This.

I use Adguard, if a site blocks me for it, then it goes on a black list of “never visit” sites.

In a few cases, if I use and like/support a specific site a lot and that site is ad supported with no other ad-free option, then I white list it.

But to read the odd crappy article? No I’m not disabling my ad blocker.

I’ve been a bit stuck on Samsung phones.

If I think about why, it’s mainly due to two things, in order of importance:

1. One UI and Samsung Goodlock. I’m probably going to get roasted for this, but I like Samsung’s UI a lot more than other varieties of Android. When My Note 10 went in for repairs in 2021, a friend lent me their Pixel 6 Pro (they didn’t like it and went back to an I iPhone) For me it felt very basic and I was happy to go back to my Note. People hate on Samsung’s UI, but I reckon it’s gotten really good in the last few years.

2. The S-Pen. I’m not using it constantly, but I am using it several times a week and love having it there. Main uses for me are not to make notes (I’d rather type). I use it as a shutter button, planting my phone somewhere stable and taking less shaky photos. I use it to edit photos, so much better than using my finger. I use it to sign documents (probably only about once a month but it’s so handy to have it when you need it).

I do also like Dex for when I’m on holidays and I can plug it into a hotel TV with my mini Bluetooth keyboard/mouse. But that only gets used once or twice a year so I could live without it.

Given the above, I feel like Samsung has me by the b*lls right now when it comes to phones! I don’t know if that would be described as “loyalty”, but I have been sticking with the brand.

Yeah. If it gets enshittified or sold to a dodgy company, I’d not hesitate to migrate.

Might bookmark this thread for if (when?) that time comes.

Using Authy. Pretty happy with it. It’s key feature for me has been the ability to easily restore if you lose, reset or upgrade your device, without having to mess around with your own backup and syncing.

Would suck to reset your phone and discover the sync had failed and the backup was not up to date.

I would like to have it on Wear OS though…

Every few months I keep re-trying SwiftKey and the Samsung Keyboard, but I keep going back to GBoard because when I swipe it gets it right a lot more of the time than the other two.

Try swiping once with two fingers

Once I got used to gestures, I couldn’t go back.

I honestly find it very fast and intuitive.

Yeah, Ah pretty my other comment, I reckon it was the ideal sized large phone.

Moved to an S23 Ultra this year, which is an awesome phone, but is a bit too hefty at times.

Galaxy S23 Ultra

Best things: long battery life and versatile camera (zoom options open up some great creativity)

Worst thing: size and weight. Top tier phones have gotten just a bit too big now. My old Note 10+ was ideally the biggest comfortable size.

BTW my summary on the S23U would be: it’s a great all-rounder. You might find a phone that does this one thing better or that other thing better, but the S23U seems to do a very good job of everything. It’s definitely by far the most enjoyable user experience of any phone I’ve ever owned.

How are you doing that?

Do you mean just manually copying a link, switching into the Mastodon app and pasting it in, or is there a better method?

I don’t use it a lot, but I like Pluma too.

I have a Galaxy S23 Ultra. Samsung’s built in tools can do a lot thesedays. Especially if you download Galaxy S Enhance, which uses AI to enhance, erase items, remove reflections etc…

But I also really like Photo Studio Pro, which I purchased many years ago and am still using.

I have others, but these two are the ones I am keep going back to. Obviously if you don’t have a Samsung the first one doesn’t help you.

I also recently bought IMGMI from the Skylar team. It’s very quirky (no undo?!), so I’m not going to universally recommend it, but it is a very powerful AI tool and quite fun to play with, especially if you want to play with sky and clouds. To illustrate what I mean here are 3 photos of mine which I played with in IMGMI that took 2 mins to make:

http://piclinx.4junk.xsmail.com/imgmi-surryhills.jpg

http://piclinx.4junk.xsmail.com/imgmi-innerwest.jpg

http://piclinx.4junk.xsmail.com/imgmi-balgowlah.jpg