News MacBook Pro 14 and MacBook Pro 16 with new processors released

Apple is calling the event 'Unleashed' and its expected that they would be demonstrating the true power of their new silicon which they introduced in the lower end MacBooks. Calling them lower end would not be accurate given how they outperformed the beefier Intel processors. So much so that Intel went scrambling in desperation to release a series of ads showing how non-apple laptops are better, not once comparing the actual performance of Intel vs Apple silicon.

The MacBook Pro laptops are also supposed to redesigned around the new processors which are extremely energy efficient thus leading to a more compact design. The screen bezels are supposed to even thinner than they are in the 16" MacBook Pro and introduce a new MacBook screen size of 14" instead of the regular 13" size. The displays are expected to be mini LED with higher resolutions.

The base models on the new processor, to be called M1X or M2, are supposed to start with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. The processors themselves will get a bump up from 4 performance cores to 10 performance cores and 16 graphic cores from the 8 graphic cores. The cores are expected to run at a higher frequency. No wonder the event is being called Unleashed and Intel is scared out of their wits.

There are also rumours that the Touch Bar will go away in favor of regular function keys and we will have more variety of ports than just USBC ports currently available. A return to MagSafe charging is also expected.

All this however will likely cost 1,74,000 for the starting model here in India and would price it way out of reach for most of us.

Personally I would prefer that they introduce the redesigned chassis in the current base MacBook Pro model and take it from 13" to 14" with the current M1 processor in the market. I would happily take that model with a 16GB RAM option to replace my ageing MacBook 12. Had been saving every month for past 2 years for this day.

 

[sabkabadlalegaterafaisal]

I guess there is no point carrying forward with this discussion since you seem hung up on this weird analogy for some reason

Speak for yourself, I prefer my peer-reviewed, CVE-squashed, open-to-PR whore than my girlfriend/wife. /s

 

[kiran6680]

People who were giving iOS ways to do everything have not done so with the activities I need, so I guess iOS still can't do those things. My pockets thank you guys

I guess there is no point carrying forward with this discussion since you seem hung up on this weird analogy for some reason

Sometimes an analogy is so apt, it's less an analogy and more the same underpinning of two phenomena.
1. Software that one installs in their PC or mobile sees data/processes that one may not share with their closest friend.

2. Software can insert data/settings that one may not share access to with their closest friend.

3. Free (as in freedom) software gives pleasure whether or not you pay. It's an act of love.

4. You may give pleasure to free software (bug fixes, donation, documentation) but again it's voluntary.

5. If giving certain kinds of pleasure is against the philosophy of a free software, it won't give you that pleasure even if you pay.

6. People not proficient enough to get free software to do their required activities need to resort to paid software.

 

[rsaeon]

connecting to pc, transferring photos and videos, compatibility with file extensions are some restrictions on ios

I remember my frustration with all of that some years ago, it's because I was focused on the actual files and filesystem — I was fixated on treating the iOS device as a computer because that's all I knew.

It became much easier to understand when I started separating between content from its container.

For example, with syncing photos on my phone — what am I going to do with them? Show them to others, naturally. On a small screen. Maybe send it to their phone. I'm not going to be printing directly off my phone to a high-resolution printer. For this use case, I don't care if the photos are JPEG or TIFF. As long as they're there, and look acceptable. It's the same with audio/video, I didn't need MKVs on my mobile device, or FLACs. The screen is way too small to see the difference and the environment is too noisy to differentiate between a FLAC and a 320kbps MP3.

Once I stopped caring about file types/extensions, it was easy to let Apple handle the syncing of media from my computer to my phone. For quick sharing, there's Airdrop on Mac, it's as simple as the right-click-send-to action on Windows except that it happens over wifi instead of tethering by USB. For cloud sync, there are services like Dropbox — I sync my KYC/financial data that way.

Android does work in the way that you'd expect a computer to work with regards to files and filesystem but it's not necessarily the most efficient way to get things done.

1. I've been using kernel level (IPtables) firewall to prevent a huge majority of apps (inbuilt as well as installed apps) from accessing internet completely. And for LAN networking apps like VNC, SSH, RDP etc. I stop them from going beyond LAN.*

Some of this can be done on your home network with a firewall. On a mobile device, I starve it for personal information with the expectation it might be stolen or lost at some point, so my philosophy has been more of "if you don't make yourself vulnerable, you don't have much to lose, and you have less to worry about what to control." Apps can't send personal information if there's no personal information to send in the first place.

One of the benefits of living in a population-dense country is that location information is never sensitive or identifying. Same with CG NAT'ed home internet connections. So I don't worry about that stuff.

And employers have forced me to install spyware

This one is easy — a separate device and sim for the employer. Android/Apple doesn't matter since it's only used to communicate with your employer.

Open source apps by themselves don't get us much, but an app with vibrant community gives assurance that shady things are not happening without being noticed. So the community with Android apps used to be much much more vibrant than on iOS, where app developers used to go just to make money.

I remember this fondly — but it's been dying out. App developers realized that their time, if not monetized, is not worth spending and moved on over to being iOS first, because that's where all the paying customers are.

There are still opportunistic developers on iOS, with some very questionable apps, but I've found it's much worse on Android.

It's been a long-term personal goal of mine to make my own app/service if I don't find one to my liking, whether free or paid.

Twice in about 15 years of using Android, I've "sideloaded" apps but then I used those apps for about 6 years

And if those apps were not available, or if sideloading was not possible, you would have found an alternative for those six years. Side-loading is a means to an end, it's a way to get apps on your device, it doesn't enable better productivity or enrich your computing in any way.

1. Software that one installs in their PC or mobile sees data/processes that one may not share with their closest friend.

2. Software can insert data/settings that one may not share access to with their closest friend.

3. Free (as in freedom) software gives pleasure whether or not you pay. It's an act of love.

4. You may give pleasure to free software (bug fixes, donation, documentation) but again it's voluntary.

5. If giving certain kinds of pleasure is against the philosophy of a free software, it won't give you that pleasure even if you pay.

6. People not proficient enough to get free software to do their required activities need to resort to paid software.

A respectable point of view for sure, but not one I can identify or agree with. But it's nice to know that this point of view exists.

Payment for such intimate relationships like software and human body just doesn't work

A very long time ago, this used to be me. I went down the Richard Stallman path of enlightenment, embraced Coreboot, and laughed at Elementary OS for trying to be something it wasn't. Spent years with GIMP and Inkscape and the like. Succumbed at some point and purchased PaintShop Pro and even Affinity. But it's not meant to be, idealism is firmly rooted in dreams, the world caters to its diversity, and money above all else.

I recently started paying for a CC subscription and my biggest regret is that I should've done it earlier. Tools, and software have a purpose — to make you productive, to have you produce something — and intentionally handicapping yourself helps no one, not even you. You're made of seconds, minutes, and hours until the moment death takes you. Not a single human has the luxury of living a mediocre life.

There's some brilliant free software out there, and I try to pay for what I use, but I'm not shy about paying for something that adds value to my life and interests.

 

[TinTinSnowy]

Comparing various operating systems and devices is pointless. Some folks find happiness and get their work done productively using the metadata approach, while others prefer the file system approach.

Neither is better than the other. It's just about what suits you best.

 

[rootyme]

the world caters to its diversity, and money above all else.

That's correct. Dual-booting Windows and Linux is the apt, realistic way of computing for most individuals.

I went down the Richard Stallman path of enlightenment,

To be absolutely honest, it's alright to be 'contextually' enlightened. I don't need Windows for anything other that Windows specific applications and services. I may, in the future, drop my enlightenment at consent, for a few specific hours during my work, to accomplish the tasks that explicitly require so. For everything else, I'll re-embrace that enlightenment. This is peak adaptation, perfectly in line with human evolution.

Spent years with GIMP and Inkscape and the like. Succumbed at some point and purchased PaintShop Pro and even Affinity.

Those are extremely capable applications nonetheless. And they are only going to get better with time. For those who are not in a production environment, or those who don't require all the bells and whistles that come with other bloated proprietary applications, these are going to be handy.

I'll take this opportunity to promote some amazing FOSS applications:

1. SumatraPDF (Windows) - https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader

Sumatra PDF is a free and open-source document viewer that supports many document formats including: Portable Document Format, Microsoft Compiled HTML Help, DjVu, EPUB, FictionBook, MOBI, PRC, Open XML Paper Specification, and Comic Book Archive file. If Ghostscript is installed, it supports PostScript files. It is developed exclusively for Microsoft Windows.

2. Notification Dictionary - https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.xtreak.notificationdictionary/

An Android app to display meaning of the word as notification.

3. Barcode Scanner - https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.atharok.barcodescanner/

Barcode Scanner is a free and open source app which allow to read and generate barcodes. It can collect information about food products, cosmetics books and music (CDs, Vinyls…).

Different barcodes formats are managed by the app :
• 2 dimensions bar codes: QR Code, Data Matrix, PDF 417, AZTEC
• 1 dimension bar codes: EAN 13, EAN 8, UPC A, UPC E, Code 128, Code 93, Code 39, Codabar, ITF

4. Cache Cleaner - https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.bmx666.appcachecleaner/

Clean cache of installed user and system apps using Accessibility. Cache Cleaner requests a list of installed apps on your device and utilizes the Accessibility service to replace the manual steps involved in clearing the cache. This allows for a more convenient and automated process of cache cleaning.

5. Image Toolbox - https://f-droid.org/en/packages/ru.tech.imageresizershrinker/

Image Toolbox comes with wide array of features such as:

- Batch processing
- Applying filter chains (More than 45 various filters)
- AES-256 GCM No Padding files encryption and decryption
- EXIF metadata editing/deleting
- Loading images from internet
- Background Removing
- By drawing
- Automatical
- Drawing on Image/Background
- Pen
- Neon
- Highlighter
- Image Resizing
- Width changing
- Height changing
- Adaptive resize
- Resize retaining aspect ratio
- Resize by given limits
- Image Shrinking
- Quality compressing
- Preset shrinking
- Reducing size by given weight (in KB)
- Cropping
- Regular crop
- Crop by aspect ratio
- Crop with shape mask
- Rounded Corners
- Cut Corners
- Oval
- Squircle
- Octagon
- Rounded Pentagon
- Clover
- David Star
- Kotlin Logo
- Heart
- Star
- Image Mask
- Format Convertion
- HEIF
- HEIC
- AVIF
- WEBP
- JPEG
- JPG
- PNG
- SVG, GIF to WEBP, PNG, JPEG, JPG, HEIF, HEIC, AVIF
- Telegram sticker PNG format
- Color Utils
- Palette generation
- Picking color from image
- Additional Features
- Rotating
- Flipping
- Comparing images
- Previewing SVG, GIF and msotly all types of images
- Saving to any specific folder

 

[desiibond]

People who were giving iOS ways to do everything have not done so with the activities I need, so I guess iOS still can't do those things. My pockets thank you guys


Sometimes an analogy is so apt, it's less an analogy and more the same underpinning of two phenomena.
1. Software that one installs in their PC or mobile sees data/processes that one may not share with their closest friend.

2. Software can insert data/settings that one may not share access to with their closest friend.

3. Free (as in freedom) software gives pleasure whether or not you pay. It's an act of love.

4. You may give pleasure to free software (bug fixes, donation, documentation) but again it's voluntary.

5. If giving certain kinds of pleasure is against the philosophy of a free software, it won't give you that pleasure even if you pay.

6. People not proficient enough to get free software to do their required activities need to resort to paid software.

World does not work this way, it never worked this way. Anything coming from companies that rely on revenues from the app to survive will keep it paid. If they make it free, you end up with a truckload of ads or you give up your data. But then free software has found its place in the world and that is a better place for free software to be at than on. There, it is

1. Research field : There is so much opensource contribution happening to modules that are helping devs to bring solid breakthroughs in fields that are far way from Whatsapp university students.
2. AI and ML : See the amount of free tools available today in this field.
3. Many app devs and devops engineers use so much of opensource libraries in our code and this is saving precious amount of time. We are extremely thankful to all those devs who are contributing whole heartedly to these libraries.
4. Many companies are going with two-tier approach and this is a win-win situation. If you want free, you get x number of features. You pay, you get more features. Or there is a limit on the number of users who can use the application (eg: Atlassian tools).

One thing that I do not understand is why people say 'I will decide whether to pay or not' only for software. Can they have guts to say 'I will decide whether to pay for groceries or electricity or other commodities?'. Can we say 'I will use this bike for a year and then decide whether to pay or not'? People have to stop taking software for granted. They do not know the countless nights and nightmares dev teams go through to get software out and they do not know the effort put in by various non-tech teams to run business.

People do not take into account the amount of cost involved in today's world where one cannot run application locally on phone. It has data, the modules have to run on some server and that has to be on AWS or 3rd party datacenter. This costs money. The bigger the application, the greater the traffic, the greater the cost to maintain. They cannot just say 'I will go bankrupt but morally stand on high ground by leaving it to suers to pay or not'. Do remember that apps like Swiggy or Zomato are free, they are getting money by charging both user and seller and by ads. See Fediverse. So many mastodon instances disappeared because those who maintain do not have the kind of money to keep it running.

What I hate are subscription services coming into the automotive field. I am already paying a huge amount for the vehicle to the company that is building and selling the vehicle. I should not be asked to pay for software features. Atleast in case of PCs, there is alternative. For automobile ICE, there is no alternative in the future. They are going to kill the 3rd party ICE market by blocking installation and then they charge through nose. This is the new evil. Soon, it will seep into home appliances.

 

[superczar]

People who were giving iOS ways to do everything have not done so with the activities I need, so I guess iOS still can't do those things. My pockets thank you guys

It’s again a question of what one finds more convenient…and preferences.
e.g you chose to filter packets at the device layer for privacy. I chose to run a firewall with dpi at the network layer to avoid repetition of work on multiple devices and OSes.

As far as FOSS goes, don’t get me wrong. I probably leverage foss way more than a regular guy, very likely as much if not more than you.
e.g. this list of running servers on my home network is all linux except one and each one is actually doing something useful in production.

I would still not use Linux as my desktop OS - not that I cannot.. It’s just that I am too old / too short on time now to go mucking around conf files or resolving dependencies every time something needs to change on the dynamic environment that desktop systems are subject to
This is not a concern on the server side given the largely static set-up-and-forget-it environment .



And to go back to the topic - for some reason, at least on TE, you will very rarely, if ever find any iOS user going around proclaiming why their choice of phone/tab is inherently superior. Or that people use android because they are technically incompetent/do not know any better

The reverse unfortunately is not true

 

[kiran6680]

Some of this can be done on your home network with

I didn't ask for alternative ways for "some of this" that works only where there is a "home" network you control. Did you miss the question I was answering with the post ? I had quoted that question within my post for easy reference. It was in a context where iOS users were giving ways of doing things in iOS that some Android users didn't know could be done.

Reading between the lines of your post, and that of @superczar and @desiibond , I take it that you guys agree iOS can't do those things. And that is fine. I was just answering a question, and asking if iOS can do those things now. I got an answer, but I wonder why the answer is so indirect, from everybody so far. If iOS can't do it, it can't do it and that's that. Why is it so hard to admit, especially for a person who recently said in the same thread :

Clearly, you're not an Apple customer/user so you have no interest in finding workable solutions for any specific issue — but you still feel the need to point and laugh and deride other people's purchasing decisions?

It’s again a question of what one finds more convenient…and preferences.

This is exactly false. The question I was answering was not about convenience and preferences at all. The question was quoted in my post for easy reference.

 

[desiibond]

Reading between the lines of your post, and that of @superczar and @desiibond , I take it that you guys agree iOS can't do those things. And that is fine. I was just answering a question, and asking if iOS can do those things now. I got an answer, but I wonder why the answer is so indirect, from everybody so far. If iOS can't do it, it can't do it and that's that. Why is it so hard to admit, especially for a person who recently said in the same thread :

You are proper techie who knows which OS is ideal for your use case. I do not understand why you are even asking about iOS when it's pretty clear that iOS is not for you.

I am not trying to convince you or explain. I am talking about 'free software' (second part of your post) and misconceptions that continued for decades. Least bothered about explaining iOS related things to someone who clearly needs a fully open OS.

If you want a simple answer from me if iOS is for you : Answer is no. You have very very specific need and expecting iOS to work exactly like your current OS and you want the same apps work on iOS through side loading. Android is Android, iOS is iOS. They are not the same. Your needs demand features that will never ever come to iOS. Stay with Android. <-- This is as straight as it gets.

 

[superczar]

I do not understand why you are even asking about iOS when it's pretty clear that iOS is not for you.

It stems partly from the need for self-justification and potentially vague sense of superiority that some Android (and FOSS) users get out of making fun of alternates
There is a repeating theme on TE (as well as many other places) where a iOS (or Mac OS thread) will almost always derail into this.

I cant recall seeing a discussion thread on S24U or pixel Pro (or XPS/ Lenovo X1 for that matter) being visited by proselytising Mac OS or iOS users and replete with disparaging comments on Android - or how Mac OS or iOS is so much more powerful/better/ capable than windows or droid.

The reverse unfortunately is true almost every single time .
This vague and weird smugness is best characterized by this statement below:

6. People not proficient enough to get free software to do their required activities need to resort to paid software.

So people who pay for any software inherently lack any kind of technical proficiency?
Pray tell me what desktop OS you use.

PS: @kiran6680 Are you in college/ fresh out of college? I will completely get your POV if that is true

 

[kiran6680]

Android is not a fully open OS by any stretch of imagination. It used to have much more FOSS, but still.

You are proper techie who knows which OS is ideal for your use case.

I knew 10 years ago, and as I mentioned, I'm not keeping track lately.

I do not understand why you are even asking about iOS when it's pretty clear that iOS is not for you.

Ok, this is the 5th time in 24 hours someone forgot the context of that post of mine, so posting the screenshot in case it helps :

 

[desiibond]

Android is not a fully open OS by any stretch of imagination. It used to have much more FOSS, but still.

I knew 10 years ago, and as I mentioned, I'm not keeping track lately.


Ok, this is the 5th time in 24 hours someone forgot the context of that post of mine, so posting the screenshot in case it helps :

Bhai, if I set up a phone in a certain way that 99% cannot do (taking your case for example), I would not even ask another soul about iOS. Even if I came out of a bunker without connection to outside world for 10 years, even then I would not ask if iOS will fit the needs that you mentioned in 2024. The answer will be the same in 2034 and even in 2134. Stick to Android and dont ask another soul again.

It stems partly from the need for self-justification and potentially vague sense of superiority that some Android (and FOSS) users get out of making fun of alternates
There is a repeating theme on TE (as well as many other places) where a iOS (or Mac OS thread) will almost always derail into this.

Seriously, those who use FOSS extensively for work and those for whom FOSS is bread and butter rarely get into this kind of discussion. It's either those who are paranoid (with zero benefit) about data/privacy or those who think installing few open-source software is cool. The day people realize that the moment we sign in to Android or iOS, however we mask, our data is used by atleast one org, we stop seeing FOSSplaining.

 

[rsaeon]

Can you list those things, so we can see what are the top 1% advance users are doing on their phones?

1. I've been using kernel level (IPtables) firewall to prevent a huge majority of apps (inbuilt as well as installed apps) from accessing internet completely. And for LAN networking apps like VNC, SSH, RDP etc. I stop them from going beyond LAN.*

Some of this can be done on your home network with a firewall.

I didn't ask for alternative ways for "some of this" that works only where there is a "home" network you control. Did you miss the question I was answering with the post ? I had quoted that question within my post for easy reference. It was in a context where iOS users were giving ways of doing things in iOS that some Android users didn't know could be done.

Alright, I got the whole chain here.

iOS cannot do this, which is what you wanted to know, but I'll expand with that it is because iOS doesn't need to do this.

What I mean by that statement, is if you're an iOS user (like myself) and you care about network security (like myself) then you have network-wide filtering enabled (like myself) and you also have a portable homelab that you take with you when you're forced to use a wifi network that you don't control (like myself).

Before anyone voices incredulity — a portable battery-powered firewall is just as practical/impractical as setting up iptables on your phone. Two sides of an admirable but crazy train.

But yes, for specific functionality like iptables that iOS lacks in comparison to Android, there are alternatives that often end up being a superior solution (network-wide filtering vs device-specific filtering).

Key point: this kind of roundabout approach to a solution for a feature that iOS lacks is often a compromise that's easy to make for iOS users because of the other things that are attractive about iOS.

Why is it so hard to admit, especially for a person who recently said in the same thread :

Clearly, you're not an Apple customer/user so you have no interest in finding workable solutions for any specific issue — but you still feel the need to point and laugh and deride other people's purchasing decisions?

It's not hard to admit, I was just not clear about what I was trying to say, which is:

If you want iptables on iOS, this is how you get network filtering working with an iOS device.

If you're considering iOS, then this is how you'd replicate the functionality of iptables for an iOS device.

With regards to your other use cases:

2. I store "contacts" in my phone, but not as official contacts list but in another app.

As you'd remember, I don't have contacts so I can't speak about this.

But it would be way cool if an automation could read an incoming number, cross reference a spreadsheet, and display a contact name as a notification.

3. iOS charged developers yearly $100

This is true if you're developing apps for distribution through the App Store. There are no fees if you want to make an app and deploy it on your own devices but you do need an Apple computer.

A developer can theoretically offer the source code of an app (or maybe even a pre-compiled binary) for you to sideload to your device. The app will work for 7 days, then you'll need to repeat the process but some methods have this done automatically so you can use the app in perpetuity.

Most of that knowledge came out in the open when Apollo was discontinued and users still wanted to use the app with their reddit API key.

4. It used to be trivial to let the spyware run only until I need, and then stop them from being able to run however hard they try. This was using chmod, work profile, etc.

You can shift apps off to the cloud, if you don't need them or want them running or taking up space. iOS will redownload an app when you do need it, with the settings and preferences intact.

 

[kiran6680]

Bhai, if I set up a phone in a certain way that 99% cannot do (taking your case for example), I would not even ask another soul about iOS. Even if I came out of a bunker without connection to outside world for 10 years, even then I would not ask if iOS will fit the needs that you mentioned in 2024. The answer will be the same in 2034 and even in 2134. Stick to Android and dont ask another soul again.

Ok, your hope in human progress is much much lower than my own. I had such a 1% like setup with Symbian S60 , with its python interpreter onboard. Within a year or 2, Android surpassed the functionality I had with my S60 setup, and within another year iOS surpassed it, if I remember correctly the timelines. If I followed your pessimistic advice I'd still be on S60. I remember opening the command line on my phone to take a photo, to general amusement.

Alright, I got the whole chain here.

Yes you did
, reading helps as @superczar hasn't realised yet. But I believe in human progress.

This is true if you're developing apps for distribution through the App Store.

Missed the context again. It was not about me paying to create apps, but the reason why early Android days nurtured a much much more vibrant open source community. The price, Java developer base at the time compared to Obj C, sideloading, lax controls from Google, and ham fisted approach from Apple might all have contributed.

You can shift apps off to the cloud, if you don't need them or want them running or taking up

This is helpful, thanks. Seems like internet might be required which I didn't have enabled all the time until about 2 years ago, but with my present use case of internet being mostly on it's not so bad.
Humans do progress, after all.

 

[desiibond]

Ok, your hope in human progress is much much lower than my own. I had such a 1% like setup with Symbian S60 , with its python interpreter onboard. Within a year or 2, Android surpassed the functionality I had with my S60 setup, and within another year iOS surpassed it, if I remember correctly the timelines. If I followed your pessimistic advice I'd still be on S60. I remember opening the command line on my phone to take a photo, to general amusement.

Why are you trying so hard to prove that you are some kind of 'geek' God. There are two types of geeks. One, who does things that give zero real-world value, and the other does things that give proper real-world value and save his/her time. By going to great lengths to do whatever it is you are trying to prove/achieve, by trying to keep things away from the internet for whatever reason it is, all you are doing is a 'waste of time'. Its the exact opposite of throwing cash to buy premium products and never make full use of them. And then you sideload apps putting that same data at risk that you are protecting in the first place. Isn't this a case of proper oxymoron?

You know what, I think Maemo OS is the best fit for you. I had N900 and that is the kind of OS that you prefer which is why I am telling you without going into pointless back and forth that iOS is just not for you and it will never be. I can try hard to find solutions for your use cases but whats the point? Even if you get tempted and buy an iOS device, you are going to come back and crib about it, about something else. Have seen so many who buy iPhones expecting them to work like Android, crib till they sell it off.

PS: Decide if you want a straight answer or not. I gave straight answer to you earlier and again here. No, iOS does not work for your specific needs. If you still want to beat around the bush, create a separate thread specific to your needs asking for help to migrate to iOS.

Context:

Reading between the lines of your post, and that of @superczar and @desiibond , I take it that you guys agree iOS can't do those things. And that is fine. I was just answering a question, and asking if iOS can do those things now. I got an answer, but I wonder why the answer is so indirect, from everybody so far. If iOS can't do it, it can't do it and that's that. Why is it so hard to admit, especially for a person who recently said in the same thread

 

[superczar]

reading helps as @superczar hasn't realised yet. But I believe in human progress.

Yes, iOS users are incapable of reading, interpreting or performing any tasks that require advanced cognitive capabilities.

That's the reason why they choose to use a dumbed down system ike ios over android...or mac os over windows..


The onus of human progression was and continues to remain with the keyboard warriors from the altrusitic community of droid users and foss developers.. and proselytizing is the weapon of choice.

Hope you are happy now!
Perhaps it may still make sense to ignore a thread thar pertains entirely to a set of systems you clearly disdain..but you do you!

Ps: I like droid and use it too..i extensively use foss too. It's just that I don't think they are inherently superior over the alternatives. Nor does my usage pattern and perusal of them make me superior in any way to those who don't

Before anyone voices incredulity — a portable battery-powered firewall is just as practical/impractical as setting up iptables on your phone. Two sides of an admirable but crazy train.

You could always VPN to your home network.. Thats what I do if using hotel or any public wifi.

Also, what am i missing? Droid does not let users touch kernel modules like iptable so whats all this talk of using iptables on droid?

 

[TinTinSnowy]

Also, what am i missing? Droid does not let users touch kernel modules like iptable so whats all this talk of using iptables on droid?

He likely uses Android with root access enabled or a custom ROM with a firewall app like AFWall+ flashed to the system partition.

Personally, I'm not comfortable with that. iOS and Android don't come with root access enabled to prevent malicious apps from escalating and gaining system privileges. While they can still obtain root access through exploits, Android Verified Boot and iOS Secure Boot Chain will prevent the phone from booting and restore the system partitions to their default state.

A VPN-based firewall approach would be better for him, or he could always opt for a Pixel, flash GrapheneOS, and enjoy its native ability to revoke network access by taking away INTERNET permission for each app. https://grapheneos.org/faq#firewall

Edit: Not sure if he meant that if he's using a spare Android device as a firewall for his entire network, then it might make sense, but it's still not a good idea to weaken the default security model of Android. It's better to use a dedicated firewall device.

 

[superczar]

He likely uses Android with root access enabled or a custom ROM with a firewall app like AFWall+ flashed to the system partition.

Personally, I'm not comfortable with that. iOS and Android don't come with root access enabled to prevent malicious apps from escalating and gaining system privileges. While they can still obtain root access through exploits, Android Verified Boot and iOS Secure Boot Chain will prevent the phone from booting and restore the system partitions to their default state.

A VPN-based firewall approach would be better for him, or he could always opt for a Pixel, flash GrapheneOS, and enjoy its native ability to revoke network access by taking away INTERNET permission for each app. https://grapheneos.org/faq#firewall

Edit: Not sure if he meant that if he's using a spare Android device as a firewall for his entire network, then it might make sense, but it's still not a good idea to weaken the default security model of Android. It's better to use a dedicated firewall device.

Isn't that a fundamentally flawed comparison then?

You could pull out a jailbroken iPhone and muck around all you want with the pre and postrouting tables..
But that's not really an iPhone anymore the same way as a rooted android isn't representative of droids.

Majority of banking and works apps won't work anyway

 

[TinTinSnowy]

@superczar
Yes, his comparison is flawed and he also weakens the device's security. He can use NextDNS or Adguard DNS to block ads and privacy invading DNS requests. He can also use VPN-based local firewall app which will allow him more control without compromising the Android security model.

 

[desiibond]

@superczar
Yes, his comparison is flawed and he also weakens the device's security. He can use NextDNS or Adguard DNS to block ads and privacy invading DNS requests. He can also use VPN-based local firewall app which will allow him more control without compromising the Android security model.

From what I understood, he needs something like the ‘Lockdown Mode’ that enables heavy restrictions and is useful for certain individuals like celebrities whose phones are under cyber threat all the time. For normal person, it is just plain overkill and only helps to satisfy paranoia. I still do not understand why one would open up root access, unlock bootloader and sideload apps while trying to restrict apps from stealing data.

About Lockdown Mode - Apple Support

Lockdown Mode helps protect devices against extremely rare and highly sophisticated cyber attacks.

support.apple.com