auxio

avon b7 said:

Competition is tough in smartphone photography but most output from even midrange phones is great for most people. 

Exactly this. Looking through my photo library over the years, today's smartphone pictures are much much better than they used to be. If I needed professional photos of something, I'd either hire a photographer or get a high quality camera since no smartphone can achieve the same quality. For everything else, the vast majority of today's smartphones are just fine.

nubus said:

Apple is blocking easy pairing with earphones to boost AirPods sales. But iPhone is too big a platform for doing this. Apple can't add features to iPhone that provide competitive advantages in other areas. And wouldn't it be nice if all earphones could use the same API for easy pairing allowing us more choices?

Device pairing, notifications, connectivity... why would we as users be against competition and choice?

Because we, as consumers, don't see a lot of the shady business models underlying modern technology development. Technology being given away free or sold at a loss so that it can be used to obtain all sorts of information about our activities. For example, car entertainment systems.

Apple has put a target on their back by trying to defend consumer privacy in the face of all these companies who profit from information, as well as the governments who hang on to power with it. Not surprising they're spending massive amounts of money on social media campaigns and government lobbying to try and stop Apple.

tht said:

Would be interesting to hear if this "active listening" is happening on macOS, Windows or Linux browsers. Would be less noticeable when you have a gazillion browser windows and tabs open, with multiple audio and video sources per tab.

macOS has an indicator in the menubar when the microphone is in use too.

And yes, I've seen it pop up due to a browser tab in Safari which had no business using the microphone (Spotify). So this is definitely a bigger problem with web apps trying to monetize traffic as much as possible. Comes with the territory of the new business model for technology (free, but you're the product) which Google was one of the pioneers of. Pandora's box can't be closed now sadly. My main hope is that, with enough publicity and governance, people can at least be made fully aware of it so that they're able to make informed choices.

rob53 said:

Does anyone know how much Apple charges for CarPlay? I'm sure most car manufacturers want the cheapest costing parts in their vehicles so I assume most use some form of free/cheap Android system with the least amount of programming necessary.

No, they don't charge anything. The only cost to manufacturers is the integration of CarPlay technology into whatever infotainment system they bundle with the car. Which is far cheaper than developing their own.

But what you're failing to see is the new data harvesting-driven economy which I've been complaining about for years on here. Where technology is developed and given away for free, in return for it being able to monitor and collect data about everything you do with it. This is what the car manufacturers want a piece of, and is why they're replacing CarPlay/Android Auto with their own systems.

blastdoor said:

Twitter has proven amazingly resilient in the face of its malignant owner. I almost never go there anymore but clearly plenty of people do. My hope is that everyone who isn’t a musk fan will leave, but I’m afraid that hope might never be realized .

The vast majority of Twitter accounts these days are for business, which includes influencers and other self promoters. Between those and bot accounts to pad numbers/harvest data, there isn't much genuine human interest in the platform.