Tag Archives: service

The best tools that can replace Google services for privacy-minded people

2018-12-26

I don’t know about you, but I find it extremely annoying when I’m researching, say, New Zealand for an article or a book, and suddenly I’m bombarded with ads of hotels in the destination. Privacy is an important factor why many colleagues have given up Google products, whereas frequent travelers have fed up with Google’s inability to manage travel access to its services. In this article, you will find the best privacy-tested alternatives to Google services.

Google’s (as well as Facebook’s and many other big internet companies) business model depends on sucking users’ private and non-private data, using it for ad targeting, and selling it to other companies. This is why Google will collect your data even if you specify in product settings that you don’t want to be tracked. So, the safest choice is to switch to another product.

The best user-recommended products to replace Google’s online services

No More Google web site has collected a long list of alternative products that can replace Google products. The alternative products and services are recommended by internet users who have realized they must manage their privacy themselves (and not leave it to big internet companies). Here are a few of the popular choices:

Google Search – DuckDuckGo is the most liked privacy-enabled search engine.
Gmail – Protonmail is the most recommended email system.
Google Chrome – Firefox is the most recommended alternative product to the Google web browser.
Google Maps – Openstreetmap
YouTube – Vimeo
Google Drive – Dropbox
Google Docs – Notion
Google Analytics – Matomo
Hangouts – Telegram
Blogger – WordPress
Google+ – the social media service is closing in April 2019.

In addition to DuckDuckGo search engine, Qwant and StartPage are good alternatives as well. For browsers, Opera and Vivaldi are good choices, too.

Replacing Google hardware with privacy-friendly products

Google is also marketing hardware products, such as smartphones and home gadgets. That’s not all, because operating system software is closely related to hardware. Operating systems are built in to hardware products. That’s why it makes sense to pay attention to the operating systems as well, because companies like Samsung, LG, Nokia, Huawei and others use a Google operating system in their phones and tablets.

Here are a few alternative products to Google hardware products and operating systems:

Android – the most viable alternatives at the moment are Purism Librem 5 smartphone (built on open source Linux) and open source project /e/ that has released a beta operating system for smartphones.
Chrome OS – any desktop Linux, like Ubuntu, Manjaro or Mint is an alternative to the Google operating system (although Linux desktops have not been designed exactly for the same purpose).
Google Pixel smartphones – We may have to wait until Purism gets its Liberm 5 phone to the shops, or the /e/ foundation manages to convince a hardware manufacturer to factory-install the /e/ software, so that we can buy a phone that doesn’t leak data to Google.
Pixel Slate tablet/laptop – a sleek laptop running on Linux is an alternative to the Google tablet/laptop.
Google Assistant – voice assistants require computing power that is usually provided by big server computers in data centers. Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana all work in the same manner, so it is a choice of brand you trust the most.
Home Hub – Google home automation products communicate with this tablet-like device. It knows everything that is going on in the system. If it is connected to the internet, privacy and security risks are inevitable. The best alternative is the brand you trust the most.
Nest – all gadgets that control and monitor home lights, alarm system, heating and other functions, and are connected to the internet have security and privacy risks.

Purism Librem 5.

Unlimited streaming of ebooks, magazines, music and movies from Cstream in France

2016-10-08

We are used to getting our daily dose of television from broadcast networks, music from radio or Spotify, and books from a bookstore. Since media has become digital and is conveniently available on the Internet, content could be made available to us from one source. It is convenient and easy because we only need to login once and that’s it – movies, music, books and magazines are are right there on our tablet, smartphone and computer screen.

The first services that bundle many types of media into one package have been launched this year (2016). Cstream and Playster are the pioneers in bundling different types of digital media streaming services into one package.

The recently opened Cstream is a French service whose product selection consists of French content. The books, music and movies may originally come from Great Britain, Germany, U.S., or anywhere else, but these are the French versions of those products. Cstream offers ebooks, magazines, movies and music. The price per month is 9.99 euros. It is very aggressive price level compared to Playster or to services that provide single content type only, like Kindle Unlimited or Spotify.

Playster was launched before Cstream, and it has rapidly expanded outside its home market the U.S. to other countries. In Europe, where available, Playster is priced at 25.95 euros per month for a bundle of music, movies, ebooks and games. The price slightly varies depending on the country where the subscriber is located.

Book subscription services, such as 24 Symbols, Bookmate, Kindle Unlimited, or Scribd charge about 10 dollars or euros per month for ebooks only. Kindle Unlimited includes audiobooks as well. Scribd has capped the number of books available per month in specific genres.

Cstream is the best deal at the moment for French speaking digital media consumers. The product selection is not as generous as in single-media services, but should cover most people’s needs: 50 000 books, 30 magazines, millions of songs, 300 movies and 1000 shows for children.

Cstream can be accessed from a Windows PC, Mac, Android device, or Apple device.

Via Actualitté.

The Best Ebook Self-Publishing Services as Rated by Authors

2015-01-03

Ebooks not only generate income for established authors, but they have also enabled thousands of new authors to kickstart their writing careers. New ebook publishers and self-publishing services provide opportunities for writers to get their works in front of large audiences.

The Independent Publishing Magazine has collected an extensive list of self-publishing services, and also ranked the services. Authors who have used self-publishing services themselves have provided the ratings for the list.

The Independent Publishing Magazine.