Dear Synology… I’m going to buy a NAS. Now I’m sure it will not be a Synology!

Synology Locks Key NAS Features Behind Proprietary Drive Requirement (tomshardware.com) 38

Synology’s upcoming Plus Series NAS systems will restrict full functionality to users who install the company’s self-branded hard drives, Tom’s Hardware is reporting, marking a significant shift in the consumer NAS market. While third-party drives will still work for basic storage, critical features including drive health monitoring, volume-wide deduplication, lifespan analysis, and automatic firmware updates will be disabled, the publication said.

The restriction doesn’t apply to Synology’s 2024 and older models, only affecting new Plus Series devices targeted at SMBs and advanced home users. Synology itself doesn’t manufacture drives but rebrands HDDs from major manufacturers like Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba, often with custom firmware that functions as DRM. According to Synology, the change follows successful implementation in their enterprise solutions and will deliver “higher performance, increased reliability, and more efficient support.” A workaround exists: users can initialize a non-Synology drive in an older Synology NAS and then migrate it to a new Plus model without restrictions.

Firmware Update Introducing New Authorization Control SystemLaunching first for X Series printers, with P and A Series updates planned for future release

Source: Firmware Update Introducing New Authorization Control System

Apple ha rotto le web app su iPhone in Europa, di proposito | SmartWorld

La cosa che fa più rabbia è che le PWA Progressive Web Application erano l’unica maniera per installare applicazioni nella prima versione di iOS!

To be fair Apple was really the first platform to support the concept of a web app. When they released the iPhone the first apps were HTML5 based.

From https://love2dev.com/pwa/ios/

HP ammette: il nostro scopo è imprigionare gli utenti

Per il CEO dell’azienda, il fine ultimo è trasformare la stampa in un abbonamento.

Ciaone, cara HP, non acquisterò mai più le tue stampanti. O le multi-funzioni.

Dear HP, I’ve been a loyal customer but when reading such news I doubt I will want to buy another HP device. Let’s keep supporting Linux and other free-as-freedom operative systems and I will keep supporting you

Wiko è un’azienda francese produttrice di smartphone. Le azioni dell’azienda francese sono di proprietà della società cinese Tinno

Source: Wiko – Wikipedia

Già questo sarebbe sufficiente. Poi aggiungiamo che

Nel novembre 2017, è stato rivelato che l’applicazione preinstallata all’interno dei telefoni di Wiko (una sussidiaria di Tinno Mobile) trasmetteva mensilmente i dati tecnici a Tinno senza il consenso del cliente. La società ha confermato l’esistenza di tale sistema di raccolta delle informazioni e detta versione aggiornata di tali applicazioni non raccoglierà più informazioni geografiche dei dispositivi.
….
Spegnimento remoto
È stata identificata una vulnerabilità che consente a chiunque di spegnere in remoto un telefono utilizzando un messaggio di testo ‘=’, il difetto potrebbe essere nell’hardware, piuttosto che nel software.

Dall’edizione inglese della voce Wiko

Se per voi non è sufficiente, beh, per me lo è. Eccome se lo è. Quindi:

Wiko? No, grazie!

Lo stesso vale per Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, Realme, Coolpad, LeEco, ed ovviamente Huawei e Xiaomi. Certo di questo passo dovrei escludere praticamente tutta l’elettronica o quasi, compreso FairPhone, lasciando fuori solo Samsung che ha saggiamente spostato fuori dalla Cina le sue fabbriche.

M.G. Siegler@mgsiegler 26 nov

That’s awesome. A little less awesome is the subtle hostility of Apple toward user freedom and Software Libero. As we can read on Linus Torvalds Would Like To Use An M1 Mac For Linux, But..

The new Air would be almost perfect, except for the OS. And I don’t have the time to tinker with it, or the inclination to fight companies that don’t want to help.

Linus Torvalds about porting Linux to Apple’s M1

It’s only a matter of time and we will get it. We already have the low-level but very cheap Pine64 Pro.

As a society, we need an open source device for reading. Books are among the most important documents of our culture, yet the most popular and widespread devices we have for reading — the Kobo, the Nook, the Kindle and even the iPad — are closed devices, operating as small moving parts in a set of giant closed platforms whose owners’ interests are not always aligned with readers’.

Joeycastillo‘s aims are more than good. It is a step in the right direction. Sadly, the e-ink screen currently available for such “built-it-yourself” hardware is not comparable with those of Kobo, Nook or Kindle. It’s way too small, and its resolution are too coarse.

I would rather prefer a “free-as-in-freedom” ROM for my Kobo. Luckily it seems that there are several custom firmware for Kobo, according to DuckDuckGo. You can even turn your Kobo into a Debian Linux Tablet. Here’s some random links about it:

• https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2018/03/17/list-of-hacks-mods-and-add-ons-for-kobo-ereaders/ https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=295612 https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kobo_Touch_Hacking
• https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14079721
• https://gitter.im/koreader/koreader https://github.com/koreader/koreader
• https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/Installation-on-Kobo-devices https://github.com/ccoffing/OcherBook https://github.com/ccoffing/OcherBook/wiki/Installation
• https://it.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-clara-hd

The one I liked more is okreader. Its README says:

Free/libre software stack for Kobo ebook readers. No proprietary software (except WiFi and EPD controller firmware), no spyware and no DRM. Based on koreader and Debian.

I now have an official excuse to get me another Kobo: I can’t mess up those of my daughter, she will need it this summer!

“Pseudo browsers like Chrome, Edge, and FireFox on iOS also do not support any progressive web app functionality on iOS. These browsers use the webview to render pages and not their own engines. So, for now, they are also limited.”

That’s what I read in “Progressive Web Application Development by Example” by Chris Love from Packt Publishing.

From from I understand it seems that the owner of an iPhone cannot install a “proper browser” in iOS. Apple forbids the rightful owner to use its own device as he likes, more specifically they forbid to install a browser that implements its own rendering engine.

I think I will never buy such devices: I want to have full control on my own devices.

For sure I will keep explaing this deficiencies and telling people to avoid Apple’s products.