u/Enough-Routine-3294

I just upgraded from a pixel 6a to a pixel 10a. Got the Google fi discount, so I got the pixel 10a for only $250. I thought it was a good deal.... Until I tried using it.....

Setting it up took way longer than I would have liked, way too many additional settings and features and apparently the screen lock button is no longer also just the power button, it activates Google assistant by default, you have to manually turn it off in the settings. And Apparently there is this discrete secret protocol where Google itself stores encrypted login information from previous apps.... So if you manually download your usual apps and simply open them expecting to log in manually as usual with email and password, nope. Your phone just logs you into the app, even when you never used Google password manager, and never stored your passwords consentingly.... Apparently credential management auto stores your log in info..... Across your account to all apps you use..... Massive privacy and security issue there.

None of this was an issue with my pixel 6a. At all. It was much simpler, much more straightforward, just a smartphone run by Android and Google. But for some reason the same Android OS on the new phone, comes with all these additional attention hogs and new fancy invasive and annoying features ..... On top of literally saving secret copies of all my login information for all my apps.....

Even if it wasn't for all the attention intrusion from all the suggested features and tools, that credential management protocol was enough to make me want to switch to graphene OS.....

So yeah, I have to reduce googles influence in my life. They are literally opening me up to being more easily hacked or taken advantage of and I now have less control over the process of operating my own phone .....

I want my privacy back, and I want more control over my own device, and I don't want a dozen new BS features that won't shut up, with a dozen or so additional default apps to track literally everything about me like I'm not even a person, but a product being used as a data farm.....

So my question is .... Since I've trapped myself with Google fi as my cell carrier, because it's cheaper than Verizon and the billing is more transparent and the tech support is easier to reach..... Will graphene OS and Google fi service be compatible? Like can I just replace the OS but keep my service?

I'm not trying to completely de google my life, at least not yet, I just want to reduce its level of invasion into my life.

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Just upgraded from a 6a to a 10a. apparently the charging cables I used for my 6a don't work with the 10a AT ALL. The metal itself won't even go all the way into the port. But the new cable that came with the phone does work, it works fine.

Everything is USB C. The old ones and the new ones. The old ones charge everything I have that's battery powered, just not the new phone .....

So then I take a closer look at the cables. Both old and new have the same size and shape metal insert piece BUT the inside looks ever so slightly different. and the plastic part is noticably thicker on the new one.

So, I asked Claude about this. It mentioned something about USB PD, and how newer cables are thicker to support newer protocols.... So this means I have to buy newer cables now JUST for the new phone. Nothing is USB C universal anymore.

Specifically what specs should my new cables that I now have to buy, meet? What kind of USB C cables do I need? There is almost nothing about this online. Everything I can find through Google searches or through AI is useless nobody seems to be talking about how not all USB C connectors are the same. Instead they just shrug their shoulders and don't even realize that there are differences between USB C generations and assume there must be lint in the connector??? But no, everything else I own that charges with C type works fine with the old cables, so there is no lint inside the cable insert, and there is no lint inside the charger port of the new phone because it fits fine and charged fine .....

Maybe im just behind the times and making a fool of myself asking these questions but genuinely I'm feeling surprised and miffed.

But genuinely, Specifically, technically, which generation of USB C type is the latest and is that the one the 10a needs?