Wait. What happened to the iPhone 9? Has Space-X made the letter X too cool for school? Anyway, the latest, greatest iPhone is not suitable for The People of the Gun. Here’s why . . .

1. It’s a thief magnet

The iPhone X retails for just under a grand-in-the-hand. The price plus the limited supply/strong demand means that iPhone X will sell for a premium on the black market.

Because the iPhone X will be relatively easy to spot — large size, no home button — thieves will know that’s the one they want. To take from you. Physically. Most likely on the street, when you’re distracted by the X’s mesmerizing OLED screen.

Being mugged poses an imminent, credible threat of grievous bodily harm or death. As an armed American, you do NOT want to increase your odds of being mugged. If nothing else, the post-defensive gun use police paperwork is insane.

2. Facial recognition removes security safeguards

Unlock your iPhone just by looking at it! How great is that?

Great for the cops in the post-DGU scenario described above. Instead of asking you to unlock your iPhone with your pin or finger — which you can and should refuse to do without your lawyer’s say-so — the boys in blue can just point your X at your face.

By the same token, smart criminals (they do exist) know that some people keep passwords and PIN numbers on their phones. The bad guys can also point your “liberated” iPhone X at you, unlock it and peruse for your precious stored information.

3. You could buy another gun instead!

These days, about the only person without a smartphone is someone who just had theirs stolen and hasn’t made it to the store yet. Which means dropping a grand on a new iPhone is hardly likely to leave you iPhoneless. But deciding not to will leave you with some “extra” money in your pocket. Money that you could spend on a brand new gun!

Note: my accountant tells me that logic is faulty to the point of delusion — and potential penury. But I did mention that these warnings are for The People of the Gun, who share a particularly new-firearm-friendly perspective.

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104 COMMENTS

    • +1…shoot, hit a pawn shop and buy the cheapest, weirdest gun you can and write a review on it. Not my site though.

      • “hit a pawn shop and buy the cheapest, weirdest gun you can and write a review on it. ”

        That’s actually a really neat idea. TTAG, if you can afford to buy a new P320 and destroy if for a drop test, you can afford this nifty idea.

        To a certain extent, this would be a more appealing read than just another $2000 handgun or $3000 rifle review, neither of which I will ever own.

    • Reason #5:
      Siri and Apple Maps are garbage. Google assistant and maps are far superior, as is the Google ML in other areas, like Photos or Lens.

    • By fing Apple. But the progs at Giggle are at least as bad. Oh for a smart phone by a company with “common sense”.

    • But you’re not the typical buyer because the typical buyer wants to use the new bells and whistles so they can brad to their friends.

  4. 1 and 3 are very valid points. Number 2 is not for people like me because I would turn that feature off from the get-go.

    • Police need a warrant to search your phone: http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/25/justice/supreme-court-cell-phones/index.html
      Anything obtained absent a warrant is inadmissible.
      If youre dealing with dirty cops and a messed up judiciary, then no security features will stop them from accessing your phone, or searching your house, or seizing your papers and computers, or torturing you, etc. If you are that paranoid, then dont keep sensative data on a mobile comunication device that can be easilly hacked by any number of entities. The gov’mnt not withstanding, there are pleany of people trying to get your sensative data and they don’t care about warrants at all.

      • Negative Ghostrider, police can and do regularly search phones, lap tops, and mobile devices at the border. There is a pending lawsuit to stop this activity, but it happens every day for now.

        • The border is treated differently, as there is 1) an implied consent to search as a condition of entry and 2) a substantial public interest in the interception of contraband. However, the logic of this, as alleged in the lawsuit, does not apply to electronic media, including phones and computers.

        • Fair enough, but there will always be exceptions written in to statutory law or ruled upon by the judiciary. What youre talking about sounds like some patriot act crap….. hell, id we’re going there, then keep in mind that NSA has all you digital info stored at the national cycerwarfare and data center in utah any way. But, RF was talking about street cops pulling your info for an investigation.

      • Yup, just like JWT says, your finger ID is not protected. Cops can swipe your finger for you (without your permission) and get access to your phone. If you have password manager that requires a password once on your phone, then they need a court order, or if your phone is password-protected they’d need a court order, but any phone apart from the iPhone 5S, 6 and 7 are not protected and easily accessible via a nifty device called a Cellebrite. Consider it a phone soul-stealer. It rips all your data off the phone, organizes it and makes even erased txts, photos and messages available to investigators. The only phones not accessible with this device are the iPhone 5S, 6 and 7. Those are encrypted and are effectively bricked. Ordinary PD can’t crack those, but it’s rumored various 3 letter agencies can.

    • I’m not that concerned. It takes far more than just flashing the phone in your face to unlock it. It’s actually pretty secure. If you’re really paranoid, you can just add in a 32 character alpha-numeric password.

      In any case, data security is an arms race. I don’t keep anything life or death critical on a machine without and airgap.

    • In Apple’s defense on number 2, it doesn’t work if your eyes are closed. And I imagine it would be hard to make it work with someone holding your eyes open, too. So you should still be able to keep someone from unlocking it against your will.

  5. I wouldn’t use facial ID to unlock in any event, passcode is more secure and forcing you to give it up is more complicated.

    • I’ve always thought there should be a feature that allows the phone to enact a series of actions (covertly) if a certain code is typed in, but the phone appears to be working normally.

      It would be useful to make the phone programed to call the 911 and let them listen in, or send a message to all your buddies with a code word meaning “Burn the papers” or “hide the porn” or whatever.

      Or something that turned the phone off or lock it up until you go to the store, or plug it into the computer, or SOMETHING for emergencies. Lots of people don’t even lock their bank account applications and there’s some criminal that will make use of that.

  6. The posting is not very gun, but germane under the “situational awareness” category.

    It gets a pass.

    So does the phone.

  7. 1) All your iphones are super brickable. CHanges made to make them so have reduced the number of thefts. It’s not that significant a target, and in general, isn’t going to be the deciding factor compared to you not paying attention to your surroundings.

    2) ios11 includes a means to rapidly lock out face recognition and require a pass code just like on reboot. ios is probably the least privacy invading option, espcially if you are willing o turn off certain features.

    3) Your accountant is correct.

    But hey had to go for the click bait. right?

    • All phones are brickable. But you cannot safely cc a brick, even with a shoulder holster.

      jk

      The whole damn thing is glass or ceramic right?

      But,

      Yes, as far as security, I think the iOSs are safer-ish. I think the face recognition will be equal blessing and curse.

      IMHO, all your “information” required due to your use of ANY TECHNOLOGY should be YOURS. Without question or quibble (AND DIFFICULT TO ASSIGN THOSE RIGHTS AWAY [as it creates market inroads on everyone else]), USE OR COLLECTION OF IT SHOULD BE 100% ILLEGAL (and if a foreign entity cannot [or is found out to willfully not] comply, they should be hunted down and slaughtered). If you can’t run your POS tech company without selling anyone’s private information or use history [however innocuously “anonymous”] tough crap. If you want to “enhance the user experience and provide more personal connection” START PROVIDING A MORE ENHANCED EXPERIENCE BY PUBLICLY IMMOLATING YOURSELF.

      • I agree with you. By brickable, I meant to be made useless.

        If you remote wipe an ios device it goes into a self wiping loop. It’s not usable as a phone until whichever mother ship you registered it with says it is no longer in wipe mode.

        Android devices do a variety of things, from lie and say they are wiping themselves while really doing nothing, to simply reverting back to empty factory state thus giving a thief a clean, uninitialized phone they can make use of.

        Really, the most valuable part of iOS is that apple eliminated 3rd party manufacturers and made the carriers their bitch.

  8. Two reasons to not buy Apple products:
    They are a shit company full of libtards and sjw’s, they are amongst the worse half of the silicon valley, and silicon valey already is a pro-communism shithole.
    And their products are shit. Inferior in technical specifications yet at least 100$ more expensive than the competition.

    • I agree, but as an Android user, Google isn’t any better.
      Secondly, iPhone is the de facto standard. I can’t videochat with most of my contacts cuz I use Android. I can’t send HD video to most, etc. There are workarounds, but they’re usually beyond the regular iPhone user/grandma/parent/coworker’s level.

      • For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would want to video chat or send HD video. The whole smartphone trend has about run its course; I’ll probably be replacing mine with a flip phone once it kicks the bucket.

        • It’s really helpful when you’re trying to deal with a coworker who isn’t as hip as us cool cats. Otherwise I mostly agree. If I like you I’m going to see you face to face and I’ll give you developed photos, email you video off a real video camera, etc.

        • I grew up watching Star Trek where the crew were always video chatting with Starfleet command or some other ship they came across. So it has some geek appeal.

        • Did you also say something like the following about 25 years ago?

          “For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would want to email, we have mail and telephones. The whole internet trend has about run its course. I’ll be replacing my computer with a set of World Book encyclopedias once it kicks the bucket.”

    • An excellent point: why put money in the coffers of a company (and their employees) who are pro-communism?

      • If the company was so pro-communist, it wouldn’t have parked tens of BILLIONS of dollars (app $82 B) off shore to avoid US taxation. Apple products sold in the US are not sold by a US subsidiary, but an Irish one, since the Irish corporate tax rate is 12.5%, significantly lower than the EU average of around 20%, and much lower than the nominal US rate of 35%. After that (because who wants to park money in Ireland after all), the money is transferred to the Cayman Islands. Microsoft is no different, with $60 B off shore, and Google as $33 B. (per Forbes)

        • Apple’s “offshore” money is, for practical purposes, all managed in their Reno, Nevada, office. It is technically offshore. Practically, it’s no more offshore than your money at Fidelity or Vanguard parked in a Eurozone or Asia-minus-Japan mutual fund.

        • ALL commie pinkos and progs love THEIR money as much as the love YOURS. That makes them self-interested not capitalists.

        • They’re not so much communists as they are SJWs. They’re people who want to tell us what bathrooms we have to have, what pronouns to use, what “offensive” things we aren’t allowed to say, which races & religions deserve more respect than others, etc. They are also called Cultural Marxists.

          Apple isn’t the only CultMarx corporation. Most of the big USA companies are now. It happened breath-takingly fast.

  9. Reason number 4:
    Apple Corporation enthusiastically supports civilian disarmament.

    Reason number 5:
    Your scumbag friend can take a picture of you without raising any suspicion whatsoever — then privately print it and use that photo to unlock your iPhone.

    • photos of people can not be used to unlock apple’s face recognition. It’s in the basic presentation, has to be a real person, not a photo or mask. It uses 3D sensors and infared to scan for heat.

      • That is *really* ridiculous! “Amazing” is too weak a word. News said you can grow a beard and it will still recognize you.

    • Actually, it doesn’t work with photographs. From what I understand, it kind of 3D-maps your face and can tell the difference between you and a fake. Although, I also don’t really like the idea of Apple having a detailed 3D model of my face associated with all the personal data on my phone…

      • Yes the fed database isn’t keeping up. Drivers license photos are only a 2D photo. Not acceptable .gov biometric info.

    • Where have you seen that Apple is Anti Gun? Actually Curious.

      Also it saves the 3D render of your face locally on your phone, it doesn’t get uploaded to any Apple server.

      • Anti-gun groups got Apple to dump the revolver emoji for a squirtgun in iOS10, IIRC. They also back a lot of hyper leftists in California, etc.

        • That really doesn’t mean much. I wouldn’t expect for a tech company to choose a gun emoji as their moral hill to die on. I am, however, more impressed with their refusal to unlock a certain domestic terrorist’s phone by creating a tool kit that has no business existing.

  10. I will stick with my $29 generic Blackberry rip-off phone. All I need to do is text and make phone calls, and it fits nicely in my pocket – unlike these tablet-sized smart phones.

  11. #1 you mean it looks just like a Samsung S8 and Note 8.
    #2 FUDD! Close your eyes it will not unlock. Press side button 5 times locks phone to password only. Don’t use for 36 hours must use password to access.
    #3 Shadow 2 still costs more than a 256 gig iPhone X

  12. For cost of the noo noobphone you could buy 2 or 3 Glocks or a decent rifle. Downunder the noobphone X is projected to cost over $1800! Apple is more of a cult.

    You can tell the company attitudes by their phones:

    Android: do it your way.

    Apple: you WILL do it OUR way!

    Microsoft: why would you want to do that?

    • It will be a cold day in hell before I give money to Goolag. Apple, at least, stood on principle and refused to create an iOS root kit for the FBI because of the dangers that such a kit poses just by existing.

      • At least with a droid I can play what music or videos I like without having permission from someone else. I can also install what apps I want. And almost everything you need is preinstalled. The only extra apps I’ve installed are some astronomy apps and two games for my son.

        If Apple even think you might have been naughty in possibly violating their EULA, they can and will brick your device.

  15. Clearly you are ill-informed. Facial recognition takes “active attention” to unlock the phone. In other words the owner has to be looking at it, the phone refocus when the owner turns his attention away.

  16. apple products are for idiots. there i said it. its funny that their slogan used to be “pay less, get more, apple” THEY HAVE TURNED THAT NOTION ON ITS HEAD NOW.

  17. Hey! Not everyone owns–or wants–a smartphone. I have never had one, nor do I particularly see the benefits, since I have a computer at my desk and I don’t need to be carrying another around with me. (Heck, my wife is always complaining that I DON’T take my phone with me.) I am happy if the phone makes and receives calls, texts, and can take a picture of the sign post where I parked by car at the airport so that I can find it when I get back. And the LAST thing I want in my pocket is an even BIGGER phone than a simple jelly bean or flip phone. I remember the days when smaller was king, and I have never abandoned those days, even though the pendulum has swung entirely in the opposite direction.

    (Yeah, yeah, I admit it. I am a dinosaur. Everyone else in my immediate family and extended family as well has a smart phone.)

    • ” I remember the days when smaller was king, and I have never abandoned those days, even though the pendulum has swung entirely in the opposite direction.”

      Apple is still on that bandwagon, except ‘thinner’ is the new ‘smaller’.

      That has *serious* implications for something people stuff in their pockets, like cellphones.

      Apple, instead that ‘thin’ thing you are addicted to, make a phone 3 or 4 times *thicker* with a lot LONGER battery life…

  18. Reason #9…I paid 29bucks for my LGphone and it works pretty well for what I do. And I’m on the net day and night. Even though Google is one of the dark overlords I have zero interest in Applecrapple…

  19. so the logic is that we can’t have nice things because people will take them from us (or try). Bad try.

    I do like the logic behind point #2, about having the phone unlocked against your will. I’d like to see how Apple would approach that and if there is anyway to block it. I am sure you can always enable the pin/password, you won’t have to unlock the phone using facial recognition. Interesting legal question – could you sue a police dept. if they unlock the phone by pointing it at your face?

  20. Another reason: you’ll post something about it and be criticized by oafs who have never written anything worth reading in their entire lives and never will.

    • Sha-wing! I wonder how many caught that.
      I’m always amazed at Ralph’s brilliant yet subtle disdain for mankind.

  21. Although I’m sending this from an iPhone 7, I’m no fan of Apple (which is why I cannot wait to make the move back to the Note very very soon). But here’s the thing–unless you’re a professional user who needs a ruggedized handset to compliment his or her gun–the type of phone you buy or use has literally nothing to do with whether or not you carry a firearm. And if the “It’ll make me a target for a mugging!” argument is one someone is seriously considering using, then they probably need to just stay at home behind a heft locked door because that level of paranoia would probably be debilitating in regular every day life.

    B, the same goes for the face recognition feature (which will probably be gimmicky to the point no one is gonna use it after the first few days (kinda like Siri–overhyped and fundamentally useless). That being said, I’m not gonna sit up here and be worried about it anyway–if the perp has my phone after a DGU, then I’m probably dead anyway and he/she can have my identity as a reward, because I’m gonna make getting the damn thing the hardest thing he/she will ever do. And if the police did try and unlock it and go through it, I wouldn’t care anyway because without a warrant nothing on that phone is gonna be admissible in the first place.
    http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/united-states-v-wurie/
    http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/riley-v-california/

  22. I am soooooo glad I’m not a slave to a mobile device. At 65 years young, I bought my first phone last year so the wifey could reach me whilst on business trips.

    Prepaid minutes with a $15 phone from TracFone works just fine, thank you.

  23. My IPhone 4s works just fine and no one wants to steal it (AT&T won’t even take a trade in). While none of my apps work and I can’t download ANYTHING and searching for anything on safari takes about a day and when I can open my old apps they crash everytime, it still makes phone calls and texts. The GF gave me money last March to buy a new phone but instead I bought an anchor and gas for my boat and maybe a few (ok, a lot) of adult beverages.

  24. I’ve had an iPhone since the second generation of them, and after this one craps out (through Apple’s forced updates that contain brickware for whatever previous generations of phone), I’m done.

    The still dont have upgradeable memory, they have undeletable apps that hog what precious memory I do have (Memory too low? Damn, guess I’ll delete some more pictures I care about. Good thing I still have that’s Find Friends app, though), the battery isn’t swapable, and they aren’t waterproof (although I think they finally figured that one out… by removing the goddamn headphone jack).

    I worry about how much of a pain in the ass it’s going to be to do the change, but I am not going to put up with all of the above when the competition has basically surpassed them in every measurable way.

    • Do they still make those? I haven’t used Windows at home in over ten years. I also haven’t had a virus, trojan, OS or hardware crash, corrupt file, or any other kind of hiccup in that time. Years of prior experience doing tech support for Windows and using it as an Internet marketing manager left me accustomed to having to constantly tinker and troubleshoot my PCs. Upgrading drivers, throwing out the TCP/IP stack, registry edits to fix corrupt files (damn you Winsock), hard drive defragging, tracking down memory leaks, removing unnecessary crap from the startup list. My software engineer buddy finally convinced me to try a Mac. Prior to that, I had always crapped on them as slow and overpriced. I started cheap with a first gen Mac Mini. It was a revelation, and I will never go back. I am now simply a user, and no longer a mechanic.

  27. What if you did an article on how physical fitness is an important part of self defense even if you’re armed? Wouldn’t that be better than this?

  28. WTActualF is this thread about? It has nothing to do with guns, and more than a few of you people have chosen to make someone’s choice of phone a litmus test for whether or not they are a TRUE scots.. er.. gun owner.

    This is insane. Do we not have enough enemies already that you feel the need to take a wee on people who buy Apple products? Is someone who has an iPhone so terrible that you don’t want them in your fight for the RTKBA?

    Here’s the thing: I’m not heterosexual. I’m a big fan of marriage equality and gay rights. These things are very important to me. But I don’t go to pride parades any more. I don’t volunteer for LGBT organizations (except OBS) any more. The reason is because all of my LGBT “friends” decided that the issue of my gun ownership was MORE important than our shared opinions on what we like to rub our genitals on, and made it clear that my passion for those rights weren’t needed because of my choice of how I exercise my OTHER rights. Gun ownership and LGBT rights have nothing to do with each other, but because of that mentality, they have divided their base and now some people (like me) have had to choose a side. I chose guns, but many didn’t.

    Do us all a favor: Don’t mix your passion for guns with your passion for ANYTHING ELSE. Phone choices, preferred sexual partners, choice (or not) of religion, stance on abortion, thoughts on the moon landing.. NOTHING. Unless you think we can afford to lose whole demographics, in which case, keep it up.

  29. “These days, about the only person without a smartphone is someone who just had theirs stolen and hasn’t made it to the store yet.”

    I have literally NEVER seen so much hyperbole!

    Anyhoo, I’m quite happy with my flip phone, thankyouverymuch. (Ok, a QWERTY keyboard for texts would be nice… and a better camera… and a shoulder thingy that goes up…)

  31. I’ve owned an iPhone 4s for many years as a “work” phone. Bought it just to see what the big hubbub was about Apple phones.
    Tell you this much, won’t be buying another one after this 4s kicks the bucket.

  32. I have never (and I do mean never) owned a product manufactured by Apple, nor do I ever intend to own anything made by Apple. It’s all highly overpriced crap that is way too proprietary. Now…what firearm do I want to buy next…..Hmmmmm..

  33. Regarding reason number 1, I assume we should all drive a Ford Pinto, wear rags, and live in a cardboard box under a bridge so we aren’t targets for a mugging. Maybe we should have smooth bore muskets so that no one will want to steal our guns either. Or just no gun at all since defensive use police paperwork is so difficult.

  34. I have a hard time comprehending all the Apple hate from people who are supporting Google. In 20 years I have had many cell phones, but never an iPhone until last year. My iPhone SE is the most satisfying piece of technology I have ever owned. You couldn’t run fast enough to give me another Samsung phone.

  35. Rubbish. I won’t be buying an iPhone X, but Farago is way off base.
    1. Way to live your life in fear. Sorry, owning an expensive phone is no more “asking” to be victimized than driving an expensive car. Or than women wearing revealing clothing is “asking” to be raped/harassed. In all my experiences here, #1 seems most out of character for Farago.

    2. Wrong. Uninformed. There is absolutely no difference legally between facial recognition and fingerprints. Biometrics are not afforded the same legal protection as passwords. There’s established case law on this. Furthermore, iOS will allow you to disable this “feature,” just like you can disable the fingerprint reader and require manual input of a password.

    3. This one is true, because this phone is way too expensive (for me), but still stupid. The same could be said for almost any decent smartphone on the market.

  36. Reason #1 is bogus. iPhones are lowjack. If it gets stolen, the police can know exactly where the phone is. Also, California law requires a kill switch for all phones, so all US phones have them. Tell the carrier your phone was stolen, and it becomes a brick. There’s pretty much no aftermarket, so there’s no reason to steal one unless you’re a very stupid thief.

  42. What the fuck is this.

    For one, there are plenty of other things that I’m in danger of losing to a thief before they snatch my iPhone.

    For another, you can completely disable face ID and just use a 4 or 7 digit PIN to unlock your phone.

    And finally, TTAG, I know this is hard to believe, but people do enjoy other things besides guns. I’m a huge tech guy and this phone is awesome.

    This is the worst article ever published on this page. I’m actually ashamed to consider myself part of the community after this.

    Shame on you.

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