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Comment by dyingkneepad | Hacker News Reader

Meanwhile, I'm still sitting on my unsupported Google Pixel 3 without absolutely any reason to upgrade it besides "Google decided to not give it any more security updates". There's nothing on newer phones that I want, this one works just fine, even its battery levels! Why, oh why!?

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Yes, and you can still buy those new on Amazon with no mention that they're unsupported, just like the chromebooks.

Who is building brand-new obsolete hardware? Or is it really refurbished?

I assume it's just old inventory. It's not supposed to be refurbished because I enabled the "New" filter.

But don't they stop building it a year before it goes unsupported? I can imagine bad planning but ... "you had one job."

> "Google decided to not give it any more security updates"

I mean, this sounds like pretty good reason to me

It's only a reason to not use the base firmware the phone comes with.

The phone is perfectly fine and shame on Google for trying to make it worthless.

Because it's an entirely arbitrary and avoidable reason that causes e-waste. Seriously, change me a few $ per year so I can get extended security updates. I have no interested in replacing my phone while this one still works!

Pretty good reason to switch phone manufacturers.

I wish I could keep using my current unsupported android phone but slowly all my critical apps are no longer working including the banking apps which won't support my android version. What do you do about that?

Unlock and install LineageOS or one of other alternatives.

Good resource: https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/wiki

Can you use banking apps on LineageOS? Will it pass SafetyNet?

Unlikely.

LineageOS is in the same boat as GrapheneOS in this regard.

"GrapheneOS passes the basicIntegrity check but isn't certified by Google so it fails the ctsProfileMatch check. Most apps currently only enforce weak software-based attestation which can be bypassed by spoofing what it checks."

https://grapheneos.org/usage#banking-apps

There is a guide[1] that is used for Waydroid to get the emulator certified, but it would be complicated for physical devices, as it requires a root terminal into it.

[1]: https://docs.waydro.id/faq/google-play-certification

Though there are probably ways to work around that. I've used a Magisk module to trick SafetyNet and successfully used banking apps and such a few years ago.

The browser versions work.

They eventually got LineageOS working on the Pixels.

Ask hardware manufacturers where their open source device drivers are

That’s not my job. That’s the job of the company that wants to keep my business.

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