Surveillance

Having gotten rid of my sole multimedia editing machine – a 2018 MacBook Pro – and tried but failed to implement a workflow on my computer, I set out and tried a different approach with the Google Pixel Tablet. Instead of using Google’s Android, however, I’m running GrapheneOS. This is a brief review of my experience with the De-Googled Pixel Tablet.

The Google Pixel 9 has just been released, making this probably the best time to snap up its predecessor, the Pixel 8 – a solid phone with years-long software support – and switch to GrapheneOS along the way!

While I’m critical towards the Signal messenger, I understand that network effects are strong and even though many people would much rather prefer a different platform, it’s not easy to get friends and family onto something better. In this brief write-up, I’ll introduce an alternative Signal client to make using Signal at least slightly less troublesome.

Let’s set up and run our own “private Twitter” on Nostr, a simple, open protocol that enables truly censorship-resistant publishing on the web!

According to my analytics dashboard, there’s a 70% chance you’re reading this on your phone. Maybe at home, or maybe while commuting to work, using your mobile data connection, for which you’ve probably signed up on a mobile contract. A contract for which you had to prove that you are you, likely by showing your national ID or passport. A contract for which you have to pay regularly, probably using a bank account that you also had to identify yourself for upon opening.

… and improving your smartphone’s security along the way!