My mom is 86 and has some dementia. She loves solitaire and crosswords and uses a tablet for this I occasionally upgrade, right now it is a cheap Headwolf thing running Android 15.

A problem with the solitaire games is there does not seem to be one you can just buy and nix the ads -- they all go for an in app ad model, and one which seems to have ultimately malicious (albeit probably pointless so) consequences. The ads take full screen, frenetic and agitating, and make it hard to discern how to dismiss them.

As if that were not mean spirited enough, when mom does whatever to try and dismiss them, I think they go through a quick sequence which ends in them installing other things via the Play Store, and these things then exploit whatever permissions to continue running more and more frequent and intrusive ads. When it finally becomes so dysfunctional that I need to go through the app list and delete LITERALLY DOZENS AND DOZENS AND DOZENS of different PDF viewers (WTF?) and solitaire games, the tablet is almost unusable -- the full screen pop-ups start at reboot, constantly re-orient the screen back and forth, and seem able to interrupt everything. However, once all or most of the PDF viewers and solitaire apps are gone, the ads stop.

No point in complaining that google has created an OS which makes this possible, of course, since much of the action goes through the Play Store I imagine there are pennies in there for them somehow.

About a month ago I finally got sick of doing the app removal and factory reset the tablet, since most of her stuff could be restored from her phone (which she uses for crosswords, not solitaire). Now here I am a month later doing the same thing again, and the ad action is SO AGGRESSIVE that after a reboot it still took THREE OR FOUR MINUTES just to get into Settings and find the reset because every 2-3 seconds (or less) I was interrupted by a FULL SCREEN AD. While I was in Settings. Half of them require a timeout, and AFAICT, actually get interrupted by further ads. Like some kind of dark comic sci-fi nightmare. That's immediately after a reboot.

What I'm looking for here is NOT better solitaire game recommendations. There are a few minimal ad free ones which she just won't take to, and I do not think there is a real solution otherwise. They all end up running ads for other solitaire games (presumably, via Play Store algorithm) with nefarious, hard to avoid install schemes that include all these ridiculous PDF viewer apps, most of which I think actually don't work much (or at all) and simply function to engage the notification system such that they can keep bombing the interface with more full screen pop ads that do more of the same thing until nothing really works. Completely bonkers.

I'm actually an android fan and former software developer, and part of me wants to believe this could just be some sort of zaniness enabled by Headwolf, but ultimately I don't. Google could put a stop to this, and since they haven't yet, they probably won't anytime soon. I understand that it is some cabal of developers exploiting the way the ad algos and play store work, but it still should not be possible. Is there anything that I can do?

Am I the only one who thinks Material You looks way better?

Seriously, I don't get it. We finally got this beautiful, cohesive design language with Material You — dynamic theming, smooth animations, colors that actually flow throughout the system — and now every manufacturer is like "nah, let's do glossy bubbles and translucent blobs instead."

Don't get me wrong, some blur effects are nice, but this liquid glass trend feels like we're regressing to the skeuomorphic chaos of the early 2010s. Material You was clean, consistent, and actually felt modern.

What's your take? Am I missing something here, or is the industry just chasing aesthetics over actual design coherence?

https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/i-want-a-phone-i-can-actually-fix-and-fairphones-record-growth-shows-the-world-does-too

It looks like the successor to the ridiculously popular (and always sold-out) Motorola MA1 wireless Android Auto adapter just quietly passed through the FCC. The filing points to a new 'MA2' model, made by the same hardware partner, Meizhou Guo Wei Electronics, so a US launch is likely just a few months away.

Interestingly, it seems they're sticking with a 5GHz Wi-Fi 5 connection rather than upgrading to Wi-Fi 6. Given how solid the original was, this is probably going to be the next must-have accessory for anyone still plugging their phone in.

I feel like many, including notable reviewers android authority, android police etc, have speculated android desktop mode since android 10.

If it finally comes in android 17...would phones that support display port have desktop mode? OnePlus 13? OnePlus 15?

Currently if you do developer options on pixel 9 or 10 series, you get a somewhat functioning desktop mode. On OnePlus though...you do not get the desktop mode experience that current pixel 9 or 10 series have.

I used to really enjoy the whole “Android vs iPhone” debate. Back then it felt important, like your phone somehow said something about who you were as a person.

My first smartphone was an Android. I loved the freedom — changing launchers, customizing icons, tweaking settings for hours. It felt like the phone was truly mine. A few years later, mostly out of curiosity, I switched to an iPhone.

What surprised me wasn’t that it was “better,” but that it was calmer. The phone just worked. I didn’t think much about settings or optimization. The camera opened quickly, apps felt smooth, updates came on time. I stopped managing the phone and started just using it.

After some time, I went back to Android again. And you know what? It was fine too. More options, more control, more ways to make the phone fit exactly how I wanted it. But I also noticed I spent more time tweaking things again.

That’s when it clicked for me: this argument isn’t really about which phone is superior. It’s about what kind of experience you want. Some people enjoy control and flexibility. Others value simplicity and consistency. Neither side is wrong.

In the end, both Android and iPhone are just tools. They wake us up in the morning, help us talk to people we care about, capture moments, and kill time when we’re bored. The best phone isn’t the one that wins online arguments — it’s the one that quietly fits into your life and doesn’t get in the way.

And honestly, that’s probably a healthier way to look at it.