Apple never opened that door. Google did, but they never intended to keep it open. it was there to catch up with apple. they never intended to do any good here. it was there to speed up development and win people over, then after they are already there, google can close the door and screw them all. That's what's happening now. It was a bait and switch.

lol that last line. XD

Like most things in contemporary society, we are given the choice between two terrible options, and then encouraged to go all in on one of those terrible choices, or you're a LOSER.

Modern life is just Pavlov's lab.

What exactly is insecure about running GrapheneOS?

Or even stock OS on a Pixel? Has any of the conspiracies about Google Play Services ever been proven?

I really just want an encrypted portable linux device with a cellular modem. I don’t even care if it can SMS or VOLTE, I just need it to run a secure chat client, support Bluetooth headphones and last all day on a charge.

Then you're in luck, because that's something you can already have by now! Just get yourself one of the more recent-ish phones that are well supported by PostmarketOS. The things Linux phones struggle the most with these days, are the more traditional phone-things, such as text messages or calling, which may not be ready for production, as they say (although, both texts and calls have actually worked well for me as of late). But if all you want is a pocket Linux computer/PDA, and intend to carry another phone for calls and texting, that's something you can have, for the grand price of an old, second-hand phone. I've been loving my (LUKS-encrypted) OnePlus 6T, and I do actually use it for calls and texts as well!

You aren't going to get such a device enabled on the american cellular networks. The duoploy wont allow it. You would have a better chance creating a new network that doesnt need cellular technology. something that behaves more like a cordless phone that uses whatever wifi, packet radio, reticulum node, etc as the base. You wouldn't be able to get a straight phone number without a VoIP subscription but thats also not a terribly big problem as phone numbers are a terrible idea in 2025 anyway. We should have revocable keys exchanged at will that are unique to each contact. Either side can block communications effectively that way at any time and you couldnt just call them from a different number or sell the key to a different scammer or something.

Really, a 5G capable phone running linux isnt a big enough goal. Mobile communications needs a profound shift away from the legacy model.

You actually turned off geminis ability to serve YOU. You never turned off Gemini itself. Google won’t allow that. It’s still running in the background send your data to Google and its advertising partners. Google has publicly stated this is the intended design and they will not allow turning that off.

I've lost features that used to work without Gemini, but I believe it is disabled on both my Pixel 7 Pro and the Pixel 8 I have access to.

Wha Google is enforcing for a lot of these things, including Gemini, is that you are only allowed to disable direct interaction from the user with the service. So in the case of Gemini, it’s still running in the background and sending out your data to Google and its advertising partners. You just turned off your ability to interact with it yourself.