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Comment by jurip | Hacker News Reader

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Is there something wrong with buying services from SpaceX?

Especially when Apple was already buying satellite services for iPhones. This isn't some kind of fake deal to transfer money.

Nothing, as long as you're fine funding the exploits of a ketamine fueled edgelord who is throwing his resources behind far-right parties in multiple countries.

They could just not buy those services. That is a completely viable way forward.

The partner is T-Mobile, not Apple or SpaceX.

Globalstar launches with SpaceX too

I‘m afraid this kind of far-left histrionics was rejected at the ballot box.

Let’s reject these comments here too.

Technically, the majority of Americans voted for something other than what we got.

This is incorrect. The vote was 49.8% for Trump vs 48.3% for Kamala.

https://www.cfr.org/article/2024-election-numbers

0.56% voted for Stein, 0.49% for RFK, 0.42% for Oliver, and 0.42% for other third party candidates, meaning 50.21% voted for not-Trump.

RFK is supposed to be in Trump's government, so...

It's shockingly common to have to explain to Americans like yourself, that a democratic world exists beyond your borders. We even have different democracies electing different leaders.

Crazy isn't it.

By a much smaller margin than Election Day conveyed. But the original comment didn’t relate to an election result. Why did you bring that up?

As long as they don't offer global service, fine. You voted for it.

Tech should be void of politics. Thats the real issue here.

> Tech should be void of politics. Thats the real issue here.

"Tech" doesn't exist in a void - "tech" exists because politics allow it.

>Is there something wrong with buying services from SpaceX?

For some, the two are from two very different and far away political spectrum. They dont want each other to touch or cross path.

Anything with Musk's name attached to it is also in danger of getting hit with bans and sanctions if Musk and the current US government keep operating as they've done since the inauguration, so I'd also see that as a risk with regard to availability of those services outside the US. Apple is pretty good at keeping their products out of political crossfire but Musk seems to pretty much be seeking trouble these days.

Pretty obviously.

Musk will absolutely have access to any data you send over his network. I would not trust Musk within a light year of my data.

This seems unlikely to me given Apple's branding around privacy. Do you suspect they're going to backdoor the iOS HTTPS implementation for Starlink?

Is there a way to prove your data is private? Or were just taking their word on it?

RCS is working on Android.

SpaceX will see exactly who you are talking to, and there's nothing Apple can do about that if they want SpaceX to route the traffic.

> SpaceX will see exactly who you are talking to

Is Starlink routing? I’d expect they’d see you’re talking to Apple, or at worst a CDN.

If you're accesing, say, an Iranian site, SpaceX will obviously see that and can record it. If you're doing a VoIP call or sending a text, I'm much less sure they'd see where it's going - but wouldn't think it's out of the question.

> If you're accesing, say, an Iranian site, SpaceX will obviously see that

Why? Your DNS requests should be encrypted.

First, that's rarely true, plenty of people use DNS, not DoH (and DoH just means Clodflare or whoever gets to know your traffic too). But even when they are, this is mostly irrelevant: your network provider knows which IPs you're talking to, otherwise they couldn't route your packets, obviously. It's generally quite trivial to do a reverse DNS search and figure out which hostname corresponds to the IP you're talking to.

These are regular unencrypted text messages

Apple controls the iPhones... they can e2e encrypt the data. This is not a real issue.

That's only if the other end is also Apple. Thankfully https is pretty ubiquitous.

This was my first thought. You see both of them with front row seats to the inauguration, and now they have a product together?

That said, this whole project probably started before either of them got involved in politics.

The world needs banking apps that run on Linux phones.

Bitcoin solves this lol

"Don't have a bank" is not a proper solution to banking app DRM.

But "open source banking" is.

There is no similarity whatsoever between Bitcoin and a bank. Mattresses to keep your money under are more similar to traditional banks than Bitcoin is.

I didn't claim that. A bank and banking are different things.

You proposed using bitcoin to replace your need for a bank. And nothing in the bitcoin world can do that. Bitcoin can't securely store your money with a guarantee that they won't be lost or significantly reduced in value beyond inflation, bitcoin can't give you a loan, bitcoin can barely help you securely transact.

It's someone else that proposed bitcoin. The mention of open source banking was a completely different idea, I think? I'm not sure why they put their comment beneath the bitcoin comment.

Or maybe they’re doing it because Starlink is by far the best and fastest growing satellite internet network in the world?

I dislike Elon Musk as much as the next guy, but right now, SpaceX is really the only game in town for anything space related.

Satellite access is not a requirement though for phones. So one could just take a moral stand and not give money to Musk.

It's not like satellite access is some major feature people are clamoring for or that competitors are using to outsell Apple. It's a niche use case, and Apple is basically using its power to advertise for Starlink much more than depending on them.

Speaking about what people "need" is a scary step.

Soon you have environmentalists asking whether you "need" a 4k TV, or a personal computer, "need" a washing machine, a refrigerator, etc.

If people don't want it, they won't pay for it. That is the beauty of the free market.

> Soon you have environmentalists asking whether you "need" a 4k TV, or a personal computer, "need" a washing machine, a refrigerator, etc.

This is a good example of the slippery slope fallacy.

The slippery slope is a legitimate risk consideration as often as it’s a fallacy.

We already have laws about toilet flow rates and lighting types in the US, and other countries have more.

Sadly it isn't a fallacy at all, academic degrowthers in Europe (yes, degrowth can be studied at university in Europe!) have proposed de-incentivising the use of washing machines: https://x.com/ziontree/status/1837034922105516391

The slippery slope is only a fallacy if you assume dogmatic priors, otherwise it is simple Bayesian updating.

People can also chose not to give money to a fascist trying to bring other fascists to power. As an American company, Apple should see that they have a moral duty to not pump money into the fascist.

How about not paying taxes too.

That's a different matter. Breaking the law (especially tax law, where the government can easily just take what it wants) is different from simply not going into business with someone.

Apple has already gone into business with T-Mobile.

This is a continuation of the efforts.

Originally this was meant to be an Apple exclusive offer but Apple chose globalstar which launches with Apple.

How privileged do you need to be to think that everyone and every place has strong cell phone coverage.

I'm not, and I don't think that. I just know that, a, the entire cell phone market has existed and been massive for decades now without satellite phones; and that, b, SpaceX has very very little satellite-LTE connectivity, and is not adding it very quickly.

ever heard of 'innovation'?

Just because A existed without B in the past, doesn't mean B is useless.

Musk is showing more and more that he is a fascist willing and able to invest in other fascists to help bring them to power. I would see preventing that as much more important than innovation.

In all seriousness your world view is pretty dark, maybe get outside more?

Honestly, if the world isn't looking pretty dark to you right now, I think you're the one who needs to go outside a little bit more. Especially since this drift into right wing extremism can still be stopped, both in the USA and in Europe, but only for a few more years.

Okay? I walked to the supermarket. Nothing changed. I drove to the border and went hiking. Nothing changed. Now what?

No rebuttal, that's what I thought.

Not adding very quickly?

SpaceX went from first launch to service in ~ a year

The LTE service is progressing much more slowly.

There's competitors. The regular service is also progressing slower than originally planned.

They are moving faster than the competition though

The partner here is T-Mobile not SpaceX.

I remember during communism, how The Party was loudly condemning anything coming from the “decadent capitalism”. Meanwhile, the youth was busy wearing bluejeans and listening to rock and roll.

People are always able to recognize those providing value versus the ideologues…

except you're now clapping for Laika successful return to earth, and buying Stalin meme coins, not buying jeans on the black market.

сбивает с толку how those can be confused.

Except here we’re talking about data connections beamed from outer space to our phones anywhere on Earth by a private enterprise, not some gigantic bureaucracy starving its citizens to build a bigger monument to its ideology in a dick-measuring contest with another State.

It's a shame this is being downvoted. It is not a trivial or "just politics" issue. Apple is aligning itself with entities that undermine human rights, democracy, and equality.

Economic choices reflect values, and choosing not to support businesses tied to oppressive systems is a means of accountability, not mere political disagreement.

T-Mobile is the partner here

How is that surprising? Apple had no problems aligning itself with the previous administration either, even though it supported and encouraged a genocide for almost half of its existence, almost unconditionally.

I mean I agree that we should also criticize corporations that aligned with the previous administration too, but it's curious how these types of comments only pop up on threads like these instead. I guess for a lot of Americans, owning twitter, being a complete right wing moron on twitter, and supporting the other side is more despicable than providing almost every bomb and every bullet that led to a genocide in Gaza. As long as they have "care about democracy" and have the right tone, I guess ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

Can you explain how that's relevant?

It's not just Apple, it's all of silicon valley kissing the new administrations ring. These companies are worth billions. They don't have to do it. It's disgusting to see greed trumping values.

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