I’ve definitely turned into the paranoid nutcase within my friend group in recent years, I hate that everything is “smart” nowadays requiring an app/internet connection & account, just to do basic things that didn’t require any of that before.
What’s some things currently making you ramble like an old man?
I’m with OP on this one, I can’t stand that everything needs an app to do simple tasks either. And subscriptions are getting way out of hand, the whole technological scope seems way more intrusive then it needs to be.
i can’t stand the apps and crap either. no i don’t want to browse your menu from my phone–hell, i literally can’t (flip phone). no i don’t want to use the app or ‘order ahead’ for an ‘exclusive’ discount. that just tells me you’re charging everybody else too much. no i don’t want to pay with a card or debit and pay extra for that ‘convenience’. no i don’'t want to just ‘sign up’ either, why do i need to do that to read or consume ‘free’ content or to use a ‘free’ app or application?
ad placements and ‘shrinkflation’ are out-of-control, as is the incessant need for companies to nickle-and-dime you to death–and that’s on top of the usual greedy price increases ‘just because’ they can, which are also out-of-control the last few years. the push to the subscription model for everything is part of the latter.
Ditto. Subscriptions for something you should just pay once is ridiculous. No, I do not owe you a monthly sub for an app that I already paid for.
Worse is went you’ve already paid for a lifetime license and they pull the rug out saying they’ll no longer honor it after a certain date.
That’s the quickest way to to get on my ‘Always Pirate’ list
If a piece of software doesn’t have a perpetual license, I’m not using it. I wish more people would do the same, so this predatory business model dies.
Subscriptions are definitely out of hand.
I’ve looked at a few wearable fitness things and most of them come with subscriptions to access the data you want from the sensors, it’s insane.
Yeah, the subscription thing is called Software As A Service, or SAAS for short. Lots of entrepreneurs have been jumping on the SAAS bandwagon in recent years, because it allows them to grow a large user base and passive income, with very little up-front investment.
AI image generation is a good example. We suddenly have a bunch of SAAS image generator apps, which are basically just two or three programmers and a GPU crypto farm rig acting as a server. It’s a relatively small up-front cost (at least when compared to traditional businesses which can take upwards of a million dollars to get started,) and your only real support for the service is keeping the AI model up-to-date and making sure the app’s API is working properly. And your only real ongoing cost for it is the electricity to keep your server running, and an income for your software dev (bonus points if you’re the only software dev, so 100% of the income goes to you.)