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1. Embed this notice
   Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 10-Apr-2026 15:55:39 JST Aral Balkan

   RE: https://social.lansky.name/@hn50/116378390202896203

   If you were wondering whether the phone you paid hundreds of pounds for is yours, it’s not. It’s still Apple’s and they decide what you can do with it.

   That isn’t a tool; it’s a shackle.

   And no trillion-dollar corporation is your friend.

   (I’m tapping this out on what will likely be my last iPhone. Hopefully the EU will get its act together so people without iPhones and Android phones can still do basic things like banking and paying for stuff with their phones by then.)

   • Embed this notice
     Benjamin (blindcoder@toot.berlin)'s status on Friday, 10-Apr-2026 17:11:45 JST Benjamin

     in reply to

     @aral Let's hope they will, though currently I see little fuel for that hope.
     German "i-Kfz" app intentionally does not work on non Google-blessed Androids, and from what I can tell neither will eidas.

   • Embed this notice
     Nicole Parsons (npars01@mstdn.social)'s status on Friday, 10-Apr-2026 17:14:42 JST Nicole Parsons

     in reply to

     @aral

     https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-crown-prince-visits-apple-google-2018-4

     https://english.alarabiya.net/News/gulf/2018/04/07/Saudi-Crown-Prince-discusses-joint-projects-with-Apple-s-Tim-Cook-

     https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-06/google-thiel-stand-out-in-saudi-prince-s-silicon-valley-tour

     When a corporation takes investment from #PrinceBonesaw , that corporation does business the way the Saudis do business.
     Corruptly. Murderously.

     https://www.npr.org/2019/02/12/693994447/apple-google-criticized-for-carrying-app-that-lets-saudi-men-track-their-wives

     https://www.salon.com/2025/11/20/trump-absolves-mbs-of-khashoggi-killing-and-shames-all-of-us/

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

     https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/21/amazon-boss-jeff-bezoss-phone-hacked-by-saudi-crown-prince

     https://www.status.news/p/jeff-bezos-jamal-khashoggi-saudi-arabia-ai-deal

     https://www.nationalmemo.com/kushner-trump-saudi

   • Embed this notice
     Entikan (cupz@mas.to)'s status on Friday, 10-Apr-2026 17:16:14 JST Entikan

     in reply to

     @aral So far I can make it, using just a dumb phone (Nokia 220) and a laptop. Haven't even needed firefox in some time. But yes, the "to use this service install the app" is a sickness we need to get rid of as a society.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 10-Apr-2026 17:42:12 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Nicole Parsons
     • wroof

     @wroof @Npars01 And he was such an upstanding guy right until that point.

   • Embed this notice
     wroof (wroof@fosstodon.org)'s status on Friday, 10-Apr-2026 17:42:13 JST wroof

     in reply to

     • Nicole Parsons

     @Npars01 @aral That article is from april 2018. Khashoggi was killed in oktober.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 10-Apr-2026 18:01:39 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • HTPC NZ

     @htpcnz Two wrongs don’t make a right.

   • Embed this notice
     HTPC NZ (htpcnz@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 10-Apr-2026 18:01:40 JST HTPC NZ

     in reply to

     @aral wonder how many who were crossed with linux devs trying to do this are now going to give up their iToys... doubt majority are that principled and will bend the knee to their favourite corporation and make up some excuse to justify it.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 10-Apr-2026 21:08:40 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Benjamin
     • Cali's Vassal Duke 4 Denmark

     @VoxOfGod @blindcoder None if you want to enjoy a bit of the Chinese military/surveillance complex for a change.

   • Embed this notice
     Cali's Vassal Duke 4 Denmark (voxofgod@beige.party)'s status on Friday, 10-Apr-2026 21:08:41 JST Cali's Vassal Duke 4 Denmark

     in reply to

     • Benjamin

     @blindcoder @aral I like huawei... anyone have caveats?

   • Embed this notice
     Nicole Parsons (npars01@mstdn.social)'s status on Friday, 10-Apr-2026 21:11:41 JST Nicole Parsons

     in reply to

     • wroof

     @aral @wroof

     #PrinceBonesaw locked up 200 people in the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, killed & tortured them using US intelligence he got from Kushner in 2017.

     https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/19/saudi-accounts-emerge-of-ritz-carlton-night-of-the-beating

     https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-corruption-purge.html

     https://www.nbcnews.com/news/mideast/how-saudi-royal-crushed-his-rivals-shakedown-ritz-carlton-n930396

     https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-senior-saudi-figures-tortured-and-beaten-purge

     https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/16/jared-kushner-trump-saudi-khashoggi-mbs

     https://www.businessinsider.com/kushner-tells-trump-to-back-saudi-until-khashoggi-outrage-ends-report-2018-10

     https://www.vickywardinvestigates.com/p/exclusive-the-real-reason-jared-kushner

     https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8966175/How-Saudi-princes-tortured-blackmailed-2017-purge.html

     https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-corruption-mohammed-bin-salman.html

     https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/timeline-the-rise-of-saudi-arabias-prince-mohammed-bin-salman/

     https://www.fairobserver.com/politics/saudi-arabia-the-story-of-the-missing-and-the-executed/

     https://menarights.org/en/articles/beaten-mbs-and-disappeared-case-sulaiman-al-dowaish

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

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 11-Apr-2026 01:36:45 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • steev hise

     @detritus I’ll tell that to my bank the next time they want me to approve a transaction using the app on my phone.

   • Embed this notice
     steev hise (detritus@todon.eu)'s status on Saturday, 11-Apr-2026 01:36:46 JST steev hise

     in reply to

     @aral here’s an idea. Just don’t do bank stuff with your phone. It’s a bad idea anyway.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 11-Apr-2026 02:16:48 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • smeg

     @smeg Yep

   • Embed this notice
     smeg (smeg@assortedflotsam.com)'s status on Saturday, 11-Apr-2026 02:16:49 JST smeg

     in reply to

     @aral the biggest problem is banking. I have to authorize any online transaction with my bank app - which is a good thing! But my bank app only works on iOS and Google-certified Android - which is a problem with both ecosystems becoming more shitty