Obviously this won’t be 100% in every area in the world, but even in your own example you listed another cheaper franchise right nearby, therefore it is not the only option.

I haven’t been everywhere but I live in Canada and I’ve been to the US, UK and Southeast Asia and in all of those places this is true. There are towns that will literally just have a Subway or similar cheap franchise, but places with a McDonalds will almost always have another option.

This is just categorically untrue. People go to McDonalds because they want to, even if they may not want to admit it.

A McDonalds franchise is, by far, one of the most expensive franchises to own and operate. They have strict rules on where you are allowed to open one and startup costs are in the millions, most are owned by investment groups and people who own multiple franchises.

If you have a McDonald’s, you have a market. So you most certainly also have a Subway, Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, etc. Some of those franchises literally just plant themselves wherever a McDonalds is placed because it’s cheaper to do that then it is to do the market research yourself.

WeChat is an anomaly and not proof of anything. It only works in China because the Chinese government controls who can and can’t operate, and thus can pick winners and losers.

If suddenly everyone with a better take on a service that a theoretical X “everything app” offered couldn’t operate without applying for a license and possibly never getting it or having to find a domestic partner to operate in every country they want to do business in, then yeah this X app would take off, because it would be essentially the only option.

Since that will never happen, then an everything app will never exist outside of countries that exercise end-to-end control. This is also why American tech companies outside of entrenched operating system vendors and hardware companies (think Apple & Microsoft) have a hard time making inroads there. Because if you get too popular and it’s something they can copy, then suddenly the Chinese copy gets all the market advantage and boatloads of funding, and you get shut out.

Someone needs to browse AliExpress more.

But the Libertarians always have to say it. Nevermind that anything free from a corporation is paid for though advertising, or selling your data, or folded into the item cost, or future purchases, so by this strict definition that “someone is paying for it” means literally nothing is ever free.

It has to be said EVERY TIME someone mentions that public services are offered at no charge.

Luckily during a post-apocalypse you have nothing but time on your hands.

And even then it was only $20. The last time it was over $99 was 16 years ago.

90+ on Metacritic may be what you’re thinking of, those can be more arty films that may or may not appeal to non-critics. 100% on Rotten Tomatoes is usually the opposite, crowd-pleasers that appeal to all audiences. Nothing amazing or groundbreaking, but a movie pretty much anyone will at least enjoy.

Since RT is just saying what percentage of critics thought it was watchable, high RT percentages just indicate universal enjoyment, they don’t say anything about HOW good the reviewer thinks the movie is.

https://clickhole.com/youngest-child-ever-jonah-is-just-3-years-old-1825121211/

I agree but I don’t think that contradicts anything I said. This is definitely a long term plan to end up with a gaming focused OS that people can use instead of Windows to reduce their reliance on MIcrosoft. It’s definitely a long term decision.

However in the short term, a Steam Deck with Windows would have been far less exciting. Developing WebKit also was clearly a plan for a much better web landscape too and cost far more than Safari ever generated until it was in iOS.

I only take issue with this being cast as some altruistic act, which it isn’t. It’s just one of those situations where the goals of the community and the company align, because the company is very focused on delivering a good user experience above all else. This is a great move for everyone involved and Valve deserves praise for that. But that’s no reason to be naive to how this greatly benefits them.

What profits did Valve say that to exactly? They were shipping a device that didn’t have an existing OS that worked for it. I know companies have been shipping handheld PCs since the 90s but they never took off because the experience of Windows on a mobile device sucks, full stop.

I’m very happy they did this and it will help lots of things, but it’s about as altruistic as Apple making WebKit open source. A massive boon to the community that did help everyone, but the goal wasn’t altruism. It was to create a software solution where one didn’t exist to improve a for-profit device.

Plus, not having to pay Microsoft for OEM Windows licenses helps too.

We can exchange them for a wobbly CD rack and some of those rancid meatballs.

Not a lot. Simpler signup flow and ecosystem, more twitter-like timeline and features, better discoverability and some communities that aren’t on Mastodon. FOSS diehards can mince about it all they want and blame idiot users, but the simple fact is people who don’t live and breathe technology still have lots to offer a social network, and Mastodon continues to alienate them in design and in community. Lemmy does too.

I like Mastodon and Lemmy, a lot. I prefer them to the alternatives. But I just signed up for BlueSky and I’m enjoying it a lot even routed through the Mastodon bridge, simply because there are more diverse communities there, whereas my Mastodon feed is 90% tech and dev people despite spending hours and hours hunting for people I used to follow on Twitter. Getting big App.net flashbacks.

Threads has momentum and easy signups, it’s simple for people. I wouldn’t use it myself directly but I’m sure it would help expand the communities that are available via a Mastodon client.

Not sure via the mobile apps, and there are so many. From the regular Lemmy web interface, you just tap their name anywhere which takes you to their profile and then tap “Send Message” in the top right corner.

Sure, that would be amazing. Thank you!

Strange to measure it against an invite only site, I would love to sign up but I haven’t been able to find invites. I think between Mastodon, Bluesky & Threads via ActivityPub (eventually) will get most of my communities back.

I love Mastodon & prefer it in many ways but there just aren’t enough people there. The tech & dev community is lively, everything else is essentially non-existent.

30 years!? If the US does five of these things in the next 50 years I’ll eat my hat.

Apparently Brazilians make a variation of beef stroganoff that uses ketchup. If I had been signed up for these alerts I could have done something to stop that.

I’m kind of glad the main dev team is seconded to visionOS this year. iOS 17 doesn’t have anything too crazy but the QoL improvements and long-standing feature gaps like this one being closed are really where the attention needs to be.

Apple has really polished Maps, Mail, Safari and Home over the iOS 17 beta period and I hope that continues during the minor updates.