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We Must Break The Chains
(media.piefed.social)
Apple and Google will gladly erase the works of developers to chase profits.
My plan going forward is to either make or buy a basic small cyberdeck type system. Using my phone as basically little more than a glorified cellular modem. Or for isolated calls or SMS.
Looking at investing in and setting up some mesh halow infrastructure at home and a couple other places to reduce the need for the cellular modem part a bit more.
Hear me out; steam deck as a phone. WE CAN BRING BACK SIDETALKING
You jest. But those of us born in the 70s and before have first-hand knowledge of this magic device.
Behold! 30 minutes of total talk time, with no curly cords or anything!
LOL a Steam Deck isn't even that absurd.
Turns out it's even less absurd than I originally thought! https://github.com/ryanrudolfoba/SteamOS-Waydroid-Installer Waydroid can be installed on the deck, and from there I can do what I want with decent hardware.
Oh, yes, I keep forgetting way droid isn't as well known as I think it is. But, absolutely, combine that with a Bluetooth headset and it's almost sensible.
If I remember correctly, it didn't Windows 11 also have some ability to run Android software as well.
Bring actual steam games to phones!
I just need two things myself. SMS and phone. Maps would be nice, but I can use an old phone for that.
A cyberdeck with just VOIP/SMS would be awesome.
Even something arm-based, like a Raspberry Pi, can still run a KDE instance and allow you to connect to your phone through KDE Connect. There's definitely a lot of possibility there, as long as you're willing to keep around an old non-flag-ship phone as a modem.
Maybe check out the Pocket Reform and look into WWAN modules with SIM cards that have service in your geographical area.