The Razr was the world’s most popular phone during its four year run. Naturally it eventually went to free on contract… but it started out as $600 unlocked.
Even before Apple came along and started making zillions of dollars selling smartphones, the mobile phone industry was one of the most profitable forms of highway robbery ever invented. The devices cost a lot less to make than they sold for, letting the manufacturers make out like bandits, and then the carriers were and still are making out like even bigger nastier bandits selling phone services at insane markups.
Pfffft. I’m happy with a jar of Cafe Bustelo that will last me at least a month…for $7. My taste buds died several years ago after sampling a Pumpkin Latte from Sbux.
The current solution (replacing phone’s firmware with custom one, developed by phone-hacking communities) could also be a part of many cyberpunk futures. Even the custom firmware loader - TWRP - couldn’t possibly look more cyberpunk than it does now.
I uh literally am/was that person. A couple years ago I dropped $1500 on a good espresso machine and grinder and it’s absolutely paid for itself by now. A daily latte or mocha is like 4-5 bucks, and the materials to make it is about half that even with good coffee.
See my username for fave old school phone. Handspring was everything Palm wanted to be until they were bought out. I used to have to force myself not to use Graffiti on whiteboards.
My last new phone was given to me by Tmobile about 7 years ago when they messed with their 2g and started with 4g/LTE. Still use it daily. Of course I only got one update to 5.5.1 on it…
For $1980 I’d expect the phone to hold my credit cards, cash and keys, and yell if I got more than 20 feet from it.
I’d rather buy a $200 phone and tether it with a $100 8-10 inch tablet for when the tablet needed Internet access.
I have gone to StarBux in airports where there weren’t Duncan or Tim Hortons. I usually don’t go out to anything other than local coffee ships, occasionally.
Otherwise I buy beans, grind them and either put them in the espresso machine or french press, or Vietnamese coffee maker.
I also like a nice cold brewed coffee, made with some chicory containing grind,
Nope didn’t buy a new iPad Pro 11 for the wife at Christmas time… /s
As far as using Apple products you are right, I don’t use them.
Well if your goal is to replace your unitasking Wacom with an iPad Pro, sure I can get there. However with what usage I do on an iPad, they are horrible at manipulating data/files. So if I have a picture on a network shared drive can I copy it to the iPad, edit it with three different programs, and the move the edited file back to the network share? With my Android tablet that is literally those 5 steps, copy, edit/edit/edit, move. The last time I looked you still can’t copy an audio file into your library without going through iTunes first (or other 3rd party software).
My point is, you have great hardware that lives in a walled garden. If it works for your needs great. I just feel that the garden is a cost limitation for the hardware. Like owning a McLaren to comute in LA traffic.
Yes, extremely easily. And yes, iTunes is the audio manager (as opposed to having an open folder of audio files).
Different tools for different uses. I wouldn’t use an iPad Pro for network management or data assembly any more than I’d use an Android device to paint with. And when I’m doing graphic work, the ‘walled garden’ that people decry is a wonderful thing for making my device just work.
