They also seem to have no marketing. I only see ads for Apple, Samsung and the big Chinese manufacturers in public, despite the fact that Sony also has phones available here. Online I have no idea, I don't view ads online.
And if you are American, get the fuck away from Google asap
The sad part is there's almost certainly demand for an app that would let you remote start your car and use other built-in features without the associated tracking, but unfortunately the only way a 3rd party app can do it without installing an expensive 2 way alarm system or similar device, is by using the manufacturer's APIs, which means the car has to be connected to the manufacturer :/
Owned by Google. Unfortunately it was never going to be without data collection.
I love it. My secret is that I try to walk more in the city when it's possible, or avoid peak traffic hours if driving. I don't have a regular 9-5 commute. I also regularly drive a curvy route with fairly new asphalt that has very little traffic, because it's actually a shortcut compared to the highway which has a bit more traffic.
My last experience ended in mid 2023, but I definitely did not have that experience.
Occasionally I wouldn't see the people that had swiped right on me, but usually I did. Free user.
The whole blurred "upgrade to see who liked you" thing was funny because once you ran into that profile, you'd immediately recognize the blur.
Maybe your problem was that you only went to your gym and your bar, instead of trying to meet new people?
I guess I wasn't super actively trying to meet new people, I was focusing more on my career. Most of those activities unfortunately sound boring to me. Biking group sounds nice. In fact, the only two ways I can do cardio is with a podcast or with other people. Otherwise I go flat out because to my ADHD mind, the end goal of all movement is to get to your destination ASAP. Book club sounds like a great way to get some accountability for my total lack of a reading habit these past few years, so I might look into that as well. There apparently is at least one in my city. As a kid I'd read several books a week, now it's several years per book :(
There’s a big gap between what you’re describing and the USA. We pretty regularly see fines that are a fraction of what the crime earned, if it’s prosecuted at all. We also have an utterly insane far right wing party and a spineless right party.
Yeah, that's my point. It's not that capitalism can't be regulated, it's that the US can't regulate capitalism sufficiently enough.
We should break up match group. It’s not a whole ass monopoly, but it has such a big market share it doesn’t really need to compete much. So it offers garbage, makes a lot of money because there aren’t a lot of other like options (and people don’t realize the apps are all owned by Match)
Agreed. So many monopolies out there that people barely realize are monopolies because a parent company owns a bunch of different "competing" brands rather than running everything under one brand name. Match Group is one of them.
Also, let’s be real, regulating Capitalism does not work (look around).
*looks around*
It seems to work fine around me. I peeked at your profile to confirm my assumption that you're American, and it seems I'm correct. I'd say it's partly a cultural issue in your country. The whole rugged individualism thing leads to a whole lot of anti-regulation sentiment. In my country even the ultraconservative "let's throw the gays in the oven and deport all black people to Africa" party isn't considering privatizing healthcare or education. The classical liberals are considering this, but this is where having a sane election system comes in. Since neither the conservatives nor the socdems agree, it's pretty hard for them to enact anything even if they do win an election, because "winning" an election usually means like ~30-40% of parliament seats and the ruling coalition is always a minimum of 2 parties, often 3. Plus the president's one and only power is that he can tell them to fuck off if a law seems unreasonable.
We currently have people from 6 parties in parliament, plus some people who were either thrown out of their party, or left it willingly.
We're pretty good at making noise if we don't like something, and while a lot of people complain about our MPs and ministers getting paid so much, it means they can live well enough without taking bribes. Party donations have limits that can get people into actual trouble if exceeded, and individual campaign donations aren't a thing. Political corruption gets the party fined and potentially individuals punished too. Even in municipal government corruption cases. There was a case that took several years, where a businessman approached a politician in the same party as the capital city's mayor, implying that if the mayor were to reduce certain legal costs on the department store his company was building, the party would receive a major donation - which it then did. The party got fined nearly 10x what they made from this deal, and two people received probationary sentences. This party, formerly a major player, can now barely afford their next election campaign. The company that owns the future department store has been fined more than once for not getting it done as fast as promised - because it's in a prominent location along the promenade.
We have tons of consumer protection laws too. Plus a government entity for consumer protection so you don't have to hire a lawyer and go to court to get your justice in a lot of cases. Similar for employment rights, etc. Fire someone without a paper trail to prove their incompetence or malice? You'll be paying them a hefty severance.
Agreed that the capitalist commodification of love sucks, but also, who even does things IRL anymore? And if you do, success rate isn't that great either, unless you abide by rules 1 and 2.
I'm no longer single, but when I was, there were two main activities I did outside of work. Gym - a place where it just feels wrong to approach women. And women never approached me. Bar - cozy local small community place where I had plenty of great conversations with a lot of people, many of whom were women, but most were in relationships already. Maybe it's the same for women as it is for men, where in a relationship you're more confident and thus have an easier time talking to strangers. Made some friends though.
When I was on Tinder, though, with my fairly mediocre appearance, I'd still get matches. Not every day, but at least a couple a month in even the slower periods and like half of them evolved into at least conversations (not a simple "hey" -> unmatch). Met some IRL. Both times I've been on Tinder, I eventually found someone there, though it was over a year in both cases (nearly 3 years second time). And both times the person I found was someone who'd pretty much just joined. I don't live in what I'd call a big city though.
Nowadays, I also work from home with no office option (unless I rent one for myself), so even shitting where I eat is not an option if I become single. What DO people do in their free time where they meet new people, besides nightlife activities? I'm not interested in drinking 2-3 nights a week anymore lol
I don't know how good their algorithm is nowadays, but generally Tinder will show you profiles they think you'd want to match with, but ideally not get in a lasting relationship with. They want you to keep using the platform, not find true love.
If you get swiped left enough, Tinder won't really show you to most people. That part of their algorithm definitely works, it's easy. I'm not sure if they've yet found a way to quantify risk of lasting relationship.
IIRC the profit margins are no longer even close to what they used to be. They're now estimated to cost between 400 and 700 dollars to make depending on the specs. Used to be what, 75 dollars?
The fact is, the hardware side is economically pretty comparable to high end Android devices. Those are going to go up in price and so are iPhones.
Google and Apple of course have the app store fees as a sweet source of income, so they have an advantage compared to Samsung.