#nobridge
Gonna be interesting to see which models disappear from EU altogether and which models get the better repairability and software updates next summer:
Ecodesign requirements will apply to mobile phones and tablets put on the EU market from 20 June 2025 onwards, including:
- resistance to accidental drops or scratches and protection from dust and water
- sufficiently durable batteries which can withstand at least 800 charge and discharge cycles while retaining at least 80% of their initial capacity
- rules on disassembly and repair, including obligations for producers to make critical spare parts available within 5-10 working days, and for 7 years after the end of sales of the product model on the EU market
- availability of operating system upgrades for longer periods (at least 5 years from the date of the end of placement on the market of the last unit of a product model)
- non-discriminatory access for professional repairers to any software or firmware needed for the replacement
If it’s a good old game, check if gog.com sells it. That would probably be the easiest way for a non technical user.
Many of their old games run using Dosbox, but without the end user having to set it up, f.e.
https://www.gog.com/en/game/sid_meiers_colonization
In some cases they look for generic virtual hw devices, in other cases things like available cpu flags or BIOS version.
There are ways to hide it though:
https://github.com/zhaodice/qemu-anti-detection
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/how-do-i-hide-the-fact-to-windows-that-it-runs-in-a-vm.115627/
I consider June 2025 to be summer. :)
Kinda similar in size to the new Sony Xperia 10 IV and Sony Xperia 10 VI. It’s a step in the right direction, but I really want them to shrink down a bit in height too.
After browsing through Subscribed/New I usually check out All/Top 12 hours and All/Active. If I still feel the need to doomscroll I might venture into All/New. My Subscribed list isn’t moving very fast…
It’s even easier to simply visit the community, if you aren’t subscribed you get a big nice block button in the sidebar.
No idea to be honest, been a long time since I ran Windows at home.
Can always use the Windows 10 LTSC 2021 iso to create the Windows To Go. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-10-enterprise
Getting a proper license is gonna be impossible as a private consumer though, or well you can probably find someone selling the product keys online for cheap but that isn’t a real sales channel and it could suddenly become deactivated by Microsoft. I can find sites illegally selling them for as low as $14 when doing a quick search.
The real way to get the license is to sign up for their Volume Licensing Program.
Windows Enterprise LTSC is available in the per-user and per-device model, depending on the Volume Licensing program through which it’s acquired.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/windows-licensing#windows-desktop-offerings-available-through-commercial-licensing
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/vlsc-faqs-home-page
Using Rufus (https://rufus.ie/en/) and a fast USB thumbdrive, such as Kingston DataTraveler Max - https://www.storagereview.com/review/kingston-datatraveler-max-review, you can make a “Windows To Go” installation.
Now you have a Windows install that you can boot directly from the thumbdrive when the need arise.
Perfect for booting up if your bios can’t updated directly from the usb drive and forces you into Windows, or to run that one software you can’t replace just yet and that refuses your attempts to run with wine.
Just make sure that it’s an ssd usb thumbdrive or it’s gonna be too slow to be any use.
Last time I tried my banking apps didn’t wanna play nice with LineageOS. :(
If only they could make it another 20% smaller I would count it as small as well. 6.3inch screen isn’t small in my world.
Definitely smaller, but how’s Unihertz track record regarding security updates? That’s the last part of the puzzle for me, I want a phone that’s safe. Otherwise I could still use my old XZ1 Compact. :)
Personally I’ve upvoted the replies as they keep a relevant and interesting discussion going.
Well the Sony XZ1 Compact got IP68 even with aux input and a microSDXC slot so I don’t think combining the SD Card with water resistance should be a problem. The swappable battery would probably be worse.
Regarding bloatware I’ve gotten used to using adb and the uad to remove it when buying a phone. https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater/tree/main
I was thinking about trying another ROM on my old XZ1C but my banking apps wouldn’t run properly if I did that anyways.
I can only imagine that your conviction is wrong. If we were large enough a market to make a nice profit then I imagine the smaller phones would still be around.
With all the video that’s being consumed through phones today I kinda understand why most people prefer a larger screen too. I have friends who has neither tablets nor computers at home and if I didn’t have both of those I might even prefer a 6 inch screen myself.
Yeah, I’m using the Sony Xperia 10 IV right now and while it is better than many phones I’m reminded of how much better the XZ1 Compact feels in my hand everytime I use it to startup some music.
129mm vs 153mm in height and 65mm vs 67mm in width - it’s amazing how much a difference those 2.4cm in height does for me.
That’s a cool project and it did have a small screen, I give you that. Might be nice to only have to worry about answering the phone for 5 hours a day too. ;-)
Yeah, if there’s a full system failure without any backups and no option to get the system operational again then I would land in clone the drives before trying to restore data from them.