I’ve been using GrapheneOS for about a year now and overall, I am very happy with the security and privacy features. There is one app, however, that runs noticeably slower on my Pixel 8 with GrapheneOS than on other Android devices: OpenstreetMap for Android (Osmand). The good side of this is that it has made … Continue reading GrapheneOS – When An App is Slow…
In part 3 of this series, I’ve taken a look at how the Google Play Services (app) and closed source commercial apps from the Google Play store can be separated into Android’s private space to deny them access to any data on the device. I really like this separation, and having used it for some … Continue reading GrapheneOS – Part 5 – App Separation and Termination in the Private Space
Today, I’d like to share a few notes about GrapheneOS and Wi-Fi privacy. When connecting to a new Wi-Fi network for the first time, ‘normal’ Android devices I use generate a per-Wi-Fi network randomized MAC layer 2 address and then keep using this MAC address for this network. While this prevents tracking a device between … Continue reading GrapheneOS – Part 4 – Wi-Fi Privacy
My main reason for turning to an alternative Android flavor is privacy. GrapheneOS takes this to the next level and by default doesn’t talk to any Google servers at all. Even things like the connectivity check web request when connecting to a new network or requesting ephemeris information for fast GPS startup go to GrapheneOS … Continue reading GrapheneOS – Part 3 – Separation Options for Google Play Stuff
Good, so there’s GrapheneOS on my Pixel 8 now. Like on my previous Pixel 6 with LineageOS, I don’t need the privacy challenging Google Play Services for my core apps, as they are all open source and from the F-Droid store. That being said, there is one type of proprietary apps, however, which I would … Continue reading GrapheneOS – Part 2 – Google Play Services
12 years ago I moved from Symbian (does anyone remember?) to Android with a sad heart and great unhappiness about the amount of private data that would be siphoned out of the device. Fortunately there was CyanogenMod, an Android Open Source Platform (AOSP) fork that removed pretty much all privacy invading extras from Android. Happiness … Continue reading GrapheneOS – Part 1 – Making the Jump
The Pixel 11 has recently been released, so it is time to get a Pixel 10 while it is still on the market. The discount is significant. I’ve been using a Pixel 8 for the past 2 years and I needed a backup device so I went for it. I then installed GrapheneOS on the … Continue reading Pixel 8 vs. 10 – Do I Upgrade?
Prices for RAM, Flash, hard disks and graphics cards keep rising and rising. The AI bubble keeps inflating and it’s anyone’s guess when hardware prices will return to sane levels. This definitely has an influence on my buying behavior but interestingly enough, in both directions: I buy some things right now because because I expect … Continue reading Buying ASAP vs. Holding Out
These days I am using a number of services on a regular basis that require a 2nd factor authentication in addition to a password. Two of them send me a 6 digit time-based one time password (TOTP) over SMS each time I want to log-in. The other two send the 6 digit code by email. … Continue reading TOTP Authentication – Open Source and Between Devices
It’s the time of the year again to spend a few minutes looking back to the major things in tech that happened for me this year and ended up on this blog. So without further ado, let’s jump right in and have a look at the things that moved me in 2025.