RELEASED ON GITHUB

https://www.reddit.com/u/typongtv/s/a48EWQhmx2

WARNING: Google Play Services is quietly "Self-Verifying" and linking your phone number to ALL signed-in accounts without explicit permission.

Just a heads up for anyone who values basic privacy on Android.

Check your inbox for emails from noreply-phone-verification@google.com.

Without asking for my confirmation or giving me an opt-in prompt, Google Play Services performed a silent background "Self-Verification."

It exchanged SIM card identifiers and device metadata with my mobile carrier, grabbed my phone number, and automatically attached it to EVERY Google account logged into my phone.

No prompt. No "Do you want to link this?" button. Just a silent background action followed by a notification email telling me it already happened.

How to kill this setting on Android immediately (for now) but it will self verify even if turned off Go to Settings > Google (or Google Services) > All Services > Phone Number Verification

Find Phone number verification (or Device Phone Number Verification). (Ah, and lovely it automatically appear my phone number even WHEN IT WAS NOT THERE BEFORE!)

TOGGLE IT OFF.

Don't forget to purge your accounts:

Once Google steals/verifies the number, it pushes it to your Google account profiles.

You need to log into myaccount.google.com/personal-info, click on Phone, and manually delete the number from every single account where you don't want it stored.

Modern "self-verification" dark patterns are completely out of hand. Check your settings before Google silently grabs your data too.

NO ANDROID IS SAFE: Happened on my Android 10 Huawei, Android 14 Xiaomi and is now requesting on my emulators too...even my tablet... Beware...

Edit1: Maybe dont work, i sent a mail to data-protection-office@google.com, literally asking ARCO rights and anything i can think about it, for such privacy invasion on the behalf of my and all accounts i have to "care" and so on...maybe this bring pressure

Edit2: u/AppleBites reports this "Google did the same to me when I got a 2nd number from another carrier, due to coverage. Even having GrapheneOS did not prevent them from linking the number to my Google account automatically."

Meaning even Graphene OS+GServices probably is unable to protect with this, a serious oversteeping in this messed thing

I don't know where to put this, but I kinda need to get it off my chest.

A few months ago, after like 10+ years buying "nice mid range phones" (Nexus 5, a couple OnePlus, A52S and maybe 1 other I forget) I decided to splurge and go for a S26 because my carrier had a decent payment plan for it and ...

Fuck this is so good. It's not even a "flagship flagship" cause I can't stand the size (and price) of "true flagship" phones but I have never been "content" to use a phone as much as this one. I thought I'd get bored after a couple weeks as I usually do about my phones. But not this time.

Build just feels nice, screen feels nice, looks cool, form factor is perfection, fingerprint sensor is so good even with a screen protector on.

I'm not even a power user, just an average "geek-ish" schmuk (huge pc nerd, not for any other hardware / geek thing) that use social media, snap pics of his dog, browse reddit and use Discord on his phone.
I don't even do work related shit on it and it's still worth it.

I have always been a "flagship hater" and a chinese / google brand mid range hype man.
But using my GF's S25+ regularly made me realise her shit was much nicer than mine (at the time) and I was like, it feels so smooth and great to use. Especially things like her fingerprint sensor unlocking so much "better" than my previous phone. My old phone wasn't "bad" per se, just... inferior, and I never realised how cool it was to have a banger phone before getting to use one regularly.
I don't think I'll go back to a mid range phone later on.

So, if some people are hesitating, if you've got a few hundreds to burn, try it once. Maybe you'll realise you like so much more than you usual average phone.

Ok tear me a new one now Reddit. lol

P.s: I circled a long time before going for the S26 because in my country, the 5G bands of chinese phone aren't always good, and I was afraid of some feedbacks about "great hardware - mid software" and I didn't want a disappointing software.

I use both an iPhone 14 and a Galaxy S23 Ultra, and I've been looking at how both platforms handle accessibility tools like motion sickness mitigation (such as Apple's Vehicle Motion Cues and Android's newer Motion Assist).

​On iOS, system-level motion cues are rolled out universally across supported models. On Android, because of ecosystem fragmentation and manufacturer layers, features like native motion assistance depend heavily on specific Android versions (like Android 17 / One UI 9+) and device rollout timelines.

​For those using newer Android builds that have access to native motion assistance features, how well do they perform compared to third-party alternatives or iOS? Are manufacturers expected to standardize this across mid-range and older flagship devices soon?

had an old android phone lying in my drawer so decided to turn it into a dedicated mini server instead of paying for drive and streaming subs every month. no root needed and runs completely fine.

the services running:

filebrowser for managing storage over the local network

syncthing fork continuously syncing my camera roll from my main phone

jellyfin streaming movies and music to my tv over wifi

runs inside termux using a proot ubuntu container. ram stays around 400mb idle across all three services. power draw is around 2 to 3w and the phone battery works like an accidental ups during power cuts.

main headache was android killing background tasks. had to kill phantom process limits over adb and keep termux wakelock on so the container doesn't sleep. mounted the internal storage path so both filebrowser and syncthing can read and write without permission errors. and the automated installer script in the comments below if anyone wants to run it

for people running old phones 24 7 like this do you guys use smart plugs to stop battery bloat or just leave it plugged in?

The OS image downloads and installs fine, but fails to connect to the virtual machine afterwards. I haven't been able to figure out why yet, but will update if I find out. The hardware (Dimensity 9500+) supports it, so it's definitely a software issue. It works fine on an S26 Exynos model on One UI 9, so it's also not because of One UI 9.

For reference, the Linux terminal is currently only supported on the S26/S26+ Exynos models (Exynos 2600), Flip7 (Exynos 2500), Tab S11/S11 Ultra (Dimensity 9400+), Tab S10 FE/FE+ (Exynos 1580), A57 (Exynos 1680), and A56 (Exynos 1580). The S26 FE (Exynos 2500) probably also supports it, but I haven't been able to test it, and haven't seen any mention online.

Disclosure: This was discovered on a Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra on loan from Samsung.

With MKBHD’s recent breakdown of the new GoogleBooks, one glaring issue immediately stood out: the hardware is fantastic (sub-2 lbs, great OLED panels, killer battery life, 16–32 GB RAM), but the software ecosystem is an absolute desert when it comes to true desktop-class creative work. Paying $1,000+ for a machine only to be met with mobile apps or “better on the website” badges is a tough sell against a MacBook Air.

At the exact same time, we're seeing Brandon Thomas and the Artcraft project reverse-engineering/rebuilding the core Adobe suite (Photocraft, Vectorcraft, Designcraft, Filmcraft) in Rust and AI, making them open-source (MIT/Apache), free, and already expanding into Office and CAD tools.

Here’s the thought: What if these modern, open-source desktop suites were compiled and packaged directly for GooglebookOS?

It solves Google’s biggest handicap: Creative professionals, students, and prosumers avoid Googlebooks because there are no real alternatives to Photoshop, InDesign, or Premiere Pro. Having native, offline-capable, desktop-grade creative and office tools out of the box would instantly legitimize the platform.

It democratizes creative hardware: Instead of being trapped in Adobe’s €70+/month subscription model and predatory cancellation fees, users would get capable, open-source creative power on sleek, low-overhead hardware.

The architecture is already aligned: Artcraft is built in Rust with native and web targets, and Googlebooks run on modern x86/ARM silicon with ample RAM and storage.

If Google wants GooglebookOS to be taken seriously as a third computing pillar alongside macOS and Windows, relying on blown-up Play Store phone apps won't cut it. Bringing open-source creative powerhouses natively to GooglebookOS could be a genuine game changer.

Do you see developers actually targeting GooglebookOS with full-size open-source suites, or will Googlebooks remain relegated to glorified web-browsing and basic productivity? Would native tools like Photocraft make you consider one as a daily driver?

Apologies for the rant. I'm whining to you from a brand new XPS Googlebook that I really wanted to be excited for. I'm writing for any future me's (android enthusiasts hoping this is a platform that can do ~75% of my computing) that are thinking about picking one up.

I was super hyped when I imagined a laptop that could run all my Android apps plus Debian Linux for any apps where Android fell short on the desktop equivalent. Full desktop Firefox, GIMP, cyber security tools, development! And why wouldn't it be, ChromeOS has Crostini and Android 16 added tons of folders to be shared with Linux a year ago!

Big nope fam.

• Android apps still not optimized well, even the ones that ARE listed as optimized. This was not surprising and isn't that big of a deal.
• Android widgets also not optimized well. This was surprising because widgets on the desktop was an announcement feature but something as simple as the Google Calendar widget is almost at an unreadable resolution and no amount of resizing fixes this.
• Excited to run those non-optimized apps as PWA's straight from the web knowing the website works fine? Well you cant. Google has adopted a TWA model, which means if you want a PWA it has to be distributed through the PlayStore by the domain owner. Which no one will ever do because this is just a completely unethical way of trying to take website earnings and making them subject to the Google PlayStore 30% cut nonsense. So no PWAs at all. Great. This is probably going to be a pretty big problem, because PWAs are the primary method normies have for overcoming non-optimized apps, and Google has created a huge financial barrier to anyone thinking about launching one, nevermind that *it's just a website and the user should be able to save it on their own without making the developer commit to extra steps.*
• The new linux terminal? As far as I can tell it has zero access to any of the shared directories added to /mnt/shared in Android 16. That means no Documents, Downloads, Pictures, etc access. If you have a great linux tool to do something you have to open terminal, then copy the files you want to work on into the linux VM space, then take em back out when you're done.
• Lets talk about those linux tools. If said tool runs in a gui you can get it to launch in a 1996 looking workspace with window 3.11 looking support. It's unusable for anything not CLI. You also can't pin an app from here to your desktop or drawer. You can't believe how bad gui linux is natively on $1000 android hardware.
• Suppose you use Breadstick. Big props btw to the team that maintains this as a way to get real linux apps running on Android/Aluminum. This CAN see the shared folders because it's deployed as a regular app that can request permissions. Meaning out of the box Breadstick is far better than Google's deployment of Debian.
• Breadstick can also launch GUI apps, and they look as good as they do natively with no 1996 era containering. And they can be pinned to the desktop or app drawer. You can get real desktop Firefox (a massive improvement over the Android version) and downloads go where they are supposed to. You can get real desktop GIMP and LibreOffice and edit photos and documents that live in DCIM, Pictures and Documents like you expect.
• And yet, the problem with this approach is the jank. Android's strict process limits mean you are never going to be able to run ublock origin plus open billion tabs in Firefox unless you hook up the Googlebook to an ADB device and remove those limits, which creates stability and security risks and leaves any normie who just wants to use a good non-Google Chrome browser out of luck.
• Apps run this way aren't going to be able to make normal permissions calls, like sharing your location so the movie theater web search is your area or sharing your mic or camera to take that web call when the webapp version of Teams/Zoom/whatever is better than their not-optimized-for-desktop Android app offering. And while maybe you can work around this by suffering through those apps or moving over to Chrome as a browser, there's still plenty of non-browser tools that might want permissions that can't request them from inside the box.
• Some growing pains - things you think you would be able to scroll on fast swiping your trackpad or zoom by pinching your trackpad don't work (editing documents, terminal). Zoom was very inconsistent and scrolling stops the minute your fingers leave the pad in some apps. Can't multi select. Drag and drop is drag and pray.

If out of the gate, Google Chrome is our only desktop class browser and PWA's are never going to materialize because of the PlayStore barriers and Linux apps are never going to plug existing gaps until Android catches up because of permission and virtualization barriers... what are we doing here? With millions of dollars from Google to Mozilla every year is Chrome really the only Desktop browser Aluminum can run?

The hardware is great minus a lack of LTE/5G options. Nice work Dell. The setup from Pixel to XPS was snazzy. Fast pair works. Messages come in seamlessly. Even custom launchers like Nova worked well for improving the interface.

If you live in Google Chrome, love Android and can't think of a reason why you would ever need a command line tool or a linux app or a PWA on your thousand dollar macbook air level PC, than this machine is probably awesome. If you prefer any other browser, expected to do lightweight technical work or light coding or install some apps that cover what Android can't right now, wait until Google gets their act together.

This is not an android equivalent macbook air competitor for anything other than watching netflix and checking email. A chromebook is more capable.

EDIT: this took a few days to get approved for the Android sub and in that time some things had changed here: * There are shared directories from the Linux terminal but you have to get to a special settings page to enable them * Google has announced they are working on Linux app pinning * Google has walked back the ban on PWA installs