Recommended apps

[WeTheNorth]

I was wondering if anyone has a recommended app (or a list of them) to help an individual get the absolute most they can out of the PM service? Are there any 'must haves' out there?

[B12]

@Korth 

I don't really believe that last bit.

Look at Apple. One of thee most villainous companies out there. They make repair difficult. Their systems are locked down. And people still go to them including myself. I hate the dependence of it but I invested enough into the ecosystem that I am now stuck with it.

Between android and ios. I prefer ios for the stability but stick to android for what little freedom is given. (shrug) Pick your poison...

[gpixel]

Just updated to android 11. I usually do a factory reset after such a big update, but it's running so good right now. much better than android 10. it's very snappy! I suggest updating to it if you can. if you decide to install a modded ROM for 11, try getting one with an official release and not a modded beta version

[Korth]

The big brands make far too much easy money from data mining and tracking. A temptation impossible for them to resist.

They don't want end-users to have any ability to affect the data. To monitor, observe, control, or audit the results. So they do everything they can to lock it all up.

The reasons they don't just go "all the way" and deliver a completely unbreakable black box?

There are laws about consumer privacy, fairness, etc. Must comply with laws.

There are standards built into the "open" OS software. Must conform with standards.

There is public perception. Companies which go too far get bad rep. Consumers mistrust the brand. New customers become apprehensive and skittish. Existing customers feel betrayed, and make a point of never coming back after they finally walk away.

[B12]

@WeTheNorth 

I recommend trying this guide, I use it all the time. No apps required.

I also recommend that when using this guide you skip the first command line for uninstalling and go straight to the "by-pass" command line. To me, this is skipping a half measure for a full measure.

https://christitus.com/debloat-android/

As far as rooting and security goes. Security is a huge facade in my eyes. It's used to convince us that we need overly policed areas that, in the end, reduce our freedoms and our so-called rights.

A perfect example... Your phone is supposedly "secure". If you attempt to root it, your phone will tell you over and over that you will void your warranty and it might also become unstable in the process. This sounds a lot more to me like fear mongering than anything else. "If you don't allow us to spy on you than we will just lie and tell you that what you are doing won't go well for you."

[Korth]

I heartily recommend rooting.

But first understand exactly what you're doing, what the tradeoffs will be.

OEMs issue the usual array of scary threats: rooting will void warranty, will void support and updates, will deactivate software licenses on their "added value" apps. Now they implement trusted root certificates in such a way that rooting breaks compatibility with their apps and services - you cut loose because you don't trust them, they cut you loose because they don't trust you - you're now on your own. Some people need their Apple or Google or Samsung services and app stores to keep running perfectly, they are disinterested in technical workarounds.

[WeTheNorth]

@B12

Ah man, that sucks to hear.

As for myself, I've come to the conclusion that I may have to root my phone to get rid of some annoying (and useless apps). For whatever reason, once I inserted the PM sim it installed Amazon Shopping and I can't seem to get rid of it, even using five or six different ap removal tools.

[B12]

I've been meaning to look for some stand alone HIFI DAC I just don't wanna carry it around. 😂

Also, below you will see my app drawer on my test phone. I put custom software on it (Resurrection Remix, android 9) and because putting Gapps (Google Play Services, basically) on it is optional, I left it out to de-Google. Aside from essential apps like the phone and texting, I think any given phone should be as bare-bones as this and if the user decides to get apps from the likes of Google, Samsung, Microsoft, etc... they can do so on their own esteem.

[Korth]

Let's just say my thoughts about "audiophile" align with NwAvGuy instead of with Head-Fi.

Cost, brand, popularity, and marketing don't impress me. They seriously don't. I'm a jaded old cynic with bad attitude.

Raw specs and actual measured performances do impress me (if they're good).

I believe external DACs (like an O2+ODAC) are inherently far superior across every performance measure than internalized components ever can be. Though admittedly it's not always convenient to carry around an extra chunk of hardware (with battery and maybe also wires). I don't have much faith in built-in audio capabilities, a single chip (or single block in an SoC) just can't beat a full circuit board full of discrete audio parts, plus the internal parts are badly located in the most truly awful electrically noisy place possible.

Wired FiiO E10K and wireless FiiO Q5s are superb devices for delivering "audiophile" sound quality from mobile devices, each not much bigger than a book of matches. They're also easily portable across any number of devices, so you can buy your "HiFi" device once then use it with everything you own now and for years afterwards.

A lot of the music you'll find online (at least most of the old stuff) is recorded only up to "lowly" 16-bit/44.1 CD quality. The finest audio magic in the world can't make bad recordings sound like good recordings, even cheap phones are capable of playing better.

My understanding - skimming through a bunch of reviews - is that the G3 comes bundled with a pair of ear buds "carefully selected to ensure optimum listening experience".

[B12]

I got my LG G3 today and to my utter dismay I need to return it or sell it.

To be short, I have very sensitive eyes or/and bright light has very adverse affects on me.

I'm not sure what changed since the last time I owned the G3 just that now it apparently hurts my eyes.

It's a real shame because I was actually looking forward to using it once more.

[B12]

@Korth 

I'll do my best. Unfortunately I don't know of any headphones that come with tweeters and having high, mid and low ranges help to determine how good a sound system really is. I miss my old sound system. 😞

I mostly agree with you on the whole tweaking thing. Go to https://www.fxsound.com/ and see what you think about what they have to say about tweaking audio. I don't recommend this software, for the record, I've used it and it sounds OK for some music and very synthetic otherwise.

[Korth]

I don't think we agree on the technicals. To me 24-bit is 24 bits of sample resolution, 192KHz is 192,000 samples per second, and no amount of "tweaking" (signal processing) during playback is going to improve sampling resolution or that sampling rate. The other important specs (frequency range, frequency responses, dB noise thresholds, etc) aren't published anywhere online - which should be surprising in an "audiophile" product - so they'd have to be determined by measurement or by hardware takeapart.

Nonetheless ... congratulations on your choice, I hope it sounds as good as you hope it should sound. I would be interested in your thoughts and comments - your "product review" - of the "HiFi" (and how it compares vs non-"HiFi" counterparts) once you've used it awhile. Few of the online reviews discuss it in useful detail, and (to me) their conclusions seem very contrived and biased to fall in line with the marketing material.

[B12]

@Anonymous 

I think I have good hearing. I'm in my 20's so close enough to teen. 😛

[Anonymous]

 @B12 

And unless you have the pristine ears of a healthy normal teen...you're not going to hear all the fidelity anyway. 🙂

But to have better reproduction would at least give one a better starting-off point.

[B12]

Yes they do tend to come with 24-bit/192Khz although that doesn't mean your listening experience will be amazing anymore than if you have a i5 or i7 in your system.

It's all how it's tweaked or produced.

For instance, having an i5 or i7 does not automatically mean your machine is incredible and performs well. This is often a misconception, there are low-end i5's, mid-end and high-end, same with i7's. My brother bought a laptop many moons ago and thought because it had an i7 in it that it was amazing. When you look up the actual model, such as an i7-2700K, you'll see its benchmark. The benchmark is what counts as well as the instruction set built into the processor. The i7 in the laptop, although I don't remember the model number, had a score of around 1000-2000 which is garbage nowadays. A decent i5 would be an i5-4690K or even an i5-3570K. The i5-4690K has a score of around 5000-6000. That's what I'd call reasonable for today.

Also to note something else, which makes shopping a bit easier, the first number after the line up "i5" or "i7" indicates its generation. So 3570K is third, 4690K is fourth.

...sooooo just because a phone has 23-bit/192Khz does not mean the audio is going to be phenomenal.

[Korth]

I thought all phones came with 24-bit/192KHz these days, even the cheap ones?

It's the basic standard for "HD" audio and for most soundcards (along with most mp3/ogg/wma files ripped or recorded through them). It's also the max supported resolution for the lossless DRM integrated into the hardware codecs.

"HiFi" could indicate the phone has added audio hardware components, filtering caps or op-amps or whatever on the headphone output jack. It could indicate some kind of awesomely clever audio software. It could be marketing.

[B12]

@Korth 

...and because of how Samsung is, how big of a company they are, and how they jam junk into their phones I do not like them. At one point, not long ago, I was using an iPhone because for me it was Samsung's crappy UI v. Apple's pleasant-looking UI minus all Apple's self-promoting bloat. The thing about Apple is that despite how a-hole-ish they are they actually let the user remove most of their apps off any given device. What is a bigger deal breaker is that without any consent whatsoever other than I guess the logic of "if you use the device, you give your consent" they take your phone number from your SIM and add it to your Apple account. There is no communication of this, they just do it. That's a no-no. and saying the words "no-no" is an underwhelming statement at that.

Moving along, I'm trying out LG because the software looks okay, it's not Samsung or Apple 😂 and most of all it supports 2 things that I can really appreciate; support for a 128GB SD card and an amazing DAC (for anyone that doesn't know what this is and is curious, it is short for Digital to Analog Converter and it's basically what gives a device sound/equalizes it).

[Korth]

AOSP will run on a G3, so no need to keep running the default software if you don't like it.

I have experience with several LGs but no Samsungs so I can't compare them directly.

But LG definitely doesn't have as much invested into their LG Content Store as Samsung has in their Galaxy Store - their presence on the smartphone market is puny in comparison - so LG likely bakes fewer app dependacies and background services into its Androids. Samsung has been caught repeatedly embedding hidden payloads and mysterious codeblobs into their devices - and the intrusive, invasive, uninformative, uncooperative natures of these wares are usually identified as anti-consumer junk nobody (but Samsung) would want to have running in their devices.

[B12]

@WeTheNorth 

Fongo is very good for calls. I have always liked it. What makes me not use it is how finicky the app is with certain routers. I've had routers that don't agree with Fongo so Fongo won't stay connected.

I prefer to just pay for a cheap plan at a company such as this and then I don't have to stress whether my internet goes down and I'm SOL.

[B12]

@WeTheNorth 

I had it once before. I remember liking it so I figure I will try it again. I technically wasn't the one to lost or break it. I lent it out and the person who I lent it to lost it. At the time I didn't much care because I had bought the thing for $20.

If I don't like LG's software I'll simply root it and put something else on it. I looked at screenshots though and LG's software looks alright compared to Samsung's. I can't stand Samsung's. I will say this, I have yet to find an android skin that I think is the "best" like no other can top. That's kind of why I tend to root phones I get and put custom software on them, AOSP looks fine and "skins" ruin the whole experience for me. Look at Samsung phones, heavily skinned and they toss hardware at it to make sure it doesn't drag and it still does sometimes (on my S8 when I open the app drawer I can visibly notice some sluggishness).

I'll see how LG goes. 😄

[WeTheNorth]

@B12

I do hope you're much more satisfied with your new G3 in both the short and long term. A family member has a G3 and from what I've gathered in the conversations we've had related to our phones they are quite happy with it.

[B12]

@Korth 

I was not aware of it nor am I really surprised to know something of the sort exists.

I'll keep to YouTube Vanced if not for the ad-free experience then because I can turn my screen off and just listen.

[Korth]

@B12 

You might be unaware of Telus WIreless Network Experience Optimization (an implementation of Openwave Mobility Media Optimizer). It basically identifies the maximum display resolution of your device then transcodes video content down to it, to conserve bandwidth. So the mobile carrier and the mobile user don't have to waste gigabytes pouring 4K videos into 720p displays.

But it does introduce some transcoding artifacts. A little blurriness for 10-20 seconds, some frame jitters and briefly-displayed compression glitches. And it imposes invisible watermarks which somehow (perhaps deliberately?) breaks compatibility with some video playback softwares.

I haven't tried Vance playback but I know Brave playback works perfectly, plus it kills ads and tracking (mostly).

This "optimization" is built into the Telus network machinery. End-users have no way to configure or disable or workaround it, it just automatically parses onto all video traffic. Bell network and Rogers networks have similar systems in place.

[B12]

@WeTheNorth 

A deal breaker for me on any device is if the battery is not removable. If I have to use one of these bricks (phone with a non-removable battery) I will with a lot of irritability.

Currently I got a Galaxy Note 4 and today it has infuriated me enough to go and buy a different phone which also has a removable battery and the UI is far better than anything Samsung has put out thus far. LG G3 and what's great about it is that there is a wonderful mod community for it.

@Korth 

I actually would use my browser to watch YouTube except that it's capped at 720p and I can't turn the screen off (a huge waste of battery depending on the use case). So I take comfort in knowing that YouTube Vanced lets be watch what I want, ad-free, and my usage is probably collected. I'd rather no ads and have my data collected than be bombarded by ads and also have my data collected. If I can mediate the situation somehow, I will and so I am.

[Korth]

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@B12 wrote:

My go-to app for over a year since I discovered it is YouTube Vanced. I won't bother with the official YouTube app. To me, it's useless commercialized filth.

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Or even no YouTube app at all. Just visit the YouTube site and watch the YouTube vids in the browser. A good browser (like Brave) has adblocking, scriptblocking, and filtering already built-in, without cluttering up any background resources, without yet another dev window peering into your life.

[Korth]

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@B12 wrote:

I've scoured the internet for smartphones that are android that do not include any Google services on it and I've come up empty. There is not a single solitary device that is android that does not come pre-loaded with Google bloat. Due to this, one must either deal with Google or put custom software on their phone and leave Google out.

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Branded hardware comes with branded software. Every operating system component on the device gets directed to the branded online app store. Sometimes also a collection of strange useless apps from the manufacturer (when OEM and ODM are different entities). Often also another junkware payload installed by the carrier or retailer.

There are many alternative operating systems. There are even many devices which come with clean (or mostly clean) operating systems pre-installed. They strip out all the proprietary blobs, all the invasive telemetry, all the unwanted background wares.

I've been running a GrapheneOS port (on a non-Pixel device) for a while and have so far been very impressed. It even has substantially higher PassMark & Geekbench performance scores than it did out of the box - likely an indicator of how many extra (and unwanted) processes it was running before.

https://itsfoss.com/open-source-alternatives-android/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GrapheneOS

https://grapheneos.org/

https://www.xda-developers.com/root/

[WeTheNorth]

@B12

I don't watch much on YT other than at home so I don't think I'd need the YT app you've mentioned, but thanks for letting me know about it should things change in the future and I do find myself watching more on my phone. I will look into Signal, however!

I've also been putting off getting a new phone for many of those same reasons. It just all seems so shady lol.

@kselmak 

I was quite impressed with fongo when I looked into it yesterday. It certainly does offer great advantages when using a capped minutes plan, which I am on. I have purchased the 500 minutes add-on but I may still install the app. Not being able to call US numbers isn't a concern for me. I'll also have a look in on the dotmobile app you've mentioned. Thanks!

@Korth 

I am new to smartphones so I will look into sideloading any apps I do intend on downloading. Thank you for the very informative post. I know I will be coming back to it in the future!

[B12]

@Korth 

"The basic softwares built into phones (dialer, text, contacts, browser, keyboard, clock/calendar, calculator, etc) are just apps. They can be replaced with better apps. (And if they're unused/unwanted then they can be removed to free up resources, although that invariably requires you first root the device.)"

My absolute disdain for smartphones is very much derived from this here.

If I buy a device that is supposed to be "mine" I do not want things on it that I didn't put on it myself. Apps like Phone, Messaging/Texting, Contacts and maybe an unbranded Browser are appropriate additives... I'll give you that. Beyond those few apps though there is absolutely no excuse, rhythm or reason to put anything else on the phone when selling it to a customer other than to commercialize the device and force people into using what they might not have wanted to use.

I've scoured the internet for smartphones that are android that do not include any Google services on it and I've come up empty. There is not a single solitary device that is android that does not come pre-loaded with Google bloat. Due to this, one must either deal with Google or put custom software on their phone and leave Google out.

If you think I'm nuts, that's alright I'm certainly not part of the crowd. Tell me this doesn't sound sketchy though. You buy a device, during setup it wants to you log into Google, then into your brand-name's cloud account, then maybe some other services and suppose you "decline" signing up, it then makes you doubt yourself by asking you to "confirm" you don't want to sign up and even further maybe the service even tells you what you are missing by not signing up. Sound sketchy? To me it sure does.

This behavior and action from companies is revolting and shouldn't be allowed.

[Korth]

The basic softwares built into phones (dialer, text, contacts, browser, keyboard, clock/calendar, calculator, etc) are just apps. They can be replaced with better apps. (And if they're unused/unwanted then they can be removed to free up resources, although that invariably requires you first root the device.)

I use Signal, Brave, and SwiftKey to replace some of these built-in apps. All superior to their generic Android counterparts. (Although SwiftKey needs to be leashed and lobotomized a little, since it's a sneaky Microsoft spyware.)

I always install some kind of off-device backup software. And I test it (deliberately break data then attempt to restore it) right away, just to confirm I won't be obstructed by any unexpected technical or financial barriers if/when I actually need to rely on the backup. That way it doesn't matter how screwed up anything on the phone ever gets - I can always hard-reset it back to factory defaults then restore my apps and backed up data. I can even restore that data on other devices if the phone gets lost, stolen, or broken. And I don't have to rely on the cloud or on the whims of any vendor lock-in subscriptions.

A task manager or a task killer, a file manager, and a compression app are all necessary for finer control over device performances and resources, and all unnecessary if you don't already know what these sorts of softwares are about.

I find WiFi Analyzer is sometimes really handy.

Some phones intentionally lack support for all the common file formats (like pdf, mp3, ogg, etc) which you might want/need to use a lot. There's countless apps and codecs which can correct or circumvent these deficiencies.

If you're new to the world of smartphone apps then I recommend you learn about "sideloading" apps. That is, downloading the apks onto your computer then installing the apps from there. So you always have an archived copy of the specific working software versions you're using, in case an update (or whatever) breaks things. And so you don't have to jump through hoops or waste time hunting down something you can't remember (or have to pay again for something you already bought) at the online app store sites.

[kselmak]

Yeah they are all great

I'm using fongo to appear to call almost any Canadian number from my cell, in use it to transfer the call. So I call myself and answer (that's not counted against my 100) then I hit transfer call and put in destination number. That costs me about 0.06 Meg's as fongo disconnects the moment you transfer the call (you can off your data or walk out of WiFi area)

This way I can really use my 250 and not run out, if I just stick to reading important email looking up something urgent, even navigating.

Fongo doesn't dial USA for free, but both hangouts and TextNow do. If it's important to have your number as display hangouts is great and has no advertisements. Otherwise TextNow is a great alternative service (and will probably get even better)

@WeTheNorth I should also mention dotmobile, they still need more people to signup and it's free, optimises look great we'll see how it will actually realise into service. I was very excited when I just learnt, but it's been some time now, I believe they are at dotmobile.app

[B12]

You needn't Public Mobile for this. Any ole mobile provider works. My go-to app for over a year since I discovered it is YouTube Vanced. I won't bother with the official YouTube app. To me, it's useless commercialized filth.

Other than YouTube Vanced, if you've got a lot of circles I recommend Signal for private, encrypted communications.

Hope this helps.