they make bad products that are media darlings because it's fashion more than anything. they're treated like consumer advocates but they are one of the absolute worst companies for vendor lock-in, and are absolutely anti-consumer, but will have innumerable articles written about how they're "the best" for any given measure. it drives me nuts how the public perception of them is the complete opposite of what they actually are, and i don't get it.

also their software is bad. all due credit their hardware impressed but it doesn't matter if the software is crap.

and they aren't private: they've got all your data but have somehow convinced everyone that it's fine that they have it because they're somehow better than every other large tech company.

yes, things like Midwest emo are seeing a resurgence, see Origami Angel or Arcadia Grey for instance; or things that blend hyperpop with more pop/punk sensibilities like Dynastic. there's a lot of it out there, it's just not what's mainstream.

the story reveals in Horizon: Zero Dawn. it's hard to say much of anything without spoilers, but that game had me absolutely riveted.

also HL: Alyx had some stunning moments. I haven't been much of a VR fan but that game is fantastic.

I need to figure out how spoilers work in Lemmy haha. hard to talk about.

I think Google Fi works like you describe.

it's a shame because Prey was one of the best games of the decade.

well now I'll be expecting it

like most things, some of it is very good but the vast majority of it is extremely poor. I wouldn't say I like or dislike it as a rule but I'd say on average I dislike it by far, and when it's bad it has a way of being very intolerably bad.

Jet Set Radio, Chu Chu Rocket

being against disposable vapes does not equal being against vaping; I sort of can't believe this needs to be explained: the environmental cost of disposable vapes is preposterous, they should've been banned from day one. if they want to make it about the children: whatever gets it done, but I want it done because buying something like that when it is explicitly meant to be thrown away is outrageous.

I've worked with marketers for years. many of them have a blind spot for what they create: they can realize something is irritating, or invasive, but not when it's their marketing, which is obviously superior and what people want to see. it's some sort of artist+marketer brainrot.

sorry to generalize, I've just seen it a lot over the years.

I imagine this is something like it: we'll reach them with the perfect message, it'll be exactly what they want! won't that be delightful?

...completely ignoring how horrifying it is.

this was such a weird claim, and I never really understood how it could be true specifically for phones, where they aren't in control of system software. there's like a gradient of possibility here:

• Android phones from major manufacturers, and Apple phones: doubt it. those things are too heavily scrutinized, someone would've found it, and the companies that make them don't have the impetus.
• official "smart" voice devices from Amazon, Google, et al: doubt it, same reasoning as above
• Android phones from small players, heavily subsidized models, etc.: sure, could be
• smart TVs from major manufacturers: probably not? medium "maybe"? I bought one of these with a hardware mic switch so I guess that shows my paranoia
• other smart TVs: I dunno, feels highly likely

so: I'm careful about what I use so my risk felt pretty low, but I also feel like if this were true security researchers would've discovered it. let alone the fact that what they describe is bandwidth and battery intensive (off-device or on-device respectively, I don't remember what they claimed as I read the 404 media report some weeks back) but it still makes me wonder: what led them to make these claims then? fascinating, pretty scary.

Yep, there is already a great example of what would happen, and it pretty much proved what many of us believed: governments and employers used it as a surveillance tool, and it's not a replacement for a real content moderation strategy. People are just as happy to be cruel to each other and spread disinformation even if their real name is attached to it.