Stremio + Torrentio is the way to go.

Torrentio has started blocking VPNs.

Depending on where you go to school, 70% is passing while 50% is not. While “not far off,” one is a C, the other a F.

SMS is mostly used for 2-factor authentication, transaction status.

Which they really shouldn’t as it’s still in the clear. But banks are slow to change, especially if it costs them money. As for mostly, I think it depends on the region. I think I’ve read that the US, Canada, and a few (not all) European countries still use SMS.

I use Signal, which is widely considered the gold standard for E2EE apps, with the client app of Molly specifically (a hardened version of Signal).

they overspend by millions

Because everyone needs their cut.

either way a military tank is better than a civilian grade sedan.

Because they’re two different vehicles, not two different classes of product. If you compare military grade phones to civilian phones, the civilian would be better, and probably cheaper due to not having the buzzwords attached. And I bet a tank made by a private firm for non-government entities would in fact be better and cheaper than a military tank.

I’m not downplaying it or saying it shouldn’t be fixed, but…

Effectively, due to modifications made to the standard Telephony package left the app open to abuse, allowing any installed application on an affected OnePlus device to access SMS and MMS data, along with metadata, “without permission, user interaction, or consent.”

Just another vector. SMS is already plaintext/unencrypted, so shouldn’t be used unless you’re saying something you’re comfortable with the world knowing. Switch to E2EE apps

It’s the whole “if a fine is less than the profit, the fine is just considered a cost of business.”

I would like something in between…BTW I’m installing Bazzyte on another PC.

If you’re somewhat familiar with uBlue, Bazzite, and immutables, I’d go with Bluefin (Gnome) or Aurora (KDE). All three are uBlue / based off Fedora, so you don’t have to learn a 2nd OS while working on your current OS (Bazzite).

https://universal-blue.org/

These things will very likely not work on non-proprietary devices.

Depends on your bank. Most work on alternate OS (like GrapheneOS), and of course some don’t. https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compatibility-with-grapheneos/

If an app (especially bank) doesn’t work, I forward them this and try to ELI5 that their current method is flawed and less secure: https://grapheneos.org/articles/attestation-compatibility-guide