Ten songs a month on iTunes vs the entirety of recorded music. The argument just isn't there.
I suppose it depends on what you want. If I have the recordings, then I have access to the music under any circumstances and forever. With streaming, neither of those things are true.
Can we at least agree that there is a pretty serious difference between someone who format-shifts content that they legally acquired and someone who isn't legally acquiring the content in the first place or is illegally sharing it?
The former may or may not be operating within the law, but they aren't pirates by any meaningful use of the term. The latter are pirates.
Be a decent human being and share data that helps the manufacturer develop a better product.
The idea that there is some sort of moral imperative for users to help manufacturers make better products is utterly bizarre.
If an outfit is forcing me to share my data with them to use their product, then fuck them. I'll either not use the product at all, or will firewall it to kingdom come.
However, there are certain products that I will share my data, if I'm asked nicely like a human being and there is a compelling reason to do so. But it must always be optional.
This. I don't understand why people are saying it takes a lot of time or effort to maintain their own song library. Modern tools make doing that almost entirely automatic.
While I wouldn't use a phone that couldn't, you know, make phone calls it's also true that I only average about a phone call per week despite using my phone heavily (for non-social media communications) throughout the day.
I could see some people being OK with it not being a phone.
One thing that a tech people don't realize is that not everyone wants the latest phone every year to begin with.
I'm a tech person and I don't want the latest phone every year. What I want is a phone that meets my needs. I have that now, and will keep using it for however many years that it continues to meet my needs. A lot, hopefully.
Changing phones is disruptive. The less I have to do it, the better.
Well, sorta. My approach is to jailbreak the damned thing an put my own OS on it. Then I don't have to rely on a manufacturer to provide software updates (and don't have to tolerate the bastardized versions and crapware that the manufacturers provide). If I can't jailbreak or there's no decent OS for a phone, then I don't buy the phone.
I've been doing this for years now, and it's been very, very good.
Also, let's keep in mind that they haven't said what counts as PII. If they're going by the usual definition of that, then it's a lie -- an awful lot of "non-PII" is, in fact, personally identifying.
And it's been demonstrated plenty of times that even data that is innocuous in isolation becomes personally identifying when combined with other data. So, really, the only "non-PII" is aggregate statistical information that you can't drill down to single instances of.
Plex has made it ludicrously clear that the change of TOS only applies to the 3rd party apps for the purpose of ad-serving, in the scope of the apps only.
You keep saying this as if it somehow makes the situation any better.
I think the mistake you may be making is thinking that your needs are the same as other people's needs. They're not.
I'm happy that phones like that meet your needs, I really am. But for some people, like myself, they don't. With headphone jacks, for example -- yes, I could get by without one by using an adapter or Bluetooth, but it would be a constant irritation. I use mine several hours per day. I could get by with 128G, but it would be tight and a constant irritation. I could get by without a replaceable battery, but carrying a power bank around would be a constant irritation.
For less than $600, I can have a phone that otherwise meets my needs just as well as the Essential but doesn't have any of those irritations.
Thus, the phone isn't for me. That doesn't mean that it isn't for anybody.
nd for the folks complaining about lack of headphone jack, it comes with a little usb-C to 3.5mm headhpone jack adapter. That's fine for me.
I'm glad that's fine for you, honestly. For me, adapters like that are workarounds and are a pain in the butt. If the phone is otherwise exceptional, I could see myself putting up with something like that, but it would still be a constant, albeit minor, irritation.
But we have different needs. I use the headphone jack on my phone several hours a day.
tl;dr - most movies are rubbish, no matter how they try to package them or how much or how little they charge for them,
This is a really excellent point. Good, even great, movies are still being made, but they see very limited runs in actual theaters. For the most part, the stuff that dominates theater screens has been cringeworthy crap for years now, and looks to be getting worse.
Missing a headphone jack is a pretty huge problem. However, I would be willing to engage in the required shenanigans to work around it if the rest of the phone were somehow exceptional. This one isn't. It looks OK, but nowhere near exceptional.
See that's what you don't understand. The snack stand is where the theater makes all their profit.
O think almost everyone understands this -- but it falls squarely into the category of "not my problem".
My theater is independent and doesn't show ads.
Then in all likelihood they won't be around for long.
I'm not so sure about that. In my town, there are three independent theaters that have been around for years now. All three do as much business as the big guys even though none of them show first-run movies. Their advantages: excellent service, beer and wine, reasonable prices, and relatively small, comfortable theaters filled with overstuffed couches and actual living-room-style chairs.
Those are really the only movie theaters I actually enjoy anymore, and judging by how popular they are, I'm not alone.
Slashdot Mirror
Ten songs a month on iTunes vs the entirety of recorded music. The argument just isn't there.
I suppose it depends on what you want. If I have the recordings, then I have access to the music under any circumstances and forever. With streaming, neither of those things are true.
I think you missed the word "blindly" in there. Trusting organizations that have a lengthy track history is not blind trust.
I would think it says less about the quality of Kodi and is more suggestive that Kodi and Plex are intended for different things.
Can we at least agree that there is a pretty serious difference between someone who format-shifts content that they legally acquired and someone who isn't legally acquiring the content in the first place or is illegally sharing it?
The former may or may not be operating within the law, but they aren't pirates by any meaningful use of the term. The latter are pirates.
Be a decent human being and share data that helps the manufacturer develop a better product.
The idea that there is some sort of moral imperative for users to help manufacturers make better products is utterly bizarre.
If an outfit is forcing me to share my data with them to use their product, then fuck them. I'll either not use the product at all, or will firewall it to kingdom come.
However, there are certain products that I will share my data, if I'm asked nicely like a human being and there is a compelling reason to do so. But it must always be optional.
Huh? I use Debian, and let me look -- yep, I have XMMS and Audacious, as well as others.
Perhaps, but technically, RealPlayer was a supremely buggy piece of shit.
This. I don't understand why people are saying it takes a lot of time or effort to maintain their own song library. Modern tools make doing that almost entirely automatic.
I stream, too. But I do it from my own streaming server.
So, in a nutshell, I should trust blindly a small company/organization to provide me with free support for 10 years, no string attached?
Why would you blindly trust any organization to provide you with support (free or otherwise) for 10 years?
While I wouldn't use a phone that couldn't, you know, make phone calls it's also true that I only average about a phone call per week despite using my phone heavily (for non-social media communications) throughout the day.
I could see some people being OK with it not being a phone.
Design a linux based smartphone OS that does exactly TWO things: make phone calls, and send text messages.
If it only does those two things, it doesn't have to be a smartphone. You can pick up a feature phone for $20 right now that will do that.
One thing that a tech people don't realize is that not everyone wants the latest phone every year to begin with.
I'm a tech person and I don't want the latest phone every year. What I want is a phone that meets my needs. I have that now, and will keep using it for however many years that it continues to meet my needs. A lot, hopefully.
Changing phones is disruptive. The less I have to do it, the better.
However, expecting a portable device like a phone or tablet to last ten years probably is not realistic. Just playing devils advocate.
I don't know about that. My current phone is 4 years old and shows no sign of impending doom. Of course, that's only 40% of ten years, so we'll see...
I've been running an LTS for years!
Well, sorta. My approach is to jailbreak the damned thing an put my own OS on it. Then I don't have to rely on a manufacturer to provide software updates (and don't have to tolerate the bastardized versions and crapware that the manufacturers provide). If I can't jailbreak or there's no decent OS for a phone, then I don't buy the phone.
I've been doing this for years now, and it's been very, very good.
Also, let's keep in mind that they haven't said what counts as PII. If they're going by the usual definition of that, then it's a lie -- an awful lot of "non-PII" is, in fact, personally identifying.
And it's been demonstrated plenty of times that even data that is innocuous in isolation becomes personally identifying when combined with other data. So, really, the only "non-PII" is aggregate statistical information that you can't drill down to single instances of.
Plex has made it ludicrously clear that the change of TOS only applies to the 3rd party apps for the purpose of ad-serving, in the scope of the apps only.
You keep saying this as if it somehow makes the situation any better.
Or, even better, don't use Plex.
I think the appeal is that it's kinda sci-fi.
It's also enormously wasteful of power.
Man, I sure messed up the editing there. Sorry!
Not sure what all the bitching is about.
I think the mistake you may be making is thinking that your needs are the same as other people's needs. They're not.
I'm happy that phones like that meet your needs, I really am. But for some people, like myself, they don't. With headphone jacks, for example -- yes, I could get by without one by using an adapter or Bluetooth, but it would be a constant irritation. I use mine several hours per day. I could get by with 128G, but it would be tight and a constant irritation. I could get by without a replaceable battery, but carrying a power bank around would be a constant irritation.
For less than $600, I can have a phone that otherwise meets my needs just as well as the Essential but doesn't have any of those irritations.
Thus, the phone isn't for me. That doesn't mean that it isn't for anybody.
nd for the folks complaining about lack of headphone jack, it comes with a little usb-C to 3.5mm headhpone jack adapter. That's fine for me.
I'm glad that's fine for you, honestly. For me, adapters like that are workarounds and are a pain in the butt. If the phone is otherwise exceptional, I could see myself putting up with something like that, but it would still be a constant, albeit minor, irritation.
But we have different needs. I use the headphone jack on my phone several hours a day.
tl;dr - most movies are rubbish, no matter how they try to package them or how much or how little they charge for them,
This is a really excellent point. Good, even great, movies are still being made, but they see very limited runs in actual theaters. For the most part, the stuff that dominates theater screens has been cringeworthy crap for years now, and looks to be getting worse.
Missing a headphone jack is a pretty huge problem. However, I would be willing to engage in the required shenanigans to work around it if the rest of the phone were somehow exceptional. This one isn't. It looks OK, but nowhere near exceptional.
Some people who post on the smartphone topics do indeed live in an ivory tower.
*shrug*
This is a $700 device. For that price, it shouldn't be more limiting than the $600 one I'm using right now.
Most people don't care about this any more
Maybe not, but that's why I said it's not for me, and I didn't say it's not for anyone.
See that's what you don't understand. The snack stand is where the theater makes all their profit.
O think almost everyone understands this -- but it falls squarely into the category of "not my problem".
My theater is independent and doesn't show ads.
Then in all likelihood they won't be around for long.
I'm not so sure about that. In my town, there are three independent theaters that have been around for years now. All three do as much business as the big guys even though none of them show first-run movies. Their advantages: excellent service, beer and wine, reasonable prices, and relatively small, comfortable theaters filled with overstuffed couches and actual living-room-style chairs.
Those are really the only movie theaters I actually enjoy anymore, and judging by how popular they are, I'm not alone.