Once a week.

Dark, Twisted and Cruel from Alan Wake II's soundtrack.

Haven't played the game yet. Came across the song while listening to Alan Wake's American Nightmare's soundtrack.

Geez. Awful use of resources remastering games that already look great.

Such a great track. Perfect blend of the essence of Justice and Tame Impala's music.

I found Reddit Gold and Discord Nitro's gifting systems to be smart ways of monetization.

There are people who, despite what you try, cannot or will not pay you. Gifting allows you to keep the people that positively contribute on your platform while still earning money from elsewhere.

Amazing how swiftly they're progressing with their enshittification. Makes me re-think all those 9 years spent there.

I got some clarifications from Unity regarding their plan to charge developers per game install (after clearing thresholds)

• If a player deletes a game and re-installs it, that's 2 installs, 2 charges
• Same if they install on 2 devices
• Charity games/bundles exempted from fees

Regarding this being abused by bad actors:

Unity says it will use fraud detection tools and allow developers to report possible instances of fraud to a compliance team

- @stephentotilo

“We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem,”

“If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate’s service is more valuable.”

Source

It's tempting to opt for telematics/black box insurance because of the initial cheaper prices but the privacy violations and potential downsides make it not worth it.

You can be the best defensive driver in the world but sometimes you're just going to have to brake hard to avoid an object that may jump on you, dinging your driving score and raising your premiums.

Contrary to what this post's image says, I'm reading online that these apps aren't perfect at differentiating between who's a driver and who's a passenger.

Have fun fighting with your insurance to get them to remove anything from your record.

Last week a squirrel decided it didn't want to live anymore and jumped into my way while I was driving. It was on an empty slow street at night so I was safely able brake hard to avoid killing the poor thing. If I had spyware insurance they would've dinged me for it.

I don't mind paying $10/mo for access to millions of songs on demand, even if the caveat is that I don't own anything at the end of my subscription.

I understand costs have gone up, so I can accept a $1 increase in subscription. The problem is that Spotify wants to do a bunch of side projects at my expense. I have no interest in podcasts or audiobooks yet I must fork up the extra money to fund it. I have no say in what my money is being used for and I hate that.

It's why I moved from it to Tidal and then to Apple Music (even though I'm on Android). Both have their own issues but at least they're focused on music.

Visited a CeX store.

Their locked, employee-only Wi-Fi: Protected CeX

Their open public WiFi: Unprotected CeX

*Account for PlayStation Network is required.

Last I checked, this was a singleplayer game. Why is Sony so adamant on an account?

Closing in on 10 years of Sync (Reddit/Lemmy). I'm too used to it to switch things around. The only time I'm using the mobile website is when I need to use spoilers.

On desktop, I switch between default, Photon and Alexandrite.

I could understand if Reddit's own search was somewhat competent, but it remains terrible.

Lemmy's search is far more flexible, it's just buggy/broken right now – at least for me.

Xbox takes a 30% cut from devs, has ads on its console and wants to charge a subscription for online gaming (now raising its price by 25%). Can't triple dip like this, Microsoft.

Haven't renewed PS Plus either since its price hike. Just gonna play disc games on my PS5 till the end of its lifespan.

For Mastodon, you gotta find the hashtags about the things you care about.

For Lemmy, you gotta put in the work to raise the communities you care about. If there are existing communities, post and comment in them. If there isn't a community about your interest - and if you're willing - create and maintain them. The people will come.

I'm all in on the fediverse, and want to watch it flourish.

7 years of OS support! That's the kind of stuff I like to hear.

Gift article I found online.

The part that interests me is this:

Jill Braff, head of ZeniMax studios, said in the town hall that she hoped the reorganization would allow the division, which also develops Fallout and Doom, to put more focus on fewer projects. “It’s hard to support nine studios all across the world with a lean central team with an ever-growing plate of things to do,”

Why gobble up so many studios to consolidate into a gaming megacorp, then get gobbled up yourself by Microsoft? What's the purpose of acquiring so many studios and holding onto so much IP if you can't handle them?

This would be a re-remaster (re-remake?) considering Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary released in 2011 was a remake of the original 2001 game.

That does appear to be the case at this moment.

Here's a screenshot showing the timestamps:

Ugh.

I migrated to Simple Gallery after QuickPic was similarly sold to a sketchy buyer. Been using it for so many years, supported the dev(s) by purchasing some of the apps and the "Thank You" app they have.

Time to look for yet another gallery app.

We can't have this happening every time. There needs to be a better way to support and sustain such apps.

I own my device. I get to choose what I install on it.

Google Chrome isn't on the Microsoft Store on Windows or macOS Store on macOS. Should I stop "sideloading" it according to his advice?

Edit: Found more about the quote on The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/14/23960811/pichai-we-dont-want-to-allow-you-to-completely-compromise-your-phone

“We’re trying to strike a balance. Apple’s iPhone only allows the App Store, but we believe in choice, so on Android we allow you to sideload and install additional applications.”

I'm so conflicted about it. I don't want people to have to suffer for intentionally or unintentionally installing garbage on their phones, but I can't let that take away from how I use my device as well.

The "pay for mobile hotspot" is more of a carrier thing than an Android thing. iPhone users suffer as well.

On Android you can at least use apps like SecureTether. It's a bit clunky, but it works on my Pixel 6a.

What I don't appreciate is Google completely turning off the ability to create a hotspot WiFi network even if your mobile data is off. In college we would connect multiple laptops to a phone hotspot and play LAN games.

::: spoiler Typical Google shenanigans

:::

The response regarding the move from the people I know who manage the Wiki has been positive. Happy to hear that.

Ugh.

Thankfully Island is available on Github, and Shelter and Insular are on F-Droid.

I rely on Island for having two copies of apps like WhatsApp since Google can't be bothered to offer this feature on Pixels like Samsung, OnePlus, etc. do.

Targeted advertising is a huge no. No more of that.

Static advertising I can accept, but then who's responsible for vetting ads? I don't want scams displayed everywhere.

Devs definitely need ways to support themselves and sustain development. I've shared this screenshot from the app Secure Tether before:

I like to chip in a few bucks to my most used apps/services that are donationware, but after all the middlemen take their cut, the devs are left with peanuts. This IMO is the biggest hurdle when it comes to online monetization. A less expensive way to donate will certainly help.

Additionally, there are people who cannot or will not pay for apps, and I don't want to exclude them from being able to use an app/service they need.

Monetization like how Reddit Gold was and how Discord Nitro is are some of my favorites. Few extra perks and cosmetic features for paying users. Free users are still able to use the main product at no cost and you can gift them Gold/Nitro if they aren't able to purchase it themselves. I don't know how that would translate into an app store model though.

Very happy to see their partnership with iFixit, and to see repairability actually be taken seriously.

Things I like:

• Brighter screen and now upto 120 Hz
• 256 GB option, weirdly for the obsidian color only. Aloe and bay are nicer! (Also annoying how Google phones don't have microSD card slots because they offer Google Drive. smh this company)
• Will get Gemini Nano for on-device AI
• 7 years of OS updates

Rest is pretty much the same.

Google Store, Amazon and Best Buy are offering a $100 gift card for pre-ordering. Best Buy and Google Store are accepting trade-ins - you'll have to compare to see which one is offering the most value for your phone. Best Buy gift card will be more useful than a Google Store gift card though.

If you can wait half a year or so, it should drop to about $375 like the previous A phones have, making it a solid bang for your buck.

WB lost $200 million on it. Jeez.

Things would get really quiet without them.

Eventually I can see getting rid of them, but for now they're keeping Lemmy active.

I know this comes across as one of those classic phishing emails that claim to require your immediate attention or else your account will be deleted, but unfortunately in this case it's legitimate.

Reddit on mobile no longer exists for me now that Sync for Reddit's gone.

Can't wait to try Sync for Lemmy and see it grow.

All that multiplayer bullshit subsidies the single player campaign.

??? What? How?

The game isn't free – singleplayer or multiplayer(well it was free on Epic Games Store for that one week, but that was years into the game's release).

It earned $800 million on release day and $1 billion in 3 days. I don't think a lot of people would have bought Shark cards at that time.

Then there's all the sales after the first 3 days, the release on PS4/Xbox One/PC, and then the re-release on PS5/Xbox Series.

This article claims they made ~$8 billion in revenue from GTA V as of Q1 FY23. I know games are expensive to make, but surely they don't cost billions – to a point where their singleplayer campaign needs to be "subsidized"?

Sync for Lemmy

Sync was my go-to Reddit app for nearly 9 years.

It does have ads, but with a one time purchase you can get rid of them. I've paid that and then I also plan on getting the subscription in the future for additional features.

The price is definitely a bit on the higher side, but I'm happy to support the development of the app I left Reddit for.

If you are able to, please support the apps and Lemmy instances you use.

Mixed opinions.

Things I like about Samsung:

• Feature-rich hardware and software
• 4 years of OS updates compared to 3 by Google
• S Pen in Note/Ultra
• Foldables
• Keeping Android tablets and Android-compatible smartwatches alive when Google abandoned them. Huge props for that.

Things I dislike:

• Making fun of Apple and then doing the exact same things they did: removing the headphone jack, display notch, removing the charger in the box.
  • They even got rid of expandable storage in the S series despite being a major manufacturer of micro SDs.
• Samsung's software is notorious for being slow, generally inferior compared to Google's and not the most well-designed out there.
  • I tried both the Galaxy A52 and a Pixel 6a at Best Buy. The A52 was lagging. I bought the 6a.
• They're edging towards anti-repair.
• Certain Samsung smartwatch features only work if you have a Samsung phone.

You can pay one time to remove the ads, or sign up for Sync's Ultra subscription which provides additional features like OCR in images and text translation.

Once you do so, the ad library is not invoked at all.

Worked fine on Sync.

Final image is !potatoism@lemmy.world approved

This post was at the top of Mastodon's explore page yesterday: https://mas.to/@kissane/110793942888550843

I feel it perfectly encapsulates the issues I see others and I face with Mastodon. Since it was #1 trending, it probably resonated with many more too.

The technical issues can eventually solved. The cultural ones? That's the big question.

Lemmy seems far more approachable. It has its issues, but at least it has a working search.

The moment they fix the search, fix their recommendations, stop wasting money on junk projects like games and allow me to completely disable Shorts, I will resubscribe to YT Premium.