I was basing that off their own claimed numbers I’d seen quite a while ago, which I admit are likely to artificially optimal and inflated.

Looking into it a bit more, I noticed a good comment under one of their videos that calls out their numbers and provides a more realistic scenario.

100wh/mile is same as 10 miles/kwh lets use 10 miles/kwh easier to understand. That value has never been achieved ( going downhill as they did for their effieciency test they still didnt’ get it, that was downhill 7,000 ft approx) from flagstaff to the coast.

So thats problem number one, and efficiency around town might be even worse, its just not know what any average effiiciency values are, but we do know 10 miles/kwh is not true from their own data. Point 2: he says they can get 700 watts from solar, nope the best they can get is 500watts according to their own solar engineer at ces vegas he said this in jan 2025. And thats the maximum output, its going to be less and can only use averages as any sort of guide.

Even using 500watts your looking at about 2.4kwh per day as an average. So once again they have used a false value…he is very aware of this too , as he is telling you these fabrications.

So lets use more realistic data based on their own data: 6 to 7 miles/kwh and 2.4 kwh/day = approx 14 miles per day average. Thats about half of the average driver daily use in usa ( 30 miles per day).

But it is of course dependent on so many factors its almost certainly going to be a best case scenario, with all conditions perfect.

So my guess is somewhere around 10 miles per day or just over might be some sort of average.

Even reduced to 10 miles per day, I’d personally rank that a bit higher than a gimmick, but certainly not as useful as I had hoped.

Solar panels on a car are a gimmick.

In the case of the Aptera specifically, the integrated solar panels actually do add some meaningful range (up to 40 miles per day Edit: more more like 10 miles) due to how extremely aerodynamic and light the car is.

I agree, that is a concern long-term.

I think the best path for the future is supporting Linux Phone alternatives like PostMarketOS so they become polished enough to daily for the average user. That likely won’t be as secure as GrapheneOS with specialized hardware for quite a while, but should be good enough for most use cases, and would give us a platform that can’t be rug pulled out from under us as we slowly improve it.

Yes, you can get Signal using the Aurora Store, which lets you download and install apps from the Google Play Store without an account.

Alternatively, you can add the Guardian Project repo to F-droid, which AFAIK also has Signal available.

As Admiral Patrick said, KaiOS phones are a viable alternative to traditional smart-phones, and tend to fill a space between a dumb phone and an android phone.

However, a downside of Kai OS is limited application support, which can be a particular downside when it comes to privacy-respecting encrypted texting apps. From what I can see, KaiOS does not offer any options there on their store.

SMS is now a pretty insecure way to communicate due to the infrastructure being compromised. Having access to a reliable encrypted chat application, like Deltachat or Conversations is a big plus for Android phones.

The downside of Android phones is that the OS is controlled by Google, and many manufacturers force bloated software or offer fairly short lifetimes for security updates, making the phone insecure to use past the End of Life date.

Personally I would suggest getting a Google Pixel phone, which is ironically the most open to having its OS replaced with a privacy respecting OS like GrapheneOS (which is quite easy to install). GrapheneOS is the only OS that can you can really trust to completely turn off the radio chip when you turn on airplane mode, cutting any and all communication with cell towers (but GPS will continue to function).

This would also give you access to F-droid, which only contains open-source software with no paywalls or malware, and access to the best possible privacy communication apps.

Google Pixel phones offer some of the longest support timelines for security updates, which is 7 years from the date of release. A Pixel 9a, as an example, would lose support 6 years from now in 2032. You could continue to use the phone past that point if you stay offline most of the time and don’t log into any sensitive accounts. If your battery degrades or screen breaks, the phone is popular enough that you will easily be able to replace either of those at a local phone repair shop, keeping it alive for a very long time.

I think what’s now known as Utopian Scholastic has a particularly solarpunk-y vibe, IMO. You can hear an example here.

For a larger building, that definitely could be the case.

No prob ^^

Sorry, I guess I meant stove, not oven. I tend to conflate to the two. I think all induction stoves have standard heating element ovens.

Could always have a camping stove for the rare power outage.

Mainly to avoid the extra costs of installing a 240v socket to kitchens that don’t have one (older kitchens with gas oven’s usually do not).

I picked up a used/open-box Duxtop induction burner to avoid using my gas stove, and it works amazingly well. The only downside is that most countertop induction burners have relatively small coil sizes, so with bigger pans, like my 12" cast iron frying pan, the outer part of the pan doesn’t get hot enough to brown things.

As a solution, I’m planning to pair the induction cooktop with a separate standard glasstop coil burner that has a much larger burner size for my bigger pans (and for my older pots that aren’t compatible with the induction).

Just a shame how expensive they are. Copper stoves (the ones that won the contract in the article) start at $5,999. They’re a small start-up without economy of scale on their side, but that still just seems wildly overpriced for an induction stove with a lithium battery stuck inside.

To put that price in perspective, an electric convection toaster oven that can handle most oven needs can be had for $150 to $250, and a high quality countertop induction cooktop can be had for $116 (or less used), both of which run on standard 120v outlets.

Standard 240v induction ovens stove start at around $850.

i loathe the idea of giving google more money

If you don’t mind used or open-box phones, you could pick up a used (and more critically, carrier unlocked) Pixel off ebay, if you want to deprive them of revenue.

Unfortunately some carriers like verizon will not automatically unlock the bootloader even after unlocking the carrier restriction, so buying a used one that wasn’t factory unlocked from Google could be a slight gamble.

Bear in mind that only 10% of the userbase of a platform like lemmy will post any content at all (most users are lurkers).

Considering the fairly low size of our userbase, I would put forward that anyone bothering to make a post is being far, far more involved and active than most (even if you believe the posts are not to your standards). I don’t believe attempting to to shame them for not also putting the contents of a link into the post itself will be productive towards fostering active communities.

I would consider a short summary written by an OP to be a nice bonus if they happen to be willing to go to that extra effort, but it is by no means a requirement to participate in a community (I think you would find it to have an extreme chilling effect if most users demanded such effort).

I would suggest if you find the title or preview text is not compelling enough to read the article, perhaps just move onto the next?

What alternative OS you adopt depends on your phone and needs.

If you just want to mostly degoogle you phone, but aren’t that concerned about privacy or security, LineageOS is basically that. It’s as close to a stock android experience as you can get, minus the pre-installed google apps. It supports a wide range of android phones.

If you want more security and privacy, GrapheneOS is currently king, but the downside is it only works on Google Pixel phones, and it’s possible certain apps won’t work (banking apps can be hit or miss, and the Uber app I believe blocked it). It otherwise functions just like a regular android phone and can install sandboxed google play to use any app you could need, making it just as easy to daily drive. It’s the best choice if you’re an activist, journalist, or fear state actors. But even if you’re not, I’d say it’s the best choice if you already have a pixel phone.

CalyxOS has paused development, so not currently an option.

eOS has a bigger focus on security and privacy than LineageOS, but isn’t as secure as Graphene. The advantage is that it supports more phones than just the google pixel.

PostmarketOS is not based on Android, and instead is a real Linux Distro made for mobile. It’s still very much in an alpha stage, with varying levels of support for different phones, many of which cannot take calls or even use their camera properly. I would only recommend it to developers or people who want to tinker with a project phone.

Tyranny (a different RPG by obsidian) puts you in the role of a fairly high ranking judge working for a brutal expanding empire. You have the option to play a really nasty person if you wish. Not terribly funny though, usually quite a serious vibe.

If you’ve been holding off on Cyberpunk 2077, it’s in a really solid state nowadays, and has a pretty dang good main story with lots of roleplaying options, and plays well with a controller.

Terra Nil is a cool relaxing solarpunk strategy/builder game about restoring the environment. Not sure how complete controller support is, but its rated playable for the steam deck (could be hit or miss).

The Mass Effect series supports controller, and they’re pretty fun sci-fi RPG’s with good characters.

Disco Elysium is a more text heavy RPG. I personally bounced off it due to its theme, but it’s pretty unique, worth a shot if you click with it.

Glad you enjoyed! :)

I’ll be posting more of StrafeFox’s stuff here, they’re criminally lesser known considering the consistent quality of their videos.

I was surprised to learn a year ago that window AC units with heatpump heating are now available. I imagine they’re a good option when combined with a good window seal.