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Inceltown
Aug 6, 2019

BiggerBoat posted:

The font they used even has a transparency effect that makes it look some dude scrawled these things in their garage. I honestly hope they're mad that their signs are disappearing.

You can rest assured that they spent more time and money making those signs than they'll ever get back from their MLM.

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Organza Quiz
Nov 7, 2009


I dunno guys, I've never been happier since I became my own boss and started making $20k a month

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wbfu39l0kxg

Quote-Unquote
Oct 22, 2002



Tubgoat posted:

I, uh, can't really believe that more than one person has tried this, but apparently it's a common enough scam for homeless people to pretend to be private investigators/bounty hunters in order to get into a hotel.

Thankfully, they left after I informed them that, without a badge or license to operate in the jurisdiction, they're not apprehending suspects, they're committing kidnapping and false imprisonment. :v:

My office used to be right next to the (usually unmanned) reception area in a local hotel chain's head office and I had people claiming to be PIs wandering in looking for information.

Thankfully, data protection legislation means that whether they are legitimately a PI or not they will be told to get the gently caress out because there's no way I was going to tell anyone if someone was staying at one of our hotels unless they're a police officer with a warrant.

I also heard stories about how they are/have been hired by a family member who is worried about this person's wellbeing, and that's harder to resist giving up info until you realise that abusers have used this exact tactic to find their victims. I'd kick that up the chain anyway, but I'm pretty sure it was always a case of "come back with a police officer and a report of a missing person" because serious data protection breaches in the EU can hurt rather a lot.

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.
Not sure of the Lie, Cheat, Steal podcast has been posted before but I've enjoyed a few of these episodes

https://www.stitcher.com/show/lie-cheat-steal

greazeball
Feb 4, 2003



Professional graphic design skill is the opposite of what these guys want. Here's an interview with a designer who got a summer job making banner ads for porn scammers whose major complaints were that the models she chose were too pretty and the copy didn't have enough errors in it. Needless to say, there are some :nws: images that accompany the article https://www.vice.com/en/article/9bzg9y/this-girl-designed-porn-banners-for-a-living

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.
This is about the best documentary on MLMs I've ever seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He1bgJ0sqtw

pro click

Red Oktober
May 24, 2006

wiggly eyes!



BiggerBoat posted:

Not sure of the Lie, Cheat, Steal podcast has been posted before but I've enjoyed a few of these episodes

https://www.stitcher.com/show/lie-cheat-steal

Life Cheat or Steal is a great podcast. It's co-hosted by Frank Abagnale for anyone interested.

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

Red Oktober posted:

Life Cheat or Steal is a great podcast. It's co-hosted by Frank Abagnale for anyone interested.

Wait...what?

AlbieQuirky
Oct 9, 2012

Just me and my 🌊dragon🐉 hanging out
Abagnale’s podcast is called Scam Me If You Can. It’s pretty good.

Lie, Cheat and Steal is hosted by comedians Pat Sirois and Kath Barbadoro. Don’t miss the episode on pawn shops, where Pat talks about his experiences both as pawn shop clerk and pawn shop client.

Other good podcasts about scams include The Dream and Behind the Bastards (not always about scams; they cover a lot of different types of bastard).

AlbieQuirky fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Feb 5, 2021

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

AlbieQuirky posted:

Abagnale’s podcast is called Scam Me If You Can. It’s pretty good.

Lie, Cheat and Steal is hosted by comedians Pat Sirois and Kath Barbadoro. Don’t miss the episode on pawn shops, where Pat talks about his experiences both as pawn shop clerk and pawn shop client.

Other good podcasts about scams include The Dream and Behind the Bastards (not always about scams; they cover a lot of different types of bastard).

Yeah, Red Oktober's post made me go check and I found the Abagnale one.

Lie Cheat Steal is cracking me up because the one dude sounds and laughs like Seth Rogen to me.

Red Oktober
May 24, 2006

wiggly eyes!



Sorry, I meant “the perfect scam”, that’s got frank as a co host. Didn’t know he had another though, I’ll check it out!

Collateral Damage
Jun 13, 2009

Organza Quiz posted:

I dunno guys, I've never been happier since I became my own boss and started making $20k a month

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wbfu39l0kxg
Pro click.

Karia
Mar 27, 2013

Self-portrait, Snake on a Plane
Oil painting, c. 1482-1484
Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1591)

BiggerBoat posted:

This is about the best documentary on MLMs I've ever seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He1bgJ0sqtw

pro click

See, I was expecting this to be a scam in order to get us to click on whatever the 2021-equivelent of rickrolling is. I guess it could still be a video of goatse, goatse is timeless and will never go out of style.

doctorfrog
Mar 14, 2007

Great.

When I left the Jehovah's Witnesses, I got a little help by reading Combating Cult Mind Control by Steve Hassan. There's a section in there on commercial cults like MLM's and pyramid schemes. The overlap between high-control religions like the one I left (you can call it a cult if you like, and some ex-members scream it) and MLMs was shocking to me then.

peanut
Sep 9, 2007


Organza Quiz posted:

I dunno guys, I've never been happier since I became my own boss and started making $20k a month

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wbfu39l0kxg

lololol it's good

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

Inceltown posted:

You can rest assured that they spent more time and money making those signs than they'll ever get back from their MLM.

I didn't call it but I looked up the number and it's listed as the president of Santa Fe Community College in Starke, Florida so now I'm even more confused.

EDIT:

ANd I listened to the Jordan Harbinger podcast, Scam Me if You Can, with Frank Abagnale that was posted

Around 20 minutes in, they talk about how easy it is to scam and commit crimes by having everything automated and done through the internet and then gently caress if the host doesn't go to a commercial explaining how we can sign up to have all the podcasts downloaded automatically if we subscribe. Which was really something.

This out of control trend of connecting EVERYTHING online is going to create far more problems than it solves - and that's assuming 90% of that solves any "problems" in the first place. Do I really need my fridge, thermostat or oven online? Being able to unlock my car with my phone seems like a bad idea. Abagnale says one of the main things we need to do is eliminate the ubiquity of passwords.

BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Feb 6, 2021

hyperhazard
Dec 4, 2011

I am the one lascivious
With magic potion niveous

BiggerBoat posted:

This out of control trend of connecting EVERYTHING online is going to create far more problems than it solves - and that's assuming 90% of that solves any "problems" in the first place. Do I really need my fridge, thermostat or oven online? Being able to unlock my car with my phone seems like a bad idea. Abagnale says one of the main things we need to do is eliminate the ubiquity of passwords.
If you don't follow Internet Of poo poo on twitter, it's an A+ follow for things like this. The newest bits of poo poo are devices that have popped up to appeal to business during the pandemic.

For example, this is a long-rear end thread and heavy on the infosec jargon, but these machines that count foot traffic are complete scams. Even if they're not purposefully security threats (the unchangeable admin password is 123456, come on) they're at the very least cheaply made and scamming businesses out of thousands of dollars.

https://mobile.twitter.com/OverSoftNL/status/1357296455615197184

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



Walk without rhythm and you won’t attract the boss.

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

Jesus. I used to think mandatory drug tests were bad. Moving forward, every business in this country is going to try and emulate Amazon's slave quarters prison detail employee model.

Blue Moonlight
Apr 28, 2005
Bitter and Sarcastic

I think my favorite part was when the developer left a bunch of files titled “SpermBankRaw” on the device.

Greader
Oct 11, 2012

Blue Moonlight posted:

I think my favorite part was when the developer left a bunch of files titled “SpermBankRaw” on the device.

Reading that thread I am not surprised that no part of this is using any protection at all :v:

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

BiggerBoat posted:

I got a thing in the mail today to renew my soon to be expired drivers license and spent like a half hour making sure it was legit and double checking everything because this is the loving world we live in and this kind of poo poo is easy to fake. Still seems weird that I can do it online or through the mail without them having to update my photo or do the eye test but it checks out.

Following up on this and it turns out it was my license plate that "expired" so I had to pay for a new one. Now...why? Same car, same me, same address. What exactly "expired" beyond the state needing to charge me for a new plate? Seems to me changing the plate # only complicates things. No? :shrug:

And I have some more old man computer complaints.

I have a fairly old Imac that I mainly use for freelance graphic design. I have older versions of Adobe CS that has always run fine. I don't routinely update it or much gently caress with it since I don't play games, watch movies or do much else with it besides make a little money on the side but it's gotten to the stage that Chrome is outdated and I need it for certain job websites and teleconference things lately so I needed to update my OS.

But Apple makes this almost impossible. I can't look at it any other way other than they are intentionally breaking my machine and wants me to buy a new CPU. My Adobe software, which has always been fine, is running noticeably slower too in spite of me not changing anything, even if I run it offline. I've heard that Adobe is actively trying to break older software by detecting older users who paid for their poo poo and are happy enough with older versions. Like me.

Between Adobe and Apple, I can't decide which company is worse.

I don't regularly make enough freelance money to pay Adobe's monthly subscription fee and don't use my Apple for enough poo poo that I need to totally upgrade my OS either. gently caress both of these companies and their business models in the rear end. I have an Apple laptop that's not too old and it's the 3rd one I've had just poo poo the bed (dead battery on this one). The closest Apple store is 55 minutes away and requires appointments and all that poo poo. Every single part is proprietary (or tries really hard to be). I used to love Apple and Adobe.

I'm happy with my lovely little $275 Chromebook that lets me get more poo poo done with little hassle and that I was able to crack open and fix myself just last weekend.

Very very tired of high end products that are intentionally designed to break .

EL BROMANCE
Jun 10, 2006

COWABUNGA DUDES!
🥷🐢😬



How old is 'fairly old'? I helped my friend upgrade his close to 10 year old Air the other day to a pretty recent version of macOS with no difficulty, but he'd gotten stuck a bit due to not knowing where to start. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683 this page was my starting point, and then there were no issues.

Inspector 34
Mar 9, 2009

DOES NOT RESPECT THE RUN

BUT THEY WILL

BiggerBoat posted:

Following up on this and it turns out it was my license plate that "expired" so I had to pay for a new one. Now...why? Same car, same me, same address. What exactly "expired" beyond the state needing to charge me for a new plate? Seems to me changing the plate # only complicates things. No? :shrug:


Yeah I had to do this a while back too. I think the reasoning was that plates get old and beat up and sometimes specs change with regard to reflectiveness or whatever. I would actually be fine with this if they didn't already have an opportunity to inspect the state of my plates when they force me to go in for emissions testing anyway. For states that don't have emissions testing it makes a tiny amount of sense to require new plates every once in a while.

But now I have the plate for the first car I ever owned as a keepsake so that's cool. It's still sitting in the same spot on the floor of my office as it was that day 12 years ago, halfway buried beneath a wire rack. I would never have been able to keep this valued piece of my young adulthood without the state of Washington telling me I had to replace it.

hyperhazard
Dec 4, 2011

I am the one lascivious
With magic potion niveous

BiggerBoat posted:

I have a fairly old Imac that I mainly use for freelance graphic design. I have older versions of Adobe CS that has always run fine. I don't routinely update it or much gently caress with it since I don't play games, watch movies or do much else with it besides make a little money on the side but it's gotten to the stage that Chrome is outdated and I need it for certain job websites and teleconference things lately so I needed to update my OS.

But Apple makes this almost impossible. I can't look at it any other way other than they are intentionally breaking my machine and wants me to buy a new CPU. My Adobe software, which has always been fine, is running noticeably slower too in spite of me not changing anything, even if I run it offline. I've heard that Adobe is actively trying to break older software by detecting older users who paid for their poo poo and are happy enough with older versions. Like me.

This is a common enough problem that I know artists who keep one computer for Adobe software and one for everything else, and never connect the Adobe one to the internet so that it doesn't auto update. I'm sure there are more elegant solutions, but I don't know enough about the different programs to suggest any. :shrug:

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

EL BROMANCE posted:

How old is 'fairly old'? I helped my friend upgrade his close to 10 year old Air the other day to a pretty recent version of macOS with no difficulty, but he'd gotten stuck a bit due to not knowing where to start. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683 this page was my starting point, and then there were no issues.

About 10 years, so pretty old by "modern tech" standards but I don't think too old for "I only use it for 2 or 3 things old". I'm familiar with that link, don;t even worry about it.

I finally got the OS updated but it was not easy, this was my 3rd or 4th go around and I really had to dig. Apple does not make it convenient and does everything it can to get you to buy another machine. Frankly, i'd just as soon leave my poo poo alone when it works but I'm having trouble with teleconferencing and job hunting, which is a problem since I have several health issues, am unemployed and my 9 year old boy has ADHD, epilepsy and is on the autism spectrum. Good times.

My issue and my frustration stems from the "well, duh, just buy new tech cause you're poo poo's old, bruh" right when my credit and earning potential is in the shitter and I'm trying to cut costs. Apparently, I'm just supposed to buy a new phone every year like a real American and brick every device I've owned longer than 5 years instead of paying medical bills.

These devices are not cheap.

I cant wait til I buy a new car and don't want the 200 computers in it that drive up the price and cost me $1200 when a little chip breaks that lets me roll down my window. I can unlock my own doors, tune my own music and don't mind using a key for stuff. None of this poo poo makes anyone's life easier, brings anyone happiness or provides the convenience it promises. It just doesn't. It just makes people more frustrated when it doesn't work as they learn to take it for granted.

Eric the Mauve
May 8, 2012

Making you happy for a buck since 199X

hyperhazard posted:

This is a common enough problem that I know artists who keep one computer for Adobe software and one for everything else, and never connect the Adobe one to the internet so that it doesn't auto update. I'm sure there are more elegant solutions, but I don't know enough about the different programs to suggest any. :shrug:

No that's basically what you have to do.

Pharmaskittle
Dec 17, 2007

arf arf put the money in the fuckin bag

yeah I used to repair phones for a job and Apple in particular purposefully makes it more difficult to repair their devices. I'm not saying flagship Samsungs are particularly easy to repair, but at least they don't use a dozen different sized screws with 4 different head types. I've still got Galaxy S8+ from that job that's going on 4 years old and I'm gonna try to get as much time as possible out of it since I know how to cheaply replace the battery, but if I had to get a new device right now it'd just be a modern cheapo prepaid phone since they'll do anything a big expensive phone can do for literally 10% of the price. Same deal with computers. I spend a fair amount on my desktop since I like to play video games on it, but I got a chromebook when I needed a laptop and, again, it does everything a super expensive Mac would do for a fraction of the cost. Hell, if something in it breaks it'll probably be cheaper to just get a new one even.

Sydin
Oct 29, 2011

Another spring commute
Apple is also one of the major companies up there with John Deere lobbying to prevent stronger right to repair legislation.

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

Sydin posted:

Apple is also one of the major companies up there with John Deere lobbying to prevent stronger right to repair legislation.

What's the reasoning behind this?

I mean, I know for the companies it's to design poo poo to break and to make all the parts proprietary, but how are they even trying to sell this to the 3/4 of the country that's broke and lives an 80 minute drive from an apple store? Safety concerns? Our tech is so sophisticated and Super next gen that no one can grasp it and some plebe might break it? Even though we pay slaves in China pennies to build this poo poo?

I haven't bought a new car in a good while but do car companies go all "nah, you can't take that poo poo to a mechanic. Best you have it towed to the 'x' dealership 90 minutes away or you might over inflate your tires or put the wrong oil in it and validate the warranty we won't cover anyway". The Special Oil For That Car that only We Sell and by the way I think that CPU sensor on your tires might be broken.

What's that? You bought it 4 years ago? Oh, well...geez. I haven't seen a Chevy Nova in some time but I'll check the computer.

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

BiggerBoat posted:


I haven't bought a new car in a good while but do car companies go all "nah, you can't take that poo poo to a mechanic. Best you have it towed to the 'x' dealership 90 minutes away or you might over inflate your tires or put the wrong oil in it and validate the warranty we won't cover anyway". The Special Oil For That Car that only We Sell and by the way I think that CPU sensor on your tires might be broken.

Abso-loving-lutely.

You know the computer that mechanics plug in to download the error codes and reset the limp-home mode? Car companies had to he forced by legislation to let third-party mechanics use them and not have car owners be locked to only being serviced by official dealers.

Haifisch
Nov 13, 2010

Objection! I object! That was... objectionable!



Taco Defender

BiggerBoat posted:

I mean, I know for the companies it's to design poo poo to break and to make all the parts proprietary, but how are they even trying to sell this to the 3/4 of the country that's broke and lives an 80 minute drive from an apple store? Safety concerns? Our tech is so sophisticated and Super next gen that no one can grasp it and some plebe might break it? Even though we pay slaves in China pennies to build this poo poo?
Bullshit. Just pure, transparent, bullshit:

https://money.howstuffworks.com/right-to-repair.htm posted:

"The main issue that automakers had with right to repair legislation is stating that it would cost too much for them to adapt their diagnostic software in order to make it accessible to third parties," Tatarevic explains. "While there is some cost in adapting this software, the likely reality is that the manufacturers are looking out for their franchised dealers and their ability to bring in customers for out-of-warranty repair work."

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/massachusetts-ballot-question-1-still-forefront-automakers-sue-to-block-its posted:

The lawsuit argues that it will impose a financial burden on auto manufacturers and threatens the privacy of car owners by exposing data from their vehicles

Tubgoat
Jun 30, 2013

by sebmojo
Heaven forfend people finding out what kinda car I drive and how much I drive it! It's certainly not like there is an interwoven cabal of alphabet soup hoovering up every number, letter and symbol associated with the identity of each and every person on this planet at all times that answers to a different cabal composed of child rapists and genocide enthusiasts who use this information to blackmail people into destroying the planet to serve them at literally all costs.

Don't have families, people, families are a liability.

Mustached Demon
Nov 12, 2016

Inspector 34 posted:

Yeah I had to do this a while back too. I think the reasoning was that plates get old and beat up and sometimes specs change with regard to reflectiveness or whatever. I would actually be fine with this if they didn't already have an opportunity to inspect the state of my plates when they force me to go in for emissions testing anyway. For states that don't have emissions testing it makes a tiny amount of sense to require new plates every once in a while.

But now I have the plate for the first car I ever owned as a keepsake so that's cool. It's still sitting in the same spot on the floor of my office as it was that day 12 years ago, halfway buried beneath a wire rack. I would never have been able to keep this valued piece of my young adulthood without the state of Washington telling me I had to replace it.

The reflective coating fades over time. Cheaper to just go "ok x% of plates fade to below spec reflective doodads after 7 years so let's just replace them every 7 years."

Could setup a test to monitor it during emissions but that's effort.

Sydin
Oct 29, 2011

Another spring commute

BiggerBoat posted:

What's the reasoning behind this?

I mean, I know for the companies it's to design poo poo to break and to make all the parts proprietary, but how are they even trying to sell this to the 3/4 of the country that's broke and lives an 80 minute drive from an apple store? Safety concerns? Our tech is so sophisticated and Super next gen that no one can grasp it and some plebe might break it? Even though we pay slaves in China pennies to build this poo poo?

Because Apple fosters an almost cult-like consumer culture where your choice to embrace Apple products is a lifestyle. It's part of your identity and provides a sense of self-worth. This is why you have tons of people who can barely afford to pay rent still lining up every year to trade up for the new iPhone or Apple Watch. This is also why Apple does not want you to be able to repair old devices, but rather make you take them into the Apple store where an employee can push a newer, shinier phone while you're surrounded by newer, shinier phones you can play around with while you wait. Apple was already found guilty of pushing updates that intentionally degraded the quality and battery life of older models of iPhones in an attempt to force people to upgrade out of frustration. Their business model and sky-high valuation are entirely reliant on a yearly buying cycle and people realizing they could just hang on to the same iPhone for even just two or three years would massively eat into their profits.

Pekinduck
May 10, 2008

Inspector 34 posted:

Yeah I had to do this a while back too. I think the reasoning was that plates get old and beat up and sometimes specs change with regard to reflectiveness or whatever. I would actually be fine with this if they didn't already have an opportunity to inspect the state of my plates when they force me to go in for emissions testing anyway. For states that don't have emissions testing it makes a tiny amount of sense to require new plates every once in a while.

But now I have the plate for the first car I ever owned as a keepsake so that's cool. It's still sitting in the same spot on the floor of my office as it was that day 12 years ago, halfway buried beneath a wire rack. I would never have been able to keep this valued piece of my young adulthood without the state of Washington telling me I had to replace it.

I think New York at one point wanted everyone to have to buy new plates when they did a redesign. Their justification was that cops would know anyone with old plates had an expired registration. (of course eventually new plates would have expired registrations too) IIRC it got shot down as a blatant cash grab.

Massachusetts has the decency to replace plates for free if they wear out.

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.
It's kind of a loving bummer because for a while there I swore by Apple and it was pretty good.

Now it's what Sydin posted and as far as I'm concerned can get right hosed. Nothing but a complete rip off near as I can tell.

Pharmaskittle
Dec 17, 2007

arf arf put the money in the fuckin bag

I usually like hearing about the inside details of how stuff like this works, so I'll do a quick Apple post.

One example of how Apple makes it more difficult to repair your own devices is the touchID, the fingerprint reader home button on all the phones up to I wanna say the 8. Let's say you've got a broken screen. You can buy a third party iphone screen no problem. BUT your home button is paired to your specific phone, so if it's also broken and needs to be replaced, you no longer have a working home button/fingerprint reader. You can put one on there for aesthetics and to keep dust out of the phone, but the only way to have it even function as a button is an inconvenient but admittedly pretty clever third party button that draws off the phone battery and works via Bluetooth connection with the phone. Very cool but not very practical. Anyway to be clear this voids any warranty or applecare your phone may have had, but that's not too onerous imo.

Here's the hoops you have to jump through. So the only way to get your home button/sensor working properly is to take your phone to an apple store or an apple authorized repair shop like the one I worked in. I take your phone to my bench, pull up a special Apple website, and punch in your phone's serial number. Then I pull a matching OEM Apple phone screen, with already attached home button and punch in the serial number for it. Once the repair is done, you still don't have a working home button until I hook the phone up to my computer with a special cable, Apple's servers see that the phone and screen serial numbers are the same ones I punched in earlier, and tells the phone to go ahead and pair with the button. gently caress, we're finally done!

So if you read all that bullshit, you can see that no amount of effort, money, or expertise would allow a normal person to restore their phone's full functionality without going through Apple or someone who went through and paid for Apple's certification process. Allegedly, this is to keep your phone super ultra secure so nobody can do any tricks to unlock your phone, but it's real convenient that it ensures there's no way to get around giving Apple money.

edit: oh also I have to send your old screen back to Apple within a few weeks or they will charge me the full price for it which depending on the model could be like $500. They NEVER want any OEM part or device unaccounted for. I haven't done this work in more than a year now, so to be fair any of this could be outdated, but I strongly doubt it

Pharmaskittle fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Feb 10, 2021

Space Gopher
Jul 31, 2006

BLITHERING IDIOT AND HARDCORE DURIAN APOLOGIST. LET ME TELL YOU WHY THIS SHIT DON'T STINK EVEN THOUGH WE ALL KNOW IT DOES BECAUSE I'M SUPER CULTURED.

Sydin posted:

Because Apple fosters an almost cult-like consumer culture where your choice to embrace Apple products is a lifestyle. It's part of your identity and provides a sense of self-worth. This is why you have tons of people who can barely afford to pay rent still lining up every year to trade up for the new iPhone or Apple Watch. This is also why Apple does not want you to be able to repair old devices, but rather make you take them into the Apple store where an employee can push a newer, shinier phone while you're surrounded by newer, shinier phones you can play around with while you wait. Apple was already found guilty of pushing updates that intentionally degraded the quality and battery life of older models of iPhones in an attempt to force people to upgrade out of frustration. Their business model and sky-high valuation are entirely reliant on a yearly buying cycle and people realizing they could just hang on to the same iPhone for even just two or three years would massively eat into their profits.

7/10.

You’ve got passion, and that’s nice improv work making up the technical details, but don’t be afraid to go back to the classics. You’ll get a better response if you drop a throwback “hipster scum” or “Crapple” reference in there, as long as you don’t overdo it

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Pharmaskittle
Dec 17, 2007

arf arf put the money in the fuckin bag

That post is mostly speculation, but he's not strictly wrong about anything. The official line on the battery thing is that they were throttling the performance of older phones so as not to degrade the battery or cause the phone to become unstable and shut down, because iOS updates and apps keep getting more demanding but the phone's hardware isn't up to the task. I don't really have an opinion on whether that's true. It sounds reasonably realistic, but Apple is in the business of making money so I wouldn't put anything they thought they could get away with past them.

As for why people upgrade so often, I think they'd probably keep doing it even without any dirty tricks on Apple's part. Before I repaired phones, I sold them, and some of these customers couldn't be talked out of getting the new phone before they even had their old one halfway paid off. I'm sure the psychology behind it varies from person to person. Status symbol for some, peer pressure for others. I'm sure some people even really do depend on their phones so much they legitimately need to have whatever's newest, fastest, highest capacity, whatever the cost.

Anyway, none of this is strictly limited to Apple, they're just the biggest name that people want to talk about. I'm sure Samsung doesn't love it when you repair your own phone either, they just calculated that it wasn't worth it to do much to prevent it.

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