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0 pointsWowfunhappy7d ago0 comments

Could the technophobes please just buy different smartphones? If certain people want to opt in to locked down devices, I think that's okay. But please give me a device that lets me do whatever I want. (And still lets me participate in modern society—I can't live with a Linux phone).

Apple's argument for locking down the iPhone but not the Mac has always been some variation of "Mac users are professionals and iPhones are for everyone." Fine! Where can I buy the unrestricted iPhone? As far as I'm concerned, basically every problem could be solved if Apple would put the Security Research Device on an unlisted page of their online store for the general public. Normies won't buy it, and I will.

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SchemaLoad7d ago

You can do that, there are custom roms and open source phones. The problem is banks are legally obligated a lot of the time to pay out for fraud and scams. So in response they won't allow you to run their software unless they can verify the compute environment.

kuschku7d ago

So why can I access my bank account just fine via the website on my phone, but shouldn't be able to do the same via the app? Can't they offer at least a PWA version of the website for custom ROM users?

philistine7d ago

People tend to distrust websites. URLs are also an immutable ledger that guarantees you’re in the right spot. The web is surprisingly robust for security.

What guarantees your banking app is the right one? A PNG and an app name with no security whatsoever.

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dwaite7d ago

We already have that. The market for the "technophobe" (e.g. above average and below levels of security awareness) phone is 100x larger.

That means the people who say "I can evaluate the intricacies and impacts of software authorization" have significantly fewer speciality devices to pick from, and those devices may not be worth developers (or regulators) making carve-outs to support.

gzread6d ago

They are. Android and iOS are the technophobe options. Technophiles can buy phones with GrapheneOS and LineageOS and even mainline Linux.

NotPractical6d ago

> Apple's argument for locking down the iPhone but not the Mac has always been some variation of "Mac users are professionals and iPhones are for everyone."

That argument no longer holds water with the release of the Macbook Neo and the associated Tiktok advertising campaign [1].

[1] https://www.tiktok.com/@apple

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