My go-to weather app on my GrapheneOS-powered Google Pixel 6a phone (GrapheneOS is a free and open source security-focused fork of Android Open Source Project) is Breezy Weather. Breezy Weather is open source and available on GitHub, Google Play Store, and F-Droid. I use F-Droid Basic as my app store. There are two flavors of Breezy Weather: Standard and Libre. The difference between them is that the standard version supports non-free weather providers. In most standard vs libre app cases, I opt for libre. However, in the case of Breezy Weather, I want standard because Accuweather is the best weather provider for my area. F-Droid itself has the libre version. Does this mean that there is no hope for me but to obtain the standard APK from GitHub or to use the Google Play Store? Not so! The IzzyOnDroid F-Droid repository has the standard version of Breezy Weather. Thus, all I need to do is enable IzzyOnDroid in F-Droid Basic and then select it instead of F-Droid as my preferred source for Breezy Weather.
Tag: grapheneos
Not Succumbing to Google Pixel Tablet Temptation
Amazon is selling the Google Pixel Tabel for $280. It supports GrapheneOS and I have been tempted to buy one because my preferred feed reading set-up uses Handy Reading (a free and open source Android feed reader) and the Pixel tablet would be a reading upgrade over my Google Pixel 3a XL (running DivestOS, my main “phone” is a Pixel 6a running GrapheneOS). But $280 is still steep. I just can’t quite get there. We’re sticking with the 3a XL for reading, although I need to work on a more ergonomic reading set-up to avoid right hand cramps.
Local Contact “Sync”
I have gone through three systems for contact syncing since transitioning to an open source tech lifestyle with my switch to Linux in August 2020. I tried EteSync, Radicale-DecSync, and most recently, using Posteo for server-side address syncing. Today I changed approach, borrowing from the Radicale-DecSync idea, which involved Radicale running locally on my computers, the DecSync app, and Syncthing. I first removed Posteo Sync on my GrapheneOS-powered Google Pixel 6a and then exported the .vcf file to a folder in my “Sync” directory that I Sync to my devices with Syncthing. I deleted my contacts from Thunderbird and imported the .vcf. After some testing, I opted to use Fossify Contacts instead of GrapheneOS’s default AOSP-derived contacts manager because the import and export was more to my liking. I then made some changes on Thunderbird, exported the .vcf, and imported them into Fossify Contacts. It worked as expected. I will keep playing with this system and see how sustainable it is.