I forgot to mention in my first comment that the article does say you'll still be able to side load apps, but you'd have to disable "all of Google Play Protect". So maybe if Google is doing this, they are thinking along the lines of Windows S Mode (but including malware scanning as an all or nothing). So either you have full lock down or no Google security, and if so, would it be some you can turn on and off as needed? Or one way like S Mode?

As for developing, you would be expected to disable all of Google Play Protect to test, and maybe turn it back on when finished?

The article isn't well written and is a bit of a mess.

It first claims that Android won't be allowed to side, but then mentions that it is piloting a "security tool will work in the background to detect apps that demand suspicious permissions, like those that grant the ability to spy on screen content or read SMS messages". So, which is it, blocking sideloading or not?

It later mentions that "Users who are blocked from downloading a suspicious app will be notified with an explanation." So, again, this doesn't seem to be blocking side-loading all together, but more that it will be preventing installing apps that "demand suspicious permissions".

Now, I could be wrong, and Google may be blocking all side-loading as a "security" feature". But with everything happening in the EU and the Apple App Store, I doubt that they would see that and decided they should now start blocking side loading.

The difference is game consoles are marketed and sold as limited functionality devices.

iPhones and iPads are sold as a fully functional computer replacements. "There's an app for that" and "What's a PC?" marketing campaigns drove that distinction. Just like how MS couldn't lock out competition from within their fully functional product (Windows). Apple wants to be the future of computing, but doesn't want to follow the law, like MS before it

Apple also needs to stop moving fast and breaking things with macOS. When new macOS versions come out, there are huge lists of apps that are broken that developers need to fix because of Apple.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-13-working-and-broken-apps.2347026/

Just one of many lists of broken apps, and not just small rando apps / 32-bit apps are here from a macOS major update. This turns into either dropped app support (angry customers) or higher support costs which will eat into profits. And when the rare company does show PC vs Mac game sales, the Mac sales numbers aren't very high (Rocket League had 0.5% of users being Mac users). So a lot of money to invest, and possibly keep re-investing yearly, for a very small market share. Not the most easy sales pitch.

As it was also pointed out somewhere here, Valve stopped really supporting macOS. If the largest online game shop isn't even supporting it well (and they have all the numbers of how many paying users are Mac users), it will give many more companies even more pause.

What helped the iPhone is it is practically given away by phone companies. Most people don't pay full price for one. If they had to, iPhones wouldn't have done well.

And unless I'm mistaken, no one will be handing out cheap/free apple visions like they did with iPhones. So now you are suddenly asking people to hand out thousands of dollars for a new device that doesn't have an ecosystem to back it up, is in a locked garden, with nothing but a hope it might some day MIGHT fill some niche in your life. That's a lot to ask.

MacBooks stop getting OS updates after a little more than 5 years, then are considered obsolete. The OLED would be still fine in that time.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances"

"The people" is an old way of saying "citizens". It comes from the starting part of "We the People of the United States". It does distinguish between citizens and non-citizens.

https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/

You do know that Windows hasn't been DOS underneath since Windows ME?

PowerShell is a command shell, like Bash or Terminal.

So, they are pulling an Apple? Disable everything so they can be the gatekeepers of their users info and monetize the hell out of it.

Except Airtags are cited in many lawsuits lately though, including nation wide lawsuits.

https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/the-effects-are-devastating-massive-nationwide-lawsuit-against-apple-claims-airtags-have-become-stalkers-weapon-of-choice/

I think this whole idea of handing them out like candy is going to come back negatively against the city. They will have a hard time claiming they never thought giving free trackers to everyone could go badly with the sheer amount of lawsuits they are more and more involved in.

You must be GNU here

It's the new Chinese Twitter clone. Follow Xi on XiTter now.

My Surface Pro has a DPI of 267, never had this problem with Edge, Chrome, Firefox, or Brave.

"Think of the children"

Am I really that old now to remember that parents would join their children in events like that and be a part of their kids lives? Instead just give kids a phone and a GPS tracker and say "good enough"?

No, no. Wikipedia, while not perfect, can be informative. It shows that Florida has a huge majority of Republicans in the House of Representives, and has been in the majority since 1996.(the purple only shows the governors, not House of Representives). If you are curious, it's the House that creates and amends state laws.

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_House_of_Representatives

This means that Repuiblicans there have had 27 years to fix this so-called "legislative mess the dems left there". 27 years in majority. And still blaming anyone else for their failings.

Oh, if you need to brush up on what a governor does:

> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_(United_States)

As for the three strikes law, it's been already addressed by others.

I am curious to see who you'll try to blame for other Florida's woes.