cerebralhawks
@cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- Comment on iPhone New iOS Age Verification Sparks Outrage as Users Say 'I Will Switch to Android' 5 days ago:
Apple doesn’t really promise device update time frames. They basically support a device as long as it’s feasible because they are still, at their core, a computer company, though they are more focused on the iPhone and related accessories than the Mac lately. They are transitioning to a services company. But still, updates are based on what they conservatively think the device can handle. Even phones that aren’t getting the latest iOS still get security updates. iOS 18 and older versions are still getting updated, but they get no new features.
With Android, it’s more about getting people to buy new phones, which isn’t a dumb idea from a business perspective. Back when US carriers were giving phones away a lot more (like 15 years ago), it was actually a game to piss off customers so they go and buy a phone from a competitor sooner. They all benefited from churn. These days, Google and Samsung are offering 5+ years of promised updates, but they don’t support them beyond that, because a customer who won’t upgrade has no value to them.
iOS is a bit more polished than Apple, though that’s largely down to the developer. It’s easier to support iPhones because there are fewer of them. But plenty of apps are just fine on Android.
Agree with you about a janky Linux phone. I kinda want it to be janky! I miss when phones were kinda rough and you had to know how they worked. I loved messing with custom firmware around 2012-ish. Android Jellybean was awesome for tinkering.
- Comment on iPhone New iOS Age Verification Sparks Outrage as Users Say 'I Will Switch to Android' 5 days ago:
Go then. There are other worlds than these… (that’s from the Dark Tower books by Stephen King).
Honestly… I have both. I have a 2024 iPhone Pro Max (16) and a 2019 Galaxy S (10). The iPhone is my main device. The Android phone is WiFi only, but if I have WiFi, I’d rather browse Lemmy on that, because iOS has this controversial feature where it will change what you type after you’ve typed it. So you’re constantly proofreading. Android doesn’t do that shit, or at least Samsung’s fork doesn’t do it. There are a few things I like about Android. My Android phone is basically a NookPhone — the phone you get in Animal Crossing. The case, the background, the icons… of course they’re just icons for actual apps. I don’t have the NookPhone apps. “Pro Camera” just opens the Samsung camera. “Passport” just opens my Animal Crossing item tracker. “Chat” just opens Telegram, which I just use for cross-platform media-rich chat with my wife. You can’t do that with iPhone — certainly not the 3x3 app grid the NookPhone has.
And there are a couple things iOS does better. Apple Health doesn’t sell your data. A couple years ago, my wife’s Galaxy phone told her she’d have to agree to let Samsung sell her health data, or she’d have to delete it and opt out of the app. No one’s been able to point us to a health data tracking app that is free, private, and good on Android. Everyone agrees (or refuses to speak up and disagree) that Apple Health is the de facto winner here. So it’s worth having an iPhone for that, at the least. Plus, AirPods are at least marginally better than the Android equivalents.
So yeah… at some point, I’m gonna upgrade the Android phone. Might even switch to Android, as in, move my cell service from the iPhone to the Android phone. And still keep the iPhone for health tracking, music, and whatever else I want it for. At least until the Mac can do all that stuff. As of now, it actually can’t. Music yes, health no. As I am also a Mac user. I would have no problem going Mac + Android, if my Mac did Apple Health (as opposed to just mirroring the notifications). I tried to make a Shortcut where my Mac could log Health data. It wouldn’t even log the data and pass it to the iPhone over iCloud. It straight up said “no” to that. So the iPhone has me for Health data.
But I’m not gonna sit there and pretend Apple gives a shit if I buy an Android phone. That’s just stupid. And Google gives less of a shit if you buy an iPhone, because they figure chances are good you’ll just put Chrome and other Google apps on it and hand them your data that way. No, I buy what I want because it’s the best for me and what I’m doing. IDGAF what the corpos think about it.
- Comment on Demons' Crest | Teaser Visual 5 days ago:
Basically the new SAO (or the new-new .hack if I’m being a smartass, it’s early, I haven’t decided). But really though, Demon’s Crest is a light novel series by Reki Kawahara, the guy who wrote Sword Art Online (and Accel World).
Worth noting, Accel World was canceled after one season, but Kawahara-san never stopped writing the books. So if you care about Accel World but you’ve only seen the anime, the story is way beyond that. I don’t care about Accel World, but I know a lot of people do, so, there it is.
Demon’s Crest has a plot similar to SAO. Guy playing a VR MMO RPG has to save a pretty girl. Wikipedia emphasises she’s the most beautiful girl in the class… right after saying they’re in elementary school. So that’s a bit weird. You can write a good story with elementary school kids (see, The Promised Neverland… damn shame we never got more seasons), you can write a good story with romantic elements, but you can’t do both. It just does not compute for anyone who’s actually known elementary school students.
Still… I like SAO. I’ve seen all four seasons and two of the movies. I don’t really care about Progressive, which the last two movies are based on. I’ll watch the third one eventually. I’ve read like 12-14 of the books. I’m basically through season 3. The season 4 stuff, the War of Underworld, is next for me to read, but I’m taking a break after bingeing like six of the books (however many make up season 3).
- Comment on Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says that while there are legit types of AI content on the platform, the company is considering Face ID and other passkey verification methods to ensure there's human behind 6 days ago:
Yes, and that hive mind is often accused of being leftist and progressive, but often seems to serve the imperialists.
- Comment on Forza Horizon 6 requirements are out 1 week ago:
Now I wanna know where an Xbox Series X lands in those requirements. All I know is it has 16GB of RAM. I don’t know where its CPU and GPU fall, though.
I probably won’t buy the game. It looks fun, but I never got much into the Forza Horizon games. I think they are worth playing, but I’m real picky about driving games. I played a bit of Horizon 5 because I had GamePass at the time. When it was $15, it made sense. Since it’s doubled, it no longer does. Maybe if they let you keep a game every 1-3 months, I could see it, but without ever owning any of the games… nah.
- Comment on Public restrooms in Osaka to get in-stall video screens with ads 1 week ago:
Places have been doing this for years but not with screens. Just like a bulletin board with ads. Even on your table.
Places like that, you don’t go back to unless you have to. In laws couldn’t understand why I didn’t like their favorite pizza place.
- Comment on Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says that while there are legit types of AI content on the platform, the company is considering Face ID and other passkey verification methods to ensure there's human behind 1 week ago:
Guy also probably diddles kids and/or enjoys watching others do so, so I’m not sure we can trust what he says. They not like us.
(I say that as someone who was banned from Reddit for suggesting child predators face stricter sentencing. Banned for hate speech. Figured it was a bot so I appealed, ban was upheld by a human, or so they said.)
- Comment on Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms 1 week ago:
I see where you’re coming from. It’s not really illogical though — it logically follows that if one did the same thing as the other but worse (use AI to seduce kids vs use AI to generate CSAM), then if the weaker one is found illegal, the stronger one should be found more illegal.
It might be a non sequitur though (“it does not follow”) because, as you say, Twitter wasn’t involved in that case.
Still worth mentioning.
My local news is full of people who were found to be looking at CSAM and the years of prison time they’re getting. Basically they were found to have naked pictures of kids, or pictures/video of people abusing kids on their phone or computer. But they haven’t actually harmed any real kids, IRL. Meanwhile, western politicians are actually doing the thing and not being punished. I don’t know if Trump has any CSAM on his phone (probably not), but he’s gone to a private island to abuse minors, and so have a bunch of other people. One in the UK got stripped of his titles, but still lives a life of luxury. I wanna say “make it make sense” but it seems to me that it’s not doing the thing that is punishable by prison, it’s having the proof someone else did the thing. And that’s sick. But that’s the world we live in.
- Comment on Walmart Is Putting Digital Labels That Change Prices Instantly on Every Store Shelf in America 1 week ago:
If they tase and pepper spray you before asking you to leave, you go to the local magistrate and take out assault charges against the individual, and then sue the company.
(It’s still illegal to assault someone after telling them to leave, but they have more options. They could get creative then, detain you on suspicion of shoplifting. But they can’t physically hold you. What they would do is tell you that if you walk, they will charge you with some bullshit. But if you stay, they will just ban you from the store and make it official. The risk there is, as soon as the cops show up, they can say that they asked you to leave an hour ago and you’re still there. If it’s me, I’m not sticking around, nor providing them with identification, and if they try to lay hands, I will defend myself. But I’m also not a vandal.)
- Comment on Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms 1 week ago:
…But not X/Grok for actually creating CSAM?
I’ll take the win against Zuck, maybe the Elongated Muskrat should be worried?
- Comment on Why do people call Fiji and Voss Water “Rich People” Water? 1 week ago:
Because it’s fucking water and it’s $3 or more a bottle.
Ergo, you’re paying for the name. The water is worth like 30¢ tops. The rest of the money is going to make some random asshole rich. Maybe go post in UnpopularOpinion about why that’s so important to you, but be wary of flames from people tired of everything going up.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
Celsius is based on water. 0ºC is freezing, 100ºC is boiling. Water is a good metric to go on, but it’s not very good for conveying to humans what is hot and what is cold, because even though we are made up of a lot of water, 0-100ºF is a scale that makes more sense to us. The equivalent in Celsius is something like -15 to something like 45ºC. And that makes less sense.
I’m a huge advocate of metric everywhere, but to say Celsius is objectively better than Fahrenheit is kind of silly.
- Comment on HP realizes that mandatory 15-minute support call wait times isn’t good support 1 week ago:
Yeah, I think most new PCs are also Copilot PCs with the branding and the button, if that’s what you mean. I don’t really mind that. I only use Windows at work, and we can’t use Copilot because it requires a personal Microslop account now, and we’re not allowed to sign in with one (only the corporate Intranet account). I think some people do anyway; to me, it’s as bad as using Facebook/whatever social at work, because IT can see everything you do. And I have enough history with Microslop (Xbox as well) I don’t want to associate with my job. I leave my job at the door when I leave and I leave my personal/social life at the door when I go there.
- Comment on What's your favorite ship or class of ship? 1 week ago:
I actually like the runabout and wonder how many would fit in the Galaxy or Intrepid class shuttle bays.
- Comment on Google gives Android users a way to install unverified apps if they prove they really, really want to 1 week ago:
Meanwhile, TVDB doesn’t have an app, and IMDb and Wikipedia have shitty apps, so I’ve installed all three as web apps. You can do a lot with web apps these days. It’s not all inclusive, but it is something. And that’s on iPhone. On Android I actually prefer to use the browser (Firefox with uBlock Origin).
- Comment on HP realizes that mandatory 15-minute support call wait times isn’t good support 1 week ago:
No, their laptops were pretty good about 10-12 years ago. Mac guy, but Macs weren’t great in the Intel era. I was advised to get an HP laptop. The one I was looking at was very highly rated. Can’t remember the name. Bought one from Asus with better specs. I would have been fine with the HP.
We used to have Elite Desks at work and they are dogshit. I kinda want one though. 8th Gen i5 with 8GB RAM. I wanna toss the hard drive and put an SSD in it. Then put Steam OS on it. I bet it would be decent for 2000s PC gaming. Like up to Skyrim.
- Comment on Germany has just made the standard Open Document Format (ODF) mandatory 1 week ago:
Gotta love Germany.
Fun fact: the German equivalent of the BBC, DW, will teach you German if you want to learn it, for free. A but niche but a nice thing to do!
- Comment on Bring Back the Burned CD— They’re a love language. And a reminder of the hope we once had. 1 week ago:
Only if burned from FLAC or similar. But also no. 700MB and super slow. Take an old Android phone with an SD card in it and turn it into a WiFi server. Let people connect to it and take what they want. iPhone, Android, Windows, macOS, doesn’t matter, it’ll connect to it.
- Comment on This is Android's new 'advanced flow' for sideloading apps without verification, includes one-day waiting period 1 week ago:
How does this affect my Galaxy S10 from 2019 which hasn’t seen an update in years? I suspect it doesn’t. Not trying to be a smartass — I know I should change it out for something like an A25 that is still supported and probably a little faster, but I have this and it still works.
- Comment on The 10 Commandments apparently mentions absolutely nothing about protecting children from abuse. 1 week ago:
You know why? When the Bible was written, crimes against children were considered property crimes against their father. Thou shalt not steal, and thou shalt not covet, both indirectly protect kids about as much as they’re intended to. Which isn’t much.
- Comment on Google gives Android users a way to install unverified apps if they prove they really, really want to 1 week ago:
What apps outside of the Play Store, and why do I care about them? (Again, assuming I’m a new Pixel/Galaxy user.)
I remember when I bought Titanium Backup (anybody remember that?). You could buy it for X on the Play Store, or you could buy the unlocker from the developer. IIRC you pay a little bit less, but he gets 100% of the money, so you just cut Google out. I don’t recall exactly, but I did that.
I feel like anything you want to get that’s not on the Play Store, you’re gonna be savvy enough to install. Like FDroid. People who install FDroid tend to know what they’re doing. Or ad blockers. Or whatever torrent/Dark Web app that’s not in the Play Store. You’re gonna know how to do it, and if these hoops stop you from doing it, you can always get a geek to do it for you… or maybe you’d be better off
not doing itlearning how your device works first. - Comment on Google gives Android users a way to install unverified apps if they prove they really, really want to 1 week ago:
I’m okay with this. Didn’t read the article — I read one on Ars Technica or somewhere wore.
iPhone guy, but say I get an Android phone that has this. Say the Pixel 11 Pro ships with it. So I do the thing, right when I get it… 24 hours after that I can install whatever? That’s fine. It’s only 24 hours and then it’s open as long as you want it to be. I don’t even think I need to sideload, but I’ll want the option. And it’s still better than the hoops we gotta jump through to sideload on iPhone.
- Comment on Do young adults (or rich kids in general) from wealthy families engage in illegal street racing? 2 weeks ago:
Same guy? Or just same energy?
- Comment on Microsoft Confirms Windows 11 Bug That Locks Users Out of the C: Drive 2 weeks ago:
So only the user process is locked out of the C drive, not the boot/system. Fortunately, the way Windows 10/11 works by default, if you sign into a Microslop account, it backs all that stuff up to OneDrive. At least your documents. And no one’s saying it’s not bad, it just seems like most affected individuals will be able to go about most of their day. I have a Mac, so I
don’t need to worry about any of thishave separate issues to worry about. - Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
In addition to other tech forums named, there’s also the Ars Technica forum. That’s been around for over 20 years. It’s a freemium forum, so some of those members are funding it as well, and have been doing so for years. That should at least speak to the dedication of the community.
But Reddit isn’t just a tech forum, it’s mostly casual stuff. If you go to Ars Technica’s forums, or some of the other forums, or hell, even /r/AskScience (and similar subreddits) and you’re not an expert, you will get burned. So with some of these places, there is a wall of IQ/expertise most users can’t surpass, and they tend to get weeded out. Reddit as a whole has a much lower barrier of entry, and you can avoid the smart areas if you aren’t. So it appeals to more people.
- Comment on Microsoft Confirms Windows 11 Bug That Locks Users Out of the C: Drive 2 weeks ago:
But it can boot into Windows, which is also on the C drive? So it’s not locking users out of the C drive, it’s locking users out of parts of the C drive.
- Comment on Microsoft Confirms Windows 11 Bug That Locks Users Out of the C: Drive 2 weeks ago:
Well I’m obviously not, I’m just saying, if the system wouldn’t boot at all, they’d lead with that. For most users, it won’t matter. For the more technical users, we’re either using Linux or macOS.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
Post that you think people who abuse children should receive stricter punishments under the law.
Reddit will make the decision for you.
- Comment on Microsoft Confirms Windows 11 Bug That Locks Users Out of the C: Drive 2 weeks ago:
Can you still use the computer? Other than the home folder (or the user folder), I think it’s fine if regular users go a week without touching their C drive until Microslop fixes it (which they will, inside like a week).
I use Windows at work, and it’s fine. I do use the home/user folder just because it’s there and it’s how everything’s set up, but there is no other drive to use instead. If I were using it at home, especially if I had a laptop, I’d want the home drive to be on an SSD I could move between machines… maybe. But, I use Macs at home.
- Comment on Starfield's composer says the game will become 'legendary', Todd Howard's a 'visionary', and maybe you 'were just not ready for it' 2 weeks ago:
It will become anything? Does that mean Bethesda plans to finish it? I remember when they were gonna make an expansion called Starborn that was going to explain things. My understanding is that Todd Howard and his team had this big, bold idea, but they were gonna reveal it a piece at a time. But people got tired of waiting, and controversy after controversy hit the game, and now they aren’t going to make the effort for the four or five people who still actually play it.
As someone who did all 240 temples to max out all 24 Starborn powers, even I gotta ask what’s the point?