The engraving is irrelevant as the main glass piece will "accidentally" fall down and break, the 24k gold stand then would be put in storage where it will be "lost" and smelted down to a clean untraceable ingot

Linux phones will eventually get to a point that I can ditch the big two entirely. I hope. But yeah if I didn't need the apps for my job, I'd go back to a Nokia T9 in a heart beat. I was a live long before smartphones were, I don't need one.

Yep the fact that this goes automatically to hating on Apple instead of the rich tells you all you need to know

For most people Apple products are absolutely consumer friendly, what are you talking about? They’re amazingly simple to setup and go, the ecosystem actually works well, and they’re far more reliable than anything Microsoft could dream of putting out. They also don’t go obsolete within in a year, that’s total nonsense, and in fact they have generally had better support than their main competitors as far as I’ve seen. People I know have kept their Apple machines for a very long time without much issue. I myself had my first MacBook for ~11 years, from 2010 to 2021.

For people who to tinker with software there’s still a lot you can do on them but back in the Windows vs. Mac days some ill-informed people decided that because Apple products work well they must be hard to code on, despite the Unix based nature of them. Currently, many people I know in software are issued MacBooks and say they work very well while the Windows machine I got for something as simple as AutoCAD was constantly having issues.

Their consumer unfriendly tactics aren’t directly to connected to the capability of the machines. They 100% do some bad shit on that front, but it’s not enough to push most regular customers away. If you can’t figure out the difference between yourself and a regular customer then this isn’t a conversation you clearly have all the information for. Most of what you’re saying is just the usual parroted garbage that muddies the conversation and frankly makes it harder to deal with the companies actual failings because it just shows a grotesque inability to understand why people like their products.

I will be very clear: This overt move beyond the usual corpo nightmare has soured me a lot on their products, which sucks because they are objectively very good. I also don’t entirely know what to do about it as making a switch to Google products is just as bad a move. I’ve heard of a couple alternatives, we’ll see what the landscape will look like in a couple years when I need a phone and several years after that when a new laptop is required.

Trump is not a powerful wizard, all his power comes from people who give it to them. Those people have a choice, and this is it.

Mmmmm..... Is it politics, or ethics?

Can you be okay having ethics discussions in technology? If not, maybe the problem is less other people, and more you, not having any sort of spine.

I, too wish everything wasn't horrible, but think of it this way: technology is the stuff, made by the people, who make decisions and ideas. And so, it's important to know what the people are doing. Especially so for those of us without the privilege of benefit of being able to ignore politics.

I'm saying you're a privileged manipulator trying to quiet those trying to improve things, and I think that you should fix that, rather than complaining that people are talking about it in a passive aggressive, manipulate way.

Maybe you could make a community called "ethics blind technology"?

Or "unethical tech"?

Maybe even "aethical technology"

Yeah, like ... Imagine a shitty dystopian scifi with ultra corporations.

Now understand and accept that that's what real life is.

Tim Cuck

Not a "gift". It was a BRIBE !!

that makes him a fascist.

My only Apple computer was a G3 Powermac, which I got used from the resale store at the University I used to work at, which means I got it real cheap.

Compared to the boring and clunky Windows XP machine I had, I loved the design of the hardware and the software. I loved that to access the mobo to upgrade the RAM I just had to lift up a latch on the side of the case (my Modern case isn't even as easy as that to get into). I liked the colors and the 'handles' that made moving the tower around easy if you needed to. I had a very tacky aesthetic back in the day where if something was made of clear blue plastic I would buy it, so that Mac fit right in with my 'decor' lol

Compared to XP the UI was a lot more sleek and modern imo, the dock was a game changer because I rarely used more than a handful of programs so having them always available was cool. Plus my simple minded ass was impressed by the animations. The "hot corners" were super useful. as was resizing the windows by dragging them to the edges of the screen. The overall look was just much more nice to look at. I think it was 10.3 Panther if I recall correctly.

At the time I was just starting to learn about Free and Open Source software, so I thought the fact that they based OS X on Unix was pretty cool. The first DE I ever installed was on that Mac (LXDE?) and the first FOSS programs I installed was on there, VLC and The GIMP I believe. I also loved how easy it was to install programs. You would just download the file and drag it into a folder called 'Apps', and to uninstall you just deleted or moved the file out of there. Compared to the 'install wizards' and the 'add/remove' control panel on Windows, it felt like actual wizardry.

I think more than anything the geek in me just liked learning a new set of skills and a different way of doing things, but overall I loved the experience. When they announced the iPhone I was excited. I was actually one of those people who carried around a mobile phone, MP3 player and Digital Camera at the same time. So the thought of just having to carry around 1 device to do all those things was like a dream come true. Then I heard about the price and was less excited (it was almost $1000 in today's money adjusted for inflation). I was a working class stiff after all. Then I found out about the lack of apps and thought that was weird. But still I was pretty much on board.

I got a iPod Touch to replace my Nano and kept my flip phone. That's when I realized that I had to jailbreak it to fully unlock the functionality. That's where they finally lost me. I had been planning on buying another Mac but I figured if they were willing to lock down their phones like that- it was only a matter of time before they did the same thing with their computers.

It ended up being a good decision because on my next (Windows Vista) PC I learned to install Linux and I could do some really tacky things with the UI then! lol. Compiz anyone

All this to say I think Apple was actually in fairly decent (if still too expensive) place prior to the iPhone, but their whole 'walled garden' approach to computing just wasn't my bag at all.

More bribe. Ransom is "Do X or I do Y". Bribe is "If I do X, you will do Y".

I mean I've just had a different experience than you, all of you. I have never had a Sony Xperia, but I've only heard good things.

I have been concerned about going off of main line Samsung. I did it once for the OnePlus One, which was solidly alright at the time, but then I went right back to mainline. S8 Active, SGS 20 5G FE, then that was failing & I went to Motorola but that was buggy as shit & I went back to my 20 FE until I got the Oukitel Titan.

Generally speaking, I don't like buying a more niche product with limited support. And maybe the apps don't work well. All of the mid, cheaper phones have bad batteries that don't last very long, in no small part because I watch lots of videos & things that eat the battery.

The Oukitel Titan is impressive, a little obnoxiously big & slightly buggy, but not having to plug it in every blessed night makes up for any gripes I've got. It will make for a great Android to do Android stuff when I buy the iPhone 17.