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I know it’s a different age and all that, I mean, I thought they bought the rights to the story and characters from the books, but not the rights to make additional official entries into the film series itself. Like, it’s the same thing, but sorta not. They wouldn’t be allowed to use the same actors and props and designs and what not… but I guess they are. Saurons armor looks the same, so I guess this is a direct prequel to the films themselves. Anyway, whatevs… here’s an ad running on twitter teasing the Sauron reveal, cutting between different characters… (possibly spoiler-ee, but an official ad so, yeah)

I thought that this show was supposed to be a whole separate thing, and not technically take place in the same version of the LotR universe that the films take place in... so I was kinda surprised to see the Balrog from the films. I guess that's not the case and it is a proper prequel to the films?

I just hope they don't stop after 3 season or something. I can easily see Amazon losing interest if the public reacts to the series with a collective shrug (which seems to be happening) and it just becomes a giant money hole that isn't gaining them any prestige or new subscribers.

I think it looks pretty decent. Pratt's voice seems fine, but maybe should be a little more Mario-ey. Eh, whatever. I'll see it with my kids and I'm sure it will be fun.

This is one of those annoying trailers that seems like it's actually the entire movie condensed into 2 minutes. It might make for a compelling trailer, but it may also give away way too much.

It's Die Hard with Santa! I mean, it's a great trailer... not sure if it will hold up for 2 hours, but I was much more amused by that than I was expecting. Is this gonna be R or PG-13? EDIT: It is rated R

It all depends on how much you use the phone while it's plugged in. If you're constantly twisting and pulling on the cable they go bad eventually. If you don't, they last years and years.

Apple already does this with new MacBooks. You can charge via Magsafe or USB-C.

I don't disagree, but it's not a 100% black and white thing. It's complicated and nuanced like everything. I love standardization. I want Apple to move to USB-C. I think USB-C is great. I'm glad every phone uses Qi. It's great. I just think it should come about naturally and worry what government intervention is going to do. I think this law is short term thinking and trying to solve a problem that's on its way to being sorted out by market forces. There are pathways written into this law for moving to new standards, but will the industry be incentivized to strive for new standards? How can a great new standard get any traction in the market when there is a literal law blocking it from existing.

That's the problem. It removes almost all incentive for them to introduce new stuff. What if right now, after spending years of research and hundreds of millions of dollars... Samsung R+D is almost ready to launch a proprietary charger/connector that will allow their phones to charge from 0 to 100 in 10 minutes, but it requires a proprietary port. Do they just not sell them in Europe? Do they give it over to the standards body while singing Kumbaya? What if right now some internal lab has a Eureka moment in charging ports and needs lots of time and money to flesh it out... would they get the funding if they know they are locked into USB-C? Would they approach the idea aggressively? Probably not. These are slightly hyperbolic examples, but this is one of my concerns.

There's no plans now, sure. What about a decade from now? I think people are putting too much faith in the USB standards body. Even USB-C is a total clusterfuck of a spec. USB-C Was Supposed to Simplify Our Lives. Instead, It’s a Total Mess. | by Owen Williams | Debugger DEBUGGER.MEDIUM.COM A mix of hidden standards make the ubiquitous cable a pain to deal with

My main concern honestly is that overall the technological innovation thrives in the free market, and putting in place roadblocks like this, no matter how well intentioned, can have consequences. Personally, I think Apple should have moved over to USB-C like 3 years ago... but I also don't the government should be forcing them to do it. I worry that apple's hubris is going to react to this in a way that ends up being worse for it's customers.

I'm not really making an argument. I'm not trying to "win" a debate. Actions can have multiple outcomes. Yes, it's annoying to have to buy all new cables. This passing will make millions of people have to buy and/or throw away a bunch of cables in the short term. Also, in the future, it could lead to innovation happening slower. They don't have to be related. It's just two reasons why this isn't a slam dunk.

"You're still arguing. "Yeah but what if apple goes bankrupt tomorrow, how will we get any other innovation?"" When did I say anything even remotely close to this in any way? I mean, come on. I don't think this is that crazy of a concept. In a world where there are laws that dictate what charging port you can put on 20% of the devices you sell, you are much much less incentivized to put R+D money into improving the charging ports. You would be completely disincentivized to go out on a limb and try something new as a company. It basically ties one hand behind your back. It's not impossible, but it becomes much more burdensome. Maybe we've reached a point where it is no longer necessary and this connecter will see us through for the next 20 years. It's possible we've reached that point... but if at any point in the last 20 years they made a law like this, we would probably currently have a worse connector on the bottom of all of our phones. The USB standards body is not aligned with the EU. They have different goals. The standards body isn't going to push for change as hard as an individual company would. They will move slowly. The EU will move even slower than that. I'm not out here ranting and raving or even disagreeing. I'm just putting some legitimate contrarian thoughts and concerns out there and everyone is piling on me like I'm some sort of stupid dipshit. It all feels very hostile and condescending. We're talking about fucking computer cords. I mean, come on.

I haven't been paying attention to this much, and had no idea who this kid was. I thought this was pretty scandalous and was surprised to see on twitter how much everyone seems to think this Christian Walker kid is just a ridiculous piece of shit. Apparently he's some sort of online influencer and has said a whole shitload of really really stupid stuff and people really really hate him like a lot. I don't know. Seems like the whole family sucks I guess. I don't know and I don't really care that much. I know most of you already know all this, I’m just adding this bit of info if anyone else wasn’t aware this kid is already established and comes with a dump truck full of baggage. It was news to me.

Wait, you mean one you put in yourself? Because when our's broke (like 3 years ago) I sent it into Nintendo and they charged me like $150 bucks to fix it and I was pissed as hell... because I felt like they shared at least part of the blame for making crap hardware and that their repair price was onerous for a $300 device.

My kid destroyed the Switches USB-C port as well. Just by using it too rough while it was plugged in. He's also killed two iPads in this way. We destroy wires like you wouldn't believe. I used to just throw them out, but for last 2-3 years or so I've been saving every dead cable and winding them up into a big ball of shame. There are probably 20 cables in that ball. I just buy cheap ass 5 packs of cables on amazon. I'm convinced I get better bang for my buck by buying 5 cables for $15, then better quality ones. The better quality ones will last longer, but not longer enough to justify the cost. I use a label maker to put a little "DAD" ribbon on the cables on my desk and nightstand. No one but me is allowed to use any "DAD" cable in my house.

It seems like you missed the 2 or 3 times I've said I too would prefer if they moved to USB-C. All I've been trying to convey is that this isn't necessarily as black and white as people make it out to be. I also don't know if passing laws is the best way to handle this, because I do worry about what that does to future technical progress. I understand very well the other sides of the issue, but I think it's complicated. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing the government should be getting involved in.

When I was referring to USB-C vs lightning numbers I was talking more about phones and less about things like webcams, laptops and hard drives... but even with that I'm probably completely off on my thinking. There are more USB-C devices. America is really an outlier here and it probably causes a decent amount of biased thinking in my mind. In America the iOS / Android split is roughly 50/50... but those numbers are nowhere close anywhere else in the world. Android is more popular in Europe (like a 66/33 split) and way way way more popular everywhere else (besides Japan, which I think is also 50/50).

*plugs lightning cable into same port?* ...or do wheelchairs have male USB-C charging cables? I really don't know.

It seems like an obvious misdirection for hardcore nerds... but 99% of the people watching it will not be expecting it. I think it has to be him. There are too many clues. My question is how long do they drag it out? I think they will have to tip their hand this season, because once people figure it out, it will leak out into the mainstream and they won't be able to get that "No, I am your father" moment, because of the internet and how fast stuff like this spreads.

Fuck yeah they are. I don't know why, but I find this meaningless shit fascinating.

Apple is one of the main members of the USB standards body. They are rumored to have single handeledly invented the physical USB-C connector and were heavily involved in creating the standard. They were one of the primary companies pushing for its use in the beginning. They pushed their entire line of laptops to USB-C only way before the industry had adopted it. They weren't the very first to use it, but they were the first mainstream company to push it in a big way. Apple is all over USB-C. We're at a point I time where we are probably looking at a time coming up soon where devices won't have physical connectors at all. It's very possible that USB-C will dominate for the next 10 years and won't be replaced by anything. I know there are carve outs, but it adds tons of friction to the process. It will slow progress. If this law existed 20 years ago, where would we be today? we don't know. I think Apple should have jumped off Lightning years ago... but I understand why they don't. They really have little incentive to do so. In the short term it's just going to upset huge swaths of their customers. Nerds like us want them to go USB-C, but I guarantee you that the vast majority do not. Even if it will be better for them in a couple years, they won't care. All it will do it make them annoyed at Apple. It's also not because they don't want to stop making money from lightning cables. I think they amount of money they get from lightning cable sales is probably a rounding error on a fraction of a sliver of a percentage point in the giant bucket of money they make. The amount of discontent it will stir in their customer base is much more of a painful pill for them to swallow. It's not just because Apple doesn't feel like it.

This feels like a weird beef to have. The general consensus is that this is one of their strengths. Supporting old hardware for much longer than most of the industry. What are you specifically referring to?

I've had both Lightning and USB-C ports go bad. I think Lightning feels much less robust because it's much more likely to be used in high-stress use cases. Let's see how USB-C holds up after we've been twisting and pulling on cables using it for a decade. I'm going to bet it will be better, but I don't think it's that much better. I guess we'll see. There are 1.8 Billion active iOS devices in use right now. I think there is a very good chance that there are more active lightning devices than USB-C. If there are more USB-C it's probably not by a huge margin. According to this half of all phones sold in 2018 still used Micro-USB. I don't know, maybe my math is off, but I bet it's closer than most think. EU agrees all phones and tablets must have a common charger by 2024 WWW.EURONEWS.COM Apple will have to change the connector on iPhones sold in Europe by 2024. Half the chargers sold with mobile phones in 2018 had a USB micro-B connector, while 29 per cent had a USB-C connector and 21 per cent a Lightning connector, according to a 2019 Commission study.