If Apple cashes in less than 30% next iPhone will be like:

Sorry, we can’t include a box OR wire for savings the wellbeing of the environment

I use F-droid to get my open source apps. Much more trustworthy than Google play. It's my first stop for anything I'm looking for.

The EU like any large government is filled with people of varying quality. Some of them are absolutely amazing at their jobs and some of them can barely operate at light switches.

Normally whenever some dumb tech related regulation comes in you usually find it's being pushed by the idiots. You can usually tell by reading the text of the legislation and by the end of it you will have come up with about 300 problems.

A good example of this is reading the Tracking Cookies legislation (bad) and the GDPR legislation (good), the difference in the size of the text of the bill is visually apparent.

As opposed to windows, macOS will effectively refuse to run any software that is not signed and notarized by Apple themselves.

You can put Windows in strict mode but it makes the computer virtually unusable. The other thing been is it there are techniques that attackers can use to bypass these checks thus making the signatures irrelevant anyway.

You can also use an immutable Linux distro (SteamOS being the most popular) and install software with flatpak, which is sandboxed using bubblewrap.

Yeah, but I still feel like the majority of people are stupid. That's kind of how apple got such a huge market share to begin with. People just happily locked themselves in to a closed garden with shit for options.

I’m pretty sure that can be turned off in security stings.

If not, you can hold down control or command when launching the so the first time to have the option to run the software anyway.

Is there a way to send and receive SMS and send/receive phone calls through a computer? Like if I wanted to ditch a phone for a cyber deck could I? And just use like a mobile hotspot for Internet?

jmp.chat

I used this service breifly a while ago. Not enough to say whether it's good or not, but I remember it working just fine.

As an Australian, do I have anything I can do to help make sure that these regulations are implemented?

Tell your rep(s) you're in favor of it, and if you have a time, visit in person.

But… something something security and something something not a monopoly… am I doing this anti-consumer white knight thing right?

I have 2 numbers with them, no regrets. So far the service has been flawless (except where I have spotty data services or crappy wifi). Absolutely worth it.

You are missing the point. If you want to remain in the Apple infrastructure exclusively, nobody is forcing you not to. Those who want options will have them. So enjoy your walled garden all you want, and let each user decide if they want to keep being tools or not.

F-droid is something I genuinely enjoy browsing through, reminds me of the early days of Android 2.0-2.3 when I actually enjoyed using and customising my phone.

I miss the old days of phones being fun and looking forward to both hardware and software upgrades.

So many people angry about phones in here. Just let people like what they like. Yeesh.

Thanks.

Really appreciate you taking the time to explain that. Unfortunately the journalism issue is one of those that I haven't had a chance to look into. I like to think I'm aware of the Murdoch propaganda (and the other major "news" outlets here) but there's still clearly some topics which don't register as problematic until I dig into them.

I respectfully disagree.

If I’m out at a restaurant with app-based ordering, or my Real Estate agent requires payment through their gateway, or to track my utilities usage, or am required to use any other number of niche apps that become only available through alternate app stores? Then I very well risk being put in a situation where I am otherwise forced to.

Let alone the headaches that will inevitably come from the older, less technologically savvy, and more vulnerable having their default app stores highjacked, and spoof apps stealing their credentials/credit cards.

Then we get into the more general issues of allowing unsigned code to be loaded and run on our smartphones - it will lead to the era of viruses, Trojans and ransomware.

I am reminded of this piece that Last Week Tonight did on Encryption, which is quite cogent given the topic at hand.

Best security practices involve minimising the number of places your sensitive (financial) data is stored. If a website doesn’t accept a known and reputable intermediary like Apple Pay, PayPal or a BNPL provider - I would refrain from using it.

If this is something that you want - then go ahead and Jailbreak your iPhone, or get an Android - more power to you; but please stop trying to enshittify iOS.

No no no apple knows whats best because they made it. did you make a phone? no? didnt think so. checkmate.

(Pay no attention to the fact that it took apple 14 years to add t9 dialing, one of the simplest features a 'dumb' phone could have.)

This is dope. I live in Scotland, but I'm from Canada, and having a cheap local number for recieving texts from stuff like my bank would be super helpful.