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posted by martyb on Saturday February 22 2020, @03:40PM   Printer-friendly
from the took-them-long-enough dept.

Apple is considering letting users change default email, browser, music apps in iOS:

Apple is seriously considering the possibility of allowing users to change the default apps for Web browsing, mail, or music on their iPhones. The company might also allow users to listen to Spotify or other music streaming services besides Apple Music via Siri on the iPhone or on the HomePod smart speaker.

These revelations were outlined in a report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman this morning, who cited multiple people familiar with Apple's internal plans.

[...] Currently, iOS users can download third-party applications for mail or Web browsing like Outlook or Firefox, but they cannot set them to be the default apps that the system opens when a link or email address is tapped in another application, for example. Apple does allow users to do these things in some cases with its macOS software for desktops and laptops, even though it's not possible on the company's mobile platforms.

[...] And as Bloomberg notes, more elegant support for streaming services besides Apple Music would almost certainly be a boon for sales of Apple's HomePod smart speaker, as that lack of flexibility is a major limitation for that product compared to its competitors. Yes, HomePod users can stream Spotify to the HomePod using Apple's AirPlay technology, but many users may feel that is not a complete solution.

[...] Bloomberg's sources were careful to clarify that no final decisions have been made yet, but given Apple's longstanding commitment to a different philosophy, the fact this change is being seriously considered at all is on its own a major development.

When it released iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 in 2019, Apple already began lifting some smaller limitations on how users could customize the mobile operating system. So if these changes for default apps do go forward, they could herald a dramatic shift in Apple's software strategy—whether they're made to make things better for users, to appease regulators, or both.


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  • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 22 2020, @05:25PM (35 children)

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday February 22 2020, @05:25PM (#961068) Journal
    … because what the world needs is a phone that can't make phone calls or play sound. You should buy a Linux tablet for 1/3 the price with working audio. Take the savings for beer and pizzas with friends. Or stock up on N95 face masks - you'll make a killing when COVID-19 makes a killing.
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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @05:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @05:26PM (#961069)

    N100 or death.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @05:45PM (33 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @05:45PM (#961077)

    Calls are working now, if you bothered to follow the development.

    Enjoy your pizza!

    • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 22 2020, @06:00PM (32 children)

      by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday February 22 2020, @06:00PM (#961085) Journal
      Why would I bother? It's still overpriced for what it does.
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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @06:31PM (31 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @06:31PM (#961098)

        Because they want to run their own software stack, something Apple doesn't cater for. Nor these cheap tablets you refer to, running just enough of a bastardized vendor kernel fork to sideload Google Play but probably broken enough not to be certified for Widevine.

        Overpriced? Your typical Apple employee takes home more than the cost of said phone in a *day*. Yet here you are making beer analogies.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 22 2020, @06:52PM (30 children)

          by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday February 22 2020, @06:52PM (#961111) Journal

          The iPhone 6 I usually use to post was released in September of 2014, and just got another update earlier this month.

          That beats LTS on linux distros.

          It's on loan from my sister after I accidentally dumped my Android into a bucket of bleach and didn't notice for an hour and a half, and didn't notice until I emptied the bucket.

          The Android was the same age, and hadn't received ANY updates for at least 3 years. On top of that, with the stupid change to "Material Design" it was much harder for me to use (low vision).

          IOS has its quirks, but it's far better than Android. For one thing, I was able to remove all the Google spyware from it. No Google Maps, no GMail, no Youtube, etc. I was also able to remove things like Facebook and Twitter that various Android makers mark as "system" so you can't remove them.

          icloud mail is free for the first 5 gigs of storage, and since I don't store anything in the cloud, it's free as in beer and free as in free and free as in nobody datamining it.

          All that is worth the "Apple premium". Given that there's no social media, no spyware, and almost no apps installed on it, it will probably keep running just fine for another 5 years.

          Your stupid pinephone? Who are you going to use for mail - google? So much for "free" - you are the product, and you know it.

          If I want to run linux, I'll do it on a real computer, not a phone. I like a real keyboard. Nothing else approaches it., so no keyboard == GTFO.

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          • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @07:14PM (17 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @07:14PM (#961127)

            My god you're an opinionated asshole with a driving need to shit on people and things. You make Ethanol Fueled look reasonable, especially with his recent bent towards making good posts.

            Makes me wonder if you're just another fake user with a backstory of being trans, and you hate post specifically to get the conservative users around here all angry. I sure hope not, but all the intelligence agencies around the world keep publishing about how domestic and foreign actors are manipulating online discourse through fake news, botnets, and fake personas to get grassroots support. Your vision issues also would make perfect sense as a great excuse when you go on vacation and aren't being paid to shitpost.

            Just a theory, but I've seen enough users come and go around here with oddly detailed personas. Legitimate SN users would be unlikely to share such information.

            • (Score: 5, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 22 2020, @08:46PM (15 children)

              by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday February 22 2020, @08:46PM (#961156) Journal

              Just a theory, but I've seen enough users come and go around here with oddly detailed personas. Legitimate SN users would be unlikely to share such information.

              Information leakage is a thing, has been since before the Internet. I decided long ago to eschew anonymity, because it's impossible anyway. Guess that makes me prescient, doesn't it.

              Anyone who knows me from the green site knows I've been around since at least 2000. Outed as trans in 2006. Not surprising at all - tech has a higher than normal rate of trans people in it.

              Of course, what's not surprising is anonymous cowards claiming other people aren't who they say they are.

              My god you're an opinionated asshole with a driving need to shit on people and things. You make Ethanol Fueled look reasonable, especially with his recent bent towards making good posts.

              The pinephone is still shit that's not suited for purpose, same as all the other linux phones, including the Ubuntu phone that was dropped by Vodaphone. You don't get it - you don't get to decide what people vote for with their wallets. That YOU think something else is better doesn't shift the market one iota - same as the whole "year of the linux desktop" didn't happen because linux turned out not to be fit for the desktop for the vast majority of users. They get tired of stuff that doesn't work. RTFM. Use Wine - and being told that if it doesn't work, why don't YOU submit a patch or STFU.

              In the beginning Linux and FOSS were fresh and exciting. A decade later they were not so fresh, but still exciting. Another decade, and it became "Damn, got to find yet another distro because this one is turning to shit" over and over. Now? We're still stuck at the turn of the century - favourite distros still losing their direction and turning to shit, except this time with extra systemd "goodness". Can't wait to see all the fun over "homed" that will manage all user directories.

              All those promises of FOSS - the unleashing of boundless creativity, endless new software packages, new ways of doing things, well, it never happened. You have over 1,000 distros, all with the same tired software packages. Nothing has changed in the last decade except the version numbers - and some of those packages haven't been updated since the mid-90s.

              Even the Free Software Foundation is tacitly admitting that free software has failed by urging Microsoft to release the source for Windows 7. What a climb-down.

              Now you may disagree, but the market has spoken. The next 10 years of FOSS will be the same as the previous 10 - not much new, nothing really exciting, the walled gardens of software-as-a-service will continue to grow, enabled by FOSS but hiding it from the end users. Because that's all it's good at - consumers have rejected bare linux, you can't even give it away. I realized that sometime in the first years of this century and stopped installing it on other people's computers. I certainly don't miss the "why doesn't this work" complaints.

              2030 - 1,500 distros, major schisms around systemd, homed, and the next not-so-great-thing, the FSF demanding yet again that Microsoft release the source to Windows 7 because now it's well out of extended support, and the same tired old packages.

              You don't like it? Guess what - neither do I. I bought into the whole idea of FOSS bringing about a computing revolution. The revolution didn't happen, and there's no changing it.

              Instead of bullshit claims that I probably don't exist, why not fix the problems that make FOSS deficient to the end user? The crappy applications, the forks of forks of forks(fork-cubed) problems, all the different incompatible installers, etc. But don't shoot me - I'm just the messenger.

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              • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @09:00PM (2 children)

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @09:00PM (#961163)

                "Instead of bullshit claims that I probably don't exist"

                Oh you exist, I just don't put much stock in your honesty. You obviously don't understand how or why Linux has been subverted, or you're just another industry shill pushing the corporate status quo. From the general direction of your opinions I will go with the latter.

                Even if you are real, and your anger towards FOSS is genuine, it is still misdirected and very much the desired result of M$ & Friends.

                Yet with all your complaints you are happily going on about your iPhone, how shit Android is, and how any open phones are hot garbage. Maybe you abandoned linux out of laziness and never checked back in? Cause I can do just about anything I want with FOSS except play some video games.

                Oh also, complaining about systemd is very in vogue, but you seem totally fine using Apple and Microsoft products? Hmmmmm. You're either a bit slow or justashill.

                Do you even read what you write? Cause sounds like you're fine contradicting yourself and/or being lazy when you get to shovel the responsibility on to someone else.

                You don't like it? Guess what - neither do I. I bought into the whole idea of FOSS bringing about a computing revolution. The revolution didn't happen, and there's no changing it.

                Instead of bullshit claims that I probably don't exist, why not fix the problems that make FOSS deficient to the end user?

                • (Score: 3, Interesting) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 22 2020, @09:44PM (1 child)

                  by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday February 22 2020, @09:44PM (#961175) Journal

                  Too bad you're too stupid or lazy to check my old posts back on the green site before FOSS went all shitty.

                  But FOSS did go to shit, with everyone engaging in the "okay new I need to find yet another new distro" every once in a while. And people I installed linux for all dropping it because it didn't do everything they wanted - same as you:

                  Cause I can do just about anything I want with FOSS except play some video games.

                  See - FOSS doesn't even meet all your needs. Most people won't bother maintaining two operating systems, not when they can have just one that does everything they want it to? That's not being a shill - that's reality. Don't like it - fix it or STFU, because FOSS-only is broken for most people. Including you.

                  I don't use Microsoft products. What I am doing is looking for a replacement for this shitty Linux distro - I'll probably go full FreeBSD because it never gave me the hassles that the various Linux distros have done over the decades on a regular basis.

                  Oh also, complaining about systemd is very in vogue, but you seem totally fine using Apple and Microsoft products? Hmmmmm. You're either a bit slow or justashill.

                  I was complaining about systemd on the green site long before it became popular to do so. I got dumped on A LOT by people like you because I refused to swallow the party line. I was in the minority then, but I was right. Reality didn't change, just people's perceptions. They could eventually admit that there was something wrong with part of Linux.

                  Do you even read what you write? Cause sounds like you're fine contradicting yourself and/or being lazy when you get to shovel the responsibility on to someone else.

                  FOSS is not my circus any more, not my monkey, not my responsibility to fix. Not since it became obvious that the GPL is responsible for the dearth of decent 3rd-party software in the FOSS world in general and Linux in particular.

                  If it weren't for the GPL, much of the software available for other operating systems would also be available for Linux. Including games. Don't blame me - blame RMS.

                  As for the iPhone - it works better than my Android ever did, even though the iPhone is older. I was realistic enough to admit it. Same as I admitted that Linux isn't going anywhere for the end user and hasn't been for decades.

                  Don't like it? Fix it or STFU, but don't blame the messenger. It's not my fault Linux and FOSS suck for most people.

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                  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by acid andy on Sunday February 23 2020, @01:35AM

                    by acid andy (1683) on Sunday February 23 2020, @01:35AM (#961249) Homepage Journal

                    But FOSS did go to shit, with everyone engaging in the "okay new I need to find yet another new distro" every once in a while.

                    That's not unique to FOSS. Pick any OS, hell almost any product line, wait a couple of decades and there's a good chance it will have gone to shit or at least changed in some big ways that you don't like. That's life. At least with FOSS there's more scope to hack away what you don't like or it's free to switch.

                    Cause I can do just about anything I want with FOSS except play some video games.

                    If you're not running a console or Windows that's something historically you've had to live with. Proton's closed the gap a lot though. There are plenty of other games.

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              • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @10:11PM (11 children)

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @10:11PM (#961186)

                You don't get it - you don't get to decide what people vote for with their wallets. That YOU think something else is better doesn't shift the market one iota

                Apparently you, Barbara, do! Any product you deem to be shit and doomed to fail, will fail. Do you have next week's lottery numbers in your crystal ball?

                Pine64 isn't aiming for delusions of world domination like Canonical tried with Ubuntu Touch or Mozilla with Firefox OS.

                They're an embedded hardware company that produces RPi-competing boards and tried successfully producing a laptop. And they think they have a sustainable business model to sell a few thousand of these to nerds who run FOSS on their desktop and servers.

                A small company servicing a niche. So, why all the FUD?

                • (Score: 2, Disagree) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 22 2020, @10:50PM (10 children)

                  by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday February 22 2020, @10:50PM (#961198) Journal

                  I don't - I'm just reporting the verdict of the marketplace over the last 30 years or so.

                  They failed at "successfully producing a laptop". Read the complaints on their kickstarter page [kickstarter.com].

                  People who never got theirs, people who got theirs in pieces, poor performance because it was seriously obsolete by the time they started shipping, would only run 1 distro, people demanding their money back, etc.

                  Safer and cheaper to just take an old android phone, jailbreak it, and install a linuxOnAndroid image.

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                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:07PM (9 children)

                    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:07PM (#961206)

                    Stop spreading FUD. Unboxing and reviews of their products are all over the internet. Their laptop is now on its second iteration.

                    A repurposed Android device won't run mainline Linux 5.4 It seems you've missed the entire point of the project.

                    • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:25PM (8 children)

                      by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:25PM (#961214) Journal

                      So all those complaints are fake? Unboxing reviews mean shit. You know that, I know that, cut the crap.

                      Also, why should I care what version it runs as long as it's at least 3.0? It's not like end user experience has improved since.

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                      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:40PM (7 children)

                        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:40PM (#961216)

                        A few people lodged a complaint on a website (out of how many orders?) - you're saying the whole company is a sham? For heaven's sake.

                        If you're not just here to troll then I suggest you educate yourself about maintaining legacy devices with old kernels via lineageos, halium, replicant, postmarketOS. It is a significant maintenance burden, when they could be contributing to improving the end-user experience - which you suggest is what they should be polishing.

                        • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday February 23 2020, @12:00AM (6 children)

                          by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Sunday February 23 2020, @12:00AM (#961222) Journal

                          If you're not just here to troll then I suggest you educate yourself about maintaining legacy devices with old kernels via lineageos, halium, replicant, postmarketOS.

                          Why bother. Old distros run just fine on newer hardware. Security updates? Don't need. Feature updates? Don't want.

                          It is a significant maintenance burden, when they could be contributing to improving the end-user experience - which you suggest is what they should be polishing.

                          Don't need, don't want. Why would I want a phone that runs linux anyway? The only thing I use my phone for is half a dozen websites, a couple of news apps, wikipedia, a weather app, apple's maps, safari taking a few pictures (dogs and kangaroos mostly), email, notes, reminders, and the apple health app to keep track of walking distance.

                          So wtf would I do with a pinephone? Nothing. If I want to use linux, I'll use it on a proper device. I want a real full-sized keyboard and an oversized screen.

                          It's sad that distros from the early years of the century are more polished than today's offerings.

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                          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @12:37AM (5 children)

                            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @12:37AM (#961231)

                            It's all about you?

                            A community of nerds from ubports, luneos, plasma mobile, maemo Leste, manjaro and others do want to run free software on their phone.

                            Not to mention folks that just want the latest Android release long after their manufacturers have abandoned them. Backporting kernel features and security fixes is a pain.
                            Running a current kernel is the optimal solution.

                            • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday February 23 2020, @02:02AM (4 children)

                              by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Sunday February 23 2020, @02:02AM (#961259) Journal
                              Gotta hate all these anonymous posts making a big deal about an obsolete piece of hardware. Every discussion that can be remotely connected, he shows up as a total shill, hiding behind anonymity, and one or two goats trail along.
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                              • (Score: 4, Interesting) by janrinok on Sunday February 23 2020, @08:23AM (3 children)

                                by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 23 2020, @08:23AM (#961340) Journal

                                He's making a valid point though. Just because you don't want such a phone doesn't mean that there isn't a demand for one. You probably don't tinker with Raspberry Pis. I do, I have 8 currently doing useful jobs. You might not like trying different distros but many people do. And many people would like a hardware phone on which they can install whatever they want. More bright ideas come from people than come from companies. After all, it is the people in companies that have all the ideas that companies' make money from. Why is that so difficult to understand?

                                Your viewpoint is valid - for you. It doesn't mean that other viewpoints are invalid.

                                And, as a digression, why is it that every discussion on technology ends up with you including the fact that you are trans? So what? If you want to be accepted for what you are it has to be nothing special - you don't have to remind us that you are different and then wonder why you get treated differently. Your sexuality is completely irrelevant - unless of course you think it makes you special.

                                • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Sunday February 23 2020, @04:38PM (2 children)

                                  by acid andy (1683) on Sunday February 23 2020, @04:38PM (#961439) Homepage Journal

                                  To be fair, didn't the AC bring up the trans fact first on this page? It wouldn't be the first time that's happened either, and it sucks. Other than that, at worst it's just off-topic if it doesn't relate to TFS in some way, but that's why we've got journals.

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                                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @08:59PM

                                    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @08:59PM (#961549)

                                    Very true, not Barbara's fault someone doesn't believe her back story.

                                  • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday February 23 2020, @10:38PM

                                    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Sunday February 23 2020, @10:38PM (#961597) Journal

                                    The PinePhone shill posts the same thin all the time - "You should have bought a PinePhone " - on any topic even remotely connected. Considering how low-volume the product is, any sales by any means is welcome to them, but I see it as forum spam.

                                    Now I will bring up being trans when it's relevant, such as in discussions of pay discrimination between the sexes. We've all heard the arguments about how it's not possible to make a 1-to-1 comparison to pay better the two sexes for various reasons (the last time I pointed out that even if you hold all variables constant, women are still paid less, TMB said I was full of shit. But consider this - we have people who have the same work experience before and after transition, the same qualifications, the exact same capabilities - and yet in the case of trans women, we either end up being paid less via an imposed job change or fired, whereas trans men generally either continue to receive the same or more pay.

                                    Same with bathroom bills. There has never been a politician or religious leader who has demanded that trans men use the bathroom of their birth sex. These are not trans issues - they are examples of how women in general are more easily discriminated against.

                                    BTW, if number here are anything like the rest of the industry, there's 10 more here who stay in the closet, usually posting as males. They won't feel safe coming out, even if only behind a bum. I know one from the green site that, 14 years later, is still totally in the closet at work and online, and after bringing up the topic with his wife, had to choose between contact withthe kids and staying in the home or transition. They're still in the home. Gotta hate blackmail.

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            • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @05:31AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @05:31AM (#961308)

              Actually, Barbara Hudson (nee Tom) has been talking out of her ass for decades.

              https://slashdot.org/~tomhudson [slashdot.org]

              She's really good at it, too. It's quite impressive.

              She has only recently arrived at SN.

              Please note that I am not condemning Barbara as dumb. I am also not suggesting that she shut up. Quite the contrary in fact.

              And I am most certainly not judging her or attempting to put her down because she is transgender. That's completely fine with me.

              I have family members who are transgender and I love and support them wholeheartedly.

              So no. Barbara Hudson is definitely a real persona and has a digital trail that spans, as I said, decades.

              That she talks out of her ass isn't an attempt to rile up the troglodytes either. She manages to piss *everyone* off with her ridiculous and often nasty, diatribes.

              Keep up the good work, Barbara!

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @09:28PM (11 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @09:28PM (#961170)

            The Pinephone has plans for an optional hardware keyboard cover, actually.

            And, no it isn't tied an any specific email provider. Unlike iOS (icloud), Android (gmail), Windows 10 (outlook), there is no silicon valley behemoth coercing you to back up to *their* cloud.

            Any email service that forces the user to buy a hardware device isn't "free".

            • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 22 2020, @10:01PM (10 children)

              by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday February 22 2020, @10:01PM (#961182) Journal

              The fact that icloud email is tied to Apple is a plus - it stays private. Or didn't you know that? You may not value that, but some of us do.

              there is no silicon valley behemoth coercing you to back up to *their* cloud.

              There's no requirement to store your data in Apple's cloud. I opted out of it. No biggie. The only thing I'm using is their servers to store-and-forward email to/from me. And you can set it up to use gmail or outlook if you really insist on sharing all your email contents with a silicon valley behemoth. I don't.

              So how is Apple forcing me "to back up to *their* cloud" again, FUDster Brown?

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              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @10:22PM (9 children)

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @10:22PM (#961190)

                You're the one making assumptions that anyone on a non Apple device will use Google mail.

                Equally they could subscribe to a privacy respecting mail provider (duckduckgo will list some) and with the money saved by not buying an iPhone, still buy beer and pizza.

                • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:06PM (8 children)

                  by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:06PM (#961205) Journal

                  I don't pay a subscription fee for Apple icloud mail. And I'm dealing with Apple, which has a history of privacy. And I'm not paying $50/year US to HushMail. Or any fee whatsoever to anyone.

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                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:13PM (7 children)

                    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:13PM (#961209)

                    No because you're a cheapskate who 'borrowed' your sister's phone.

                    If I wished to access icloud, it would cost several hundred dollars to access the service - by purchasing an iPhone. It therefore isn't a free service.

                    • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:32PM (6 children)

                      by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:32PM (#961215) Journal

                      The choices were another phone or using an existing one that was sitting in a drawer after an upgrade. One that works better than the newest Android. My preference would have been neither, and tell people to get hold of me via email alone, which I would check a couple of times a week, because I prefer my communications live and in person and really hate calling anyone I've never met - it just seems rude.

                      But it turns out handy when health professionals want to contact me to schedule an appointment, so I'm not going to complain.

                      As for the accusation of being a cheapskate - guilty. Like most people with disabilities, it's kind of a necessity.

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                      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:44PM (5 children)

                        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:44PM (#961219)

                        The cost of icloud is an upfront fee with a new Apple device, borne by your sister's original purchase.

                        • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday February 23 2020, @12:09AM (4 children)

                          by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Sunday February 23 2020, @12:09AM (#961225) Journal

                          And what is the problem with that, exactly? It's the same fee (zero), even if the device lasts 10 years (which is likely - it only has 4 more years to go).

                          You can buy extra storage on the cheap, but I'm not one of those people who stores crap on the cloud "because cloud."

                          Got to wonder why you shill so much for the PinePhone. Because you ARE a shill. Anonymous account, looking for any off-topic excuse to push the PinePhone and related crap, refuses to consider that most people will never want such a shitty consumer product even if you spent the next 10 years on it, accuses me of being a shill because I don't drink the koolaid ...

                          Shill detected, and it's not me. Fucking stupid shills think that posting anonymously will keep people from figuring it out.

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                          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @12:30AM (3 children)

                            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @12:30AM (#961230)

                            If iPhone works for you fine. But don't pretend your cloud email is a free just because you're using a free device.

                            • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday February 23 2020, @01:59AM (2 children)

                              by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Sunday February 23 2020, @01:59AM (#961257) Journal
                              And the PinePhone shill shouldn't pretend it's good for anything except a toy with increasingly crappy specs. They should stop posting anonymously and be up front about who they are and their motives.
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                              SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
                              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @09:10PM (1 child)

                                by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @09:10PM (#961552)

                                Pinephone shill?

                                You really are a fake door. No hinges in sight! For someone as opinionated as you and who butts into arguments it is pretty ridiculous how much you complain about AC posters. Are you just upset you can't tell if it is an actual bigot messing with you for being trans? Cause if you're a real person I applaud your openness especially on a conservative leaning board like this.

                                I'll still call you out for your bullshit opinions regarding the unnecessary proprietary lock-in, and yes I would have to visit you in person to believe you are who you say you are. First rule of internet conversations, do not give actual locations. Makes it kinda hard to believe your story is real when you claim to post your real address.

                                • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday February 23 2020, @11:01PM

                                  by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Sunday February 23 2020, @11:01PM (#961611) Journal
                                  Want proof - send a sel addressed stamped envelope to my address that I posted here. Or am I now co-opting the mail service? Put up or shut up.
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                                  SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.