wearling0600

There's loads of people who prefer iPhone and would sideload if allowed but it's not a deal-breaker. I prefer iOS and Apple hardware but refuse to buy one without sideloading.

My S24 Ultra is arriving tomorrow, but I'll likely be buying the iPhone 16 if it comes with sideloading.

So Apple is gaining a customer, I've been eyeing the MacBooks too ever since the M1 came out so might end up pulling the trigger on one of those as well.

He sounds similar to those insufferable effective altruists. Most of these people have a genuine skill in something narrow, and the willingness to walk all over everyone in pursuit of the 'highest score' achievement on their 'net worth'.

Yet they've convinced themselves that only they can save the world, so they have to make as much money as possible by any means necessary in order to fund misguided charities. They'll burn down the planet and anyone necessary to make money so they can save it.

Sir Chris is still in control of his charity, so really all that money he gave them is still in pursuit of his own goals, the charity is only spending money it makes through its investments. So whilst it sounds so generous to donate billions to charity and I'm sure it brought him great publicity, it's little more than a tax-efficient way to attempt to bring about societal changes that society didn't ask for.

I'm sure it was also nice that whilst he 'donated' billions to the charity, when it came to his divorce settlement, that was taken out of his 'personal fortune' which amounted to less than a billion.

So don't give him that much credit.

So then... continue using exclusively Apple's store then?

If you consider Apple to be the gold standard for security, you have just keep going as you are.

I don't see how giving other people the freedom to choose infringes on your security.

Remember these are people who know what it's like to go through apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

South Africa today is largely governed by the people who fought and won against apartheid, so it's understandable that they feel a level of solidarity with the people of Palestine.

(in this context I'm choosing to gloss over the real and present issues with the ANC, because they are not relevant to Israel's genocide)

It would make sense for SpaceX to offer lower prices for Africa for example.

They already cover the area, and it will be close to free to provide Internet there - they don't need any extra fuel for station-keeping, power comes from the sun anyway, they're not using bandwidth they could otherwise sell to richer customers. Maybe ground station use will cost a bit.

If it's even mildly affordable, communities will come together to buy a terminal they can share. If you don't have terrestrial connections, Starlink will be far more economical than conventional satellite Internet.

Plus they can sell internet to companies doing mineral exploration. That should bring boatloads of money.

I'm already seeing people whose jobs takes them out and about a lot starting to use Starlink as an integral part of their job.

It just makes sense, they've got their cars tuned in by now, Abu Dhabi is a circuit they know well so they're not likely to mess up the setup (or conversely find some amazing leaps through setup).

They now likely have a huge selection of used parts they can put on the car so they don't risk wear/damage on the parts they might need at a later date.

So if you're not expecting to be fighting for championship positions in the final race it's a no-brainer.

The others did it in Mexico which is the 2nd best option, if you don't want to use up all of FP1 in the final race for the young drivers.

I think that the hope is they'll be able to increase the launch cadence once they're managing to take off without doing significant damage to their pad and surroundings.

And once it's proven enough to take off from Florida or Vandenbudg they'll be able to launch more freely. At the moment they're moving too fast to risk the other launch infrastructure present there.

This is a really hot take, but I reckon if it manages to make if to stage separation in one piece, and the hot staging works, the ship should fly trouble-free.

It's the one part of the system that they have done significant testing on, not that many engines etc. If they once again don't make it past staging that would be very concerning for the Starship timeline, Artemis, and so on...

It'll be so cool to see the booster soft splash.

Biggest hope is that they manage to get away without sandblasting Boca Chica so the FAA don't ground them for 6 months again.

Damn, that's pretty drastic! I had no idea that they're reworking the sizes to such an extent.

Especially if they're gonna keep shoving street circuits down our throats, they might as well make the cars more suitable.

You wouldn't race fullsize SUVs down the streets of Monaco, yet somehow you're expected to in modern F1 cars which are comparable in length and width.

MotoGP already has this tech in place and has for a while, works pretty well.

And the long lap penalty is pretty genius. You get a penalty, you have to serve it pretty soon, not get added after the race like F1, at which point you've had the chance to build a buffer because the cars can't follow that closely.

The chances of this happening are a rounding error. Red Bull need a #2 who is fast enough to pick up wins when Max can't and take points off his rivals.

They need a Bottas, not an Alonso.

As an armchair team principal, I'd take even Bottas over Alonso. And Ricciardo over either.

Unless Alonso commits to the mother of all 2nd driver contact with an iron-clad non-disparagement clause.

So won't happen.

As a fan though, I'll pray to whatever deity to let it happen, what delicious drama we'd have on our hands.

I don't know, your #2 reason doesn't seem to stand up to reality.

I don't know where you are, but where I am (UK) you can go on any high street (in most towns there will be an area where most shops are, think strip mall in the US) and you will find at least a couple shops that fix and sell electronics - primarily smartphones, but also vacuum cleaners, TVs, computers, games consoles.

Pretty much all of them are locally-run and are, I assume, profitable in spite of every electronics manufacturer trying to run them out of business.

I say I assume because they wouldn't be everywhere if they weren't.

I've had phones fixed by them, they offer warranties, reasonable prices, only had an issue once and it was put right after a tiny bit of back and forth.

I think by "we can't afford it" you mean "capitalism hasn't yet found a way to centralise the profits and run the small business owners out of business".