Thanks for the info. I have not really tested Seedvault myself so this is all good to know.

Ironically, one of the main reasons I switched to GrapheneOS was because Google’s backups were so frustrating and I was hoping Seedvault would be more comprehensive.

What’s wrong with Seedvault?

I jumped on a lifetime deal they had a few years back. I mostly use it via the web UI and Android app, so I cannot comment on desktop or CLI client functionality.

The Android app is “okay”, but not great. Background photo sync doesn’t work consistently; I need to manually launch the app periodically to jog it. I know Android is kind of aggressive about background services, but other apps do this better so I think this is on Filen. Perhaps they should run a permanent notification to stay alive 24/7, like Syncthing does?

As with pretty much every other cloud storage app, it does not let me sync arbitrary folders/files, only photos and videos. *sigh*

It uses Android’s file provider API, so you can open and save files in most apps directly from/to Filen. However, this only seems to work for one-time use, not for apps that need to regularly open/save the same file. For example, when using Keepass2Android, you can have it store your password database on a cloud storage service. This works pretty well with Google Drive, but with Filen it loses the connection frequently because the pseudopaths the API returns are not stable over time (which makes sense, I guess, and is one more reason I want arbitrary local file sync instead). Personally, I went back to storing my Keepass database locally and then periodically backing it up rather than keeping it on live cloud storage.

It’s one of the cheapest E2EE cloud storage services I’ve seen (definitely the cheapest for me with the lifetime promo I got), and the core functionality of uploading and downloading files (and folders) works. That’s good enough for me to give it the thumbs-up.

But here’s the really funky bit. If you ask Claude how it got the correct answer of 95, it will apparently tell you, “I added the ones (6+9=15), carried the 1, then added the 10s (3+5+1=9), resulting in 95.” But that actually only reflects common answers in its training data as to how the sum might be completed, as opposed to what it actually did.

This is not surprising. LLMs are not designed to have any introspection capabilities.

Introspection could probably be tacked onto existing architectures in a few different ways, but as far as I know nobody’s done it yet. It will be interesting to see how that might change LLM behavior.

I refer you to #7 on Bruce Tognazzini’s evergreen top ten list of design bugs.

https://www.asktog.com/Bughouse/10MostWantedDesignBugs.html

Same.

That was probably the intention. X-Files was at its height of popularity around this time (assuming 1997 by the Mac model and OS 8).

Seems insane that even after disabling all related options in the main settings GUI, there are still like two dozen things enabled in about:config.

I don’t have a Palma, but I have a Book Go 6, which looks like it has similar display tech. So I think I can answer some of your questions.

The backlight can go all the way off, to the point where it is invisible in a dark room. You can also adjust the backlight color temperature.

Typing is bad, but I’ve never spent time optimizing it. I would guess that the responsiveness on the Palma might be higher. I also never tried it in high-speed mode, which is much more responsive but has worse ghosting and generally worse image quality. For my use case (99% just reading) I don’t mind the slow response time.

It’s possible to access the normal Android settings, though I just picked up my Boox Go and I can’t actually figure out how. I know I’ve done it before somehow. The Boox settings app has a VPN section, but I don’t see DNS options. Pretty sure you can do this though.

One thing I want to point out is that the Palma is not technically a phone. It’s a wi-fi device, so it will not make calls or send SMS. You would be limited to internet-based messaging apps like Signal or Telegram. I can’t speak to how smoothly those run.

There are also a couple proper phones (with SIM cards) with similar display tech coming out this year. See:

https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/6/24335983/tcl-60-xe-nxtpaper-e-ink-specs-ces

https://liliputing.com/the-minimal-phone-is-now-shipping-e-ink-phone-with-a-qwerty-keyboard/

Oh huh. I didn’t know there even was a video. Perhaps my ad/tracker blockers cut it.

Just found a hands-on CNET video: https://www.cnet.com/videos/at-ces-2025-tcl-debuts-new-tcl-60-phone-with-e-ink-display/

Never used TCL’s “Nxtpaper” so not totally sure how it compares.

TCL is releasing a new phone later this year with a toggle-able e-ink mode. So you can use it with in full color when you want, and switch to e-ink when you want. It’s in a more conventional aspect ratio so apps will look more “normal”. I can say from experience with my Boox e-reader that a lot of apps do not work well in 4:3.

https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/6/24335983/tcl-60-xe-nxtpaper-e-ink-specs-ces

Might be my next phone if the CPU and software is not awful (big if).

I’d go a step further and say “punk” is by definition political, and more specifically anti-authoritarian and non-conformist.

That said, this is a relatively new usage of the word. 100 years ago it meant nothing of the sort.