True story from this month. I tried to cancel Disney+ and they can't do it online since the "tile" for that isn't being shown. I had to call 3 times to get it removed, and they ended up raising my phone rate $5 as part of this. How is that even possible? Even their "executive" team can't determine what my bill is or should be. No one knows anything and their systems are so archaic they can't even revert stuff they did by accident. And their web site is trash and often gets errors or 404 pages. In fact, their system will log you out while on a chat due to inactivity even though you are typing. So much for your chat.

Sure, that's not hard to guess. Linear TV will be dead or mostly gone by then.

But I'm starting to think that Netflix will be dead/gone in 5-10 years as well. They are losing subscribers and they have real competition. They cost more than the other services and have fewer good shows. I canceled it months ago because no one had watched it in months.

We used to subscribe to Netflix's disc-based service to get older stuff as well. In our case lots of older TV series. We dropped that after having a hard time actually getting discs that worked. I checked back a couple of years ago, and every series I wanted to watch wasn't even complete anymore in their library. You just couldn't even get discs.

Their streaming service kept losing good content which they replaced by some of the worse series I've ever seen. Bad acting, bad writing, bad directing. Copies of other (better) shows from elsewhere. I wouldn't start watching a series until they had 2-3 seasons anyway, since it seemed like 75% of their series were single season. We dropped them a year ago.

Then cable TV prices went up recently and they dropped channels. It was already pretty annoying with the random schedule changes and constant ads. So I axed that as well and signed up for Hulu for the first time, but I'm getting to the point where it's just too much work to find good shows.

We sometimes watch a comedy TV show during dinner. We are hard-pressed to find anything new to watch. Tons of shows with 1 to 2 seasons total or crap with crude humor. I'm seriously considering cutting the cord soon and stick with a few streaming channels.

Then why are so many working for Facebook and other similarly scummy tech companies?

I don't. And selective enforcement is another issue, but it doesn't change the fact that they are permitted to ban you for doing so.

That I do agree about. They remove apps for errors on their part and there is no recourse except hoping you are popular enough to get some traction on Twitter. For all of the billions they collect on the App Store, they basically spend none of it on support. It is borderline criminal.

I don't think Epic's removal will be overturned. They enabled functionality after review which is clearly against the contact. It doesn't matter if it was to enable functionality that should have been allowed. The very presence of any functionality that was undisclosed is enough to get you booted. Plus Apple can tank your account for literally any reason.

I do suspect that Apple may come to an arrangement with Epic to let them back on with some concessions from Epic. I don't think Apple wants to be seen as the bad guy and their users enjoy some of Epic's products.

Except Epic violated the terms of their agreement with apply by enabling functionality after it passed app review. The judge ruled that Apple was within their rights to terminate Epic's account. I don't see that changing on appeals.

It seems like almost every product I buy from Amazon comes with a card offering gift cards or discounts for a 5-star review. Some will send you extras, e.g. an additional battery for a massager, etc. I'm honestly surprised if this is the reason Amazon cracked down on them, since it's not really in their short-term interests to do so. Maybe someone at Amazon is realizing they are fast becoming a flea market full of garbage.

Related to the Verizon fiber cut in Brooklyn?

He will become a billionaire if enough people are dumb enough to buy the stock he's selling. I'm not sure why anyone would buy stock in that company at this point.

Apple noted Big Sur has hardware-assisted secure booting. It seems unlikely.

There are no Thunderbolt hubs that I'm aware of that don't suck. USB 3.2 maybe, but you are taking 10 Gbps and making 4 slower ports.

Yep, but you can get an Intel one today.

I have a 2018 mini, which you can still mostly get. The Apple Silicon minis cut the USB C ports in half, which is really lame. And multicore performance is likely to be exactly the same, so I don't really see the point. The next Apple Silicon mini will likely be much better.