Often the hardware is the same, but they have software locks in place to e.g. stop you using WiFi bands that are not legal in the US. On top of that they have to provide support for new firmware, and TP Link often replace devices that are out of warranty but which were bricked by a firmware update.

They can't win. If they don't pay they get sued by students for not securing their data. If they do pay they encourage further attacks.

The time to win was before the hack. Now all they can do is pay, and hope they picked the cheaper option.

Android has had this for years. I'm not sure if it's the same on every phone, but on Pixel long press the bar at the bottom of the screen and it opens Google Lens or whatever it's called now. From there you circle what you are interested on screen, and it invokes Gemini AI on it. It can also do stuff like copy text or translate it for you, which is handy when you need to use an app in a language you don't read.

Chromebooks are great. They just work, they are cheap, and they cover many people's needs easily. My mum is on her second one and went from monthly tech support issues with Windows to smooth sailing for years.

How many of these companies will bother making updates for US models after they get banned from sale anyway?

Also, anything sounds big when you put it in gallons. Doesn't sound so big when you mention that's 92 acre feet, the amount used by less than 20 acres / 8 hectares of alfalfa per year. Or when you mention that a typical *closed loop* 1GW nuclear reactor uses 6-20 billion gallons of cooling water per year (once-through uses 200-500 billion gallons, though most of that is returned, whereas closed loop evaporates it)

I don't think it has anything to do with that. As soon as I saw the headline, my mind went "cohort study". And sure enough, yeah, it's a cohort study. Remember that big thing about how wine improves your health, and then it turned out to just be that people who drink wine tend to be wealthier and thus have better health outcomes? And also, the "sick quitter" effect, where people who are in worse health would tend to stop drinking, so you ended up with extra sick people in the non-wine group? Same sort of thing. This study says they're controlling for a wide range of factors, but I'd put money on it just being the same sort of spurious correlations.

Same thing happens with humans.

It's worth figuring out what your threat model is. There probably are ways that some government agencies can get into iPhones or decrypt these messages, and they probably are collecting all the encrypted data in case quantum computers can decrypt it later.

But are they going to waste any of that on you? Unless you are a high value target for them, and unless they intend to avoid any judicial process where their capabilities might become public, they probably aren't going to use their best tools to help the local cops break into your phone.

"I just put my models on a usb drive then plug said drive into the printer."

You must have a lot of spare time on your hands.

"It works great locally" - Um, no it doesn't?

They've made a nice easy-to-use ecosystem. For $400 you can get a P1S that supports adding an AMS, auto bed leveling, enclosed-chamber printing, high precision, high print speeds, and 300/100C nozzle/plate temps, and has an easy cloud print service and a robust ecosystem of models you can just download and print with no extra config straight from the app.

But yeah, their behavior is increasingly entering bad-actor territory. I wonder how long it'll be before they lock entry-level printers into their branded filament?

In Europe, Ford is not a prestige badge. They are competing with the likes of Renault, VW, Nissan, and Honda. And now of course the Chinese brands like MG, BYD, Jaecoo, Sonoda, Cherry, Omoda, and others.

They just aren't offering much for the European market. We aren't keen on light trucks, and most of their EVs are shitty fossil conversions. That just leaves the dwindling fossil market for them.

Could also be a warranty issue. Some poor designs rely on firmware to enforce limits and prevent damage.

It's bizarrely common with EV cars already. Some have fake engine noises, and some even have a whole fake clutch and gear shifting system. The silence and instant, uninterrupted torque are the best things about EVs.