Flatfire

I mean, they have done it. When I was looking at phones a few years back, it was genuinely a toss up between a Pixel 4a and an iPhone SE. If all you need it to be is a cameraphone, then both were good options.

Even now, the iPhone 16e is a relatively inexpensive phone when considering its featureset, but I would prefer a "mini" or newer SE variant instead.

Brother you have eaten the onion

Since 2013, both Sony and Microsoft have been using custom variants of AMD's consumer chips for CPU and GPU. These consoles are basically just laptop boards with some custom architecture, but at this stage most of the "Console" design is some software level features and a consistent baseline hardware spec to shoot for.

Sony still does seem to put mor effort into the hardware portion, but Xbox hardware has been little more than an SFF PC for a couple generations now

I had completely forgotten this limp puppet corpse of a game had come out at all. I saw 0 marketing for it, saw a ton of bad reviews and then it disappeared into the void.

I'm actually more surprised to see any further news about it, given it felt like the kind of thing that folds a studio in half.

Except it's literally not the onion

This feels particularly old-school in the category of nonsense accessories for your computer lol. Like I'd see it at a local surplus store with a label telling me it's "Windows ME" compatible

For customs? Yeah. But pretty much every master used in the RB or GH games have been ripped and are available for use there too

Oh sure, that was more of an echo of the feeling of being tricked than anything else. Those are usually special/collectors editions anyways, and there's reasons beyond needing/wanting the data that you'd buy that.

It's been interesting, watching the lag here. This feeling was felt by many who played games on PC 15 years ago when DVDs were starting to become less common and games were expanding in size. I distinctly remember buying a game I was excited for only to learn now I had to spend part of my data cap on downloading it. What had even been the point of buying the boxed copy?

I'm very scared of your two-tonne corn starch mac

To add, Apple has actually been making amends regarding repairability. It's small steps, but leagues ahead of what's offered for popular android manufacturers, while still maintaining their IP68 ratings on most devices.

I can't speak to how they make their parts available to third parties (seems to be a grey area), but there has been a reasonable focus with the last couple generations of iPhones that ensures the device can be repaired from either side.

Overall, the tide seems to have shifted. If you're going to be at the mercy of a corporate giant in order to keep up with modernity, then Apple is currently holding the dimly lit torch of consumer rights.

The crazy part is this may make iOS the better alternative when considering the emergence of third-party app stores and Apple's loosening grip on their ecosystem.

LineageOS is still a good option too, for anyone who would prefer to keep the phone they have