I’ve been a Microsoft adherent for decades, but when the mobile wars heated up, I stood firmly with Apple. We now stand athwart an industry with Google’s command on one side and Apple’s on the other. There’s no middle ground or alternative. Not sure if this is an antitrust opportunity, but there needs to be some sort of competition. This is bad news for everyone as I see it.
Any manufacturers making 4G/LTE flip phones?
Maybe the answer is to get a basic burner phone for phone calls, look a maps, take pictures and send texts. Forget about surfing the web and all the other “great features”.
Except people are addicted to their phones.
An additional concern is with this back door stuff, ... can stuff be planted on a person’s phone now when the givernment-big tech complex wants to take a target down?
I and my parents use Tracfones. They both have flip phones - elderly & just can’t handle anything else. My dad makes some phone calls on his, but both phones are for emergencies. I have a Tracfone LG android that I bought on Amazon for a really good price - actually came with airtime as a bonus, too. Here’s a flip phone link at Tracfone:
https://shop.tracfone.com/shop/en/tracfonestore/phones/tf-lg-classic-flip-l125dl
You can also find Tracfones at stores like Walmart, Target, maybe Walgreens .... they may not have exactly what you want. The Tracfone store has a bigger selections.
The phones are not expensive & if you put time on quarterly, you can do it for $80/year. You can buy a year card, but that’s $99 (I think). I use my phone heavily so I end up buying extra texts ($5 for 1,000)) & I also buy extra ‘data’ if I’m going on a trip & use the phone for directions.
Overall, the Tracfones have been really good for us - airtime is easy to add & for the most part, if I’ve ever had to call customer service, it’s been an “ok” experience (foreign, but nice).
I need to go back to a flip phone, need to find one that can do text and serve as a WIFI access point.
BTW, when you buy a Tracfone, unless you set up an account with them (you don’t have to), there is no way to link the phone to you (if you buy with a charge card, that maybe could be traced by the big alphabet agencies ).
In some countries, you can buy a phone, but the SIM card has to be bought separately & “registered” - this is an anti-terrorism/crime measure I believe. In the US, the Tracfone SIM card comes with the phone and is not registered to any particular person - frankly, I’m surprised because Tracfones are good “burner” phones.