Samsung is expectedly non-compliant on S23 Ultra

https://www.xda-developers.com/poco-x5-series-launch/

A release of sm6375 and sm7325 device in February 2023.
If Google won't bend the GRF rules, these devices will only get one system update (UPDATE: or two, because they supposedly start with Android 12 as per @kacskrz). Aside from this fact alone, it's quite impressive that the VNDK these phones are running is two whole versions behind sm8550. I don't think a VNDK gap this big happened on freshly released devices very often in pre-GRF days.
Looks like Qualcomm really priced their S and T vendor SoCs too high.

Further cost cuts confirmed, third party clients won't be able to make Telegram send an SMS to you. You'll need an already logged in device to receive the OTP in Telegram service message if you want to add a session of a third party client.
https://news.1rj.ru/str/NekoUpdates/363

⚠️ Beware of seismic activity ⚠️
https://9to5mac.com/2023/02/16/exclusive-this-is-iphone-15-pro-thinner-bezels-thicker-curve-design-no-lightning-port-more/

The JUST DON'T LOGIN TO GOOGLE ACCOUNT FOR YOUR ENTIRE SYSTEM OR BROWSER thread:
https://twitter.com/MishaalRahman/status/1629315374679306240

Pricing of all the products that were launched today by Xiaomi.

Xiaomi 13 Series
Xiaomi 13 lite:€499
Xiaomi 13:€999
Xiaomi 13 Pro:€1299

Xiaomi Buds Pro:€249

Xiaomi Watch S1 Pro:€299

Xiaomi Electric Scooter 4 Ultra:€99

@EqualLeaks | @LaptopInsider | @EqualLibrary | @AutosInfo | @EqualWall | @EqualFacts

Welcome to Xiaomi officially costlier than Samsung

Do you happen to feel out-of-date with Android modding at times? It happens to me quite often, and until recently, the two topics I really wanted to tackle were SafetyNet and microG. Guidance on the internet can often be unclear due to changes between Android versions, ROMs and Google's backend, so it feels quite awesome to have a working setup. The short guide I wrote very likely applies to your own device too, but make sure to have signature spoofing support in your ROM.

Noteworthy fact and something unexpected from Xiaomi: you only gotta pay just 600 CNY (a bit under 100$!) to move from 8/256GB config to 16GB/1TB one. I believe that demand for high storage configurations could be artificially low due to typically high margins set by the phone OEMs on any non-basic and especially highest configurations.

https://blog.mollywhite.net/is-acceptably-non-dystopian-self-sovereign-identity-even-possible/

As Worldcoin is kinda trending again (and offered as a solution to high quality AI spam), here's a very relevant post regarding it.

News are saying that supposedly Gen Z is into feature phones now to limit their screen time. I won't elongate this message, but it's worth remembering that with a feature phone, the security risks of ancient devices and obvious/less obvious schemes of monetizing the user on newer feature phones are a real thing (including outright malware lending your phone number on sketchy brands). The latter may additionally get you poor build quality and software that runs slower than you'd expect.

Buy a first gen iPhone SE. It'll probably keep getting patches for zero click exploits once in a while, while the form factor was already insufficient to consider it a full fledged smartphone at the moment of release. :)

Additionally, you'll probably never run out of replacement parts for this phone. Apple is an ecological choice not really because of their own will, but because of the humongous volume of the few models they sell. For a third party component maker, making parts for an iPhone is an obvious choice, as long as they're not DRM-ed to extreme levels.

Ah, I'd forget. To be secured against 2G and its issues, you practically need LTE and VoLTE, as high chance your country is already phasing out 3G, while we all know how calls and SMS work on VoLTE-less devices, right? They switch to 2G/3G, whichever is available.

Slight disclaimer, as corrected by a friend:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72043231/is-sms-over-ims-that-important

Some (if not most) carriers will let you get an SMS on LTE without reliance on IMS, but the original point stands, unless you're confident in not needing to receive a call and your device lets you be LTE-only despite absence of VoLTE.

Impressed to see an informative teardown for something as "simple" as a charger:
https://www.chargerlab.com/teardown-of-original-125w-gan-charger-for-motorola-edge-30-ultra-mc-1258/

A relevant thing to say: it isn't fast chargers making your device unnecessarily hot, it's your device asking for brutal amounts of wattage. The protocols are good enough, but chargers just provide what they're asked to provide by device. Implementing user controllable charging speed is on OEMs.

I wouldn't want to hurt the economy of niche Android OEMs nor the idea of long term device reliability, both as an end user and someone who'd want to participate in the market. But there's a topic that felt off to me for a while.

You've bought a Fairphone 3 in 2019 for 450€. In 2023, before buying Fairphone 4:
- You have a 4 years old 3000 mAh battery (unless you spent 30€ on a spare one)
- You're running Android 11, unless you're on Android 13 beta or it's June, when stable build is meant to be released
- The device size compared to screen size feels wrong whenever you look around on devices of mortals around you
- Your camera is 1/2.55" format IMX363, unless you spent 60€ on 1/2.25" format S5KGM1 (which is a budget sensor) from FP3+
- Your warranty expired in 2021
- Your storage is 64GB of eMMC and your RAM is 4GB of LPDDR3