username190

EcoTank printers are particularly hostile with this. Despite that the waste ink pass on most models are user-servicable behind 1-2 screws, and can be purchased on Amazon for $10, the printer displays a message that you must ship the printer to Epson for a full replacement.

In order to bypass the warning, you’ve traditionally needed to use a program like WIC[0], which costs $10 per use(!) - I recommend epson_print_conf[1], which is a little more tailored to the HN crowd, but does not extract a bribe every time you use it.

[0] https://inkchip.net/wic/

[1] https://github.com/Ircama/epson_print_conf

I agree. Something other people aren't mentioning - the default iOS Contacts app will automatically switch your messaging and voice call shortcuts to use an alternate platform, per-contact. There's no user interaction required to do this. A lot of people in these threads conflate iMessage, SMS, and MMS - the idea that iPhone users are "locked into" iMessage is absurd. This feature has been in place for many years. [0]

IMO, the buy-in for iMessage is an iPhone. If you contrast a $429 new iPhone with the buy-in required for other mainstream apps (share and license your private data + metadata with advertising companies in perpetuity), $429 doesn't seem unreasonable at all; but if you prefer to pay with your data instead, all platforms (including the iPhone) provide an option to do so via options like FB Messenger[1] and WhatsApp[2].

If Apple were to remove these alternative options, along with SMS/MMS, and support only iMessage communication - there would be a much better support for the claim that they "lock in" their users.

[0] https://i.imgur.com/PuPIrvf.png

[1] https://bgr.com/tech/app-privacy-labels-facebook-messenger-v...

[2] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/whatsapp-instagram-facebook-...

Bear in mind that not updating your Plex server could leave you open to security vulnerabilities. The most notable example of this is last year's massive LastPass breach, which began with malware installed on a LastPass employee's home computer via a RCE exploit in their out-of-date Plex Media Server instance. [1]

[1] https://www.pcmag.com/news/lastpass-employee-couldve-prevent...

iOS 17 is supposed to come with a new "Assistive Access" setting[0] which is intended to be an "old person's mode" with limited but pronounced functionality.

In the meantime, you should be able to solve the call banner issue through a relatively hidden setting; Settings > Phone > Incoming Calls > "Full Screen" should put things back to the way they were.

[0] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/05/apple-previews-live-s...

Rtings did find something similar with the AirPods Pro, seeing a "fairly significant drop" in December 2019 and another "slight decline" in October 2021:

We've tested 'Noise Isolation' with a couple of other firmware updates. We didn't get noticeable differences with firmware update 2B588, released in November 2019. Apple may have tweaked the ANC in this update, but not enough to noticeably impact the overall performance. There have also been user reports that the ANC became worse after firmware update 2C54, released in December 2019. After updating this firmware, our results showed a fairly significant drop in isolation performance, primarily in the bass range. This means that with ANC turned on, they won't do nearly as good a job blocking out the low engine rumbles of planes or buses as they did before this update. Our latest retest uses firmware update 4A400, released in October 2021, which shows that their overall noise isolation performance has been further weakened. [0]

[0] https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/apple/airpods-pro-...

Contact them via phone or online chat; with no way to test remotely, they will offer to exchange the AirPods in most cases.

If Apple were censoring messaging apps I would agree with your seemingly negative sentiment, however, as someone who has pushed out apps to the Apple and Mac app stores, I can say they absolutely do not do that.

Perhaps not in your country, but they've certainly done it before - censoring Telegram in both Russia[0] and Iran[1], for example.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/technology/telegram-apple... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/world/middleeast/iran-tel...

Something like 60% of pedestrian road deaths are intoxicated pedestrians.

Do you have a source for this? I looked up your claim and found this study from the NHTSA[0] (pg 23), which does say that 60% of pedestrians hit have a BAC over 0.08; the catch is, that number is specifically for crashes which occur between 12:00AM and 3:00AM.

From pg 26 - "Of the pedestrians involved [in fatal crashes across all hours], 33 percent were intoxicated, with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 grams per deciliter (g/dl) or greater."

Since the NHSTA study I linked was conducted in 2001, it's possible that new information has been made available in recent years; if that is the case and that's where your data comes from, feel free to link.

[0] https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/Publication/8094... - pg 23

Why was ATT and T-Mobile allowed to combine.

AT&T and T-Mobile did not combine, that purchase was (one of the few mergers) blocked by the DOJ under the Obama administration.

T-Mobile did later (2020) buy Sprint, but it was in a far worse position economically than T-Mobile was in 2011 at the time of the attempted AT&T purchase.

In the fine print, that page notes that international data is limited to 128kbps (or 256kbps if you're on the top-tier 'MAX' plan).

Phones that are designed for (or sold through) T-Mobile US won't necessarily work on T-Mobile NL, because they operate on different frequency bands, take advantage of different CA combos (combining different frequency bands for better coverage/speed), etc. The phone would likely also be locked to T-Mobile US for a period of time after purchase.

Unfortunately this isn't allowed on iOS - Dell Mobile Connect is the only app I know of which has this functionality, and they access Messages via a Bluetooth connection between the computer and the iPhone.

You can buy a phone with the latest technology in it, designed and built to tomorrow's specification; and AT&T still won't support it, unless the manufacturer has paid them to certify it and put it on this list[0].

Very few people are advocating that they keep 3G around using 5x5MHz of spectrum for little gain; people are just advocating that they not limit consumers from using the supported device of their choice regardless of whether it's on the list.

[0] https://www.att.com/idpassets/images/support/pdf/Devices-Wor...

I think only one of the 2 slots fully supports LTE.

Both of the slots support LTE; OnePlus has made some frustrating power saving decisions though, which force the secondary (non-active) SIM to 3G when it's not in use.

This can be disabled (at least on my 7 Pro running Android 10) via logkit following these steps[0]. Once disabled, the phone will fully support VoLTE on both SIMs.

[0] https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/dual-4g-networks-setting....

It is not just "old" or 3G-only phones, it is any phone that is not explicitly on their whitelist.

This is correct. The whitelist that they're using specifically is here[0].

Some phone representatives will claim to people that they need a "5G Phone" - this is misleading, either on purpose (because the rep wants to increase their sales figures), or accidentally (because the rep isn't well trained on how to handle this situation).

AT&T will provide alternative phones for free, but they usually aren't great. Last I heard it was an iPhone SE (2020) for existing iPhone users and a low-to-mid range Android phone for existing Android users.

[0] https://www.att.com/idpassets/images/support/pdf/Devices-Wor...

Personally, I believe that they're worried about a repeat of this incident[0] - and the way they're ensuring that that can't happen is to test and 'certify' all phones before customers are allowed to use them.

Conveniently, they get to charge manufacturers for this certification process; and if consumers don't have a compatible phone, they get to advertise new expensive ones which come with installment plans.

Overall, it's a win-win for AT&T, and a loss for customers.

[0] https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/28/17515464/att-911-emergenc...

If its rolled out on 26ghz its bad in range. Sub 6 GHZ 5G rollout is as good or better than 4G on the same frequencies.

Range will be the same, but coverage can technically be a bit lower. This is because the modulation used for 5G uplink (phone to cell site) - OFDMA - is more complex than the modulation used for LTE uplink (SC-FDMA).

This is the same reason you might’ve been in a very rural area and seen 2G. It doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a 2G-only cell tower nearby; just that the 2G signals are more resilient to interference and signal loss.

The downside to that resilience is, of course, much lower complexity, and thus it can carry less binary data.

AT&T shut down their GSM 2G network in 2017 - the remaining circuit switched calls were going out over UMTS (3G) until the shutdown.

Apple's cable is 3m, which is likely most of why it's more expensive.

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MWP02AM/A/thunderbolt-4-p...

For those who are thinking, "why do we need Net Neutrality? When have you actually seen an example of providers throttling content?" - there's a pretty egregious one that's been present for years now.

For those with American mobile phone plans, switch over to LTE or 5G, and run two "speed tests": One on Ookla Speedtest[0], and one on Netflix's fast.com[1]. If you don't have the top-tier plan on T-Mobile or AT&T, or have the $10/line "Premium Streaming" addon on Verizon (which pushes, but doesn't remove, the throttle), your speeds on Speedtest should appear quite a bit faster than on Netflix.

If you're seeing very low speeds on both tests, there's more likely something else at play (wireless interference, circuit congestion, poor signal, etc).

California's Net Neutrality law specifically outlaws this practice, and this is one of the big reasons carriers are upset about it. I'd recommend reading the text [2] of the law - it's fairly short and easy to understand, with definitions provided.

[0] https://speedtest.net

[1] https://fast.com

[2] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml...

In addition to what was noted by a sibling comment (emergency calls are given higher priority than your standard commercial voice or data traffic), there is specifically an exemption listed in California's Net Neutrality law [0] for emergency traffic.

3103. (a) Nothing in this title supersedes any obligation or authorization a fixed or mobile Internet service provider may have to address the needs of emergency communications or law enforcement, public safety, or national security authorities, consistent with or as permitted by applicable law, or limits the provider’s ability to do so.

[0] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml...

The latest alpha (Canary) build of Discord for Android uses React Native[0].

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/u4kn2k/alpha_12...

I believe you’re limited to 3 apps this way, as well as being limited to 10 App IDs (most popular apps will include multiple App IDs for things like extensions, widgets, etc).

If you have the $99/yr Apple Developer account that the user mentioned, those restrictions don’t apply.

It’s worth noting that this (proposed) law already only applies to large companies, as I noted upthread. This is something that a lot of folks in this thread are missing, but which I think is pretty crucial.

Included in the rules' scope will be platforms with a market capitalization of €75 billion or turnover in the European Economic Area equal to or above €7.5 billion. [0]

[0] https://www.politico.eu/article/eus-digital-markets-act-adop...

imagine WhatsApp was written and maintained by an individual? Would we be so keen to use terms like "force"? This is all negative in the freedom dimension.

These rules only apply to platforms with a market cap of over €75 billion or European Economic Area turnover of over €7.5 billion.[0] No one is proposing that we require single developers work with Apple and Facebook to make their apps interoperable.

[0] https://www.politico.eu/article/eus-digital-markets-act-adop...

In case others are curious, that (probably) was Episode 96[0] of the "Darknet Diaries" podcast. Very worth a listen IMO.

[0] https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/96/

Thanks, that explanation is useful.

The only thing I’m curious about is:

Telegram stores all your contacts, groups, media, and every message you've ever sent or received *in plaintext* on their servers. [emphasis mine]

This implies they don’t use encryption “at rest” - unless I’ve missed something in their FAQ[0] (entirely possible, I’m far from an expert on cryptography), they seem to imply they do.

If it is indeed the case that they don’t encrypt data at rest, I can definitely see how that would be a problem.

If data is encrypted at rest though, I don’t see how any of that is fundamentally different from the other messengers I listed in the parent - the server still holds the keys, and thus must be a trusted party - but it’s nothing new.

[0] https://core.telegram.org/techfaq#q-how-does-server-client-e...

This (admittedly terrible, but now rectified) location flaw aside, what safety disadvantages does Telegram have over other communication platforms without end-to-end encryption like Discord, Teams, Slack, or Messenger?

This is available in iOS - but for whatever reason, on devices outside of China, you are only allowed to disable use of cellular data (not WiFi).

This is also available in some Android skins (OxygenOS is one, for example) - but it is not in AOSP.

Carriers are not currently using the spectrum that they gained in Auction 107, because of the issues that this article mentions. Their agreement with the FAA has given Verizon and AT&T the go-ahead to begin operations on this spectrum tomorrow (outside of existing FCC-approved test sites, which have been operating for months).

Which spectrum are you referring to that carriers have purchased and not deployed, if not 3.7–3.9 GHz?

why? i have absolutely no idea.

If you don't have a stable internet connection, that could be the reason - macOS sends a hash of every executable to Apple's servers before it is opened[0]. This caused a major issue at the end of 2020, when these servers stopped working and all macs stopped working unless disconnected from the internet[1].

macOS has also been updated so that syspolicyd bypasses VPNs and system firewalls like Little Snitch[2], so you can't easily block these connections now.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/gp52pe/apple_is_tra...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25074959

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24838816