I’ve seen some of the photos of people driving American-sized pickup trucks around Europe and I hope they get outlawed. Unfortunately, Europe and Asia do have so many more options - sometimes even by American companies much to my annoyance.

I occasionally look into getting a Kei car of some sort. Though it’s not really practical for me. Maybe one day, by the time a sub five inch flagship phone is developed perhaps.

Small vehicle sales represent less than a fifth of the market. Major manufacturers have ceased production of sedans and hatchbacks in favour of larger platform SUVs and pickup trucks.

I realise that vehicles aren’t really the focus here, but the smartphone market isn’t too dissimilar in certain ways. The major manufacturers have discontinued their smaller for factor devices citing ‘sales’, but those devices cost nearly what a larger one did so it’s reasonable that consumers would opt for the bigger screen, especially when it’s typically coupled with a larger battery and superior camera.

Also similar between these two markets, if you look overseas, or at older used models, or make any of a variety of compromises, you can find something if you’re determined. Or you don’t find something and just deal with the giant phone that sticks half out your pocket and you can’t sit down without removing it.

Personally, I’m enjoying watching the advances in folding phones. They are approaching Westworld standards pretty quick. Trouble of course will be when they get there, it’ll cost the same as a car and at that point it better unfold some wheels too.

Similar to vehicles, smaller phones probably would sell just fine.

The issue would be that not many people would buy a phone 2/3 the size unless it was also 2/3 the price. Even if the manufacturing of such a device was 2/3 the cost (it wouldn’t be), the bottom line for the manufacturer would be same number of devices sold, but 1/3 less money.

Companies don’t do less money.

Too bad burgers outpaced inflation then. It’d be nice to have a $1.50 option commonly available.

I agree about everything in your first point. I hadn’t previously considered that the novelty of a new technology would necessarily increase have disproportionately high initial cost.

That said, I feel like any calculation of cost against how many hours played is entirely subjective. Your suggestion of $0.75 / entertainment hour is quite different than what I consider ideal. Games will vary genre to genre, person to person, platform to platform.

A person with limited time might exclusively play shorter titles, or maybe just multiplayer titles. A person with significant free time might spent hundreds of hours replaying an RPG.

To be incredibly broad, I would say that games shouldn’t cost more per entertainment hour than half of what any given person earns at their job - but even that is quite subjective and should be taken with salt.

You make a good point, and I agree. I wasn’t thinking that it was the only thing on the market and therefore the price is whatever a new technology costs.

I tend to think of video games - being a form of entertainment - as a great way to be entertained while also being an incredibly low cost option for the amount of time I spend enjoying them.

Buying a $600 console just to enjoy a single $60 title is an extreme example but to me, if that game provides 100 hours of playtime, that seems well worth it. Cheaper than going to a theatre or most other forms of entertainment.

To be sure, I don’t do this, but I’ve always viewed gaming through a $/h lens, and could never understand why so many people saw it as a waste of time. That’s what I was thinking when I wrote that comment earlier - it seems to me that you get more playtime with some RPG from this decade than you would playing Pac-Man. Though perhaps I feel that way because games like Pac-Man don’t appeal to me.

Thinking about it, your point might be valid again, with the Atari being a new technology, people were likely to sink far more hours into a title than they might do with modern games since we have so many to choose from now. I’ve never thought about it that way. Thanks for pointing this out.

The Atari 2600 released for $190 in 1977. Or about $1000 today.

The best selling title, Pac-Man released for $28 in 1982. Or about $95 today.

Compared to so much else that has risen dramatically over time, vastly outpacing video games comparatively, I think it’s a bit hard to argue with the value proposition of modern titles.

If more people held themselves accountable, these products wouldn’t exist. I know it can be an awkward situation to deny a gift for ethical reasons. Kudos to you.

I feel the argument is a little different when it comes to physical goods.

Stealing a Nestlé product takes away revenue just like if it were left on the shelf, never purchased, and discarded by the shop. The main benefit there is the edible portion of the product doesn’t end up in a landfill.

Not sure why people are beating up on @[email protected] for saying his opinion. Different people value different things.

I think I can answer your question though. Buying a console is a plug and play experience. Building a PC is not. Not everyone has the time, the patience, or the technical experience required to purchase compatible components, assemble the machine, and install the various software.

Anyone that’s ever bought a prepared meal has overpaid in comparison to acquiring the ingredients, prepping them, and cooking the dish. It’s worth the price to do so because I sure as hell don’t want to spend time making a bowl of French onion soup.

I’m a third party in this chat, not [email protected].

Your initial comment here was pointing out that a component of a computer build is as expensive as an entire console. Valid point, though it does ignore that the component you had in mind is superior to what Sony’s put into their machine. It’s not really an apples to apples comparison. More like an apple from the grocery compared to picking a basket of apples from an orchard.

You seem to be pointing out that higher performance per dollar is possible with a high end computer. This is correct.

Anivia on the other hand was only saying that for the same money or less as a Playstation 5 Pro, you can get more performance by spending your dollars on a computer instead of a console. This is correct.

You two seem to be saying the same thing: Sony’s console is overpriced for what it is, and a better experience can be had going with a pc.

Way to move the goal post on your argument.

These things happen to everyone from time to time.

I myself misworded some comments just the other day in frustration and inadvertently caused an upset. No worries at all. It’s big of you to come in here and correct yourself. It speaks volumes to the type of person you are.

Cheers.

I’ve been using Organic Maps (from F-Droid) and it has a “Keep the screen on” option in the settings. That said, I’ve never had the screen dim while navigating to a destination. The setting I mentioned prevents timeout when you’ve got the map open but not on route somewhere.

A big difference I find is having the separations be padding and not a line. Even if each option took up the same number of pixels, the line makes it too visually crowded.

I’ll give Voyager a go and see how it is.

Might be a hold over from Reddit is Fun but I can’t say I’m keen on the way the voting is displayed there. Seems to take up too much real estate maybe?

Either way, I’m not a fan of colouring certain text or the lines dividing each post. Both these things make is too busy for my taste.

Then again, maybe I’m just bland.

Here’s what posts look like in my compact configuration of Jerboa:

I’ve been using Jerboa for that reason. Condensed information so I’m not constantly scrolling.

What’s Connect look like for you?

It is quite annoying. Samsung has trimmed up their bloat and strange customizations over the years, but some things are still incorrect as far as I see them.

NetGuard can manage network access on a per app basis but it uses the VPN function to do so, while not actually being a VPN service. Sadly this means I can’t be using an on-device VPN at the same time as turning off app data.

Annoying compromise.

Unfortunately disabling network access entirely isn’t a universal feature.