beeshyams

And increasingly my answer is IDK 😶

@Firelord, yes, me too Pixel 8. It makes it easier for me to help her with issues (unlike figuring out some other skin). My son will soon come over and he takes my Pixel 6A.. complete Pixel family! Both of them aren't into phones, so I am the go-to

@Firelord , hi. Bought a Pixel 8 for my wife at >50%% discount on BBD sales ($450). I guess you've would have bought a device too

@Firelord heehe, this comes with grey hair and the experience behind it. Don't lose heart (pun intended), you can start working on it :)

I managed to sweet talk a service agent and she gave me a link that would open up a proper web version! Perks of growing old :)

Not going to share this with them else they do a sh***ty (Citi now taken over by Axis) stunt on me.. You log in to their web version and it takes you to the exactly same interface as app with same restrictions applied as on app

@Firelord PNB very paternally tells me not being able too use their app due to dev options is for my own good. Ofc, they are right, that's why I can login on Chrome on phone to access the bank!

@Firelord,@AndrewT. XDA cat-n-mouse thread

@AndrewT. I can open the emoji links on Win11 and create too [😊} ...Indeed Andrew, I had multiple windows open and this text you linked was unsent...pretty cool thing no, emoji hyperlinks.. I would love to make an answer using them or at least a meaningful comment !

That links to the HNQ digitiser question a few messages above...Interesting that emoji hyperlinks work

@Firelord, I can open the emoji links on Win11 and also create 😊

But the bigger point is that writing on the wall is becoming clear.. rooted devices are in for a tough time. Poignant to think of Lucky Patcher, Gravity Box, Xposed Edge, XPrivacyLua, mounting system as read/write without overlay, TWRP, custom kernels and ROMs (I wasnt much into ROM games).. surely would have missed out some more fun things... R. I. P

@Firelord yep, PNB doesn't work for me because of developer options. Uninstalled that as I don't use that much. Hopefully next year will close that account.

androidauthority.com/play-integrity-app-access-risk-3480649

@Firelord yes Android. When I tap the emojis these links open androidauthority.com/…

BTW, instinctively used emojis for hyperlinks and surprised it worked

@Firelord more trouble for rooted users , 😬 and 🤬

@AndrewT. If I am not wrong your profile used to say "root always" or something like that?

@AndrewT. :) true enthusiasts both of us now!// All the best @Firelord

Anyway @Firelord,I will be signing out today unless you have some Questions for me

Xposed edge works on 14 also on some devices. I recall you saying you were very fond of it

@Firelord Gravity box..Xposed Edge Pro are RIP though Xposed Edge I recall works somewhat in A13

I am too lazy to even experiment with One UI and other skins...iPhone is a Galaxy apart..It's resistance to try them out frankly

@Firelord Yes, you do need to to do due diligence, given that any new phone will be with A14. I don't want to put in a learning curve with iPhone and get even more locked in. Android is still a familiar system and hacks like those I mentioned are impossible on iPhone, where I understand sideloading itself is not permitted. Most importantly I sync a lot of cloud stuff and not sure how easy it is in that eco-system. I need folder sync

Hardware charge limiter was around 4K not 7. I was tracking it and got a pack of 3 (12K) on a sale

That's a fair bit to chew on and let me know what you feel.. will hang around for a few days more like 3 or 4, and sign out

Almost forgot, bought a hardware charge limiter, which is expensive given shipping and customs ( approx 7K) , so the idea is to use it with Pixel 8 to make it long as last as possible and at that point after market battery if available. This was done by ACC Magisk Module earlier

Coming to device choices, all chinese OEMS are heavily bloated, plus you know of their calling home things. OnePlus too is become bloated and even Hardware support is so bad that all major dealers in South or North India (forgetiing which) decided not to stock them and wrote to OnePlus. Moto is bad in updates, so what's the choice except Pixels

Point 5 , private space to hide your apps is a feature in A15

Aside, device to device transfer has improved (don't know if it's Pixel only, hope not). About 30 GB of data in internal+downloads was copied over with maybe 1 GB or so missing, which didn't happen with Pixel 4a to 6a transfer (of course it's not app data)

Bottom line I don't have an answer for you but sharing my thought process and things I am doing now and hopefully will improvise more- necessity really brings out ways...like root explorer without root, which we accepted as Gospel truth, doubt if anybody mentioned possibility of Shizuku and Mixplorer (point 3c, you will find a link in the question)

Vulnerability here is financial for me

OTOH, lot of fun things are long dead, Gravity Box, Xposed edge, Xprivacy etc. Besides, a lot of things from LSposed team which were earlier open source are not now (b***chy wars). While one may trust them, you know the power of Xposed and should something fall through the cracks being closed source, it's a huge vulnerability

5. Nova dev team = 1 person , the original dev, so won't expect any new things from them , so stick to Pixel Launcher (other good launchers are there) but again things like private space or whatever it's called can only be used with Pixel Launcher

4. ADB for Macrodroid, GSAM for automation (but even things like turning off mobile data not possible)

3. Shizuku for a) Permission Manager X and What's running (both by Irfan) b) App Manager (F-Droid) c) Mixplorer (XDA) is a root manager d) Look at the link in my question posted on Shizuku yesterday, you will find things like a-shell etc that are more for you

YT with Adguard for near ad-less experience

2. Adguard again for YouTube

1. Adguard (right now it's on sale)- for ad blocking, inject adaway host files

For me. iPhone isn't a choice, so it's Android. So here's my pared down version for powerful unrooted

with energies spent in trying to be a step ahead till the inevitable happens.

But it will percolate to us and your know better our Indian Government and their crazy understanding of security (eg, ban crypto), so if one Bank goes in for strong integrity checks, others will follow in a jiffy and overnight one is stranded

BUT, they do have to pacify their stakeholders like banks and other financial institutions, so it's a balancing act. IDK if you've been keeping track of cat n mouse games, but it's real crazy, so far mostly over RCS and Wallet , so it's a first world problem :).

@Firelord you are far more invested in Android thank me, soo I can understand the dilemma. If you have the time and energy to keep up with the games, you should. IMO, Google isn't really against rooting, else they would have made unlockable bootloaders plus they get a ton of inputs from Android modders without paying a penny

Pixel phones in India have a very poor resale value. 2 month old phone sparingly used as secondary phone in prime condition purchased for ₹ 39K, new one costs ₹ 58K! Seller drove down to my place, let me check thre phone thoroughly.. got lucky with first time buy of used phone

Best wishes to all

Won't be surprised if financial apps move towards enforcing strong integrity checks (I understand a couple of games and apps already doing that). Hated the time it took it set up the new phone (used Pixel 8 at a very good price) and missing root but then life is all about change. This also means by visits to this site would be even more infrequent.

Decade plus of rooting comes to an end. Cat and m mouse game of root detection has taken it's toll. Just a couple of years ago, there were 5 apps that I had to watch out for, now it's 20, with one app refusing to work with USB debugging too!

Some of the recent devices ( about 3 years old or so) have Orange Fox recovery which permits decrypted backup. I see this on XDA forums , so that could be a possibility for a burner phone @Emily