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Comment by GekkePrutser | Hacker News Reader

This won't be the end of it. It's just one of the many battles.

And iOS isn't for everyone. Yes it's great for protecting privacy but it's also extremely restrictive for the users. The fact that they don't even allow real third-party browsers is baffling in this day and age. I also can't use my Yubikey in OpenPGP mode which I really need for my password manager and SSH access. I know it supports U2F now but that's not enough (and was way too late as well).

But I agree the advertising industry has to die. I don't believe in the 'working together' approach of the EFF with their plugins that stop blocking cookies when they see the privacy policy file. I mean, if you're not tracking me, then why need third party cookies in the first place?

It'll never happen though. They'll always find a way to track us.

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The vast majority of users don't care about the issues you mention. They don't know what a browser engine is. They don't know what PGP is. They haven't heard of SSH and U2F. And the only opinion they have on cookies is that they want those "We use cookies, is that OK?" banners to go away forever.

These are issues that only developers and the superest of superusers care about. So it's not surprising that HN commenters think they are a big deal.

Yeah they're a big deal for me... I don't care about other users ;)

That's what I mean with "iOS is not for everyone". They try to cater only to the average user. Or at least the more affluent subset of those. I'm not everyone but I'm certainly part of 'everyone' :)

In fact this is really what's pushing me away from Mac too as they're heading in the same direction. When I moved to Mac in 2004 they were a great POSIX capable system with a great UI (unlike the mess Linux was at that time) and custom software. Now more and more power features are replaced by on/off sliders that don't do what I need.

Windows and Android are heading in the opposite direction, adding more power features. I really like the power that things like DeX and Termux provide (though the latter isn't necessarily a feature, it's definitely something that wouldn't work on iOS). I can work a whole day on my phone, multitasking and everything. You can't do that with an iPhone.

Still, both with Windows and Android you give up considerable privacy. And that's not necessarily needed. Things like scoped storage should have happened years ago.

Much like Flash, not allowing third-party browsers could be explained as a cynical control mechanism on Apple’s part... or as their not wanting to see tech support volume shoot up as Chrome and Firefox users complain their battery life is terrible. Or some combination of the two.

I understand their have their reasons.. But I don't like them taking that choice away from me.

The problem is, right now we have only 2 choices. Living in the open world but getting all our information sucked dry by advertisers. Or live in Apple's protected little garden but not be allowed to leave it. And pay much more for hardware specs.

Neither are very appealing.

A new iPhone SE has flagship specs for $400-500, and Androids cheaper than that (and even much costlier ones) struggle to last 2-3 years - an iPhone easily lasts 4+.

I don't want to turn this into an Android vs iOS debate, but want to highlight that one of the main complaints against getting an iPhone (cost) no longer really applies - it could even be considered a strongsuit. I agree that the walled garden can be annoying, but I've rarely found myself longing for Android customisation, and have very much noticed how some apps work much better on my iPhone. This is completely down to preference though.

I also care deeply about privacy, but even with 0 consideration for it, I think I still would've switched - I am super happy seeing Apple pushing it this hard.

(I recently went back to iOS after 2 phones and 5 years on Android)

Well, the iPhone SE has really poor specs compared to an Android of the same price IMO. The SoC is up to date, but the screen is only LCD, the bezels are huge (the screen to body ratio is very low) and the camera is only adequate.

Basically you're buying a 4-year-old phone with a modern SoC in it :) I don't think that is worth the price they are asking. I paid the same (440 euro) for my S8 3 years ago (it was out a bit over a year), and it already had a beautiful AMOLED screen, high screen to body ratio, and in particular DeX which I can't really do without anymore. And it's still fast enough now. I upgraded to that from my iPhone 6 which was becoming way too slow at that point (note: iOS 12 did fix this somewhat but by that time I had already had enough of it). Overall, the S8 aged better for me than the iPhone 6 did.

Compared to what you can get from Apple now vs the Android vendors, Apple is only ahead in terms of SoC when you're looking in the same price bracket. But that's not the only spec that matters.

I've said it before and I'll say it every time.

> But I don't like them taking that choice away from me. ... Or live in Apple's protected little garden but not be allowed to leave it. And pay much more for hardware specs.

I pay Apple a premium to make these decisions for me. They make my life easy to live.

In this particular case, I'm aligned with their simplification, until their browser is the majority player. That's when it would be worth my effort to make an educated choice.

In the open world, you have less information sucked from you because you can block ads across apps, and you don't have to tell big brother Apple which apps you've installed or where you've used GPS.

>or as their not wanting to see tech support volume shoot up as Chrome and Firefox users complain their battery life is terrible.

When/if Apple opens iOS up to third party browser engines, I fully expect them to also add highly visible warnings of which apps are guzzling power. It's unfortunate that it takes something like that to get Google/Mozilla to take power efficiency seriously, though.

In the case of Flash, there is no world where Adobe could get Flash working well on an iPhone in 2007 with 128MB RAM/400Mhz CPU when it could barely run on a 1GB RAM/1Ghz CPU Android in 2010.

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