Google isn’t necessarily the seller, but Best Buy, Staples, Amazon, Walmart and Target could hash out a deal with Google (or Bing, etc.) for “insights”.

This post is posed as the next big step in internet pricing, not something necessarily happening today.

Today, it’s not standard procedure outside of some specific segments (that I know of, maybe airfare? But the data fed in is more limited) but tapping into the vast amounts of data we leak through the services we use is far too big of a gold mine for companies to overlook researching and tapping into. There’s a lot of things that need to happen (who supplies data? Google is the hypothetical here but what’s their price? etc.) but it’s absolutely feasible at scale.

Not Just Bikes just put up a video about how fire-fighters and their trucks fight for wider roads while having larger trucks than the rest of the world. Perfect timing there.

They pivoted from serving the user to serving themselves. I still don’t know what big improvements have been made to 11 other than another coat of paint, some LLM features searching for a problem and the odd feature like that Android subsystem that’s being cancelled. Modern Standby is still being pushed which would rule out most new Windows laptops for me.

It’s not like I want something revolutionary, just a number of quality of life things would be nice without feeling like I’m fighting the machine. If I could search images on my machine with OCR like iOS Photos I would be over the moon but noone’s seemed to want to copy that.

What do you mean disingenuous, I have a anecdotal evidence sample size 400% larger! Clearly it’s superior! (kidding)

Of course, the anecdata clearly isn’t useful here but it’s easy to bust out and point to as a counter - we’re not seeing remotely near the amount of bellyaching for Honda 3.5’s, Ford 1.0’s, etc. The 300k Accent is probably a pre-10’s model.

If you pop on over to kia-forums, hyundai-forums, piloteers, whatever forums and CarComplaints you’ll see a trend. The '16 Sorento has the same sizable number of engine complaints as the '16 CR-V - except the CR-V is for some vibration at idle while the Sorento is outright failure. And the '16 RAV4 outsold both and has a small fraction of complaints.

Of course people get lucky like some 235k mile '11 or '12 Sonata on hyundai-forums but I’m trying to paint the picture of a pair of companies that have repeatedly made poor, owner-unfriendly engineering decisions to save a buck are not a company people should reward with their business.

People should not be giving them any benefit of doubt to them nor pointing to someone doing worse as an excuse. (People - me included until a couple years ago - have been saying “they were not good before but they’re fine NOW!” for practically 15 years.)

It’s not that they don’t make the best vehicles, my claim is that they are below par.

Yes, American makes can have lower lows but it varies. Sometimes a bad engine here, a quirk there but taking the similar age GMC Acadia (similar in size to the Sorento) - it doesn’t seem to have the flaws the Sorento does. You’ll see CarComplaints say transmission issues but that is a “shift-to-park” message caused by a defective switch - easier to remedy than say, an engine seizing, headgasket blowing or the car just being stolen and joyridden.

TL;DR - They have a pervasive pattern of making poor engineering decisions that tops the Japanese and American makes. American makes aren’t that far behind but I don’t think I’ve seen such a widespread trend from them. EcoBoosts, even the sketchier ones aren’t dropping like flies. GM hasn’t gone in on the dual-clutch trend.

They have plenty of flashes of brilliance but it sucks when they have only recently demonstrated a willingness or capability to build an EV reduction gearbox that doesn’t foul it’s oil immediately. And having to learn to not under-size ABS wiring (fire).

I know folks who have, I owned a Kia that shares much engineering with Hyundai.

Yes, people do have fine experiences but the past decade has not been kind to Hyundai/Kia owners. They couldn’t build a decent GDI 4-cylinder (Theta 2), their 3.3L likes to strip headbolts (and more) and pile on the whole anti-theft cost-cutting that even Mitsubishi and Nissan didn’t (and doesn’t) do.

My roommate’s Accent chewed through it’s oil unexpectedly fast and seized. My parents 2.4L Sonata could go at any time (little to no warning), when they got free oil changes the dealer would intentionally overfill it to compensate. My sister’s Elantra is prone to piston slap. And they’re all immobilizer-less. Luckily there’s lawsuits that might help but it’s a risk for those who depend on their vehicle.

They certainly look slick, have more features for your dollar and are quite comfy inside but there’s ALWAYS some sneaky engineering flaw that rears it’s head sooner or later.

If you take my third-gen Sorento, it was a fine car. Comfortable, well-packaged, designed interior, good controls and materials choice. Transmission took everything I threw at it, plenty of space.

Shame that I had to worry about sudden knocking, seizing (2.4L, 2.0T) or headbolt failure (if I had the V6) washer fluid tank leaks (also afflicts it’s Hyundai cousin), BCM failure messing with the gear lever, trailer wiring electrical short/fire (not applicable as my tow harness was aftermarket), and a well-performing AWD system that fails around six digit mileage and can’t be maintained by the end user. (sealed)

And that’s if it wasn’t stolen or vandalized first #kiaboyz - either way would leave me out of a car waiting for parts for weeks to months. (If it was totaled, that would’ve been the best course of action)

I went looking for what a similar AWD component failure cost on similar age Crosstreks and Highlanders but it was practically unheard of online.

You can look at their EVs too. You think going electric solves problems? Nope. They underspecced some charging port so the Ioniq 5 can’t charge as fast after heat concerns. And then the ICCU leaks. Their first-gen Ioniq/Niro/Soul EVs have shit-designed reduction gearboxes that dump metal into the oil and need oil changes while the Bolt doesn’t for maybe 150k miles.

Yes, you can find other cars with fatal flaws but it’s business as usual in Hyundai and Kia land. They play whack-a-mole with problems (their new engines SEEM better, they added immobilizers standard) but customers are ultimately the ones left holding the bag when the latest dumb penny-pinching makes itself apparent.

(oh yea and poor resale, high insurance too dependent on vehicle trim and location. They are the only makes where I recommend 3000 mile oil changes)

I read about Apple looking to bring the spec up to par, but I suspect it has a higher chance of being a nothing-burger since carriers haven’t bothered with RCS and Google’s implementation is as controlled/proprietary as iMessage so it will be interesting to see how things go forward.

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(honestly I can also see the AI fad as a little less “extract more money” and more “make the investors think we’re doing something so they A. don’t lose their shit and B. think we’re high tech”)

unfortunately it can be a minefield with each ChromeOS machine having a set update expiration date from date of first availability.

Honestly I’d disagree. Past the iPhone 4S, my iPhone 8 was fine through it’s life before being replaced with a 13 mini a year or two ago when it suffered a naked gravitational incident at my hands. My parent’s generally had hand-me-downs or used models and dad’s 6s is still kicking and performing alright and even got a security patch a month ago.

They had that battery snafu which I will absolutely fault their lack of transparency for (good ol’ hide-the-workings-from-customers Apple) but I did encounter the issue it sought to trade performance for preventing in the past. (a worn battery causing random reboots on my 6s)

Now my BlackBerry Priv? I miss that phone but I did not miss it’s combination of slowing down with age plus updates running out at 6.0.1. Worst of both worlds but I miss sliders and Blackberry’s additions. (not the size though)

Similar in age (2015 models) but I doubt dad would be as tolerant of how it performed even a few years ago.

Google removed “Ok Google with the screen off” (made the toggle disappear, replaced with the option to allow its use in apps) on my Moto Z Play via Play Services updates and later advertised it as a Pixel-exclusive feature. (this was when the Pixel 1 was new)

Their support threads were ended curtly with statements of the phone not supporting the feature which I guess was technically true now that they changed it. (but no, the hardware always supported hotwords)

Never got that feature back and I bailed. For the ups and downs, I’m glad Apple doesn’t do that, instead omitting or handicapping new features for older devices. Of course not the best but yeesh, at least I don’t have to worry about “Hey Siri” being pulled to promote the iPhone 20 yet…

if you have a vehicle with 3G like 2019 and earlier 4Runners, ya good already.

Call in via the car with your VIN to disconnect the radio. You’ll have to navigate the phone menu but I did it while waiting for Costco’s air pressure machine.

You can also pull the DCM fuse but that’ll take the microphone with it.

It’s actually not that RCS. Apple is saying they’ll adopt RCS the standard which would likely be a big wildcard.

thcdenton’s just finding that comment from a mod amusing - or perhaps it’s meant to be ironic since “ur mom gay” maybe isn’t quite top “Sensible Chuckle” material

I got you, the caveat is that a DIY battery replacement is going to be easier than say a Pixel 6 (no main board removal necessary.) and will still work.

Yes, their software locking of features (like TrueTone) and less availability of original parts is reprehensible, (luckily those are less critical functions for now but they wont stop there.) I won’t get battery health metrics but it’s about the tradeoffs you want. (See: Pixel Watches outright being considered unrepairable by Google. I’m not sure how easy it would to secure nearby battery service on a Pixel - but at least it’s available on iFixit for DIY…)

Yep, I’ve done plenty of custom ROMs, used most mobile OSes out there, etc. but I’m not joking when I say I don’t want to deal with SafetyNet, figuring out what works with/without Play Services and generally getting in bed with Google hardware (but that last bit isn’t privacy oriented.) And no way do I have the time to tell mom how to install Graphene and support it.

Apple’s on-hardware processing for some things is a plus as well. Yes I know it’s their current business plan and can change but they make money on hardware and services, not knowing things.

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

I own an iPhone since it fits my use case with a retail presence, (more) available repair, longer (if murkier how much exactly) software support, customer support and local backup option. (iTunes)

Out of the box it’s a superior privacy experience to a Pixel but if you’re someone who wants to tinker, there’s less potential. Personally, I don’t want to have to “work” on my phone these days and Google’s engineering snafus haven’t been reassuring. (Google Drive “fix” then sticking head in sand when problems persist, Android 14 bricking…)

and my most personal reason is that they made my Moto Z Play materially worse by removing the OK Google with screen off feature to push the then-new Pixel and pretended it never was supported.

Edit: Yes, obviously an unpopular opinion but really think about what you want. Buy used to be more environmentally minded, do you want to tinker with your phone? Fairphone is neat, but tradeoffs are all over the place.

Oh yep, not the same person here but price varies widely.

In my apartment complex, we have Blink network EV chargers at $0.03/kWh which is a crazy price. The complex next door’s Blink chargers charges $0.50ish/kWh (both of those are Level 2) and our apartment rates (for the hypothetical out-the-window Level 1 charging) is somewhere $0.14-0.18/kWh.

DC fast charging for trips will likely will charge closer to that $0.50/kWh mark depending on the location and will be a problem for those who don’t have lower-cost charging at home.

That’s a big range for “home” (but still commercial) charging and depending on the efficiency of the vehicle, the cost per mile will vary. The range will likely be around 2 mi/kWh to 4 mi/kWh.

Those types of announcements are their equivalent of Tesla’s “full-self driving next year guys!” every year since like 2015?

These “breakthroughs” are Toyota “Full-Self Driving next year!” fluff and I’ll believe it when it’s shipped and performing.