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Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

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Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from the keyboard issues, you're talking about design choices you don't like , not design flaws . They made the choices they made, and by and large executed on them at a high degree of quality.

A bad design choice is exactly what a design flaw is though. There's no other definition. If you make bad choices, that's a flaw in your design. End users have to live with these choices, so we get to decide what is a flaw and what is not. Focusing on thin instead of useful is a design flaw. Requiring dongles for everything is a design flaw.

> End users have to live with these choices, so we get to decide what is a flaw and what is not.

This is true, but it isn't some collective decision. Something you consider a design flaw others might see as a design win.

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#82
post #9

After my S5, an SSD, and a Samsung TV, I've learned that Samsung delivers medium/low quality products at high prices through relentless marketing. Any company that needs to advertise as much as Samsung/Apple/Jeep/Nintendo should be cause for skepticism.

You lost me at Samsung/Apple/Jeep/Nintendo. I’d definitely put Apple in the top tier of phone and laptop quality. Especially w.r.t laptops, the majority of Windows devices seem comparatively low quality. I’m not sure about their other products but I also don’t see them advertised as much. Similarly with Nintendo, they seem to deliver consistently higher quality than competitors. They may not be as fast but they last…

Nintendo is arguably a weird example though -- in that they're a stellar game studio, a decent hardware vendor, and an awful business.

They can survive on less powerful consoles, and historically have especially in the era before indies blew up, in large part because they sell them pretty much entirely off first-party titles anyway. Even as of this year (Wikipedia's stats on this were last updated 3/31), the top-selling third-party release for Switch is ranked 15 overall. [0] That game, Monster Hunter Rise, sold less than a remake of Pokemon Yellow, ports of multiple Wii U titles -- namely New Super Mario Bros. U and Mario Kart 8 (which is incidentally at the top of the list), Ring Fit Adventure -- a game that's only available via physical copies because it requires specialized hardware and has still repeatedly sold out, and whatever the hell you want to call the travesty that was Super Mario 3D All-Stars. (I'll get back to that one.)

As a hardware company, they're all over the place. They experiment a lot, particularly with control schemes, but some (Wii, DS) execute better than others (Wii U) and not all of them are the best quality. The Switch is a marvel, conceptually, but the Joy-Cons have well-documented drift issues, and the Pro Controller has the worst D-Pad I've ever used despite being from the company that invented those. Its heyday included a pad that seemed to be built for comic book characters (6-arm Spider-Man and Professor X both come to mind), and while the GameCube pad is one of their better-designed ones overall, I started to understand Smash players' hand issues the moment I tried using it for Tetris. Meanwhile it took a literal plague for them to stop being the only vendor since Microsoft, with the original X-Box, not to include Ethernet.

Which brings me to Nintendo as a company. The kind whose stated solution for online when demoing Smash Ultimate was "lol hope you've bought our $30 wired adapter!" (And let's note, refusing to ship with this has made their already-dodgy online worse, at scale.) The one that would shut down Smash tournaments for using emulators on a 20-year-old game to enable online play during a plague, as if that same crowd wouldn't 100% just buy Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Nintendo GameCube again if they just gave it an actual re-release on a modern console. The company that, when it does port older titles, typically just ships lightly-retooled versions of them and proceeds to charge the full price of a modern AAA. The publisher that took Super Mario 64, one of the most iconic games it's ever released, for its 25th anniversary, and not only shipped a barebones port (of this and two other titles), but actively enabled scalpers by giving it a release so limited that they de-listed the digital version after six months.

As someone who enjoys a number of their games I totally see what you mean, but getting legitimate access to those titles involves a bunch of compromises I wouldn't generally have to make with other platforms and/or studios. As much as I don't exactly wish for consoles to become a duopoly again, a part of me really wonders what it would be like if Nintendo had gone the way of Sega.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Nintendo_...

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple not good for power users. Got it. So why would a consumer who isn't a power user spend more money on less? Lighted logo?

They don’t have lighted logos, as far as I know. Mine doesn’t from a few years ago. I’ve already replied a bunch of times showing why I think the laptop is ideal for most people.

I can't imagine people paying 450$ more for a handicapped computer because battery life. Do 90% of people use a computer without it being plugged in?

I can see 90% of people buying a logo. "I say 123 take your hand and come with me bc you look so fine that I really want to make you mine"

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got my Samsung phone recently for ~$200 and it is absolutely amazing. I've had 4 by now from them, and they've all be great imo. Which companies produce better phones?

Any company that does major OS updates more than twice? Apple? Then again, Samsung doesn't try to deliberately slow my phone down or drain the battery. So no company I guess. Everyone is churning out pretty-looking garbage.

Because it helps the customer everyone has copied Apple on battery management. If you don't like it turn it off and just let your phone die.

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don’t have lighted logos, as far as I know. Mine doesn’t from a few years ago. I’ve already replied a bunch of times showing why I think the laptop is ideal for most people.

I can't imagine people paying 450$ more for a handicapped computer because battery life. Do 90% of people use a computer without it being plugged in? I can see 90% of people buying a logo. "I say 123 take your hand and come with me bc you look so fine that I really want to make you mine"

Yes, I would easily bet the average person values not worrying about battery and heat. Coffee shops, lecture halls, airplanes, or even just around the house. It is amazingly liberating to almost never have to worry about charging it, and just be able to close the lid at a moments notice and not worry about Windows’ problems hibernating or standby or whatever.

Look at the comments in this thread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27784640

And it’s not $450 more for just that. It’s $450 more for a higher quality product with higher quality components that have a higher probability of lasting many years (based on the track record of MacBook Airs).

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You get a graphics card for $550, many types of ports... And you think the Air is Superior?

For most people who just want basic spreadsheet, web browsing, photo managing, email, word processing, or other similar purposes where a graphics card makes no difference, yes. We are long past the times where the average person needs to even think about laptop specs other than whether or not it has a sufficient size SSD, the battery life is long, and it does not get hot.

Here you are arguing people don't need any power because all they do is "basic spreadsheet, web browsing, photo managing, email, word processing, or other similar purposes" in which case they can get 3-4 windows laptops for $199-$299 for the price of one air. If you have 3 teens that all need a laptop to do "basic spreadsheet, web browsing, photo managing, email, word processing, or other similar purposes" you can cover them all for $900 if you go non Mac or you can spend nearly $3k if you go mac.

I'm posting this from a Mac but my sister is unlikely to ever decide she's willing to spend 3x to 40% more for a laptop. She can get 2 Dells with 8gig of ram and 256gig of storage, same as the Air for under half the price of the Air. I'm not saying the Dell is as good as the Air and neither is a Kia as good as a BMW (probably) but a Kia costs 1/2 the price and will still get you from point A to point B and a $300-$500 Windows PC will also still do "basic spreadsheet, web browsing, photo managing, email, word processing, or other similar purposes"

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#87
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most people who just want basic spreadsheet, web browsing, photo managing, email, word processing, or other similar purposes where a graphics card makes no difference, yes. We are long past the times where the average person needs to even think about laptop specs other than whether or not it has a sufficient size SSD, the battery life is long, and it does not get hot.

Here you are arguing people don't need any power because all they do is "basic spreadsheet, web browsing, photo managing, email, word processing, or other similar purposes" in which case they can get 3-4 windows laptops for $199-$299 for the price of one air. If you have 3 teens that all need a laptop to do "basic spreadsheet, web browsing, photo managing, email, word processing, or other similar purposes" you can co…

Is the probability of the $300 windows laptop performing 5+ years the same? Will it run hot in your lap? Will you have to recharge it 3x as often? Will you have to spend time uninstalling malware first? Will it have a screen comparable to a retina screen? Will you be able to shut the lid and walk away at a moments notice?

Going back to my very first comment:

> They seem to have made all the right compromises.

Yes, a MacBook Air is not the cheapest. It doesn’t have a GPU. But my point is what it does have provides more utility overall to the average buyer per dollar spent.

And there are other manufacturers that have come out with similarly good machines at similar prices, but whether it is because of Windows’ shortcomings or now M1, the Air seems to be the ideal.

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#89
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gonna need sources on that claim

Super Mario Party was not up to their content standards—the minigames were good, but there were only 4 boards, and they were both tiny and dull. Animal Crossing is a mixed bag—it has stuff previous entries don't, and is missing a lot that previous entries contained. But that might have gotten derailed due to Covid. The Mario Golf game that just came out supposedly has minimal content too, but I haven't played it. On…

. . . That's not what people mean when they say "half finished". It's when a game with a defined scope fails to meet that scope. You might not like the dearth of content with those titles but there is no indication that they were ever meant to go beyond what was provided on release.

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#90

38 states is enough for a constitutional amendment. Makes you wonder.

It's a much higher bar to ratify a constitutional amendment than to sue Google.

Agreed. Mainly I think it’s interesting that we can get that many states to come together on anything. Generally the red/blue divide is very strong.
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