Logged into my banking app for it to tell my that my version of Android is outdated, leaving me vulnerable to attacks, and that I need to update my system. I see no updates and sure enough, the manufacturer just recently declared my phone EOL.

I could still log in to my banking app after dismissing the warning but how long is that going to last? Am I actually in danger of being hacked while browsing the Internet on my phone?

Do I really need to splurge on a new phone now? There’s nothing wrong with this one. Fuck smartphones, honestly- sure, this shit also happens on PCs with Windows, but you usually get at least a decade of support. I’ve had this phone for less than five years, and at least with computers you could stick your preferred version of Linux on your outdated device to get more life out of it

It’s also really cool how everyone in modern Western society is essentially dependent on one of two Yank megacorps to function, since you need an online bank account to verify your identity for basic shit like healthcare, social security and so on and those require either a Google Store or iPhone app

  • Hello_Kitty_enjoyer [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    6 months ago

    well the battery goes bad and has to be thrown out eventually

    to combat this problem we’ve made the battery impossible to remove so that you’ll throw out your whole phone with the battery too

        • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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          6 months ago

          Well…if you suck at it. It has gotten way harder over the years and a couple iphones are pretty near impossible without specialized and expensive equipment, though.

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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            6 months ago

            I absolutely do suck at it. I’ve killed at least one phone and one tablet over the years trying to do screen replacements. : ( i haven’t killed anything swapping batteries tho.

            • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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              6 months ago

              I got in the game early when things were easy, like 20+ years ago and got better as stuff got harder. Now I’m “the guy” people take their stuff to when it’s busted. Diving right in these days would have a harder learning curve, for sure.

    • space_comrade [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      6 months ago

      The Fairphone exists, which is (supposedly) pretty easily repairable. You’re definitely gonna pay a price premium on it tho and the hardware isn’t exactly latest. Might consider it for my next phone.

      • Eh I got it recommended by a comrade who seemed knowledgable about it, but I kinda regret it. It’s expensive and, even if the parts are replaceable, the phone is slow and underperforming enough that it’ll still just need replaced within 5 years due to software requirements from everything around it.

        Literally cheaper and just as little (or less) impact in continuously buying used flagship phones from 4 years ago.

        That comrade is a bit of a lib so I should’ve seen it coming. Of course I’m a lib so I didn’t.

    • itappearsthat@hexbear.net
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      6 months ago

      flatscreen TVs, an item I buy once a decade off craigslist for a few hundred bucks, singlehandedly hold down core CPI. meanwhile housing costs aren’t even counted lmao

  • blusterydayve26@midwest.social
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    6 months ago

    7 years ago, I bought a flagship phone in hopes of keeping it for a decade.

    Last year, I had to buy a new phone because the cell towers stopped broadcasting on frequencies my phone supported. It became a neat WiFi-only brick, and useless for my purposes, in 60% of my target lifetime.

    In short, the entire industry is configured for a sub-decade obsolescence cadence.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      6 months ago

      Amazed your battery lasted that long. I find that after 2 years your phone won’t last a day any more.

    • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      that’s a very repairable problem and if i’m remembering correctly (there are different s540s) you don’t even need to solder anything, just turn it off, unscrew it, unhook the battery, take out the old charging port and put in the new one.

        • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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          6 months ago

          that sucks, but at least it’s through hole. looking at the hardware maintenance manual i’d take the board out before i tried to replace it.

          from the picture you posted, make sure you use flux, solder wick and alcohol to clean up the area before you try to solder in the replacement. cleaning up other peoples work is a real pain sometimes.

          the screw sizes are listed in that manual, they all seem to be m2 or m3 of various lengths, so you ought to have an easy time finding them. just make sure the screw head profile is the same.

        • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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          6 months ago

          Oh yeah, and if you’re new to soldering, practice first and use a heat sink between the joint and the plastic that little metal hook goes into.

          An appropriate heat sink might be as simple as some needle nose pliers with rubber bands around the handles clamped up close to the body of the inlet.

          That design of inlet can take some real heat to start wicking and without a heatsink it may melt the plastic around the barrel.

        • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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          6 months ago

          I got ya. It’s usually not hard to do. A lot of manufacturers have a plastic housing that’s part of the frame of the case to help reinforce the power port. I’ve seen the power cord break away on these before it messes up the laptop jack. Obviously, not every laptop is so diligent.

          After repairing it, if there’s room you can cover the area in hot glue and it will help. Hot glue is nice because while it gives a pretty good bit of reinforcement, it’s still fairly easy to remove if you have to repair things yet again.

            • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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              6 months ago

              Test a screw that goes into the hole he was supposed to use and make sure he didn’t do it because that hole was just stripped out. I’d imagine you may be able to replace that board for pretty cheap, instead of just the port.

              You can also buy a little box of various laptop screws for like $10 on amazon.

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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    6 months ago

    Yeah. I am currently nursing the last keyboard phone ever made (no I don’t care about the titan or whatever it’s called) and I feel your pain.

  • EcoMaowist [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    6 months ago

    Phones really are in a bad spot, even ROMs that extend lifespan come at a cost to Security a lot of the time. It’s completely up to a manufacturer how long to give a phone security updates, and the phone could die before that due to irreplaceable batteries. When looking at phones that last long, the only options (that I would consider) are the Fairphone and the Pixel, of which only the latter even supports Graphene OS. I do know that Fairphone tries to extend the lifespan even further than they promise, but the phones are really expensive for what they provide.

    I would go for one of the Pixel 8s if you need a new phone, a bit more expensive (edit: than a budget phone) but they are promising 7 years of updates, and you can install Graphene OS on it (Graphene OS works with banking apps as well.)

  • QuillcrestFalconer [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    6 months ago

    Logged into my banking app for it to tell my that my version of Android is outdated, leaving me vulnerable to attacks, and that I need to update my system. I see no updates and sure enough, the manufacturer just recently declared my phone EOL.

    Even worse is they lock the bootloader so you can’t install a costum OS

  • ndondo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 months ago

    Check out LineageOs. The point of the phone os is to allow you to keep using your phone for as long as you want. Bit of a pain to initally setup though

      • Chronicon [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        6 months ago

        price per spec isn’t the worst aspect of it, though I suppose this is true. (the prices aren’t insane but the specs are very bad because chipmakers have very bad mainline linux compatibility)

        What’s worse for the average person is the base functionality is a little bit unstable still, the app library is small and requires a lot of fiddling to make common services work that would “just work” on a typical smartphone, and they don’t exactly even solve OPs problems directly since LTE will eventually go the way of the dodo too, and banking apps don’t support it. Banking websites do, and linux phones generally run up-to-date mainline linux applications not out of date abandoned android versions, so it is workable for some people, but its not nearly as good of an experience relative to an android/ios smartphone as desktop linux is relative to windows

        Oh and no unified system of push notifications on linux phones, so you have a tradeoff between battery life (sleeping all the time and only waking on calls and texts), vs actually getting non-SMS messages (need to wake up periodically and let every app individually check for messages). And that’s on top of the battery life already being bad

    • EpicKebabEater [he/him, it/its]@hexbear.net
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      6 months ago

      There are custom operating systems for phones but all of them are supported for specific models and may stop being updated after a while on older phones because development depends on volunteer work. Also you need to know how to unlock bootloader for them and may brick the device if you do something wrong while flashing the rom, so be sure to use a guide the first time. The main two custom roms I know are GrapheneOS(only for Pixel models) and LineageOS.

      Edit: This is useless for OP though since bank apps don’t work if they detect you are using a custom ROM.

  • Łumało [he/him]@lemmygrad.ml
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    6 months ago

    I really like the phones Unihertz sells and makes. They are unique little pieces and they even offer replacement parts for all of their phones! The battery is dying? No prob, just pop in a new one.

    I also like that they are amazingly priced. Other than that, fuck Google and major phone manufacturers. I hate them and this garbo closed down OS.

  • Black_Mald_Futures [any]@hexbear.net
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    6 months ago

    I need a new phone at some point in the next couple years but idfk what to get. I have a galaxy s7 edge and I don’t want to spend money on something that feels worse in some way

  • CliffordBigRedDog [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    6 months ago

    Dont buy a fking xiaomi it fking sucks and the build quality is terrible and its full of random software bugs like the qr code scanner just randomly not workinf

    If you want to buy a cheap Chinese phone get a oneplus or a huawei or a oppo instead

    • tocopherol [any]@hexbear.net
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      Fuck here I am waiting for my new xiaomi to arrive O: I’ve heard HyperOS is better and some models do support custom ROMs. I’m switching from a oneplus which I’ve loved for five years, the xiaomi seemed like good stats for the price.

      Edit: It arrived. It feels like an arranged marriage, it might be my phone for five years or more if it holds up, I’m nervous to open the box. I need the ultimate device for efficient commie shitposting.

      • doublepepperoni [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
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        6 months ago

        Mine’s a Xiaomi and my only complaint is that MIUI sucks and the apps that came with it are awful. When I bought it the screen size, resolution, camera quality, specs, etc easily beat out other phones in the same price class. I quickly took a look at current phones and the screen in my phone is still like double the resolution of other cheap phones four years in

        • tocopherol [any]@hexbear.net
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          6 months ago

          It seems like that was the main drawback to xiaomi phones I read but it sounds like they are at least trying to do something to help recently. I really wanted to stay with oneplus but they just seemed too pricey for me for comparable stats.

          Edit: it also has a headphone jack though which I am beyond stoked about, don’t give up your 3.5mm input, people, I have long missed it.

      • EpicKebabEater [he/him, it/its]@hexbear.net
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        6 months ago

        It is good stats for the price but I am ticked about two things:

        -Battery life starts out good but goes to shit fast

        -MIUI sucks and it is a specific pain in the ass to unlock bootloader. My other phone was much older but I only needed to pass the unlock command from ADB, this wants me to use an app that only works on Windows and then wait a week.

        YMMV because my phone is the cheapest model possible.

    • ReadFanon [any, any]@hexbear.net
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      6 months ago

      I’ve been pretty partial to Xiaomi phones since their first release but it’s getting to that point in the market where low-mid spec phones do everything I need them to and the Chinese market and the performance of my domestic currency are at a point where it’s not really worth my next phone being a Xiaomi.

      For whatever it’s worth, changing the OS on a Xiaomi is a headfuck by design. Also note that if you are avoiding Xiaomi that means you should also avoid Poco, which is part of the Xiaomi brand umbrella.

    • someone [comrade/them, they/them]@hexbear.net
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      6 months ago

      I’ve had a Oneplus N30 for about a month and I’m mostly happy with it. I’m annoyed at the lack of a notification LED, and I had to do the ADB “pm uninstall” thing on a a few built-in apps to get rid of that idiotic “sign in to red dot club” or whatever the fuck it’s called that clogged the top of the settings app, but aside from that I’m happy.

    • barrbaric [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      6 months ago

      My last xiaomi was fine (lots of bloatware, obviously) right up until the battery started to swell. Luckily it was removable, so I ordered a spare and wouldn’t you know it the “brand new” spare battery started swelling within a week. Very annoying because otherwise I quite liked the phone.