I am sure that plenty of "real ones" own iphones. I've met them. I've always had android phone but I haven't felt the urge to even change the background wallpaper for about a decade. Phones feel kind of underpowered, overpriced and anachronistic for my life.

The desire to customize your environment is not a pre-requisite for being _authentic_ and _true_ to making the blinky lights blink. Underneath all the artifice and baubles, all we need are to chain some magic words together, and to see if they do what we expect, over and over and over again. That's unaffected by whose logo is on your hoodie-vest.

> I am sure that plenty of "real ones" own iphones.

I think they've either been trained to not care so deeply about their phone, or they're jailbroken.

Unfortunately it's really a shame. We need more choices.

Google now occupies 50% of my screen with an intrusive non dismissable message telling me I need to enable autouodate of the apps in the appstore.

I am switching camp, Google is selling the illusion of choice. They want control back from options and I don't intend to be part of that journey.

My experience is exactly the opposite.

I know quite a few programmer/hacker types, many of whom are cognizant of and responsive to contemporary security and privacy issues. Almost to a one, the smartphone is where they compromise most dramatically, carrying iPhones or, more bizarrely, stock Android.