Ask HN: Any hobby ideas using an Android-based smartphone?

I finally arrived at the decision to purchase a smartphone.

I decided to go with an Android-based model, most probably those from Nokia, because they are stock, and fit my budget.

Why Android and not iOS?

Because, iOS ones are crazily expensive. Though I acknowledge that iOS-based phones deliver a bigger bang for the buck; on the quality of hardware, tight integration with software, vastly superior user experience, longer time-frame of support for software updates, and a much higher resale value.

Also, Android-based phones, especially the stock ones, afford tighter integration with the Google ecosystem of services, something which iOS phones don't seem to be decent with.

I am a person who is retired, uninterested in continuing to program, detests computer games, likes to stay in-the-know about local, national and global happenings, doesn't much like the outdoors, and not very financially well-off.

Now comes the question.

What use could I possibly put that Android-based smartphone to, to have some kind of engagement, say, a kind-of hobby?

I am from Bombay, India.

7 comments

[ 20.3 ms ] story [ 921 ms ] thread

[dead] codeGPT 3y ago ↗

[dead]

umtksa 3y ago ↗

If you want a hobby you can check node-red you can run it via a terminal emulator or as a standalone app. I'm running a dashboard which gets data around web and show on other local computers or on the phone screen.

https://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/android

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.okhiroyuki...

not afiliated any of them I'm a happy user

moasda 3y ago ↗

You could contribute to the OpenStreetMap project:

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/How_to_contribute

I like to do that when I'm in a new environment and I see missing buildings or missing house numbers, for example.

synthpop 3y ago ↗

You could always try making some music with mobile DAW/synthesizer/audio sampler apps. Or play around with photography and graphic design apps. Or get good at chess.

testTED 3y ago ↗

Buy Pixel, flash with GrapheneOS, sell them on classifieds site or in person.

testTED 3y ago ↗

But until the phone(s) sell, definitely contribute to OSM, like the other commenter said!

cookiengineer 3y ago ↗

Check lineageos devices list for compatibility, it's an alternative ROM that intentionally comes without bloatware.

If you want to tinker or do some DIY linux projects with it, check out postmarketOS wiki.

If you want to consider doing a little software tinkering as well, then I'd recommend going for the Pinephone because it runs with all kinds of Linux distros out of the box. It's not a production use phone though, and more of a tinker device.

[1] https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/ (lineageos 19.1 == AOSP 12)

[2] https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices

Edit: there's an alternative android "store" called f-droid.org, which ships open source app builds. You might wanna browse a little there for inspirations of what you can do with it.