@Salvo
@aussie.zoneThe bottom has dropped out of the OEM software licence market. Microsoft have to find a different way of making money. Their loss-leading hardware sales have not borne fruit so they are getting desperate.
All they have left is services, which means that the only way the can actually make money is selling out their customers private information.
This is what The Algorithms have been doing from the start.
It is only just now coming to light just how manipulative YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram are configured.
It isn’t about increasing Ad views or Viewer engagement; it is all about controlling viewer opinions and belief systems.
I maintain that prior to Siri, the Dragon-based iOS Voice Command feature (on iPhone 4) was accurate and functional for most purposes, and did on-device parsing. If I asked “Call Mums Mobile” or “Play Jonathan Coulton” it would parse my contacts for a contact named (or nicknamed) Mum and parse my music library for an artist who’s name matched “ˈdʒɑnəθən ˈkoʊltn̩”.
For whatever reason, Siri records my voice, uploads it to the cloud and decides that I wanted to call “Moms homestyle kitchen” and play Drake.
It’s not about the current state of their OS, it is about the corporate attitude to users.
Microsoft are treating users not as valued customers purchasing a product, but as a resource to be manipulated and sold off to the cheapest bidder.
They may have backflipped on actual ads in the Start Menu, purely due to user backlash, but they still have game/app/bullshit recommendations and reinstalled garbage, unless you are a windows sysadmin and know jo to use a Profile Editor.
People want companies to stop trying to exploit them in every little way.
We can be satisfied by respecting us and treating us as customers, even when advertisers are throwing money at them.
I will purchase and play one game to 100%, or until my RSI starts flaring up. Sometimes, my RSI is so bad that I can’t play a game for several months.
I still have the 1 year of GamePass voucher from when I purchased my XBox One X. The way it is appreciating in value, I could sell it and buy a house!
I love it that in TT Games Lego Jurassic Park, the superpower for Dr Ellie Sattler is that she doesn’t get disgusted with smelly obstacles.
That bloke purchasing the the iron looks familiar;
https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/blt3db4cbf6995374dd/21325_alt9.jpg
https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/blt8811a819ea2465d9/31120_alt13.jpg