Maybe, but we're in a transformative phase due to AI. Jobs under threat include coding, marketing, design, editorial, creative for art, generative video is coming along, as is music, finance can be accelerated, potentially also legal (accelerated, not replaced).

Some trades probably won't absorb a lot of people. You mentioned carpenters... people are very price sensitive and will import goods or buy premade items from big box suppliers.

Plumbers, mechanics... sure, but if everyone turns to that supply will outstrip demand. How many people do you know tried to become a realtor during the pandemic and can't sustain that now? The demand might always be there but the prices people will pay in a competitive and saturated market may not be.

Active tiles in the start menu. app suggestions (ads) in the start menu, Edge promos in the start menu, recently added in the start menu, meeting reminders in the start menu...

What else can we stuff in there?

I remember when the Start menu was quick and easy to use and organize. Now it's a giant list of junk.

It's actually even worse than this. If you try to use their website to cancel while their call center is closed, their website pretends to be having technical issues. Very deceptive. Even in California where you're supposed to be able to cancel online I believe if signing up online is an option.

Okay...

Ah, so like the option in Android Auto? Turns out products with settings and UIs that can support aftermarket functionality that can be expanded on are useful.

... so... like on Android Auto where you can stop the audio?

You can do it through your phone, but it sure is nice when you have a nice big display to have your navigation there, and some giant buttons to manage your streaming...

I've personally experienced some android auto glitches, and every time it's because I've worn out the cheap USB cable I bought out and I just swap it with another cheap USB cable, and then it works great for another year. The idea that this is a safety hazard is BS.

I hear what you're saying, a standardized upgradable generic screen would be nice, but some integration with the car to a known standard is necessary for a good experience, like voice commands, dipping the radio volume during prompts, managing the audio source if you want to play media from the app, limiting UI behavior while driving.

It's literally that simple.

I will not go back to an age of crappy OEM software that is buggy, lacking features, never updated, and/or expensive to update, and or impossible to update yourself.

That's nonsense. I don't like everything Google does, but they've hosted my email and various files securely for coming up on two decades, they make some of the cleanest Android phones on the market with regularly published factory images, OTAs, and verification mechanisms, they offer Workspace products for corporate that seem to be fairly secure - you don't often hear of massive breaches, their security team often does valuable work not only on their own products but also on other vendor's products. And they give us Chrome, and while certain aspects of it certainly aren't perfect, they keep pretty on top of vulnerabilities. Even projects like Signal are using electron.

You can't be considered serious with such hyperbolic commentary.

Yes, and they're exactly the same quality today as the potato cams of 1995.

Haven't you been able to reset the BIOS by shorting a jumper since like.. the 90s?

If you love your favorite Reddit app, plan to leave Reddit for a month as soon as they institute the policy change. See what happens when tons of their users and content creators disappear and their valuation tanks.

The only thing they have of value is their users.

It has Bluetooth and a USB-C port. If you really want to use wired headphones you can use an in-line DAC. Google will sell you one for $12:
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstore.google.com%2Fus%2Fpr...

Or you can use any Bluetooth receiver dongle with a 3.5mm output. Amazon has tons of them.

I know we all love 3.5mm ports. I love 3.5mm ports. But that doesn't make every new device crap on the sole basis they don't have one, especially when there's easy workarounds.

It has 8GB RAM. I think it looks good. It comes in 128GB and 256GB versions and I don't think I'd need more storage on my tablet than I do on my phone, where I take all my pictures and videos.

Android Tablets are dire and have been for years. New tablets from major manufacturers are still launching with slow CPUs, 2GB RAM, mono speakers.

This thing has tensor G2, 8GB RAM, quad speakers, a loud speaker base, enough storage for me anyway. It's one of he first nice tablets I've seen since the Nexus 7 in 2013. Most manufacturers since have just built cheap crap, and this isn't even that expensive.

The only time I've switched to AM in the past 25 years is by mistake. Terrible quality audio and it's all politics or religious. If they shut if off people's blood pressure will probably go down.

I put pre-paid Angry Birds on my child's devices _because_ I could do so ad free. If that wasn't an option I wouldn't have installed it at all, and Rovio would have got zero money.

Maybe Rovio have done the math, but I suspect they might make more money on Angry Birds overall, but their brand will become even more diminished than it is now, as it won't have the same reach to young children.