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Anti-repair and en-KIMCHI-fication again. So that they could sell more and more units as they face stiff competition from China, and more goddamn ewaste as unloved units get bricked and dumped into bins.
Either it's going to be one of those niche phones for power users (not quite available in developing countries), or having to use separate gadgets again like a dumbphone (hello again, 8210), an MP3 player and a laptop.
but then what do the service centers use?
I can recommend the Fairphone for those who appreciate actually owning the device they paid for
How is the fairphone doing these days? I was scared off by the battery life last time i checked it out
Wel that is subjective, but I'm happy with my FP6. ymmv
I also am happy. My battery has never died. It can go days and days it seems.
Samsung is a no-go again anyway, as they have decided to go back to their shitty Exynos CPUs for the S26. The CPU itself is fine, but their modems are awful.
Going from my Exynos S22 to a Snapdragon S25 was night and day mobile reception wise.
What would you get for a new phone nowadays?
For me: Just for the modem and battery life :)
But now that my new phone works well, no reason at all. I don't game on my phone, so any more performance is utterly wasted and the cameras barely seem to be getting upgrades either.
On top of this is the fact that google is locking down the ability to install apps outside of the play store on standard ROMs.
If that happens my phone becomes useless for me, I have to either sell it or throw it away.
I went ahead and forked out my savings to buy a Fairphone with /e/os preinstalled just because of this. My big fear though is that some of my favorite FOSS apps will disappear because the developers abandon the platform. I hope that will not be the case.
Sigh. I haven't actually run a non-standard firmware for a while now, but I'm finding the mindset of a lot of these big companies exhausting, the relentless push for them to control every aspect of everything. Particularly when they're charging huge amounts for the device and to my mind at least can't claim they've somehow subsidised the hardware.
The only answer is regulation. We need laws that say, if you own a device, you can do anything you want to it, including wipe it, hack it, resell it, etc.
If they want to control your device, or lease it to you provided you pay a monthly fee, etc, they need to say "Lease", "Rent" or similar, not buy.
And they shouldn't be able to void your warranty for it - voids should be limited to the parts of the device you mess with. Like, if you flash your phone, they should be able to say, we can't give you support, including how to re-install the original OS...but if your battery fails and it shocks you, they should have to replace the battery under a warranty.
We also need laws that say, if you pay for a device, that device itself, can't have ads. So like, when talking about Android TV boxes, they can put recommendations on the homepage, but not ads, and those recommendations can't be paid. Now, if you open youtube, they can make you watch ads.
The regulations won't come from S. Korea in the case of Samsung. And I doubt any other big market for Samsung is going to regulate them as well.
It's just a fucking shit show. I specifically gotten my s24u because of good lock and the BT stylus. Shouldn't have trusted the Koreans when they're already boring cyberpunk dystopia before anyone else
Best I can do is a bunch of age verification laws to take even more control away from you
There's a special place in hell for those Republicans. It's always the Pedo-Conservatives who want that.
I'll compile my own linux kernel before I install OS level age verification.
Republicans are absolute scum but they only exist in the US and are not in charge of every state. This is a bipartisan push around the globe.
As long as they don't encounter any resistance, they have no reason to renounce their enshittification process.
Will the sales slow because of this? Unlikely. I would assume the power users are in the noise.
Will they make more money? Probably, either through their own data collection and brokerage, or from third party editors paying to have their app bundled in the OS.
So, no catch! (for them…)
I dont run custom ROMs anymore either but I have needed Odin a few times over the last few years to flash different OEM firmware to devices. Examples are a couple of work phones the company let me keep after upgrading which had Sprint firmware. I was able to flash Tmobile firmware to them while simultaneously removing all the locked-down work stuff that was preventing me from doing anything with the devices like activating developer mode.
As far as my personal device, an S21 Ultra, I'll probably need to upgrade it in the next couple of years and I think its finally time to ditch Samsung. I had similar feelings before getting the S21 but compromised since the market was shit for higher-end devices (I typically get a higher end device and then keep it for years and years) and i have no interest in Apple. It sucks because the market is still weak as hell in the US. Every device I've come across that looks decent is a EU device that doesn't support all of Tmobile's bands.
Oh.
I just ordered a fold 7 and I was contemplating which ROM I should install...
I guess that's that then.
Cancel the order!
Aye aye sir!
Please cancel
Yup
Fond memories of using Odin to flash my Galaxy S3 back in the day. I thought Knox killed custom firmware on Galaxy, though — with the S4.
i remember many years ago i flashed, i think it was Lineage OS maybe android 8 or 7? on galaxy s2. There were something like 10 android versions ahead of last official relase.
I checked xda, and theres lineage os 19.1 (android 12) available for galaxy s2.
Yeah, I stopped buying Samsung phones after that as well, though I was still rocking the truly great SGS 2. I used that phone for years and years and then gifted it to a friend who used it for a few more. The magic of a user replaceable battery! It is no wonder they took it from us.
AFAIK Knox would trip a fuse if you installed custom firmware and would prevent you from using banking apps and the like permanently but you were still able to flash the firmware.
No banking, no Google Pay and things like 2FA apps like Authenticator if I recall right. A nightmare just for 2FA if you don't have a charged 2nd phone. if you suddenly left your wallet somewhere and have to pay a purchase at the supermarket with a full cart.
I just wanted to be able to record both sides of calls which is legal in my country, without having to use the official Phone app which warns participants with a forced beep and a voice note that the call is being recorded. Any alternatives?
and things like 2FA apps like Authenticator if I recall right
2FA apps should work fine, like aegis, google authenticator, microsoft authenticator, authy, etc. maybe samsung's own one wouldn't, if they even have one, but no one should use that anyway
I just wanted to be able to record both sides of calls which is legal in my country, without having to use the official Phone app which warns participants with a forced beep and a voice note that the call is being recorded
why is that a problem?
I definitely remember the bit about the fuse. I can't recall if you could flash the firmware or not. You might be right about that. I never owned an S4. I went to HTC after my S3. I regret that. Pretty phone, but what a clustertruck inside.
You're thinking of the Verizon s5. That version of Knox still hasn't been broken
No, I'm standing by my original statement about the S4. I'm not going to gainsay you about the S5 — you may be right about that. But the conversations I heard were definitely around the S4. The person who replied after you said that it would trip a fuse, and that's what I remember. They contradict me as well to a point, but the bit about Knox tripping a fuse that software could check is definitely something I remember about the S4.
My knowledge of the S5 has nothing to do with Knox (I was on iPhone at that point) and everything to do with the port. People give Apple shit for Lightning, and some of them are even aware that Apple was on the USB committee. They were — and when they saw the USB-B cable/connector that the USB committee designed for USB 3, they said hell no. One nice thing about USB-B (micro B, I mean) was that you could plug a USB micro-A cable into the port on one side and it would still work, albeit at USB 2 data and charging speeds. It was an ugly port, and it wasn't symmetrical, and Apple wanted a real improvement over 30-pin, so they went to Intel and co-developed Lightning with them. So for the iPhone 5s (or base 5?) and onward, iPhones had a symmetrical charging port, which the USB committee followed with USB-C. A lot of Android guys didn't wanna touch the Galaxy S5/Note 4 on account of the weird new port. Then you had the Galaxy S6/Note 5 that didn't use that one Qualcomm chip because it had overheating issues, so they used Exynos across the line, and they also experimented with no removable storage (which they would do with either the S20 or S21 and then it became standard).
Maybe I'm confuding tools but I think I used Odin to flash my s10e. I didn't jailbreak it, I just updated it from a carrier locked firmware to the official Samsung version
You may have. I have an S10e as well (I often forget it's an "e", since it's just the base model). I wonder if I could flash it. I'm fine with the carrier firmware since I don't have cell service on it. That phone only goes up to LTE anyway, not that that's a big hindrance. Honestly if I could transfer the eSIM between my iPhone 16 Pro Max (which, yes, is five years newer and also the premium iPhone of its line) and the S10, I absolutely would, at least if I could easily go back and forth. The 16PM is absolutely the better phone overall, but I like typing on the S10 more (Gboard) and it has a few other cool features. I have like 50GB of music on its SD card. It has a headphone jack. I've used Nova Prime to customise the hell out of the home screen (and theme it after Animal Crossing, because I can). It's lighter, it's more comfortable to hold. As far as the OS goes, I don't have a strong preference. I might like it a bit better on official Samsung firmware though.
At least I know where to go if I want to go down that road (so, not asking). XDA.
I had a Samsung TV over 10 years ago. One of the early "smart" ones. It got quite a few updates where a happy little text box told "your samsung smart tv got even better" or some shit like that. Even if they actively removed features and or apps got unsupportet. You know after like 2 years or so.
Like fuck it. It still works as regular ass TV till this date. But the whole software and update experience was so shit that i never bought a samsung device ever again. Wait, thats a lie. I bought two of those 25 buck dumbphones from them. They were pretty good for what they were, ngl. But apart from that Samsung is a big no-no for me and i get proven right year after year.
Yeah, they have been on my shit list for a good while. The only thing I'd still buy from them would be memory, either ram or flash, but now the AI induced prices have put even those purchases on hold.
God their TVs have become so terrible over the last decade. Not only the firmware but the quality of them. I got one to use as an office monitor and it randomly glitches out showing static on the screen until you unplug it. My BIL also buys Samsung TVs and has seemingly gone through half a dozen of them in the last few years because they keep breaking. Same with all the Samsung appliances that he buys too.
For my last TV, I got an LG C3 OLED from Costco and the picture is incredible along with the price and we haven't had any software issues or annoyances with it either. I have blocked the LG domains on my router though so that it won't nag me about updating the firmware.
I wish you could just buy a fucking tv. I don't want your shitty-ass proprietary version of YouTube or Netflix. I don't even want WiFi or an Ethernet port. I'll buy a fucking Roku or Apple TV or whatever. Or just watch Blu-rays.
I tried blocking so off those ports from one of my Samsungs. Eventually YouTube couldn't work. You'd have to jump through massive hoops including unblocking their servers and hard power cycle — I can't even remember. I thought they legit bricked it because I didn't want any updates or spying or ads forced on me.
TVs are just awful. Monitors are way better, but I have yet to find 85" monitors.
I have two functioning 50 inch Scepter TVs reality will pry from my cold dead hands because they are the last dumb TV. I'd like an 80 inch but am not interested in any smart bs, wish I could store 10 different Scepters for future use.
wish you could just buy a fucking tv.
You can. Look for commerical displays. They typically have no smart shit and are designed to have a display box plugged in via HDMI or be served static images and nothing else. You won't get the best tech though as they dont make commercial displays in OLED or anything.
Case and point: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/displays/commercial-tvs/
Been rocking one since I bought it new off of eBay a few months ago, and it just works. Bought the latest Samsung soundbar system to pair with it and it also just works.
Does that mean heimdall is out too?
yes as iirc it was reverse engineered Odin
