Generously, people who were 14-16yo when Trump’s first term ended and weren’t fully aware of what was going on at the time.

Realistically, a large portion of ‘mainstream’ Republicans embarrassed by what the GOP has become - but still not certain if they can go against decades of Fox News programming and vote for a shudders Democrat.

Well, at least you can expect it to be a long supported, overpriced accessory! 🤣

If/when it happens, so be it - I’ll eat crow. But for the time being, Apple at least has long set/surpassed the standard for support lifetimes.

At some point, you just have to have a little bit of faith that not every company is going to immediately screw you over the first chance they get; otherwise you’ll never end up buying anything (new or otherwise), with the fear that the moment you do - they’ll drop support.

I mean, some companies do deserve that level of scepticism - but honestly, for all their other faults Apple is not one of them.

There are a lot of legitimate reasons to hate on Apple, but not supporting their products long-term is not one of them.

Eventually they stop providing new OS updates, but they don’t brick/abandon devices.

Hell, I turned on my old iPhone 5 recently for the first time in over a decade and it happily connected to Apple’s servers and updated to the last supported OS version.

Even now that my Apple Watch isn’t receiving any more major OS updates, it can still interact with my up-to-date iPhone 14 without any issues.

I’m still using an Apple Watch 3 that I got in a bundle with my iPhone X from my telco.

I need to charge it twice a day for ~30 minutes each, but it’s still chugging along.

I think I’ll finally upgrade to the new generation this year, but at that point it will be 7 years old - which is commendable for tech.

Wait, isn’t this just the plot of that Sam* Rockwell movie - Moon?

In general, I would love for any OEM to step in and provide similar build quality to a Mac… doesn’t even have to be Lenovo (who IMO are a pale imitation of IBM’s line of laptops).

You likely just need to enable TPM through the BIOS (each manufacturer calls it something different).

I’m in a similar boat, but am going to use W10 EOL to probably jump ship to Linux - if not at the very least switch to Windows 10 LTSC.

Trump’s anti-China stance is largely performative, and mostly self-defeating; think domestic tariffs etc.

Sure, that may hurt China’s export potential to the US - but it’s a price the CCP is gambling would pay off in the long-term as Trump’s isolationist stance would weaken regional allies spheres of influence, and provide China the ability to step in and fill the vacuum (best case) or further invade territories they deem theirs (Taiwan, islands within the 9 dashes - worst case).

In situations like this, it’s very much better to side with the devil you know.

Consider a Jack Russell Terrier, they need decent amounts of exercise but make great companions!

Probably because BYD recently overtook Tesla as the world’s largest EV manufacturer.

If/when that realisation hits Wall Street, Tesla shares are going to take a massive hit.

Do yourself a favour and switch to using a video game console, Apple TV or if you’re more technical my inclined - a HTPC.

Manufacturers have been getting increasingly nosey with their data collection policies, as well as inserting additional adds after the fact.

And can guarantee that in all circumstances, both the software and hardware will be infinitely better built, supported and more reliable.

Disclaimers; I’m not American, and would be considered pretty left-leaning by their standards… but:

A nation should get to decide who can enter and stay (either by visa, or by agreement - eg. Schengen); this entire ‘illegal immigration’ issue has been intentionally perpetrated by both sides for political gain, at the cost of the lives and well-beings of those affected.

Razor-wire fences, and sanctuary cities are both terrible policies, that show the total callousness of the American political system.

Ultimately, with strict border policy enforcement - those that currently profit the most from undocumented labour will be the ones to suffer, and would likely push for increased/streamlined legal migration of desired labour, with the added benefit of increased wages for local residents.

Australia experienced something similar in our agricultural sector during the COVID lockdowns, where the limited labour-force became a highly sought after commodity, given that the dodgier farms were no longer able to exploit backpackers for slave wages. Companies that had previously been paying award wages (basically minimum wage - equivalent to ~$15 USD/hr) or lower, not had to offer up to 50% more during peak harvest seasons in order to not have their fields go to rot.

At the end of the day, hard-working labour made significantly more money - at a relatively low cost to the end-user.

This almost feels like they’re name-dropping Apple Pay and Google Pay to mask the fact that this is more aimed towards embedded payment systems like WeChat (along with AliPay and whatever hot garbage Musk intends to add to Xitter)?