Every photocopy machine I’ve come across that accept USB sticks do not support exFAT, so what I would do with my USB stick is to split it into two partitions, one FAT32 and the rest exFAT.

Or they’re just trying to push Chromecast instead

It still works well enough though?

WHY? It’s one of the reasons why I like Pixel cameras?!

Yeah, but my point was about the timing. P8 just launched, and review embargo is dropping in a few days, everyone’s eyes are on the Pixel already. Samsung S23 FE launched on the same day and no one gives a shit. Leaks for P8a right now are just not productive compared to leaks about the performance, camera quality, etc on the P8/P8P.

Isn’t longer software support actually something that might decrease hardware sales, rather than increase them?

Apple already has a track record of supporting their old phones for 5+ years, yet they still make loads of money every year on iPhone sales. So while it may seem to lead to lower hardware sales in the long run, I don’t think it necessarily means lower profit.

It might have benefits for google, if more phones are consistently running the newest version.

Good point.

Do you see a future where Google makes Tensor chips available on other phones? It would probably be inevitable if the Pixel line goes in the graveyard, but for now, I don’t really know. Might piss off chip designers like Qualcomm and Mediatek except maybe Samsung.
I could see Tensor be the next evolution in Samsung Exynos chips since Tensor is derived from Exynos, so the first phones outside of Google to use their chips may be Samsung phones if it ever comes true.

Microsoft and the Surface line is not a great comparison imo, since their hardware specs aren’t exactly unique, and every feature Windows has on Surface is the exact same on other brand laptops; while Pixel devices have Android features exclusive to them and not on any other Android phones.

If Google wants to sell Android/Google services and not just Pixel, wouldn’t it be better to trickle down more features to mainline Android? Currently, the only previously Pixel-exclusive feature that is now available on any Google One subscription (that I know of) is Magic Eraser. Plus, Google now developing their own SoC and promising 7 years of software support for their hardware, means that they probably do care about hardware. (And we all know where Google products end up if they don’t care enough about it)
Though admittedly I’m not a business analyzer, and I still need to sit on this question a bit to conclude my thoughts (problems include how Google would be able to put Pixel features into the hands of other phone manufacturers to improve Android). Appreciate the answer anyways.

For the past few months if people were to say the P8 leaks were from Google to drive up hype, I would have believed them. But at this point, I just convinced that Google is just plain incompetent in keeping products under cover.
P8 and P8P are on preorder now, and Google would very much want all the hype and leaks to point to their upcoming higher-priced products to drive up preorder sales, and not a lower-priced product that would not be coming out yet in months, and may or may not be competing with the base model P8 for its value after the review embargo for the P8 drops. Putting out leaks intentionally for the P8a is just stupid at this point and time imo. Can anyone convince me why this would be a good idea?

Can’t deny that. It’s quite absurd a company big as Sony can’t deliver the same software support as others. Though what I meant by customer support are the availability of stores, accessories, customer online/phone/in store support, repairs, 3rd party repairs and such.
Like, if your battery went bad or the screen cracked and need a replacement, it’s probably easier to find a replacement for Sony phones than Sharp ones. I think to some extent, that is more important than software updates.

Sharp is a way less known phone brand here in Taiwan. For the price of the regular, you could get the Xiaomi 13 or a Galaxy S23, and for the price of the pro you could straight up get the Xperia 1 V. All of the phones above would probably also have better customer support than Sharp.

And then factor in that it needs a team to maintain it, to prevent future compatibility issues or vulnerabilities, which is also expensive.

You forgot “extremely niche” in that sentence.
Throughout the video he has been emphasizing that this feature is only probably going to appeal to only a handful of people who wants it. He also mentions that the crypto value the phone carries has been tanking for a while, and tells the majority of people to buy other 600 dollar phones rather than this.

They bought the capacity for 2023, not 2024

Good friends tolerate, the friends you actually need criticise.

Core difference is that you subscribe to each channel individually, kinda like Patreon, instead of the Nebula model where you pay one fee and have access to every creator on there.

What started as a few friends dicking around together, RT grew to be one of the giants in the YouTube space (probably still is). A lot of the edgy humor that flew with the team and also the fans in the 2010s but generally not accepted now, stayed with them as they grew bigger. There were multiple allegations of sexual harassments, racism, and not to mention the Adam Kovic/Ryan Haywood stuff.

Come to think of it, not much controversy has been popping up from them lately. Maybe it’s because I don’t really watch their content anymore, or they have actually improved their work culture since then.

Okay.

First off, afaik, they never advertised “lifetime” warranty nor software support on their website.

Secondly, as I told you in the previous comment already, you can still use the product as is! This is no different from phone manufacturers dropping software support after 2 or 5+ years. Not to mention this probably only affects hardware that are older than 2009. That’s over 10 years of software support already. Granted they could have reuploaded a version without the AAC codec, but still.

Third, looking at Via’s AAC FAQ, license fees are due on “per unit” sale, and the term of the license is five years, with additional five years renewal. There never was a lifetime license for it. The same goes for every single hardware/software sold that has AAC encoder/decoder built in. So if your actual issue is with that, take it up on Via and the patent holders, and start using foss audio codecs like OGG Vorbis or FLAC.

Well if you’re aware of it, why continue misinforming people with a video he retracted? You’re still using the device as is. They aren’t retroactively deleting functionality off of your device after support ends. The license issue just means that they cannot legally distribute legacy software from their website anymore. AFAIK, Synology emailed their customers informing them ahead of time to download the image before they had to take it down, I think they did what they could have done already.

The original licensing problem in question was about the AAC codec, which as you probably know, is practically in every device we use and are in use daily. So until another open codec becomes the norm, or until all the patents expire in 2031, there probably will still be cases like this popping up from time to time.

FYI, he posted an apology video not long after that saying he jumped the gun, and that Synology had to remove the software not because they wanted to, but because some parts of their software were licensed and expired. Video link

Good to know. Thanks!