I really love to hate Safari (extensions, ad blocking, dev tools amongst many other reasons) but love using a non chromium browser.
I discovered Orion a few years back and it has been my go-to standalone browser but never strong enough to be my primary browser.
So many daily drivers of mine refuse(d) to work from time to time (1P, Netflix, Youtube, Slack, Gmaps, Hey & the list goes on). I eventually started relying on Orion RC instead of Orion to band-aid fix these problems.
I truly hope they succeed but a few hours of driving the 1.0, it doesn't feel like a 1.0 yet.
Ever since I saw this video[1] by Dave2D I have felt the need to move away from my regular mechanical keyboards to Ortholinear keyboards. Non split keyboards seemed too much of a hassle and Bayleaf looks like something I can totally switch to. If only someone built a DIY kit that I could buy off shelves.
The current boat I am on is relying on Firefox for most of my devices: Windows Laptops, Android Phones/Tablets with Ublock Origin and NextDNS set over DNS mode for all of the devices in my family.
For iDevices relying on Orion Browser paired with Ublock Origin and NextDNS set up. As good as Safari but without the annoyances of Plugins. Their compatablity mode seems to work on sites where Safari seems to have issues.
Ungoggled Chromium for sites that seem to break on both Firefox and Orion, unfortunately there are loads out there. It's a shame that Firefox isn't as effecient with Battery Consumption as Orion is.
Edge is much worse than chrome anyway. Chrome just screws the user behind their back, with hidden tracking.
Edge has all the user-hostile stuff much more in your face. Like the shopping bar that keeps popping up with coupons or tries to get you to buy at a shop that pays more for advertising. And it tries to trick the user into getting bogged down with loans by offering buy now pay later schemes.
All the sneaky tracking stuff from chrome also happens. So why would you bother?
The only reason it's still popular is that companies love it because they can lock it down in full BOFH mode. At my work I can't even choose to reopen the last tabs anymore on launch. That and pretty much every other setting is "managed by your organisation"
It's not allowed in our policy. However Firefox is still on my system from the time when it was officially supported. I've heard they want to schedule a removal though.
Credit Card linking with UPI is live for sometime now [0], currently limited to Rupay cards. I have been using my HDFC Rupay CC to pay for Merchant Payments that accept UPI for last month or so.
The good rewards are only possible if the merchants are paying for it through transaction costs. I'd bet on "no" since the national alternatives to Visa/MasterCard usually advertise themselves as "cheaper".
I have almost moved on from Gmail (Gmail + Gsuite). I have been using Hey for almost 2 years now and I prefer it over Gmail/Yahoo/Outlook/Protonmail.
And I am in the process of moving my Custom Domains to Fastmail, the only thing that irks me is their mobile app refusing to open without an active internet connection.
I have been super impressed by the latency of the images hosted on Imagekit. Used to host images on Cloudinary, found Imagekit to be faster for my visitors + more affordable. I currently have 2 accounts with them, one for my personal website/blog on free tier and a paid tier for landing pages for my employer. Highly recommend them, no affiliations, just a super happy customer!
I discovered Orion a few years back and it has been my go-to standalone browser but never strong enough to be my primary browser.
So many daily drivers of mine refuse(d) to work from time to time (1P, Netflix, Youtube, Slack, Gmaps, Hey & the list goes on). I eventually started relying on Orion RC instead of Orion to band-aid fix these problems.
I truly hope they succeed but a few hours of driving the 1.0, it doesn't feel like a 1.0 yet.