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Grungie

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Posts posted by Grungie

  1. 4 minutes ago, Shagger said:

     

    This is bullshit.

     

    The "inconvenience" of using multiple physical SIMs is a very weak justification. Having to go through "the nightmare" that is switching SIM is hell of a lot better than not being able to switch at all.

     

    Because that is the reality on these so-called eSIMs. An eSIM is not a SIM, it's a piece of DRM software that loads the data a SIM cards normally holds from a phone's stored memory. The problem with that is that a phones number, IP address, everything that identifies that as phone, not a device, is now hardcoded into the device. You think that they can't restrict you to a single carrier with it, trust me, they can, and they do. Hell, they've been doing that to phones with removable SIM cards for years! That's why you usually have to have a contract phone unlocked before you're able to switch network providers, something that the network providers have trying to stop for just as long. The whole purpose of this is to make the process of unlocking a phone more difficult, if not impossible, and lock people to network providers. As I said, they have been trying to stop people switching network providers on contract phones for as long as contract phones have been a thing, this is just the latest tactic.

     

    And like you said, most countries only have one or two carries (if any) that even use this "eSIM" service, so that's already a restriction. The only reason America has more choice is because the choice is irrelevant there as they don't enforce net neutrality (Which is ridiculous, by the way), pretty much robbing Americans of a choice of what mobile carriers and ISP's they want to use based on whare they live. None of this is a coincidence, I mean just think about it. The network providers, the ISPs, Apple trying to popularise this technology and all them them rallying to end net neutrality, they all mesh and it's not a coincidence that they do. It's all about creating a world where these bastards can gouge thier customers for all they're worth. It doesn't take a genius to figure this out.

    https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/what-is-an-esim-card

    Looks like the problem is through carrier resistance. It’s also annoying if you’re a phone reviewer, but that’s a job specific quirk. Cell carriers are annoyed by it, because there’s no physical foot traffic to their stores. eSIMS are also not carrier locked, unlike traditional SIMS, so you don’t have to go through your carrier to unlock your phone if you have an eSIM.

  2. 3 minutes ago, Shagger said:

     

    If I were you, I wouldn't throw around your background in technology in a debate like this. For a normal person to not think about this all they way through and miss how obviously problematic this can be is one thing, but for someone with your credentials it's frankly embarrassing. That's the the long way of saying I'm not impressed and couldn't care less as it doesn't explain why you're so keen to defend this practice anyway. In fact, until the last paragraph, you post doesn't address the topic at all, nor did you answer my question.

     

    So I'll  try this again, and this time please don't reply unless you have answer.

     

    What is the benefit of not having a SIM card slot in a phone? The only thing I can think of is that you don't have to put the SIM card in yourself, saving you 5 minutes every couple of years...

     

    yaaay-saturday-night-live.gif.8e4d44b6672d291bb477abdc0933e42c.gif

    You can get rid of the physical SIM card and replace it with an eSIM card. You can swap carriers with eSIM cards, and store multiple carriers with eSIM cards. Instead of taking up space in your phone with dual SIM cards, (or store your other SIM card somewhere when it's not being used). 

    The iPhone 14 utilizes an eSIM card, so your complaint about being trapped by your carrier is null (tbh you have to swap to a carrier that does support eSIMs, but as it becomes the new standard, it won't be an issue).

    So honestly, it's actually more beneficial and convenient for international travelers. Though like I mentioned earlier, it looks like it's slim pickings outside of America at the moment:

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209096

  3. 3 hours ago, Shagger said:

     

    What if you're contract is up and instead of renewing it with the same network provider, you wanted to keep that phone and switch to a sim-only deal to save money? Or of you wanted to swich to another provider? Those options are gone with this bullshit. The only option the people conned into this have at this point is to take on an entirely new phone contract. Make no mistake, that is the sole purpose of this, to screw over the customer and remove options. Why can't you see that?

     

    You acknowledging the growing list of issues with this. You admit that it's bad for people who travel, you admit it's bad for people who review phones or for one reason or another change phones frequently and it's bad for everyone once thier contract is near it's end.

     

    So, and I really do want an answer to this, what is it it good for?

     

    I have not seen you nor anyone list a single benefit to this, not one good thing. Apple are beyond scum. They charge people a fortune for mediocre products and customer service that would be considered awful from a thief.

     

    Stop being a shill. Being a fan of something means demanding the very best from it, not blindly defending legitimate criticisms. Not that apple would listen, they make thier phones for the benefit of the network providers. Honestly, I can't believe anyone intelligent enough to dress themselves buy this crap.

    I’m not being a shill. My mindset is based on being in cybersecurity, and sysadmin type work, and doing audio production as a hobby, where I’m used to being around specialized equipment that have features that the average person doesn’t know/care about. Some of this was never available for regular consumer products, or have been long gone and only available in enterprise products.

    So for the three things I mentioned earlier, I’m used to having to get equipment dedicated for each one. Except the audio production stuff, the other two are purchases where we save money (or make it back) for getting the specialized equipment. There’s a lot of “I need this at work, but I sure don’t need it at home”. Even at home I do things I’m aware that not many people do. I own 8 computers and 5 tablets, whereas most people just need a computer that gets on the internet, and does word docs unless they’re doing something more specialized like gaming, audio or video production. So having a product that’s generalized enough to cover more niche crowds feels like a jack of all trades, but master of none.

    Tbh I didn’t think about getting out of your contract and getting a new phone. I’ll admit that will be a shit show for people. I’ve been on the same carrier for 15 years, so it’s something that you forget about after awhile. Though something like going on a lot of international business trips to me feels like the equivalent of thinking every laptop needs to be like a Panasonic Toughbook, or have the Thinkpad nub.

  4. 3 hours ago, Crazycrab said:

     

    What?  To the best of my knowledge the iPhone 14 in America is literally the only phone on the market that doesn't use a SIM card!  I know digital cards are coming but they are a sham, just another method of restricting consumer choice.

     

    I've had a Redmi Note 9T for a couple of years.  It was pretty much the cheapest 5G phone I could find at about £200.  It has a headphone jack, SD Card Slot and Dual SIM.  Why the hell would spend £1000 on a new model that replaces all of these things with bits of filler plastic!  It's stupid!

    The SIM card part is how many people actually swap SIM cards out on a regular enough basis. For the average person, the first and last time they touch their SIM is when they pop it in their new phone and that’s the end of it. Also, some phone models have different SIM cards than others, or even the previous model, so you end up getting a new SIM card anyway.

    So unless you’re like a reviewer, or go on international travel that’s outside of your carrier’s coverage, does it really affect the person?

  5. 6 hours ago, Crazycrab said:

     

    Then it's still a problem right?  You and Apple know perfectly well that Bluetooth has it's limitations in certain applications.  Removing a feature is not innovating.  They removed the headphone jack to save money, end of story.  They legitimacy could not care less about the end user experience because they know their end users don't care either.  A salesperson at an Apple store could take $1000 from a customer, in exchange they would literally shit on the customers hands and they would still clap!

    It’s a small use case problem for me though. I also don’t mix audio on my phone. Neither are most people.

    Tbh I don’t get what’s wrong with your logic:

    >Big company tries to save money
    >feature most users don’t care about

    >removes feature

    >?????

    >profit

    Though I will say the headphone jack is controversial, but the SIM card is irrelevant to average person. I personally don’t see a problem with removing features that aren’t used by a lot of people.

    I do recall all of these phone manufacturers claiming the headphone jack removal was for real estate in their phones. I also don’t know how much money they save by putting the headphone dongle in the box. Samsung was the biggest one to shit on Apple for it, but quietly tried to hide their ads after they too dropped the headphone jack on products. It was also super sleazy when they claimed it was for real estate, but their first headphoneless phone was a Note. The comments were “so you can fit a stylus we won’t use, but not a headphone jack?”

    I will say, tablets missing headphone jacks are sleazy, but I haven’t seen teardowns of those like I have phones. I should hit up ifixit to see if they’ll fit.

  6. The Sonic stages were fine, some great, but there was a bunch of bullshit in both. Especially in the first one. I think the Chao Gardens caused people to just replay their favorite stages on repeat and that caused people to forget about the shitty parts.

    I personally don’t think it’s much of a competition on the 3D side when most of the 3D games are infamous for how terrible they are.

  7. 4 hours ago, Shagger said:

     

    I was under the impression Japanese censorship was mostly related to violence rather than sexual content and nudity. Maybe it's both. I do agree with what you said about people having a fit over censorship, it is childish. I'm not a fan of censorship, adults do not need need thier media moderated that heavily when it's rated for adults, but it's pathetic to loose your shit over Lara Croft now wearing jeans instead of short shorts or whatever.

    I don't think they censor violence as much as in the 90's, especially before the ESRB was created for the US. The sexual stuff definitely gets more media coverage, and the stuff I've seen from the Censored Gaming Youtube channel does seem to have a lot of games that have primarily sexual stuff censored in Western releases. Especially when a lot of those games have characters that either look really young, or are canonically young.

    You can find old forum posts of people throwing a fit over games like Xenoblade Chronicles X for removing skimpy outfits for the 13 year old girl.

    Wow, so outrageous.

    I do agree that censorship is kind of dumb if it's rated T or M (or the equivalents from PEGI for the Europeans), but I wouldn't get my knickers in a twist for covering up some unnecessary skin, especially if it's not that kind of game.

  8. I enjoyed Xenogears, but I can’t get into Xenosaga. I keep trying to push myself to finish Xenosaga 1, but it’s such a drag.

    I feel like I just walk a few feet to unlock an unnecessarily long cutscene. You know it’s bad when they have save points between the cutscenes.

  9. I think most Japanese games in the past few years that get censored get a lot of unnecessary drama. The vast majority of the censorship involves them adding more clothes to either questionably aged female characters, or blatantly underaged characters.

    So there’s an irony seeing people claiming “I’m an adult, I don’t need censorship” while they throw a childlike tantrum.

  10. I think moderation is key. To make things less of a headache, prohibit stuff that's generally illegal in a lot of places, and also prohibit porn outside of porn sites.

    I'm also not a fan of places banning people for not agreeing with the site's politics. It feels all fine and dandy if you're in alignment with their politics, but the site owners' could change out and have a new political agenda, and now you're in trouble of getting banned for not agreeing with the new owners' politics.

  11. 1 hour ago, Kane99 said:

    I can see that haha. I think the big reason why I rarely see them when I search secondhand stores/thrift stores, etc, is that usually they toss magazines away after a certain time I imagine. I never see old mags, just fairly newer ones still kinda in date. 

    I hate the idea of having to look at ebay for bundles and sets. I'd rather find them for much cheaper in the wild as they say. 

    When I did have the magazines, I took horrible care of them. Often cut them up for projects or put pages of popular game ads on my wall. I'll still keep an eye out for them whenever I go to any secondhand shop. 

    Yeah, I’ve seen more old mags at a doctor’s office than any Goodwill.

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