yeah syncing works fine so long as you rely on ... some other thing that actually works :D

This is true, however I like that I can use a cloud storage I am already using than having another service I need maintain.

If dropbox drop off the Internet there are other options I can use to sync.

can't help you with the sd card slot but if you don't mind carrying a wired headset, a usb-c > 3.5mm adapter can't be the dongle that breaks the camel's back..?

> if you don't mind carrying a wired headset, a usb-c > 3.5mm adapter can't be the dongle that breaks the camel's back..?

I never carry a dongle or a wired headset. I use an aux wire in my car, and a pair of over-ear wired headphones at my desk. When I travel to visit family, I can plug my phone into their old stereo receiver (which works as great now as it did 30 years ago). When a friend wants to play music in my car, they can plug into the aux wire I have. A usb-c dongle is one more thing I won't have with me and I'll be stuck using the speaker in the phone, and it will be garbage. So I will once again hunt for a phone that has an aux port.

Just like…have it with you? They sell things to attach it to your keys. You can buy a few adapters to leave at your desk in your car, they are cheap.

People always seem willing to die on the hill of this incredibly minor inconvenience. Literally solvable with like 10 dollars.

> Just like…have it with you?

I do this by using a phone that has the port built in.

> They sell things to attach it to your keys. You can buy a few adapters to leave at your desk in your car, they are cheap.

My "keys" are a single key with nothing attached.

> People always seem willing to die on the hill of this incredibly minor inconvenience. Literally solvable with like 10 dollars.

Yes, I am willing to buy a different brand of phone over a port that I use daily. The aux port is worth more to me than getting a slightly-more-stock android, or a probably-better camera. Is that hard to understand?

> It really is hard for me to understand. It's not like they took away to play music over a wire, that I would understand being a problem.

No, they added an additional inconvenience to something I use every day. So I'll get a phone from someone who hasn't. Easy peasy, no workaround or buying and carrying dongle to worry about.

> Cables and dongles and adapters are just part of life.

Not for me so far, and I'll continue to make consumer choices to keep it that way.

> It really is hard for me to understand.

Many people stand up for their principles by putting their money where their mouth is.

I'm not as extremely opinionated, but I also continue to buy phones with aux ports to support the headphones I already have, and mostly to not worry about misplacing those dongles.

i get the cheapest possible headphones because i break or lose them constantly. adding a dongle to that doubles or triples the price per headphones

I mean, it's more like 1000 dollars once I lose or break 100 of them, or the dongle breaks my phones charging port because I sat on the phone with the headphones connected.

I can live with a phone that doesn't play music, but I can't with one that doesn't charge

I've spent between $5 and AU$60 on usbc-3.5mm dongles, and every single one has had issues. Can't use it for walking around because the slightest jog to it will cause a connection issue, which will cause the music to stop, so you have to manually make it start playing again.

People gave Apple a _lot_ of flak when they originally killed the audio port, but the $10 dongle they sold lasted me at least 3 years and I don't really remember any connection issues.

Now I'm the sucker they'd always envisioned, owning a Airpod Pros and a Bluetooth Bose headset. At this point though, whether it's Stockholm Syndrome or not, I still do generally prefer the wireless life.

The decent ones have fancy names like "portable dac+amp combo".

so back when i used to spend an hour or more reading and responding to email every morning i was closer to this definition of "remote" even though i was sitting in an office.

very much the opposite of my experience. i'd gladly have 30 copies of left-pad living in my project rent free if it meant i never had to see "Your requirements could not be resolved to an installable set of packages" ever again.

Until it breaks on a fresh install? Reproducibility is a must.

at least my dystopian future toyota keyfob subscription could be patched to fix this...

That's assuming auto manufacturers will actually provide you with continuous updates and not just charge you for access to the core feature without ever bothering to update it. Much like how infotainment software can vary from one model year to the next while the hardware remains mostly unchanged--they're usually not giving you the option to just stop by the dealer for an update, much less let you do it yourself via USB or OTA.

To be fair though, my example isn't absolute--as far as infotainment goes, Chevrolet has done free Android Auto/Carplay retrofits in the past if your older model hardware supported it, and Ford SYNC is upgradable by the consumer via USB. I don't know of any Toyota models that offer that same though.

Or reducing/eliminating the $800 keyfob replacement cost on my 2018 Rav4. It's the worst case of vendor lock-in and customer fleecing.

The subscription will be a lot more than $800 by the time it's done with you.

a subscription to a notes service that is intentionally more barebones than the other options is something i really don't need. currently using joplin and its been working pretty well.

this was super effective at convincing me not to learn rust

they're called motorcycles, just go to a dealership to have someone sell you those bells and whistles instead.

you bet your ass consumers would care. ignorance is bliss.

i almost bought a Kobo earlier this year but talked myself back into the Kindle ecosystem just for whispersync. while i vastly prefer reading on the kindle itself, i do often find myself reading on my phone during unexpected downtime. MOBI sucks but even self-converted epub MOBI seamlessly syncs progress.