My Pixel 8 is my personal favorite phone I've ever owned. I got the Google case for it, and it just feels absolutely perfect in my hand. The slight tackiness of the case, the form factor...it's everything I've ever wanted from a phone.
As for OP's concerns about certain apps not working on GrapheneOS: All you have to do is create a profile on your phone that runs Google Play services. And then it's just an Android profile, and if it works on Android, it works on your phone.
The notifications can get a little wonky if you make the secondary profile your Google Play services profile. So let me recommend making your first profile the Google profile, and then a secondary profile your privacy profile.
It works for me, because I know when I'm trying to be private or get stuff done, I always have that nice quiet profile where the notifications are turned off anyway.
What Meta shit wouldn't I like to see? A general watering down of the comment quality. Trolling. Nonsense. What has happened to every somewhat technical technology the second the normies cry "gatekeeping" and force their way in with a dumb fucking look on their face and without an original idea in their heads.
That Meta shit is what I'd like to avoid. Just because one doesn't have opportunity to respond doesn't mean there isn't a response.
I bought an "analog" washing machine (I can't believe I just wrote that) because of simplicity. The more complicated something is, the more difficult it is to repair, and the more potential points of failure there are.
Yeah, there is interesting music in certain areas, but not nearly as much as there used to be. I have to sift through a lot of nonsense to get to the good stuff.
Oh yeah. I haven't seen that video and thanks for the recommendation, but I lived through Clear Channel and the rest scarfing up all my local radio stations and turning them to shit just as the internet was beginning to really catch on. They made it easy for the iPod revolution to happen, playing the same garbage on every station.
Music has been predominantly bland for 20 years or more, in the mainstream channels. It's depressing.
And I want to say I just got older and so mainstream music isn't for me, but... it's bland. I'm not like older people aghast over Marilyn Manson. I'm older and fucking bored with how lame music is now.
Good bot, if this is how you earn your keep.