dan

I know very little about crypto other than the theory behind it. What does XMR do differently?

What's the disadvantage of being able to open it up? That's the part I don't quite understand. It could be disabled by default and require the user to enable an "expert" or "full featured" mode, or something like that.

I think we're going to eventually reach a point where the European iPhone is far superior to and more innovative than the American one, just because of the fact that you can do a lot more with it. Apple's software will have to compete on merit, not just win by default because it's the only choice available on the device.

I'm actually curious as to if it determines EU vs US based on where you buy the phone, based on country for the account, or based on something else entirely.

They're a public company and have shareholders... How would they sell it under-the-table?

I want it locked down. I want it immutable. I want it matching every other device so im not fingerprinted.

That's totally fine... But it should be optional, so that people who want to take full advantage of their device (instead of being restricted) can do so.

I save money by holding an iPhone for 6 years, versus 3 years with an Android phone

There's no reason you couldn't hold an Android phone for just as long. Samsung and Google both offer 7 years of security updates.

untraceable

Literally every transaction is stored in a public ledger that anyone can read. That's not exactly untraceable. Eventually someone will convert the Bitcoin to regular currency, which then links the transaction chain to the real world. Transactions can be clustered based on accounts at exchanges, and often patterns emerge once you do this. This is how some ransomware groups are uncovered.

I kinda agree with your sentiment. If I'm spending $1000+ on a device, I want to truly own it and do whatever I want with it. Unfortunately people have gotten very used to companies like Apple telling them what they can and can't do, and Apple artificially restricting things (like giving first-party apps special permissions that third-party apps can't get) so they make more money. It's not great that this is so widespread now. At least there's people like Louis Rossman that still care about these things.

If the manufacturer wants to have an "easy mode" where they limit what can be done, like what Apple does today, that's totally fine. Just don't force it onto everyone.

Steam doesn't belong in that list because you're free to use whatever game store you want on a PC. No computers are limited to only using Steam.

I hate that a lot of coupons are hidden in the supermarket's app. At least that's the case for Safeway. Some coupons are advertised on the price tag, but some aren't on the price tag, nor pop up if you add the item to the cart on your phone. You need to go to the coupons section in the app and search for one, or scan the barcode of the product to look for coupons for it. I'm not doing that for every item in my cart. Waste of time.

I mean, either they sell it and the buyer has to comply with the law, or they don't sell it.

They're likely going to be sold, not shut down. Whoever buys the company takes on the responsibility.

If they actually shut down then it shouldn't be an issue since they'd almost certainly erase everything.

They're a California-based company so under the CCPA they must delete your data upon request.

I used number 5 throughout high school and university and they always served me well. Sometimes I thought about trying the fancier ones with gel grips, but old reliable BIC was always there for me. I trusted the BIC. In a world of uncertainty, the BIC will never let you down (or run around and desert you)