There’s a certain “people’s republic” where they introduced a new government signature on all android apps. For “safety”, as they “check” the apps for you 😉
For now it can be bypassed after three pages of scary warnings but in the future?
Maybe it could be a big reason of why they’re liking harmony os that much, you don’t need to manually approve android apps if android apps are completely unsupported
Why is your phone half a meter long?
What a fucking nightmare
Yeaah… im starting to really dislike phones tbh… i might start sticking to my laptop from now on, infinitely less restrictive
That’s a perfectly acceptable plan, were it not that a laptop is much less handy. It’s cumbersome to use a laptop while standing in a crowded bus, for instance, that’s what a phone is good for.
And also there’s a million things that are app-only. You can use an emulator, I guess, and I suppose on a newer laptop than mine it might even run smoothly.
You’ll be treated as a freak if you can’t produce a smartphone in certain situations, though, and the impact of that is underrated.
I did exactly that many years ago. Ditched my phone and went with x86 UMPC with builtin 3G modem, the name of which I don’t remember because it was some random Chinese no-name. Unfortunately that experiment coincided with the era of “fuck websites, we’re going app-only because we’re so hip”. I was in a world of pain right off the bat when I got a carrier plan, specifically marketed for usage on PC’s, and it did not work. I called them and they said to me:
- Do you have Android or iOS?
- I only have Windows
- Windows phone?
- No, Windows 8…
- Well, you’ll have to use the app to activate the SIM card…
Turns out, the usage on PC’s meant tethering…
Lots of online things, if they were even available as websites, were highly cut down versions of apps. And SMS 2FA, goddamn. I remember not being able to buy booze and shoes because, apparently, phone confirmations were required in those establishments. Good thing they’re fading out in favor of TOTP and passkeys. But, at a time, I had to swtich to a carrier that allowed me to use “corporate” features like SMS forwarding and SIP telephony. Also, fuck WhatsApp, that shit can burn in all fires of hell.
On the other hand, I really miss that time. It was liberating, just not having like, a few dozen malwares in my pocket tracking me down just to track someone’s dog, or a bus, or to spy on someone’s buying preferences or whatever. But things have gotten quite a bet better over the years, so I’m kind of inclined to repeat the experiment with my new-ish OM3S which I carry because I still cannot imagine going out without a proper PC on me (don’t buy it, though, it is severely underpowered, better get something GPD instead).
What about a mini laptop?
Or, alternatively, one might opt to look at the world around them whilst they are using public transportation, instead of solipsistic immersion into a screen.
I was led to understand that “terminally online” was an undesirable state to exist in.
That’s only on their local android varieties though. That looks like a Xiaomi/Redmi phone? In that case head over to xiaomi.eu, download the EU version of the ROM, and flash it following the instructions there, it’s very straightforward.
With Oppo and OnePlus phones it’s equally simple, there are a ton of how-to’s over on https://forum.xda-developers.com/ for all models. If you stay in China, best get their Indian ROMs, the EU ones have some mobile bands inactive that are not in use there, but are in Asia.
For other phone manufacturers, it’s anywhere between trivial and impossible (Huawei for example). Xda-dev is your best source of info usually.
More recent Xiaomi phones for the Chinese market have locked bootloaders. Their European counterparts can still be unlocked, but they have tightened that as well, supposedly because the CCP told them to.
Typing this on a Poco F6.
Crap. I got OnePlus 7 pro and 10 pro in China and could still unlock them easily, haven’t checked since.
Global users can unlock Xiaomi phones, but have to jump through more hoops and deal with restrictions. For example, there now seems to be a daily limit on how many devices their server accepts to unlock. Took me three tries to be successful in the “first come, first serve” line.
Afaik, Chinese users are now dependent on paid services to unlock their phonew for them. How they get around the official restrictions? I don’t know.
