8 ms·

An even better advice: Don't buy Apple.

by dariosalvi78 10mo ago

jack_tripper 10mo ago
BSD, Linux or TempleOS would never lock you out.
- Workaccount2 10mo ago
  Nor provide much utility to the average person.
  - kragen 10mo ago
    BSD and Linux seem to be fine for the average person. I wouldn't recommend TempleOS.
Nevermark 10mo ago
This isn’t a solution for many people. And in fact, a prohibition is never a solution, it is a reduction in solution options And this advice takes into account exactly zero aspects of the particular problems a given person may have to solve, besides “problems with Apple”, in a world where most people have “problems with X” for each of the few large ecosystems. Freedom of choice would mean for N choices, being able to make, well, N indepointed choices. N may be a very large number given how many things people do. For an ideal world of compatible modular technologies, N choices is easy. But our technology world is highly non-modular, centralized at many levels, and full of incompatibilities and dependencies of various kinds and costs. Including important dependencies involving the choices of other people we interact with, or very specific tools or resources. So no, “Don’t buy Apple” is not better advice, it is just bad random generic advice, without knowing a lot more about any particular situation. Like what someone writes books about.
- windexh8er 10mo ago
  But it is a solution. Apple being a poor stuard of their customers is indicative that people buying their hardware and software are not their priority. Apple support used to be stellar, they used to care about customers, they no longer do. Apple's ToS should be readily indicative of anyone using any of their products that Apple's perspective is that you don't own anything and they can do whatever they want with anything you do with their products. As the author points out you clearly don't own free access to what you've purchased. The last thing I'll say is that it is fantastic advice to not purchase Apple in 2025. You can only be certain that this won't happen if you avoid them. I actually own a MPB, with receipts from purchase, that I had to purchase a bypass for when the device was enrolled in MDM by a family member that Apple has MDM locked and refuses to remove from iCloud. Avoid Apple, that's the best advice. If you can't avoid Apple, minimize your footprint and make sure you're a good boy or girl else Tim Cook will steal from you and hide behind some bullshit first line support tar pit and an army of lawyers if you do happen to decide to threaten them.
  - spunker540 10mo ago
    Does Google have a better track record when it comes to arbitrarily locking people out of their digital lives?
    - windexh8er 10mo ago
      No. But, at least with Google you can use hardware without the binding software requirement. You can use an Android device with GrapheneOS and have the phone entirely de-Googled, yet still use Android apps. If the implication was that there's no other option outside of Apple and Google then that is unfortunate.
      - QuiEgo 10mo ago
        Does your bank let you use such a device? Does any big bank where you live? If I want to participate it modern life, where I live, I need an Android (Google blessed) or Apple device.
        greentea23 10mo ago
        The bank thing is a much rarer problem than people make it out to be. We should challenge and boycott any problematic banks as much as we can https://community.e.foundation/t/list-banking-apps-on-e-os/33091/ https://community.e.foundation/t/list-banking-apps-on-e-os/3...
        philistine 10mo ago
        Ok so now we’re not only boycotting Apple, we’re boycotting banks as well! Seriously, Apple can and should fix this issue without having to retort to misery for everyone. Apple could release a statement reassuring people that no one will be locked out of their account for redeeming any gift card going forward. We have collectively forgotten that companies have stopped talking this way. That’s what we need to change.
        10mo ago
- mistercheph 10mo ago
  LOL it’s not some sisyphean task to not use big tech products, its slightly inconvenient and takes some time to adjust, don’t talk about it as though it were something that only the great men of the ancient times could do, take your iPhone and throw it as hard as you can against the concrete, you will be fine.
  - kmbfjr 10mo ago
    Great advice if you don’t need a smartphone. Many do, they are now an identity tool. The alternative to Apple is…Google? How is that in any way better other than not being Apple? Sure, there are de-Googlefied versions of Android and today they work . But Google is actively working on ending the ability of those alternative operating systems to work.
    - mistercheph 10mo ago
      just curious, where do you have to use a smartphone?
      - rvnx 10mo ago
        Banks 2FA are not SMS anymore, so no banking, and because no 2FA no online card payments and no limit adjustment. Some banks are even app-only. IRL events where you have to open the app at the gate. Probably no charging for your EV. No bus tickets. No Uber. No scooters. No food delivery. More tedious flying / immigration. No Tinder (requires live face verification on your phone) Some modern cars you are going to have troubles. Impossible to setup a lot of smart appliances (like home WiFi routers). Many examples. It’s like: can you live without a bank card ? Probably but not everywhere and you will not be able to go to all shops. Essentially it’s great if you plan to stay at home. Becomes a great problem once you want to interact with anyone further than 1 meter from you.
        smakt 10mo ago
        None of those require smartphones if you live in a free country (1) (2). (1) Unbanked population in Uganda or india don't have options. Funnily, it's become the same with everyone, banked or unbanked, in the USA. The USA a third world dictatorship now, so expect that and more. Please vote for the orange buffoon a third time! He will most surely try to get on a third term. (2) No bank in the EU requires a smartphone; it's banned by law (you know, law that protects people, the type you lost). "Banks" that are app-only are not banks but financial casinos. No bus driver in the EU can refuse small coins. In some countries they cannot refuse that you get on the bus without paying. No shop in the EU can refuse cash. No EV charging requires any app; you can pay right at the charging station with a credit card. Uber is not a universal right but a trinket. Same with tinder/food delivery and all the impoverishing tech for the disowned. Enjoy the USA.
yunwal 10mo ago
In phones you have a choice of iOS (Apple) or Android (Google). Sure, maybe some people can go back to flip phones, but I can’t without finding a new job. This is the first I’ve heard of Apple locking someone out of their account for no reason. Google does it all the time. So, yeah, can’t leave Apple over this.
- superkuh 10mo ago
  So keep your crappy crap phone for a job and use a real computer for your personal life.
  - yunwal 10mo ago
    If I get locked out of my job phone that is still devastating, but yes, that's what I do.
- dariosalvi78 10mo ago
  >> This is the first I’ve heard of Apple locking someone out of their account for no reason. Google does it all the time. So, yeah, can’t leave Apple over this. https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1cem2jo/apple_users_are_being_locked_out_of_their_apple/ https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1cem2jo/apple_u... but evaluate your risk as you want. The thing is, you don't need to avoid buying Apple completely, you just need to avoid giving Apple all of your life: your photos, documents, emails, backups, passwords, bills, ... basically you should avoid doing what the person in the OP did.
  - kayodelycaon 10mo ago
    What I do is have my primary machine keep all of that stuff downloaded. I only use iCloud to sync. Anything happens, I can take the computer offline and even restore from a local backup if there’s a problem. And this isn’t hypothetical, I’ve use backups regularly for reloading secondary machines for over a decade.

An even better advice: Don't buy Apple.

jack_tripper 10mo ago

BSD, Linux or TempleOS would never lock you out.

Workaccount2 10mo ago
Nor provide much utility to the average person.
- kragen 10mo ago
  BSD and Linux seem to be fine for the average person. I wouldn't recommend TempleOS.

Nevermark 10mo ago

This isn’t a solution for many people. And in fact, a prohibition is never a solution, it is a reduction in solution options And this advice takes into account exactly zero aspects of the particular problems a given person may have to solve, besides “problems with Apple”, in a world where most people have “problems with X” for each of the few large ecosystems. Freedom of choice would mean for N choices, being able to make, well, N indepointed choices. N may be a very large number given how many things people do. For an ideal world of compatible modular technologies, N choices is easy. But our technology world is highly non-modular, centralized at many levels, and full of incompatibilities and dependencies of various kinds and costs. Including important dependencies involving the choices of other people we interact with, or very specific tools or resources. So no, “Don’t buy Apple” is not better advice, it is just bad random generic advice, without knowing a lot more about any particular situation. Like what someone writes books about.

windexh8er 10mo ago
But it is a solution. Apple being a poor stuard of their customers is indicative that people buying their hardware and software are not their priority. Apple support used to be stellar, they used to care about customers, they no longer do. Apple's ToS should be readily indicative of anyone using any of their products that Apple's perspective is that you don't own anything and they can do whatever they want with anything you do with their products. As the author points out you clearly don't own free access to what you've purchased. The last thing I'll say is that it is fantastic advice to not purchase Apple in 2025. You can only be certain that this won't happen if you avoid them. I actually own a MPB, with receipts from purchase, that I had to purchase a bypass for when the device was enrolled in MDM by a family member that Apple has MDM locked and refuses to remove from iCloud. Avoid Apple, that's the best advice. If you can't avoid Apple, minimize your footprint and make sure you're a good boy or girl else Tim Cook will steal from you and hide behind some bullshit first line support tar pit and an army of lawyers if you do happen to decide to threaten them.
- spunker540 10mo ago
  Does Google have a better track record when it comes to arbitrarily locking people out of their digital lives?
  - windexh8er 10mo ago
    No. But, at least with Google you can use hardware without the binding software requirement. You can use an Android device with GrapheneOS and have the phone entirely de-Googled, yet still use Android apps. If the implication was that there's no other option outside of Apple and Google then that is unfortunate.
    - QuiEgo 10mo ago
      Does your bank let you use such a device? Does any big bank where you live? If I want to participate it modern life, where I live, I need an Android (Google blessed) or Apple device.
      - greentea23 10mo ago
        The bank thing is a much rarer problem than people make it out to be. We should challenge and boycott any problematic banks as much as we can https://community.e.foundation/t/list-banking-apps-on-e-os/33091/ https://community.e.foundation/t/list-banking-apps-on-e-os/3...
        philistine 10mo ago
        Ok so now we’re not only boycotting Apple, we’re boycotting banks as well! Seriously, Apple can and should fix this issue without having to retort to misery for everyone. Apple could release a statement reassuring people that no one will be locked out of their account for redeeming any gift card going forward. We have collectively forgotten that companies have stopped talking this way. That’s what we need to change.
        10mo ago
mistercheph 10mo ago
LOL it’s not some sisyphean task to not use big tech products, its slightly inconvenient and takes some time to adjust, don’t talk about it as though it were something that only the great men of the ancient times could do, take your iPhone and throw it as hard as you can against the concrete, you will be fine.
- kmbfjr 10mo ago
  Great advice if you don’t need a smartphone. Many do, they are now an identity tool. The alternative to Apple is…Google? How is that in any way better other than not being Apple? Sure, there are de-Googlefied versions of Android and today they work . But Google is actively working on ending the ability of those alternative operating systems to work.
  - mistercheph 10mo ago
    just curious, where do you have to use a smartphone?
    - rvnx 10mo ago
      Banks 2FA are not SMS anymore, so no banking, and because no 2FA no online card payments and no limit adjustment. Some banks are even app-only. IRL events where you have to open the app at the gate. Probably no charging for your EV. No bus tickets. No Uber. No scooters. No food delivery. More tedious flying / immigration. No Tinder (requires live face verification on your phone) Some modern cars you are going to have troubles. Impossible to setup a lot of smart appliances (like home WiFi routers). Many examples. It’s like: can you live without a bank card ? Probably but not everywhere and you will not be able to go to all shops. Essentially it’s great if you plan to stay at home. Becomes a great problem once you want to interact with anyone further than 1 meter from you.
      - smakt 10mo ago
        None of those require smartphones if you live in a free country (1) (2). (1) Unbanked population in Uganda or india don't have options. Funnily, it's become the same with everyone, banked or unbanked, in the USA. The USA a third world dictatorship now, so expect that and more. Please vote for the orange buffoon a third time! He will most surely try to get on a third term. (2) No bank in the EU requires a smartphone; it's banned by law (you know, law that protects people, the type you lost). "Banks" that are app-only are not banks but financial casinos. No bus driver in the EU can refuse small coins. In some countries they cannot refuse that you get on the bus without paying. No shop in the EU can refuse cash. No EV charging requires any app; you can pay right at the charging station with a credit card. Uber is not a universal right but a trinket. Same with tinder/food delivery and all the impoverishing tech for the disowned. Enjoy the USA.

yunwal 10mo ago

In phones you have a choice of iOS (Apple) or Android (Google). Sure, maybe some people can go back to flip phones, but I can’t without finding a new job. This is the first I’ve heard of Apple locking someone out of their account for no reason. Google does it all the time. So, yeah, can’t leave Apple over this.

superkuh 10mo ago
So keep your crappy crap phone for a job and use a real computer for your personal life.
- yunwal 10mo ago
  If I get locked out of my job phone that is still devastating, but yes, that's what I do.
dariosalvi78 10mo ago
>> This is the first I’ve heard of Apple locking someone out of their account for no reason. Google does it all the time. So, yeah, can’t leave Apple over this. https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1cem2jo/apple_users_are_being_locked_out_of_their_apple/ https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1cem2jo/apple_u... but evaluate your risk as you want. The thing is, you don't need to avoid buying Apple completely, you just need to avoid giving Apple all of your life: your photos, documents, emails, backups, passwords, bills, ... basically you should avoid doing what the person in the OP did.
- kayodelycaon 10mo ago
  What I do is have my primary machine keep all of that stuff downloaded. I only use iCloud to sync. Anything happens, I can take the computer offline and even restore from a local backup if there’s a problem. And this isn’t hypothetical, I’ve use backups regularly for reloading secondary machines for over a decade.