Wow have you looked around lately? People have to spend more on basics. Despite Trump’s lies, the average consumer pays for tariffs. People are spending less on nonessential items. Guess which company gets less business: Walmart where people get food or Amazon where they get nonessential goods? Amazon. That is a direct effect.

Secondary effects are that the Trump trade wars have greatly impacted industry like tourism. As local businesses suffer they start layoffs. Guess where those laid off people don’t spend money: Amazon.

As public company that must report earnings every quarter, to ensure increased profits for shareholders, Amazon must cut costs like staffing costs.

Spying, I mean AI assistance needs to be added. How else can they sell your data—er, help you with computing tasks?

I have seen more coworkers using Macs as Windows specific requirements have slowly disappeared. I asked someone in IT about the cost difference. Macs cost more but they generally require less maintenance. For example these core Windows functions being broken have generated a lot of support tickets. On the backend, more and more servers are Linux with Windows only for Microsoft specific things like Office servers, Windows AD servers, etc.

Unfortunately it is becoming harder to not buy from Amazon. Many times I have found that only Amazon has an item that I need within a few weeks. Other places might have it if I am willing to wait a few weeks.

Generally someone claiming they are a "Professional Engineer" or PE is where people can get in trouble if they have not passed certification. People who have engineering degrees cannot use that title until they pass certification tests. To get a certification requires passing 2 tests. The first test is administered near or immediately after graduation. The second test is after 5 years that but the engineer must have worked under the supervision of a licensed PE for those 5 years.

I have known people who have been fired for falsely claiming a PE license. And the problem is they are generally black balled from any future engineering jobs. There are certain tasks that only a PE can do like sign off on engineering plans. Not having a PE license limits tasks but engineers can still work in the industry without one. Faking one is silly and stupid.

I would speculate the whole part of not starting trade and tariff wars with other countries especially allies would have helped the situation. While it might not have stopped Amazon from 0 layoffs; Amazon may not feel the need to layoff 14K people.

If Nokia has a valid patent and HP paid up for years then why would they not continue to pay? Despite what you heard, HP is only disabling it on some laptops. This sounds more like a cost cutting move.

Apple added AV1 hardware decoding starting with M3 and A18 chips. AV1 hardware decoders have been on Intel GPUs since 11th generation. For AMD since Radeon 6000 series GPUs. NVidia has had it since RTX 3000 series. Encoding is another matter.

Yes and no. Linux itself does not have HEVC drivers built in; however, it will load third party drivers like in FFmpeg or gstreamer.

It is per device. But it is an additional cost. Cynically, I can imagine that accountants factored in licensing cost when they sold the laptop. Now an executive has found a way to save the company money by screwing over customers. That executive will get a nice bonus this year.

I think the license is $1 per device (per year?); however, I do not put it past HP and Dell to have added it to the cost when they sold the laptop. They just want to cheap out now.

[sarcasm] Of course it can. Also cranial measurements are reliable indicators.[/sarcasm]

There would be a larger cost savings to replace the $1 bill with a coin. The government has tried multiple times to do that but it did not take.

1) Ummm what? You know they make these things called ”stands" these days? Some of them are built into cases. 2) You do know the point of "podcasts" is to listen to them and not watch them, right?

The problem seems to be you do not understand how technology works. So let me explain how I use my iPad. Before washing the dishes, I put on a podcast and play it on the speakers. My hands are free to do dishes. If I am watching something, I flip the case so the iPad is standing at angle, and I position it where I can see it. I occasionally look at the screen while I do dishes. Hopefully you learned how people use technology.

For me, my tablet never really leaves the house. But I use it in many rooms. I look up and follow recipes when making meals in the kitchen. I play podcasts and YouTube videos when doing the dishes in the kitchen. I watch videos in bed. Can I use a phone? Yes. The tablet has a larger screen.

This is what a tablet is. Bigger than a phone but not quite a laptop or desktop. There are use cases for this. In my house they are basically portable streaming devices. Someone is watching their show on the living room TV, grab the iPad/tablet and watch your show in your room.