Re "Idiot tax"
Yes, Apple kit is overpriced. But the reality is that with smartphones one has to pay, one way or another - either on acquisition (Apple) or throughout the ownership (Android. I mean really "ownership" and not "usage", very many Reg articles attest to the fact that you don't have to actively use an Android thing for it to be able to spy on you). And the other tax costs much much more dearly than a thousand dollars once in four years.
So in a situation where one can't choose not to have a smartphone the only alternative to being a Register's idiot is a modern, digital form of voluntary slavery. In which case I fail to see the reason to call Apple's customers idiots and leaving the voluntary useds* of Android without similarly derogative name.
* Stallman has this one right: https://stallman.org/facebook.html
Biting the hand that feeds IT
