SirEDCaLot

Um, isn't that exactly what MFi (Made For iPhone) did with branded or licensed chargers and cables?

Not surprising given than it's Wyndham, and reinforces my policy to never stay in one of their hotels again.

I went to one in Florida, good location, nice area, near an attraction. Sign and lobby were new. Prices were premium given their location near the attraction. But the building with the rooms--- ho-lee fuck. It was worse than a tenement. Flickering fluorescent lights in the hallway. Paint peeling off every surface including walls and doors and ceiling, both inside the room and out. Carpet in the hallway was filthy. The people doing the room had tried to clean it, but it was still awful. More flickering lights and peeling paint in the bathroom. Loud music from both next door rooms. And half the parking lot was cargo containers. No bed bugs fortunately, so I got like 5 hours sleep (arrived at 2am ish) then checked the fuck out. At least they had no problem refunding me.

I emailed the hotel manager and Wyndham corporate basically saying what the ever loving fuck. I was polite and respectful, but was quite clear that if they value their brand they need to close this hotel until it can be seriously rehabilitated. Both the hotel manager and Wyndham sent back a generic 'sorry we didn't live up to your expectations thank you for your feedback we will consider it'. AKA- we know and we don't give a fuck.

So yeah.... Wyndham never again.

I now have a simple rule- Hilton or Marriott, Hilton highly preferred. They cost more but at least you know you're going to get a clean building and a decent nights sleep.

Assuming the cost is stupid low like a $1/year, low enough that almost nobody will think 'is this really worth it?'-- every required click or tap after hitting 'subscribe now' costs you 25-50% of the people who are still there.

Make it 1 penny for a lifetime subscription. Just having to thumbprint for Google Pay will still cost you 25-50% of the people who hit subscribe. Make it a credit card form with card/exp/cvv/address/tel# and your purchase rate is down to maybe 1% of the people who hit subscribe.

Oh don't get me wrong, I love the idea too. I remember back in the early 00s there was a watch that was like 3-4" wide, only single strap, but had a big display that, while segmented, still showed a lot of stuff. I just don't think most 'normies' would go for it though.

I dunno. I think it's the same issue with Google Glass, AR kits, and Bluetooth headsets. The vast majority of people aren't interested in being quite so openly nerdy as to wear that constantly, and then a lot of the people who do wear it act like douchebags so then nobody else wears it because they don't want to look like douchebags. That happened to Bluetooth headsets- what SHOULD have been an easy 'wear always' thing became a 'I'll act like a douchebag and yell into my headset in public places' thing and then nobody wants to wear one when not on a call lest they be grouped in with the douchebags.

I like the concept of a 2-strap watch/phone, but I don't see it having common appeal. That will also be heavy, and even a basic phone's current weight will be felt a LOT more on the wrist than on the belt / in a pocket. Plus a watch gets exposed to a lot more damage as the user goes about their day so it will need to be a lot better armored (increasing bulk and weight) and also easy to repair.

You may though be right about the device makers wanting us to have two gadgets rather than one...

It's an interesting thought, but he misses the #1 problem with online subscriptions- sign-up friction.

If you could just push a button and instantly be charged something, an awful lot of people would do it.
But when you go from $0 to $0.01, you will lose 99% of people, because most people can't be bothered to fill out a form, put in their credit card number, etc. Even if the amount of money involved is absurdly small, it's not the price, it's the friction.

Now if he integrates the app with Apple Pay or Google Wallet that will help, a little. But only a little.

Screen and battery weren't there for it. Still aren't I don't think unless you significantly increase the size of the watch to either be a real hockey puck, or more likely stretch it out to be both thicker (probably about 1/2" to 3/4" thick) and wider (I'm thinking 3-4") it's gonna be an option anytime soon.

Um... no fucking shit.

Transporting millions of people dozens of miles twice a day OF COURSE has resource costs, in carbon and pollution and energy consumption. This shouldn't be rocket science. Sadly it is for people who are afraid of change.

It also saves the workers money (as they don't have to pay for fuel or public transit), it saves the company money (as they don't have to pay for office space), it saves the environment (as you don't have pollution from commutes), it reduces traffic (as you don't have as many commuters at rush hour), and it's generally good for just about everybody except commercial real estate developers renting out overpriced office buildings and Starbucks that's paying absurd rents to be in the bottom floor of those overpriced office buildings. And of course middle managers who think that hounding their employees in person somehow accomplishes something.

And that really bugs.
I keep all my media sorted in folders (old school I know). I went to try Plex once a few years back. It launched right into making an account and setting up remote access. Never was clear what if any access Plex mothership has to my media library- does that include filenames, file contents, everything? Sorry but do not want. I VPN back home, don't need the cloud BS.

Yeah I agree. It seems brain dead- you're making a $1200 book-flip phone that opens up like a laptop to a giant screen, so you have tons of space for ports, and you can't re-add the headphone jack? Seems overly focused on profits rather than usability.

Very cool idea. Yeah real holographic projection is still a ways off, especially from a portable emitter. AR however is much closer. There's an increasing focus on AR tech and making it smaller and cheaper- I saw a glasses the other day for $400 that projects a real 1080p screen onto your field of view and can talk to a phone. That stuff will only get better. The key is making it lightweight, have a long battery life, and fashionable. You also need some kind of separate input device, if you assume the phone remains in the pocket as a compute module. Or for those willing to accept a larger watch, perhaps the watch becomes the phone rather than an accessory to one. There's of course issues of size, weight, battery life, etc; but as tech improves those will get better. And in theory, the main reason you don't have the watch as the main phone is lack of screen size; if an external AR display was common that problem goes away.

Perfect example of the problem.

CPU was lower-mid-range back in 2020, will be horribly out of date now. No 5G. No wireless charging. No detail on which Android version(s) it supports.