Are we seriously going to pretend that a single person can be wholly evil? Much less a company of 200k people.
Even if Google takes this huge step of requiring their blessing for every Android developer (which Apple has ALWAYS had on their side), they will still be better (by my estimation) along the freedom dimension than Apple. Maybe too far removed for my involvement, but better nonetheless.
Fair, but I think that while Apple is generally more authoritarian with regard to developer experience, they’re less user-hostile overall and generally strike a good (at least compared to the current alternatives) balance between freedom, privacy, and usability for most people.
I think Google (and Silicon Vally writ large) is coming to terms with the fact that past a certain size userbase, authoritarianism is necessary to maintain control, consistency, and (very importantly) safety… where Apple has pretty much always embraced it; for better or worse.
I could easily turn this into a larger critique about society and governance, federated republics being necessary in the long-term versus corporate monoliths, and the “10x everything” culture being the root of the new tech-right, but I will digress, lol.
In terms of freedom, Apple is the most user-hostile company in the business and has been forever. People are screaming in justified outrage at Google taking out sideloading in 2025, but when was the last time you could sideload something on an iPhone? Oh, never? Right.
The passes Apple constantly gets, even here, are absolutely fucking insane to me. “Oh well, at least they’ve always been authoritarian!” What??
I make no claim against the lack of freedom on Apple devices, but “un-free” doesn’t mean “user-hostile”. We’re talking about the perceived quality of experience for the user, not anything else. Like, look, don’t get me wrong, I still hate Apple (and all the big tech corpos) out of principle- but they provide an objectively better user experience for the vast majority of people.
Apple has been, while extremely restrictive, very consistent on what users are allowed to do with devices… Google has repeatedly shown that they can’t be trusted to actually commit to popular features or services that they put out.
Apple has put forward several measures to increase [perception of] user privacy where Google has repeatedly shown that they have no interest in doing anything other than collecting as much of your data as possible and using it for their ad business.
iOS/iPadOS accessibility features blow Android’s out of the water in terms of breadth and quality; where with Android you often have to rely on third-party apps that may or may not work consistently or break with an update.
I would agree insomuch as Google’s privacy issues are better known.
Nonetheless, we are comparing two jail cells. One has a finger-puzzle that opens the cell-doors (and an obvious surveillance camera), and the other one is securely locked with a less-obvious/hidden camera (iphone backups)… and the issue at hand is akin to removing the finger-puzzle because the captives keep opening it to let baddies join them.
Because guess what? They don’t have them. They don’t want them. Apple’s business is selling hardware, not collecting your data that they would then be liable for. Their business model is not predicated on data mining and collection. Google’s is.
This is not to absolve Apple; they are after all a major corporation and therefore inherently evil prima facie. But I don’t worry about them selling or leaking my data.
That didn’t stop Apple from handing over backups to the FBI that were swiftly decrypted after several high profile incidents (like the San Bernadino shooting), and I assume it would be even less difficult for them to fork over info for another Snowden if they use Apple products.
Are we seriously going to pretend that a single person can be wholly evil? Much less a company of 200k people.Even if Google takes this huge step of requiring their blessing for every Android developer (which Apple has ALWAYS had on their side), they will still be better (by my estimation) along the freedom dimension than Apple. Maybe too far removed for my involvement, but better nonetheless.
edit: misread “just as evil [as Apple]”
Fair, but I think that while Apple is generally more authoritarian with regard to developer experience, they’re less user-hostile overall and generally strike a good (at least compared to the current alternatives) balance between freedom, privacy, and usability for most people.
I think Google (and Silicon Vally writ large) is coming to terms with the fact that past a certain size userbase, authoritarianism is necessary to maintain control, consistency, and (very importantly) safety… where Apple has pretty much always embraced it; for better or worse.
I could easily turn this into a larger critique about society and governance, federated republics being necessary in the long-term versus corporate monoliths, and the “10x everything” culture being the root of the new tech-right, but I will digress, lol.
In terms of freedom, Apple is the most user-hostile company in the business and has been forever. People are screaming in justified outrage at Google taking out sideloading in 2025, but when was the last time you could sideload something on an iPhone? Oh, never? Right.
The passes Apple constantly gets, even here, are absolutely fucking insane to me. “Oh well, at least they’ve always been authoritarian!” What??
I make no claim against the lack of freedom on Apple devices, but “un-free” doesn’t mean “user-hostile”. We’re talking about the perceived quality of experience for the user, not anything else. Like, look, don’t get me wrong, I still hate Apple (and all the big tech corpos) out of principle- but they provide an objectively better user experience for the vast majority of people.
On privacy, google is much worse
I would agree insomuch as Google’s privacy issues are better known.
Nonetheless, we are comparing two jail cells. One has a finger-puzzle that opens the cell-doors (and an obvious surveillance camera), and the other one is securely locked with a less-obvious/hidden camera (iphone backups)… and the issue at hand is akin to removing the finger-puzzle because the captives keep opening it to let baddies join them.
iphone cloud backups are encrypted, and can be turned off very easily. Local backups to a pc can also be encrypted if you want.
Encrypted doesnt necessarily matter. I dont trust apple to not give up the keys.
They’ve always refused in the past…
Because guess what? They don’t have them. They don’t want them. Apple’s business is selling hardware, not collecting your data that they would then be liable for. Their business model is not predicated on data mining and collection. Google’s is.
This is not to absolve Apple; they are after all a major corporation and therefore inherently evil prima facie. But I don’t worry about them selling or leaking my data.
That didn’t stop Apple from handing over backups to the FBI that were swiftly decrypted after several high profile incidents (like the San Bernadino shooting), and I assume it would be even less difficult for them to fork over info for another Snowden if they use Apple products.
Didn’t Apple deny the FBI access for the San Bernardino shooting?
Quick edit; yeah, you can stop spouting bullshit, the FBI hacked in WITHOUT Apple’s help.
Apple provided the icloud backups off of the device. Apple did not provide the decryption key for unlocking the phone directly.
Edit: direct link to Wikipedia article discussing apple and FBI compliance: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple–FBI_encryption_dispute
Never read Apple’s privacy policy, huh?