IdleSheep

For Android DAPs you definitely want to look into the 500€+ range simply because cheaper ones use very low end SoCs (usually the snapdragon 4xx series) which is why you had that experience with the Sony one. Only look at devices with a snapdragon 6xx and above to be honest. Also note most will never get an OS update so what you get is what you will have forever.

I also tried a cheaper DAP at first too (the Hiby R5 I believe) but although the audio was fine the laggy app experience left a lot to be desired, so I'm very happy I paid an extra 200 to have a DAP that's not slow/laggy when navigating the interface.

For future reference you can bookmark this page that gets updated with newer DAP releases every once in a while.

I totally feel you OP. I have a 500+ GB music collection I refuse to give up for streaming apps (which don't have all that music anyway). But I also acknowledge the vast majority of people install a couple apps, take a couple pics and videos, and that's about it, so I get why 128 is the default.

My solution was to cough up money for a DAP (specifically the Fiio M11S). I know it's outside the budget of most people and definitely a super niche purchase, but boy do I feel relieved knowing I can plug my 1 TB SD card in in it and have all my music whenever I want to (plus other neat features like an actual audio jack and no audio resampling). And it also means I'm no longer restricted in my phone choices which is wonderful.

Maybe it's something for you to consider over a NAS or other local server solutions that require more upkeep.

Most Japanese artists have a Pixiv or Nijie account. You should be able to move most of your follows to those services.

A lot are also jumping ship to misskey.io, which you can follow if you use mastodon/pleroma/misskey/etc.

I suspect the small amount of holdouts will soon create an alternative as well.

Not exactly what you asked for but since you seem to care about it, you can use https://fba.ryona.agency/ to see what instances are blocked by what instances and vice versa. Here are the instances LW blocks for example.

Imagine you only have 10 dollars on you and buy a 9.99 item off the menu because of it, only to discover at the register there's a 20% service fee. Not very a very pleasant customer experience, is it?

Thank God where I live this is completely illegal. The prices on the menus are always the final price.

From a technical standpoint they definitely don't offer any objective advantage. However I still love using them personally. There's just something satisfying about folding your phone. Also the built-in screen protection.

I'm so used to gestures I can barely use a phone with button navigation. When I have to help my parents/grandparents with their smartphones I take longer just because they use buttons lol.

Also the 3 button navigation is not gone afaik. All OEMs I've used have it buried in the settings somewhere.