I hate to say it, but I need to go back to a stock ROM for my cell phone. I had rooted it last August to put LineageOS on it, because then I was able to get access to Android 15 and all the whiz-bang security updates.

Y’see, Google stopped updating my Pixel 4a in September of 2023. The phone is still good, though, unlike my wife’s Pixel 4a which they effectively killed with the battery issues (which started this whole NAS situation). Mine was still good, and last summer I tried a couple custom OS’s, one was GrapheneOS and the other was LineageOS.

GrapheneOS was ok, but it was REALLY locked down, so much so that few of my apps were working, and it tended to be a pain. So I switched to LineageOS, and I loved it. Weekly security patches, Android 15, pretty much similar to the new Android devices.

The problem, however, was that the boot loader needed to be unlocked. Not a big deal, says I, as only one app wouldn’t install and that was Coinbase. Oh well, that’s what they make the browser for, amirite? So, for the last year it’s been great.

Until.

End of June. Mint Mobile starts ramping up to get RCS on all devices (RCS was working on my device)…but to get RCS working, they need to work with the great Google. Well, the great Google doesn’t like devices that they can’t control…and since I don’t have a boot locker on my device, well it flagged…and google messaging just auto-kills RCS messages for devices like mine. They do this update a couple times a year, from what I understand, just to kill this option.

You must understand: they’re doing it for us because so many spammers are using unlocked devices. And spammers are bad, see, because they’re not paying google the advertising fee that good spammers are paying…spammers like facebook or amazon or other advertisers. They’re good, because google gets money. They’re not bad like people like me, who didn’t want to pay hundreds of dollars to update a perfectly good phone.

I was ok with losing some access to apps, but I was starting to not get messages from my wife, from mom and family, from other important entities that I needed to communicate with. That won’t fly, and dagnabbit, I’m not dropping hundreds of dollars for a new phone when this one is working just fine…and I’ll just deal with the security hassles.

This is what planned obsolescence looks like folks. It’s not your fridge stopping two months before the warranty is out. It’s the massive amount of control these companies have over our technology and data…and the way they can manipulate us away from making our own choices. Choices that work for us and make our lives better, but may cut out some sliver of profits.

I used to support capitalism. Capitalism used to be about making money. But I really think American Capitalism is starting to be more about control…control over everything.

So I’m back on my pixel 4a running android 13. I’ll look into updating security measures as I go, but if I’m careful, then I should be relatively safe. I hope. Who knows though.

EDITED ABOUT AN HOUR LATER: Some of you may think it wasn’t Google that was blocking RCS messages, even though they’ve been doing it since 2021 according to some sources. Honestly I don’t care if you believe me…my proof came in via RCS chats on Google Messages as soon as I signed into the reinstalled stock version of my Pixel 4a. Every message since about June 13th that they’ve blocked.