#indieweb 2026-05-06
2026-05-06 UTC
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[morgan] Just seemed like a good link to share, the above made me think of this WCAG success criteria related to this. some of these things described with color-only cues would not necessarily meet web standards related to use of color https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/use-of-color
# [Kupietz] In case anyone else is interested, after a little ask jeevesing, it seems there's very little on the web about how iOS actually does the grayscale conversion. However, for those with a passing familiarity with basic color science ideas like color spaces and gamma, there are some knowledgeable comments here about how it typically works: https://www.reddit.com/r/compsci/comments/a1yrf1/what_algorithm_do_ios_devices_use_to_grayscale/ The
# [Kupietz] extremely short answer is: it requires handwavium, grayscale is not just the computed brightness of the sRGB color pixel. Typically sRGB->remove gamma->convert to CIE XYZ->work your hoodoo->reverse all conversions.
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[capjamesg] On greyscale, I have both night shift and greyscale on my phone. I didn’t realise this made a difference but apparently it does.
# [capjamesg] The plain greyscale is a bit too overwhelming for me, probably because I also keep my computer in night shift so the colours are more muted.
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# [Al_Abut] I've probably shared this before but instead of going full grayscale, it's soothing for me to have my launch screens in black and white, with apps having color.
# [Al_Abut] And yes there's two music apps in my dock - one for Apple and the other is SomaFM
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# [Al_Abut] That could be fun, like a terminal display that can also show photos.
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# [capjamesg] If only Apple let you do that ^^
# [capjamesg] Unfortunately not.
# [social] You can do all test interface on iOS using Shortcuts
# [Al_Abut] Oh you can do that on iOS. There's launcher style apps that emulate exactly the text-based menu look, I forget the name.
# [Al_Abut] https://dumbphone.so/
# [morgan] My approach which Ive blogged some about is to wrestle back some brain space from the phone is to "unbundle" as many features from it as possible, to the general direction of having very few apps on it except things which seem core. A nice garnish is grey scale and night modes and so on. But the thing still feels like putting on the ring and the eye of sauron being on me
# [capjamesg] [Al_Abut]++ thanks for sharing!
# [capjamesg] I wondered how that works. I watched one of the videos on their /love page and it looks like they have a widget you can add to your home screen and you can create blank pages so you can’t easily scroll between the other pages.
# [capjamesg] A clever implementation given the system limitations I’d say!
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# [capjamesg] I’m going to continue talking about this in #indieweb-random.
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# [capjamesg] I just wrote a post on how I use my phone: https://jamesg.blog/2026/05/06/how-i-use-my-phone
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# [capjamesg] Thank you!
# [capjamesg] I’d be curious to read others’ thoughts on the topic too!
# [Al_Abut] [capjamesg]++ great post!
# [Al_Abut] I haven't written about my phone habits but there's a blog post I saw on HN like 5 years ago that's always stuck with me and that I keep coming back to:
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[tantek] capjamesg, I feel you about minimizing apps. I think the most I've written about my phone use is my non-phone use 🙂 and the whole people-centered (rather than app-centered) UI series of blog posts: https://tantek.com/2014/067/b1/building-blocks-people-focused-mobile-communication
# [capjamesg] I really enjoyed reading those posts (I have already read them 😄 )
# [capjamesg] What does the “contextual tests” bullet mean?
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# [tantek] Now seeing that a lot of this was based on discussion points I brought up in IWC Cambridge 2014 in the indiecomms session, and the wiki page for the notes of that didn't get created! Except there are plenty of notes from [KevinMarks] on Twitter: https://x.com/search?q=%23indiecomms&f=realtime — Kevin do you have a "noterlive" summary of those notes already? Or should I reconstruct by copy/pasting your tweets?
# [Al_Abut] Ooo, this is flashing me back to the 2010’s. Weren't there a whole bunch of “Apple’s Contacts app but integrates all the services” type of apps back then?
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# [capjamesg] tantek Thanks for the clarification! That makes a lot of sense.
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# [tantek] https://indieweb.org/2014/SF/indiecomms has more notes! I don't think I shared that previously
# [Kupietz] Two thoughts:
# [Kupietz] 1. An increasing number of services require a smartphone. The only two broadband providers in my neighborhood—yes, because I live in the extremely rural remote wilds of central San Francisco, we only have two broadband providers serving the area—both require not just a smartphone app to configure your home network, but a smartphone app that is constantly updated to require you to buy newer smartphones.
# [Kupietz] 2. It's been really interesting to me to notice that as enshittification, behavioral design, and corporate attempts at, essentially, mind control have taken over, all the early adopters and others who have traditionally been at the forefront of embracing new technology are turning against it: widespread resistance to AI, to smartphones, to social media. (As far as AI it's actually been a bit of a drag, as I am as big an AI skeptic as
# [Kupietz] you'll find, but because it's grounded in the nuances of reality and not in knee-jerk 100% rejection of it, I've actually faced personal hostility.)
# [morgan] Mike your second point really, really resonates
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# [morgan] When I was phoneless for 2 weeks and it kind of consumed my brain for a while, basically I had workarounds or solutions for almost everything without the phone except for my work authenticator. I was locked out of 6-8+ 2FA methods but It turned out I didnt need them. The one thing I encountered was being locked out of 2FA from my domain registrar, so I was locked out of editing my static website that required no maintenance.
# [Kupietz] I've actively been working on what I need to get organized to dump the smartphone. Right now these are the main arguments for keeping it:
# [Kupietz] 1.) Apple Notes in my pocket is very convenient
# [Kupietz] 2.) SMS sync to my computer, so I can text from either is extremely convenient
# [Kupietz] I am pissed, FUMING, about the broadband thing. It 2026 and I can't configure my gateway anymore.
# [Kupietz] 3.) Slack on the phone is actually convenient, but that's actually going to be obsoleted on my phone in 12 days, so, oh well
# [Kupietz] I use keepass on my laptop for 2FA.
# [morgan] I think your doing the first important thing which is clearly defining a list of whats keeping you on the phone, then you can take a pass at the list and see what you can extract or move off it
# [Kupietz] Funny thing, the games used to be a good argument for iOS, but most of the good games came and went. All the new games seem to be excuses to get you to make in-app puchases. Not interested at all.
# [morgan] I dont think its novel but basically my strong belief around a lot of this is that so so many of these things are designed to create friction and difficulty moving off of them or disposing of them. We can only do one or two things at a time without a lot of stress, and thats where the listing features and unbundling stuff comes in
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# [morgan] On a indieweb-ish note, its been like 80+ days since I deactivated a social media account (Li), 3 discords and 2 slack workspaces. I can say I feel a lot of gain of clarity and still retain benefits of of the communities just interacting in different ways. Like Mike you say, a lot of this stuff has turned somehow to be like attempts at mind control, and Im resisting
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[KevinMarks] Aha. I don't think I was at the Cambridge one
# [Kupietz] [tantek] Appreciate the recommendation... Sonic doesn't offer service at my address. Which is bizarre, I'm walking distance from you. I'm in like a little island where there's nothing but Comcast & AT&T.
# [Kupietz] Yeah, I looked into AT&T because I'm just so tired of dealing with Comcast, they're truly awful, but looks like AT&T requires you to use an App too. I don't get it. Why can't you just have a damn gateway anymore that you can log into and configure? What's with this "ALL YOUR DATA ARE BELONG TO US"?
# [Al_Abut] [Kupietz] you capture an interesting trend. It's like techies at the forefront of pushing the frontier of tech are also now at the frontier of unplugging from it.
# [morgan] Cyberdecks are perhaps the youth inspiring example in this trend
# [Al_Abut] I find that my life is becoming increasingly polarized as tech becomes ever more mainstream. The closer my tech circles get to light speeds, the less I want to be around screens when I'm not in techie mode
# [Kupietz] Exactly. And it's a mixed back... in many cases, it's because they're just more aware of what's going on in tech than most people. But in others, most pointedly with the AI thing, a lot of it looks pretty knee-jerk to me, which is disappointing.
# [Kupietz] mixed bag
# [Al_Abut] Touch grass has turned into multi-day phoneless bikepacking trips in the mountains and desert
# [Al_Abut] It's not just ai, it's accelerating a trend that's been there for about maybe a decade? Pandemic-era remote lockdowns were the first boost out of my usual working routines in like 15 years and I've been holding on with white knuckles ever since.
# [Kupietz] Ah. Yeah, I forget it's different for the rest of the world. The pandemic didn't change anything for me.
# [Al_Abut] It's weird - I feel like what we used to call the digital divide is simultaneously closing and also widening. I don't know how to put my finger on it but I know the most reliable on-screen antidote: work on my own site and hang out with others that do. I’ve got a nice little weekend carved out to do just that coming up while wifeypoo is off with family.
# [Al_Abut] Just hanging out with [gRegorLove] on Sunday and commiserating about our respective blogging cadences was enough of a secondhand contact high and mood boost, haha
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Loqi [indienews] New post: "Usage Intake" https://fnhipster.com/posts/usage-intake/
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# [Sophia_wood] YOu can get a app launcher on apple:
# [Sophia_wood] My screenshot isn't how it looks - it is desaturated, but the screenshot tool for apple ignores that.
# [Sophia_wood] I usually have that bottom row removed.
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# Loqi [indienews] New post: "Ideas for web readers" https://jamesg.blog/2026/05/06/ideas-for-web-readers
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# [Al_Abut] [capjamesg] ooo, I like the some.pics idea
# Loqi Homebrew Website Club - Eastern is starting soon! Join us! https://events.indieweb.org/lEdmS1mM4MKr
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# thamara_k Thanks for the Dumb Phone app rec Al_Abut++ I’ve just started using it
# thamara_k [edit] Thanks for the Dumb Phone app rec [Al_Abut]++ I’ve just started using it
# [Kupietz] You have to have someone's name at the beginning or end of a comment for ++ to work.
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