I got started with RSS using a TUI program on unix, whose name I forget. But then Google came out with Reader (and Listen for podcasts). When they lost interest and dropped them, I exported my OPML and switched to apps I could find on f-droid. Now I back up my OPML scrupulously and am currently happy with Feeder and Antennapod; Google taught me I didn't want to depend on someone else's server for something like this; it's too important. If ever I find I want some feature that requires a server, I'll self-host something (Nextcloud?), but I seem to be well enough served by purely local clients.
I really hate video, prefer reading. But by reading the material to a camera, people get paid by youtube, and then set up a patreon for buying access to the material they read. Everybody loses, hooray:-(
Thanks! That sounds like a fun exercise for my next phone
If this comes through, I might no longer need Iceraven (andoid firefox with full addon support, like before they tore it out; I use it for Singlefile)
For me, the key is FOSS. I was a keen fan of swiftkey, its word predictions worked great. Then it was bought by a company that I distrust, and when I was forced to choose another, I decided to try to ensure I'd never have to switch again.
A little while after I bailed on swiftkey, the news reports came that it was auto-filling random strangers' credit card numbers; I felt vindicated.
when I wanted a lemmy app, searching f-droid only pulled up Jerboa, and I remain happy with it.
I'd love one. Preferably the opens-like-a-book style, not the vertical ribbon.
But I don't want to carry around something that costs that much. They're currently priced for someone with way more money.
I just searched on f-droid, found
BookWyrm (A BookWyrm client for Android.) https://f-droid.org/packages/nl.privacydragon.bookwyrm/
since podcasts are I think just RSS feeds of audio files (mp3 for those I've checked) the ads aren't in any way marked in the stream. The only thing I've found is adjusting the skip buttons in antennapod so that skip fwd does 10 seconds, and back does 5; that seems to let me avoid listening to most of the ad; tap fwd until it's back in material, then back once.
But I listen to a lot less podcasts; if I want hands- and eyes-free material I'm more likely to use TTS in my (text) RSS feed reader of choice, currently Feeder.
If what you want is the recorded performance of someone reading a book, then yeah, librivox for legal audiobooks, and other commentors have other amswers that are on-topic. But DRM-free ebooks
text things, like epubs
can be read aloud by good ereader apps. I like Moon+ Reader Pro from Google Play, and Cool Reader from f-droid. For me, the emotionless robotic reading of TTS engines is more like a hands- and eyes-free way to enjoy the author's words as written; I find listening to someone performing an audio reading of the book a different experience.
Before ebook reader apps learned about TTS I used to take my txt ebooks, feed them through flite (Festival Lite), then convert the resulting audio to ogg vorbis and load them on an iRiver PMP to play during long drives.
Jerboa. When my previous preferred discussion forum decided to erect a paywall, closing out third-party apps, I came here; and searching for Lemmy on f-droid got me Jerboa. For a while, the app was spontaneously exiting, but before I was driven to try another, it seemed to have gotten fixed.
I find keep terrifically useful. But it is not supported by Google Takeout, so when they turn it off, I'd lose everything. I'm currently trying out sNotz from f-droid as a replacement.