Comment by tossit444
20 hours ago
So you moved into a walled garden in an attempt to escape what's essentially a 3 foot picket fenced garden.
20 hours ago
So you moved into a walled garden in an attempt to escape what's essentially a 3 foot picket fenced garden.
If there are two walled gardens, you might as well choose the prettier one.
Or choose freedom. I've been enjoying GrapheneOS for a couple of years now and recommend it.
Do you run into issues with apps not supporting it? Things like banking or auth? That is the main complaint I see for alternative phone OSes, and I don't know if that has gotten any better.
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Unfortunately, there is no way to use Google Pay on it. I'm all for trading some convenience for privacy, but not having to carry all my cards is too much of a convenience for me :(
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Graphene sounds great in theory. Until you read the device compatibility page and see you're still at the mercy of Google. In order to support graphene you must first pay Google for one of the most expensive android devices on the market. Oh and Google never sold this device in my country so I guess I'm out of luck even if I wanted to do that.
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Uh huh. Freedom. In some empty rhetorical sense. Meanwhile you still have 99.999% of the usual obligations.
Go freely walk out your local supermarket without paying.
But your Android phone is unlocked #winning
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I use Android and iOS regularly and while Android's ugly, it's slightly less ugly.
GrapheneOS.
For an Android user, iOS offers better privacy (which can change at any time), but it also comes baked in with better support for some open protocols. (SMB on Files, and CalDAV/CardDAV for Calendars/Contacts/Notes integration). This has been the case for years, while aspects of the 'walled garden' have eroded over time.
It's natural that this huge Android regression might be enough for someone to dip their toes into the other side.
> iOS offers better privacy
No, it markets lockin dressed up as privacy. Convincing you that they are the same thing is the real magic here.
No, it might sound smart, but it's incorrect to equivocate. You don't need to "lock in" to Apple's services either. Apple has a meaningfully better track record than Google on privacy in many regards.
(Apple's Terms of Service is also much better, for not having an arbitration clause anywhere except the Apple credit card, with a very easy opt-out flow.)
If you cant beat them join them
If you are stuck in a walled garden either way, might at least try to get the benefits of it.
The iOS app store is like the craigslist personals of online markets. I feel incredibly dirty just going on there. I have to scroll down 3-5 options just to find the exact match for what I searched for, many of the prioritized options being look-alikes that could easily fool people into installing some malware-esque garbage.
I love my 13 mini as a phone, but I don't understand how anyone could compare the two app stores and think iOS comes out on top. At least android has f-droid.
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Includes status symbol and ecosystem lock!
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It's probably worth mentioning that as far as i know this change does not affect AOSP phones[1]. I'm currently living with a Kyocera flip-phone[3] for the past few years. I even got F-droid installed, though it turned out to not work all that great on a flip. I wish more people wrote apps for flips. I keep intending to look into writing my own APK if i ever get the chance. As i understand it, it's a bit like The Wild West, though there are places where you can get flip-phone apps[2] like maps, media players, messengers, etc.. i just never seem to have time to look more into this(and i'm a little concerned about getting scammed). I did manage recently to successfully tether my old touch-phone to my flip for a car trip i took, so i could get data to the touch and run maps(i feel somewhat clever to have sidestepped Big Tech on that issue). Hopefully i'll get some time one day to look more into flip-apps.
[1] https://source.android.com/
[2] https://www.apkmirror.com/
[3] https://www.kyoceramobile.com/rugged-devices/duraxv-extreme-...