Title says it all. I’ll go first:

I don’t really have any on my computer (all I use that for is Vim, Firefox, and Git), but on my phone: Orbot (basically Tor as a VPN on your phone).

Edits: Added link, fixed formatting

  • KDE Connect

    I can share files, links and clipboard items between my phone and my computer. Use my phone as remote control while watching stuff. I see phone notifications on my computer and don’t miss calls when my phone is in silent mode while I’m at my PC. It has made my life so much smoother.

  •  Julian   ( @julianh@lemm.ee ) 
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    11 months ago

    Everyone knows about VLC but I don’t think many people know it has a really good Android app! I use it as my primary music app and it’s great. Even has android auto support and a surprisingly sleek interface.

      •  Julian   ( @julianh@lemm.ee ) 
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        811 months ago

        I haven’t used those so I don’t think so. But it lets you add music from local networks, and you can add streams from a URL (even supports youtube links, which is a way to watch youtube without ads without pihole or a third party app).

        • Huh, TIL - I’ve been using VLC for ages on my phone and on my tablet, but I never knew this. I just tried it - open Youtube app, select random Video, share, select VLC, wait a bit and it plays!

          Mind blown

  •  t0fr   ( @t0fr@lemmy.ca ) 
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    2211 months ago

    SyncThing - to sync my files between devices and avoid the big corporations cloud (use it for notes, Keepass database, photos, etc)

    Logseq - super advanced note taking with tagging and relationships between notes (all store locally)

    Authpass - opening my Keepass password database on my phone

    GrapheneOS Camera - just to avoid the Google camera app as I have Google Photos disabled on my phone and needrd a good app that doesn’t break when going to view the gallery (since it tries to open Google Photos)

    Simple Gallery - to view my photos on my phone

    Signal - I have it but I have very few friends that use it unfortunately

    AntennaPod - for podcasts, I’m thinking of self hosting a podcast tracker to sync my listening habits across my devices, we’ll see if that happens

    Vinyl Music Player - to play my local mp3 files and playlists (I use MusicBee to manage what I sync to the phone as my mp3 library is quite large, and SyncThing to actually copy stuff over)

    • SyncThing - to sync my files between devices and avoid the big corporations cloud (use it for notes, Keepass database, photos, etc)

      Amen, sibling.

      Logseq - super advanced note taking with tagging and relationships between notes (all store locally)

      Quite nice, although I’m still struggling to integrate it with my workflow. I just haven’t taken the time to learn how to best use it.

      Authpass - opening my Keepass password database on my phone

      Do you trust it? Why?

      I’m really cautious (nervous) about the program(s) I give access to my kbdx. On the desktop, I’ve actually code audited the tool I use; I can’t as easily do that on Android.

      GrapheneOS Camera - just to avoid the Google camera app as I have Google Photos disabled on my phone and needrd a good app that doesn’t break when going to view the gallery (since it tries to open Google Photos)

      I’ve been using OpenCamera for this, but recently started using PhotonCamera - it has a great UI.

      Simple Gallery - to view my photos on my phone

      That’s a good one. I ended up with Aves because it allows fairly complex filtering, and the UI is nice.

      Signal - I have it but I have very few friends that use it unfortunately

      A few years ago, I talked my wider family into using Wire, and now we’re all stuck on it. It keeps getting progressively worse with each release, and sooner or later I’m going to have to pick something to replace it. I don’t know what that will be, but it will be federated, and it won’t mandate IDs tied to a phone number.

      Vinyl Music Player - to play my local mp3 files and playlists (I use MusicBee to manage what I sync to the phone as my mp3 library is quite large, and SyncThing to actually copy stuff over)

      God, I seem to change music players every couple of months. I guess I’ve been using Metro for a while and haven’t found the thing that irritates me and sends me on a search for a new player, so maybe it’ll stick. That’s interesting about MusicBee, though - I’ve been looking for something like that, so thank you!

      I’ll add to your list:

      • PhotoBackup, which is a reliable and fantastic replacement for Photos syncing. This is then tied into PhotoPrism on the server, for web access and sharing. I had to cobble it together, mostly b/c of limitations in PhotoPrism, but it does replace the whole Goog Photos workflow.
      • NewPipe, which is superior to the YT app in all ways, and is one of the best OSS all-around mobile apps.
      • QKSMS, which I keep coming back to. I haven’t found anything better yet, in any case.
      • DAVx⁵. Unseen, but does some heavy lifting. One of the apps I make sure to support; replaces 1/3 of the critical “core” Google Android services
      • Wireguard, which Just Works, and is always on.
      • M.A.L.P., for when I’m playing music on the house system
      • openScale, a quite nice OSS weight tracker that supports a lot of off-brand smart scales, without phoning home
      • KDE Connect, what for sending stuff to/from other computers amd phones. Works great, even without KDE (mconnect is an alternative desktop service)
      • Etar, as my calendar app. Been using it so long, I’ve forgotten it’s not stock.
      • ntfy replaces so much notification on my phone, and it does so reliably and well. Worth a shout out.
      • SimpleTask, the best to todo.txt Android app. Another app that I’ve been using so long it seems almost stock.
      • I’ve been using FlorisBoard for several months now. It has no text prediction, but has a ton of features I use. I try other keyboards every once in a while, but end up back on Floris. The only thing I miss is prediction, and with it better (any?) correction. Still, aside from DAVx⁵, it’s probably the most used app on my phone, so…
      • Geometric Weather! Such a great weather app.
      • Material Files replaces the stock file manager. Great program, and while remote FSes are limited to ftp, it does the job.
      • Wormhole William is a good between-devices file transfer tool.
      • Termux, of course. Are there any real competitors?

      Thing is, I’m running OEM Android, b/c I have a flip phone and don’t want to lose the outside screen support by flashing. So I uninstall or disable nearly every built in app, and replace them with F-Droid apps (via Droid-ify). It’s not much, but it’s an honest living.

      Edit MusicBee… oh, Windows. Oh, well. The search continues.

      • I never really saw the need for Termux, but now that I selfhost at home and on a VPS, i couldn’t go without it!

        Also, I just recently started switching as much as I can to a self-hosted ntfy instance from pushover. I’m really loving it so far!

        I sponsored it on github because I see myself using it a lot. Plus, the dev deserves it. The documentation alone is great, let alone the software itself.

      •  Undearius   ( @Undearius@lemmy.ca ) 
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        111 months ago

        FlorisBoard for several months now. It has no text prediction

        The good news is that feature is currently in development. There’s a beta build on GitHub that has it sort of implemented. There’s some details on the FlorisBoard matrix channel on getting it.

        M.A.L.P., for when I’m playing music on the house system

        Do you mind explaining your setup a bit more? I’ve currently got a few Sonos speakers but I don’t like being locked into their system and have always been interested in a more open setup.

        I’ve seen Snapchat and I know of MPD (but don’t fully understand it, to be honest) but it seems there isn’t much information about these types of setups.

        • that feature is currently in development

          I was following that! I’m excited to see how it works, when they release it.

          Do you mind explaining your setup a bit more?

          Sure!

          I’d recommend LogitechMediaServer,. It’s got a ton of plugins, and despite the name is entirely maintained (more or less actively) by the community. Lots of features, easy to use, and even has themes to pretty-ify it.

          That said, I had a few issues. Every once in a while, one of the clients would freak out and blast screeching static throughout the house. That may have been a client issue, or some combination of my setup, so I changed it out.

          In any case, our house has whole-house audio wiring, so I have a 12-zone amp running it. To the zones are connected cheap ($50?) O-Droids running Linux. Each of these (there are 3) runs a client for the audio server. For LMS, that’s all there is - install LMS server and point it at your media, start the LMS clients and point them at the server, and the clients show up in the web interface of the server. Group them and play music to the group, and you get broadcast music streaming.

          Because of that little issue, I’m running mpd as the server. It’s a bit more involved to get the broadcast. To get that, my mpd plays to a pipe, and then I use snapcast to pull that data and broadcast it to snapclient(s) running on the same ODroids. And then, if you want a nice web UI, you probably want to install something like MyMPD, although we get along fine with MALP on our Androids. Queue maintenance is easier with MyMPD.

          In any case, it’s been more reliable in my house, but far more moving parts to get running. I’d really try LMS first. There are native Android clients for it as well, but the web UI is pretty nice.

    •  kia   ( @kia@lemmy.ca ) 
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      411 months ago

      Signal - I have it but I have very few friends that use it unfortunately

      It’s a shame they got rid of SMS support. That was basically my selling factor when trying to convince someone to install the app. Now, it’s next to impossible to get someone to install it…

  • I’ve recently discovered Organic Maps that allows offline viewing of open street maps. I’ve been using it since maps.me has completely gone down the drain with premium subscriptions and paid download limits (for the same open street maps data lol).

  •  Corroded   ( @CorrodedCranium@leminal.space ) 
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    11 months ago

    On my PC

    • Rednotebook for journalling and Tomb to easily encrypt it through the command line

    • Librewolf because manually making tweaks to Firefox was kind of tiring

    On my phone

    • PokerTH because I wanted to learn to play Texas Hold 'em without micro transactions and a required online connection

    • AntennaPod because I dislike using Spotify for podcasts

    • Aegis because it was easier to transfer authenticator codes. I think Google Authenticator now allows for local backups and exports

    Edit: Actually the coolest (but least useful) has to be brow.sh. I’ll attach an image but essentially it lets you run a browser through your terminal in a way that’s a little more indepth than apps like Lynx.

    In order to really see the extent of what it can do you really need to see how it handles video playback.

      •  Corroded   ( @CorrodedCranium@leminal.space ) 
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        11 months ago

        Love it. I wrote some custom scripts to basically combine it with anything I wanted an extra layer of security on and didn’t want to manually go through and use a program like Veracrypt

        The commands are also humorous and easy to remember. When you close a Tomb file for example it says something along the lines of “Your bones can now rest in peace”.

  • Not really an app, but I’m going to add https://kagi.com/ here; it’s time for a shakeup in the search industry that actually works, and Kagi delivers.

    Controversial, but Telegram is such a solid open source app in terms of UI/UX and a good middle ground between something like Discord and Signal.

    Now that I’ve shared my unpopular opinions…

    • Standard Notes is a really solid secure note taking app.
    • All of the Proton AG apps and services (Proton Drive, Proton Calendar, Proton VPN, Proton Mail, SimpleLogin).
    • Bitwarden.
    • “Privacy” (while not FOSS) is a pretty great software for using unique billing information per site (which helps with fraud protection, tracking, etc).
    • ZeroTier is awesome for remote access (everyone seems to recommend TailScale these days, but ZeroTier is very much of the “do one thing and do it well” mindset, they’re also the “OG” FOSS encrypted VLAN solution).
    • Kopia I’ve been really liking for backups (great features include: the ability to clone a cloud repository of backs to a hard drive or different cloud via the software itself, a GUI, a simple CLI interface, and configurable policies to keep track of your preferences so you don’t have to)
    •  Daniel   ( @hai@lemmy.ml ) OP
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      611 months ago

      Kagi

      Prices seem high… Features, seem nice (but not crazy):

      • “Boosting” and blocking domains: basically permanent filters.
      • “Lenses” - Similar to SearXNG’s different tabs, but more like a profile style system.
      • Bangs are the same as in SearXNG, and I think you can do the same, or similar, thing in Firefox.
      • Custom CSS is cool and all but you can get that with a browser add-on (like Stylus).
      • Their “Comprehensive result filtering” seems that same as every other browser
      • They have Vim-ish keybinds, which SearXNG and DDG have.
      • “Widgets” - Seems like Google’s quick answers, user created ones are cool I guess.
      • The “crystal orb” - Allows you to determine the “quality” of sites, and also open them in the Wayback Machine or adjust that boosting/blocking level.

      (Source)

      Additionally, it seems that they don’t have seem to have any external audits or releasing of code (correct me if I’m wrong). Additional they have a web browser, that’s only for Apple’s ecosystem. Overall, you pay for no-ads, I feel like for this feature set you could just use DuckDuckGo with advertisements off, or the HTML version (which doesn’t include JavaScript either). I’m kinda skeptical about it, but if it ends up taking off I’ll be happy there will be another alternative to Google.

      Kopia

      This actually looks very cool, so many new backup solutions to try after this thread. 🥲

      •  Dark Arc   ( @Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg ) 
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        11 months ago

        Prices seem high

        They talk about their prices better here: https://blog.kagi.com/update-kagi-search-pricing. Including:

        Q. What is your cost per search? A. Currently it is 1.25 cents per search. But search indexes are about to become several times more expensive and we now have the AI integration cost. We will try to keep the cost at 1.5 cents per search or below by rethinking our partnering strategy and investing more into our infrastructure.


        “Boosting” and blocking domains: basically permanent filters.

        I mean, yes and no; it’s not quite a filter as it can tweak the ranking not just outright put something at the top or remove it.

        “Lenses” - Similar to SearXNG’s different tabs, but more like a profile style system.

        These are actually super cool because they put things like the old “site:reddit.com” trick on steroids and https://help.kagi.com/kagi/features/code.html is like site:stackoverflow.com on steroids.

        Bangs are the same as in SearXNG, and I think you can do the same, or similar, thing in Firefox.

        You definitely can do this in plenty of things; I don’t think it’s all that compelling really, but it’s a nice feature none the less, and it’s arguably easier to sync “bangs” than it is to sync these shortcuts between browsers and different software; but yeah, not a big motivator for me.

        Custom CSS is cool and all but you can get that with a browser add-on (like Stylus).

        Similar comment about the syncing of this; but yeah, this also wasn’t a big motivator for me.

        Their “Comprehensive result filtering” seems that same as every other browser

        True, but I think it’s there 1 for completeness, and 2 because the count of ads and trackers as a criteria is pretty unique to them. It’s also quite a bit more user facing, and easier to work with than say, getting the same options from Google search.

        “Widgets” - Seems like Google’s quick answers, user created ones are cool I guess.

        Not sure what you mean by custom ones, haven’t seen anything about that; but it’s definitely in the feature parity category.


        Don’t forget things like redirects (change your lemmy UI?) and their own index, which includes things like wayback machine results – particularly relevant with CNET deleting old content to boost their Google ranking.

        Their generated summaries are also pretty cool, e.g. from the CNET article:

        • CNET has been deleting thousands of old articles from its site in recent weeks in an effort to improve its search engine rankings on Google.
        • CNET confirmed it removes old content to appear more “fresh, relevant and worthy of being placed higher than our competitors” according to an internal memo.
        • However, experts say Google does not encourage deleting old content simply because of its age and that older content can still provide value to users.
        • The perception that “the Internet is forever” and content placed online will always remain accessible has proven untrue over time.
        • Link rot threatens old web content as links go dead and content disappears from original locations.
        • Copyright trolls have pressured sites to remove old images rather than risk expensive lawsuits over fair use.
        • Large portions of the historical web record are missing or inaccessible now due to link rot and deliberate content removal.
        • Archives like the Wayback Machine help preserve some content but can’t capture everything.
        • Sites focused on SEO are driven to extremes like mass content deletion to rise above noisy search results.
        • Archivists play an important role in preserving digital history by making copies of content before it disappears.

        Additionally, it seems that they don’t have seem to have any external audits … (correct me if I’m wrong).

        They don’t, but they do have a clearly worded privacy policy https://kagi.com/privacy.

        or releasing of code (correct me if I’m wrong).

        The search engine itself, no; but their browser extensions are open source: https://github.com/kagisearch/browser_extensions


        This actually looks very cool, so many new backup solutions to try after this thread. 🥲

        I’ve tried a lot of different backup solutions… I’d be curious where you’re leaning, but I’d say this one is likely going to be your winner for ease of use, privacy, and cross-platform functionality.

        •  Daniel   ( @hai@lemmy.ml ) OP
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          211 months ago

          https://blog.kagi.com/update-kagi-search-pricing

          I gotta hand it to them for being transparent about their pricing, including that limit feature… AWS should take some notes.

          These are actually super cool because they put things like the old “site:reddit.com” trick on steroids and https://help.kagi.com/kagi/features/code.html is like site:stackoverflow.com on steroids.

          I’m assuming you’re a programmer so I gotta ask, how much easier does this make it for your to find documentation and answers to that one error that the language never decided to document for some reason?

          It’s also quite a bit more user facing, and easier to work with than say, getting the same options from Google search.

          Google does always seem to hide them for some reason, despite the fact that it would be easy to work into the interface.

          Not sure what you mean by custom ones, haven’t seen anything about that; but it’s definitely in the feature parity category.

          In this post they say: “We have many instant answers already and are constantly adding more, with the idea of allowing users to define their own ‘widgets’ in the future.” I’m assuming it’s not released yet, but it does sound like a cool feature when they do.

          Don’t forget things like redirects (change your lemmy UI?) and their own index, which includes things like wayback machine results – particularly relevant with CNET deleting old content to boost their Google ranking.

          I didn’t see either one of these features on the blog post, likely because it was from 2022, but pretty cool being able to search for old content that’s been deleted.

          The search engine itself, no; but their browser extensions are open source: https://github.com/kagisearch/browser_extensions

          I stand corrected, that is nice that at least a bit of it is, I didn’t see that on their website, granted I did miss the entire “Help” page somehow.

          Their generated summaries are also pretty cool

          Alright, so I created a trail account, and gave it a try with a random article, and hey, pretty cool, and would actually save time. I even tried it with some pretty simple documentation, it did end up just describing the steps that had to be taken. Although, I noticed a little “discuss this document” button, and asked it what code I’d need, it gave it to me. Then asked it to make tweaks like changing the key and sections to ones that actually would be in a configuration file, and it changed it. It could even do things beyond just the lines it’s on, like instead of printing the value, make sure it’s not a value. I gotta say, I actually am pretty impressed by that (even if it is relatively simple work), I know ChatGPT and Copilot could (likely) do the same things, but how it broke it down from an article is pretty cool.

          Now, I’m likely not gonna become a paying customer for it, like I said in the original post – I’m using (Neo)vim, and, while I’ve played around with AI like this, I don’t find it ever really falling into my workflow. Maybe down the road, and if the internet keeps getting worse, it might be worth it. That being said you can do a lot of these things with alternative solutions, but a search engine that puts them all together is pretty cool, and does save some time.


          I’ve tried a lot of different backup solutions… I’d be curious where you’re leaning, but I’d say this one is likely going to be your winner for ease of use, privacy, and cross-platform functionality.

          Currently, I’m using Nextcloud, and I distro hop enough that all I need to do is backup my documents, which most are code and can go on Git(Lab/Tea/Hub). Although, I’m finally settling down (there’s like one or two more distros that I want to try) with Arch Linux, and a proper backup solution would be nice, by plan is to just go through this entire thread, compare features, and try them out.

          Thanks for explaining Kagi to me by the way, it is in fact a pretty cool service!

      • I used DDG for like 2 years. Almost every single search I had to search in both DDG and then in Google since the results from DDG were terrible. I recently switched to Kagi and have only had to try to find something in Google twice, and neither time Google was able to find what I needed either. You’re not just paying for no ads, you’re paying for actual search engine results, whereas the other companies, you are the product.

        The only things I’ve cared about using Kagi are the ability to completely block domains, lenses, bangs, and actual search results that get me what I need. The rest is just a bonus.

    •  snowe   ( @snowe@programming.dev ) 
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      I did the trial for kagi and completely stopped using Google within 3 days. Kagi is so much better it’s easily worth it. And it has actually useful features unlike Google. It’s insane how long google sat on their haunches and waited to let others surpass them.

      •  KDE   ( @KDE@monyet.cc ) 
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        111 months ago

        I use duckduckgo /Searxng /Startpage pls dont shame on me but these are wholesome apps that makes me never look at google again Thanks for the recommendation of Kagi otherwise!

    •  KDE   ( @KDE@monyet.cc ) 
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      111 months ago

      How can Privacy.com be open source If they have to survive in the business they have to make it some propreitory I am a non american and i dont care about its proprietoryship , what i care is when would they open it to people like us! It seems such wholesome service and that too for freemium

  • I’m using Aves Libre as my gallery app in my phone, i really like it, works pretty well and looks pretty clean. It can classify the media by the apps (It need to access to the app list to do this). To watch some videos i use Libretube, but it’s a shame that (i think) there’s no invidious related apps in android. And the maps that i use are from OpenStreetMaps, OsmAnd in my phone. Works pretty well despite not using google services that it is pretty good in my opinion. I also use it to add some notes or interest points and then back phone contribute with that i wrote.

    • Ohhh, thanks for mentioning Aves Libre, been looking for a map-feature like that for a long time! UI ks kinda weird though and displaying of photos is really slow in my device. I also can’t find a setting for the anonymous data collection they mention in the TOS. Do you happen to know where I can enable/disable that?

      Check out OrganicMaps if you ever have problems with Osmand (which I also use and love).

      I feel like either Newpipe or LibreTube can use the Invidious api but not sure …

      •  Undearius   ( @Undearius@lemmy.ca ) 
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        211 months ago

        I was using F-stop previously for the map feature and the ability to add descriptions to the photos (I love having notes on the photos but hate being locked into a specific app like Google Photos).

        Aves has a much nicer UI and can edit the geotag information, too. Glad I found this.

          •  Undearius   ( @Undearius@lemmy.ca ) 
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            211 months ago

            F-Stop adds an XMP tag imbedded into the image file. I’m going to assume Aves does the same but I haven’t used it much yet to know.

            I would love to be able to find an image service (like PhotoPrism) I can run on my server that can read the tags that I like to use (Date/time, geo location, title/descriptions, and faces). I want that info in the image file itself so that I can easily switch to another service if needed.

            I’m still trying to find a way to make back-up copies of the original and then tag/organize photos to be used with a self-hosted viewer, whatever it may be.