Advice on alternatives

[mpmbeast]

Hi, family of 5 and all use Apple products. iPhone each. iPad. MacBook Pro etc. with the way Apple is going with ads and then like I was seriously thinking of switching to Linux on a custom pc for everything but wondered if anybody knew the best way for what we want to do. We will be buying a big nas drive to store all our photos and music etc and stop using iCloud.

We want:

1: iOS app that can we can have the photos being saved to, when taken, and not the photos app. Also must be good for editing the photos including raw. (I have the 14 pro max 1tb). Also would like it where we can do a shared album if possible that I can set up of the kids when they were young but only for them to view and not be able to delete.

2: MacOS version of the above app for when I’m on the Mac and must sync (like photos)

3: Alternative to Mail.

We have all decided on signal instead of iMessage and that works perfectly. Also using Firefox on both iOS and MacOS and that works perfectly and is faster. Also videos on YouTube are much better quality for some reason.

Cheers

Matt

 

[usagora]

Ok, I'm confused. What does Apple putting ads in the Apple TV app and the App Store have to do with your use of iCloud, Mail, and Messages? I seriously don't get all the drama surrounding this on this forum! Unless there's some other reason that you're not communicating here, then I'd suggest simply continuing to use these services/apps if they're working for you. FWIW, there's absolutely no video quality difference for me on YouTube regardless of which browser I'm using on either macOS or iOS.

 

[mpmbeast]

Ok, I'm confused. What does Apple putting ads in the Apple TV app and the App Store have to do with your use of iCloud, Mail, and Messages? I seriously don't get all the drama surrounding this on this forum! Unless there's some other reason that you're not communicating here, then I'd suggest simply continuing to use these services/apps if they're working for you. FWIW, there's absolutely no video quality difference for me on YouTube regardless of which browser I'm using on either macOS or iOS.

A bit of trust has been lost for me with Apple tbh. I buy Apple products for not to be tracked, sold to, manipulated etc. Ads on the AppStore, news, tv app etc is being sold to and it doesn’t work for me. Just a bit sick of limitations. Firefox YouTube compression is far better than safari. I’ve compared both side by side. According to the internet, it’s because Apple refuses to use the latest codec hence why battery life is a bit better streaming video on safari than Firefox but then the quality is better on Firefox.

 

[usagora]

A bit of trust has been lost for me with Apple tbh. I buy Apple products for not to be tracked, sold to, manipulated etc. Ads on the AppStore, news, tv app etc is being sold to and it doesn’t work for me. Just a bit sick of limitations. Firefox YouTube compression is far better than safari. I’ve compared both side by side. According to the internet, it’s because Apple refuses to use the latest codec hence why battery life is a bit better streaming video on safari than Firefox but then the quality is better on Firefox.

Yet you seem to be indicating you're wanting to keep your Apple products but are looking for alternative apps, thus my confusion with what this has to do with ads. Also, expecting a company not to want to sell you things is pretty unreasonable, imo. That's what they've been doing at every Apple event in history, after all. Whether you're manipulated by marketing is up to you, not Apple. And I'm not sure how they're tracking you either.

As for the YouTube quality--you have better eyes than I do. I've never seen a difference in Safari 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[maflynn]

I buy Apple products for not to be tracked, sold to

Apple has been tracking you and your usage for quite some, the ads that are popping up are just a natural progression of what they've been doing.

Source

Apple may share personal data with Apple-affiliated companies, service providers who act on our behalf, our partners, developers, and publishers, or others at your direction. Further, Apple does not share personal data with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

 

[ndouglas]

What you listed is what I do mostly, and closest one can get to any semblance of privacy these days. Using Signal whenever possible, Firefox on strict settings, adbl—kers on and auto-cleared cookies especially on my Macbook version as Ipados doesn’t seem to offer the cookie cleaning, Adguard type apps, don’t use or minimally use icloud. For photos I just manually remove them via backup drive off my devices every 6-12 months, to avoid the icloud photo storage they heavily promote.
It’s an uphill battle no matter what.
Sounds like you’re doing a moderately good job / strategy with your family in getting them to use Signal, which is more than I’ve managed to do.
Best wishes in your efforts!

 

[mpmbeast]

What you listed is what I do mostly, and closest one can get to any semblance of privacy these days. Using Signal whenever possible, Firefox on strict settings, adbl—kers on and auto-cleared cookies especially on my Macbook version as Ipados doesn’t seem to offer the cookie cleaning, Adguard type apps, don’t use or minimally use icloud. For photos I just manually remove them via backup drive off my devices every 6-12 months, to avoid the icloud photo storage they heavily promote.
It’s an uphill battle no matter what.
Sounds like you’re doing a moderately good job / strategy with your family in getting them to use Signal, which is more than I’ve managed to do.
Best wishes in your efforts!

Thanks for the reply and well wishes

 

[NoBoMac]

Moderator Note:

Posts have been deleted. No digressions into political and social topics.

 

[Feek]

with the way Apple is going with ads

What ads?

 

[AppliedMicro]

using Firefox on both iOS and MacOS and that works perfectly and is faster. Also videos on YouTube are much better quality for some reason.

Firefox uses the same rendering engine on iOS as Safari (due to Apple not allowing the user of others), so it can hardly be faster. And there‘s no good reason why Youtube should be better quality. Personally, I‘ve also never had the impression that Firefox is faster than Safari on Macs.

Alternative to Mail

Preside on iOS.

Sure, the UI looks and feels ancient, but since you haven’t specified any other requirement for a mail app (other than that not collecting data, as can be inferred by your comments). It‘s one of the few third-party email clients that claim not to collect any data. Almost all other Mail apps on iOS admit to do so.

On the Mac, Thunderbird is your obvious choice as a Firefox user - I also like MailMate (privacy policy here).