[lif]

can someone explain how a subscription-based product is a great option for privacy?

or how being locked in to a black box vpn instills a sense of having gained reliable true privacy?

[turtlebits]

It's probably to pay for all the things Google provides for free, app store hosting, review, curation, backups, synced data, etc.

[mzajc]

> app store hosting, review

Do they actually host anything at all? All I could find was their F-Droid repository with six (6) applications: https://store.aphy.app/fdroid/repo/. The rest must come from elsewhere (F-Droid's main archive?), but they don't indicate if they actually use the rent you pay to fund the third parties they depend on.

For comparison, the F-Droid archive consists of 4061 applications reviewed, built, and hosted by the F-Droid team for free.

[endemic]

yeah, it seems like the target market for a privacy-focused device like this are the nerds who could do it themselves and be more confident of the results