If it can't get ads from the internet it will show built in ads, probably for Samsung stuff.

But that's crippling the product. You don't buy a fridge with a screen if you don't want that functionality, and it's bound to only work when online.

This is an attempt to get into the Chromebook market, particularly education. Schools aren't going to tell parents that they need to buy a $1,500 Macbook, but a $250 Chromebook isn't out of the question.

It will be interesting to see how badly crippled it is by software lockdowns. Mac App Store only? Or even iPad OS.

Either way it shows just how far ahead they are, and how ineffective the export ban on Nvidia chips is. Even if a domestic chip is only half as efficient as an Nvidia one, it's not going to raise the cost of training AI models enough to matter.

This also makes the Chinese tech much more attractive to other countries as it's not such a huge environmental disaster.

Consumers need to reject it. Return the fridge if an update brings ads.

In countries with stronger consumer rights there is little question that this kind of enshittification would be a refund issue. It fundamentally changes the product, intrudes into your private space with unwanted and obnoxious ads, and it cannot be repaired.

Facebook is designed to take old people and radicalize them. 60+ and on Facebook is practically guaranteed to be an extremist.

Trumpflation. We have to resist this.

The makers of some medications are jacking up prices too. Trump demanded that the US stop paying more for drugs, so instead of lowering prices there, they raised prices in Europe.

We have to say no. Switch to a different medication if you can. Trump's taxes must be paid by Americans, and if companies try to shift some of the burden onto us, we have to stop buying their stuff.

None of which is true. Labour costs in China are rising as their society comes up to Western standards of living and incomes, and besides labour costs are only a small component of the overall manufacturing cost. They have quite strict environmental protection laws too, at a time when the US is weakening its. You can't even build a factory within X km of a protected river now, no matter how much you promise not to release any pollution.

No, the reason the Chinese are able to keep costs down is simple: economy of scale. They have a huge domestic market, and when it comes to EVs they supply the rest of the world with batteries and components, even whole cars that get re-badged.

That and long, very agile supply chains.

All the stuff about ghost cities and subways to nowhere was false. They were simply build ahead of expected, planned migrations from rural areas to cities, which sure enough happened.

The real-estate market has overheated a bit in China, but you have to remember that the government's goal is to provide housing for its citizens, not to enable private companies to make huge profits. I know it's very hard for some people to wrap their heads around, but low real-estate prices are considered a good thing as long as they are properly managed.

The government won't let it happen. Even the US government wouldn't let the big car manufacturers fail, they bailed them out instead.

The problem in California is that private lawyers realized they could sue almost anybody for failure to warn about carcinogen risk. The result was that everybody (both private individuals, companies, and government facilities) stuck a warning on virtually anything. The initial intention of the law was good but very badly worded.

It doesn't have to be UTC, you can use your local timezone. The point is to not do DST changes.

Don't change my clocks, don't bother supporting it in my software, state all times as UTC when corresponding, don't change my schedules.

It's a little bit of work when e.g. we are getting another hour of free electricity due to all the renewable energy in the UK tomorrow, so I've scheduled the car to charge up, and had to adjust the stated time to UTC when entering it.

I wish there wasn't so much stigma with animated shows. Star Trek Prodigy is some of the best we have had in years, but was relegated to being a "kids show" and cancelled. If those types of shows were marketed towards adults more, not just edgey adult comedy cartoons, it could open up a whole new market of quality shows produced on a lower budget and on a shorter timeline.

Marvel is kinda trying to with What If, but like most Marvel stuff it's shit.

By that standard there was never a golden age. TV has always been mostly filler and cheap crap.

What they are referring to here is the recent glut of high production value shows produced by new entrants to the streaming market. Lots of miniseries, and some longer form stuff. Sadly a lot of good shows got cancelled.

Now those same services seem to be cutting back budgets and thinning out release schedules.

Mounjaro and Wegovy might though.