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Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

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Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#91

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #26

To be honest... None. It's a choice. You might wholly disagree, but recent events aren't enough to get me to switch yet, because I think the competition has too many tradeoffs. I can get my photos scanned against a CSAM database... or I can have Google tracking my location constantly regardless of what they say (as they've been proven to be misleading in the past)... or I can use a Linux phone and say goodbye to batt…

I'm reasonably confident that Google listens to every conversation I have within earshot of my phone. It isn't uncommon to find things in my news feed that are related to things I have no interest in but a friend or coworker had just mentioned to me in passing.

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#93

Post by ocdtrekkie »

ByteWelder wrote: post #43
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #26

To be honest... None. It's a choice. You might wholly disagree, but recent events aren't enough to get me to switch yet, because I think the competition has too many tradeoffs. I can get my photos scanned against a CSAM database... or I can have Google tracking my location constantly regardless of what they say (as they've been proven to be misleading in the past)... or I can use a Linux phone and say goodbye to batt…

There are plenty of Android flavours that don't have Google apps, like https://lineage.microg.org/ In my limited experience so far, LineageOS works much better than it used to on my HTC Desire. Battery life has been better than any of my iPhones (3G, 4S, 5S, 7 and XS) ever had. That said, if I had to chose between a Google Android phone and an Apple phone, I'd still pick the Apple one. Luckily there are more choices…

microG is still sending information to Google in order for apps and services to work. It does NOT free you from Google.

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#94

Post by sigmar »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #55
runjake wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus, in the same use case (photos in the cloud), they’re still being scanned for CSAM and probably piracy and whatever else Google scans for.

Google has been scanning photos for CSAM for... what, almost a decade now? Also, as an iPhone user, contrary to the recent Hacker News fight, I actually view this CSAM scanning with a sign of hope, because this hints that we could get end-to-end encryption on iCloud Storage. The CSAM scanning is rumored to be just a prerequisite to get the government to shut up with their biggest critique of E2E, so that Apple can th…

Oh yes, I'm sure the FBI will be satisfied with using the backdoor to only find CSAM, they definitely will not use the access for 'anti-terrorism' and drug enforcement. That sounds just like the FBI.

What good is E2E encryption when they can scan your client with a backdoor? All Apple is doing with this hashing is giving themselves plausible deniability when this access gets abused down the road. "Oh we didn't know they would use those hashes to arrest those protesters, we couldn't have foreseen this"

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#95

Post by gjsman-1000 »

rhn_mk1 wrote: post #86
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #26

To be honest... None. It's a choice. You might wholly disagree, but recent events aren't enough to get me to switch yet, because I think the competition has too many tradeoffs. I can get my photos scanned against a CSAM database... or I can have Google tracking my location constantly regardless of what they say (as they've been proven to be misleading in the past)... or I can use a Linux phone and say goodbye to batt…

> I can get my photos scanned against a CSAM database... or I can have Google tracking my location constantly That's a false dichotomy. There are competitors offering various levels of maturity and functionality. Jolla exists, PinePhone, Xiaomi, Librem 5, dumb phones, POTS landline, no phone... And yes, Linux on the desktop is also a valid choice . It most likely won't track you either.

There's a reason why that's 98%+ of the market. There is a dichotomy between the two camps in the smartphone market, everyone else is fringe. On the fringe, good luck using banking apps, transit apps, vehicle rental apps, or other apps increasingly necessary and useful.

I don't think you know what you are talking about when you mentioned Xiaomi as an option. That would be among the dumbest options you could possibly choose.

Linux on the desktop is a valid choice, but as I said above, don't tell me to switch to it, it's just not practical in my life. I've tried over a dozen distributions since 2011 and probably over fifty releases of them, and Linux isn't there.

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#96

Post by Daedren »

XZ1 Compact with microG. I still have an iPad, though I see myself in the future upgrading to a the equivalents of the iPhone 12 mini and a Samsung Tab S7. (I prefer small phones, and there's no Android ones now)

Don't put your data in places where you can't export data (Apple Notes for instance), or ideally places that aren't cross-platform.

This allows me the freedom to move between OSes, and most importantly, have more choice in my products. Getting stuck in an ecosystem is exactly what Apple and Samsung want, and it's very anti-consumer in the end.

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#97

Post by account_created »

rhn_mk1 wrote: post #86
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #26

To be honest... None. It's a choice. You might wholly disagree, but recent events aren't enough to get me to switch yet, because I think the competition has too many tradeoffs. I can get my photos scanned against a CSAM database... or I can have Google tracking my location constantly regardless of what they say (as they've been proven to be misleading in the past)... or I can use a Linux phone and say goodbye to batt…

> I can get my photos scanned against a CSAM database... or I can have Google tracking my location constantly That's a false dichotomy. There are competitors offering various levels of maturity and functionality. Jolla exists, PinePhone, Xiaomi, Librem 5, dumb phones, POTS landline, no phone... And yes, Linux on the desktop is also a valid choice . It most likely won't track you either.

Surprised to see Xiaomi on your existence list of maturity.

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#98

Post by carnitas »

scoopertrooper wrote: post #71
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #26

To be honest... None. It's a choice. You might wholly disagree, but recent events aren't enough to get me to switch yet, because I think the competition has too many tradeoffs. I can get my photos scanned against a CSAM database... or I can have Google tracking my location constantly regardless of what they say (as they've been proven to be misleading in the past)... or I can use a Linux phone and say goodbye to batt…

Exactly, I think people are just getting a little too worked up over this whole thing. Apple computes a hash of each image you upload to iCloud then check it against a list of CP hashes. Of all the things in the world to get worked up over, this is ridiculous. I get it, the mechanism they're using has apparent flaws, and maybe some whacko could somehow get access to your phone and start uploading things that trick th…

Apple hashes all of your photos offline and then pinky promises to only check the hashes against the official on phone database when the user initiated an upload. The problem isn’t about wackos it’s about governments forcing Apple to do things with this new weapon

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#99

Post by robertwt7 »

I don’t know man. I feel like I’ve been spoiled by apple ecosystem by having watch, airpods, mac, and iphone.

Thinking about moving everything seems to be so much work on top of my daily job and side projects.

Unhappy with apple’s decision, but also feel like I’m stuck atm

Re: Ask HN: What Apple alternatives are you switching to?

#100

Post by tpush »

0x0 wrote: post #65
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incorrect. It will use a generic model to warn children that they could be exposed to nudity, but that runs on-device and sends nothing to Apple. (It's just a generic nudity detection model). On iOS and iPadOS, they will implement the iCloud Photos CSAM scanning, but Apple left out macOS as having that for now. Rumoredly according to GitHub reverse-engineers of the system, it's due to the mathematical precision of th…

From https://www.apple.com/child-safety/ : > These features are coming later this year in updates to iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and macOS Monterey.

It's a bit confusing; 2 paragraphs above that line:

"Next, iOS and iPadOS will use new applications of cryptography to help limit the spread of CSAM online, while designing for user privacy."

That implies macOS isn't getting the CSAM scanning stuff (yet?).

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