Because once you fall behind on anything, especially larger expenses, it’s pretty much over. You can’t recover from that unless you submit yourself to loan-hell.

Luigi time

Sorry if this analogy has already been thrown at you dozens of times, I like to think of DNS like an address book for the internet. On a traditional phone, I can’t just type in someone’s name, I have to type in a number. Without DNS, the internet would be like that, accessing any website would require recalling and typing in the IP address. But DNS translates domain names (hence Domain Name System), the part of the URL leading up to .com, .ml, etc, into the proper IP addresses for you.

Unless you self-host, the DNS service is hosted on someone else’s server, and many devices default to communicating with the DNS server in plain text. Which is why you want to trust your DNS provider since they can keep a list of which sites you visit. And DNS over HTTPS mitigates the possibility of interception by encrypting your DNS requests.

Worth it, especially if you are stuck with the phone. Find FOSS equivalents of the built-in utilities (gallery, files, etc.), disable what you can (judiciously) with uad-ng, block the apps that can’t be disabled from network access using Rethink DNS, and use the websites of services on a computer browser instead of apps whenever possible.

It’s still far from what privacy ROMs can do for you, but until you can get a GrapheneOS, etc. friendly phone, taking some action is much better than just letting the spyware run wild.

If OP indeed has the 6th gen iPod Touch, not the classic, it won’t be as rosy as most of the comment here suggest. From my experience replacing the battery on one, you need a hair dryer to loosen the glue and pry off the screen, then a soldering iron to replace the battery since its ribbon cable is directly soldered to the logic board. No storage expansion or custom firmware is available for such iOS devices, as far as I am aware.

Also watch out for low-quality replacement batteries, the first replacement I tried only lasted around an hour on a full charge.

Does that happen to be a variant? I replaced the battery in my aunt’s iPod Touch 6 a few years ago and did have to desolder the battery ribbon cable as it was directly soldered to the logic board. Took a lot of patience just getting to the battery too (screen is held on by glue unlike the clips/tabs in an iPhone).

Also interested to hear other people’s thoughts on reusing these old iOS devices, got one sitting around just collecting dust.

Are you keen on using wireless headphones or speakers? If not, I’d go all the way for one without Bluetooth so the thought of present or future vulnerabilities won’t have to cross my mind whenever I use it.

In addition to the Bluetooth vulnerabilities other commenters have mentioned, a recent one affects headsets with Google’s Fast Pair feature. Once forcibly paired, an adversary can register the headset with their Google account. The headset thereafter pings nearby Android devices as part of the find lost devices network and can be used to track the victim.

Not sure if they are in production any more, but I can recommend the old iPod-looking Walkman and Sansa MP3 players. Currently also using a no-name iPod nano clone for the fact that it has a microSD slot, even upgraded the internal battery a few months ago.

Any hidden screws or seams to pry? Is there alternative firmware for it?

If not, I’d imagine your only options would be physically crippling the bluetooth module, porting something like OpenWrt to it, or getting a router that doesn’t force Bluetooth on you.

Bog standard keyring. To keep everything parallel, the folding multitool gets a tiny sub-keyring and the metal USB stick gets a tiny carabiner (detaches to avoid load-bearing USB ports). Keychain goes in a velcro pouch that also holds a multi-tool pen, mini flashlight, and lighter. Pouch goes into front left pocket.

Validates my feelings as a Debian user

The 1969 Apollo 11 mission. To capture the original signal from the lander and make backup copies of it

I am familiar with a child abuse victim who feels this way. Not like actively seeking it out, but they wouldn’t regret it much if it came to that point.

But I’m not personally qualified to comment on it. If it’s becoming more than a passing thought and starting to bother you in everyday life or causing actively homicidal thoughts, it’s a good time to seek professional help before it gets you into trouble.

Instander still works, but it has fallen victim to the bus factor (the sole developer the_dise was reportedly KIA)

Just installed it to see, login is still required

Physically yes. Probably not in the way you mean though. The lungs have no facilities to digest food, even if in the form of a rich aerosol (you’d get pneumonia). Perhaps a wayward molecule with caloric value or two could follow air swallowed into the stomach, but that would be very negligible.

Was fortunate enough to have good teachers and friends so it was mostly enjoyable. I sometimes joke that I peaked in middle school, when I finally came out of my shell enough to have meaningful friendships, but had still yet to experience any sort of academic-related stress.

If you are in the US, take a look at Fidelity or Vanguard. They haven’t required the use of a smartphone app.

Using a phone with Android 8 isn’t best practice for security by any means, but unless you are being targeted or going around downloading shady apps, it’s more likely it will run into app incompatibility issues in the coming years than anything else.

For sites where I’m making a low-value, one-off purchase and never coming back, I’ll use a pseudonym alongside a prepaid gift card, or failing that, a privacy.com virtual card. Not quite a sustainable strategy with eBay or Amazon, especially if the package needs a signature, so I’ll just use a privacy.com virtual card and supply a P.O. Box address

Mostly accepted that it is the way it is for these things. If the privacy-friendly option is giving up a few conveniences, I’ll take it. But if it’s keeping me from reaching certain goals, I’ll tolerate a compromise. I don’t think I’m being targeted either, so it’s all tolerable in my personal threat model.

I did once while abroad. None of the shoe stores had the style I wanted in wide, so I went on Amazon and found a pair which reviewers tended to say fit well. Particularly that the listed size matched their expectations when they tried the actual shoe on. Ordered the size I thought would fit me and it did in fact fit me perfectly. It lasted about a year until it started leaking at the glued seam, which to be fair, wasn’t too disappointing for a 48-Euro no-name pair.

Granted, that was for men’s hiking shoes, can’t really speak for finding good high heels online. Other than for that one-off occasion, I’ve only shopped for shoes and clothes in-person.

One less possible data point for tracking

Also not invested enough in my profile to bother

The average social media profile has just headlines and lead pictures, while a good blog also has articles

How time-consuming would doing it yourself be, if anyone here has tried?

Completely agree. I find it especially inelegant that we still have such a thing as boot times to wait through, despite improvements by orders of magnitude in processing power and disk throughput. Android devices are a huge offender in this aspect, though I guess few people care since a full shutdown is rarely done.