Maybe if you didn’t split settings into that half-baked settings app, then leave control panel in place with the remaining settings, but make control panel increasingly difficult to get to, we wouldn’t need a stupid AI agent to help us change settings.

Walking Dead, House of the Dragon

Not wearing a seatbelt and not wearing a helmet.

Disable or delete mobile advertising ID.

Become a ball of anxiety, never talk to them, remain alone.

This only applies to GM EVs. Friend has a 2025 ICE Chevy which has both AA and CarPlay. Still dumb that the EVs don’t have it though.

Of course, the junk drawer.

I don’t think I’ve ever been in a home without one.

Stopped drinking alcohol.

Started walking more and taking the stairs instead of elevators whenever possible.

Yep. Every kernel update. Granted that’s less often than Windows requires a reboot.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think 11 is pretty great from a technical standpoint. The only real issue I have is modern standby…I miss having laptops that actually go to sleep and aren’t dead a day later. But that’s a fight I’ve given up on.

Now…the ads, MS accounts requirements, tracking and telemetry, the pre-installed bloat like News (a glorified clickbait aggregator), Movies and TV, Office, etc. make what is technically fine into a garbage experience.

Duh-tah

Just kidding. I say day-ta. Although dah-ta slips out every so often.

I like the phone link integration. I’ve never been a fan out auto-populating app folders though.

Where’s all the ads though? They’ve gotta be thinking about turning one of the folders into a recommended apps folder or something dumb. They’ll sneak something in somewhere.

Any Pixel really. I’d probably lean toward like a Pixel 8a if you’ve got the budget for it since you’ll get 7 years of updates so you can target the latest Android platform. Plus, Google commonly has sales on the Google Store (definitely avoid paying full price for one). But all the Pixels have good 3rd party ROM support so even the older ones can run the newest versions of Android using Lineage or something similar.

TBH, if you’re just learning, I’d say just use the Android Studio emulator.