The US Department of Justice and 16 state and district attorneys general accused Apple of operating an illegal monopoly in the smartphone market in a new antitrust lawsuit. The DOJ and states are accusing Apple of driving up prices for consumers and developers at the expense of making users more reliant on its iPhones.

  • JCreazy@midwest.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    31
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    9 months ago

    Now we just need the US to force carriers to automatically unlock phones after they are paid off.

    • Kairos@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      34
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      They do actually. What you’re talking about is unlocking the bootloader.

      I wanted to borrow a friend’s [old] phone to try out graphene but he got it from Verizon and they keep the bootloaders locked so it was worthless.

      • MyNamesNotRobert@lemmynsfw.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        19
        ·
        edit-2
        9 months ago

        As soon as smartphones started becoming commonplace in like 2009 or so, I dropped Verizon because I wasn’t going to pay $500 for a smartphone that couldn’t have custom roms. Verizon can go fuck themselves.

      • JCreazy@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        A lot of carriers make you wait a certain period of time before unlocking. I’m hoping that I can get my phone unlocked so I can install graphene OS. I got a good deal on it so that’s why I bought it locked, I’m going to degoogle it as much as possible until I can get the bootloader unlocked.

          • JCreazy@midwest.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            9 months ago

            I am well aware but you can’t unlock the boot loader without having a phone carrier unlocked.

            • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              9 months ago

              It’s been a while since I did it, but every single time I’ve unlocked a bootloader it’s been on a carrier-locked device. I’d usualy do it to remove carrier bloat.

              • JCreazy@midwest.social
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                9 months ago

                Carrier Unlocking is required before a phone can be bootloader unlocked, at least on my Pixel 8.

                • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  9 months ago

                  Ahh - I think I see what you’re getting at.

                  I think the Pixel allows unlocking the bootloader, so it’s just the carrier in the way.

                  Most phones have to be hacked to unlock the bootloader because of the manufacturer locking it, so the carrier doesn’t really matter since you’re having to bypass locks anyway.