4 ms·

I was speaking to someone at the weekend extolling the virtues of Huawei phones and how cheap they were and "I'm never paying for an iPhone or drinking the kool

by gryf 4y ago

I was speaking to someone at the weekend extolling the virtues of Huawei phones and how cheap they were and "I'm never paying for an iPhone or drinking the kool aid". I pointed out the history and security concerns and was greeted with a pfft and told I was paranoid. I'm begrudgingly iPhone user. But I keep an exit plan and backups of all data. If only someone else made something that actually worked properly. For now I'm happy to use a West controlled company to run my personal infra. I suspect we're on a downward spiral though.

willcipriano 4y ago
If you have a iPhone in China you'll find that Apple crippled the air drop functionality that protestors rely upon to communicate. I don't see this action and that one as having much daylight between them frankly.
- gryf 4y ago
  Completely missed that. What a cluster of assholes. Guess I should start thinking about the inevitable exodus. The CSAM scanning thing was the first strike off.
- joshstrange 4y ago
  I'm not a fan of Apple's bowing to China on things like this either but "Limiting AirDrop from 'Everyone' to 10 minutes before you have to turn it on again" and "Deleting pictures from user's phones" are quite different.
misslibby 4y ago
You can back up your data from Huawei phones, too. Apple had plans to scan the photos on your phone and automatically report you to the police if the algorithm thinks something is off. I wouldn't trust them at all.
DiogenesKynikos 4y ago
I haven't ever heard of any concrete security issues with Huawei phones. Huawei has been under extremely strict scrutiny for years (and even got hacked by the NSA, as Snowden's documents revealed), so the fact that nothing has ever stuck makes me think there really is nothing there. As for this story, color me skeptical until some actual details come out.
vehemenz 4y ago
There was actually some truth to this around 2014-2015, before the major clampdowns.
Aachen 4y ago
Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle between the extremes you posed? Both vendors only lease your device to you; it's ultimately under their control. There's a big open android world in between the Apple and Huawei ecosystems.
- gryf 4y ago
  The whole android experience is a minefield though. It's like having a needy psychopath in your pocket that after 18 months disowns you. I'd rather they resurrected windows phone.
  - fsflover 4y ago
    Did you know that Windows tracks everything you do? Do you expect it would be different on a phone? Consider using GNU/Linux instead (on smartphones too).
    - gryf 4y ago
      Firstly, yes I do know that. Windows Phone was before Satya and the telemetry ramp up and was a quite marvellous platform compared to the alternatives on the market. Unfortunately they fucked it up switching from CE to NT and burned all the developers in the process. Would it be different? No. Should it be different? Yes. They had a unique market position and squandered it. Microsoft had the whole world as its oyster and chose the bad path every time. As for GNU/Linux on phones, only when they make a usable non Android distribution which AFAIK does not exist. Until then I'm going to have to sell a piece of my soul to the devil (Apple) who actually spend enough time making something fit for purpose to make it usable without incurring a major societal disadvantage.
      - fsflover 4y ago
        > usable non Android distribution which AFAIK does not exist. It depends on your own definition of usable. I'm using my Pinephone as a daily driver.

by gryf 4y ago

willcipriano 4y ago

If you have a iPhone in China you'll find that Apple crippled the air drop functionality that protestors rely upon to communicate. I don't see this action and that one as having much daylight between them frankly.

gryf 4y ago
Completely missed that. What a cluster of assholes. Guess I should start thinking about the inevitable exodus. The CSAM scanning thing was the first strike off.
joshstrange 4y ago
I'm not a fan of Apple's bowing to China on things like this either but "Limiting AirDrop from 'Everyone' to 10 minutes before you have to turn it on again" and "Deleting pictures from user's phones" are quite different.

misslibby 4y ago

You can back up your data from Huawei phones, too. Apple had plans to scan the photos on your phone and automatically report you to the police if the algorithm thinks something is off. I wouldn't trust them at all.

DiogenesKynikos 4y ago

I haven't ever heard of any concrete security issues with Huawei phones. Huawei has been under extremely strict scrutiny for years (and even got hacked by the NSA, as Snowden's documents revealed), so the fact that nothing has ever stuck makes me think there really is nothing there. As for this story, color me skeptical until some actual details come out.

vehemenz 4y ago

There was actually some truth to this around 2014-2015, before the major clampdowns.

Aachen 4y ago

Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle between the extremes you posed? Both vendors only lease your device to you; it's ultimately under their control. There's a big open android world in between the Apple and Huawei ecosystems.

gryf 4y ago
The whole android experience is a minefield though. It's like having a needy psychopath in your pocket that after 18 months disowns you. I'd rather they resurrected windows phone.
- fsflover 4y ago
  Did you know that Windows tracks everything you do? Do you expect it would be different on a phone? Consider using GNU/Linux instead (on smartphones too).
  - gryf 4y ago
    Firstly, yes I do know that. Windows Phone was before Satya and the telemetry ramp up and was a quite marvellous platform compared to the alternatives on the market. Unfortunately they fucked it up switching from CE to NT and burned all the developers in the process. Would it be different? No. Should it be different? Yes. They had a unique market position and squandered it. Microsoft had the whole world as its oyster and chose the bad path every time. As for GNU/Linux on phones, only when they make a usable non Android distribution which AFAIK does not exist. Until then I'm going to have to sell a piece of my soul to the devil (Apple) who actually spend enough time making something fit for purpose to make it usable without incurring a major societal disadvantage.
    - fsflover 4y ago
      > usable non Android distribution which AFAIK does not exist. It depends on your own definition of usable. I'm using my Pinephone as a daily driver.