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Comment by pluc | Hacker News Reader

Apple's been making it real difficult to pick Android lately. Only thing Android still has going for it is the ability to flash custom ROMs, eg CalyxOS or Graphene.

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On Android I can use a firewall to block network access per app. on iOS that is not possible.

My password manager app might be bought out and exfiltrate all my credentials, or any of the linked libraries it uses.

> My password manager app might be bought out and exfiltrate all my credentials

This is less likely if you use Apple Keychain for your passwords. lock-in intensifies

Apple Keychain requires iCloud. Most of iCloud is not end to end encrypted.

But the keychain is, of course.

My point is that if you care about e2e crypto and privacy, you already have iCloud turned off in full, including the e2e bits, because it's a privacy minefield.

I explored installing a custom ROM on my android phone, but ended up questioning the utility of them. There appears to be many banking apps, random apps (McDonalds??) and others that will not work if the device is running a custom ROM.

That makes my phone useless to me.

Our only hope is a proper Linux phone with an Android emulation layer

You can get around that by spoofing safteynet stuff using Magisk. But yeah, it is a few more hoops to jump through and you need to be rooted which is itself not great for security.

CalyxOS passes SafetyNet on my Pixel phone, at least for now

Better security, more features, more privacy, and more user control in general are significant reasons to choose Android.

Compare the actions of Google versus the actions of Apple and it's real difficult to think Google has your privacy in mind

Compare the actual features of Android vs. the actual features (instead of the marketing) of iOS, and it's clear that Apple doesn't care about user privacy. With Android, you get to choose which if any Google services to use. On iOS, you can't run any apps without telling Apple which ones, you can't get your location without also sending your location to Apple, and you can't practically run your own apps without fully deanonymizing yourself with banking details.

- you can't install apps without an apple account(making the phone useless really) - you can't download apps from outside the app store - there is no security enhanced or de-appled version if IOS, while on android GrapheneOS and CalyxOS exist - you are limited to Safari as a browser engine(no extensions).

Of course there are extensions: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/get-extensions-iphab0...

Android has a wide plethora of devices, Apple can't make hardware catering to everyone's needs.

That is not an Android advantage. Tightly controlled hardware makes it so much easier to control software. You ever built an app for Android? It sucks

Maybe they changed this lately, but can you copy files through USB to an iPhone?

I can also use stuff like Tasker on Android.

What? No, not even close. - no way to use the phone without an account - no way to install apps from outside the store - no browsers other than Safari reskins.

These are all fixed by the DMA, but it will take a lot of time for things to mature, however other issues persist

- no way to put apps on the bottom of the screen - the FOSS scene on IOS basically doesn't exist, while on android there is a whole app store for it(https://f-droid.org) this is a big point for me. - no way to duplicate apps - no separate work profile - limited file mangament - no notification chat bubbles(a pretty good feature on android 11/10?+ - no advanced apps like local terminal emulators, virtual firewalls or virtual tracker blockers(partially because the FOSS community rightly doesn't care about iOS) - non encrypted iCloud backups(basically a backdoor into WhatsApp) or any important file medium - CSAM Scanning inbound

And many other issues, iOS is hardly making Android hard to choose, its still locked down prison, its just a bit nicer inside now.

Since I value my privacy and like FOSS iOS is even more useless for me.

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