From what I have seen, most Threads users are safe-spacers who wanted a platform with heavy moderation. So I guess these are just the growing pains they’ll have to get used to in the pursuit of their circlejerk paradise, particularly since this is Meta we’re talking about who have never been reliable or effective when it comes to moderating content.

Steve Litchfield in shambles.

Yes, I do expect people to read articles before responding to them. What is the point of using discussion-based social media if you’re not here for an educated discussion on the topic? If you want to have a partisan screaming match just use Twitter.

Why do you think Hamas are the good guys? What conceivable quality do you like about them?

Who are you talking to? The author of the article literally said “I condemn Hamas” three times in the second paragraph.

mLauncher is another good one if you like this concept but want an even more minimal app drawer (it doesn’t even have icons). It’s a fork of Olauncher.

It’s a common issue with custom ROMs. Samsung phones cannot get working VoLTE on any ROM that isn’t based on OneUI, and many models from other manufacturers don’t work either. There are tools like Pixel IMS that can theoretically allow you to manually enabke VoLTE, but I’ve never seen it consistently work on anything other than Google Pixels.

I don’t know about the rest of Australia, but that’s not really the case in Adelaide. There is a pretty strong cycling culture here and a lot of proper bike stores for commuters, road cyclists and mountain bikers. Hosting the Tour Down Under for 25 years has really helped with that. But for whatever reason the government has never really invested in infrastructure that would help.daily commuters.

My guess as to the “why” is that it’s just another example of enshittification. Podcasts were essentially a bubble that everyone was trying to get in on, but the amount of low quality (not just production but also content) flooding the market devalued it significantly and listeners and subscriptions began declining. Everyone is trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of it now, which means there are even more ads on top of all the ads and cross-promotion that come baked into an episode.

Cycling infrastructure development in Adelaide and SA always seems to be based around tourism and leisure. Like if you want to do a family day trip, or you’re here on a cycling holiday or just want to spend your day somewhere there are quite a few good cycling paths that all connect up with minimal need to cross or ride on roads. But the daily cycling infrastructure is absolutely terrible. Most “bike lanes” on suburban roads are narrow, damaged and filled with rubbish and many motorists do not respect them at all. Thankfully we are allowed to ride on the footpaths so that reduces the danger somewhat but it’s also pretty inconvenient since footpaths are even less consistent in terms of terrain.

This is a pretty clickbaity counter-article that doesn’t review the original in good faith. The New Yorker article is not titled ‘Social Media Is Killing Kids’ but rather ‘Has Social Media Fuelled A Teen-Suicide Crisis?’ with a lead of:

Mental-health struggles have risen sharply among young Americans, and parents and lawmakers alike are scrutinizing life online for answers.

So the implication that the premise of the article is to demonise social media is completely wrong, since it’s actually an investigation into the issue. That’s also the reason it’s long (another strange complaint from a guy whose 3000+ word response is only ever his opinions).

The “moral panic tropes” are testimony from real parents whose real children killed themselves. And these real parents think social media was responsible. It strikes me as pretty low to hand wave away the grief of these real people because it inconveniently feeds into a narrative you have some instinctual problem with.

The author tries to frame the balance of the New Yorker article as some kind of gotcha. Like it’s somehow a bad thing that this other writer took the time to consult with and quote experts who provide a different opinion. Personally I would much rather read that then something like this which was basically the equivalent of a reddit eXpOsEd thread.

This is not a leak, it is just a prediction from some random based on their weird analysis of the market. Pure clickbait.

So yes the Motorola synthetic back is definitely more durable than glass.

I was thinking more in terms of durability relating to general wear and age rather than short-term drops, scratches, etc. I’ve seen some images of people claiming their Motorola back wore out within months (could be a problem on their end, mine is fine after a year) and we all remember those older plastic devices with the soft touch finish that “melts” after a few years.

I have a Sony Xperia XZ1 and the aluminium finish on that is so good. Definitely my nicest feeling phone, though it is still slippery of course. In terms of modern phones I like the textured backs Motorola has been using. Not sure about their long-term durability but they are very grippy and comfortable.

Part of it (at least historically) was also related to wireless charging and reception.

I just gave up and bought a new (secondhand) phone at the beginning of this year. I returned one of my older phones (Galaxy Note 9) to stock as a backup but I’m not even sure if that will work now because it’s a grey import (even though it has working VoLTE currently and supports all Australian network bands). It’s a bit sad that I have this little collection of otherwise great older phones that still receive updates to their custom ROMs but will now be useless as phones.

In fairness it is a poorly written and confusing article (the guy is not a writer by profession, just a telecommunications expert trying to draw attention to the 3G shutdown). I shared the video just in case people had a hard time understanding the main takeaways, since Hugh Jeffreys did a good job summarising them.

It sounds like they are over-complying in response to recent legislation:

This is due to an update to the ‘Emergency Call Service Determination’ (ECSD), in the explanatory statement it says:

“Subsection 6(2) directs ACMA to include requirements for providers to identify mobile phones unable to access Triple Zero, notify the user, provide assistance if necessary to access an alternative mobile phone, and cease providing service to the affected device. Providers will also be required to not provide service to a prospective customer seeking service with an affected mobile phone. This requirement makes clear the responsibility providers have to ensure mobile networks provide access to the emergency call service.” […] “The amendments to the Determination to be made under section 6(2) are to be determined and commence in full by 1 November 2024.”

The author of the article claims AMTA is not a reliable indicator of VoLTE compatibility:

Additionally Tools like the ‘AMTA 3G Lookup Service’ are not accurate or reliable. AMTA knows this, hence why you need to agree to a long list of terms & conditions before using it.

This new ACMA policy is deeply disturbing because many consumers, including myself, own fully functional devices that can make VoLTE calls and emergency calls, yet are deemed “incompatible” by the telcos.

These are devices with the exact same hardware and software as ‘officially supported’ devices, the only difference is the telcos didn’t sell them.

Vodafone’s 3G network has been switched off for 9 months at this point, I don’t know if customers would still be getting messaging about it. Though there was a section in the article about issues with roaming for international visitors in January:

As a result of the Vodafone 3G switch-off in January, inbound Roaming customers have been receiving text messages advising they will no longer have access to voice, text or data and emergency calling whilst roaming in Australia.

Even customers with 5G iPhones have received such text messages.

He published another article recently about exactly that. It sounds like the telcos are putting in less than the bare minimum of effort and the government has been too clueless to hold them to account. And when it does try to legislate it has done so in a nonsensical way that risks hurting more than helping.