So you're saying that a US$212 replacement display that costs more than an entire Chromebook is going to be somehow better for these public schools over some period of time?

Right.

Do you think there's a world where Apple suddenly offers inexpensive replacement parts for anything? Sometimes the screens on Chromebooks are as low as $30. I'm sure they're third party panels, but they work and return the device to useful life. How likely is it that Apple offers screen replacements under $100, even to institutional buyers?

That is repairable by the standards of Apple computers, not the standards of open hardware.

My experience dealing with a Chromebook deployment mirrors one of the grandparent commenters: 90% of the problems are broken screens, Screens are quick and easy to replace if you have the part, but screens cost money and you'll never had as many as you'll eventually need. You'll have extra parts for everything else because of the staggering number of broken screens.

I have an occasional side job dealing with PC/laptop/Chromebook repairs at a local weirdo private Christian Academy. Given that the place definitely seems to have a "go pick the stick I'm going to beat you with"-vibe, I suspect there's actually fewer broken systems than I might see from a similar deployment at a public school. Chromebook screens are still the biggest problem. One of the reasons I got this side gig is that an acquaintance saw the number of devices being written off and just assumed their day-to-day IT person couldn't possibly know what they're doing.

Anything else Apple does, unless their screens are indestructible or only cost $20 to replace, isn't going to help with that.

I'm primarily on Facebook and most of what you see are recommended groups / ads / etc. I used to see more from friends and that's what I want to see.

Six years of support is pretty good and support won't be completely dropped. It's just not compatible with the latest OS.

Banks use these for repoing vehicles. You're being tracked either by the plates on your car, the EZ Pass for toll collection, the cellular connection in newer vehicles, the LoJack for higher risk loans or the phone in your pocket.

Firefox has an extension called Youtube Custom Speed. You can set arbitrary speeds from .05 to 16x in whatever increments you feel like adding. Not that it helps for the dipshits explaining how to type something in a terminal prompt, but it's definitely handy for speeding through laptop disassemblies and the like.

Chrome does appear to have the same thing so it probably works on whatever browser you like.

In Pocket Casts, the app I use, there's a playback speed control that can go up to 5x. I usually listen to podcasts at about 3x speed, which feels right to me. I lose a little nuance for audio fiction, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

16x audio playback speeds are typical for screen readers for visually impaired users. Maybe your wife configured something like that, but they take practice to get used to. I only have some familiarity with those because I used to have a blind co-worker and had to support his setup.

see subject.

It also seems to have pushed smaller companies to offshoring. If you're assembling a widget now there are varying tariffs on the components because you can't buy everything in the US. It quickly became easier to just have the item made in China and then you only have one tariff to pay, things are more stable and predictable.

I just want HDMI ports and ports for external speakers. No web browser, no 500 additional "channels" of streaming crap (does anyone watch those?). And definitely don't play ads on my TV.

But I did not like the TV shows. The Klingon Reboot alone was terrible. A starship powered with mushrooms? What? The spinning ship going into warp? Also silly. There were some bright lights and potential, but I lost interest. I know a lot of people loved Academy, but I made it maybe halfway into the first episode and realized I wasn't even watching it. And then there's Section 31.....

I don't know why I should care about limited compatibility for a subset of devices with another subset of devices. There's some of everything in my home. I found a tool called LocalSend years ago that allows me to do mildly obnoxious data transfers between arbitrary devices regardless of platform.

If you start messing with the accessibility options for text size on MacOS, you quickly wind up with a blurry mess. This is particularly obnoxious if you're looking at a very high resolution display and very noticeable on the menu bar. It's a wonderful example of Apple's one size fits some design priorities.

MacOS is a third-rate *nix that can run MS Office, but so is ChromeOS. Should I be excited that I suddenly have the option to run Photoshop on a $600 device with as much RAM as the phone I had in 2018, but still can't control the size of system fonts on the desktop? Or is it just a more expensive way to run a browser and an SSH to something I'd rather be using?

I'll give you a hint: It's the second one.