WashedOver

There doesn’t seem to be as much overflowing into non political communities here as at reddit where it’s just overflowing everywhere I find. I think it’s a reflecting of the anxiety many are feeling about the election. Hopefully it dies down in a couple of weeks.

It’s a shame as their hybrid smart watch has been my go to for a few years now. Kind of reminds me of my old Pebble with the always on LCD screen. My gf also uses one too. The several days of battery life was another good feature

I feel like an outsider on these debates. I totally agree we should be able to own forever.

In my case I find there is so much new TV and movies I rarely go back to re-watch shows or movies so owning them isn’t on my radar. It’s a challenge just to watch a whole series I find.

I’m wondering how often do people beyond kids re-watch movies and TV shows? Kids seem to be able to rewatch the same movies several times a day…

I use to hate Microsoft so much for this with their early hardware I used to buy.

They would abandoned the devices by not providing the drivers needed for newer versions of Windows leaving the device a brick unless you want to still run 98 or XP.

I have a few of these devices in my place as a part of my home automation. It’s been struggling the last year with not confusing the basics and not mixing up the beginning of a news podcast as my voice commands. It seems like the newest display I own has the most issues.

I generally just use it to control and schedule lights and devices with smart plugs. The odd time I try to set timers or reminders but I’ve never really been a big voice command person. I too struggle on the best way to get it to play my YouTube music likes list. I just cast from my phone instead.

One thing it mostly gets right is stopping whatever is playing.

With my Soundbar no longer being new enough to work with Google Assistant I’m not looking forward to when the rest of my smart lights, switches, and plugs join it as we go forward.

I recall some of these things being advertised as great news features for their marketing drives.

Funny they didn’t mention the 1000 people they laid off across the various Assistant divisions being a part of the reason for the changes : https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/11/24034124/google-layoffs-engineering-assistant-hardware

Most here will recommend Linux Mint and it’s what I use now after trying many different versions over the years. There’s a simplicity to Mint that just works especially well for those just surfing and doing office tasks. I’ve given away old work laptops with just mint installed as most people just need a web browser and it works great for that.

MS office can be used in your web browser or you can switch to Libre Office which should open most of your office files.

If you have a old laptop or computer I recommend trying to install Mint there first to try it out. It’s pretty easy to start out there first before trying dual boot. You might be surprised at how quick your older laptop works with Mint in the process.

I use dual boot on my machines but most of the use these days is to get to a web browser so I find I rarely boot into windows now.

You will find Firefox is the default web browser but you can add Chrome to Mint if that’s your browser of choice.

Many will say what about the privacy issues with Chrome but many still use it. I’ve switched back to Firefox myself and I like it better for my Android phone.

Good luck on your journey!

I recall at one point Windows 10 was going to be the last version of the OS and they would just maintain that. I’m wondering if they said that to get the last of the Windows 7 and XP users to finally move to 10?

The EU would like to have a talk with manufacturers about this… Much like USB C for iPhones, removable batteries are in the works again thanks to the EU.

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This seems to be the model I’ve witnessed with many apps over the years. Free at first to get traction and users, then ads, then pay one time fee to get rid of ads, then subscription to keep using the app.

Then there are those that wouldn’t even pay a single fee and get upset at the thought as everything should be free.

The part that is upsetting is the contributions the early community made is monetized when they were they there for the benefit of the community.

I do see there are costs to maintaining and updating these apps so I can understand a need to keep revenue flowing for these future costs. The one time payment is a hell of a deal for years with updates to accommodate the revisions needed for each system update let alone functionality improvements.

In the old days we would buy software for our PC and that was it. There wasn’t really any updates or further support for newer versions of Windows. The software would become very insecure or just stop functioning altogether with enough changes to windows.

It’s hard to find the right balance. I know I only want to pay once, or heck never, but I want these upgrades and updates too.

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Same here, but after reading those losing access to digital purchases as the rights for the properties change vendors, for those that want to truly own the thing, they can no matter where they live.

Not sure if Disney+ has this issue but I sometimes leave my Netflix tablet in airplane mode when going to another country. If the show is not available in that country when connected to the internet it will not allow play back of the shows I’ve downloaded.

Paramount+ is even worse in Canada. It was a hot mess on trying to find where show were early on. It’s not a full app like the US version. It runs as a add on tier inside the Prime app.

Then at my Firecube home page it offers to install the full Paramount, and the Paramount+ app then after the install it says the content is not available in my country. Clicking on any of the Paramount show links takes me to a app that won’t load the content due to country issues. I need to manually go into the Prime app to find the Paramount shows.

There a few other apps like this too and some I can’t even remove but it sure will notify the crap out of me about the updates for them.

Anyways… 😂

I’m close to doing the same. Mostly because of how poorly they handled Google Play Credit cards being hung up in their automated system and basically stiffing me for them. They can’t be returned to the store despite Google insisting they can be. I gave up after 13 attempts…

Being more than a Google Drive and YouTube customer I have other Google services I’m not sure it’s worth the effort anymore. This is after years of paying monthly fees all because I can’t find a human at google to resolve a google play gift card issue on their end. I hope California takes them to the cleaners in the class action over the millions in Google Play they are holding.

It’s free money for them as there is no way for many users to redeem or refund these cards bought in grocery stores, online, and/or big box stores. This is the part where I think they have slided into the evil part the early version of them were concerned about.

I have Mint on all my older Lenovo T and X series laptops. They run like champs except for the audio. It’s never loud enough. It’s fine though with a Bluetooth headset or external speaker. I wonder how yours are with extremal keyboard and mouse? Mine is ok but my Logitech Keys lights keep cycling through the lights

I recall a time when Windows 10 was going to be the last release of windows. It’s was just going to be updated forever. I’m glad that they have returned to the usual every second or so release is going to be a unfinished half baked turd until we can really get things right in the following release.

RIP Bob, ME, Vista, 8/8.1, and hopefully sooner than later 11…