Unfortunatly my quest to escape the clutches of either Apple or Google is not going very well. One of my current tasks is to examine my mobile use to discover exactly what I need to replace, particularly in the context of apps and services. iCloud – that’s quite easy, there are many cloud based alternatives with better security (I understand that iCloud backups are not encrypted). I have experimented with the free versions of a few; pCloud, Tresorit and Icedrive.
The quest to find alternatives to replace my phone, or the functionality it provides, with an alternative system NOT provided by either Apple or Google is not going well. I have been trying to read up about some of the alternative phone OSs, the likes of postmarketOS, GrapheneOS, Plasma, Mobian etc. but it appears that some considerable technical knowledge is required to install and keep them working. Even when they are ‘working’ there are many facilities missing or with limited functionality – I don’t think I have the ability or patience to make it work for me at the moment.
When considering a change of mobile phone systems there is a lot more to it than making telephone calls, in fact making phone calls is almost the least important aspect of a mobile phone. Looking at my logs it is clear that I make less than a handful of actual telephone calls a month; I mainly use messaging apps such as Signal for example. The main use of my phone appears to be as a host for several apps and a method for connecting them to the internet using either mobile data of wi-fi.
For similar reasons as to why I gave up blogging many years ago, I also gave up Android based phones. Basically I was fed up with the relentless increase in tracking me and gathering of my personal data. Google’s “Do No Evil” had turned very sour. At that time the only realistic alternative an Apple iPhone, so I took the plunge and changed. I was aware that the Apple system was not not free of the same evils, but weighing up the pros and cons I decided that it was the least worse option.