Apple held talks with DuckDuckGo to replace Alphabet's Google as the default search engine for the private mode on Apple's Safari browser, the Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the discussions.
They could have, but I think they saw the demand and speculation of a usb-c phone. Maybe they realized that the bad image it would give them if they held out.
I’ve been waiting for a usb-c phone to upgrade. I’m at a point now that I really can’t wait any longer for a new phone. If they did not release a usb-c phone this year, I would have just bought the cheapest phone they offered.
If the choice is paying unreasonable prices for Apple's overpriced proprietary nonsense or reducing my yield as another data cow in Alphabet's surveillance capitalism human farming machine, I begrudgingly pick the former.
I think it's safe to assume all corporations publicly traded are equally greedy, regardless of how much their marketing department assures us that they exist for altruism.
Shareholders don't by stock to make the world a better place, they invest in the companies sending the largest dividend checks. Apple and Alphabet are equally covetous of our money (money and data for Alphabet), but I trust the old business model of selling hardware more than giving up my data forever to be used for anything in the future.
GrapheneOS is my true preference currently for personal use and it feels good to leave a corporation in favor of a community, much like my switch from Reddit to Lemmy. As the techie in my family and friend group I'm still going to have to recommend iOS to most people since using GrapheneOS as a daily driver is a big ask for my grandmother.
If you're a power user there's a minor learning curve to prevent shit from breaking and some mild inconveniences like being unable to use NFC. Location can also just not work at times. Overall, I'm glad I made the switch.
At least with Android I have options. Do I want USB-C? There's a phone for that. Do I not want USB-C (for some weird reason)? There's a phone for that.
Options are definitely nice for those technical enough to understand and use them.
Though personally I am keeping an eye on Linux devices for my next upgrade.
Do I not want USB-C (for some weird reason)?
This is probably temporary until it is time to move past USB-C. Which will be a slower and more difficult process now that there are laws in place requiring it.