Screw that...👎
I don't see the need to get a new phone 📱 every year.
Get over it: you need to upgrade your phone every year now. I prove it
@randynose Lol, I've had my OnePlus One for 5 years, and it'll probably last at least one more, maybe 2 or 3.
So, that's 0.19 per day, 0.13 if I keep it two more years.
What do people do with their phones to need the new model??
@Matter @randynose I just got a Pixel 4a after having my OnePlus 6t for over 2 years, longest I've had a phone. Changed the charging port and antennas out. After last opening, changing the charging port, I spidered the back screen. Antennas went again and if I would have taken off the back screen again I would not have gotten it back on again. Only reason I got a new one device
What's needed is forcing manufacturers to stop providing devices that can't be repaired, starting with the battery. Another annoying thing is the impossibility to upgrade the OS on most Android phones.
I know in the States the idea that "the free market will regulate itself" is popular, but it simply doesn't work, the evidence is there for everyone to see. 🙄
@obi @Matter
@normand @Matter @randynose won't ever happen. If your phones aren't outdated or break, their profits won't be high. What's the alternative to the free market tho? Gov't regulation? They will just regulate them into prices of shit
BTW I live in Canada where we have in some regards more regulation than in the US, and nobody screams "SOCIALISM!!!"
And I think we're still much behind the EU.
👍 You're so right Normand.
The only thing that comes to mind that was deregulated in the US that helped the consumer was breaking up Ma Bell.
The US NEEDS some serious regulations in terms on how a LOT of things are done. - Phones would be a small thing compared to regulating costs in the health care system.
The US has the best government that money can buy.
@randynose @normand @Matter I've never seen our gov't regulate anything well. I'm sure their are some examples, but I can't think of any. They is a pastry company in Ohio for example: State regulators fined them $10k+ for having the doors to their kitchen area opening in instead of out. They spent a lot of money and reversed it. Federal regulators came in a year or so later and fined them for having their doors open out, instead of in. Bureaucracy challenges for even stupid little shit is just awful here.
@normand @Matter @randynose OK, so how is the cell phone industry better in the EU? Seems the same
@obi @normand @randynose thank the EU for having one charging port instead of a gajillion. We wouldn't have seen the end of that for a long time otherwise.
More recently, in the EU, you can choose your search engine on setup.
@Matter @normand @randynose anybody can choose their search engine, and its not hard. I don't get what you mean about the charging port. Sorry, I'm confused
@obi @normand @randynose What is possible isn't very relevant, only the default really matters. The EU forced Google to make users choose instead of defaulting to Google.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_external_power_supply
Do you not remember the time before this, when every single phone had another weird proprietary plug?
@Matter @normand @randynose I remember. Not like their is just one connector now. Would be great if their was just one, but most phones come with one and nowadays its not like they don't last forever. I'm no fan of Google, but I'm not a fan of telling them they have to give users the setup option. Breaking up Google Search or limiting in broadly I would be fine with. More importantly, I wish they would focus on data collection over search selection. At least you know tour searching with Google. Most people don't realize or believe they are sending their data to Google/Apple hundreds of times an hour, and its much harder to stop that than just select a different search engine
You think people will choose their search engine on their own? They don't even know anything else exists. Google has even become a verb synonymous to search.
The same thing happened on the PC in the early days of the Internet. The EU forced Microsoft and computer makers to give EU users the choice of their default browser (this was only effective in Europe). Without such a measure, we may still all be using Internet Explorer. I obviously exaggerate, but still.
@Matter @randynose
@normand @Matter @randynose no I don't think. People should want choice, if they don't care enough to learn even enough that a child can, then they shouldn't be forces option. We never forces default browsers on USA customers, and no one here uses frickin EDGE or IE.
@normand @Matter @randynose and if people don't know any better what is the point in having choices in products they know nothing about?
@normand @Matter @randynose does a blind man really care which brand water he drinks?
@obi @normand @randynose you're arguing against yourself here, no of course people don't care and that's exactly why the defaults matter, why we should *make* them care, *make* them choose explicitly for Google if they want to use it, but letting them be the default just guarantees that all the data is leaked to a hostile oligarchy such as the US.
@Matter @normand @randynose I agree, attack the data collection, not force an arbitrary choice. How do we decide which choices in search engine that they have? Give them 3? Which 3? Top 3? Best 3? How and who decides which ia best? All search engines? That would be a long selection, and who decides which order they go in? Who decides which are best? Some corrupt suit in an office? All they would do is choose on brand recognition anyway, cuz they don't know anything. You can't help people who don't help themselves. Their are choices, but they have to make a conscious (minimal) effort to decide which one they want. I think our fundamental disagreement is that you think government knows best. Maybe because you believe they are an extension of the people. They should be, but definitely aren't.
@Matter @normand @randynose what I am trying to say is fix the problems. If Google is raping you for your data, saying that we should have more choices on who rapes us is not the answer. Stop the data rape itself.
Agreed. But how to do it? Individuals cannot do it on their own. Which is why I mentioned government regulation. It does not always produce good results, I'll admit. But what other choice is there? We cannot expect companies to self-regulate. It's stupid to think they will.
@Matter @randynose
@normand @Matter @randynose I'm on board with government regulation of data collection. Absolutely. Its secretative, invasive, and most people don't even realize it occurs. I'm not on board with forcing companies to opt into a search engine, by an arbitrary selection of competing search providers, when people can do it manually now. If there wasnt a way to switch your search, my response would be different, but my 7yr old switched hers by herself on her most recent laptop.
Oh yes... The Browser wars... What fun years those were.
But yes. Most people seem to stick with whatever is setup with their computer in the first place. So it matters.
One can also use this for a search engine.
https://whoogle.sdf.org/
@randynose @normand @Matter and that's fine. Options are great. Forcing companies to offer competitive search engines on initial setup is what I'm arguing against
The EU has proven time and again that government regulation is effective in reining in big companies. It's just that the US political system has been bought off by the lobbies, and the population brainwashed to think this is normal.
@Matter @randynose