Technology

We are, it's near ubiquitous. I'd suggest as high as 80% of us. Those folks will still use anything but the store anyway.

Being generous, most people are overwhelmed with choice .... in matters of no inportant (walk down the ceral aisle) , it's just with matters of importance they are given little choice.

That said I use Android becase I can sideload, some 50+60% of the apps I use regularly are sideloaded, stand out that aren't are banking and government. To have that taken off me would be shitty.

That said, I'm bemused at people that complain of a wall garden but also enable it to occur by being part of sipping at the kool aid.

My biggest gripe though is governemnt doing it, using Windows, MS Office etc etc and communicating using closed protocols. Maube like Demark and Germany we'll also move off that toxic shit.

EFF has been fighting the good fight for decades. I signed up for their newsletter in the 90s when I was a teen and still didn't understand enough about the world to be confident that I properly understood what they stood for, concerned that I might have picked the wrong side. I occasionally check their job listings. But they need lawyers and legal experts and I'm trying to run their IT infrastructure. At some point, if I check enough times, maybe they'll need the skills I have. I'd drop any job to work for them.

I am too stupid. This is true. Too stupid to buy an iPhone too.

As an Australian, do I have anything I can do to help make sure that these regulations are implemented?

If you pay for a device, you should be able to do whatever you want with it. Apple having so much control over it means that you don't fully own it.

As a general rule, if a corpo is against something the EU does, it means your government should do it too because it's a good thing.

Is there a way to send and receive SMS and send/receive phone calls through a computer? Like if I wanted to ditch a phone for a cyber deck could I? And just use like a mobile hotspot for Internet?

I want to hard agree with Apple that people are, in fact, too stupid to choose their own apps, but not following Apple's greedy logic.

Look at the top apps and sites people use. The tech billionaires. It's stupid as hell

Apple has always said this about their users. Too stupid to allow choices outside of a few curated options.

Apple to ~~Australians~~everyone: You’re Too Stupid to Choose Your Own Apps

fix'd

Apple "opinion" -> discarded.

As an Australian, my government can go for it. None of the tech companies have appreciated the Australian government's attempts to regulate them ~~(e.g. trying to make Google and Meta pay for using our journalism).~~ (edit: not a good example)

That said, we have had idiots in power from time to time that definitely have worked against us, usually arguing the "security over privacy" nonsense (metadata collection laws, encryption backdoor legislation, etc.).

Have they looked at their own app store?