bluejay

bluejay, 7 months ago

Pin-al

bluejay, 9 months ago

Lucky for me I accidentally double tapped when trying to move the zoomed in image only to see this waiting for me

bluejay, 9 months ago

I’m another Alacritty user. It’s been my daily driver for years at this point and I have no complaints

bluejay, 9 months ago

I paid for Sync to toss some money to a dev responsible for the #1 used app on any of my phones for the last 10 years. I paid a criminally low amount back then for how much I used the app.

It happened to also come with ad removal, but I block those and trackers on my network anyway.

bluejay, 9 months ago

For me it’s a familiarity thing. I’d been using Sync for Reddit for close to a decade. It’s my defacto standard for feature set in these types of apps. I’ve tried and continue to use the apps that came out first, but every single one of them has quirks that don’t align with how I prefer to use the platform. Sync does.

Saying all the apps are literally the same makes me wonder what it is you’re looking to get out of them/how you use them. Do you like to share images from posts with people outside of Lemmy? That’s easier on some than others.

For example, on Summit I have to open the image in the internal browser then the external browser then copy the link/share from there. On Connect they have a 3 dot menu that has a share url option. On Sync it’s a 3 dot then share option/copy URL to clipboard.

It’s little nuances like that that make or break an app for me. At a certain level these are all just interfaces to interact with the Lemmy platform so they are going to be similar in many ways. But some apps can offer a better user experience than others. It really depends on what you want/how you use the platform.

bluejay, 9 months ago

I get that. A lot of the differences are only going to be evident as you continue to use the app. If you’re already set with Thunder then that’s great and I’d encourage you to donate to the dev.

If the ads in Sync aren’t an immediate turn off/deal breaker I’d also highly encourage you to give it a real shot over a week or so. There’s a bunch of customization options to tweak it just how you like and the app runs smooth as butter, for me anyway. The app was super popular on Reddit for a reason.

bluejay, 9 months ago

I tested this yesterday. There were zero hits in TrackerControl with ads removed.

bluejay, 9 months ago

That’s fair. It definitely comes down to your own trust, but for me I’ve been using Sync for Reddit for roughly a decade and I’ve never seen anything sketchy from ljdawson.

I also don’t rely on just their word, I block this stuff on my own network anyway.

As for a refund, the 1-time payment to remove ads isn’t expensive (to me anyway) and depending on how much time you spend on the app it may have already been worth it.

But again it’s all your preference anyway. Nothing wrong with using a different app.

bluejay, 9 months ago

Butthole problems

bluejay, 9 months ago

Also worth noting at the time they said it was temporary and due to the lack of sufficient mod tools available in Lemmy. If mod tools improve that could change. But yes, right now it’s definitely something to think about with world being a massive instance that m with a lot of larger communities.

bluejay, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago)

You can also throw the releases page URL into obtainium and toggle to include pre-releases and it’ll notify you of any updates/install them.

bluejay, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago)

I’ve been using Obtainium instead and loaded Infinity through it this morning. You can also have it pull from f-droid repos instead of GitHub if you want when that hits

Edit: Currently the app is in prerelease so you’ll need to toggle that option. Once they have a full release you can toggle it back off.

bluejay, 9 months ago

All you should need to do is set the App Source URL to codeberg.org/Bazsalanszky/…/releases/ and then toggle on Include prereleases. Once they get a full release out you can toggle it off

bluejay, 9 months ago

I should have thought to mention it. I’ll update my comment 👍

bluejay, 9 months ago

Not sure what you’re referring to, but I’m using it on a Pixel 7 without issue.

github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium

bluejay, 9 months ago

Yeah I’ve been using a lot of the available apps and while I had my favorites (Summit and Liftoff) there has always been little quirks that I’ve just been dealing with. The moment Sync hit my device it’s like I’m back to my reddit experience for the last decade. I’ll still keep an eye on the other apps, because I very much prefer and try to support open source developers. But I just can’t force a subpar experience on myself.

The Summit dev has been extremely responsive and has added in a few features I requested on a quick turnaround. They also happen to be out of town on a work trip this week so the timing probably sucks for them. And as I’m typing this I’m remembering that ones not even open source 🤦‍♂️.

bluejay, 9 months ago

I mean I’ve thought about it. But I don’t keep the same account for very long and I honestly wouldn’t even know what I’m doing lol. And it feels weird to volunteer for the sake of volunteering ¯*(ツ)*/¯

bluejay, 9 months ago

Sorry I’m not sure what you’re saying. There’s 3 or more distinct groups here:

1. Lemmy devs, responsible for Lemmy itself + they run lemmy.ml and lemmygrad.ml
2. Server admins, responsible for whatever instance you’re browsing from and whatever instance the post is on (I use lemmy.dbzer0.com, you’re on sh.itjust.works, these are two different admins/teams of admins)
3. App devs, in Sync’s case ljdawson

Are you looking for a single donation to go to all of these groups?

bluejay, 9 months ago

I did a quick test and confirmed no trackers were present after paying for ultra.

bluejay, 9 months ago

My goal wasn’t to compare Sync to other Lemmy apps, it was to compare it to something I know has a bunch of trackers/ads in it. theScore is a sports news/scores app.

bluejay, 9 months ago

For what it’s worth the dev said today he’s working on regional pricing. Comment here to get your country priced out sooner

bluejay, 9 months ago

What’s the connection between code quality and adding ads to make money?

bluejay, 9 months ago

I don’t agree with the premise that you can only charge for one or the other though. The Sync dev has a track record of putting out a very performant app for close to a decade. A one time ad removal fee and an optional subscription is pretty reasonable IMO.

I get the philosophical problems you have with it though. In the end I’m still using it because I paid like $5 none years ago and got way more than my money’s worth with it on Reddit. The ad unlock is more expensive here, but it’s probably an early adopter tax with the user base here being a tiny fraction of Reddit.

As for Apollo, I’m not sure how many Apple users pay for apps but if I had to guess they probably outnumber android users easily.

It also feels dirty to use an app only available in the Apple ecosystem as a paragon of open source ideals. That’s a pretty adaptive Stallman meter.

bluejay, 9 months ago

It seems we have some fundamental differences in opinion here. I don’t think it’s pissing in anybody’s face for a full time dev to make money off a free offering of their product. The app has never had ads for me since I block them at the DNS level. I still paid for it to support an app that’s going to dominate my screen on time just like it did on Reddit.

Like you said, the rest of the apps don’t currently have ads. A lot of their devs also said they’d never have them. That’s great for them. I don’t how many of them do this at a full time job either. Or how long they’ll continue to support their apps under their current models (aside from Jerboa which is developed by one of the Lemmy devs)

It would be great if Sync could rely only on donos, but the amount of people bitching about a one time $20 purchase being too expensive or expecting to transfer their $1 purchase of Sync for Reddit 9 years ago to Lemmy has me thinking that’s just a pipe dream.

If it’s not worth it to you go ahead and use a different app. It’s still not pissing in anybody’s face no matter how much you don’t like it.