[1] https://www.blog.google/products/chrome/building-a-more-priv...
Do they though? While I think it's sad how much computing devices have become locked down, I'm also noticing (as the family "IT helpdesk") that non-technical people I know are getting themselves into a lot less trouble with malware and scams on locked-down, secure mobile devices than they did a decade ago on Windows PCs.
My teenage nephew is pretty interested in computers and programming, and he's running Linux on an old laptop. He has full control over that but is happy to concede some control over his smartphone because he doesn't think he'll be doing any programming or anything that requires "full control" on it anyway. On Android having complete control over the software is pretty much required to avoid the privacy-invading junk that comes with it by default; Apple seems to have done a good job of creating a satisfactory experience for technical and non-technical people alike.
I ain’t got Time for that shit no more. I grew up and realized there’s only so much productive time in the day and maintaining my own stuff eats into that.
>And how do you “choose” a reputable shop without knowing where the parts come from?
You do it either based on brand, word-of-mouth, recommendations, online reviews, or a number of other ways people have been using to find reputable service centers for decades. People who came before us fought hard and we have established a precedent for repair in many many industries so that companies like Apple are not able to rip us off by denying right to repair, and denying legitimate repair shops the ability to purchase legitimate parts.
People who came before us fought hard and we have established a precedent for repair in many many industries
It’s a phone where you might save $20. It’s not like it’s the right to vote....
so that companies like Apple are not able to rip us off by denying right to repair, and denying legitimate repair shops the ability to purchase legitimate parts.
And when Apple doesn’t approve a repair shop there will be another uproar about Apple “gatekeeping” repair shops....
You can thank them the next time you get your car fixed without buying a new car.
>And when Apple doesn’t approve a repair shop there will be another uproar about Apple “gatekeeping” repair shops....
We don't want them to approve anything. The iPhone isn't some magical unicorn. Its a box that contains components purchased from suppliers around the world. Apple forces the suppliers to not provide parts to repair shops. They use DRM in random components that have nothing to do with security so that repair shops doing basic repair have to beg Apple to "activate" the new components.
Have you ever had a repaired phone with a faulty touch screen?
But all that aside, people are free to repurchase a new phone or get the entire motherboard replaced when a $0.50 component fails on their phone. I and many others prefer to repair it and save money. And not to mention .. reduce the e-waste burden on our planet as a bonus.
Where can I buy an off the shelf Apple designed Ax chip?
We are already seeing third party suppliers with shoddy screens that don’t work as well and battery replacements that lie about their lifecycle.
If you really want to use the car analogy as others have, how easy is it to get third party repairs for high end cars or Tesla’s?
Maybe HN readers, but not most of the population. How does allowing sideloaded apps or unlocked bootloaders help the average soccer mom? If I'm a lawyer/politician/activist, I want a locked down device so someone can't install a backdoor if I lose sight of it for a few minutes.
Open devices which you have full control over can be made more secure. With a locked down device, you rely on the manufacturers' implementations, which may not get audited or regularly patched.
Apple supports devices for 5+ years, you’re throwing up strawmen.
That's actually how all mobile operating systems work right now. You don't get root (admin). The only way to get it is to jailbreak/root, which essentially involves running a privilege escalation exploit or patching the operating system. In any case it's definitely not as simple as "sudo" or "run as administrator". However, even without root, most users manage just fine. They can browse the web, edit documents, play games, and install whatever apps they want. There's no reason why this model can't be extended to desktop operating systems. You can't do it on mac/windows yet because of legacy reasons (eg. needing to install legacy drivers or apps).
Millions of people installed Fortnite mobile without an appstore, you should ask them.
This kind of industry-wide myopia indicates that there's an opportunity for disruption, and I'm glad EA recognized it.
> If I'm a lawyer/politician/activist, I want a locked down device so someone can't install a backdoor if I lose sight of it for a few minutes.
But you get a device that records your life intimately and is one subpoena to Google or Apple away from making your life very, very difficult.
>Millions of people installed Fortnite mobile without an appstore, you should ask them.
That's a mischaracterization of my argument. I never claimed they couldn't sideload an app or that it was difficult. After all, all they had to do was follow the on-screen instructions. Furthermore, sideloading wasn't helping them. The user went through more steps to install a game just so epic could skip the 30% play store tax. Maybe epic passed the savings on the consumer instead of lining their profits (ha!), but the only entity that sideloading clearly helped was epic.
>But you get a device that records your life intimately and is one subpoena to Google or Apple away from making your life very, very difficult.
* you can opt out of the tracking/uploading to google/apple
* even if you opted into tracking/uploading, there's things that aren't but local malware can get (eg. emails, phone recordings)
* requiring a subpoena requires judicial approval and leaves a paper trail. it's also not an option for some groups (eg. foreign governments). there's a reason why mercenary hacking firms (hacking team, NSO group, DarkMatter) are a thing.