Whenever you purchase a telephone right now, your first resolution is to determine which working system you need: Android or iOS. We’ve seen different platforms come and go through the years, from Home windows Cellphone to Palm OS, however Android and iOS stay your two sole decisions in 2024.
One of many final issues I noticed at CES 2024 earlier this month was a smartphone working system that’s making an attempt to be that third selection between Android and iOS. It’s referred to as Apostrophy OS (additionally known as AphyOS), and I obtained to mess around with it whereas additionally chatting with Apostrophy CEO Steve Cistulli to be taught concerning the could-be Android and iOS various.
What’s Apostrophy OS?
Within the firm’s personal phrases, Apostrophy OS is “a bespoke OS-level implementation built-in, in partnership, with an Authentic Tools Producer (OEM) smartphone.” In easier phrases, it’s an working system that smartphone producers can license and use on their units — similar to Android.
Apostrophy OS can be primarily based on Android at its core (particularly, Android 13), nevertheless it’s been closely modified to work fairly a bit in another way — with a giant deal with consumer privateness. Apostrophy relies out of Switzerland, and Apostrophy OS provides you “full management” over all your private knowledge.
Ranging from the house display, your essential house web page on Apostrophy OS is named the “Domus.” It’s a grayscale web page with shortcuts for the Aphy Retailer (Apostrophy’s personal app retailer), your calendar, contacts, Apostrophy’s VPN service, your information, e-mail, and extra. You’ll be able to’t customise something on this web page, and all the pieces you do right here is run by means of Apostrophy’s servers for optimum safety.
Nonetheless, swiping to the left takes you to the “Piazza.” The Piazza will be personalized like another Android house display, and you may run no matter apps you need right here. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless designed to be safer, as every app you run within the Piazza is sandboxed and saved separate out of your different apps there.
This implies you possibly can nonetheless use any Android app you’d like — be it WhatsApp, YouTube, Instagram, and so forth. — however the app is working as its personal, particular person factor with out entry to your knowledge past the partitions of the appliance. The Google Play Retailer isn’t put in by default on Apostrophy OS, however you possibly can simply set up it in a matter of minutes. Cistulli walked me by means of the method himself, and it’s actually only a matter of coming into your Google account info and accepting some privateness phrases.
As Cistulli defined to me, “I’ve a relationship with WhatsApp. I do know the data that WhatsApp is taking and that Meta will likely be utilizing. That’s now the singular relationship. I don’t have to fret about Google being concerned in that relationship anymore.”
The identical factor applies to different apps, together with Google’s. As Cistulli advised me:
“I like YouTube and YouTube Music, and I exploit these very often. That’s my relationship with YouTube and with Google. Does it imply that they’ve entry to my Gmail and all the pieces else?.” When you aren’t utilizing Gmail or different Google companies, the reply is “no.”
A VPN, e-mail account, and extra — for a worth
However a safe approach to make use of Android apps is barely a part of the Apostrophy OS expertise. The opposite large factor Apostrophy presents is a set of apps and companies offered immediately by the corporate.
The primary of these is named Digital Nomad, and it’s basically a VPN baked into the working system. You’ll be able to flip it on anytime and alter your location from the U.S., Germany, or Japan. As long as it’s enabled, all the pieces you do in your Apostrophy OS smartphone is hidden behind the VPN.
What I discovered extra fascinating is a function referred to as “Ledger.” Whenever you press and maintain on any utility, you possibly can faucet the Ledger icon. When you do, you’re taken to a brand new web page with Knowledge Privateness and Carbon Discount dials particular to that app.
Whenever you transfer these dials, you’re basically altering the assorted permissions that the app has in your telephone. Nonetheless, as an alternative of getting to manually change every permission your self with no clear rationalization of what it’s doing, that’s all dealt with routinely by Apostrophy OS while you transfer these dials. Need an utility to have free vary to the entire permissions it’s requesting? Crank the Knowledge Privateness slider to 1. Need to enable some crucial permissions however block others? Possibly flip the dial to 4.
Every quantity on the dial clearly explains what you’re altering and what permissions are being allowed/denied. The Carbon Discount slider works the identical approach however focuses on limiting your telephone’s computing energy. Shifting this dial to 2, for instance, permits an app to have restricted background knowledge utilization with optimized battery utilization. Altering it to three outright denies background knowledge use from that app and restricts its battery use.
Cistulli broke it down for me like this:
“Nearly all of individuals don’t wish to undergo and discuss 200 various kinds of permissions and accesses. What we’ve accomplished is we’ve categorized them into privateness and vitality impression, after which providing you with these actually easy, actually cool dials, alongside together with your vitality impression per utility.”
Together with the VPN and Ledger companies, Apostrophy OS provides you your Apostrophy account with a brand new e-mail handle, calendar, contacts, duties app, and 5GB of cloud cupboard space. All of this comes at a price of round $15/month, and one 12 months is included without spending a dime with the acquisition of any Apostrophy OS telephone.
The {hardware} powering Apostrophy OS
That’s the Apostrophy OS software program — however what concerning the {hardware}? The telephone I used — and the one Apostrophy OS handset in the mean time — is the Punkt MC02.
It’s a reasonably normal Android telephone. It has a 6.67-inch IPS display with a 2400 x 1080 decision and a 60Hz refresh fee. You get a MediaTek Dimensity 900 processor, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of expandable storage, a 64MP essential digicam with an 8MP ultrawide digicam, and a 2MP macro digicam. It’ll set you again $749.
The telephone felt well-constructed throughout my hands-on time, however these specs for $749 could possibly be a troublesome promote. The excellent news? Extra Apostrophy OS telephones are coming. Cistulli says Apostrophy already has “one other OEM on board” and that the corporate may have “a 3rd [OEM] by the top of the 12 months.”
The Android various we’ve been ready for?
Is Apostrophy OS the third cell working system we’ve been ready for within the Android vs. iOS world? The heavy privateness focus and the required subscription make it a decidedly area of interest choice, however there’s definitely one thing right here.
Apostrophy has accomplished a very good job at making its software program straightforward to function and perceive, and that’s an accomplishment that shouldn’t be ignored. The privateness instruments make sense, all of it works very equally to different Android telephones, and you may nonetheless use any app you already use in your Galaxy S23 or Google Pixel 8. As Cistulli put it merely, “Why would you select one other Android system when you can have the very best of each worlds?”
There are apparent hurdles Apostrophy wants to beat. It must get Apostrophy OS working on extra units, get these units onto retailer cabinets and in entrance of individuals’s eyes, and make a convincing argument that it’s value shopping for a telephone with a month-to-month subscription. These are all a lot simpler mentioned than accomplished, however Apostrophy appears up for the problem. And I’m now desperate to see how the corporate does it.
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