How is this any different than Netflix being available on every single device that you can attach a screen and a network connection to? This is literally the opposite of a monopolistic behavior. They are saying "we want our product available to everyone" vs you have to buy our product to have access to it (I'm looking at you Apple...). This is no different than EA Play, Ubisoft Plus, and others. If Gamepass is available on PS5 and Switch then it actually is functioning to give consumers MORE choice.

It also could be a response to accusations that they are inflating thier subscriber numbers. This kicks off 250K "subscribers" that they counted in their numbers, but never get fees for.

How many devices and machines are in landfills because Apple decides that that device isn't compatible with IOS or MacOS ? How many devices are in landfills because they shut off 3G networks?

So Microsoft is doing what Google has been doing for years when you visit a Google property with a non-Chrome browser?

RCS is just not the right solution. Weeks ago Google tried to AstroTurf Apple into making this change with a rather deceptive marketing push. You can always tell a tech product is not a leader when they resort to marketing jargon and emotional arguments, rather than the product's actual features/benefits.

Too bad if you are on Verizon. You can use RCS, but only to other Verizon network users.
https://www.verizon.com/suppor...
"Verizon's Advanced Messaging is currently not compatible with other carriers. Advanced Messaging messages that are sent to another carrier will fall back to SMS / MMS format."

Oh.. and what about the built in advertising the RCS has?
https://techcrunch.com/2022/06...

What is Google's track record with messaging again?
https://arstechnica.com/gadget...

Microsoft likes money. They make Office for Apple products. I do not see them pulling them limiting the release to Sony stuff. If anything, it might actually help cross platform play. If anything, that they might do that could be said a bit "anti-competitive," it would be including the Activision games in GamePass. With Cloud Gaming, you don't even have to own a piece of MS hardware to play them, provided you subscribe. Say what you will about MS as a whole, but I do believe that the games division actually does care about their user base, and the industry writ large.

Absolutely. I remember a "toy" project that I did back around Y2K that given a directory of images would generate a VRML "gallery" to walk around in. It was nifty at the time, but the UX was horrible with various plugins. I wonder what Zip disk in my closet that code is sitting on....

I'm sure this was the user story presented: So you are trying to save money, so you don't need your hot tub up to temp all the time, so you set it 10 degrees lower. Now, you look at the weather and see that it is going to be a gorgeous star filled night tonight, so you pop open the app while you are still at work and raise the temp to what you want. By the time you are off work and home, it is up to your preferred temperature and ready to go. Its the same reason to have a network connected ANYTHING ... .convenience and personal preferences. Those have been the primary "user" drivers of pretty much all tech for the past 15 years. Thats a valid use case, unfortunatly ... we can't have nice things because humans are assholes and/or lazy.

In that case, you can use a Razor Kishi: https://www.razer.com/mobile-c...

I use the "Backbone" controller (https://playbackbone.com/) with an iPhone 13 and Steam Link, Stadia, Xbox Cloud gaming, and Xbox Console connect all work pretty fantastically. With the added benefit of not having yet another device to manage.

Remember that "Slack" isn't some plucky "sticking it to the man" startup anymore... .. .it is a wholly owned by Salesforce. So what is the difference between Microsoft integrating messaging into its ecosystem vs. Salesforce doing so with theirs? It is so frustrating that so many organizations use their considerable wealth to try to litigate in order to stifle innovation, rather than use those funds to develop a better solution. This is no different that Bezos suing SpaceX and Microsoft because they lost government contracts.

There isn't really any proof that Waymo vehicles are driverless, only that the driver isn't in the vehicle. If you compare a dozen dubiously driverless vehicles to a million collecting data every moment and already doing a pretty good job at autonomy, which do you think will succeed?

The fact that the driver is not in the vehicle does not mean that there is no driver.

I believe that this was figured out in the amateur observer community before NASA confirmed it. I saw it go by in my twitter feed. Not sure I can find it now...