> How about being able to replace the main battery myself, in my home, without trashing the entire fu*king phone?
You can already do this, either getting the parts/tools thru Apple or on your own [0]
> How about using formal methods to ensure some Israeli spyware group cannot constantly find zero-days in my phone and put my life in danger without constant after-the-fact patch-and-pray security upgrades?
> How about a 1/8" jack so I can listen privately on $15 wired buds from one of 1000 different suppliers without paying $300 for buds that are going to become e-waste as soon as their batteries refuse to charge?
Those are fair, altho personally I've been using bluetooth headphones for 5+ years, only going wired when cycling or gaming, and I'm pretty happy with it.
The rest, approximately 0.01% (uneducated guess) of the consumers in the smartphone market will want or care about those things. The regular consumer doesn't want their phone to do everything and be everything, they want it to work for their use-case when they're expected to work, and be relatively easy to use.
Anyway, you seem to be a niche consumer, why aren't you looking for a niche product to match instead of complaining about a mass-market product that never has and probably never will fit your needs?
> Anyway, you seem to be a niche consumer, why aren't you looking for a niche product to match instead of complaining about a mass-market product that never has and probably never will fit your needs?
The issue that's hard for many to admit is that in many case Apple makes the best devices from a hardware and quality standpoint (I also like iOS better than Android, but that's more subjective). If there were other players in the market making devices at Apple's level that also had some niche features we probably wouldn't see so many complaints.
I don't like pencils, for my vision the color is too low contrast with the paper compared to black ink, or even blue ink, and for that reason I prefer a .7 nib to a .5, the thin lines also result in less contrast (they also make a scraping "sound/sensation" on the paper). but I didn't comment just to say that, but I selected your comment as a representative sample for a broader comment:
hey everybody, could you tell us why you like something rather than just that you like it? We had a mechanical pencil recommended, and then two more mechanical pencils recommended, but I'd have to do my own research to figure out why I would choose one over another. Whereas, you all already know what I'm looking for in a writing implement (high contrast and maximum smoothness)
even though I don't think I want a pencil, I do have opinions about mechanical pencils, for example I love when they can autofeed new leads.
I like the rOtring 800 because it's heavy in my hand but the actual lead-on-paper "feel" is extremely smooth. Contrast depends entirely on the lead you put into the pencil. For max contrast there are versions of the 800 with thicker tips, (iirc) even going up to the regular pencil nibs that you can sharpen (if you know what I'm talking about, I don't really know how to properly explain it).
Basically, I like it because it's a high quality writing utensil that I won't get worried about.
A lot of people don't like the 800 because of the retractable tip, but as someone who has this pencil in their backpack all the time (and who has had the non-retractable version unfortunately ruined in a backpack) it is an absolute necessity.
I've followed the development for the past year, I really want one, but €400 + €25 for shipping is too much for me, at least right now. I'm hoping they don't only do a limited run and continue manufacturing for a little while at least.
> Perhaps we need to create a new degree program for, among other things, interpreting and reporting on press releases such that extremely basic facts and terms of art aren't mixed up.
I agree with this, but I think it needs to come from the other side. I personally think the scientific (community? world? sphere?) needs to step up and work on disseminating information to the general public in a way almost everyone can understand. Get rid of the middleman journalist who has to translate a press release or research paper that they probably don't understand, even if they had the time to look into it, into something the general public doesn't really completely understand either.
I also think this won't ever really happen, because the scientific community (imo) has a bit of an ego problem - same as the guy who makes themselves feel smarter by only explaining things using jargon.
There should also be more focus on critical thinking in middle and high schools, but that's a whole other can of worms.
> I suggest this binary positioning is a very American phenomenon
I really don't think so. Binary thinking is something I've personally noticed and thought about for a while, and I think it stems from the human brain just trying to simplify things. In most scenarios, it is far easier (and time efficient) to only consider the 2 extreme options rather than the entire spectrum of possible options, even if those two extremes are far worse than the alternatives.
Plus, I've seen Europeans do the same thing all the time [0]. Remember, polarization (which is really just an extension of tribalism imo) isn't an American condition, it's a human condition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peuTnilEv9g
Feels very proto-Hotline Miami to me