Wow. I was on ProtonMail’s website debating wherever to sign up for them or someone else. Decision made after reading this.

First, everyone techie enough to play Fortnite or consider ProtonMail knows full well that visiting a company’s website might offer other ways to sign up or pay, that apps are often limited by a hundred things. As they often are. Maybe the Gmail app should “hint” that you can see more emails of your inbox on your 27” monitor. Heck, maybe Google should try and sell you a bigger monitor instead of just letting people use the stupid app.

I’m definitely not going to give ProtonMail my American dollars if they are blasting Apple, a great American company, from their European roost. They can slip back into their obscurity. It’s these little bit players that have been embolden by Epic’s stupidity. They are all shooting themselves in the foot.

Others here are correct. I have to spend time researching cancellation methods BEFORE I sign up if not using IAP. Some companies are the devil.

But in ProtonMail’s case, I had no interest in signing via my phone. I only keep Apple-created apps on my phone. Sorry... too many other bad experiences over the years. Like apps sending my location to 3rd-party advertisers, or burning up my battery, or using up data. After 10 years with iPhones, I’ve not only learned that most apps are bloated junk, but even the “useful” ones are better accessed as a bookmark on Safari. Or not at all.

I’ve also learned that a smartphone is a portal to madness for most people so having just the basics for minimum life functionality is more than sufficient. The photo-editing apps, social media, weather apps, and whole categories of apps (games!) are pointless toward creation of a meaningful and healthy life.

Oh and that includes the thousands of “fitness” apps. Unless you’re a pro athlete (you’re not!), what the heck? Sleep apps, reading list apps, running apps... all designed to put a phone, the internet, and some company between you and a normal human activity that needs none of it.

The huge exception is Reddit. I hate that website but it occasionally comes up in search results. Click on it to your ultimate doom. It’s completely unusable. It should get an award for the first bulletin board site that is unreadable without a technical manual.

Apple should ban Reddit on Safari for being “nagware”. Just block that site. It’s useless.

These few bit players (well, and Epic) want their own App Store. Be careful what you wish for Epic, you might just get it. Let them have it, Apple and let all these bit players clamor to get on it and whine to Epic instead about all their “policies” and “pay rates”.

Meanwhile, Apple should make an iPhone called the iPhone Secure+ (based off the SE2).

Make it even smaller and lighter, even cheaper, waterproof and Caterpillar-like hardened materials, but here’s the kicker:

NO THIRD-PARTY APPS AT ALL!

In fact, maybe not even some of Apple’s! Who the heck uses Pages and Numbers on a 4-inch screen?

Just a phone that works for normal people who are busy. And it should be conspicuous and bold! Make it obvious to all that you have a personal phone that is just for a few utilitarian purposes and you’re not a dweeb who scrolls through Instagram, Tinder, or plays games on the toilet! It would be the conversation piece of this decade.