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
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    8 months ago

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

    • Kairos@lemmy.today
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      8 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
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        8 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
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        8 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
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            8 months ago

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

            • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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              8 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
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                8 months ago

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

                • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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                  8 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.