There is RCS the standard, which isn’t really used - maybe Apple’s support will give it a boost. Then there is RCS + proprietary addons that is used, Google iMessage.

We don’t know any details. Google is trumpeting a success and indicating a willingness to assist but it doesn’t really tell us much of what it will look like. Apple is committing to RCS, the industry standard as it is (and I assume will be as I hope it breathes new life into the standard…) and not Google’s current RCS + proprietary bits implementation.

When MS created a Windows Phone YouTube app, Google blocked it with requirements that were either arbitrary (it needs to be HTML5 for example despite iOS and Android apps being native) or impossible to meet. (requiring specific access that Google would not provide)

So while Google framed it as “Microsoft just needs to do X, Y, Z and it’ll be all good!” - sounds good but it intentionally made said requirements impractical or impossible to complete.

Since Google’s been conflating their RCS implementation with RCS the standard, I think it’ll be a funny (if unfortunate) monkey’s-paw result if Apple’s adopts RCS completely as the backup to iMessage but continued carrier and Google implementation fumbling results in no change and the iPhone having to resort to SMS/MMS anyway.

(see: a while back when AT&T’s RCS could only be used between a couple AT&T Samsung phones - but I do hope it’s different this time, I got a group chat I rather take off Instagram.)

It was the next, more feature-rich SMS/MMS. It floundered with carriers, Google flip-flopped several times on messaging and today, it has two forms. Google’s RCS, but I’d liken it more to Google iMessage. And RCS the standard, which Google’s implementation is based on and Apple will be adopting. I am hoping that this is a kick in the butt that everyone needs to actually get on the same page for an SMS successor.

I don’t think Apple will need (or want) to do anything “malicious” since Apple is implementing RCS the standard which between the carriers and Google mismanaging and fragmenting messaging for years - see: X carrier phones can only send RCS messages to X carrier phones, Google’s implementation is not the RCS standard and is partially proprietary - it’ll take a while to get S.S. RCS, The Standard steered right.

I hope Apple’s involvement is ironically a kick in the butt to get everyone on the same page and get a standard rather than the current “Google iMessage” solution.

Edit: Typo

Oh that’d be nice but since no more SMS in Signal I can’t see it going back in (unless they reversed course?)

When you say “couch” my first thought is a recent-ish Celeron or Pentium Silver fanless laptop. Performance akin to a Core 2 Duo but no fan to get blocked sitting on the couch. Like the Latitude 3210(?)

Laptops that appeal to me are often bottom breathers so it’s one thing I miss from my old MB Air.

[cries in seeing how people treat ROM maintainers]

Neat! Is that in AOSP, Google Messages, one of the OEMs, just an option in whatever third-party app you use?

I’m wondering if breaking major app updates outside of OS updates then means new features are less visible.

I’ve been firmly in iPhone-land quite a while and dabbled only a bit since my phone-switching days so my current perspective will be possibly dated and definitely from someone on the outside, casually following what’s new in Android but I did have a great time bouncing between platforms back in the day. (RIP webOS, BB10 and Windows Phone)

I had a Moto Z Play back in the day (that battery life but like that and the Priv it replaced, a bit big for my taste) and I ditched it when a then-critical feature to me: “Ok Google with Screen Off” was removed around the time Google Assistant and the Pixel 1 was rolling out. It was a Play Services and/or Assistant/Google Now update that removed the option from settings, I uninstalled them to keep it temporarily and when I looked it up, all I could find was a curt official “the feature is not supported” response on some support board. I knew the Snagdragon-whatever chipset it had supported it, and I was using it just fine in the past - it felt like gaslighting, I saw people throwing around the “your battery life would suffer” excuse or that it was never supported despite it being the time when chipset support for hotwords when sleeping like Hey Cortana, Hey Siri were a notable feature and the Z Play had it.

Imagine my reaction when I see that feature being advertised as a Pixel exclusive(? At least it was advertised as a Pixel feature) so that was it.

in hindsight, Google’s shenanigans to promote their own in-house projects over Android as a whole seems pretty in-character now. Even as iOS features aren’t as big like “ooo iOS’s facsimile of multitasking!” there’s still the “that’s neat” or small QoL moments coming out like auto-deleting 2FA texts when they’re used. And I just don’t seem to see any of that in recent releases. I saw “AI color themes!” and a new time layout? and I’m not shortchanging the features already there like holding volume down to mute, but it just feels like they’ve decided base Android is good enough and slowed down or stopped in favor of figuring out whatever exclusive Pixel features and what to keep from the non-Pros.

But with the move of so many things to Play Services, are features still coming out that way outside of the usual point release?

You’d have to check, my personal X1 Extreme Gen 4 has the toggle but my new work T14 Gen 3 does not.

I’m sure you tried but the definitive option would be a BIOS switch to change it. Sometimes is says S3, sometimes it says Linux sleep (like my personal ThinkPad)

But if you don’t have that toggle at all, the firmware probably dumped S3 entirely - especially if it’s a relatively new machine and you’ll have to lean much more on Hibernate like my new work ThinkPad.

I would investigate whether an older BIOS version still has the S3 toggle since some BIOS updates have removed S3 I believe but a search of forums would probably turn up enough complaints to hit your radar.

Results may vary but you can always plug it back in after testing.

Toyota’s have no negative effects beyond obviously no cellular functions and the microphone ceasing to work.

I recommend figuring out what the opt-out procedure is too. If I ended up with a Toyota, calling in via the SOS button will start the process of disconnecting the system.

Also note that some may have 3G radios, etc. which are already defunct.

Edit: Fixed typo

Well… I guess it beats their treatment of Windows Phone 7 models.

Reminiscing how Google Now and Cortana were in their prime breaks my heart. Siri on the other hand hasn’t gotten worse from what I can tell, but where’s the improvement?

Honestly in the Age of Enshittification I’ll settle for not getting worse, but I rather not.

Not an exact answer but I use Photosync to upload to my PC when on a shared network. It supports a number of protocols so I would see if it can connect to your server.

Windows’s achilles heel is arguably its chief benefit - legacy compatibility and being the de facto platform for applications.

Back when I had a Surface RT, I thought it was awfully neat, ARM-compiled versions of Office, IE, Windows 8.x bits ran well and it was fanless with fine battery life. (although I surely sound weird, I had a Windows Phone back then too and the syncing with IE on both was a nice feature) It’s just they were pushing the Store then and if you jailbroke it, ARM applications were rare.

Apple is a pro at architecture transitions and can steer the whole ship, MS can put Windows on ARM all they want but OEM’s will be reluctant since it’ll be a relatively big risk to sell a “Windows, buuut…” computer and the popular closed-source applications probably won’t bother with ARM for a while

Man, I remember buying a Linux Format(?) magazine once and breaking out the included 7.10 CD.

Later distros I messed with I remember waiting hours for those few hundred MB to download on my parent’s DSL connection, oh how times have changed!

Got my iPhone 8 display replaced at a Ubreakifix and it came back with the Photos app open so not trusting them again.

Aftermarket display couldn’t keep up with my typing speed either and kept dropping letters.

Wish parts availability was better.

I ditched it after it dropped the operators like quotes, “OR”, “AND”, and “-” which hampers it’s usefulness to me.