Humanius
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This similar thing happened in Belgium and the Netherlands nearly a decade ago.
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-49674333
While the court case was ongoing, the real world effect was that games with certain lootbox features could not be released in the Dutch or Belgian market without restricting its sale to adults. In practice this just meant that game publishers either disabled the feature in the Netherlands and Belgium, or didn’t release the game at all.
To my knowledge lootbox mechanics in games are still banned in Belgium
https://www.scl.org/12540-loot-boxes-are-not-gambling-under-dutch-law/
However, in the Netherlands, lootboxes were eventually found to not be gambling. The courts went along with EA’s argument that while lootboxes are a game of chance, the game around them is a game of skill. And therefor videogames with lootboxes should not be considered gambling under Dutch law.
Since the US has a similar requirement for something to be considered gambling (that is how people argued in favour of pinball machines at the time), I would suspect that companies that make money on lootboxes will defend themselves against this lawsuit with a similar argument.
Google is not offering me a no-cost battery replacement.
I’m not eligible for any replacement or refund according to their own support page
Edit: Here’s proof.
On the one page they are talking about “impacted devices”, but on the other page they say I’m not “eligible” for a refund of repair.
So they do not confirm whether my phone is unaffected or not. They only say I won’t get a refund.
I’m highly skeptical when a massive corporation uses inconsistent language like this. Especially when they don’t clearly define what they mean with the terms “impacted” and “eligible”.
Are there situations where impacted devices may not be eligible?
I own a Pixel 6a, and I’m not happy about the whole situation for several reasons:
- The update is mandatory and instant the moment it is received. You don’t get a choice in the matter.
- The only reason I am aware of my battery being nerfed is because I had read this article and because I paid attention during the update. There is no clear indication after the update that they might have nerfed my battery life.
- Google is not communicating clearly whether my phone is one of the so-called “affected devices”. There is a tool that allows you to check “eligibility”, but it only reports eligibility for a refund. My phone is not eligible for a refund, so does that mean my phone is not an “affected device”? It doesn’t say.
- After calling support Im not much wiser. All they told me is that “if my phone gets warm sometimes, or the battery drains too fast” that might mean my device is affected. But clearly they should know whether my device is affected otherwise they wouldn’t be able to determine whether I’m eligible for the refund.
This is also not the first time Google burned me with a bad quality battery. This just strengthens my resolve that my next phone won’t be a Pixel. Which is a shame, because I like these phones otherwise.
The Fairphone is looking quite interesting.
Personally I use Enpass.
It’s both my password manager, but also the place where I keep track of notes about devices, accounts and software licences.
I tried to change over to Bitwarden a few weeks ago, because that is what my office wants us to move to, but the limitations are not really bridgeable for me. Bitwarden seem to me to be very specifically a password manager and not much else.
I think the biggest advantage of Android over iOS is the availability of consumer choice. There are so many different Android phones on the market, each with their respective pros and cons, that there is bound to be a device that aligns with your needs.
Now that can also be an advantage of iOS over Android in a sense. With Android you have to make a choice and it can be the wrong one. With the iPhone there is one option, and it is what it is.
Judging by that, it doesn’t look like people will be losing access to the games they purchased. However they will have to access them via a different launcher from June 10th onward.