It deeply saddens me when people pay money for locked down hardware that’s not only designed to spy on them, but their family, friends, and neighbors as well. Ring, Amazon Echo, Google Home, that creepy Facebook robot screen…all insecure spyware.
OP, Louis Rossmann would love to hear your story. He makes videos about anti-consumer shenanigans like this.
Wow that is awful. I hope that never happens to you!
Just curious: why do you use a vpn for gaming?
Sony’s Xperia phones are fantastic and the bootloader can be unlocked on most models (check the sony bootloader unlock webpage to check). Xperia phones have a micro sd slot, headphone jack, and physical camera shutter button. I have an Xperia 1 iii running LineageOS w/microG and it’s fantastic and stable. Bit of a learning curve to set it up though.
Depending on where you live, I would recommend the new Xperia 1 VI; Sony is promising support for three OS versions and four years of security updates. It’s not great but it is far better than what they previously promised with their phones.
I have an Amazfit Bip 5 with Gadgetbridge and for the most part it works just fine. It even accurately recognizes my bicycle workouts, something my Apple Watch Series 5 could never manage to do. For $80, I am very satisfied.
On the flip side, the Sleep and Do Not Disturb modes let through calendar notifications and sounds no matter what, which is mildly infuriating.
I also deleted the Zepp app after the initial pairing, so maybe that’s part of why my experience is different?
I am in the US and went to Sony’s bootloader unlock page and they say that the US variants of the 1 iv and the 5 iv cannot be unlocked. It doesn’t mention other models until you enter your model from the dropdown list.
INTERESTING NOTE! For anyone interested in the new xperia 1 vi, selecting it from the dropdown list brings up a note that the US and JP variants cannot be bootloader unlocked. Does this mean the 1 vi is coming to the US after all?
Wow, I did not realize this! Thank you for the heads up. That should absolutely be illegal imo.
OMG thank you I didn’t know that!
I kept pressing and holding and got annoyed that the change keyboard dialog would pop up. Pressing and moving is the secret!
Ooh in that case I may try using it for typing again. My typing accuracy on Heliboard is abysmal.
What don’t you like about HeliBoard? I have it and FUTO both installed, but I prefer HeliBoard due to its ‘hold space bar to move cursor’ option. Then I use FUTO for the occasional SpeechToText.
Hey now, Pandora still pays 0.133 cents per play to the artists like they always have!
Surprisingly, it’s more than Deezer pays (0.11 cents).
So on a good month, 10 to 15 cents of my $5.00 subscription will go to the artists.
…I think I just talked myself out of paying for this subscription any longer.
Unfortunately North Carolina’s current abortion law is 12 weeks. That’s unacceptable.
I think it’s to send a message that many people feel disinterested in the olympics for whatever reason.
For me, I am disgusted that the the olympics have turned into a corporate money making machine. Hosting countries will pick a huge chunk of land to “terraform” into a games site, with little regard to the people who live there or nearby. They’ll displace residents, make people build the infrastructure for low wages and in poor conditions. They’ll spend billions to try and make snow where snow doesn’t naturally occur. The ecological impact alone is massive. There’s also the issue of the housing for the Olympians being substandard and dangerous. I’m not claiming that this happens every time in every country, but it’s certainly a problem and I don’t want to be part of it.
There’s also the issue of banning trans athletes from competing, which continues to be rooted in ignorance and hypocritical disagreements around what we define as fair. (Bring on the downvotes, I don’t care.)
I debated posting this at all because it’s off topic, but the question was asked so I gave my perspective.
Well, fuck Capcom I guess.