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VPN by Google One shuts down
(9to5google.com)
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this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2024
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At this point, I’m surprised anybody (including myself) still buys/uses Google services, given how risky it is that you’ll become dependent on them and then they kill off the product(s). I really need to get off my ass and switch mail providers.
Google mail is extremely unlikely to get shut down.
But anyway, Proton Mail allows importing e-mails from Google.
grumbles about inbox by gmail
Inbox was absolutely stellar and I can't believe they got rid of it.
"don't worry the inbox by gmail features will be moved into gmail shortly"
Most people will use whatever the default on their device is. Most phones that aren't iPhones come with Google apps and services set as default.
The only Google services I still use are YouTube and in rare cases Google Maps. But if YouTube continues to enshittify I'll stop using that. I've been using Google Maps mainly to get information about places to eat/sleep in cities, not really for navigation.
If there wernt better YouTube frontends id probably stop using it altogether too. The base site is horrible and idk how anyone could possibly enjoy using it.
I think that YT should open up APIs to make a better frontend for third party apps, like what Reddit had, at least to premium users.
They would never do something like that without government intervention.
So maybe EU can get them moving one day.
There was a time when the Google apps just worked, the applications were optimised for UX. Maybe I've just only noticed it now but the directions (and assistant in general) aren't as useful, reliable, and filled with sponsored stuff.
what do you use for navigation and how does it compare?
Google Maps was a great app and service, it had decent navigation and always a lot of information on a lot of places. Nowadays it's cluttered with features including a "news feed" with social network-like posts made by people on places in the area.
On iOS devices I can highly recommend Apple Maps nowadays. They completely overhauled their maps a few years ago and I got great results navigating with it. The app isn't bloated, it's fast, the map material looks great and their version of Street View is a lot more sophisticated.
For strictly navigating you can also check out TomTom AmiGO. It's a free variant of TomTom's navigational system. I wouldn't really use it outside of car navigation though.
I used to use Sygic a few years back, but they switched to a subscription model and keep nagging existing "lifetime" buyers to subscribe.
Apple Maps also straight up gives objectively better audio guidance (e.g. “move to the right lane to turn right at the next light” vs “turn right in 300 feet”).
Additionally the “directions” portion of the screen has large font and is clearly visible compared to Google’s tiny font on a window the size of 10% of the screen to show you more ads. (Yes, the reason some business appear at all zoom levels while others only pop up at street level is ads)
What a fall from grace. I remember when Apple Maps would direct people to drive through halfway built overpasses with 500 feet of open air at the end because it’s not built yet.
Shameless plug for organic maps
I actually have it installed. Great maps app, but it doesn't have turn-by-turn navigation as far as I'm aware.
For navigation, Magic Earth is based on OSM too, and has traffic available as a map layer. Not sure how good it works or where the (live?) data is coming from, but it's there.
Organic maps has turn by turn but does not route based on traffic.
I hate sygic for this, i bought lifetime för my part of World, and now it mails me every day to get subscription. never i will get it, every time i need it i will use cracked one. It was one of the good company, but now its just a nag.
I've found Grayjay helps me hate YouTube less
What do you use for navigation?
Hoping they answer. I try to use OSMAnd for navigation but it doesn't know where things are
I can recommend Proton.
I use them but honestly having to run the bridge to use a normal email client has me pretty nonplused. I wish they’d support S/MIME too; it seems like all email is just encrypted on delivery and at least S/MIME would give you something end-to-end encrypted.
Yeah. I don't mind that this is a paid feature, but installing the bridge on every device is cumbersome.
I’ve been trying to install Hydroxide as I run Tailscale on everything and don’t mind decrypting on one device then having all the others accessing IMAP/SMTP through the WireGuard tunnel set up by Tailscale, but I’ve only run into roadblocks with it (captchas).
I'm surprised anyone uses Google services considering how they infiltrate your privacy.
A Google VPN is as private to me as giving a six year old a cardboard box and asking them but to look inside.
Google has really masterfully re-defined privacy to mean letting them look after all your private stuff.
Do you honestly believe that there is a mail service out there that does not record data on you?
Protonmail is encrypted and they literally cannot decrypt to record your data.
What is in your email isn't the only data that sending one can generate. There's the IP address where it was sent from and where it's going, there's the time of day it was sent, there's a load of metadata attached they can read and glean information about you and your recipient. And there's advertisement opportunities in the interface that many services use to collect info on you. There are so many ways to collect data on you through your interactions online it's not even funny.
But yeah, keep pretending like you've found the only mail service that doesn't collect any data on you at all if it helps you cope.
Carrier pigeons.
Maybe the services that don't need to sell your data to be in the black.
ProtonMail is pretty awesome and makes it very easy to switch.
I’m just now unravelling the last of the truly important bits of my life that are in their clutches, for that and other reasons.
Two phone numbers, a handful of documents I’ve shared over the years that probably don’t matter anyway, and a couple email addresses that I’ve been actively monitoring for months for anything important, and searches my password mgr for….
I should be free by 1 July at the outside, possibly a few days early if I don’t delay the actual deletion process. Feels fuckin great.
I would recommend Fastmail. They have a fantastic app that I prefer over the iOS mail app.
The only reason I have a google account in the first place is android. You cannot use the fucking play store without one.
aurora store.
I know now but what was I to do when I was 13 and got my first phone and that was the requirement to use the play store