“I have two MacBook Airs, one for personal use and one supplied by my work. I have an iPhone that I nicknamed ‘tech appendage.’ My husband and I have a shared iPad 2 that I use at the gym and that we rely on to keep our 1-year-old daughter happy on flights and long car rides,” Kashmir Hill writes for Gizmodo. “Apple is my gateway to almost all things digital. I am physically touching an Apple device for the majority of any given day. Being asked to remove Apple from my life was like being asked to remove a part of my body that was incredibly useful but that I could live without, like a finger or an eyeball.”
“Gizmodo editors were not sympathetic to my reliance on Apple, however, and insisted I include the company in my experiment to live without the tech giants,” Hill writes. “So I cut the ‘tech appendage’ off this week—and damn, it hurts.”
“I immediately run into a pretty big problem: What phone am I going to use? I can, of course, use an Android phone, but I’ll soon be blocking all the tech giants at once, so I’d rather get a phone I can use for the last two weeks of the experiment. Unfortunately, the smartphone market is currently a duopoly. It’s basically impossible to get a smartphone that is not part of the Android or Apple ecosystems,” Hill writes. “I do have a computer, one that I can use for the final two weeks of the experiment: a Librem 13, made by a company called Purism that is fiercely opposed to the tech giants, avoiding them like the plague in a self-proclaimed ‘liberation effort.’ The bulk of my job can be done online, use a browser and some browser-based apps. I can also use it to make calls, video chat, and send texts over messaging apps like Signal. So a laptop is all I really need to get by— theoretically, at least.”
Hill writes, “My only choice at Target for a non-Apple, non-Google phone is the Nokia 3310, a device originally from the early aughts that was re-released in 2017—almost, I think, as a joke…”
The hijinks continue unabated here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good Jobs, the whole thing sounds like Hell on Earth, especially to us, as we’re certainly among the very last people on the planet who can even imagine a life not thoroughly steeped in, much less devoid of, Apple — and very happily so!
I fail to see any reason to badmouth the Nokia 3310.
For all the people who want a secure, pocketable, affordable, simple phone, THIS IS THE ONE. it’s bombproof. It’s perfect for kids, for travel, etc. It has an FM radio. It has a minijack for audio. It’s Google-free and it’s not a complicated Apple mess either. Its memory can be expanded by the user. Battery life is astounding. You can even replace the battery without tools! Amazing!!!!
If you already own an iPad or Mac and all you need is a small simple phone, Nokia delivers.
But you would have to be open minded enough to live your life without an Apple logo on everything you own.
Well then that’s a non-starter for me.
But I think it’s great small simple phones are also still around for those who need them and prefer the simplicity.
If your life is devastated without technology, Apple or not, one might need to look at something other than a device as the reason.
Apple products are terrible under Tim Cook.
Dropping an iPad is like dropping a drinking glass, go fetch the broom and dust pan. By design of cour$e. Whereas my original iPad was a brick and is still going strong after giving it to an inlaw years ago.
The fact that these products haven’t changed hardly at all other than cheap build quality since Jobs died, means you don’t have to upgrade. I use my Air 2 at home and my mini when I travel.
I don’t recommend using the 1st gen 12.9” IPP in your lap for extended periods, because it causes groin pain. It’s apparently emitting an unhealthy amount of radiation.
To the fake haters pretending to be me, you know what they say about imitation.
I, like you, have an iPad 1, and I still use it. That thing has been dropped off the couch, coffee table, bed, nightstand, and down the stairs in excess of 100 times. It is still fine. I still use it for movies, tv, and reading.
In contrast to you, I have a iPhone 6s plus, made under Cook, and likewise to above, that has been dropped 150 times (about once every 4 days) and it too is PERFECTLY fine.
I’ve never had a case for any apple product I’ve had. None of them have been broken. I simply keep the iPhone in my left front pocket with the screen facing my leg.
The build quality on all my iPhones, my Apple Watch, Apple TV, iPad and iMac is EXCELLENT. Combined service on all my Apple devices is over 20 years- none have failed.
“To the fake haters pretending to be me, you know what they say about imitation.”
Don’t flatter yourself, zeroloser. In your case, it is, most certainly, not true.
I apologise – I have bipolar. One moment I am up, the next I am down and I am so down I am the dirtiest of dirty dogs, under the laughable illusion that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Hey, I’m cruising for a flattening bruising, mainly because I am scum – worse than scum.
I am Tim Cook’s teabag warmer! I deserved to be teabagged by Obama – he’s the ultimate.
So you admit to having gonad problems from your use of a 1st-gen IPP 12.9?
It would explain a lot. Perhaps the radiation has affected your hateful brain, too.
No, scratch that, you’re too stupid to use Apple products, you’re clearly a Scamscum plant too disappointed in your poor purchase decisions.
Whilst you’re at it (romanticising historic tech) let me get my quill and velum and make some notes to read by candlelight……
Bleh it’s gizmodo. I refuse to read anything or give any clicks to that communist idiot fest. I wouldn’t p*** on them if they were on fire. I look forward to their rotting out-of-business blog embers at which point I might finally give them a s***
Bleh it’s ZeroRandy. I refuse to read anything or give any clicks to that communist idiot. I wouldn’t p*** on him if he were on fire. I look forward to their his out-of-business brain embers at which point I might finally give them a s*** kick to get out of my effing way.
Such utter pathetic branded bull crap.
Hill has a total lack of imagination a breadth.
There are multitudes of ways to be a douchebag, not just Apple. Look at me!
Moron article.