13 ms·

The tech monoculture is finally breaking

• BeetleB 9mo ago
  > A Timex ad went viral this year: “Know the time without seeing you have 1,249 unanswered emails.” Having to micromanage notifications is why I have two phones - one without a SIM card. It's nice to be able to do stuff on the phone and know it won't bug you. I simply put the one with the SIM card elsewhere (other room, leave in car, etc). No - I'm not going to spend too much time learning how to "effectively" manage notifications on a smartphone (and if I do, have it change on me with some future update). I've been saying it since around 2004-2005 - even before smartphones - that consolidating everything into one device is a bad idea. One thing I really miss from the 80's and 90's: When you buy a product (hardware or software), its features and capabilities were stable. You never had to worry about some update changing the behavior on you. I really like some of the health features on Apple Watch. But I won't buy it because I don't want it to be my watch, and I don't want to pair my Apple account with it. I just want the health features and nothing else.
  • Forgeties79 9mo ago
    The refurbished pebble has been perfect for my iPhone. The more limited functionality is exactly what I want. It tells me if someone is calling, but I can’t answer on it. It displays calendar notifications/reminders. It doesn’t do social media, it doesn’t text, it is just a glorified beeper and fun little gadget basically.
  • netdevphoenix 9mo ago
    > Having to micromanage notifications is why I have two phones - one without a SIM card. It's nice to be able to do stuff on the phone and know it won't bug you. I simply put the one with the SIM card elsewhere (other room, leave in car, etc). A lot of the Graphene/modscene folks use two phones (one cert and with minimal apps and the modded phone). I think it will become more popular with techies unless google goes fully closed source
  • cj 9mo ago
    My strategy here is to default notifications off for everything other than calls and texts. And then manually open Gmail to check mail, manually open Instagram when I feel like checking notifications, etc. It’s such a better experience when you’re opening an app because you want to, and not because a notification is baiting you.
    • ghaff 9mo ago
      I actually have an Apple Watch that I mostly use for hiking. I just use a $30 Timex most of the time that I don't need to charge.
      • Lapsa 9mo ago
        there's a big yellow clock up in the sky and if there isn't - you should be sleeping anyway
        • ghaff 9mo ago
          The yellow clock in the sky doesn't have GPS/mileage indicators :-)
        • deleted 9mo ago
          [deleted]
    • BeetleB 9mo ago
      iOS or Android? Can you default it to off and not have any popups (during run/install) asking you to enable permissions to notify? Or do you have to decline once per app?
      • cj 9mo ago
        iOS. Do a 1 time clean up by manually turning everything off. And then decline for every app you install after that. I can’t believe I used to be one of those people who got every single email delivered to their smart watch.
  • netsharc 9mo ago
    > You never had to worry about some update changing the behavior on you. The most WTF thing was when Airpods got a firmware update that worsened the noise cancellation, because some patent troll sued them saying it violated some patent...
  • onetimeusename 9mo ago
    Adding on to this I think it's bizarre how you need to have a phone to navigate life now and corporations just assume you have one. So for example, using QR codes to gain entry to things. It's weird to think about how we all carry around this expensive computer and think nothing of it. It's like when we laugh about how people in the Middle Ages carried a personal knife for eating because hosts wouldn't supply you with a knife. The knives even came in more fancy and expensive versions for the rich kind of like the Android/iPhone divide. I wonder if historians will talk about these phones in the future.
    • BeetleB 9mo ago
      > Adding on to this I think it's bizarre how you need to have a phone to navigate life now and corporations just assume you have one. I have a VoIP phone line from 2004. I was told yesterday that it was showing up as "Spam" on someone's phone. Sigh. Also, for 2FA, some services allow phone calls. So I put in the VoIP line and not my cell phone. At some point, any given service switches to text-only for 2FA - but they don't notify me in advance and I'm locked out for good. Even worse, some 2FA that allow phone calls just will not call my VoIP line. No warnings, etc. But if I put my mobile number it calls. And QR codes for menus? I try not to eat at such establishments. Paper is cheap. I don't need a fancy menu. If you change your prices, just print new ones.
  • at1as 9mo ago
    > I really like some of the health features on Apple Watch. But I won't buy it because I don't want it to be my watch, and I don't want to pair my Apple account with it. I just want the health features and nothing else. I use an Oura ring because of this. I want 1) no notifications 2) passive health monitoring 3) no subscription I was early enough to be grandfathered into no subscription. The app itself gets worse all the time as they try to do provide higher level guidance and make the data harder to see. But it still serves its purpose. If I had to pay the monthly subscription I might would probably forgo the category altogether.
  • alfiedotwtf 9mo ago
    > One thing I really miss from the 80's and 90's: When you buy a product (hardware or software), its features and capabilities were stable The complete opposite to this is Apple’s new UI for the iPhone. It’s so damn buggy I thought I accidentally clicked on Beta Testing! … this has to be THE worst update thing they’ve pushed since forcing everyone to listen to U2
  • lastofthemojito 9mo ago
    > I really like some of the health features on Apple Watch. But I won't buy it because I don't want it to be my watch, and I don't want to pair my Apple account with it. I just want the health features and nothing else. I agree with a lot of what you said, but isn't it wild to think that such a limited device would likely be more expensive than the do-everything Apple Watch that includes the health features among a myriad of others? Selling perhaps in the thousands instead of the zillions, the development costs would be amortized over such a small user base it would be an incredibly niche product. It often falls to us techies to figure out if we can hack an acceptable solution out of the affordable mainstream product.
  • nine_k 9mo ago
    Android makes it really easy to disable notifications from any app. Pull down the notifications list, long press, select "Turn off" (or "Settings" if you want more details). It's also possible to make an Android device ask for every permission, including notifications, when a new app is installed. So it's also easy to deny most apps access to notifications, address book, camera, etc. I think it's the default on current Samsung phones, for instance.
    • BeetleB 9mo ago
      Yes, and this is a headache for me. What I want: In global settings, say "No notifications." Then I don't want to be prompted when I install an app.
  • duxup 9mo ago
    Ironically, or not. I bought an apple watch so that I could ignore my phone. It works for me. I know whatever is on my phone will be there when I get back to it and in the meantime I know if I'm getting an urgent message or not.
  • kakacik 9mo ago
    Yeah that ship has sailed. A colleague recently reverted back to physical watches, dissing apple's watches as annoying cheap bit of plastics. He prefers his timex, rolex etc. which give you feeling on wrist no smart watch will ever do. He is an extreme minority in current world.
  • deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
• OGEnthusiast 9mo ago
  Tech was probably the most fun for me in the mid to late 2000s. Definitely a lot more fun than whatever the tech industry has become now in 2026.
  • Yhippa 9mo ago
    Everything now has to be fully vetted before trying it as opposed to making something weird and quirky. Sad! I miss those days.
  • __loam 9mo ago
    Tech is being run by ignorant financiers and college dropouts who don't understand institutional knowledge or technology.
    • netsharc 9mo ago
      It was hackers building crazy stuff (Steve Woz' book detailed how he built one of the company's first computers, and he knew what every logic gate in it did) and then some people realized there's money to be made... Any "founders" out there showing off their vibe-coded SaaS with money from their FAANG career that they got after finishing the bootcamp course? (I mock, as the inner voice asks "You had the talent, why aren't you in the 2 commas club?")
  • watermelon0 9mo ago
    I'd generally agree, but 3D printer mentioned in the blog post is probably one thing that I'd wish to have back then.
  • acheron 9mo ago
    Nah things were already going to shit then. Sure it kept getting worse, but that was well on the downslope.
• ActorNightly 9mo ago
  In my experience, people who "invest" in fancy watches usually have nothing of value to say. Same goes for people that buy supercars to drive on the street.
  • deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
  • at1as 9mo ago
    If it's the latter point from the purchase list that raised your ire, I've only ever purchased watches for fun. And that list would be a Hamilton Murph (the watch from Intersteller). Gifted to me, but < $1000 A Mondaine purchased from a Swiss railway station ($400) Not strictly mechanical, but a Casio A168WA, purchased in Tokyo ($25) Disagreements on the article are most welcome (and encouraged!), but should probably stick to content therein.
• sumuyuda 9mo ago
  > Antitrust pressure has slowed consolidation, opened app distribution, killed the anti-competitive iMessage and AirDrop moats iMessage is still only available on Apple hardware. Apple’s malicious compliance has made developing apps for third party app stores a no-go. I have AltStore installed but there are no apps worth installing.
  • at1as 9mo ago
    > iMessage is still only available on Apple hardware. Yes, but I think the pressure is external. RCS brings many iMessage capabilities cross platform. As adoption increases I think the power and influence of iMessage will wane.
    • direwolf20 9mo ago
      RCS is Google's iMessage with the same vendor locking — not actually cross-platform.
      • at1as 9mo ago
        RCS is an open standard that Apple now uses as well. I think there's a legitimate concern about having essentially two phone platforms, and how anything can really be "open" in that environment. But it's definitely a step forward. And Google has built proprietary things on top of the standard, which is indeed concerning.
        • direwolf20 9mo ago
          It requires you to have a whitelisted private key to make devices that use RCS
        • NoGravitas 9mo ago
          "Open" is an overstatement when it comes to RCS. You can't go out and write a new RCS client for Android, and you can't provide RCS on a new platform (or even unGoogled Android). It's open to the extent that both Google and Apple can use it; other major hardware vendors and carriers could, but don't (Samsung used to, and dropped it earlier this year).
• torlok 9mo ago
  What a weird techno-optimist blog post, full of cherry-picked examples, with a twist of consumerism. Refreshing take in a sea of nihilism, but saying people are interested in Pokémon and N64 games again when it's mostly post-NFT "everything is an investment" mentality is cute in its naivety.
  • mwigdahl 9mo ago
    It was the "growth of Linux on the desktop" that broke my suspension of disbelief. If there was going to be any year where Linux made strong gains it should have been 2025 with the forced retirement of the "forever OS" Windows 10. But the needle barely moved at all. The author paints a nice picture but there's a lot of wishful thinking and projection there.
    • at1as 9mo ago
      Steam is continuing to make it easier to leave Windows for gamers. And my comment about desktop usage is based on these projections: https://www.webpronews.com/linux-breaks-5-desktop-share-in-u-s-signaling-open-source-surge-against-windows-and-macos/ https://www.webpronews.com/linux-breaks-5-desktop-share-in-u...
    • mikkupikku 9mo ago
      Every time a new version of Windows drops there are legions of Windows users who say this is the final straw, they're keeping their old version until the updates stop then they'll use Linux. And every time that doesn't happen, they just keep going back to Microsoft like it's some sort of domestic violence situation. Their standards forever dropping, getting slow boiled like an apocryphal frog. I've seen this repeating over and over for the past 20 years at least. At this point I don't even have sympathy for Windows users. They choose their lot.
      • atomicUpdate 9mo ago
        > Their standards forever dropping And yet their standards still haven’t dropped low enough for Linux to be an acceptable replacement. I don’t think that’s a knock on the Windows user, but an indication that Linux desktop (and its replacement applications) still isn’t user-friendly enough for most people.
• biophysboy 9mo ago
  My ideal situation is that AI becomes commoditized so much that it yields relatively little value for the producers and an incredible amount of value for the consumers. I don't really expect the prices to be this cheap for much longer, but my hope is that the seeds for the next generation of tech have already been sown. It would be cool if software becomes so mundane and interchangeable that tech once again distinguishes itself with hardware.
  • NitpickLawyer 9mo ago
    > I don't really expect the prices to be this cheap for much longer Open models are a great proxy (and scare tactic) to what we can expect. As they are already released, and won't change, you'll get basically the same capabilities in the future for current or decreasing cost (with normal hardware improvements trends). The current SotA for open models (dsv3, glm, minimax, devstral, etc) are at or above the mini versions of top labs (haikus, -mini, etc). With the exception of gemini 3.0-flash I would say. So, barring any black swan events in Taiwan, we can expect to be enough pressure to keep the prices at those points, or lower in the future. And we can expect the trend of open to chase top labs to continue. The biggest "gain" from open models is that they can't go backward. We can only stagnate or improve, on all fronts (capabilities, sizes, cost, etc).
    • biophysboy 9mo ago
      Good points. I'm even more optimistic now!
    • _DeadFred_ 9mo ago
      I would love to see local libraries offering access to their AI models (whatever those might be). I think it can fit with their function and really serve the local community in the future. Plus it would be cool to have deeper knowledge of AI distributed to someone in every community (the person maintaining the local setup).
    • imiric 9mo ago
      I would like to live in a world where open source (not just open weights) models dominate the landscape, but I don't see that happening. The moat is not the quality of the models, but the compute. Any open model that consumers can run will pale in performance compared to SOTA commercially hosted models. There's just no comparison. The really big open models (e.g. DeepSeek, Kimi K2) are much closer, but they're not accessible to most consumers, who still have to rely on companies to provide them. Maybe this will change one day, but considering how this industry is artificially inflating the cost of hardware, I wouldn't bet on that happening anytime soon. In the meantime, mega-corporations are building out increasingly larger datacenters to meet the demand, and the moat grows.
• Havoc 9mo ago
  What the author describes seems to be more specific examples in his/her circle rather than a wider movement I’d say. The walled gardens are imo getting worse. And opting out (dumb phone) isn’t the same thing as that dissolving. That said I’m also cautiously optimistic in some areas. Linux on desktop in particular is on a good streak. Riscv seems promising. More people are understanding lock in risk etc.
  • packetlost 9mo ago
    The regulation that I wish would happen that never will is user data sovereignty laws. It's obnoxious that there's not a way to back up my phone to my NAS.
  • jayw_lead 9mo ago
    > The walled gardens are imo getting worse But isn't Apple (the most egregious example IMO) losing a slew of cases in many jurisdictions (not just EU)? I think the consensus is very much that they've overplayed their hand and the bill is coming due
    • Havoc 9mo ago
      Various player are getting slapped with fines but haven’t seen much sign of it having effect. Think the fines need more zeros - especially if the behaviour is egregious
• paganel 9mo ago
  > Looking at my own purchases from 2025, the pattern becomes obviou As far as I can tell he's among the techies that purchase a lot of e-junk each and every year, no matter the circumstances, not sure of how that's an improvement on anything.
  • at1as 9mo ago
    Sort of the opposite, I've found everything uninspiring for the last decade or so and have rarely purchased anything, and when I have it's basically been Apple. The below purchases are all durable things that should last at least 5 years. An E-Junk list would be riddled with IOT, and devices that forcibly ratcheted tech in ("smart water bottle", etc). The Leica, Matic and Kindle replace 10+ year old devices. The Oura replaces itself, with a heavily diminished battery. The hard drive replaces something barely half the size. The Android is to create a minimal distraction device with only select apps, while slowly weening myself out of the Apple ecosystem stranglehold. The TRMNL is a side-project, to build some custom code for. The Bambu is used for hobby projects at least weekly and frankly should have been purchased years ago. The ASUS was a misadventure back into dual boot Windows / Linux after 15 years on Mac. Demoted from a CUDA dev machine to general use second computer. The Ray Ban Metas only really make an appearance when I travel, but when I do, I'm very glad to have them. Provides a very different perspective than a handheld camera or smartphone, especially in dense areas (walking through crowded outdoor markets, etc)
• MarkusWandel 9mo ago
  I'm not sure I agree with all of that - that single-purpose tech is making a real comeback. But I do have one example in my daily life that supports this: A Garmin watch. Unlike "full" smartwatches (arbitrarily defined as: You can browse the web on them in some fashion) Garmin devices are intentionally limited but in return, what they do works very well and seems fully debugged. I spent several years recording outdoor activities with the Strava app on my phone, and always there was about a 1% failure rate where for one reason or another, the GPS trace was interrupted or corrupted. With the Garmin watch this simply doesn't happen. If it's recording, the recording is good, period. It is that, that has somehow been lost. That devices that just do one thing and do it well have been replaced by apps on a device that, in the modern software fashion, are "mostly" debugged, get constant updates that may or may not remove bugs (or features!) and usually don't add anything useful. One app got an update which, on my lower-end phone, changed it from crisply responsive to incredibly slow (5+ second response time to a tap). It worked fine before.
  • observationist 9mo ago
    I've started to realize of late that a vast majority of tech is "making things and services that maximize the amount of money taken out of customer wallets" and not "making cool technology that works". They have just as much pride and put just as much care and craft into squeezing money out of consumers as developers and engineers put into their projects. This creates a market where quality and craftsmanship and customer service reduce competitiveness and eat into profits. We've empowered and optimized a market for the enshittifiers, and they're damn good at what they do.
    • xvector 9mo ago
      Tech hiring has shifted dramatically. It used to be people genuinely interested in, and passionate about technology. Top companies used to filter for this as well. Now it's just anyone that wants a big paycheck. And the culture shift is reflected in the products.
      • observationist 9mo ago
• Yhippa 9mo ago
  I hope he's right! I'm terrified that like 4 companies own my entire life now. I do love the movement back to analog single-purpose devices. Would be neat if they had just enough tech to make them useful but not weaponized against me. As an aside, can they bring back Symbian OS and Windows Phone?
• kens 9mo ago
  In the article, he lists his 14 major electronics purchases for 2025 along with "more mechanical watches than I can count". Serious question: is this a normal level of acquisition? I'm not a minimalist, but that's more electronics than I buy in a decade.
  • mikkupikku 9mo ago
    Probably once you're buying stuff that often, you have so much stuff that you forget what you already have and end up buying even more.
    • at1as 9mo ago
      Some of these are simplifications. Instead of upgrading my 12 year old Canon 6D to the mirrorless ecosystem with all its lenses, I opted for a single handheled camera. In other cases, I bought alternative devices instead of upgrading within the same platform (my Mac and iPhone are both 5 years old). The alternatives turned out not be compelling enough to fully switch to, but found a niche as purpose driven devices. In many cases distraction free devices. In some cases, the super upgrade cycle was driven by a desire to finally stop carrying a microUSB cable with me when I travel. As for the mechanical watches, yes I have too many.
  • pelagicAustral 9mo ago
    I can certainly relate to the mechanical watches. There is a certain beauty behind timepieces that makes them so alluring to me. It is the only thing I can effortlessly buy in the knowing that I am hoarding. I do feel guilty sometimes, but not often.
  • BeetleB 9mo ago
    He likely has good money, or just decided on a shopping spree and won't buy much in the next few years.
  • at1as 9mo ago
    It's a combination of a few things, and actually uncharacteristic of me. Many of these purchases are replacements for 10+ year old devices (a Canon 6D, an absolutely brain-dead iRobot, a smaller hard drive that finally filled up, etc.). I’ve made very few tech purchases over the past several years. Part of that was a general lack of inspiration inside Apple’s ecosystem stranglehold, and I tend to hold onto their hardware for a long time anyway (I’m hoping to skip from M1 straight to M6 or later) A desire to spend less time purely in the software domain. Hardware can be fun. I originally studied electrical engineering but ended up spending all of my career in software; the 3D printer ties into a few side projects I’m working on, with mixed success. A preference for narrow, purpose-driven devices. I now use the Android phone for "serious" things with minimal distractions, and the iPhone for everything else. And if Apple or Google ever become untenable, I have some optionality (and this is my first non-Apple phone since my Blackberry). The programmable lights seemed kind of unavoidable. If you want lighting where you can change the color, the bundled software and ecosystem bloat is largely unavoidable. The mechanical watches are tied to travel and circumstance: a Casio from Japan, a Mondaine from Switzerland, and the Interstellar Hamilton Murph as a gift. I’d honestly be happy with two or three watches, but they have a way of finding me. I do tend to match watch to outfit color, which admittedly opens the door for a few more options.
• MORPHOICES 9mo ago
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• sylens 9mo ago
  I think the author is correct to a point but I don't believe the examples they've chosen provide the best support for their case. Gen Z buying iPods and people buying N64 games again is not evidence of the monoculture breaking apart - it's a retreat into the past for the enlightened few because their needs are not being met by modern goods and services. You cannot buy a dedicated MP3 player today with the software polish and quality of life that an iPod had in the early 2000s (or even a Zune). Instead, I see the growth and momentum behind Linux and self-hosting as better evidence that change is afoot.
  • hshdhdhj4444 9mo ago
    Yeah, the author’s examples point to nostalgia-core, kind of like why Stranger Things is so popular. They’re not evidence for the tech monopoly breaking.
    • reaperducer 9mo ago
      As pointed out by Saturday Night Live, Stranger Things is the new Star Wars.
  • echelon 9mo ago
    > growth and momentum behind Linux and self-hosting as better evidence that change is afoot. Linux is still not user friendly enough. Products from two decades ago are more user friendly than modern "mainstream" disros. Look at Matrix and other OSS that wants to be mainstream. It's got awful UI/UX. And it's never taken off. Gimp is an ugly beast with a bad name. Nobody's using that unless they're a Linux nerd. I do see lots of people building retro game collections. Analogue 3D was a huge hit. Massive demand. It's sold out instantly five times. Palmer Luckey has a company building a similar product, and that's also sold out. The clothing stores sell cassette tapes and vinyl. iPod and Zune are venerated. My wife is Gen Z and into mainstream culture. She's all about retro. Polaroid, Instax, 2000's era digital cameras. The low end consumer digital camera I bought for $100 or so in 2004 is now selling for more than that. These things are wildly popular. They're even hunting down old disposable one-use film cameras to pop off the lenses. In any case, my wife knows this stuff. She doesn't know what Linux is.
• bcherry 9mo ago
  This isn't really the author's point, but I think one effect of AI and the forthcoming robotics revolution will be the unrolling of a lot of consolidated supply chains for all sorts of products. It could usher in a renewed era of bespoke products. For instance, when the cost of building a new (good) app goes to zero, it becomes economical to make a great app for a narrow niche, with a skeleton staff (maybe just one) and no VC money. And this can happen thousands of times over. Robotics could open up bespoke local supply chains even beyond what's possible with a 3D printer today. For instance, if you had an actually dextrous humanoid robot "living" in your home, why wouldn't you have it just make all of your clothes? You could have any fabric, any style, exactly the right size. And only for the cost of materials (assuming you already own or lease the robot itself). I do think the author is right in the big picture - the future will be more fun.
• deadbabe 9mo ago
  The reason retro tech is fun now is because no one is making more of it, and the retro tech is as advanced as it could be without being ruined by enshittification and planned obsolescence. Every old piece of tech you come across is now a relic, rich in lore and history, and sometimes mystery when there are few people around who understand how it works anymore. These old devices are no longer things you just buy from a big corp, you have to find them in a pile of junk somewhere or trade a bit of money for it from some person, and on top of that the condition of the devices vary greatly, they are not fungible. This hunt for old tech feels very post-apocalyptic at times. People will also look for creative ways to upgrade old tech and implement some quality of life improvements, doing things the original creators never thought of, or were simply limited by the technologies of their times. The result is much more variety in devices, no more homogeneous products. And this effect will only get more pronounced as time goes on. Consider that in the year 2077, a humble N64 could be something sacred, handed down through many generations, each leaving their mark on the device, and people developing their own homebrewed games motivated more by fun than capitalistic ambition, or just pushing the limits of the device.
• imiric 9mo ago
  > Antitrust pressure has slowed consolidation, opened app distribution, killed the anti-competitive iMessage and AirDrop moats, and made big tech cautious about horizontal expansion. Huh? In what reality is this remotely true? It certainly isn't in the one I live in. The Big 6 control all media in the US, and mergers happen all the time (WBD->Netflix->Paramount?). Google owns web search and web browsing; Amazon owns e-commerce; Alphabet and Meta own adtech; Amazon, Microsoft, and Google own cloud computing; etc. All of these companies make frequent acquisitions and expansions. "Antitrust pressure" is just the cost of doing business. What I think the author is referring to are the minor concessions Apple has made in some territories, mainly the EU. And even there, they're using every dirty trick at their disposal to do the absolute bare minimum. Anti-competitive moats are still alive and well, and growing larger. It's curious that the author is positive about "AI", when that is the ultimate moat builder right now. Nobody can basically touch the largest players, since they have the most resources and access to mind-bogglingly large datacenters. What a silly article. I don't understand how anyone can consider the current state of the tech industry "fun". I've been following it for nearly 30 years now, and it has gradually been devolving into a place that's anything but fun. Especially in these last ~5 years. I wish I could be optimistic about the future, but it should be obvious to anyone by now that technology, mostly but not entirely by misuse, is the cause of most of our problems.
  • input_sh 9mo ago
    In the reality called the European Union, where phones already have to ask you to pick the default browser during device setup, and Android specifically has to also ask you to pick a default search engine (Apple doesn't have to because they don't own one). AirDrop and iMessage (and WhatsApp) have already been legally ruled against and forced to open up, but that's not the reality as of yet. It will be in a few years from now. > What I think the author is referring to are the minor concessions Apple has made in some territories, mainly the EU. And even there, they're using every dirty trick at their disposal to do the absolute bare minimum. It's not Apple specifically, not even a little bit. All of this is a consequence of one piece of legislation called the Digital Markets Act and it applies to everyone that is defined as the "digital gatekeeper" according to that piece of legislation, but the exact steps they need to take are not written in the law and are decided on a case-by-case basis. Such malicious compliance tricks are normal on a short timescale, but on a large-enough timescale they get ironed out and we all get to live in a less monopolistic world as a consequence. You can join that reality too! One properly thought out piece of legislation can turn the whole thing around. > Anti-competitive moats are still alive and well, and growing larger. It's curious that the author is positive about "AI", when that is the ultimate moat builder right now. Nobody can basically touch the largest players, since they have the most resources and access to mind-bogglingly large datacenters. If they become large enough to matter, they will also be designated as "digital gatekeepers", and then the steps they need to do to open up will be decided. They are not that large (within the European Union) as of yet.
• Fervicus 9mo ago
  Call me a pessimist, but I don't agree with this blog post at all. The author's views seems a bit biased and narrow based on their social circle perhaps. > VR is no longer experimental Till it has practical everyday uses and is at least semi affordable, I would categorize it as experimental still > Meta shipped a wearable that normal people actually use, thanks to a clever Ray-Ban partnership (and associated equity stake). 3D printers have become real household products. I don't know a single person who actually owns a Meta wearable device or a 3D printer. Isn't Meta actually shifting their focus away from metaverse? > Design matters again. In our devices, and in our lives Design has been forgotten. Just look at your phones and computers and most of the web. All I see around me are people swiping away at their screens (most of the time not using their headphones), getting their fix in bursts of 15 seconds, rinse and repeat. It's getting harder to have fun with tech when you have to deal with things like: * Operating systems that are actively hostile to their users (Windows and OSX). * iPhone and Android being the only 2 choice when it comes to phones (the author did mention this). The chances of getting a 3rd player here seems negligible. * Everyone trying to shove AI down your throat. At no time in the past did we need mandates to use a "useful" thing. * A couple of players consolidating all the power in the AI space and millions of people having no ethical issues about using products from these companies, or opening up their source code and data for these companies to come suck it all up. * No real disruption or competition in the browser space. It will be a long time before Ladybird will be usable. * Bloated, heavy websites with popups galore. * Everything getting a redesign every couple of months for no reason * You don't own anything anymore. Even building your own PC seems like it will become a thing of the past given how price are rising. I could go on.
  • at1as 9mo ago
    > Till it has practical everyday uses and is at least semi affordable, I would categorize it as experimental still I have a Meta Quest 2 from half a decade ago. It's old, but still feels like a mature gaming device (though relegated to more of an occasional fitness device for me). Sure, it's failed to be anything more (commercial, education, media), but perhaps it's not fated to be for simple entertainment, in which case it's still an interesting new category. And I think the entry price point is like half that of a PS5? > I don't know a single person who actually owns a Meta wearable device or a 3D printer. Isn't Meta actually shifting their focus away from metaverse? I think the Ray Ban partnership is consistent with their shift away from the metaverse. The grandiose visions are put on ice, while they shift towards a fashion-accessory with a camera and audio. Young people seem to be very into 3D printing. My father runs a photography store and a steady portion of the customer base is high schoolers requesting 3D printed models of things they've found online. I presume they'll own their own 3D printers in the future. > Operating systems that are actively hostile to their users (Windows and OSX). Never been a better time to give Linux a try. The days of fighting with audio drivers for 3 days after the install are largely in the past > Everyone trying to shove AI down your throat There is some backlash against this. SaaS used it to justify price increases, but ironically AI may make it more difficult for them to sustain their very high per seat pricing model > * No real disruption or competition in the browser space. It will be a long time before Ladybird will be usable. I still use Firefox for now. But they, unfortunately, have to own their bad decisions. > You don't own anything anymore. Even building your own PC seems like it will become a thing of the past given how price are rising. I do worry about this, though less from a cost standpoint, which tend to be cyclical. Deeply embedding and integrating everything does come with some advantages that make DIY builds more difficult to justify outside of seeking peak performance. Though computers like the Framework are actively trying to push against that for some segment of the market.
• the4anoni 9mo ago
  I'm in my 20's now, graduated secondary school (as IT Technician). In meantime cured marrow aplasia. I love 2000's era (especially tech, but music too). I think almost everything about 2000's tech was superior, from hardware to software. Things were solid, build to last. Software had clean, simple user interface. The user was invited, not forced to do something. For me nothing can beat philosophy of XMB (XrossMediaBar). I don't know how to find my way in all this IT thing now. Never liked programming, what always intetested me was hardware and IT administration. But every day I wake up it just gets worse. IaC, SaaS, software is worse than ever before. And don't forget hardware speculations. In 2000's tech was so easy, now it's just annonying, harder and obfuscated with every day. I miss 2000's simplicity.
• lbrito 9mo ago
  Strong disagree. While I share the 90s nostalgia, the trend of just relaunching everything is a sad reminder of how bad tech is today, not an exciting new development
  • at1as 9mo ago
    I think if there's a trend towards purpose driven devices, those can evolve at a faster rate than our consolidated everything phones. So eventually we'll see something exciting based upon it's novelty and merits. We'll see!
• arandomhuman 9mo ago
  >Looking at my own purchases from 2025, the pattern becomes obvious... Is it me or does this list really goes against almost everything preceeding in the article?
  • cptskippy 9mo ago
    Yes it's very contradictory. "I'm tied of Apple converting everything to services so I'll eschew the Apple Watch in favor of an analog watch and an Oura ring that requires a subscription." "I'm tired of distracting notifications so I'm getting Meta Ray-Ban AR glasses." What I find odd is that much of the rationale for these moves is completely absent from the article. Why is Linux growing in popularity? People are sick of being spied on and being manipulated for profit. Why are people attracted to analog? People are sick of being spied on and being manipulated for profit. Why are people looking at offline or self hosted experiences? People are sick of being spied on and being manipulated for profit. I don't think the OP wants to acknowledge that fact because it paints him as a technology hipster rather than someone taking back their autonomy from corporations. He's saying "Look at me, I'm an individual because I choose to have a different set of companies spy on me than you do." The other striking thing to me is that the list is also completely devoid of any sense of morality. He might be using Linux but he's actively spitting in the face of Opensource by choosing a Bambu printer.
    • at1as 9mo ago
      > "I'm tied of Apple converting everything to services so I'll eschew the Apple Watch in favor of an analog watch and an Oura ring that requires a subscription." I wouldn't pay a subscription to Oura, especially with them moving towards a more obfuscated view of individual metrics. I'm grandfathered in to a lifetime subscription. And eagerly awaiting something comparable in the market, but reviews of competing products are not yet compelling. > "I'm tired of distracting notifications so I'm getting Meta Ray-Ban AR glasses." These are for travel videos (dense markets, or places where I can't logistically use a phone or camera). My family enjoys the videos. If the glasses are capable of notifications, I haven't enabled them. The glasses have utility without notifications, and without a heads up display, they'd be of limited value. > Why is Linux growing in popularity? This was my point "Integrated platforms seemingly made the Linux philosophy untenable, and yet it may now be growing as a direct result of this decoupling. This was a feature, not a bug." Linux is not part of an ecosystem, and people are starting to realize they like that for a variety of reasons. We're making the same point > People are sick of being spied on and being manipulated for profit. I don't think the OP wants to acknowledge that fact because it paints him as a technology hipster rather than someone taking back their autonomy from corporations. He's saying "Look at me, I'm an individual because I choose to have a different set of companies spy on me than you do." The point is that there is growing optionality. It's becoming easier to participate across ecosystems. We can treat tech as an a la carte rather than an omakase menu. Your computer can be one thing, your phone another, and your wearables something else. It's hard to escape big tech entirely, but cracks are starting to form in terms of portability, and perhaps increasingly in terms of alternative options. > The other striking thing to me is that the list is also completely devoid of any sense of morality. I had assumed I could just buy a printer I like that's relatively affordable, on sale, and highly rated? It allows me to use 3rd party filaments and import my designs from TinkerCAD or Python generated. What should I have bought?
• farmin 9mo ago
  He is saying that more devices that have single use is better? Maybe that’s true but the downside is you own more stuff.
  • at1as 9mo ago
    True. But maybe you also "own" more of your stuff, rather than lease it, or live in anxiety about the next forced update
• davidgay 9mo ago
  The bit about "Canon, Sony, and Nikon may have replaced Kodak for professionals" was entertainingly silly. AFAICT, Kodak cameras were never used by a significant fraction of professional photographers? (maybe pre-WW2?) Film is a different matter of course.
  • nicoburns 9mo ago
    FWIW, Canon, Sony, and Nikon all make sensors as well as cameras (I believe Nikon just tweak Sony's these days, but they were certainly making their own at one point).
• zahirbmirza 9mo ago
  I find this discussion interesting. I have been thinking about the declining appeal of a device that does everything, but on which you can only really do one thing at a time well. Ie, you put the iPhone in a cage and add a tripod and you could make a high quality video. But, then you can't use the phone like a phone... Solution, a DJI osmo pocket 3, which is something that does video brilliantly. And you can set it up while doing the things you need to do on your phone when you need to. I recently serendipitously found my sansa clip+ which to my delight has a battery that has somehow and miraculously not failed. It is fantastic for listening to a select few things at night; when I don't want to be starting at my phone screen hunting for playlists and albums. I checked the price on eBay for these things. They are going for 10x what I paid, I won't be selling.
  • theandrewbailey 9mo ago
    > I recently serendipitously found my sansa clip+ which to my delight has a battery that has somehow and miraculously not failed. Have you thought of installing Rockbox on it? It made mine instantly better.
    • zahirbmirza 9mo ago
      oh! great thought. thanks!
• mullingitover 9mo ago
  > Meta shipped a wearable that normal people actually use Literally the only time I've heard of anyone using these in the wild was some guy being an absolute creep and using them to secretly film women to create social media content[1]. [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx23ke7rm7go https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx23ke7rm7go
  • deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
  • at1as 9mo ago
    There are two claims you're making 1) they're rarely used 2) when they are it's nefarious To the first point, they've sold at least 2M pairs, and are reported scaling production to handle up to 10M units per year. To the second point, do you believe that all or most of those 2M people using it for those purposes? Or to take videos of travel, music festivals, etc. Lots of companies are rushing into this space, so you kind of have to legislate, or choose to view competition in this space, even amongst 3 major players, as as slightly preferable to competition amongst just 2.
    • thebigman433 9mo ago
      > To the first point, they've sold at least 2M pairs, and are reported scaling production to handle up to 10M units per year Im actually very curious to learn more about the usage statistics of their glasses overall. I live in SF and I have noticed 1 person wearing them in the wild. Its obviously probable that Ive missed a handful, but my suspicion is that a lot of people wear them for short bursts of time, for specific events.
      • at1as 9mo ago
        Mine gather dust except for travel. But they're worth it to me for that use case alone. I also wouldn't be surprised if that was a common pattern.
    • mullingitover 9mo ago
• jrjeksjd8d 9mo ago
  As other people have pointed out, the trend towards "retro" tech is like vinyl being popular - it's a nostalgia throwback, not a massive wave of consumer preference. There's a small but profitable niche of enthusiasts who want old electonics. Call me when a major consumer electronics company is making it a selling point that their devices are "dumb". The Rayban-Meta partnership is such a funny thing to shoehorn in? Two giant monopolists creating a new surveillance-tech product which nobody likes. It couldn't be more "monoculture".
  • chwtutha 9mo ago
    I might have said the same, but ever since a guy showed me a first-person go-karting video he took on his Ray-Ban Metas, I've been hooked on the idea of being able to record experiences like that... so stupid but so cool.
    • jrjeksjd8d 9mo ago
      Let me introduce you to... GoPro. An expensive action sports novelty.
      • chwtutha 9mo ago
        Not as cool as glasses with a camera in them.
  • at1as 9mo ago
    > The Rayban-Meta partnership is such a funny thing to shoehorn in? Two giant monopolists creating a new surveillance-tech product which nobody likes. It couldn't be more "monoculture". Are we really concerned about an Essilor-Luxottica monopoly? Is there lock-in, shady dealings, etc? Can't you just buy sunglasses from other brands (or brandless glasses)? Regarding Meta, they are playing a role in shifting us from monoculture (or two player markets) to three or more players. Meta may be ahead of the pack, but they'll be joined by Google and Apple soon. Apple's poor treatment of their partners through the App Store really damaged the Apple Vision Pro launch, which is a good thing. One does not need to love Meta to see the value in bringing more players into a given market. We deserve more than Apple vs. Google across all of our decisions. The surveillance is unfortunately inevitable at this point. Cameras are cheap and are everywhere. You're never more than a few feet from a multi-camera cellphone. I don't see any way around this short to national legislation restricting their use.
• niobe 9mo ago
  This article taught me nothing except first-world tech consumerism is out of control. Why is that interesting? Because I think it's part of why the tech bros consistently over-estimate the relvance, pace and world-changing potential of technology like LLMs. If you're drowning in tech consumerism, you see it all around and think it's _really_ important. But this is living in a silicon bubble. 90% of the planet just doesn't care, is not even aware of these "toys" and wouldn't see them as relevant to a normal life if they did, and is extremely innovative about getting their actual needs met with far more basic tools and materials available. And they would be largely right. Technology does change the world eventually, but the latest pair of smart goggles or a slightly better camera on your personal surveillance device does not.
  • at1as 9mo ago
    > first-world tech consumerism is out of control ... this is living in a silicon bubble. 90% of the planet just doesn't care, is not even aware of these "toys" The US is not really among the countries that likes tech "toys". The number of things you can buy in BestBuy, for instance, doesn't compare to a trip to Shenzen, Tokyo, HK, etc. Those items are far more likely to be throwaway than the things listed in my article (most of which are high quality and I expect can last a decade). > I think it's part of why the tech bros consistently over-estimate the relvance, pace and world-changing potential of technology like LLMs I think the opposite is happening. A year ago it was sacrilege to state that an LLM would not lead to AGI. Today that's pretty uncontroversial to say that and most discussions center around 2nd order impacts of current capabilities on employment, education, etc. > Technology does change the world eventually, but the latest pair of smart goggles or a slightly better camera on your personal surveillance device does not. You can judge the product uncharitably, but I prefer to judge the outcome. Shared with my family many travel videos from my Rayban Metas. Provides a much more intimate perspective, like you're actually at the Swiss Alps, which just isn't a perspective you get from a smart phone. And this was not an upgrade, per se, it was me entering a new category that simply didn't exist before. My other cameras are not recent (Canon 6D - 12 years old, iPhone 12 - 5 years old).
• Animats 9mo ago
  Looking at my own purchases from 2025... This is like a "haul" video, without the video.
  • NoGravitas 9mo ago
    Yeah, I saw the list, thought, "oh, I've been thinking about getting a camera", looked at the camera he bought, saw it starts at $1200, closed the article.
    • at1as 9mo ago
      Isn't that simply what cameras cost, since glass needs to be manufactured very precisely? I'm replacing a 12 year old canon 6D with 4 lenses accumulated over that time period with one-and-done camera. It's precisely the cost of upgrading all of that to the new mirrorless system that pushed me in this direction. An entry level Canon Rebel is like $600, with an extremely constrained focal range. Essentially any non-prime lens will double that cost. It's hard to understand how $1200 is considered outrageous for a camera (though for the record, these cost more like $2K, but mine is a used Typ-109 which was $800)? What are you considering buying?
• jonny_eh 9mo ago
  > Art Deco is in vogue Is it? I wish it was, but what is the author referencing?
  • at1as 9mo ago
    People seem to be increasingly interested in it for interior design. I've seen this reported in a few places, Pinterest being one of those sources https://bestreviews.com/articles/home/decor/pinterest-fall-2025-trend-report https://bestreviews.com/articles/home/decor/pinterest-fall-2... There's also, of course, the aggressive A16Z Art Deco rebranding. But we can put that one to the side.
  • cptskippy 9mo ago
    Neo Deco is growing in popularity. There's a few youtube channels dedicated to art deco restoration and influencers showing off art deco motifs in their homes that have spurred the trend. It's just the slow swing of the pendulum away from the AirSpace aesthetic that was the modern interpretation of mid-century modern that came out of the early 2000s. Author is a hipster.
    • NoGravitas 9mo ago
      It's so weird, Art Deco was in vogue for a while in the early 90s (see Batman '89, The Rocketeer), and the nostalgia cycle is just coming around again. I'll take Victorian or Art Nouveau instead, please.
      • at1as 9mo ago
        As long as we can do away with the ultra Minimalism aesthetic, I'm on board.
• dyauspitr 9mo ago
  Buying retro technology is not indicative of anything.
• trinsic2 9mo ago
  What world is the author living in? I wish much of this were true, but I just don't see it. Maybe I am too old :(
• Foreignborn 9mo ago
  I value the author's optimism, but this list activates a deep fear in me. It feels like a such an American point of view to think a techno-ideal is defined simply by buying a different set of consumer electronics, many of which are just as throwaway as the ones before. I know we can't get away from buying things--even a self-hosted homelab needs parts, and I'm not rejecting capitalism. But it feels like capitalism culture is so strong that it goes through everything people think like thread through a needle, everything they do is stitched with its color. This makes me sad for the future my children will inherit. I want them to be excited by what comes next, the way I was excited by the N64 or the early web. But those things were exciting because they were _new frontiers_ and new stories, not because they were products. If the only future we can envision is a curated list of retro-gadgets and subscriptions, we have lost the plot.
  • at1as 9mo ago
    > It feels like a such an American point of view to think a techno-ideal is defined simply by buying a different set of consumer electronics, many of which are just as throwaway as the ones before This author is European, even if posting from the US. There are classes of items that are throwaway, but bring other kinds of value (like all of the soldering kits I used to buy, that were basically garbage once assembled but were very educational and steered my career in a certain direction). There are classes of items that increase the volume of e-waste over time. Dedicated purpose driven devices (like e-readers). And there's a compelling alternative: Apple makes very good stuff. You can buy a Mac and an iPhone and keep them for up to a decade (with a battery replacement in-between). You can use that iPhone to many things (like reading books). But I think the real costs of that consolidation aren't worth it, and that anyone growing up in that environment won't be curious or inspired about tech the way I was. And there are items that are throwaway because they're cheap and won't last. These I usually avoid. The ASUS, I'm finding out, was questionable, though purchased with good intentions - Macbook like solid aluminum chassis, etc. But the Leica (actually 2nd hand), Apple stuff, even the Ray Bans are all pretty durable. I actually see a lot more "throwaway" tech, and culture around it in Asia than I do in the US. Things are pretty conservative over here for the majority of people. > the way I was excited by the N64 or the early web. This is part of the reason I've been buying old, physical games. It brings some clarity and focus that I frankly find difficult scrolling through an endless digital library. Something about the mere act of inserting a CD or cartridge subconsciously silences distractions and feels like a real commitment rather than a passive activity. It may be more of a callback to the past than the future, but I think there's a reasonable chance the future will look similar, with a wave of new products that seek to do similar things and evoke the same reactions. Time will tell. > If the only future we can envision is a curated list of retro-gadgets and subscriptions, we have lost the plot. Hate subscriptions. Left Adobe because of them. Will leave 1Password when they finally end my one-and-done 1Password 7 purchase. Don't use Microsoft Live for my Xbox. Spent years manually copying iPhone photos weekly to avoid the Apple storage subscription (this one I've admitted defeat on). The only subscription product on that list is an Oura Ring, for which I'm grandfathered into a non-subscription plan; would give it up otherwise. If the predicted AI-driven downward pressure on per seat pricing plays out in SaaS, there's reason to believe consumer subscriptions would likely be under pressure as well.
• t1234s 9mo ago
  Casio f-91w
  • at1as 9mo ago
    A classic. Will need one to compliment the A168
  • wao0uuno 9mo ago
    I bought mine like 6 years ago and at first thought "wow what a cheap piece of plasticky crap. I bet I'm gonna have to replace it every two years or so." I used and abused it every day since then. It never skipped a beat. I took showers with it, I sweated all over it, I dropped it and it only required a single battery replacement since I purchased it. It keeps time well. I'll probably keep using these until the day I die. I also highly recommend getting metal adapters for straps and putting a decent nato strap on it.
    • NoGravitas 9mo ago
      I'm surprised you already need a battery replacement. My experience with those things is ~10 year battery life.
      • wao0uuno 9mo ago
        I bought the cheapest one I could find online. It's possible that it was some old stock.
• snvzz 9mo ago
  >They’re now working to bring a “next-gen” CRT monitor to market. Wait what? Who? Why have I not heard of this? Did the AI hallucinate? There definitely is interest in next-gen CRTs.
  • at1as 9mo ago
    Palmer Lucky mentioned in an interview that they were looking into making a TV, in part because of how much he hated all the adware slop bundled into modern TVs. He then followed that they were investigating whether they could build a modern CRT. I can't immediately find the except, but I had previously watched the interview
    • snvzz 9mo ago
      This is the one and only instance I am aware of. I was hopeful I'd get a different pointer. There really is a market for this sort of thing.
    • DerekL 9mo ago
      As far as I can tell, they aren't making actual CRTs, they're using modern display technology to simulate the appearance. https://www.reddit.com/r/ModRetroChromatic/comments/1m82csj/qrt/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ModRetroChromatic/comments/1m82csj/... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgY5fM2cINc&t=1288s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgY5fM2cINc&t=1288s
  • Nursie 9mo ago
    It’s very unlikely to happen because at this point it seems to be effectively a lost technology. Nobody’s making the tubes any more. It’s bit like cassette decks - there’s only one manufacturer left and the mechanisms they build are not up to the quality of the ones from the 90s, and a revival is not enough to bootstrap manufacture back to economic viability, it’s very likely a blip.
• averyweston 9mo ago
  [dead]
• drowntoge 9mo ago
  As much as I want to buy into the premise, the article’s tone is so aggressively optimistic it feels like it was written on cocaine.
• austin-cheney 9mo ago
  Nope. For some people, like this article, technology is just a wave of trends and fashions. For other people there is an actual utility to the tech. For example consider why so much digital media is pirated. It’s not because most of those people refuse to pay for content. It’s because they reject to pay for limited access. Why bother with all the platform lock-in and limited rights when you can download it for free and achieve maximum portability. The people that pay for streaming do so because it’s the fashion/trend and there is a cost of increased effort to try out individual liberty.
• KaiserPro 9mo ago
  I mean I hear lots of talk about it, but I am yet to see wide spread evidence. It seems at the moment that its similar hipster-esque analog revival, where everyone was going to type on typewriters, use lomo film cameras and wear camelhair coats. It was at best a fashion garnish, rather than a significant movement. If this was a "real thing" rather than hot young things, we would see significant market movement to single device objects again (not that they ever really went away, its just they are cheap and abundant, so not exclusive/attractive)
• ndsipa_pomu 9mo ago
  Wired vs wireless headphones can demonstrate why sometimes, the old simple tech is actually better. Wired headphones have a great user interface - you plug them into the device making music. That's it. If a friend wants to play you some music, you can just plug your headphones into their device (assuming it has an audio socket) without mucking around with pairing and then later having a problem because it can only pair to a limited number of devices. Also, of course, there's no issue with recharging them. A secondary "benefit" is that you're far less likely to lose more bulky headphones than earpods.
  • cyberrock 9mo ago
    I can't speak for everyone but I've lost more wired inventory to cable damage (before ca. 2020) than wireless earbuds from just losing them. It seems that now they're not the only game in town, replaceable cables are suddenly a standard feature instead of a luxury, so the moral I've taken from this is that the competition was good. It's also not like the problem is the audio equipment itself, because the problem most people have is with phones removing 3.5mm and being theoretically unable to charge (with cable) and listen to music at the same time. I think it's another example of a false tech culture war that the original article wants to exist. Now, I wish we could go to 2 USB-C ports instead of holding on to 3.5mm. Not all DACs are created equal...
• xg15 9mo ago
  > Meta shipped a wearable that normal people actually use, thanks to a clever Ray-Ban partnership (and associated equity stake). 3D printers have become real household products. Wearables are diversifying—smart rings, over-the-counter glucose monitors, connected beds. In which reality is this guy living?
• cyberrock 9mo ago
  The article begins with video game consoles, but then doesn't address the fact that video games are the biggest counterexample against the thesis, because it's just collapsing into a PC (and Steam) monoculture. The fact that you're buying FPGAs and old cartridges doesn't mean anything when 2/3 console makers are just making PCs, and even mobile games need to be on Steam now. I think this just reflects your changing tastes and perhaps increase in disposable income.
  • at1as 9mo ago
    I'm a very casual and very occasional gamer, so I can't deeply about this topic. But, is gaming in a dire state? Platform exclusives seem to be rare (outside of Nintendo). I have an xbox (which I'm told is the wrong console), but I can play nearly everything a PS5 can. Most major titles seem to be very cross platform (PC, Xbox, PS5, and sometimes Nintendo). If anything, they stagger release dates, not access. Steam's market share has held relatively steady at 75%. And in fairness, it does not seem like Epic is trying at all to improve their product, so I'm not sure they're deserving of more right now. GoG continues to have ts cult following (I had never heard of it until recently, but now see references to it frequently). And it seems to be easier to game on Linux (and even Mac) than in the past few years. I have no way of verifying this, but Perplexity states that ~5% of Steam games are exclusives. Have they exerted monopolistic pressure on the market in other ways?
    • cyberrock 9mo ago
      The hardware itself used to be exclusive. We used to marvel at what the Cell processor, N64 MIPS, etc. could do, but now PS and XBox are just commodities that we could say is equivalent to a 58XX + 20XX. Even the Switch 1 became a commodity at the end of its life, if we count emulation. Personally, I would define the lack of exclusives outside of Nintendo's shrinking sphere as a monoculture. At the same time, I don't have a verdict on whether this is good or not. On one hand, everyone on the globe can theoretically play anything now, as opposed to what countries some American and Japanese companies can find on a map, but on the other hand, this monoculture has also completely erased our ability to truly own or trade games. Gamers now need to periodically assess if they need to upgrade hardware, and it has directly connected this hobby with the turbulence of the global economy. On an emotional level, the erosion of console boundaries has made the world feel smaller, and that makes me inexplicably sad. Imagine if your local playwrights or board game makers feel like they need to put their works on a global marketplace, tailored to the tastes of the biggest markets. Of course, I too have a lot of blind spots. For example, I have no idea what games are brewing on Roblox or itch.io nowadays, some of which might be on a top 10 play-hours chart if we could aggregate all platforms together. When I see one of them like Juice World/Galaxy leak out of their containers, I'm filled with joy that there's still a pocket of this world that I haven't explored.
• sam1r 9mo ago
  The certs need to be updated for this URL. or can mod update the URL to redirect to http vs https://[1] [1] http://www.jasonwillems.com/technology/2025/12/17/Tech-Is-Fun-Again/ http://www.jasonwillems.com/technology/2025/12/17/Tech-Is-Fu... https://archive.ph/WVeb0 https://archive.ph/WVeb0
  • at1as 9mo ago
    Thank you. Was missing a GH Pages setting for that
• drweevil 9mo ago
  > A Timex ad went viral this year: “Know the time without seeing you have 1,249 unanswered emails.” Sometime last year I got tired of using my phone as a clock. I dug out a 2-decade old watch from a drawer, put in a new battery, and eventually realized I really missed its simplicity. It has calendar functions, and a mechanical rotating dial I can use as a timer. Its interface never changes. I never lose it. What's not to like?
• rchaud 9mo ago
  Tech's march towards vertical integration-powered cross-selling and turning everything into a digital-only product or perpetual subscription is sending a lot of people searching for alternatives. Just off the top of my head, I'm aware of growing interest in communities related to single purpose devices like: - Retro gaming handhelds, which these days are capable of handling every console before the PS3, and their popularity is a clear rebuff to the Nintendo Switch's game pricing, not to mention the horrific microtransaction-riddled landscape of "mobile gaming". - Standalone MP3 players, which are selling very well thanks to notification hell on our phones and dissatisfaction with music streaming giants. - Portable DVD players, which can be bought online or thrifted cheaply, as frustration builds with constant licensing changes causing Netflix and the like to remove shows without warning. DVDs can be bought extremely cheaply, and a lot of users are not cinephiles who won't touch anything that's not at least 1080P.
• commandersaki 9mo ago
  I remember the days of wanting to get my mp3 collection in my car. I was not at the age of driving, but would see my peers who were mostly in university build car mp3 projects: https://web.archive.org/web/20021203205014/http://www.mp3car.com/exampleresults.asp https://web.archive.org/web/20021203205014/http://www.mp3car...
• Cthulhu_ 9mo ago
  > Early AR is starting to reach consumers. Early AR was a thing 10, 15 years ago - along with the dawn of smartphones, accellerometers and cameras. Second generation was the google glass and the like, over ten years ago now. Third generation was Microsoft's HoloLens and Magic Leap. Fourth (current?) generation is Apple's Vision and I suppose the rayban things. There's probably generations I'm missing but I'm no expert. Anyway, AR has had nearly two decades to "start to reach customers" and honestly, I don't think it's broken through. Not even the 3d environment scanning 'measure' apps see frequent use (in my limited experience). It's always remained a gimmick. TL;DR I disagree with the author's assertion in multiple levels. It's not "early AR", and I don't think it's actually reaching customers, let alone at a volume that will recuperate its investments.