We barely have custom roms, and they're almost exclusively for pixel devices these days. Even new OnePlus phones have no custom rom support because OnePlus stopped releasing the MSM tool that's needed for any custom development. Til though that incidentally the OnePlus 11 does have some custom roms because the MSM tool for it was leaked, but nothing else released after the 9 has any custom rom development
It's a shame Google is going downhill so quickly because I still adore Pixel phones and their image quality/shutter speed/simplicity (they just come pre-loaded with Google bullshit). Does anyone have a suggestion for a worthy successor? I'd like one as close to stock Android as possible while actually rivaling Pixel cameras.
I remember getting talked into trying a Samsung S21 Ultra briefly (we're out of Pixels right now, but the camera, bro, I swear, bro, best on the market, bro, you won't be disappointed, bro) and that had one of the most unsatisfactory cameras I've ever dealt with, which was a bigger turn-off than it weighing more than a cinderblock and coming with an roaring Metropolis of bloatware. I couldn't even snap a clear picture of my child if she was moving. It was like snapping blurry photos of a small cryptid.
I see Pixel hate occasionally, but I've been using them since the Pixel 3 and they've been like a snappy little pocket companion. Never felt more comfortable with a phone in my life, and each one feels just like the last but with improvements. Especially with the right launcher. I don't want to move on from them, but my faith in Google has quickly evaporated.
To be fair, it had its moments. Windows 95 was a pretty big step forwards and the alternative was OS/2 Warp, which has some nice features but was from IBM, who were still dreaming of replacing the PC with a vertically-integrated home computer again.
Windows 2000 (or XP starting with SP2) was also solid. 7 was alright. None of those had too much bullshit bundled with them.
Everything since Windows 8 has been some flavor of shitty, though.
How have macOS (its correct name) and iOS been enshittified? As a daily driver of both I haven’t seen anywhere near the level of advertising and privacy violations on them as I’ve read about on other platforms.
Its seems less on the software side, but more of a hardware reparability and cost issue.
For the iphone 16, going from 128GB to 512GB is $200.
The new Mac mini is asking for $200 for 8GB extra of ram, and $800 for 2TB of (non-removable, encrypted) storage (the base model is only $600). For an extra $1200 you can upgrade the Mac mini to have 32GB RAM, 2TB of Storage and 10GB ethernet.
For reference a good Samsung top of line 2tb nvme drive is about $200. And most 32gb ddr5 kits are about $100.
So instead of $300, you pay $1100.
On the software front, they are more stable.
If you jumped from a 2014 iPhone to a 2024 iPhone (and iOS), it'd be similar enough you wouldn't feel you're on a brand new OS.
Good luck trying that with android (or even windows to some extent).
Oh yeah I always forget people still cry about that. I’m a big fan of the unified experience that the software and hardware bring together, and that experience hasn’t been poor for me.
Idk the AI tools are pretty helpful and they don't fit with the rest as they're FOSS and free as in free beer. Just pirate the Adobe products too, there's still nothing quite like Photoshop and lightroom and premiere