I guess there is no need to introduce what a Degoogled phone is (or a custom ROM without google services, like GrapheneOS is) and the Aurora Store is basically said in a crude way the Google Playstore but without the need to log in to your Google account, quite useful in my opinion.

At first, what really concerns me is to run the risk of violating Google's TOS by logging in with my Google account on the Aurora Store to access my purchased apps, but at the same time I think, since Android is Google's operating system, can't they also retaliate against people using a modified version of their OS? And I know that sounds especially stupid when your phone is your phone and not Google's, but we all know how companies like Google work.

I don't use Google services on my device, but I do use it as a secondary email that I don't want to lose, hence the question, I know I can create another email but I don't want to have so many email accounts.

I know this is not a Christian community, but I recently discovered Tachiyomi looking for alternatives to Saikou and a good alternative to read manga (which I don't do much, but it makes me curious) is Tachiyomi and although installing extensions is really simple the vast majority have NSFW content (or hentai?) and Jesus, I want to look for Pokemon manga and if I install extensions randomly I end up finding things I'd rather not have seen before, and many SFW extensions "don't work" or give an error that something went wrong.

I've had a humble A10s for several years that has worked well for me but I want to replace it with something a little better and I don't want to go broke either, and besides, I want to emulate some simple Switch games like Hollow Knight, so I've been researching different devices in the $150 to $300 price range and although there are many interesting used devices in that price range (Like the P30 Pro) the one that catches my eye the most is the A71 because it has a Snapdragon 730, an AMOLED screen and between 6 and 8GB of RAM with a 64MP camera and a 1080x2400 display and can be upgraded to Android 13.

Maybe I'm a bit outdated because I don't know much about the phone market, but from what little I know it seems to me that it's a very good device and definitely an upgrade to my current device.

So my question: Why in general is this device so cheap? Is there something wrong with it? I mean, even on Ebay it has pretty acceptable prices when used phones with worse hardware cost more.

And, does anyone know if I can really emulate Switch on it? Either with Strato (Skyline fork) or with Yuzu. From what I've read in some forums and seen in some Youtube videos, it is in theory supposedly able to run Warzone and Fortnite, and even emulate some Switch titles like Smash Bros and having a Snapdragon (which I've read is the best option to emulate) does not have problems of emulation incompatibilities as other processors.

After using Nextcloud for a year and having a wonderful experience I'm not quite convinced, and it's not Nextcloud's fault, it's because I feel like I'm putting all the eggs in one basket (my notes, my ToDos, my calendars, my contacts, etc).

First of all, this feeling of putting all the eggs in the same basket came when one day I needed to access my Keepass database that was synchronized by Nextcloud to make a payment, and the problem is that I had the bad luck that for some reason the Nextcloud provider had their servers down at that time, so I had a bad experience because the database never charged and I could not make the payment (And it was a bank transfer, so it was necessary to make the payment immediately), and I really understand that neither Nextcloud nor Keepass were at all to blame in this case, it was my fault for depending on a Nextcloud provider but that really made me think again and since that day I have been migrating all my services that I used in Nextcloud to other open source services, for example, I changed Joplin for Notesnook and Keepass for Bitwarden, but I have not found an alternative to Nextcloud's ToDo, the closest is Vikunja which in my opinion is very expensive ($40).

I would gladly self-host my own Nextcloud instance and that's it, now everything depends on me, but I really don't have the time nor the knowledge to take care of a Nextcloud instance at the moment, and besides, I want to clarify that I am not naive, just stupid, since I had my Keepass database synchronized locally on my device with FolderSync but the pressure and the stress of the moment made me forget it.

Thank you!

Recently I remember someone had made a post asking about apps that "unlock special things" on android, and this post is for all of you who want to unlock your android device to the max!

I wanted to share the link to the repository for each app but besides I'm tired of writing, there are apps that have migrated to Gitlab (like Droid-rec) and then back to Github and I really can't find the link to their repository and I really don't want to create a mess of missing links that don't work and apps without links to their repositories! If someone has time and manages to find the repository of each app please add it in the comments and I would really appreciate it. If you have Droid-ify make sure to enable Izzy's repository and you will be able to see absolutely every single app in this list.

AutoMute: Have you ever been sent a moaning video or opened a noisy video/audio and forgot you had left the multimedia audio on max by mistake? AutoMute allows you to mute your device's multimedia audio after a certain amount of time, and has different settings to customize.

Droid-Rec: Droid-Rec is undoubtedly the best app to record your screen on android, besides being considerably customizable it has the great feature of being able to record the internal audio of your device, unlike other apps that you need to use the microphone of your device for that and the audio ends up being disgusting.

Coffe: Have you ever needed to keep your screen on for a while but going to your system settings is a pain? Coffe allows you to change the automatic timeout of your screen with a single click from the tray (the buttons that appear where the notifications are) of your device, you can even make it never turn off at all.

RethinkDNS: RethinkDNS is an app that works as a VPN to provide a system level firewall (meaning that if an app has ads and you have the filter to remove ads, you may not see them anymore). Besides having functionalities to work as a proxy and a DNS changer, RethinkDNS has the absolutely great function to see the logs or pings of each app by IP, absolutely useful if you suspect that an app is doing something weird, and you can even cut its access to the internet in one tap.

OpenContacts: This app is an app that may not really fit in this list but it has a functionality that I'm sure many will love! Have you ever wanted to send a message to someone on Whatsapp or Telegram without having to add them to your contacts? OpenContacts is simply an app to manage and make calls but it also allows you to open phone numbers in Whatsapp or Telegram without adding a number to your contacts!

Termux: A simple shell for Android, basically a terminal emulator to execute commands. For me it is especially useful in different scenarios, for example, using ffmpeg to edit a video or using yt-dlp to download videos without needing a GUI.

URLCheck: URLCheck is an extremely useful app that opens automatically when you open a link, it allows you to shorten links or skip link shorteners, detect dangerous sites (you need a VirusTotal account) and even redirect your links to privacy related front-ends, like Piped.

Shizuku: Shizuku can be defined as a kind of "root" that uses the Android debugger mode to use adb commands without any kind of modification to your phone!

(IMPORTANT: To use some apps from the list below you need to have Shizuku or adb)

Droid-ify: With Shizuku active, Droid-ify (an F-Droid client, note that this one doesn't need Shizuku) allows you to activate the "Shizuku Installer" which allows you to update apps in the background or install them without interaction, just press "Install" and that's it, just like in the Playstore.

Canta: Canta is a special program in my opinion. Canta allows you to uninstall any app from your OS and gives you labels telling you if it is recommended to uninstall it or not, and also most apps have a description about why it is recommended to uninstall it. In my special case using a Samsung device I got rid of all Samsung bloatware and I can swear that my device is at least 30% faster overall.

aShell: aShell is an app that allows you to launch adb commands directly from your phone without the need to connect it to a PC, very convenient in my opinion.

LogFox: Have you ever had an app that crashes indescribably and you don't know why? LogFox allows you to save and record the logs of your whole system, including the apps you have installed and you can even set filters to save logs about a specific app and share it with its developer (you don't need Shizuku either, but you need adb and with aShell you can access it).

SystemUI Tuner: This app is an absolute gem that I never heard anyone talk about! It allows you to customize parameters of your android that your manufacturer doesn't let you, for example and for me the coolest: Move apps to SD memory.

SaverTuner: This app allows you to customize the battery saving mode of your device with different saving modes that really save a LOT of battery.

(Like logfox, you need an adb command for this app)

A moment ago I unmounted my 1TB HDD with 400GB of content and I partition it into two different partitions, obviously keeping the space that was already occupied. I did because I don't care if the content get corrupted, but after I did it everything is still working perfectly, when I thought everything would be corrupted.

I am possibly a complete ignorant on this subject, but due to the nature of the HDD and how it writes and reads data I expected it to corrupt everything, why didn't it happen? On an SSD on the other hand I would not consider that possible because it is not even a mechanical part where the information is stored.

After some time of practicing PyQt I found out about Kivy, as a beginner which one can be considered with an "easier" syntax to learn? After several days of practicing PyQt I feel I would be throwing away my learning for Kivy.

PyQt is not that complex really but what I hate with all my heart is using Qt Designer and then exporting that to a .py file, I really don't like the way it formats the text, but that's just a personal detail. I know I can perfectly do it manually but all the tutorials and I mean ALL of them always do it in that way.

I want to clarify that I'm interested in Android application development, that's really a strong point for me of Kivy.

I've been learning Python by myself for about 3 years now and I can say that I know quite a lot but I don't really feel confident in my own programming skills and always after a while of practicing or reviewing I end up quitting because I feel exactly this.

I don't know how to explain it, but I really feel like I'm in a cycle repeating the same noob exercises over and over again.

For example, lately I have been practicing a lot PyQt but I really feel that I am wasting time when I don't learn a new concept or I don't memorize something and I need to look at my notes to remember how to do it, and also that practicing with online courses, especially with Youtube is often a challenge because the authors do things differently and I get confused by that. And when I want to learn something new the amount of information overwhelms me and I feel tired because of that.

As a Linux user I know that what I just said is stupid, because for example it is impossible to learn all the commands in the world, you just really learn the ones you use most regularly but in programming I feel that for example asking ChatGPT (or any ChatBot) counts as cheating for some reason, I don't know how to explain it.

I really consider this probably a mentality problem more than a skill problem because honestly even though I know I can I don't feel sure how to program, many times I even doubt the name of my variables or my functions.

Thanks for reading my silly post!

I know the question is rather awkward at first and I am possibly overlooking something, but I would like to know something I really don't understand.

In the past I have used modified versions of Spotify and they are fine but obviously no modified version allows you to download songs because it is a premium function at server level and honestly I would like to have my songs on my device, so if I don't have internet I can still listen to them.

After those modified versions of Spotify, I have used apps like ViMusic, Spotube and SimpMusic which are basically Youtube Music apps but without ads and with more features, including downloading music, the problem is that they do that at the level of the app itself, not in a separate file. And I love these apps and I can not recommend them enough but my phone is a little old and I see 0 need to change it since I use it for basics usage and although this can sound dumb the interface of these apps are full of blur and unnecessary effects that make my device slow, including Spotify, and I don't like Spotify Lite because I feel it is a very trimmed version of Spotify.

So this is where my question comes in, for those who exclusively download music, how do you discover new songs? Spotify's recommendation system is great and Youtube's radio mode is very good but obviously I need to use Spotify or Youtube Music to use it and I prefer to use light apps for local playback because of what I already mentioned.

Edit: Thanks for all the recommendations! I never thought this post would get so many answers and there are too many comments to answer one by one, but I admit that the old-school method of reading blogs or magazines works well, and I also like the idea of sites like Last.fm or discogs.

I'm subscribed to multiple RSS feeds from different websites but I really feel like not all those pages cover the news in an objective way.

gamingonlinux is a great place for example, but it mainly covers things related to Linux, Proton and Steam, and I would like to see news on different topics, but I don't like most of the sites I am subscribed because they usually abuse a lot of the same subject and it's tired to have my RSS loaded with news that I'm not interested in reading at first.

It would be great if you can suggest me sites that talk about gaming on general, whether PC, consoles and in general all franchises, not just those of a certain developer.

Thanks.

Does anyone know any open source FPS still maintained? I know some like Unvanquished and Xonotic and they are ok but I would like to know some others, if they exist.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

No, I don't mean Tetris, I mean this kind of classic arcade games.

At least in Discover (Plasma package manager GUI) I didn't find any similar game, only Tetris clones.

Thank you.