Anyone for a quick game of ET?!

My other half has new Ultra, I have an older Ultra model. Stuff i find invaluable that she hasn't used once:

• S Pen
• Modes & Routines
• Secure folder
• DeX (to a lesser degree than the above)

I try to use my phone as a Swiss army knife. Stuff I rely on that most normal users likely dont realise their phone can do:

• Using Kodi the phone becomes fully fledged mobile media player. Great for vacations in case of poor weather (in conjunction with HDMI lead, controller/wireless keyboard)
• OsmAnd navigation has an offline Wikipedia plugin. I set up a shortcut in it so i can display/hide all wiki entries nearby. Brilliant when on vacation
• All my main apps will work offline in case of data outage: navigation, notes, password manager, books, music, podcasts, media etc etc
• Password manager has more uses than simply handling passwords
• Playing video sites in the background ...with a timer if desired
• Browser with uBlock "etc"
• Manipulation of .pdf files
• A good launcher. Mine is always set up the same regardless of device - I can access any app within 2 swipes & 2 taps
• A good car dock
• Most don't realise that a simple DNS entry can help reduce the amount of ads they see
• All manner of nerdy tech shit to interact with stuff on my network. No normal human needs to know that this usage factor exists

And most importantly ...using the camera in landscape so images/video can be viewed properly on a TV or monitor. And not using digital zoom in the dark to record an entire concert from row Q

I dunno if TV is dead per se as we all enjoy watching shows/movies. Not really interested in gimmicks - we only have 4K as all new TV's are 4K & we only got it because our previous TV failed & they can no longer be repaired.

All i want is a good quality dumb screen. You can stick all your smart features where the sun dont shine, I'll handle everything via a separate box that I control thank you. I'll not be at the mercy of your shitty EULA, you won't monitor my viewing habits or force ads into the UI or remove your dogshit apps without warning. Our TV has never been online, HTPC with a couple of USB TV tuners, uBlock Origin, an interface of my choosing, remote control & lots of storage handles everything. Still perfectly happy watching SD stuff, the only 4K we watch is YouTube.

Has anyone said Minecraft? I haven't played games myself for years (well before Minecraft) but live in a house where it was played for hours at a time. Soundtrack never became annoying & whenever I hear it it instantly takes me back in time.

They hype 4k/8k recording capabilities but the average buyer is unlikely to realise exactly how fast this eats storage.

I had to buy a new phone when my last one broke. Needed S Pen & external SD so I opted for a used Note 20 Ultra in conjunction with the same SD card ive used since I first bought a smart phone.

I self host my own Nextcloud but cloud isnt the answer. Even in this day & age in a big city or driving, streaming is not available all the time. I insist that everything important is available offline: maps, notes, all media be it music, podcasts, audio books ...even movies/TV shows seeing as these phones can easily be connected to a TV for use with Kodi or similar. Another thing is recording footage of holidays etc for editing. It all takes up space.

I'm of the opinion the external SD was only removed for profiteering reasons.

Some years ago before online banking, buying a fairly sought after but relatively uncommon type of used hot hatch car. Back then there was a strong chance potential car buyers would have cash for the transaction. Magazine ad made out it was from a dealership/garage. Something about the phone calls got my spider sense tingling, especially when they claimed the car was elsewhere so I'd have to meet them off site. I'd already traveled so thought what the hell, I'll look but definitely not buying from this chump outfit.

I'm a big muscular fella, just over 6 feet tall & around 19 stone of solid muscle so fairly intimidating looking & was standing leaning against my own car waiting for them to turn up. All of a sudden I hear the roar of the car, strangely with with a bunch of undesirables in it hanging out the windows. They slowed right down checking me out, thought better of it coz the driver floored the accelerator & disappeared. No doubt in my mind they were planning someone was gonna get mugged for a few grand that day. No doubt they'd done it before.

1. I don't want to scramble round in the dark looking for a Bluetooth "bud" when it inevitably falls out in the night
2. I don't want to have to charge yet more stuff
3. I don't want full on Bluetooth headphones, I have Sony MDR7506 when I want quality audio & a set of small in ear Sennheiser for nighttime podcasts

The point is, the dongle is simply not a good solution

I cant sleep without listening to podcasts & i charge the phone at night so this is one of the reasons why i was reluctant to upgrade my old phone.

When I inevitably had to upgrade I bought a USB C headphone/charging dongle for about €15. All good, I'd been worrying about nothing ...Until it broke within a few months so I had to go without podcasts for a few nights whilst I waited for the replacements to arrive (might as well be prepared & buy a spare right?). Guess what? The first replacement lasted a only few months again. So far, a lack of headphone jack has cost me an extra €45 inside of about 6 months. Absolutely ridiculous

Like others have said I too gave up on Play Store a long time ago. If I need an app it comes from Github, XDA, F-Droid etc. Obtainium for updates

• Google/Apple/Samsung pay. They've had enough data over the years without knowing my banking habits.
• Alexa/smart speakers. Always listening device in the house? No thanks
• Smart doorbell. I don't want to send data directly to whoever Amazon wants to share it with yet I can't avoid being recorded whilst walking the dogs round the neighbourhood
• AI. Nervous about where this is heading

• OsmAnd. Navigated me through numerous countries on holiday. Found us places to eat. So useful it persuaded me to start updating the map locally to help any fellow travelers

• Joplin notes. Use this every day without fail

• Nextcloud. Self hosted cloud that Ive come to rely on

Open sourced password manager + open source 2fa wherever available. For password managers many will suggest Bitwarden & i recommend that to my family for its ease of use, though I personally use Keepass (because it allows me to store multiple documents & have them readily available offline. Its not as straightforward to set up sync compared to Bitwarden, which does it by default).

I would never allow a browser to store any information such as passwords, credit card info etc

On mobile I use password in conjunction with biometrics. Sensitive apps are only ever stored inside secure folder which has no biometric access & has a different password to main area of phone.

I absolutely refuse to use google/apple/samsung pay.

Please consider password manager, once you wrap your head around not knowing any of your passwords except the strong master password it becomes second nature. Get out of the pen & paper habit!

Top tip. For any new signup, once you've generated a strong password make a note within the password manager of the email address you used to sign up with (yep, get used to using multiple email accounts). When that site inevitability suffers a data breach it makes life easier when they send the change of password verification email