It's actually a pretty clever solution, and probably the only way this is possible given that phone companies have zero interest in fixing it. It's trivial to spoof numbers; Caller ID is extremely broken system. But this is yet another of the unfortunate trend toward all communication flowing through either Google or Apple. Even if you believe that "end-to-end" encryption really is party-to-party and not just between you and Google, it relies on Google knowing the identity of both parties. I would prefer a different approach, PGP-like with a signature validation and handshake within the call rather than this centralized gatekeeping, but it's just so much easier to centralize it.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

This is great! The more Google knows about me, the more they can protect me. I will feel so much safer once this rolls out.

By the time they jack up the price the brainrot is already too far gone. You don't remember how to code anymore. You have no choice but to keep paying for tokens. Eventually you end up begging on the streets so you can afford more tokens. You rob a liquor store so you can pay for tokens and end up going to jail, where you go through rehab and are finally free of the need for tokens. But when you get out, you can never quite get rid of the desire for more tokens, always in the back of your mind... This is how you become a silicon junkie hooked on Microsoft.

Yes, a corporation is a device to protect individuals from liability. The fact that companies like Asbestos Corporation and National Gypsum still exist at all is testament to that.

You have to pay for flu vaccines? Wow

It's in their mandate to Be Evil

I treat it like a fun game. The rules are all pretty transparent.

Sometimes it will create an order at an all-time high, and if you're not paying attention you get screwed.
Other times you can get a great deal if you get an all-time low + 15% off.
Also it's worth mentioning that they do send you an email notifying you of a price change.

If you're obsessively frugal, it can be worth it to cancel and create a new subscription mid-month if you monitor the prices of your most frequently purchased items to capture a low price.

There's also a little loophole: you can still cancel your order after the cutoff, as long as you do it before it ships. I think you still maintain your discount on your other orders this way. So if you only want 1 item, you could subscribe to 4 other items to get the maximum discount, then cancel the other orders and only keep the one you want. You should maintain the discount on the 1 item you wanted. They won't modify the order retroactively after it was created, at least the last time I checked, YMMV.

Profit over people? Say it ain't so!

Come on, she's a mere millionaire. Now she's got to waste all that hard-earned money on lawyers.

There ain't no justice, I tells ya...

It doesn't matter what the price is, this is the only way to get real money out of the Steam economy. After selling all those CS2 skins for insane amounts, you buy a Steam Deck and hock it for cash. Of course it's going to sell out.

All Input Is Evil

So they just have to incorporate the phrase "not produced with AI" somewhere in the video and it'll be undetectable.

It sounds cooler than "baddies"

I, for one, can't wait to be able to lie back and have a movie generated for me on demand. I don't think I'd even need to give a very specific prompt: they should have enough tracking data about me to know what I like. Maybe they can even insert uncannily specific product placements for me to enjoy, so as not to break immersion. Afterwards, I can discuss the movie with my AI chatbots and fulfill my socialization needs.

What a lonely future we have planned.