“over time” is key in the description of how this works. I went on a work trip with a colleague recently and it was only about 24 hours after we met up that my phone notified me there was an AirTag following me, because she had one on her car keys. You wouldn’t be notified straight away.

Having installed Win11 on a PC with a 3570K it ran just fine. I don’t really see a difference in performance between 10 and 11 on desktops. I have an old ThinkPad with an i5 6300U and performance on that isn’t amazing, but I’ve never used 10 on it (bought it from the company I work for last year) so I don’t know if it doesn’t like 11 or that’s just how it is.

Exactly. It would be complicated to pull off something like this via side loading given that Apple’s proposal requires apps to be hosted on an alternative store rather than just being a single app that you could download (like APKs on Android). The paragraph below from their Newsroom post about the changes being made also suggests there will still be some form of app review happening for apps even if they aren’t being hosted on the App Store.

Notarization for iOS apps — a baseline review that applies to all apps, regardless of their distribution channel, focused on platform integrity and protecting users. Notarization involves a combination of automated checks and human review.

It would be easier for a scammer to use an MDM profile like they did with this scam rather than trying to trick people into side loading.

Yes, he stepped down as CEO of Mozilla and is now CEO of Brave. I’m not sure if you’re joking or genuinely didn’t notice that they’re the same person.