RCS from what I can tell still has some significant limitations, like the version common on Android having some Google proprietary extensions it’s not clear if other vendors will fully support. I’d still recommend something like Signal to most people, though RCS improves the experience for those not using that.

SMS/MMS has really low file size limits, and iPhones may downscale a little more aggressively than required.

Just pick an internet based messaging service. I like Signal, but they all work.

Yes. It allows then to avoid ultimate responsibility for moderation policy decisions.

One of the better credit card rewards is a small percentage cash back, so literally free money. Money is fungible though, so any discounts on things you were going to buy anyway are effectively the same thing.

Lemmy will never do such a thing, but specific Lemmy servers might.

It is radically public. It’s designed to broadcast your content to hundreds of other peoples’ computers running all manner of different software which might then rebroadcast it to yet more. The whole architecture is oriented toward spreading things far and wide, and what tools exist to restrict the audience or retract content already shared are little more than polite suggestions.

That’s not a flaw, but people using it should understand how it works so they don’t run into surprises.

That’s true. Describing current regulation as the premium option was an oversimplification. For household lighting, it’s usually the premium option.

That’s not the only way to dim an LED, just the cheapest. Variable current power regulators are the premium option.

A screw-in LED bulb combines LEDs and power regulating electronics. Some of them handle the variable input voltage a household dimmer provides gracefully, but that’s more expensive.

I think you’re looking for [email protected], but it doesn’t seem like it’s very active anymore.

Mobile check deposit is the only thing I want from my bank’s app.

I’m running LineageOS with Magisk and Play Integrity Fix. That works for my bank’s app, but I’m annoyed that they make me do it and gave their app a 1-star review on Google Play for it.

Musk: starts allowing Nazi shit on Xitter

Advertiisers: Hey, we don’t like Nazi shit. We might stop advertising if that keeps happening.

Musk: Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.

Advertisers: stop doing business with the guy who told them to go fuck themselves

They gave one of those to fucking Henry Kissinger. It clearly doesn’t mean what you think it means, if it has any meaning at all.

Telegram isn’t open source, so I don’t think you’re going to find forks of it.

I stand corrected. Telegram’s client is open source (GPL) and what OP is asking for is reasonable.

Has anyone you talk to regularly asked you to install a specific messaging app? If so, do you actually see a downside to installing it?

If you want actual help with these issues, try the GrapheneOS forum.

I’ve found gos extremely frustrating

Some parts of this are probably unavoidable. High-security systems tend to be inconvenient, and using a non-mainstream operating system often means limited third-party support.

I’m facing the nearly insurmountable task of convincing my friends, family, and colleagues to download and use signal when they are all using encrypted iMessage.

For reasons I can’t figure out, it seems Americans hate the idea of installing any third-party messaging apps. Most Europeans I know have at least two.

Most of my banking apps just simply do not work.

There’s some information on the GrahpeneOS forum, but if the bank insists on using Google’s device attestation, you may not be able to do much other than raise hell with customer service (please do this).

This is one of the reasons I run LineageOS rooted with Magisk; there’s a bypass for Google attestation. That, of course does not have the same security-first goals as GrapheneOS.

Holding down on the space bar to move the text cursor between characters.

This feature exists on some Android keyboards including AOSP keyboard and Heliboard, which are open source.

Yes, absolutely. Any time I need to buy a product I don’t know much about, I look for an enthusiast community with a FAQ. Most of the active, high-quality communities are on Reddit.

I would like decentralized services to replace that, but that’s a slow process, if it happens at all.

On one hand, that’s a shitty, greedy move from Reddit. All of the data, and value is provided by the users.

On the other hand, Microsoft does want to feed it into OpenAI and present it on a Bing search engine result page rather than sending the visitor to Reddit where they might join a community (or view an ad or ten).

If you have reason to think you’ll get searched, methods like this can be very effective. If you’re entering the USA and you’re not a citizen, there’s a chance having a freshly wiped phone will lead to you being denied entry.

Evidently quite a few people who have evidence of crimes on their phones don’t do that sort of thing; the person in the ruling this article about is accused of possessing child sexual abuse media on his phone. It probably isn’t a waste of resources with regard to finding evidence of crimes like that; it is a cheat code for searches that would ordinarily be unconstitutional, at least in judicial districts where the courts haven’t cracked down on it yet.

It isn’t random. They search phones belonging to people they suspect of crimes, but don’t have enough evidence to get a warrant for, people they think are connected to criminals even if they are not criminals themselves, and people they want to harass such as activists.

I use a computer a lot, and I have an expensive keyboard and mouse. I’m the target market in a sense; if there was a compelling enough upgrade to either, I’d probably buy it.

I can’t imagine what software features they could possibly offer that would qualify, doubly so as a subscription. I picked my mouse because it has lots of buttons, a responsive sensor, low-latency wireless, and it runs on a standardized replaceable battery. It would be hard to improve any of that with software.