I can share files, links and clipboard items between my phone and my computer. Use my phone as remote control while watching stuff. I see phone notifications on my computer and don't miss calls when my phone is in silent mode while I'm at my PC. It has made my life so much smoother.
Out of curiosity can KDE Connect act as a Find My alternative?
I'm not sure, because I don't really know, what Find My can do (I think it's an Apple app, right?) What you can do with KDE Connect is make your phone ring to locate it. You can't access the phones location. I hope that was remotely helpful.
Sadly not as AFAIK you need to be connected to the same network as the device (at least on iOS)
Organic Maps for ... maps.
FluffyChat as chat client for matrix.
Joplin for note taking on any device.
AntennaPod for podcasts.
Organic Maps
Looks like it has supper detailed maps, has OpenStreetMap really gotten that good!?
OpenStreetMap is amazing. I always use the maps when I want to know details about some place. Much more detailed than Google Maps.
ETA: Especially when you want to go somewhere on foot or by bike, because Google Maps kinda sucks at showing footpaths etc.
It fully depends on the area. My city has only a few hardcore mappers, but that's all it takes to make it really detailed.
Everyone knows about VLC but I don't think many people know it has a really good Android app! I use it as my primary music app and it's great. Even has android auto support and a surprisingly sleek interface.
I'm assuming it doesn't work with Jellyfin or Subsonic, does it?
I haven't used those so I don't think so. But it lets you add music from local networks, and you can add streams from a URL (even supports youtube links, which is a way to watch youtube without ads without pihole or a third party app).
Huh, TIL - I've been using VLC for ages on my phone and on my tablet, but I never knew this. I just tried it - open Youtube app, select random Video, share, select VLC, wait a bit and it plays!
Mind blown
Off the top of my head
Oh shoot! I forgot about Bitwarden, I feel like I use it so much that it just fades into the background now!
I’ve recently discovered Organic Maps that allows offline viewing of open street maps. I’ve been using it since maps.me has completely gone down the drain with premium subscriptions and paid download limits (for the same open street maps data lol).
I've started filling my neighborhood in openstreetmaps because I want to use Organic Maps
Check out StreetComplete. It shows you missing osm data close to you so you can add that information directly. Very good way to get highly detailed information into OSM, like accessibility for stairs (handrail, ramps, etc.) or opening hours for shops (including updating older data)
SyncThing - to sync my files between devices and avoid the big corporations cloud (use it for notes, Keepass database, photos, etc)
Logseq - super advanced note taking with tagging and relationships between notes (all store locally)
Authpass - opening my Keepass password database on my phone
GrapheneOS Camera - just to avoid the Google camera app as I have Google Photos disabled on my phone and needrd a good app that doesn't break when going to view the gallery (since it tries to open Google Photos)
Simple Gallery - to view my photos on my phone
Signal - I have it but I have very few friends that use it unfortunately
AntennaPod - for podcasts, I'm thinking of self hosting a podcast tracker to sync my listening habits across my devices, we'll see if that happens
Vinyl Music Player - to play my local mp3 files and playlists (I use MusicBee to manage what I sync to the phone as my mp3 library is quite large, and SyncThing to actually copy stuff over)
SyncThing - to sync my files between devices and avoid the big corporations cloud (use it for notes, Keepass database, photos, etc)
Amen, sibling.
Logseq - super advanced note taking with tagging and relationships between notes (all store locally)
Quite nice, although I'm still struggling to integrate it with my workflow. I just haven't taken the time to learn how to best use it.
Authpass - opening my Keepass password database on my phone
Do you trust it? Why?
I'm really cautious (nervous) about the program(s) I give access to my kbdx. On the desktop, I've actually code audited the tool I use; I can't as easily do that on Android.
GrapheneOS Camera - just to avoid the Google camera app as I have Google Photos disabled on my phone and needrd a good app that doesn't break when going to view the gallery (since it tries to open Google Photos)
I've been using OpenCamera for this, but recently started using PhotonCamera - it has a great UI.
Simple Gallery - to view my photos on my phone
That's a good one. I ended up with Aves because it allows fairly complex filtering, and the UI is nice.
Signal - I have it but I have very few friends that use it unfortunately
A few years ago, I talked my wider family into using Wire, and now we're all stuck on it. It keeps getting progressively worse with each release, and sooner or later I'm going to have to pick something to replace it. I don't know what that will be, but it will be federated, and it won't mandate IDs tied to a phone number.
Vinyl Music Player - to play my local mp3 files and playlists (I use MusicBee to manage what I sync to the phone as my mp3 library is quite large, and SyncThing to actually copy stuff over)
God, I seem to change music players every couple of months. I guess I've been using Metro for a while and haven't found the thing that irritates me and sends me on a search for a new player, so maybe it'll stick. That's interesting about MusicBee, though - I've been looking for something like that, so thank you!
I'll add to your list:
Thing is, I'm running OEM Android, b/c I have a flip phone and don't want to lose the outside screen support by flashing. So I uninstall or disable nearly every built in app, and replace them with F-Droid apps (via Droid-ify). It's not much, but it's an honest living.
Edit MusicBee... oh, Windows. Oh, well. The search continues.
Signal - I have it but I have very few friends that use it unfortunately
It's a shame they got rid of SMS support. That was basically my selling factor when trying to convince someone to install the app. Now, it's next to impossible to get someone to install it...
Surprised no one's mentioned NewPipe yet
Not really an app, but I'm going to add https://kagi.com/ here; it's time for a shakeup in the search industry that actually works, and Kagi delivers.
Controversial, but Telegram is such a solid open source app in terms of UI/UX and a good middle ground between something like Discord and Signal.
Now that I've shared my unpopular opinions...
Kagi
Prices seem high... Features, seem nice (but not crazy):
(Source)
Additionally, it seems that they don't have seem to have any external audits or releasing of code (correct me if I'm wrong). Additional they have a web browser, that's only for Apple's ecosystem. Overall, you pay for no-ads, I feel like for this feature set you could just use DuckDuckGo with advertisements off, or the HTML version (which doesn't include JavaScript either). I'm kinda skeptical about it, but if it ends up taking off I'll be happy there will be another alternative to Google.
Kopia
This actually looks very cool, so many new backup solutions to try after this thread. 🥲
Prices seem high
They talk about their prices better here: https://blog.kagi.com/update-kagi-search-pricing. Including:
Q. What is your cost per search? A. Currently it is 1.25 cents per search. But search indexes are about to become several times more expensive and we now have the AI integration cost. We will try to keep the cost at 1.5 cents per search or below by rethinking our partnering strategy and investing more into our infrastructure.
“Boosting” and blocking domains: basically permanent filters.
I mean, yes and no; it's not quite a filter as it can tweak the ranking not just outright put something at the top or remove it.
“Lenses” - Similar to SearXNG’s different tabs, but more like a profile style system.
These are actually super cool because they put things like the old "site:reddit.com" trick on steroids and https://help.kagi.com/kagi/features/code.html is like site:stackoverflow.com on steroids.
Bangs are the same as in SearXNG, and I think you can do the same, or similar, thing in Firefox.
You definitely can do this in plenty of things; I don't think it's all that compelling really, but it's a nice feature none the less, and it's arguably easier to sync "bangs" than it is to sync these shortcuts between browsers and different software; but yeah, not a big motivator for me.
Custom CSS is cool and all but you can get that with a browser add-on (like Stylus).
Similar comment about the syncing of this; but yeah, this also wasn't a big motivator for me.
Their “Comprehensive result filtering” seems that same as every other browser
True, but I think it's there 1 for completeness, and 2 because the count of ads and trackers as a criteria is pretty unique to them. It's also quite a bit more user facing, and easier to work with than say, getting the same options from Google search.
“Widgets” - Seems like Google’s quick answers, user created ones are cool I guess.
Not sure what you mean by custom ones, haven't seen anything about that; but it's definitely in the feature parity category.
Don't forget things like redirects (change your lemmy UI?) and their own index, which includes things like wayback machine results -- particularly relevant with CNET deleting old content to boost their Google ranking.
Their generated summaries are also pretty cool, e.g. from the CNET article:
- CNET has been deleting thousands of old articles from its site in recent weeks in an effort to improve its search engine rankings on Google.
- CNET confirmed it removes old content to appear more "fresh, relevant and worthy of being placed higher than our competitors" according to an internal memo.
- However, experts say Google does not encourage deleting old content simply because of its age and that older content can still provide value to users.
- The perception that "the Internet is forever" and content placed online will always remain accessible has proven untrue over time.
- Link rot threatens old web content as links go dead and content disappears from original locations.
- Copyright trolls have pressured sites to remove old images rather than risk expensive lawsuits over fair use.
- Large portions of the historical web record are missing or inaccessible now due to link rot and deliberate content removal.
- Archives like the Wayback Machine help preserve some content but can't capture everything.
- Sites focused on SEO are driven to extremes like mass content deletion to rise above noisy search results.
- Archivists play an important role in preserving digital history by making copies of content before it disappears.
Additionally, it seems that they don’t have seem to have any external audits ... (correct me if I’m wrong).
They don't, but they do have a clearly worded privacy policy https://kagi.com/privacy.
or releasing of code (correct me if I’m wrong).
The search engine itself, no; but their browser extensions are open source: https://github.com/kagisearch/browser_extensions
This actually looks very cool, so many new backup solutions to try after this thread. 🥲
I've tried a lot of different backup solutions... I'd be curious where you're leaning, but I'd say this one is likely going to be your winner for ease of use, privacy, and cross-platform functionality.
On my PC
Rednotebook for journalling and Tomb to easily encrypt it through the command line
Librewolf because manually making tweaks to Firefox was kind of tiring
On my phone
PokerTH because I wanted to learn to play Texas Hold 'em without micro transactions and a required online connection
AntennaPod because I dislike using Spotify for podcasts
Aegis because it was easier to transfer authenticator codes. I think Google Authenticator now allows for local backups and exports
Edit: Actually the coolest (but least useful) has to be brow.sh. I'll attach an image but essentially it lets you run a browser through your terminal in a way that's a little more indepth than apps like Lynx.
In order to really see the extent of what it can do you really need to see how it handles video playback.
InnerTune. Basically all you could need for free music streaming. Beautiful FOSS client that rips from YouTube music.
Threema
Where Signal is secure - Threema is private and secure (e2e encrypted, uses PFS but doesn't need your phone number for sign ups. You can be 100% anonymous should you wish)
Threema
Yeah, but how many people use it (half-joking, I'm a Matrix user myself and understand the pain)?
I cycle to work. This takes like 60-70 minutes, there is a ferry ride. The app MoopMoop is like google maps and a weather app in one. It show the rain on your route.
SearXNG.
It's like having a search engine customised to my needs.
Automatically filters out SEO junk sites, and redirects links automatically (e.g. reddit.com -> old.reddit.com)
I'm using Aves Libre as my gallery app in my phone, i really like it, works pretty well and looks pretty clean. It can classify the media by the apps (It need to access to the app list to do this). To watch some videos i use Libretube, but it's a shame that (i think) there's no invidious related apps in android. And the maps that i use are from OpenStreetMaps, OsmAnd in my phone. Works pretty well despite not using google services that it is pretty good in my opinion. I also use it to add some notes or interest points and then back phone contribute with that i wrote.
I thought it was regarded as a dick move to put a lot of traffic through tor?
I hear such mixed messages about this and would love for somebody to educate me. Do we:
Avoid using tor to free it up for those who actually need it
Use tor whenever, and normalise it so that somebody using tor isn't immediately considered to be a journalist/dissident/person with something to hide.
Krita, a free and open-source art app
Elisa, a FOSS music player
Birday, an open-source app to remember birthdays and other events
Note to Self (Play Store), a note-taking app with a chat-like format, data is stored locally
I use all of those pretty regularly. Honorable mention on iOS is a program called Is It Snappy? which helps me measure input lag. It doesn't collect any data or run ads (rare trait on a phone app). I actually made a purchasing decision with the help of this thing to correctly conclude that the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller had a noticeable input delay (enough to make me return it). The funny thing about that was if I just looked up spreadsheets others have done I would have seen that same conclusion there, too, without having to go through the effort of buying it myself :P.
GNU Jami (pronounced Guh-nu Ya-mi) is a peer-to-peer cross-platform messaging and VOIP application. It uses an API called the Jami Distributed Network, meaning that the Jami network has no single point of failure. If you're familiar with TOR you'll understand where this is coming from.
Best part is that Jami is a GNU package; it will always be free/libre software or else Richard M. Stallman perself will break the kneecaps of every developer on the project /half-joke.
I forget what it's called, but I have one I got off F-Droid that just does a spectrogram of the microphone input. It's cool seeing the world yet another way.
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