The Omnibus Tech Companies Being Fucksticks Thread

'use AI to understand the deal' one of the most ridiculous things i have ever heard

Okay, after a bit more research and actual published numbers, it’s a 0 money factor lease: the residual is just the retail price minus lease payments. They’re making money on the upgrade/lease termination side, not the financing side: if you do turn in your phone, you won’t get as good a deal as if you buy it out and then sell it. So the trade-in value is not guaranteed, but they can’t undercut the eBay or carrier promo average by too much or, well, everyone will buy out their leases and sell the phone on eBay or to their carrier if they want to upgrade.

Not the plan for me, but it's no more nefarious than a car lease.

Which most people are told to avoid because it's a bad deal.

They're not a bad deal for everyone, and I've never seen a car lease with a zero money factor.

For most people they are. And I don't think you grasp how predatory shit like this becomes. Especially if you live in an area where you basically have no alternatives. You need a car to get to your job because there's no mass transit? And it has to be reliable because you can't afford to fix it when something breaks? You're not gonna care what the fine print on the lease says, you're just gonna look at what the monthly payment is. And, already, if you want to do something like find a job, or have access to government benefits, you've got to have a smartphone, at the very least, if not a computer.

Dude, after all the shit folks like Marc Andreessen, Alex Karp, and Peter Theil have said, why you'd give any tech company the benefit of a doubt is beyond me. Sure, maybe Apple doesn't have any sinister intentions with this, but you can bet the folks at companies like OpenAI, etc., do, and they will undoubtedly seize upon this for their own nefarious ends.

Pixar gets $26 million in tax credits from a program designed to keep jobs in California, promptly lays off over 100 people. Or, to put it another way, the state of CA could have paid those folks who've lost their jobs $224K each, for that $26 million. I wonder how many of those employees who got axed made $224K/yr or more?

Shopify’s CEO Wants Rich People to Get More Votes Than the Common Folk

Kalshi’s New Midterms Hub Comes With a Felony-Sized Asterisk

Ah, the previous iPhone upgrade program (which was also technically a lease, but you weren’t complaining about it then ) included AppleCare. This doesn’t. And since its Klarna determining the value at the end, not Apple, you definitely want AppleCare if you’re going to get one.

Yeah, this is probably bad for everyone, just not for any of the reasons you gave.

What it sounds like is Apple raised the prices on their phones, a phone that could sell for $800 to $1200. Then you lease the phone and it costs $300 a year for two years. Then the lease renews for a another two years on another phone for $350 each year. So now you've paid $1300 over four years to have a phone when the phone, without a price increase would have been $800 over for years. Apple then sells the phone as a reconditioned one for $500, which gives them $1100 for an $800 phone. And the lease is not eligible for Apple Care so if something happens to the phone, the person leasing the phone ends paying for the repair or replacement out of pocket.

I have always had and Android phone, don't ever plan on changing to an Apple phone. My current Android is a Motorola, I've had it almost five years. I bought a $20 case for it on Amazon, don't have a screen protector. The screen has a few very light scratches on it, thinner than a hair. The body looks new. When I bought it, it was around lowe middle of the line. Next phone will be the same, around lower middle of the line. It still works, does what I need it to do. Two apps don't work on it, the OS doesn't support the app. Don't care, I used them maybe once a month, I can do what I need online and logging in instead. I paid $249 for the phone.

https://current.org/2026/08/nine-pb...d-access-to-archival-data/?wallit_nosession=1

“The Nerd Reich”: Author Gil Durán on Big Tech Fascism, Peter Thiel, JD Vance & the War on Democracy

I suppose for some folks, this will seem like new information, but for many of us, this is a thing that we've been screaming for a while now.

https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/08/20/waymo-autonomous-vehicles-surveillance-data-retention/

So they’re mobile Flock cameras.

They're so goddamned determined to complete the surveillance state, and it's wild how some people simply can't see why this would be bad for even the most law-abiding citizen.

https://bsky.app/profile/nickkodama.bsky.social/post/3mtp7ofpetc2h

Y'know what CEOs and failure-AI reminds me of?
That comedy villain that thinks he gets the ultimate power item, and is like "AT LAST!!!! I can finally destroy you all!!! I've always hated you!! ALWAYS!!!! You!! And you!! And you!! And especially you!!! Now I'll finally burn you off the blighted crust of this cursed Earth!!!! "
*The power item is a plastic fake*
...heh heh heh....those were some funny jokes I said back there, huh?

I've seen some Waymo cars driving around. In Atlanta. Kind of weird seeing a car without driver in it. But they drive better than most people do. Even when they do dumb shit, it's not as dumb as a shocking number of human drivers.

Behind the Bastards did a two-parter on the head of Palantir. Yeah, he's got issues.

Part one. And part two.

How Wi-Fi Can Track Your Movements, Everywhere, Even If You're Not Carrying a Device

The surveillance state has become damned clever, and it's not just the government but corporations sucking up all of your personal information to build a profile on you, which anyone can buy.

You wanna know how deeply the hatred of subscription pricing goes? Check this site out. That's right, subscription pricing for bike brakes! Now, that's a gag site, put up by this guy



He points out, rightly, that while wireless brakes do offer some interesting possibilities for bikes (like ABS), if someone does actually build them, they'll fuck it up by having shit like on the gag site. So, a guy who's YT channel is dedicated to mountain biking, is so pissed off by things like subscription pricing, he puts together a video mocking it.

Just saw the name Nerd Reich used for the techno-fascists.

I dig it.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-n...2-8670bf530f3c#edition=74719206&idiq=87409083

FTC Sues Amazon for Allegedly Duping Advertisers
Do you know how bad things have to be for Trump's FTC to come after you?

1Password wades into a right-wing mess after funding a Linux project

https://www.gadgetreview.com/denver...-residents-face-water-restrictions-for-a-year

@Uncle Albert this is the issues that are relevant to your issue regarding China and India, and why I'm not concerned about China, India, or you as an individual, when it comes to pollution or climate change.
Here, the individual is being told to conserve, which is important, but still peanuts, compared to these asshat corporations flagrantly ignoring said measures or securing waivers, while China and India are aggressively implementing measures to reign in their emissions -- think of them making a U-turn at high speed; it's gonna take a while to do and the initial results are slow to be seen.

every journey starts with the first step....but with the current admin. if it is somthing that will help the environment or the people of this country all we get is THDD (too hard didn't do) or TEWD (to expensive won't do) which sound amazingly like 'thud' which sums up this admin quite accurately. or the second that sounds like 'screwed' which we all are at this point