In this case, you should get a 3D printer.

The thing is, what use case can benefit from a blockchain?

Scamming, gambling, crime and speculation benefited from the lack of regulation, but barely cared about the underlying concept of a bitcoin.

But for anything real, much better solutions have existed for decades or centuries.

Blockchain is a solution without a problem and has been that for 25 years now.

If you have a solution that hasn’t found a problem in 25 years, chances are that there will never be an actual problem that solution would solve.

So the killer apps of blockchain remain scamming, gambling, speculation and crime. Until there are more stringent regulations, then they’ll go back to Western Union and Paysafe cards.

Happy to help!

Btw, check out Netguard (either the F-Droid version or the one from Github, since these two versions allow system-wide adblocking).

And Newpipe.

If you don’t know these apps yet, they will change how you use your Android device.

As long as it still boots, you can undo the change with a simple adb pm enable [packagename].

I wouldn’t recomment disableing system critical things like systemui. You can google each package together with “Can I disable X” and you should get decent infos.

Regarding the launcher:

I don’t have a Fire TV but I had a Fire Tablet. So if these two work the same, you can install another launcher without issues. But Amazon removed the setting for default launcher, so it will always pick the stock launcher when you press the home button.

To override that, there are two options.

• Install the Automate app by Llamalab and make a small flow that detects when the stock launcher is the currently active app and then automatically launches the new launcher. This option is completely safe.
• Disable the stock launcher. If Android doesn’t find it’s set default launcher, it will instead open the first launcher it finds. Worked good on the Fire Tablet, but I can’t verify that this doesn’t cause issues on a Fire TV. So this might be a bit risky.

This here is the solution for what you want: https://www.xda-developers.com/disable-system-app-bloatware-android/

You can disable whatever app you want until the system doesn’t work any more. Just install an alternative for what you want to disable (e.g. the launcher) and then disable the Amazon version.

I wasn’t specifically talking about this product alone, but about the general trend. I don’t own any Amazon hardware.

A few years ago, piracy was all but dead because or really good offers like Netflix. All the stuff you wanted was there and the price was ok.

Now to get the same that you got for a tenner a month on Netflix, you have to pay for half a dozen of streaming services.

Youtube forces you to watch more ads than actual content. All services are increasing prices while decreasing what you are getting for that money. And all sorts of products are retroactively introducing ads.

I mean seriously, if someone bought that stick, they paid for it. They shouldn’t have to worry about updates actively making the device worse.

It’s an industry-wide trend that sucks, and it’s one that creates resistance. People start pirating, use adblock and some hack their devices. Not because it’s impossible to have a situation that suits everyone, but because they purpously use enshittification to suck more money out of their customers.

That’s why piracy is back on the menu.

Yeah, that’s true. I meant the software support/warranty aspect.

I’m getting some low-key Fairphone vibes there. Cool stuff!

How did you end ab with that phone? I never heard of that company.

That’s what the SoC supports. Let’s see what the phone ends up supporting. But I agree, it does sound fun.

You have a Qualcomm QCM 6490? Google told me, there is basically no phone out there that uses it, because it’s an IoT SoC, not one made for phones.

Happens if you run a phone for long enough ^^

With you on almost all points. Only the size didn’t actually increase. The phone’s dimensions are exactly the same. Only the weight went up a bit. The screen size was increased by using up more of the phone’s front side.

The phone is still a massive brick.

Yeah, well, they are just doing what custom ROM makers have been doing for a decade and a half.

My old Droid 4 was also EOL after Android 4.1. Custom ROM makers pushed this up to Android 7.1 by ignoring the parts (e.g. the Kernel) that they couldn’t update.

With the pace of OS updates that Fairphone had so far, it will be 8 years of OS updates. But only because the OS updates will be 3 years late.

The FP4 just got Android 12 earlier this year, with no Android 13 in sight.

There’s a clear trajectory where this is heading. From 2027 the EU will enforce replaceable batteries and it looks like some other markets might follow. Software support duration is increasing a lot as well.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d get most of the Fairphone’s benefits on a regular Samsung in a few years.

Let’s see. There is still no Android 13 on the FP4.

The high price actually cancels the point of the repairability. I can get a similar phone for easily €400-500 less. If I budget that extra price for repairs, I can get the battery and screen replaced quite a few times.

I say that as an FP4 owner, who did the same calculation mistake there.

Interesting how they went for an IoT SoC (Qualcomm QCM 6490), instead for an SoC that’s actually meant for usage in phones.

They probably did this to be able to get longer Android updates. As a side effect, that means it natively supports desktop Ubuntu and Windows 11 IoT Enterprise.

On the other hand, this is pretty much the only phone using this SoC. (There are three models by a totally unknown brand from India that use the same SoC.)

It’s going to be interesting to see whether that’s an advantage or a disadvantage.