If we put aside the environmental damage and the capitalist aspects of LLMs, I fail to see why I should change the way I use my devices to let some hallucinating algorithm do stuff. The only times I use it is when I’m really stumped coming up with relevant search results, and even then there’s more than 50% chance that it’s not gonna achieve some break through.

I don’t want Gemini. I want Google to Keep Android Open.

We’d better keep Google in the know that we still don’t accept this.

I’m reminded of a few things. Enpass giving away Pro subscriptions, then years later on adding a higher tier, Premium. Nova’s Prime will apparently become just one tier of many premium tiers for the app. Podcast Addict adding another subscription on top of the premium IAP.

This kind of shit happens all the time, and Plex could do it. Good thing I’m already with Jellyfin.

I want one with digital storefronts

Yeah, that was a thing. They planned to shut down the store and that didn’t come to pass for the Vita and PS3. Plan went through for the PSP though.

And I love my Vita! Still wish I got a PSP along with it though, always wanted one as a kid.

They’ll be shut down this year? Have you got a source I could look at, cause that’s news to me.

The majority of people

Stop using such shit excuses. Keep Android Open!!

It only sounds like magic because all of you succeeded at speedrunning “you will own nothing and you’ll be happy” into coming true, music, videos, games, books and even OSes (reminder for keepandroidopen.org). But it’s not magic. If you can download cat photos and memes, you can save and play MP3s. I’ve taken this feature for granted, and so can you.

Bandcamp lets you download music in several formats. I think Apple Music and Amazon are still viable for MP3s (but eugh supporting US oligarchs, Bandcamp is also US). Some people graciously offer MP3s on SoundCloud. When all else fails, use NewPipe or an app to convert YouTube videos into local MP3 files - in fact you may find links to buy and/or free download music albums in the description. Nothing about this is magic, and shouldn’t be.

The author is unnecessarily making the rebellion against enshittification harder, and neglecting to mention you can start now with current hardware to achieve the same desired results. You don’t need an iPod.

I went ahead and read the rest. It’s like the author is pretending Android only has Spotify and clones, and nothing to do the iPod’s thing. If you don’t have a system music player, go find one on Google Play or F-Droid. I had PowerAmp and ditched it because of its online activation DRM scheme, and for a while I had Musicolet before it had a subscription tier attached to it, and jumped apps until I settled on Retro Music, for now. A better app might dethrone it. Come to think of it, that’s a pro over the iPod, it’s stuck with Apple’s idea of the music player back then, but Android lets you choose upcoming and past players.

The intentionality of putting gigabytes of tracks and curating them after the fact is definitely way easier with Android, too.

Okay. I read a bit of the article. By a bit I mean I made it to the part where the iPod HDD and battery have been modded. This dude is leaving out half his side of the story.

You need to get MP3s for the iPod. Did the dude even try to put those same MP3s on their phone? Who knows. They spent a lot whinging about streaming apps and their enshittification, really funny. Local music apps are set up and forget affairs, I use Retro Music from F-Droid - zero enshittification, no subscription fees, and that version is free. The author can use it too.

I’m certainly no iPod modder, but I’m pretty sure you needed to install iTunes to get it to play literally anything. Android lets me play whatever from the SD card root, phone memory root, Download folder, or even if it’s lost in my screenshot gallery for an absurd example.

Heck, you can’t watch videos unless they’re encoded/converted in a way that the Pod can play them. Any modern phone can play anything with the system video app or VLC or something.

Not a concern to me at all, but the pod doesn’t have Bluetooth, so you’re practically required to use something with the 3.5mm jack. A decent phone should have both.

If you don’t want to receive a LinkedIn notification, turn off LinkedIn notifications. Android’s notification system has matured tremendously, no app will send anything unless YOU have allowed it in the first place. Or turn on Do Not Disturb, which the author says they did, but I don’t believe them. Bedtime Mode is an even stronger option, as it can hide your notifications. For the nuclear option, just turn off WiFi/mobile data - of course streaming apps will be unable to do anything in this case, but… Local music players will keep trucking on.

TL;DR Just download and use a LOCAL music player you’re comfy with and play the MP3s you already put on your iPod.

The iPod isn’t something you’re gonna hold constantly in your hands, like a classic handheld console where you can argue that you prefer playing GBA, PSP or Vita games on their original hardware, screen, buttons and all. You will most likely pocket it and only interact with it using your wired earphones. Your phone is still the best option here.

And just manage to push it unilaterally too. This shit must be opposed.

A change I still wholly reject. Everyone should reject this change. No compromises.

I do use Firefox as well, for non-work activities at home and in the office.

I used to use Edge at home, then ditched it. I used it recently at work and it is getting really enshittified. Now I’m between Cromite which works until suddenly the interface freezes, or Ungoogled Chromium which I haven’t got to work on the work laptop (it works now on my home Linux so whatever).

Edge used to be so much better before today.

Yeah I specifically picked a phone with a jack and SD card slot (iPods never supported these afaik). Do Not Disturb is also an Android feature, or airplane mode like the other reply said.

Sorry but

Why would I need another iPod? My phone does everything the iPod did but better, and more. I’ve loaded it up with all my DRM-free MP3s from Google Play Music before that shut down, and I can watch whatever I want on it offline. Why buy what would certainly be an even more enshittifird iPhone with less features at Apple’s totally sensible prices?

Okay Google.

KEEP ANDROID OPEN.

It uninstalled AnkiConnect for me. No warning first to tell me the app was malicious (it isn’t), no prompt of whether or not it’s OK to remove it. Just yeeted.

I had to disable Play Protect from Google Play’s settings, and that wasn’t enough as notifications would now pop up saying the app is malicious after I brought it back, so then I shut off those notifications.

When the warranty on my phone runs out or it’s under threat of not being able to unlock the bootloader, I’ll unlock the bootloader and put on a custom ROM without Gapps. Fuck this bullshit. And Google wants to make installing apps harder to feed its ego. Fuck billionaires.

…I should’ve added the /s, come to think of it.