People allow their TV to connect to the interpipes? Tut tut, I thought y’all were better than that!

mobile Chromium doesn’t have ublock anyway…

Kiwi browser on Android is Chromium based & has had the ability to add extensions such as uBlock for years

I tend to go with Panasonic because they make excellent panels. Mine doesnt have ads anywhere in the UI & doesnt have a camera or mic. Our set was originally released in 2021 & still looks great. The menus aren’t great but once its set up we never use them, its turned on/off & thats it. Never connect it to the net. Ours is connected to HTPC & amp

An alternative would be to get a monitor & connect USB TV tuner to your media PC/HTPC

Nothing sophisticated, I just have a note for videos. The note has headings (use the [toc] trick at the top of the note to jump directly to the headings without having to scroll through everything)

You could categorise video links by genre or whatever your preference. I chose to categorise by length, say up 10 minutes, 11 to 20 minutes, 20 to 30 minutes & so on. So i set up appropriate headings.

Thats it. I also set up a heading for “Audio” as some videos are essentially podcasts, audio based talks etc & Kiwi browser allows background play.

Its a few extra steps over tapping “save for later” in YouTube app but it takes seconds to copy title, copy url & paste into a note & it caters for videos from any source. To remove myself from the shitty algorithm it works for me

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My method for android & desktop. I never sign in to YouTube & never use the app. Using Joplin synced through Nextcloud (any syncable note taking app would do the trick) I keep a list of channels (“subscriptions”) & interesting looking videos (“watch later”) which I group by length. Obviously, this way the links can be via Piped, YouTube whatever.

I only ever interract through browser which is never signed in. Kiwi browser on Android, Firefox or Brave on desktop. All of them run uBlock + SponsorBlock + DeArrow.

DeArrow is by the same dev/s as SponsorBlock & gives anti clickbait crowd sourced titles & thumbs. Its become an invaluable tool so I’m glad to have paid to offer some support.

All of the browsers have history/cookies etc cleared once closed.

I’ve found Routines to be one of the most important features with Samsung - set up a car mode to auto run when charging AND connected by bluetooth to a specific device …and have it set the brighness dependant on the time of day. Turn location off completely unless certain apps are opened. Protect your battery if charging overnight …but go into power saving mode should charging stop for some reason. I find it invaluable. Even more powerful when used with Routines+ add-on

Looks OP has solutions but it looks like Routines also has options to separate sound on app specific basis

I dunno if TV is dead per se as we all enjoy watching shows/movies. Not really interested in gimmicks - we only have 4K as all new TV’s are 4K & we only got it because our previous TV failed & they can no longer be repaired.

All i want is a good quality dumb screen. You can stick all your smart features where the sun dont shine, I’ll handle everything via a separate box that I control thank you. I’ll not be at the mercy of your shitty EULA, you won’t monitor my viewing habits or force ads into the UI or remove your dogshit apps without warning. Our TV has never been online, HTPC with a couple of USB TV tuners, uBlock Origin, an interface of my choosing, remote control & lots of storage handles everything. Still perfectly happy watching SD stuff, the only 4K we watch is YouTube.

Kiwi browser (Brave & Firefox on desktop) with: uBlock Origin, Sponsorblock, DeArrow (fights YouTube clickbait thumbs & titles, same dev team as Sponsorblock), Violentmonkey with a few scripts: Google Shut Up, Search cookie auto reject

MJ PDF

I use this Square Jellyfish tripod mount which screws onto any standard tripod.

It is spring loaded but unless you buy a phone specific mount I doubt you’ll find one that isn’t. It’s not too stiff so it’s easy to insert your phone.

It opens quite wide - handles my Note 20 Ultra 5G plus Poetic Revolution rugged case with no issues.

@Overzeetop These days i use so many programs on various platforms. Some of them can be quite complicated which makes setting them up again painful, so I keep notes in Joplin for all the apps I use on whatever platform. I’ve added the relevant platform icon for each parent folder (Windows, Linux, Android etc etc) to aid visually when opening Joplin. This includes settings, plugins including links, along with any tricks/user tips

They hype 4k/8k recording capabilities but the average buyer is unlikely to realise exactly how fast this eats storage.

I had to buy a new phone when my last one broke. Needed S Pen & external SD so I opted for a used Note 20 Ultra in conjunction with the same SD card ive used since I first bought a smart phone.

I self host my own Nextcloud but cloud isnt the answer. Even in this day & age in a big city or driving, streaming is not available all the time. I insist that everything important is available offline: maps, notes, all media be it music, podcasts, audio books …even movies/TV shows seeing as these phones can easily be connected to a TV for use with Kodi or similar. Another thing is recording footage of holidays etc for editing. It all takes up space.

I’m of the opinion the external SD was only removed for profiteering reasons.

Can’t remember the last time I installed anything from Play store. Every app comes from Github/FDroid/XDA etc & updates through Obtainium. I dont use any Google service & this sounds like get another garbage decision from Google

MiXplorer. If you don’t already use it theres a bit of a learning curve but I just ran a quick test & it found a file 6 directories deep in /android/data/… with no problems at all

1. I don’t want to scramble round in the dark looking for a Bluetooth “bud” when it inevitably falls out in the night
2. I don’t want to have to charge yet more stuff
3. I don’t want full on Bluetooth headphones, I have Sony MDR7506 when I want quality audio & a set of small in ear Sennheiser for nighttime podcasts

The point is, the dongle is simply not a good solution

I cant sleep without listening to podcasts & i charge the phone at night so this is one of the reasons why i was reluctant to upgrade my old phone.

When I inevitably had to upgrade I bought a USB C headphone/charging dongle for about €15. All good, I’d been worrying about nothing …Until it broke within a few months so I had to go without podcasts for a few nights whilst I waited for the replacements to arrive (might as well be prepared & buy a spare right?). Guess what? The first replacement lasted a only few months again. So far, a lack of headphone jack has cost me an extra €45 inside of about 6 months. Absolutely ridiculous

Still holdin out for a concealed S Pen

Like others have said I too gave up on Play Store a long time ago. If I need an app it comes from Github, XDA, F-Droid etc. Obtainium for updates

Good job I don’t use any Googles apps. High proportion of my apps are from the likes of Github