I'm between articles right now, but here's what I'm thinking about (spoilers, it's bad smartphones)

Hello. I see now the pattern I have been falling into a lot on this blog: being someone who does not run this website to support myself full time, I tend to write about things as I find I am passionate about them.

Currently the issue (as is often the case) is smartphones. I've already discussed how I absolutely hate the current state of smartphones in the US, and it seems things are just getting worse and worse.

I'm working on a few different angles for dealing with this situation. We need more De-Googled phones. We also need to go back to the days of user flexibility and repairability: 3.5mm headphone jacks, SD card expansion, and even replaceable batteries, or at least some combination of these. The EU has already weighed in on battery repairability and I'm excited to feel the knock-on effects of these rules (hopefully) in 2027. Sucks that we have to wait until then (and maybe even longer) in the US, but at least some governments are actually leading right now.

And finally, at least I think phones need to go back to being reasonably sized. Or at least have the option for it even if not every model is say under 73mm wide and 160mm tall. I have hurt my hand several times just trying to hold a "modern" (AKA stupidly large) phone without dropping it, and I am so done with them. 

And don't tell me that markets chose bulky, featureless slab phones. Markets are, in fact, easily manipulable, especially by the oligopolies we find ourselves stuck with, and manipulating they have been. And I'm so tired of it.

And I'm honestly tired of Big Tech also. I don't believe in the tradeoff of living for 'free' online, and not being allowed to have any expectation of privacy in return. I was a good little customer of YouTube Premium for my family, and look what that got me.

The only winning move is not to play. So I have several phones coming my way from companies which care more about repairability, instead of planned obsolescence. And even a few with screens that might actually fit into most pockets comfortably. Honestly the bar is so low that basically any company not making these cookie cutter tablets-in-phone's-clothing is a potential winner to me at this point. But it would be nice to have more than just the bare minimum.

I had an article relatively ready to put up, but I want more devices to add, to give potential readers more choices. After all, choice is what I want, so why not give it to other folks. So just hold tight, more is on the way.