What you cited is for data on a device that was turned off. Not daily internet connected usage. No one is saying you have no protection at all with Apple, it is just very limited compared to what it should be by modern security best practices, and much worse than what can be achieved on android and linux.
Mullvad is nothing like Apple. For apple devices:
- need real email and real phone number to even boot the device
- cannot disable telemetry
- app store apps only, even though many key privacy preserving apps are not available
- /etc/hosts are not your own, DNS control in general is extremely weak
- VPN apps on idevices have artificial holes
- can't change push notification provider
- can only use webkit for browsers, which lacks many important privacy preserving capabilities
- need to use an app you don't trust but want to sandbox it from your real information? Too bad, no way to do so.
- the source code is closed so Apple can claim X but do Y, you have no proof that you are secure or private
- without control of your OS you are subject to Apple complying with the government and pushing updates to serve them not you, which they are happy to do to make a buck
Mullvad requires nothing but an envelope with cash in it and a hash code and stores nothing. Apple owns you.
Agreed on most points but you can setup a pretty solid device wide DNS provider using configuration profiles. Similar to how iOS can be enrolled in work corporate MDM - but under your control.
Works great for me with NextDNS.
Orion browser - while also based on WebKit - is also awesome and has great built in Adblock and supposedly privacy respecting ideals.
Apple has records that you are installing that, probably putting you on a list.
And it works until it's made illegal in your country and removed from the app store. You have no guarantees that anything that works today will work tomorrow with Apple.
Apple is setting us up to be under a dictator's thumb one conversion at a time.
There are a million legitimate reasons to root a phone (e.g. preserving the battery to minimize e-waste, blocking malicious trackers often allowed by Apple and Google, innovating on the UI, etc.). Apple/Google/Microsoft are run by uninspired, uncreative, and immoral people, and there is a world of innovation and forward thinking we lose out on by letting them rule our tech.
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.
I mean, yes, absolutely. I don't have a count limit on my boycott list. I won't be holding my breath for empty promises from corporate. We need to build systems that assert user sovereignty and prevent abuse, not wait around for evil people to do good things.
I've tried some of the libraries for Java, didn't like the way the author programmed them so just ended up using the most relevant part which was the NPUB/NSEC key pair generation and the function to verify signatures on the JSON messages.
The rest of the protocol isn't difficult since you basically just need to send JSON back and forth. The advanced options are complex but they're basically exotic cases for the most part.
I've enjoyed NOSTR a lot but feel that the definition of "relay" has been lost in recent times and NOSTR relays are today a set of huge servers that host data and act as databases, rather than the original goal of just connecting people in P2P style.
For my apps I'm developing a platform where relays go back to the original definition of "relay" and devices connect to each relay as a connecting bridge to engage in P2P between themselves using webRTC and bluetooth.
pointing out patterns in scientific statistics / the real world, not agreeing to label something as something which it scientifically isn't and not changing the meaning of well established words for ideological reasons.
When I was in school, the corporate shill language was MATLAB, and even today not every program has moved on to greener pastures (Python/numpy, Julia). But doesn't Swiftui support Android now? https://github.com/skiptools/skip, I'm extremely skeptical and critical of anything Apple does, and I don't like programming languages without critical mass of community and corporate contributers, but seems like Swift is going in the right direction here.
SwiftUI is also now an API for writing Android native apps, too.
I don't know why you skipped over that part? It's maybe like when Google rewrote Java. Win32 is a bad comparison because there's no Win32-compatible API for native apps on other platforms (that I know of?) except for emulation, but the Android SwiftUI project is not using emulation, it runs the code natively and the result is native Android UI.
Apple has not released a version of the SwiftUI framework for Android.
There are third party attempts to create something that lets SwiftUI code run on Android, just as Wine is third party software that allows you to run Win32 apps on Linux.
No one said it's first-party. And it's a good thing that it's not first-party! We want multiple options for deploying our code.
As I said, Wine provides emulation. But the SwiftUI on Android project does not emulate - it runs your SwiftUI code natively (as Swift that is compiled for Android), and maps it to native Android components, fully accessible and meeting platform expectations.
Completely different result and experience.
This also means that you can extend the SwiftUI on Android code with Android-specific code that will not run on iOS, to add other Android-specific UI. This is impossible with Wine + Win32.
I like LLVM, and I enjoy a good UI focused-language like Vala or Obj-C. Building with or contributing to Swift is a waste of my time as a Linux developer, it was in 2018 and it still is in 2025. Foundation will not fully support Linux until the late 2030s, and even a fully-implimented SwiftUI translation is still ignoring basic GNOME HIG and lagging behind best-practices. I would not be developing apps I want to use, or ship to users on other platforms. Electron would be preferable to cross-platform SwiftUI, and deep down you know it.
And that's my sympathetic opinion, as a Linux developer who loves their native UI trinkets and pseudopolish. Windows developers have dozens more options and likely won't find out Swift ever existed until Swift 2 is announced during a keynote presentation. Broader adoption of Swift has simply failed. If the language disappeared tomorrow, I wouldn't know as nothing on my system consumes Swift as a dependency according to nix-tree.
Obj-C is unusable for many new Apple platform features. Not suitable for building anymore.
Electron - not available on iOS, so it is out of the question.
I make a living off my iOS/macOS apps so I am interested in ways to diversify without giving up the platform that makes me my money. These cross platform solutions for Swift are interesting for those targeting Apple platforms. I agree they are not compelling if you do not prioritize Apple platforms.
I can't make a living off Linux like I can on Apple. Android is also much less profitable. So Apple continues to make business sense for me, for what I build and who my customers are. And thus Swift.
Lineageos maintains a list and you can filter for devices with official bootloader unlock https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/. Buy only these devices to signal to these companies that this matters.
Noteably OnePlus 13 and Pixel 9a, both 2025 phones, can be unlocked.
If someone want something also quite recent and cheaper in this supported list there is also motorola edge+ (2023) with good specs. I got myself refurbished with perfect condition for just 240usd.
Until crypto is legally treated like cash (e.g. I don't have to report that I bought a beer with a $20 bill from an ATM), I don't think it's a very satisfying solution to have to either 1. Report to the IRS that I bought a VPN with monero or 2. Commit a tax crime and be paranoid about the IRS using automated tools to find you out for years after each transaction.
Even ignoring that elephant inthe room, how do you regularly (to pay subscription) get the crypto without leaving a paper trail or dealing with sketchy people?
I like virtual cards like privacy.com. If a state actor is after you, they will find you. So the typical threat model to me is companies trying to track you, like your ISP/Google/Facebook.
It would be nice if there was some way to be tax compliant and get the privacy benefits of monero though. Am I missing some crypto tax compliance tooling here or are all of these crypto payment users just poking the IRS bear?
> If you pay in crypto, you have to report every conversion from fiat to monero
That's not what your link says, and as far as I'm aware it's not true. Buying crypto and then using some of it to buy goods and services has no tax reporting requirement, those only start when you're either selling crypto or receiving it as payment. Which is the same situation as the tax reporting for any other currency or valuable item you could deal in.
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