This is the smartwatch I own. True netrunners know that the tech we wear on (or under) our skin is a prime entry vector for ever hungry megacorps to bleed the pulsing data from our digital veins, so having a wearable I have full control over is of paramount importance. I can flash it with new firmware whenever I want, the multiple open source options available are all an open book to any hacker worth their cyberlinguistic salt, and I can know for a fact that it won’t phone home with my location or other data to any corporation behind the scenes. If we are all going to be cyborgs integrating technology onto and eventually into our bodies, better to control that tech ourselves!
How is graphene day to day? Is it basically just android sans google or are there major compromises?
Graphene user here. I rooted my devices and flashed cousin ROMs for years, but stopped because I got tired of the compromises. A couple of months ago I took the plunge while upgrading and got a pixel 7a (so it’s got the longest support) to put Graphene on. I have found it to be, basically, Android. Googless at first, but you can add Goog to taste. Play Services runs sandboxed, if you want to run it.
Most apps work just fine, but in my setup Google Wallet does not. I can’t remember exactly why but I think it’s related to Play Services. Banking and “pay me” apps like Venmo seen to work fine though!
It’s basically just Android sans (or with sandboxed) Google, I really don’t miss anything. It’s honestly a pleasure to live with.
Well now you make me want to switch, but I still have a perfectly good iphone and replacing it just seems wasteful. sigh, maybe in a few years.
