Interesting business decision…I’m not sure why anyone would pay a steeper price when GrapheneOS has been supporting the Pixel Tablet for some time now.
After launching several privacy-focused smartphones, Murena has released its first tablet. The French company customizes mobile devices with a version of Android called /e/OS that removes Google’s apps and services so the search giant can’t collect your data and personal info. The company is sticking with that familiar playbook for the Murena Pixel Tablet which is a customized version of Google’s Pixel Tablet that was released in 2023. You don’t get to choose a color or more than 128GB of storage, but you do get the peace of mind that a giant corporation isn’t keeping tabs on everything you do with it.
Yes. Although we can also see it positvely, as a step for people who buy it to become more involved in privacy, getting to know more private services outside Google (and maybe outside Murena cloud too ) (OnlyOffice, Notesnook, Bitwarden, Brave,…). I mean it’s good if a company makes marketing and ads to attract people in the privacy world. And then maybe they won’t be convinced and will switch to a more secure device.
But yes I want to cry.
The problem is even more systemic. A large number of “tech journalists” specialize on covering consumer hardware and basic technology policy. They usually lack nuanced knowledge on basic digital security and privacy.
Now, that doesn’t mean that all of them are like this. But it’s still really concerning given the important information they’re sharing.
I’m not seeing anything about Murena cloud being E2EE, if it’s not then it’s not any different than Google except you’re choosing to trust this random company over a much more established one. /e/OS is also a massive security downgrade from the stock OS. You’re basically paying a higher price for a worse product.
But I guess what I’m not understanding is, if you’re going to just nuke what’s on it anyway then why not just buy it directly from google. The value add here is that they put their crappy services and OS on it instead of Google.
I think there may be a lot of wrong reasons to do this. What I mean is that this is one more step in their privacy journey and this may lead users to a better and safer setup later.
For instance, I installed Lineage OS on my old phone (not for good reasons I guess) and THEN - because I was looking into MicroG, Android security, ROMs, etc. - I went for GrapheneOS.
In all cases, it would of course be better if Murena could use their money better and find a business model that improves user security (and hence their privacy) !
My problem is that they overmarket. They scare you with how much data even the iPhone coect per day! And show themselves as a solution. Dismissing any security issue as “We don’t need hardened security”
As a former /e/ user, we are much better off without them. We need more DivestOS and not /e/OS
This is my problem, may, /e/OS does a really good job giving people a false sense of privacy through their marketing and their ‘Advanced Privacy’ feature. They are trying not to be the gateway but the end all be all, the ‘fully’ degoogled. The only reason I researched and switched away because
I had time
I was already familiar with custom Android Operating system like EvoX or CrDroid and those ship monthly security update (for some devices), and /e/ delaying that makes me curious
PS: Everyone gets into privacy for a different reason so I don’t think it’s productive to compare one experience and generalize. For ex: I start using proton mail because I prefer how it looks
The wrong door leads to the wrong room. There are many other better ways people can enter the privacy journey without relying on a company that lies about the extent of their privacy protection, dismisses basic security, runs a terrible cloud service that they can read the data of, recommend user to use said cloud service instead of anything else, sells devices with an EOL chip from 7 years ago (Murena 2), etc.
And many YouTubers just parrot their talking points without checking and getting their fans on board.
I made a rant post about this a while back, it really frustrates me
So again I have to make assumptions, if they claim they sell pixel tablets loaded with /e/OS, and they deliver it, then it is not a scam in my opinion.
Unethical, misguided or misleading marketing is another issue.
) (OnlyOffice, Notesnook, Bitwarden, Brave,…). I mean it’s good if a company makes marketing and ads to attract people in the privacy world. And then maybe they won’t be convinced and will switch to a more secure device.
