I've noticed that XDA still has the main threads and download links, even if more frequent communication happens elsewhere.

Having used custom ROMs for years, it can get tiring to fight with SafetyNet, find root backup apps that still work, dealing with bugs the developer may not be able to reproduce and, of course, even finding decent phones that have decent ROMs. I refuse to buy a Pixel until they have a decent SoC and price.

So for my next phone I'm currently considering an OEM that supports phones for long and has decent customization by default - Samsung. As I've never owned Samsung phones before, I don't know whether I'll like their OS, but so far it looks good enough.

uBOL is entirely declarative, meaning there is no need for a permanent uBOL process for the filtering to occur, and CSS/JS injection-based content filtering is performed reliably by the browser itself rather than by the extension. This means that uBOL itself does not consume CPU/memory resources while content blocking is ongoing -- uBOL's service worker process is required only when you interact with the popup panel or the option pages.

uBOL does not require broad "read/modify data" permission at install time, hence its limited capabilities out of the box compared to uBlock Origin or other content blockers requiring broad "read/modify data" permissions at install time.

Emphasis mine. No background processes, including a website-reading permission does indeed sound more optimized for mobile, where people may have limited resources.

Well, there is a separate system for pirating prevention, the Google Play license check. That has existed for years.

ChatGPT itself doesn't know where it got the info from, so it makes up links and names - it's a language model, not a search engine.

On the other hand, if you manage to find a reputable source and give it relevant metadata, it can format a nice citation for you, saving you time on that instead.

Draw a straight line with GIMP.

Pencil tool, point 1, hold shift, point 2. Is it any easier in Photoshop?

Edit: yes, apparently there is a line tool in Photoshop.

DDG has a built-in option to determine whether you want to see ads or not.

Remember that all apps need to target the almost-latest target API at least. That means Android 13 for all new apps and app updates since Aug 31.

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/11926878

And the money won't go to Firefox, but Mozilla's other projects.

Got affected by this, and the Edge literally showed a notification bar on how to disable this (as a user). So, slightly annoying but not too big of an issue as users can opt out right away.

...and the blog owner can't use Let's Encrypt.

Could be a library or feature that the devs didn't consider worth maintaining on older devices.

For context, the OP appears to be using Android 5 or 5.1, released in 2014/2015 respectively and is used on 1.1-1.3% devices worldwide.