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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 21st, 2023

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  • I’m not the person you replied to, but I think my experience could be relevant.

    I have a MiBox TV S 4K, which as far as I know runs pretty pure AndroidTV (but I might be wrong). This is still going to try to connect to Google and Xiaomi servers for tracking and ads… but I have set up a custom DNS blocking trackers and ads.

    I found this Reddit post and followed the instructions to change the DNS server on the MiBox to NextDNS, where I could later activate relevant blocklists (SmartTV, Xiaomi, Google). I also perform monitoring of the domains the MiBox connects to and have blocked a couple manually.

    Finally, for AndroidTV forget about NewPipe and use SmartTube. It’s the same idea, but optimised for the AndroidTV experience where you have a remote and not a touchscreen.




  • I’ve experienced the same. Contacted them and no solution was given. I quit using it because it’s useless to navigate around my city.

    I had to contact them 3 times in 3 months to get a reply, and this is what they said:

    we’ve checked and it’s a quite difficult case.

    There is a roadblock (data coming from our traffic data provider) which refers to a bridge in construction.

    OpenStreetMap does not have this bridge. So the roadblock data is decoded as if it was referring to the nearby streets. (check attachment) We cannot disable the roadblock data individually. I’ll add the bridge to the OSM data and it should hopefully fix the issue.

    Fortunately, they also attached a screenshot showing the closed bridge drawn on top of what I assumed is the software they use, next to Google Maps where the bridge is mapped and marked as closed. I quickly checked OpenStreetMap and… the bridge was mapped and marked as closed. It just seems the software they use doesn’t download closed ways and they just mark as closed whatever road is nearby what has been reported by their traffic data provider. I quickly replied to advice against editing the correct data on OpenStreetMap. It’s been more than one year and the issue is still there. They don’t seem to care.


  • I have a setup which is not ideal, but I believe improves privacy while preserving convenience: I never connected my TV to the internet, and instead use a MiBox TV S 4K for all my streaming with custom DNS blocking trackers and ads.

    I guess there might be other Android TV boxes that allow you to change the DNS server. It might be worth checking a bit around if you decide to go down this route.

    In my case, I found this Reddit post and was able to change the DNS server on the MiBox to NextDNS, where I could later activate relevant blocklists (SmartTV, Xiaomi, Google). I also perform monitoring of the domains the MiBox connects to and have blocked a couple manually.

    This way I have an AndroidTV experience with the streaming services that I want, and with the domains I don’t want blocked.


  • There are several degoogled OS options for the Fairphone models, with different levels of degoogling and privacy: LineageOS, CalyxOS, DivestOS, iodéOS and /e/OS.

    Most of these are based on LineageOS (I understand that CalyxOS isn’t, but I might be wrong). I personally use iodéOS and I like the helpful developers, the ability to remove / replace any of the apps preinstalled with the system, and the iodé blocker which blocks trackers, adds and any connection you want to at a system level.









  • As other user said: Organic Maps uses data from OpenStreetMap, so the best thing is to go there and see how the roads in that town can be mapped better, if bike lanes are present, and if other characteristics of the roads that make them more/less attractive to bicycles are tagged.

    I understand this can seem daunting to someone who has never used OpenStreetMap, but I’d encourage you to at least add a note on the “death trap road” to let other, more experienced, users know about the issue and check the tagging of that and other roads.



  • Hey there, I’m sorry about this craziness. My comment was not really directed at you, but I was just quoting part of the original post that mentioned you.

    I was trying to suggest that OP is confusing criticism of the GrapheneOS community with criticism of the OS. You make a good point and, as I pointed out, you were not criticising the OS, but the community. Not the same thing.