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Time to start de-Appling

heatherburns.tech

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Re: Time to start de-Appling

#321

Post by harshreality »

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #245
tasn wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have exact numbers, but I'm sure Graphene, Lineage, and all of the mods combined are much less than 1% of all android users; as well as these customers being less profitable than average as a marketing target. Posting this from my lineage phone.

Yes. They have 99.9% of the mobile phones. The phone was the end of open computing, the tech companies obtained an iron grip on the platform, this time with fully accepted total monitoring and data collection down to everything you say, hear, everywhere you go, and with smartwatch biosensors, everything you feel. The only thing left is to get smart glasses and they will know everything you see. Smell they can probabl…

Open computing still exists. It's just overshadowed by the prevalence of locked mobile devices because those are convenient and good enough for the vast majority, who would rather use those than a less convenient desktop, laptop, or even raspberrypi.

Surveillance on the internet is challenging to avoid, but internet surveillance and tracking doesn't extend to (outside-of-browser) local compute.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#322

Post by bean469 »

lylo wrote: post #314

De-Appleing is very difficult if you have a family using iCloud Photos, music, drive etc. Looking at the list, perhaps moving documents off iCloud Drive (to where? Dropbox? That isn’t E2E is it?) and Notes is enough. Do I really care if my photos are E2E encrypted? Most of my photos are in Lightroom cloud so those are not anyway. I don’t use reminders or Freeform or voice memos, and I couldn’t care less about safari…

> De-Appleing is very difficult if you have a family using iCloud Photos, music, drive etc.

Although this is just anecdata, I moved my senior parents from iCloud Photos to Immich recently and their response was something like:

"Wow, the new Photos program on the iPad looks nice!"

For them it works out fine, since their use-cases are checking out vacation photos by scrolling the timeline and also occasionally clicking on the "memories" from N years ago. Helps that the app icon is very similar, too.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#323

Post by flanked-evergl »

VerifiedReports wrote: post #283
zmmmmm wrote: post #227

I know this is a tangent but honestly, this is why the Google decision to de-openify Android is insane even from Google's point of view. Who would want to be an iron clad gate keeper when the world is descending into authoritarianism? You just paint a giant target on your back for the authoritarians to come after. If Apple had supported open iCloud alternatives for backup and other services from day one, it woudn't e…

Android has been a fraud for a long time now. Let's not pretend that the "open-source" mobile OS that was supposed to free us all from vendor and telco tyranny ever approached that promise. Did they even really try? As far as iCloud "alternatives" go... Android doesn't offer ANY legitimate syncing infrastructure to compete with iCloud, open or not.

I switched to Android from iPhone because the sync options for iPhone are garbage.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#324

Post by jimmydorry »

rootlocus wrote: post #307
Wolfenstein98k wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I fail to see the point you're trying to make or the argumentative process by which you're trying to make it. Consider this: the current administration has received gifts from private corporations in return for more lenient tariffs. Or consider the amount of law projects passed through congress directly from large corporations with their logo still on the paper. And this is just the blatant tip of the iceberg the cur…

I don't particularly subscribe to any ideology that puts companies above people, but it isn't hard to see things from GP's point of view. Before shooting the messenger, it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

>Consider this: the current administration has received gifts from private corporations in return for more lenient tariffs

Who better understands where capital restrictions should be applied: this current administration (aka. Trump) or the businesses that grew large enough to buy a seat at the table or can afford to steer policy via "gifts"?

>Or consider the amount of law projects passed through congress directly from large corporations with their logo still on the paper.

Is a person sitting in congress fully cognizant of what is happening in all facets of the economy and have an understanding of what needs to be implemented today to pave the way for the next 10 years and beyond? Why would we not seek input from the industries requiring regulation?

>The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer

Yet this is a golden age by every measure. Zoom out on your timescale and there has never been a more prosperous and peaceful time to be alive. Quality of life has tremendously improved and the possibility of striking out on your own and making it big has never been more attainable. Yes, there will always be people sitting at the top with massive power and wealth, but the average person isn't doing too bad.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#325

Post by lycopodiopsida »

api wrote: post #94

IMHO Apple is actually being honest here. They cannot legally operate in the UK without providing a back door, so they are dropping the claim of ADP in the UK . This is letting the user know what's up, and might also help inspire a backlash against these laws. Apple needs to make it clear that they are being forced by UK law to degrade service. Corporations can't really resist governments unless they're not operating…

> Corporations can't really resist governments unless they're not operating in a given government's jurisdiction and therefore have nothing to lose. They can take things to court, but in lieu of a verdict or an injunction they have to comply with the law or they can be fined, have assets frozen, be de-banked or banned from processing payments, etc.

It is also maybe a good thing? Corporations should not be stewards of our rights, we do not want to be governed by tech-barons.

The problem here lies clearly in UK's laws and government and they cannot be fixed by Apple. The West in general is in this crumbling state, where we take corrupt bastards chewing off our rights for a law of nature, instead of getting furious. France is the only western country where people dare to really protest.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#326

Post by lintfordpickle »

1over137 wrote: post #296
ungreased0675 wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I was in the UK, the news (BBC) was bizarrely 90% American politics. Trump this, Trump did that, etc. People there knew American politicians better than the people who actually represent them.

Why “bizarrely”? The US has enormous influence on many countries, Trump’s actions are newsworthy in many places.

If the UK news is made up of 90% US politics, and 10% UK politics, then I would say that is definitely bizarre.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#327

Post by lmm »

InTheArena wrote: post #134
thw_9a83c wrote: post #29

From the article: > Otherwise, please make sure you de-Apple, de-Google, and de-American Stack yourself when you have time, clarity, and focus to do it. Start today. I don't understand the core of this advice. So if you're in the UK and do all the above, can you suddenly get similar E2EE cloud storage from a different provider without a UK government-mandated backdoor?

The first two are reasonable positions. The third, on the merits of the argument in the article, is absolutely bonkers. It's the UK government that is unleashing this stupidity on the world. There is no European alternative that is any safer, and it's the UK's own hands that are at fault in the first place. Not that there aren't other reasons to be skeptical of American companies' right, but it's just so easy to fall…

> There is no European alternative that is any safer

How do you figure that? If you're worried about your privacy in the UK, keeping your data in a Five Eyes country cloud provider is a very bad idea, arguably even worse than keeping it in a UK cloud provider where it becomes a domestic legal matter where you at least get a day in court, not a foreign intelligence matter where you don't. And the US is a pretty bad place for anyone's data given a) its lack of robust privacy laws (and large commercial data-trafficking ecosystem) and b) the National Security Letter system.

While there is no perfect country, somewhere like Germany or the Netherlands seems a much better bet.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#328

Post by deafpolygon »

b00ty4breakfast wrote: post #243
ebbi wrote: post #157

Taking inspiration from the East India Company, Apple should colonize the UK and take over the government - the iGovernment, if you will. Citizens will regain their right to e2ee privacy, they will not have to deal with voting for mediocre politicians to lead them. Instead, Tim Cook will be their new leader, and every morning over the mandatory installation of HomePods in each home, citizens will be greeted with an e…

Wanted to go shopping but iPass wouldn't open the gate on account of insufficient prostrations before the Steve Jobs iShrine.

Should have gotten a multi-pass.

Re: Time to start de-Appling

#329

Post by erpellan »

caconym_ wrote: post #73
thw_9a83c wrote: post #29

From the article: > Otherwise, please make sure you de-Apple, de-Google, and de-American Stack yourself when you have time, clarity, and focus to do it. Start today. I don't understand the core of this advice. So if you're in the UK and do all the above, can you suddenly get similar E2EE cloud storage from a different provider without a UK government-mandated backdoor?

E2EE cloud storage is not some kind of magic that only tech bigcorps can provide. I de-Dropboxed a few years ago, replacing it with Syncthing running on a local NAS with e2ee backups in Backblaze and Wireguard VPN out to my mobile devices. Sure, this is not the sort of thing most people can set up for themselves, but I don't think that's particularly relevant in context.

Unfortunately for the vast majority of people, it absolutely is some kind of magic.
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