kirk781

joined 1 year ago
[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 5 days ago

He was the frontman for Motorhead. Though he started his career in Hawkwind in the 70s, I think.

 

Too bad S25 base model still has only 25W charging support and a relatively short battery capacity of 4000mAh

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Today Weather is decent otherwise, has multiple sources as options and a clean, somewhat customizable UI. It also has a proper Wear OS app with complications support.

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 5 days ago

I honestly don't know what Pocketcasts folks are working on. Their forum has lists of issues where the official Wear OS app lacks so many features, doesn't sync properly and apparently can't run fluidly on my Galaxy Watch 6 even [Like how much memory does it need? Gnome on Linux probably is more resource efficient than their Wear OS app].

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 5 days ago

I use Obtanium actually since my main mobile browser is Iceraven which isn't on F-Droid by default. [It supports sideloading extensions that official Firefox doesn't].

IIRC, Pano Scrobbler is free but has a premium version as well on Google Play. I scanned through their Github and as of August 2024, the dev was working on implementing payment features without Play integration [like donating to the app and then getting a key for it which will be validated against license servers]. I used to sideload Premium variant of Pano Scrobbler before from Mobilism.

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Reminds me somewhat of the Pocketcasts app. It had a one time purchase option once but then switched to a subscription tier instead. Ironically, if Google Podcasts were alive and being developed, then no one would have any need for Pocketcasts since the former had desktop playback and Google would have developed a first party Wear OS app as well(like Pocketcasts).

However, as is evident, Google killed the app and YT Music is not at all built for podcasts. If it categories as a podcast app, then it is the single worst I have seen for podcasts.

 

Even simple apps nowadays have become subscription only. Whilst I used to pirate most stuff in the past, but if the app in question is a small one time purchase, it's not bad considering you don't need to sideload updated apk's from Mobilism each time a new version is released (looks at some great cheap apps like Pano Scrobbler).

However, the trend has shifted towards the other side with everything from video recording apps(AZ Recorder), Weather apps(Today Weather) and Battery monitoring apps(Battery guru) offering subscriptions. Some have a high one time purchase option but some like the latter don't.

Battery Guru is an example of enshittification. If phones still came with removable batteries and companies supported them, then for the price of say, a 4 year subscription to the app, I could have just gotten a new replaceable battery. It's not like the app will magically stop my battery from degrading.

Whilst I have done piracy ( and still pirate stuff like films because no alternative, screw you Netflix), I tried to go the legal route for some apps since then updation and management of them becomes easier. But with the subscription scourge, I doubt devs are going in the right direction.

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 6 days ago (12 children)

Copyright warnings are fairly common in developed nations like much of western Europe and say, US right? Do they result in prosecutions as well( would it be worth it for an ISP to take an individual user to court and spend time and money on it?)

Copyright warnings are almost unknown in my country or much of the underdeveloped / developing world.

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago

I am also on Nicotine. I just tried downloading and it is working fine. My port 2234 is closed as per Soulseek official site [though users can download from me, I think].

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 week ago (6 children)

I tried yesterday and it was working. Is it not an issue with the client instead? Try Nicotine instead of the official Souseek client once.

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago

I guess I will give it a try someday. I originally had a Google Play Music subscription back in the day when it had a cleaner UI(and then Google killed it). I recently switched back to YT Music since ReVanced would usually play video variants.

I don't have much love for YT Premium since the official YouTube app is worse than NewPipe, say. Even after paying, you are shown adverts for purchasing say, merchandise from creators (that counts as an ad in my book).

I will probably give RVX a try once my current subscription ends.

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

RVX Music requires manual compilation, right? Also, does it properly play album version of songs? (YT Music ReVanced plays the video version of songs instead).

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 weeks ago

Yes, I have been using for some time. Works like a charm on the supported websites. Can even be installed on mobile Firefox if extension sideloading is supported. (Dunno if official Firefox supports it now but the forks Iceraven and Smart Cookie Web Preview do).

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submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
 

Some companies, most notably Google, have regional specific pricing for their products. So for example, YouTube will be significantly cheaper in India, let's say, than in the US because former's purchasing power is much lower.

However, not all companies do so and that is a prime motivator towards piracy, even for customers who want to go the legal route. There are many examples from niche ones like the streaming app History Hit to mainstream newspapers like New York Times.

I would like to focus on the latter. It's no secret that it's news app in moddable form is easily available though the games section is still off limits, I think. Still, I went to see how much their legit variant cost in my country, India. For first year, it was INR 1000, not bad, considering that rival newspapers in my country have a similar structure. The small thing is that after first year, it will jump eight fold. So, a subscription to a newspaper will cost annually more than any streaming service I can think of(and Atleast streaming services have to offload the Full HD streams from servers, news articles have a much lower bandwidth cost) and almost the price of an entry level smartphone per year.

It's almost as if NYT deserves to be pirated. It is almost as if they don't wish to take users money, even for those willing to pay. For a subscription, that is Twice more than Play Pass, YouTube Premium, Disney combined, it is almost laughable.

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Instagram Reels and YT Shorts are very popular in India, especially after the Tiktok ban. Curiously, whilst some Chinese apps are banned, Chinese hardware especially mobile phones are very popular in India.

Since the ban was done after a Sino India border clash, there was little logic as to why Indian users would migrate to other Chinese apps and the void was filled by domestic and international replacements.

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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de to c/interestingshare@lemmy.zip
 

A Snapdragon Elite phone with giant 7000 mAh Silicon Carbon battery, 100 W charging, 144 Hz refresh rate and even a 3.5 mm jack. All of it is let down by the fact that it's promised only one major OS upgrade.

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