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Apple Just Lost Me

• pier25 6mo ago
  I don't hate iOS 26 as much as I thought I would but macOS 26 has been a disaster. I'm staying with Sequoia for as long as I can. Hopefully Apple will fix this mess in macOS 27 or 28.
  • richrichardsson 6mo ago
    I doubt they will. I suspect the rumours of a touch screen MacBook are likely true and that's the reason for the shitshow that is Tahoe's UI.
    • pier25 6mo ago
      Who knows. They're already reverting some stuff. In macOS 26.4.1 (released today) they've added a setting to rollback the obnoxious tabs in Safari. https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/16/macos-tahoe-26-4-compact-tab-bar/ https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/16/macos-tahoe-26-4-compac...
• JSR_FDED 6mo ago
  Building on the incredible success of MacOS 26 Tahoe, I can hardly wait for MacOS 27 Tehran.
• superkuh 6mo ago
  >Credit cards are not documents. Many people don’t have them. Apple don’t provide any other way to verify your age because they are a stupid American company with American values in which you’re just as human as your credit score. This is the way ID verification is going in the USA and the reasons for it seem clear. A human person is only useful to a corporation if they have money to give the corporation. If you don't have provable money, either through a third party corporate payment service willing to pay for you sometime later (a credit card) or by giving a corporation your login details to your bank account (ie, Plaid), then you're not a human. It clear what a bot is now: anything that doesn't have provable money.
  • kayodelycaon 6mo ago
    I think it’s a lot simpler than that. Verifying a credit card is probably the easiest and cheapest reliable method to verify identity. If you look at it this way: they’re trying to identify somebody, and they don’t want to do a massive amount of work in house. Do you go to a company that verifies identity? Or… you can use credit cards as a proxy for identity. Most of your users already have them. Credit cards require no additional infrastructure, no additional corporate approval, no additional expenses, and no additional auditing. It’s good enough for the company and who cares if it’s good enough for the users. Corporate greed is a massive problem, but you’re giving people too much credit to assume they have some kind of grand conspiracy for every decision. That requires far too much intelligence. Corporate laziness is a far better explanation for this one.
    • superkuh 6mo ago
      And even better for companies: banks and credit card companies are completely unaccountable entities who've established they're willing to put up with 10000 false positives to block one false negative. They don't even have to get it right. And getting it wrong won't result in bad press or anything actionable for anyone. We're just ending up in a system where a good fraction of people are declared not people forever.
  • souvlakius 6mo ago
    I think it's also related to the fact that the US and the UK don't have ID documents the way that a lot of EU countries have and many people don't have passports, so the only other way left that has an API and is checking periodically that you are who you claim is your bank before giving you a fresh credit card
  • neya 6mo ago
    > A human person is only useful to a corporation if they have money to give the corporation. This is spot on. This is the same tactic used by the affiliate marketers back in the day to qualify leads - Free book, just pay for shipping! Or, get this e-book for just $1 (so we can upsell you a $97 product later)
• ltbarcly3 6mo ago
  Apple has gone from a company with a long term vision of the future and their part in it to a quarterly financial report gradient climber. This is what happens to every company when it loses it's founder(s). They have enough money and market influence to be a problem for all of us for the next 30 years or so.
  • elictronic 6mo ago
    Jobs died 15 years ago. So your predicting 45 years after the death of a founder a company loses influence.
    • ltbarcly3 6mo ago
      If it's large enough. I'm saying that a functioning company that reaches a certain size can stop being good at what it does and start buying market position and market share. For example, I don't believe Apple is more efficient at designing processors than most processor companies, I think they have had some luck in that they adopted a strategy for mobile that ended up delivering a CPU with high performance (this is roughly the same story as Intel Core 20 years ago). They are able to deliver a CPU that is at the top but not dramatically faster than their competitors not because they are so 'good at' designing processors, but because they steer a very large percentage of the total CPU R&D budget of the entire world. They can buy anyone who is innovative, and generally that means eliminating them rather than incorporating them.
• rozal 6mo ago
  [dead]
• lynndotpy 6mo ago
  The space allocated for "Apple has lost their way" has been maxed out for decades, so it bears stressing that this time is different. This Liquid Glass debacle has disillusioned everyone from hardcore Apple fans to normal people who otherwise don't follow tech. Once the dust settles, this will be a case study for decades to come. Apple threw their hard-won reputational gains off a cliff for _nothing_.
  • gilrain 6mo ago
    > threw their hard-won reputational gains off a cliff for _nothing_ I imagine some executive’s ego was spared by not telling them their idea was bad. Priceless.
  • Pay08 6mo ago
    You're far overstating the effect it has had.
    • AdamN 6mo ago
      Also most of the stuff people complain about is easily changed in settings (transparency, etc...).
      • lynndotpy 6mo ago
        There are many things which are worse which cannot be configured. I can't get my battery life back, I can't get a version of Apple Maps which doesn't crash on launch back, I can't get my framerate back. I can't even get a refund for this $1200 phone.
    • williamdclt 6mo ago
      Yeah. The vast majority of people simply don't give a flying shit, and many haven't really even noticed.
    • hedora 6mo ago
      I think people are using "liquid glass" as a blanket term that includes other changes in iOS 26, like completely breaking message delivery with the world's dumbest spam filter, aggressively waking some people up in the middle of the night, siri somehow getting even worse, breaking the incoming call state machine (again), bluetooth regressions, regressions to their (already poor) UI accessibility, and so on. Those other things add up and are definitely noticed by non-tech users that don't care that things like the alarm UI are massively regressed.
• freedomben 6mo ago
  > Even though my software is packaged and notarised as per their requirements, they still show my users a dialog box confirming they want to run my app, something they do not for apps installed through their walled garden. This is just friction to punish developers outside their store. I am very tired of it. Indeed. I'm honestly impressed that he lasted this long. My first "I'm very displeased moment" was when Java became a second-class citizen on macos. I was a Java dev at that time and had written some non-trivial apps. They weren't native perfect, but they were close enough that my highly-Apple-fan relatives didn't realize they weren't "native" until I told them. The write-once-run-anywhere dream of desktop UI software (without getting into Qt) was there in a very real way for me. I ran it on my windows machine at work, and my mac laptop and linux desktop at home. The hoops at that point were nothing compared to what they are now, and it began souring me. For me the final straw was when I got the latest macbook pro with the latest mac monitor (all from Apple mind you) and yet there was a horrific bug that about half the time when you plugged in to the monitor, the laptop screen shut off and would never come back on until you did a hard reboot (holding the power button). That was never supposed to be possible since it was Apple hardware/software controlled top to bottom, the original promise of the vertical integration and one of the reasons we accepted the heavy lack of cross-platform compatiblity. A little before that I used to put my macbook on the nightstand and listen to podcasts at night to fall asleep. I would dim the screen to off and have the volume at low levels. Apple rolled out a software update that suddenly caused the screen to kick on at FULL BRIGHTNESS after about 5 to 10 minutes (when the screensaver would have normally kicked in), while I'm sleeping in a completely dark room. It was so bright that it would wake me up. That bug was there for years, and myabe still is (I replaced it with a Linux laptop). My user experience on macs was never close to bug-free, and was frankly worse than almost everything else out there. It took me a while to figure that out though.
  • MrDrMcCoy 6mo ago
    The last straw for me was around 2009. I was in college minoring and interning in media production. Invested pretty heavily in Final Cut, which was long in the tooth, and hoping for better I/O in Macbooks to support better ingest. That was when Apple announced the following: - Final Cut X. Its first incarnation was a huge slap in the face for features and workflow. They completely cut a large swathe of the rest of Final Cut studio, and knew they were shipping shit with the new pricing. - The first Unibody Macbook came out. Very little could be upgraded, the keyboard was a leap backward, and all they had for I/O was a half-baked USB3. It's usage for pro video workflows was severely hobbled compared to the last generation. - Mac OS Lion came out, which was when it started showing signs of user hostility. Power-user features were getting locked down or removed, the app store was being pushed harder, and it was consuming more base resources for the privilege. The tend was clear that advanced users were no longer welcome in Apple land. These things made me change majors back to computing, and a full return to Linux. I've never regretted that.
• dgxyz 6mo ago
  We just got fucked by this today. My 22 year old daughter doesn't have a driving license or a credit card but does have a passport and it didn't work. She's now got a kids phone. I haven't tried the 20 year old yet who is in the same situation... They have 5 days to unfuck this or I'm literally rolling out Pixels + Graphene to the family. Exit plan for the Mac is a Linux desktop.
  • pfraze 6mo ago
    You are aware that the law applies to Linux desktops and will likely be included in a system update soon?
    • dgxyz 6mo ago
      You do realise I am free to modify it or pick a distribution so that isn't the case too?
      • pfraze 6mo ago
        How long till that’s illegal? This situation is being treated like a bad business decision. It’s not. It’s a new set of laws. It’s bigger than just Apple.
        • hedora 6mo ago
          It's not really bigger than Apple. They could just say "no", and the UK could just go offline until they fixed their laws.
          • pfraze 6mo ago
            Pretty sure it’s California that’s got the OS law
        • dgxyz 6mo ago
          You'd be surprised at how often I do illegal stuff.
• dionian 6mo ago
  I like liquid glass. I liked it since the first betas i tried. Am i the only one
  • baal80spam 6mo ago
    At this point I am pretty sure it's the loud vocal minority that hates it. Vast majority is either indifferent or actually likes it (but liking something doesn't sell).
    • vwcx 6mo ago
      I think the vast majority's friction points with liquid glass come from the other changes, like the redesign of Messages and the calling functionality.
      • kstrauser 6mo ago
        Genuine question: what do you not like about those? I haven't seen anything in either of those that I actively disliked.
    • gtirloni 6mo ago
      People who like it aren't vocal, agreed. I think this works for every outrage wave we experience online. Something to keep in mind.
    • wrqvrwvq 6mo ago
      I've seen far more non-design-obsessed people (normals) complaining about it, but in the end i think the better question is why? What possible purpose does this serve other than key-jangling? It is a distraction for most people and a waste of screen space and probably gpu cycles, why are we shading and filtering on every frame on every window and modal? Just render the pane and put the fries in the bag.
      • AlexandrB 6mo ago
        The waste of screen space is the big one for me. It feels like every company is racing to dumb down their products and fill their UI with whitespace instead of using that space for controls or content. My bank just redesigned their website and now even checking the balance of a few accounts + credit cards requires scrolling on a 1080p display. Ridiculous.
• daedrdev 6mo ago
  Any system of age verification will fail to satisfy the writer, because it is fundamentally the UK’s fault by requiring such draconian measures. Credit cards don't work ever time, but the other options of using AI or sending your data to a third company who will resell it are also not great. The only other complaint seems to be liquid glass? It really feels strange because Apple feels on the upswing with their new office and their cheap, repairable mac.
  • deleted 6mo ago
    [deleted]
  • catlover76 6mo ago
    [dead]
  • secondcoming 6mo ago
    UK, California and Brazil, no?
    • kps 6mo ago
      Terry Gilliam's Brazil, California, and geographic Brazil, yes.
    • wtallis 6mo ago
      California's law requires that the OS ask the user for their age, and accept the response as-is without doing any verification.
  • arjie 6mo ago
    Reading between the lines, the author of the blog post would have gone along with the verification with annoyance if the verification had worked. What seems to have prompted everything is the credit cards failing. The fact that they couldn't use Wallet and then tried manually with all five sort of illustrates that they would have gone along with it. Edge cases like immigrants in a different land are typically unmet for these things. I remember once trying to re-activate my Google Fi SIM from my home in the UK before I returned to the US and getting a strange error message that didn't allude to the region. I got the rep on the line and they said "You're in the US, right?" and I had to bullshit something about "oh I had my VPN on" and then turned it on so I would like I was in the US and it worked then. Anyway, there's clearly one cause and the rest is just kitchen sink argumentation.
• everdrive 6mo ago
  Another nail in the coffin, but the author fails to realize that the only viable answer here is to move towards relying on your smartphone as little as possible. You can get a fairphone, or whatever, but will anything in the real world (outside of old fashioned websites) actually talk to the thing?
  • dgxyz 6mo ago
    I agree with this as well. The only things I really need on my "smartphone" are a browser, mail client (offline that does IMAP), organic maps, whatsapp and obviously a phone. I can do everything else some other way without too much inconvenience. Edit: wow are people really that tied to their technology? You're fucked if anything worse happens geopolitically than is happening today.
  • soapdog 6mo ago
    author here, the post was mostly about desktop. I don't rely on my phone much but I need it to work as expected when needed.
    • everdrive 6mo ago
      Thanks for the correction. I latched onto the phone parts, and maybe too hastily.
• pfraze 6mo ago
  Age verification has been put into law across the world over the last year. Apple doesn’t have a choice.
  • jedahan 6mo ago
    They certainly have more choices than implementing in this manner, and can choose to not implement it as well. Absolving Apple of responsibility gives more than they deserve.
    • pfraze 6mo ago
      They actually have very few choices, and they had only a few months to get it done. Just like the rest of us.
  • jeroenhd 6mo ago
    Apple has to do age verification because of dumb laws, but they decided to do age verification in a dumb way. The author tried to go along with the age verification system with five different cards and failed five times. For an account that's older than the legal age that would need to be verified in the first place, mind you. There are many ways to do age verification, most of them bad, but that's why most companies complying with these laws use multiple methods.
    • catapart 6mo ago
      nevermind the apologist. his paycheck is paid by people that have capitulated to the same bullshit. and you know what they say about people learning lessons whom have a financial incentive not to.
      • pfraze 6mo ago
        Indeed. There has been zero political opposition to these laws. Apple isn’t going to pay the fines on our behalf, so we need to get organizing if we don’t like this.
• hn_throwaway_99 6mo ago
  I found this to be a very odd and strange rant. The author's three issues with Apple are: 1. Gatekeeping. OK, fine, but at the very least this has been Apple's stance for a very long time now (the author talks about faxing credit card details), so it's not like it's something new. If you wanted full unfettered installation rights, Apple was never the company for you. And while I think it's fine to argue against Apple's stance, I find most of the arguments are less than honest about the pros of things like developer verification for the end user. 2. mac OS26. I totally agree that this is a total fiasco from a design perspective, and liquid glass is unqualified shit. Still, I see Apple at least somewhat moving in the right direction by getting rid of Alan Dye. 3. Apple had a bug in their age verification protocol. Again, valid point, but Apple needs to follow UK law. I've seen a lot more missives arguing against requiring things like driver's licenses and other government ID, and so it seems like Apple is at least trying to go the least restrictive route by choosing credit card verification. To emphasize, I'm not apologizing for Apple here. In particular, much has been written about how Apple has lost their way regarding the "it just works" philosophy. But it seems like the author's main beef is against Apple's level of control, and this is just a fundamental difference in Apple's stance that has existed for about 2 decades.
  • bronlund 6mo ago
    I don't think it's just those three issues. Those are just the three final drops in the bucket.
  • NotPractical 6mo ago
    > 1. Gatekeeping. OK, fine Proceeds to explain why your opinion is not "fine" but rather invalid, because Apple boiled you like a frog... Every time someone mentions here that they're concerned macOS is becoming more like iOS, Apple apologists show up to explain how that's not actually happening. I guess now you guys have just accepted it.
  • Pay08 6mo ago
    I struggle to believe that Liquid Glass was one person's fault.
• deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
  • tonyedgecombe 6mo ago
    So you expected them to provide insurance which you hadn’t purchased?
• txdv 6mo ago
  Worst part about liquid glass changes is that it was probably rushed so they could cover for lack of AI features that they promised a year ago
• deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
• stego-tech 6mo ago
  This is honestly why I've been getting deeper into Linux and self-hosting since early COVID. As much as I've loved my M1 Pro MBP, Apple's OS decisions - and my career expectation to always be on the latest version of OSes/software to help vet organizational migrations - have basically killed my enthusiasm for their kit. The hardware is phenomenal; the software does not spark joy. And if I'm being frank, my time with Linux (Debian 13 on an N100 NUC w/ Docker) has really opened my eyes to just how excessive modern compute is, specifically to power increasingly bogged-down operating systems and woefully inefficient software. The N100 sips energy while happily transcoding 4K video streams on Jellyfin, running my IRC server for friends to hop off Discord, reverse proxying my entire home network, letting me stream game nights via Owncast, host some image board shitposts for various friend groups, host my RSS Aggregator, and still yawns with 75% excess capacity left over. I'll still have a Mac because that's what my family uses (if they want free tech support from me, that is), and I'll still have my Windows gaming PC, but I'm already drafting up cyberdeck plans for my first primary Linux box, with just a CLI to get me by. Realizing I don't actually need ten cores and 32GB of RAM and a hefty GPU to do daily work is pretty damn revelatory - and shows how grotesque mass-market software and OSes have become in the name of marketing cycles and advertising dollars.
• hedora 6mo ago
  I wish they'd just show some backbone and refuse to implement age verification. If this means they would need to geofence + start disabling devices to the extent required by law, good. The laws will immediately be repealed. The whole platform is a smoldering fire at this point, so nothing in the article is particularly surprising. I've hit 10x as many bugs as the user mentioned. Liquid glass (as bad as it is!) barely makes the top 10 daily issues I have with iOS 26. In any other release, it'd be #1. Maybe "Flood the zone" should be the word of the year for 2026?
  • lesostep 6mo ago
    >> show some backbone and refuse to implement age verification refused whom? they weren't required to do it, it was a law for messenger apps only
• bronlund 6mo ago
  Yeah, it has pretty much all gone to shit.
• raincole 6mo ago
  > Credit cards are not documents. Many people don’t have them. Apple don’t provide any other way to verify your age because they are a stupid American company with American values in which you’re just as human as your credit score. UK passed age verification law and people still find a way to blame the US.
  • bogdan 6mo ago
    His complaints are that Apple only supports credit cards for age verification. Please read more carefully.
    • bdcravens 6mo ago
      What process are other companies using?
      • bogdan 6mo ago
        Amazon Developer sent me an email about this recently. They supported: * Passport * Identity Card * Driver's License It rejected my Driver's License and I gave up after that.
      • jon-wood 6mo ago
        At least in the UK it would be entirely legal for companies to use account age as a proxy for verifying you're over the age of 18. If your Apple account is over 18 then you probably are as well.
        • gmac 6mo ago
          Apple verified my account that very way this morning!
    • causal 6mo ago
      I kind of prefer Credit Card over anything else if I have to do it. I give out my CC pretty regularly already so not much new PII to lose there. But it does sound like Apple has bugs to work out.
• mayhemducks 6mo ago
  Can we all just agree that cyber criminals suck? Especially if you are a legit developer who wants to offer useful apps to the world? Don't get me wrong, I can't stand surveillance, and I think age verification is virtue signaling and will have very little affect on actual cyber crime. We need a better way to stop online abuse. But certificates, GateKeeper, app certification, app stores etc. are all supposed to mitigate serious harm from bad actors. We need to get much better at security in general if we want to have nice things.
  • hedora 6mo ago
    The worst cybercriminals are allowed on the app store. Facebook and Google are two obvious examples. Even if avoid installing their apps, take a look at all the third-party data harvesting malware that iOS apps bundle. You'll find you have plenty of stuff installed from them, and even worse actors. Linux doesn't have any of this developer certification bullshit, and it has (almost) none of these issues.
    • mayhemducks 6mo ago
      How exactly are you turning my comment into defending Facebook and Google? If that's how it comes off then I believe it is being misinterpreted. I would also argue that Linux does have it - at least in Ubuntu it does with snaps. And package maintainers do a lot of unseen, thankless work as well. As a developer, I do not like having to deal with certificates. But the few times I have seen them prevent serious problems, I was glad they were there.
• netsharc 6mo ago
  Article says his account is 25 years old, but I guess the laws don't care about such metadata. But OT: it makes me realize my Yahoo Mail account is turning 30 this year, because in 1997 Yahoo wanted to compete with Hotmail and I thought "Having a @yahoo.com email, that's a very good nerd badge!". Nowadays the ridicule is deserved, and they've silently lost all my mail from 1990s...
• ApolloFortyNine 6mo ago
  Any age verification should come with an OAUTH style government run API. The idea being you verify your ID with the government, and the service that required age verification gets back a true or false for does this user meet this age requirement. That way the amount of data shared is kept to a minimum. The UK, and Brazil who passed a similar law, 'cheated' by just forcing private companies to figure it out.
  • Trekkie101-B 6mo ago
    UK Gov sometimes likes to do things in very awkward ways, against any sort of worldly grain established. See the covid app. However my Apple ID verified me based on my account age, I didn't need to provide anything.
  • hedora 6mo ago
    If the US had this, Trump would definitely be using it right now to send ICE to arrest people that said mean things about him on social media, didn't drop out of college, didn't bribe him enough, etc.
  • irusensei 6mo ago
    Ironic that Brazil government tends to pay lip service to digital sovereignty while forcing their own citizens to handle their data to Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel.
  • xnorswap 6mo ago
    Some kind of Digital ID? The UK government proposed that and was met by the usual resistance to it.
  • uyzstvqs 6mo ago
    No, this is an absolutely terrible idea. You're suggesting a giant, centralized, government-run data silo, with all of your online activity tied to your real-world ID. This is far worse for privacy than any data broker, it's hard to even compare. Honestly I'd rather have private companies figure it out. Then at least you'll get multiple options, including from privacy-first companies. But that still sucks, and my preference strongly goes towards OS-level Age Indication. Just as effective in practice, 100% private and offline.
• josefritzishere 6mo ago
  I see the arguments are mostly attempts to needle the individual points. But it's clear the writer has reached a personal tipping point; the last straw as it were. Some of us gave up Apple over lesser offenses years ago.
• brushfoot 6mo ago
  The forced age verification shocks me. It shouldn't, given how much it's been in the news, but my poor naive Millennial sensibilities still feel it's part of some dystopian nightmare that I saw in some Michael Bay sci-fi once, not my present reality. Your phone, which you own, updated during the night, and now demands you tell it who you are through a credit card, which you may not have, or you're locked out of features. On your phone. This is outrageous. We can jump ship -- for now -- but it's only a matter of time before these laws cover every kind of Internet access, if they remain unchecked.
• golfer 6mo ago
  These "breaking up with Apple" stories pop up from time to time here. Cracks me up because they all follow the same pattern: "I'm done with Apple. I've been a Mac user since since $EARLY_YEAR. I loved using $OLD_APPLE_HARDWARE to work on $VARIOUS_INTERESTING_PROJECTS. I fondly recall $FORMATIVE_APPLE_MEMORY. But they've gone too far. $NEW_APPLE_ENSHITTIFICATION is the last straw, I can't do this any more. This will be hard because $REASONS. But I'm going to adopt $PLATFORM because it's the right thing to do." Most of them mention Steve Jobs but this one didn't actually.
  • mikepurvis 6mo ago
    What is it that bothers you about this type of discussion? For myself I just switched back to Android after a decade of iOS so I'm always interested in what it was that was the last straw for others. (for me it was interop issues around wearables and trackers; I want to use chipolo and a pebble watch and not feel punished every day for going out of the ecosystem)
    • golfer 6mo ago
      It doesn't bother me at all -- in my post, I said it cracks me up. They all have their reasons for breaking up with Apple. FYI I'm not an Apple guy myself.
    • embedding-shape 6mo ago
      > what it was that was the last straw for others CarPlay being actively dangerous if you use it for GPS navigation and someone dares to call you, so the call prompt blocks the entire screen until you either accept or reject the call, was my last straw. Sure, shit UX and UI is a hassle, but at least it was somewhat consistent. But that the UX department have completely left the building so they're enabling UX that puts people in real life danger? That's the stop I get off at.
  • golfer 6mo ago
    Wow, this seems to have hit a nerve, based on the early downvotes.
  • 6mo ago
• throw7 6mo ago
  Wow, that age verification is wild. We need to fight this here in the U.S. If my cell phone starts requiring gov't id and credit/debit cards for verification... god help me...
  • napolux 6mo ago
    Age verification is just a way to finally tell advertisers you're not an AI, so they can stop wasting money on purchasing AI-flooded-views. Change my mmind
• iLoveOncall 6mo ago
  I'm in the same boat, but only because of the age verification thing. I was never an Apple maximalist to begin with, I just have an iPhone and use a Mac at work because I have to (and will continue to), but I just turned off auto-updates on my iPhone and will never buy a new Apple device.
• dbvn 6mo ago
  Apple bothers me less than Microsoft. At least Apple has been consistent. "Our hardware, our software"... while Microsoft plays all these games. At the end of the day, there's never been a solution for people who care about this stuff other than Linux.
  • MrDrMcCoy 6mo ago
    Linux is a pretty good choice these days, and requires you to sacrifice nothing in terms of functionality :)
• chasil 6mo ago
  I bought a cheap, used iPhone SE3 because I needed to Facetime relatives. I learned quickly that "Find My" was far superior in remote tracking of airtag-equivalents, and switched some of my convertible tags to their network. I flew out of O'Hare last month, and there were advertisements all over the airport announcing that Illinois id/drivers license import into Apple Wallet, so I did it, and that works. Supposedly, passports can be imported. I haven't been able to make that work, even after a few hours on the phone with Apple. I also added a new CTA Ventra card, and I lost my ATM card while out of the country and instantly added a new one to Apple Wallet. Apple devices allow biometrics to be disabled for unlocking the phone. That is an important requirement for me to use these features. I would never, ever trust Google with any of these things. Ever. That being said, if I want to run a torrent client on my phone, I should be able to do so. Apple will never allow that. If I want a Bourne/POSIX shell, I should be able run one. Apple will never allow that [AFAIK]. There are important reasons that Apple products will never, ever be my primary communication devices.
  • genthree 6mo ago
    > That being said, if I want to run a torrent client on my phone, I should be able to do so. Apple will never allow that. > If I want a Bourne/POSIX shell, I should be able run one. Apple will never allow that [AFAIK]. I believe you can accomplish the latter (via an emulator) with “ish”, and then use that to accomplish the former (with e.g. rtorrent)
    • chasil 6mo ago
      I have that loaded on my phone, but look at /proc/version.
  • NegativeLatency 6mo ago
    Depending on your definition of shell there are some: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/a-shell/id1473805438 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/a-shell/id1473805438
  • Rohansi 6mo ago
    > I would never, ever trust Google with any of these things. Ever. Why do you trust Apple with them? What guarantees Apple will not do evil?
• ta9000 6mo ago
  Sounds like a lot of their problem boils down to them living in a nanny surveillance state.
  • gib444 6mo ago
    Pray tell, to what utopia should we move?
• dainiusse 6mo ago
  Mate. None of the companies is worth such stress. I feel rage in you. It is just a tool. You choose what works best. That's it. No need to overthink it.
  • MrDrMcCoy 6mo ago
    A smartphone is a tool that is all but required for modern life, it gets it's hooks into every detail of your life, and you have very little choice in providers, features, and functions. It makes a lot less sense to not care like this.
    • gib444 6mo ago
      What can't you do without a smartphone in the UK or wherever you live? Specifically a smartphone, not just a phone number for SMS + calls.
      • macintux 6mo ago
        Not the person to whom you're responding, but for me, some of the heavy hitters: - Real-time weather alerts (I spend a lot of time in a naked Jeep in the summer, it's helpful to know when rain is imminent) - Work-related authentication - Audiobooks - High quality, always available camera with quick editing and instant sharing capabilities - GPS tracking when I'm exploring - Find restaurants, museums, hotels when I'm traveling - Pay for nearly anything (credit cards are useful but more time-consuming, and pulling them out frequently is a minor friction point that I'm grateful to leave behind)
        • bean469 6mo ago
          Although I do agree with some that you listed, I think that many do have alternatives: - Audiobooks can be listened on other devices besides smartphones - A dedicated camera is a very good option for taking high-quality photos fast, but I do agree that instant sharing is not a possibility - GPS tracking is available on many watches, even non-Smartwatches like the ones Garmin designs - You can pay with a credit / debit card via NFC - just as fast as with a smartphone - You can find restaurants and other places through maps, tourism centers, etc. Or there's a option for researching where to go before heading out
• xnorswap 6mo ago
  It's particularly culturally deaf to try to verify with literally "credit cards". In the UK most people use debit cards instead for most things. https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data/card-spending https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data/card-spe... Credit card usage is a small fraction of debit card usage. This is very different to the USA where there are more credit card transactions than debit card ones.
  • rafram 6mo ago
    You can have a debit card in your own name when you're under 18, but not a credit card, meaning credit is a proxy for age but debit isn't. It's the same in the UK and the US. (They also accept an ID scan.)
  • JollySharp0 6mo ago
    A good proportion of people have the credit card even if they don't use them. 65% of adults have a credit card in the UK. https://www.merchantsavvy.co.uk/uk-credit-card-statistics/ https://www.merchantsavvy.co.uk/uk-credit-card-statistics/
• whiskey-one 6mo ago
  Great timing too to ditch MacOS. Just instilled Fedora Asahi Remix 43 on may MacBook Pro M2, and both KDE and Gnome work great. So happy to be liberated form the increasingly sloppy Apple OS. https://asahilinux.org/fedora/ https://asahilinux.org/fedora/
• bdcravens 6mo ago
  > Even though my software is packaged and notarised as per their requirements, they still show my users a dialog box confirming they want to run my app, something they do not for apps installed through their walled garden. This is just friction to punish developers outside their store. I am very tired of it. Does them quitting Apple mean they're going to stop supporting MacOS users?
• monegator 6mo ago
  nitpick: just changed my monitor to a UWQHD one. The text on this blog occupies 1/6 of the screen, 5/6 of white. If i only use half the screen for the broswer, it would be 1/3 and 2/2. Still too much white space for me. Anyway: Not sure why fairphone. While i like the concept it's still an android phone, eos is not much better than lineage. If i had to change today i would go again for a Pixel 8A (or a series 10) and graphene. But if the OP can wait and see, next year we should get replaceable batteries everywhere because EU, and maybe wait and see whatever motorola is cooking for graphene. Or check out the pinephone and go full linux.. i guess, when i'll have some spare cash to throw away..
• htx80nerd 6mo ago
  [flagged]
• tsunamifury 6mo ago
  For anyone at Apple: your company is on fire. You’re making too much money to notice but Apple is literally on fire. This problem is everywhere in your products and it’s clear the passion for high quality work is gone from the company. Apple will not survive at luxury prices and Google level service.
• coffeedoughnuts 6mo ago
  Just to add a little bit of context, when I hit the same problem today the flow offered me the option to scan my driving license or 'national id card' (whatever that is - we don't have those in the UK) So despite the claims in the article, it's not credit card centric. However, they did not accept my passport as a scannable ID, and so luckily I had a credit card somewhere that I have used recently for a single large purchase otherwise I'd be stuffed, as I don't drive
• cush 6mo ago
  > It will take me a while before I can fully migrate away... I’m gonna throw all of them away... I purchased a MNT Pocket Reform. It will take them a while to assemble and send it to me... I am considering getting a Fairphone Gen 6... Honestly it sounds like Apple is far from lost here, but I'm excited to see updates on how the transition is, if it ever does happen.
• JodieBenitez 6mo ago
  > Gatekeeper "curl -LsSf https://acme.tld/install.sh https://acme.tld/install.sh | sh" and "xattr -c" ? Far from ideal and safe but it's still a very common pattern.
• natas 6mo ago
  after about 10+ years in the Apple ecosystem, I'm completely done, my next machine is linux and my next phone is android.
  • akdev1l 6mo ago
    I believe Android will be blocking installations from outside Google play except through adb
• kspacewalk2 6mo ago
  Gatekeeping is trivially turned off by those who won't footgun themselves by dragging literal garbage from the Internet into their system. It is a good feature for most macOS users. They only care about your verification woes a tiniest bit, if at all. They need a walled garden, Apple gives one to them, it's a product-market fit, while power users are given a reasonable off-ramp. The other issues are more serious, especially macOS 25, but again, how much of that deeply affects the vast majority of actual paying customers who buy Macbooks? As long as Apple learned their lesson and will do another one of those bugfix OS releases they've done before, no long lasting harm done. Using credit cards for age verification is certainly dumb, but age verification is coming and most people see the need for it. You can disagree that there is a need for it (entirely different discussion), but you must acknowledge the broad support for it at least.
• zer00eyz 6mo ago
  The gatekeeping, the age identification issues are both "real problems", that compound, from the same root. Anonymity allows one to behave in ways they would not "in public", with your neighbors, or co workers (for the most part). Be that building malware, or kids doing things they should not, and the people and business that take advantage of that. I don't think the UK law is a good one, but when major companies continuously fail at their social responsibility I understand why people want the government to step in. I don't think the friction apple creates is a great user experience but it is better than the old approach that ended up with systems riddled with malware and spyware because normal users don't think like the folks who built technology. Could the law have been written better: sure. "More control" over their Childs devices would have been the way. Is there a solution to the friction with apple... maybe but I'm not sure it would be that much of an improvement (its purpose IS to slow you down).
• karel-3d 6mo ago
  I didn't know MNT existed https://shop.mntre.com/ https://shop.mntre.com/ The laptops seem... crazy enough. And what you get for your buck is even less than with normal PC manufacturers, let alone Apple. You get CPU that is slow for a phone. For 1300 USD. On the other hand I have a weird urge to buy one and use as a daily.
  • soapdog 6mo ago
    author here. Yeah, they make their laptops by hand in their lil shop in Berlin, low volumes makes things more expensive. I get it you can get a lot more performance per buck elsewhere, but I want to support a company that creates open hardware and open source software. Also it is the most repairable and upgraded laptop in the world atm.
    • karel-3d 6mo ago
      unfortunately I don't have 1000 eur to just throw around at experiments that look cool. but... it looks cool.
• thelastgallon 6mo ago
  Also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47504112 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47504112 30 days later they canceled the ABM company account and deleted all the associated users along with the Apple ID which I used to log into a testing device, which now became a fairly expensive paperweight: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47516266 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47516266
• cheschire 6mo ago
  For anyone that is bothered by the glass effect… -Accessibility options -Display & Text Size -Turn on “Reduce Transparency” I forgot glass was even a thing as I immediately turned it on day one.
  • chuckadams 6mo ago
    It makes it less distracting, but doesn't fix the broken layouts.
• chuckadams 6mo ago
  What keeps me in the Appleverse is the hardware, and the software that Just Works with the hardware (I find that "Just Works" has been rapidly eroding in general, but naturally it still handles the hardware well). The alternatives are Linux on much worse hardware, or the non-starter that is Windows on anything whatsoever. I'm told ThinkPads are getting to parity and have primo Linux support, but barring accident, my M3 MBP will probably last me a decade. Another reason I prefer Apple hardware.
  • gib444 6mo ago
    Apple Silicon was as potent a crack as SSDs and Chrome (both immense steps up from what we had before). I nearly left the Apple ecosystem but the M chips pulled me back...
  • neop1x 6mo ago
    HP Zbook G1a (Ryzen AI max+ 395) is getting closer and has an M.2 SSD slot. But Macbooks undeniably have better battery life (touchpad, sound and display). I selected this over Macbook because I value linux and openness more. But it's true Apple managed to make some really good devices with apple silicon and the competition has a hard time catching up. Before apple silicon, I was making fun of apple fanboys as CPU specs were mostly bad and it didn't make sense for the price. Apple silicon changed that. And it doesn't look like it will change very soon, sadly. I would like to see more really viably alternatives.
  • Retr0id 6mo ago
    Linux runs well on M2 (and hopefully also M3 in the future)
    • danslo 6mo ago
      If you're OK with it draining 3% battery per hour when you close the lid, sure.
    • diabllicseagull 6mo ago
      https://asahilinux.org/docs/platform/feature-support/m2/ https://asahilinux.org/docs/platform/feature-support/m2/ still too many missing bits for me.
• deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
• froggertoaster 6mo ago
  I'm asking genuinely, how is this top of HN? The comments seem to indicate that HN overall doesn't find this article to be valuable at its face. Seems to happen a lot with "ragequitting" posts. I feel like I could write "Microsoft Just Lost Me" and it could get to the top.
  • layer8 6mo ago
    A lot of people agree with the sentiment and therefore upvote it, but don’t bother engaging in the comments.
  • MrDrMcCoy 6mo ago
    Because possible voted it to the top. You don't have to agree, but it helps to understand.
• bloggie 6mo ago
  I didn't know what a MNT Pocket Reform and wow! Rockchip, 20 cm wide keyboard, ix ethernet connector, 4 hour advertised runtime, 2 inches thick and costs more than a macbook. You really have to suffer to stick it to the man!
• ozten 6mo ago
  Luckily, the author will face no frustrations with Ubuntu or whatever Linux OS they migrate to. Flawless UX. Zero compromises.
  • MrDrMcCoy 6mo ago
    It's really gotten better in the last few years. Try a spin of Fedora sometime to see the latest polish.
    • ozten 6mo ago
      I have been an active user for almost 30 years. You can tell by my comment.
      • MrDrMcCoy 6mo ago
        Oh, sorry, I misread your comment as sarcasm.
• singpolyma3 6mo ago
  How does this credit card thing even work? Are they just assuming if you have a credit card you must be an adult??
• drnick1 6mo ago
  [flagged]
  • soapdog 6mo ago
    Random nobody here, I can write whatever I want on my own personal blog, you're not required to read it.
    • imcritic 6mo ago
      We, the readers, are still free to shit on your writing. You may or may not cry about it.
      • soapdog 6mo ago
        Shedding zero tears for an irrelevant comment by an edge lord.
        • imcritic 6mo ago
          [dead]
• nodesocket 6mo ago
  You’ll be back. Have you tried Windows 11 lately? Want an exercise in self-restraint not plowing yours fist through your monitor? Use Windows. Microsoft as Steve Jobs said has no taste. They hire the cheapest international engineers who take zero accountability and perfection in their work. Everything is just, that will do. Good enough.
  • lern_too_spel 6mo ago
    The article did not say anywhere that Windows is even under consideration, so your criticism doesn't apply.
  • layer8 6mo ago
    I’m using Windows 11 and prefer it to current macOS by quite a margin. But OP is moving to Linux, so it doesn’t matter either way.
  • MrDrMcCoy 6mo ago
    Author is going to Linux, which has really gotten smooth in the last few years. I've been able to hand it to tech illiterate friends and not once get a tech support call. Everything you might need has a working, polished implementation. Give it a try sometime :)
• mazugrin2 6mo ago
  I find it so odd to have such an extreme response to Apple all-of-the-sudden. Like they've been so great all of these years and only just now you're deciding to make such an extreme switch that you're going to choose the worst possible hardware imaginable because you can't even stomach buying a decent GNU/Linux laptop from Dell or Lenovo or Framework or System76? Jeeze. That little puny 8GB ARM laptop you're choosing instead is going to be painfully slow compared to whatever Mac you're coming from. At least check out the System76 laptops - some I do believe come fully open-source with Coreboot if that's all-of-the-sudden so important to you.
• apparent 6mo ago
  I find Apple's refusal to patch iOS18 (other than for very old devices that do not support 26) to be more objectionable. I have a 13 mini and everything I've read says not to upgrade to 26. Yet Apple won't issue patches for known security issues that are actively being exploited in the wild? That's crazy.
  • kstrauser 6mo ago
    Other than the one from yesterday? https://support.apple.com/en-us/126793 https://support.apple.com/en-us/126793 Or last month? https://support.apple.com/en-us/126347 https://support.apple.com/en-us/126347 Or December? https://support.apple.com/en-us/125885 https://support.apple.com/en-us/125885 Or November? https://support.apple.com/en-us/125633 https://support.apple.com/en-us/125633 Or September? https://support.apple.com/en-us/125327 https://support.apple.com/en-us/125327 My dude, I don't know how much more patching you want.
    • apparent 6mo ago
      They're not making those updates available to all devices on iOS18. For example, the update from yesterday is just for iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR. As Ars reports, they are not issuing security patches for any devices that "can" run iOS 26, no matter how lousy that experience would be. > Apple also released a few other security-focused updates for older operating systems. The iOS and iPadOS 18.7.7 updates are available for the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR, as well as the 7th-gen iPad, all devices that don’t support iOS or iPadOS 26. At this point, if you’re using a device that can be upgraded to version 26, Apple is no longer releasing iOS 18 updates for your phone or tablet. [1] 1: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/03/apple-releases-ios-ipados-macos-26-4-with-a-long-list-of-medium-size-tweaks/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/03/apple-releases-ios-i...
• widowlark 6mo ago
  I am all for voting with your dollar - but it sounds like maybe this user doesn't realize how bad it is out there right now for the grievances he listed.
• soapdog 6mo ago
  Author here, didn't realise this was posted on this site. AMA.
  • ProllyInfamous 6mo ago
    I have used and owned Apple products since 1992. Absolutely agreed about the gatekeeping — just as example, you cannot even update your MacOS without being online unless you create a full USB Installer. For your particular situation, presuming your hardware supports it, you can use MrMacintosh guides [0] to downgrade your OS from Tahoe — I recommend the latest Sequoia installer — all officially downloaded via Apple links. [0] <http://www.mrmacintosh.com http://www.mrmacintosh.com> I further recommend blocking *.apple.com & *.icloud.com (and many more hosts) using a PiHole (so simple, so necessary).
  • MrDrMcCoy 6mo ago
    When you move to Android, I'd definitely recommend getting a Pixel for GrapheneOS. It's really highly polished and most things should just work once you press the button to enable sandboxed Google Play. Also curious what Linux distro and desktop you're going to. Flatpak makes it matter a lot less these days, so long as the base stays pretty current.
    • soapdog 6mo ago
      I been considering Fairphone cause I want to support smaller vendors and also because it is repairable. As for Linux distros. The MNT Pocket Reform comes with Debian and I plan to leave it at that even though Debian is not my favourite. I will use Niri and Noctalia with it. I plan to make use of whatever Debian package but if it is too old for my taste, I'll look for AppImages and Flatpaks as needed. I got a Surface Go 1 running exactly that setup but with Fedora and works really well for me. Want to use KDE Connect to link whatever Android I get with the laptop.
      • microtonal 6mo ago
        Fairphone is a mess software-wise though, both stock or with /e/OS. Ancient kernels, old firmware bundles with many known CVEs, way behind on regular AOSP updates (which are needed for fixes for vulnerabilities not marked high or critical). They only do the minimal ASB patching most of the time. Hardware security is similarly bad, e.g. the Fairphone 6 does not have a secure enclave but relies on TrustZone which runs on the same CPU as the main OS. Also, it seems relevant to mention that the software is mostly maintained by a Chinese company (T2Mobile), which might be relevant depending on your threat assessments. For security/software updates it's pretty much: GrapheneOS > iOS > Pixel OS >> Samsung flagships >> pretty much everyone else.
• sgt 6mo ago
  If he's pissed at this, imagine how pissed he'll become when he enters the ridiculous Android ecosystem. Anyway, he's free to choose whatever, but I have to nitpick here: 1. macOS 26 - a fiasco? Come on. A lot of like the liquid glass. On macOS I hardly notice it, but on iOS is actually beautiful to me. Also a long time macOS user, since 2003 btw. You can always dampen it using accessibility settings. 2. Age verification ? First time I've heard of it. Also on latest iOS. But then I'm also not in the UK. 3. "Interfaces built with AppKit or SwiftUI that rendered perfect, are now overlapping controls and clipping stuff. They have no consistency at all in terms of icons, placement, corners…". I'm all for constructive criticism. But where are you seeing this? I've got 8-9 apps open and none are inconsistent in my view. I'm picky about these things too. Genuinely I'd like to know.
  • soapdog 6mo ago
    I'm the author, some of the tahoe issues can be seen in: https://tonsky.me/blog/tahoe-icons/ https://tonsky.me/blog/tahoe-icons/ https://noheger.at/blog/2026/01/11/the-struggle-of-resizing-windows-on-macos-tahoe/ https://noheger.at/blog/2026/01/11/the-struggle-of-resizing-... there are a lot more, but I don't have the links handy.
    • sgt 6mo ago
      Agree the icons are unnecessary and silly. Apple should know better. The corners haven't bothered me much, I like seeing a bit of a gap down there, and I haven't had issues dragging it but that could be because I'm using a regular USB mouse and not a trackpad. I've been a macOS user (or OS X rather back then) since 2003. It was truly a blessing to finally get a proper UNIX™ on the desktop. I was on Linux in the 7-8 year period before that.
      • soapdog 6mo ago
        Everything after Snow Leopard has been downhill in my opinion :3 macOS still my favourite unix but it started feeling is no longer my unix anymore, I'm just a glorified tennant.
• miklosz 6mo ago
  Yeah, sure, I'll ditch my Apple Silicon MBP and switch to MNT Pocket Reform for all my computing. So I don't have ugly Liquid Glass.
• TheAtomic 6mo ago
  I wish Nvidia would drop a Linux laptop so we could all have a 3rd option. I know, this exists in some form or another, eg Dell, but meh. And I know Jony Ive / Altman are working on something but Altman, uhg.
• CafeRacer 6mo ago
  I have FP6 with eOS, it's fine and works well. One thing that I can't do is use my phone to pay, e.g. Apple Pay. You can't install Google Wallet - it does not work, but also defeats degoogle mindset. There were curve company that people seem to have used in the past, but seems like the company was sold to someone and now it's dead. So I have to use physical card like a boomer. --- My story is similar, somehow my air managed to update to 26' (maybe I just clicked that stupid notification window button to make it go away). I will keep my opinions on glass to myself. Facts are: docker broke again, app launcher is whatever the hell it is, firewall with started messing up with my dns blacklists. I know you can somewhat fix it, but nixos/asahi on m2 with hyprland gives me a workflow that is superior. I just won't go back. AeroSpace just can't match. Then the credit cards... I have my original store country elsewhere. I've then moved a few times and changed banks. Now, apple does not like my card. It won't accept it. That's it. Nothing you can do about that. And I couldn't really change the country because I have had some subscriptions and I had to wait until they expire. Meanwhile, apple killed my apple subscription I lost Music, I lost cloud storage, I lost some backups. The thing that incredibly pissed me off is that as soon as my apple subscription got cancelled I could not even see my music library in the app. It would just prompt me with "gotta subscribe buddy" screen, which I can't. And yes, the hardware is very good. I love my m2. But the whole software part is becoming messier and messier and I don't want to deal with it anymore.
• bilekas 6mo ago
  > Bear in mind, I am 45 years old. I have an Apple account for 25 years, the age of my personal account alone should already verify my age. Someone make it make sense.
• atlgator 6mo ago
  It will only get worse. The bureaucracy has taken over at these companies. Contrarian viewpoints are severely punished, and you need contrarians to speak up when things suck.
• grumblepeet 6mo ago
  They have just done the same to me. I spent nearly two hours on the phone with Apple support before I find they will not accept a UK passport as valid ID. They will only accept the national ID card that I also don’t have. I don’t have or want a credit card. I’m 65 so me being now unable to verify my age is embarrassing and insulting. And the way Apple messed me about earlier has put me off them now. I won’t buy another product or service from them ever again.
• freediddy 6mo ago
  I've been using Mac for 15+ years now. I thought I would hate Glass so I avoided installing it across my ipad, phone, etc. But it was forced on my on my work laptop. Overall I don't notice the difference. There's nothing that outrages me, but I do find the changes useless.
• EmmEff 6mo ago
  This isn’t an airport, you don’t need to announce your departure.
  • musicsnob 6mo ago
    Just send me a message when you've landed. (Enjoyed your phrasing here.)
• yzydserd 6mo ago
  I was pleasantly surprised by the age verification. "Based on the age of your Apple account you are verified as being at least 18 years old". Done. Tempus fugit.
• daft_pink 6mo ago
  In a world of mature systems and tangled dependencies, we’ve moved from an era of aspiration to an era of mtiigation. Choosing, whether it s a political candidate or an operating system or ecosystem is no longer a vote of confidence in something wonderful, but feels like a defensive maneuver to find the least worst option among a sea of downsides.
  • Henchman21 6mo ago
    This is roughly the point where we should throw things out and begin again. We need to evolve. Again. Perhaps some sort of re-evolution.
    • daft_pink 6mo ago
      Maybe, I feel that the simpler something is, the easier it is to be something awesome. For example, a TRMNL eink display, just takes a screenshot and puts it on an eink display, and it's awesome. It just does one thing really really well. The moment you move to something that runs your TV, runs your smart speaker, is the phone in your pocket, is your computer, you end up with some really great features and unfortunately a series of trade offs. I'm not sure that it means you should dump everything, but that you should try to make things simpler and decentralized.
• Insanity 6mo ago
  The third point in this article is what really gets me. The credit card culture in Canada and the US is just insane to me, coming from a European point of view. You can get by without credit cards in Europe, and most of my family only has one for traveling abroad. So sure, they can use their credit card if they really have to, but it’s not a good default, as many others won’t even have credit cards. (And within EU, traveling without one is still fine for the most part).
  • deleted 6mo ago
    [deleted]
  • samspot 6mo ago
    You can get by just fine in the US without a credit card too. At least if you have a debit card (which can pretend to be a credit card in most situations). We were actually unscored by the credit bureaus for several years when we didn't own a house.
    • Insanity 6mo ago
      I find that many online payments require CC. And yeah credit score is the other issue.
    • yepguy 6mo ago
      You may be able to get by in the US without a credit card, but every purchase will literally cost you 2-5% more if you aren't making smart use of them.
      • NetMageSCW 6mo ago
        These days in a lot of places it is the other way around- using a credit card costs a 3% surcharge over cash.
        • yepguy 6mo ago
          I feel like this is regional, because I keep hearing it but I never run into these places.
• kylehotchkiss 6mo ago
  Can the Apple Store help people with verifications? This seems like a reasonable backup technique plus gets people in the store where they can spend money.
• havblue 6mo ago
  Point taken that Apple hardware isn't ideal anymore, but of course the problem is neither is Windows or Chrome OS. I can switch myself over to Linux now easily enough, but what about the rest of the family? Kids need their tablets with their shows downloaded, so good luck doing that without a chrome tablet or an iPad.
• Jigsy 6mo ago
  You know what's funny? Even China doesn't do OS verification and block everybody from every website by default.
• JeremyHerrman 6mo ago
  totally valid to call out apple for issues, but for most folks already accustomed to apple's walled garden, the grass is not greener on the other side For instance, I've had a ton of issues with Airpods Max so I moved over to the Sony WH-1000XM6, and they do a much worse job sharing connections between multiple devices to the point where I have to reset them constantly to get sound to reliably play from both my phone & computer. Same for moving to macOS to linux - the issues on add up to the point where the papercuts from macOS are still worth it.
• imcritic 6mo ago
  Haha, a fanboi got what he deserves. That's for feeding the evil with your money, for caving in to unfair demands. In your face!
• musicsnob 6mo ago
  To the Apple users that are completely fed up with Apple: Stop talking us to death. Just switch already. Send us a follow up post in 6-12 months letting us know how it goes for you.
• mbravorus 6mo ago
  I sympathize with the author's feelings in general, but also hope he directs some of the frustration towards his government for forcing the whole age verification scam (let alone everything else that is being broken in that particular jurisdiction)
• richrichardsson 6mo ago
  This new age verification is such bullshit, I don't even live in the UK any more yet have to be subject to that bullshit because Apple (and a bunch of other companies) can't comprehend the concept that people might want to change which country they live in. Can't use my expired provisional license to confirm my age. Can't use my Croatian ID to confirm my age. Can't use a credit card, because I never have had nor do I ever want to have a credit card. So I'm fucked.
  • kristianp 6mo ago
    Don't you have the concept of debit cards in your country? In mine, if you have a savings account and an atm card, that card can be used in any context that a credit card can be used.
    • richrichardsson 6mo ago
      I tried using a debit card, it will not let me progress. The issue is a debit card can be issued to anyone, including those under 18. So that then becomes a useless age verification.
• _the_inflator 6mo ago
  Emotionally and somewhat rationally I side with the author. The sad story is, that I would rather go caveman mode than use MS Windows. In other words: Apple’s complacency will be left unpunished since there has never been a worse situation for an alternative. I see none. None at all. Apple is the new Windows XP for me. It is as crappy as it gets, but compared to any alternative it still leads by a fair margin. Apple before the glossy crap was the amount of boring beauty, I loved to work with on a daily basis. Decent visuals without any distractions. Glossy suddenly put me over the edge and I am glad to get a discount for mainly using the devices as business machines. Otherwise: luxurious rot.
• teekert 6mo ago
  For the UK people among us: What happens if you just don't verify your age? Do you not get access to adult things? What if you use a VPN? Will civil disobedience lead to any punishment or just inconvenience? What it's like to live with these invasive laws?
  • gloosx 6mo ago
    I wanted to ask exactly same question: fellow UK citizens, do your iphones become bricks if you fail to verify your age or what?
• makerofthings 6mo ago
  I read about the new age check nonsense just before 26.4 downloaded, fortunately. I turned off automatic updates and so I guess I have a little time to get out of the apple ecosystem. I'm thinking GrapheneOS on Pixel 10. This is absolutely not required by UK law, apple just seems to enjoy the taste of government boot.
• DanielHall 6mo ago
  the specific complaints are fair (gatekeeper friction, tahoe/liquid glass, the UK age check thing) but I always wonder who these "X just lost me" posts are for. Apple doesn't care. They care about churn numbers, not individual blog posts. also like... credit card as age verification isn't an Apple invention, Google and Meta does the same thing. And "your account region should match where you live" has been the rule forever. If you were running a cross-region account that whole time you were basically on borrowed time. Sucks when it finally breaks but it was never really supported. idk, as a "here's the stuff that finally pushed me over" post it's fine. the "$BIGCO just lost me" framing is what makes it eye-roll-y. they didn't lose you, you left. there's a difference and it matters because one implies they should care.
• mvdtnz 6mo ago
  Frankly I don't believe the author. They'll stick around. They know it. I know it. Apple knows it. If the bullshit of the past 10 years weren't enough then nothing will be enough to chase you away. You'll buy the next shiny iPhone, you'll buy the next Macbook Pro, you'll buy the next iWatch. We all know it.