So like what two, maybe three, of them after all their "unplanned" cost overruns?

Sure, but these places are not eating into a restaurant’s profits. Just providing a poor experience for the customer by charging the customer higher prices for the same food the restaurants sell for less. Still not ideal. But not nearly as bad for the restaurant itself.

Soare the restaurants who now only break even assume they would out of business without that low or negative margin business? The assumption is they do some in person business where they make better margins. Have they considered trying to growing their in person business and not working with these delivery companies sucking up their profits? I mean, if your restaurant is in a bad location I could see using these delivery companies. But if you are in a good location, don’t use them. My neighborhood’s downtown has a thriving restaurant and bar scene. There are roughly 60 establishments in neighborhood of only 6500 people. But there are two train lines. Only roughly 20% work with these companies. Instead they relay on foot traffic and frequent festivals that close down the main drag to cars and brings people to the neighborhood.

I went to Peru last year and hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. No stamp from Peru, but the mandated guide (we had to pay for) we had on the trail stamped our passports with a novelty stamp.

I guess I must be special. I can certainly tell the difference between 4k and 1080P. I find it pretty noticeable. Same with 24k audio vs 16k. There is just more there, there. The detail between the details.

I understand their stock driven desire to monetize everything. And want to be in control of the user experience. But I just want to use my pocket computer to run things. I don’t want another unintegrated computing platform. This is anti- customer and no one is asking for this. It is enshitification. Pure and simple. However, I’ve never bought a GM product outside of their stock, which I sold on their resent peak before this announcement. So I only care insofar as I don’t want my brand of choice following suit. This is bad example. I sh!t on enshitification.

I paid a deposit six months before the PS2 released at a Software Etc. downtown. The day it came out there was a huge line for a mall store. Maybe 150 people camped out before opening. At opening, they asked anyone who had paid a deposit to come to the front of the line. They then called out a name and asked for ID. They let them in the store. I was next. After I got mine, they told me that was all they had and they were going to make the announcement they were sold out in five minutes to give me time to get out of there. Turns out they were the only two consoles the entire state for the next several months. I felt like a rockstar. Thought about selling it, but the envy from my friends was worth every penny I didn’t make. Plus you know, it was freaking awesome system at the time. You could even dual boot with Linux.

This is true to a point. While as a society their policies are not very open, as someone who doesn't look at all Japaneses I can't say I have encountered any racism. I feel a lot safer in Japan's large cities compared any North American, South American, and European large city I have lived or visited. And I have spent a significant time in Japan over the decades and live in cities in multiple continents. I am married to a Japanese woman and have in-laws over there. Although I am also white, bigger than most Japanese people, and don't look poor. But I will concede that it is possible it all happens behind my back. I also haven't ever tried to get a job or rent an apartment in Japan. Perhaps my experience would be different then. I do have a half dollar sized tattoo on my back and I have never been evil eyed or denied entry to a public bath or hot spring. And never had a problem at a store, restaurant, hotel, or any other establishment or public setting. But my father in-law once got guff by some people in his neighborhood after I went jogging without a shirt on every day of my first visit. There are lots of things which are not codified in law that are consider bad manners or in poor taste. A big one is drinking or eating while walking. I think that sometimes people unfamiliar conflate the reproach with racial animus. When what it reality is people being called out for unwittingly breaking unwritten rules they probably didn't even know about. My impression is that manners and the not looking poor supersedes any facial features or amount of melanin one may or may not have. I am not rich, but I am not poor. Plus my parents taught me manners, and I bothered to learn Japanese etiquette. But I agree, I don't see them allowing a bunch of non-ethic Japanese people to move to their country any time soon.

This will work in more suburban locations. But depending on the nature of the robots, I doubt it will be widely adopted in most locations. The majority of convinces store are in not uniform oddly shaped cramped locations and layouts. It will be some time before multipurpose robot, even human operated will be able to navigate and stock such layouts. Something like that would work much better in a larger and more uniform store.

What kind of encoder do you use?

I’m an “older” tech enthusiast. I bought a quest 3. I use it to stream content or play movies more often than I play games on it. It makes a pretty great movie watching device if you anre watching something alone. Especially on airplanes. I wish there was more live sports in 3D. I guess a unified platform with all the streaming apps wouldn’t be worse, but I’m not sure it is actually better. One of the best part about watching sports on it is that you can have multiple giant virtual screens with different games on like you are in a sports bar. Sometimes the games are from one provider some times multiple so you just have different windows. I guess it all depends how they manage things. The Bigscreen app also does a good job while also allowing you to virtually watch sports, or whatever, with other people in different virtual settings.

It is lame though that Apple TV + does not work natively, even via browser or Remote Desktop. It used to. Amazon is the only major player that has an actual app where you can download for offline viewing. Though you can also upload videos you already own directly to the headset.

My MacBook Pro I got last year is usually charged via usb-c while plugged into my work station dock. However it also came with a MagSafe charger, including the wall plug. I heard they were changing that for the European market. But in the USA we still are getting both, for now.

The way European and North American private transport is set put PHEV are a better fit for at least half the households than full EVs. Likely the case in Japan too. However, if you have a room and budget for two vehicles, having the second one be an EV also usually makes sense economically. Even more so if they were priced like the Chinese ones. Most US households have more than one vehicle.

This would be the ticket. Include a voucher for a free charger. The customer can redeem it online and have one sent; or get some apple credits they can use of media, towards a mouse, keyboard, dock, or whatever else they sell. It fulfills the ending waste ethos without ripping off the customers.

I think it is BS for a device you are spending thousands of dollars on. It should include a charger.

That said 90% of the time I charge mine while it is docked into my the work station at my desk. I bring the charger with me whenever I bring the laptop elsewhere, but I rarely have to plug it in away from the desk because the battery really is all day and my office is in a room in my home. I did buy the cable to pug it into the dock though. At a minimum it should be included. But really Apple, and I say this as a stockholder (albeit one small enough I’m sure you don’t care), just include the fking charger. Because when you need it, you bloody need it.