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Help First recent Android phone. A little help please.

As for the camera, remember that this is a budget phone.

Generally, iphone is better as far as camera and audio recording.

As I say, if I wanted better pictures, I would buy a camera.

To be sure, there are Android devices with great cameras and audio quality.
But this is not usually found on inexpensive devices.
 
puppykickr said:
Stock apps are there to get the user by until the user finds better apps.

They also can be bad for security, because some have permissions that allow types of tracking and other information gathering.

Stupid things- like clock apps with internet permission, calculators with the same.
Camera apps that not only have internet permission, but also collect date, time, and GPS coordinates of each picture you take.

Not only that, but I have actually seen where a stock clock app that did not have internet permission received an update- and the update gave the clock internet permission!

Also witnessed was a stock browser that got an update, and then it had ads.

So no, I do not use ANY stock utility apps.
I disable them all and replace them with Simple Mobile Tools.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. Your knowledge is impressive. I'm glad I "know" you. I will give it a try to this suite of applications. I'm far from a power user even with the fruit phone. Email, browsing a bit, Maps, grocery app. So first I could disabled the Camera, Agenda, etc. Guess I keep Google Play though, Then I replace the Google suite by the Simple Mobile Tools. Do I disabled Google Photos cause I want the photos taken with the e to be available in the cloud for iMac and iPads. Are the apps smaller in size that Google's? Could be a bonus giving the small 32g flash memory. BTW, all the permissions the apps you mention ask for, is it possible to deny them those in Settings. Say, could I deny the camera an Internet permission if it has it now? Thanks again and again. You're really deep into Android. Fascinating. At least, from my point of view and from where I come.
 
Racineur said:
Thanks for the input. Your knowledge is impressive. I'm glad I "know" you. I will give it a try to this suite of applications. I'm far from a power user even with the fruit phone. Email, browsing a bit, Maps, grocery app. So first I could disabled the Camera, Agenda, etc. Guess I keep Google Play though, Then I replace the Google suite by the Simple Mobile Tools. Do I disabled Google Photos cause I want the photos taken with the e to be available in the cloud for iMac and iPads. Are the apps smaller in size that Google's? Could be a bonus giving the small 32g flash memory. BTW, all the permissions the apps you mention ask for, is it possible to deny them those in Settings. Say, could I deny the camera an Internet permission if it has it now? Thanks again and again. You're really deep into Android. Fascinating. At least, from my point of view and from where I come.
Click to expand...

You can, and I do go through the permissions of apps I use, and even those that I disable.

The idea being that permissions can change with updates.

I also do not trust that just by denying permissions means an app will stop doing whatever.

Google Play Services is a notoriously ingrained app in this way.
Because it is interconnected with so many other apps, it still collects information for Google.

Google has many times before been caught ignoring people's settings, and they have sneaky ways of even turning them back on if they are off.

I have a long standing dislike for Google, and have eliminated all things Google from my latest device.

I went to fairly large lengths to do so.

Also, some sacrifices and relearning had to be made in how the device works.

So needless to say, I disabled the Play Store.
Most of the apps on there have Google tracking in them.

I get my apps from elsewhere, and always look to F-Droid first.
F-Droid is the only appstore that has not had a malware issue.

So if the same app is available on F-Droid, I will get that one instead of the one tainted by Google.
 
I also do not tolerate any 'automatic' updates of any sort.

Too many times in the past I have set up a device to have it be completely reconfigured in the morning.

Then spend hours resetting it all, only to have it happen again, and again.
I recently had a really crappy device that would not allow disabling of most crap I eliminate, and I literally dashed it to the driveway when it entered yet another forced 'security update' that only updated all the trash apps I don't want at all and about twenty more that I do not want updated.

That is the very day that I purchased my Moto e, and set it up as a non-Google device.

Can Google still get information?
My guess is yes.
But I am not going to make it any easier for them.
 
puppykickr said:
I also do not tolerate any 'automatic' updates of any sort.

Too many times in the past I have set up a device to have it be completely reconfigured in the morning.

Then spend hours resetting it all, only to have it happen again, and again.
I recently had a really crappy device that would not allow disabling of most crap I eliminate, and I literally dashed it to the driveway when it entered yet another forced 'security update' that only updated all the trash apps I don't want at all and about twenty more that I do not want updated.

That is the very day that I purchased my Moto e, and set it up as a non-Google device.

Can Google still get information?
My guess is yes.
But I am not going to make it any easier for them.
Click to expand...

So may I ask you what are the apps on your e. I mean, the apps for casual daily stuff like email, browser, texting, Calendar, photos management, camera app or any other app you want to share. My e is, as you know, actually 100% Google but Chrome that I replaced with Kiwi browser. I have a profound hate for Chrome on any platform. I don't understand well Google Photos and Drive. What one does, what the other does. Plus, I find that the texting app is nowhere near iMessage. I know now there are many texting apps but all I want is to be able to attach pics to my messages and send them. Not into the bubbles and gifs and exploding balloons. I found a cute app that sync my iCloud account (calendar) to the Google Calendar. A must for me. Have to have the same information on my iMac and two iPad and iPhones. I'm very curious how one can degoogle an Android phone. Never heard of that before. As wold have never come to my mind to defruit an iPhone. Very interesting in that. But in doing that, is it assured the phone will work flawlessly. Right now, it'd working like a charm. I like this e very much.
 
puppykickr said:
You can, and I do go through the permissions of apps I use, and even those that I disable.

The idea being that permissions can change with updates.

I also do not trust that just by denying permissions means an app will stop doing whatever.

Google Play Services is a notoriously ingrained app in this way.
Because it is interconnected with so many other apps, it still collects information for Google.

Google has many times before been caught ignoring people's settings, and they have sneaky ways of even turning them back on if they are off.

I have a long standing dislike for Google, and have eliminated all things Google from my latest device.

I went to fairly large lengths to do so.

Also, some sacrifices and relearning had to be made in how the device works.

So needless to say, I disabled the Play Store.
Most of the apps on there have Google tracking in them.

I get my apps from elsewhere, and always look to F-Droid first.
F-Droid is the only appstore that has not had a malware issue.

So if the same app is available on F-Droid, I will get that one instead of the one tainted by Google.
Click to expand...

Understand what you're saying. I too fear Google and that is maybe what kept me to even try to switch for all those years. I've DL the F-Droid app and there are so many, it's mind boggling. More and more, I want to give it a try but I'm so anxious to go on with that plan.
 
Hello again. Now that I've found a way to sync my iMac agenda to the Google Calendar, do you think it's possible to sync Apple Notes app to an Android notes app, would be the last think I need to know and could really be o my own. Feel more and more comfortable with the e. Thanks,
 
Hi friend and friends. As for my last post, I found a way to sync Google calendar to iMac. There's an app on the PlayStore called SyncforIcloud. Works well. I have a question now concerning the Mobile data. I cannot get a 4G connection. It's always either LTE or LTE+. which are not the same thing as 4G as explains on the web. Went to Settings/Mobile as indicated on the Web. To my surprise no choice to use 4G to speed up things. Instead "Use VoLTE fr better communications". So the e is not 4G. 4G is not on the most basic phone in 2021? I like very much this phone but this would be a no go. Hellllp please. Thanks thanks.
 
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I have a new interrogation. My e takes horrid photos. Most of them are overexposed with highs totally crammed. Plus, they are not crisp, always have to sharpen them to have a satisfying effect. Is this the internal camera of the Moto camera app? Would I get better results in manual mode or should I download another camera app? But overall,, the e has been a pleasing experience. I for one like the screen very much with nice saturated colors and it's snappy enough for me. Thanks again for your clues.
 
I really do not use the camera much, but yes, I have also been disappointed.

This could be due to a dirty lens (I work in a filthy environment), low light situations, or maybe the camera is just not that good.

If I was interested in taking pictures of any value, I would buy a camera, not a.phone.

I get the 'convenience' factor, but in truth their is no beating a quality product that is devoted to a single task.

Maybe if I messed with the camera more, it would interest me more. I just do not hardly use it at all. I take less than five photos a month usually, and these are usually just to show someone something and then they are deleted.

Because of security issues, I do use a non-native camera app (Simple Camera) that can sometimes cause issues on certain devices- but as far as picture quality goes, none that I am aware of.
 
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