I can’t see a business reason why Apple would degrade image sending purposefully- it would drive its own users to get third party apps.

Depends on what the majority of people are using.

In markets where iPhone users are not in the majority, that’s exactly what’s happening: iPhone users are switching to third party apps.

If iPhones users are in the majority, though, then people will just default to iMessage, and non-Apple phones get associated with poor messaging quality. Which creates social pressure for non-iPhone users to buy an iPhone.

So it makes perfect business sense for Apple to degrade the messaging quality when a non-Apple phone joins the conversation.

Must eradicate it.

For the safety and security of our users!

It’s probably just a definition thing.

To me, constructive criticism means that the criticism doesn’t just point out failure, but that it then also shows how to correct that failure.

By itself, “you’re doing it wrong” is just destructive: it takes something apart, it destroys it. Without a subsequent “and here’s how you would do it right,” it doesn’t become constructive, it doesn’t help in putting things back together in the correct way.

Sure, as a first step, “you’re doing it wrong” is completely justified when something is actually wrong.

But without the second step - the constructive part - it just doesn’t constitute constructive criticism. By itself, it’s just criticism.

Is saying “you’re doing it wrong” really constructive?

Most people will buy a computer, that computer will have Windows 11 on it, they’ll start using that computer and the pre-installed OS that came with it, and maybe, occasionally, they will complain that “this is different now” and that “they always change things, it’s so annoying” and that will be the end of it.

If you’re talking about people who install or even just upgrade the OS on their computer by themselves, are aware of such a concept as “alternative operating systems,” engage in any kind of conversation about operating systems on social media, and then care enough about the topic to downvote people who disagree with them on purely ideological grounds, you’re already talking about a tiny, tiny minority of computer users.

Google Chat is essentially Google’s take on Slack: group collaboration with chat and app/platform integrations.

“2A proponents” already don’t give a fuck about the “well-regulated militia” clause in the very amendment they’re supposedly so adamant about.

Honestly, proper gun control would mean that someone with that diagnosis completely loses access to guns - and yes, that means that his own guns should have been confiscated.

However, we get this after every mass shooting: people say that it’s not guns, it’s a mental health issue. But as soon as concrete measures are suggested that would keep guns out of the hands of someone who’s mentally unstable, those same people will yell at you “SHaLl NoT bE InFRinGeD!!1!1!!”

Well, it’s an option.

You can decide to leave it set to countdown + calling without further interaction.

Strong “you can’t let good food go to waste” in the post-war generation, including in my own family. It’s so ingrained even in the next generations that many of us will just “finish their plate” even though there’s no necessity there. Some of us are quite well off now, but attitudes around food haven’t changed. You have to finish your plate. You can’t let good food go to waste. People elsewhere are starving. People worked hard so you could have this food. You don’t know when you’ll be able to have a nice meal like this again.

Like you, I realized the difference when I met people from different, well off, culturally food-secure backgrounds. They’d just stop eating, and throw the uneaten leftovers in the trash. Doesn’t matter how good the food was. Doesn’t matter how expensive the food was. Doesn’t matter that you could eat the leftovers later.

I had a really hard time landing on some reasonable middle ground (you can save leftovers, but you’re allowed to stop eating when you’re full, etc.). Made me realize that it’s so much more cultural than personal. Also raises questions about what we’re going to pass down to the next generations, intentionally or not.

If it’s not processed on device, there shouldn’t be any reason why this feature has to be limited to the Pixel 7 and 8, right?

Not because national anthems are political, that’s one of the dunbest things that’s been said in this thread

Many national anthems are fairly radical political manifestos.

Just because they’ve been put to some music and we’ve gotten used to them doesn’t make them any less radical.

It’s funny to think that statements like “arise, children of the fatherland, against the bloody flag of tyranny” or “O Lord our God arise, scatter our enemies and make them fall!” or “Let’s unite, we’re ready to die! For centuries we’ve been stamped on and laughed at because we’re not one people” should be completely okay and everybody should stand and listen in awe, but “black lives matter” would be too radical and too political for the same setting.

That’s my use case as well.

Just find a carrier you like for the country you’re traveling to, download the eSIM, and you’re ready to go.

All while keeping the physical SIM card of my regular, domestic carrier in the SIM card slot.

This simple issue was a major hassle before eSIM cards existed, and now it’s the easiest, most convenient thing in the world.

Once I saw that Google wasn’t going to honor steam library on stadia

That is such a weird complaint.

Google doesn’t own Steam. Google has nothing to do with Steam. Why would Google give you free games just because you purchased those same games on a competing platform?

Are you also complaining that Sony isn’t honoring your Steam library on the PlayStation? Are you complaining that Microsoft isn’t honoring the Steam library on the XBox?

Heck, are you complaining that Steam isn’t honoring the Nintendo Switch library on the Steam Deck?

I mean: what gives?

It’s really on American regulators to hold American companies accountable if they abuse their dominant position in the American market to the detriment of American consumers.

Fairphone, through a herculean development effort, has been the only Android OEM to keep going even after Qualcomm drops support.

That seems to say that while Qualcomm will drop support, Fairphone will not. Which means that it’s very likely that the Fairphone will receive updates - including new Android OS versions - even after EOL by Qualcomm.

And given Fairphone’s history, there’s every reason to believe in their commitment.

“Market dominance” simply means that a single company has the means to shape the entire market - not that it must have 90+ percent market share.

You’re essentially arguing that it’s easier for a user to find a third party app in the App Store, install it, create an account in the app, and start messaging than it is to start messaging with the pre-installed first party app.

I don’t find that persuasive.

Apples to oranges.

The reason is that messaging services like WhatsApp became popular in Europe because carriers charged exorbitant fees for SMS messaging at a time when no single phone manufacturer absolutely dominated the market. Apps like WhatsApp made it possible to communicate with people, no matter which specific phone or brand or platform they were using.

If the iPhone (with iMessage pre-installed) had been the dominant smartphone and ecosystem at the time, chances are that what’s happening in the US would have happened in Europe in exactly the same way.

It’s exactly the same argument as with Windows and Internet Explorer: if Windows had been one podunk operating system out of many, nobody would have cared. The whole issue was that Microsoft used the market dominance of Windows to quasi-lock users into Internet Explorer.

Are WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Signal, and such blocked in the US?

Of course they’re not blocked.

People just default to the app that comes pre-installed with their phone and sits right there on the first screen, because it’s marginally easier than picking a third party app in the App Store, installing it, and creating an account.

It’s the exact same argument that Microsoft made when they bundled Internet Explorer with their OS.