also prohibits users from trying to use third party inks, right? Also, I am surprised at the app fication of everything. One shouldn’t need an app just to print something. Almost like tech is taking one step forward but HP is taking two step backwards.

Well, one does need to sideload two apps, a browser and then the corresponding xpi file which will install the add on.

There was/is an alternate way on Firefox Nightly, I think to create a custom add on collection which will add it to mobile Firefox normally. But yes, you are correct, only a miniscule amount of people would care to run it on Android(though it is always nice to have a workaround).

True, geographic diversity is a thing. Smaller phones like iPhone mini or Zenfone didn’t caught up in the Indian market. But, should demand exist for them, atleast some companies ought to be making them in some parts of the world. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be happening and that presents one less choice to the customer.

India has the largest population of English speaking folks anywhere in the developing world, I assume. That combined with the fact that it already has a base of IT workers trained in this sector. (after all, outsourcing some kind of jobs to India has become the norm, not the exception).

Also, this is hardly a political issue. As a developing country, India rightly has many more pressing issues to deal with and people here often tend to skew towards that. This tends to put these scamsters on the back burner and seldom, action takes place. I, myself, was almost taken in by such a scam where they almost beguiled me into sideloading a malicious apk. Despite this, I cannot do much since proving cybercrime is much tougher here(especially when someone just attempted it, but was not completely successful).

You see so many people asking for smaller phones in the forums and places you frequent.

They do not necessarily represent the views of the common public. I personally could do with a slightly smaller phone because the compact size allows for easier holding with single hands. But, sadly, I have not seen folks around me deciding which phone to buy based on their screen size. Neither is that a priority for them. Simply put, our Venn diagrams do not fully overlap.

It’s alright. I can relate with the sentiments of these posts. It wasn’t a change that folks were expecting which Google is rolling out [is it still in A/B testing or slowly everyone is getting countrywise] and since people’s primary email account is often linked to GMail, there is always a fear that too much overriding might cause a ban[ though Google hasn’t done so in the past till now ].

Some months ago, in email transcripts between Apple employees from years ago, they were discussing about the possibility of bringing iMessage to Android but ultimately decided against it because it was the product that kept users locked in to their iPhones. It isn’t a technological problem to bring iMessage but a corporation-al one.

That is true. I hate Shorts and have to block it via uBlock filters. Also, I hate their mobile app. I can’t select a precise app wide video quality. There are only two options: High and Low in the settings. I need to go to Advanced settings upon playing each video to manually set a precise video quality, say 720p. This experience is sub par and below what NewPipe used to provide. I mainly use YouTube Music as a service but they bundle YouTube Premium for little onto it.

Anyone who pays for premium is a fucking loser.

What a subtle take. Anyone who doesn’t conform to my view points must be inferior.

Everyone actively working at the google enshittification should honestly consider jumping off a fucking bridge. You’re an awful person and you make the world a worse place to be in.

Yes, inciting people to kill themselves, sure. You do know there are many corporations (cue the oil and gas industry) which are monstrously worse than Google.

Anyone who really thinks that Google right now is the main thing making the world a worse place sure lives in a bubble. But then, these YouTube bad posts I have been seeing since almost over a month ever since this thing started rolling out. I get it, it is bad but would you stop harping over it like it is the end of the world? There is more to tech than just posting Google bad every alternate day.

they have brand loyalty

Oh, they have some brand loyalty atleast. In my country, Apple has a miniscule market share across all domains[ laptops or phones included ]. They recently launched 2 Apple Stores in a bid to slowly extend themselves inside the market. Quoting from a news article

Another Apple loyalist, Vivek, who waited in the queue for 17 hours to get his iPhone said, "I have been here since 3 p.m. yesterday. I waited in the queue for 17 hours to get the first iPhone at India’s first Apple store.

Err, going through threads of conversations on both reddit and lemmy regarding YouTube, one would assume ad free access is the norm and Google even daring to offer Youtube Premium is a bad thing.