• yesman@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    There should be a warning label on any establishment or product that requires a smartphone to use.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      12 days ago

      How about this:

      At the apartments I recently moved out of, there were no quarter slots on the washing machines. They were an app that required a bluetooth connection to pay.

      So if you lived there and didn’t have a smartphone? Go fuck yourself, you don’t get to do laundry.

      Unless you bothered to check the laundry room when you were looking at the apartment, you wouldn’t know. No warnings.

        • scarabic@lemmy.world
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          11 days ago

          It’s not even required that apartment buildings have laundry services at all. There are commercial storefront laundromats in the US which serve as the ground floor for where people do their laundry. Until landlords are required to provide laundry, it will be hard to legislate what payment forms they must accept.

      • white_nrdy@programming.dev
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        12 days ago

        Tbf, my building also uses an app for laundry. However they also have a machine in the laundry rooms where you can purchase an NFC payment card and put money on it. So you can use it without the app. Is that not the case with yours? If not, that’s 100% fucked

      • Vinstaal0@feddit.nl
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        12 days ago

        That depends a bit on if it was advertised or not to have a laundry room. At least here in NL it is more common to have your own washing machine than to use a shared one so having a laundry room would be an extra to start with.

        Still sucks though

      • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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        12 days ago

        quarter slots on the washing machines

        Thank god they decided to keep these free where I live

      • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
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        11 days ago

        The more insane thing here for me is the fact that there isn’t a washing machine inside your apartment.

        (btw lived in such once, apparently the owner wasn’t very wealthy. We washed everything by hand)

        • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          11 days ago

          It’s actually incredibly common in US apartments for laundry to be a common area.

          Having a unit in your apartment means you’re at least well-to-do. Poor people can mostly go fuck themselves.

          • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
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            11 days ago

            Well-to-do? That is weird, because here not having a washing machine in the apartment would be weird even for a poor person.

            • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              11 days ago

              US hates poor people. I’m poor, I know from experience. They hold homelessness over us as a threat to keep in line.

              We went from during the pandemic, treating “essential workers” as “heroes” while not increasing their pay for risking their lives, to now, straight back to how it used to be, screaming at overworked underpaid people “You’re lucky to have a job!” as they break our bodies and then discard us once our bodies are broken. I know caregivers who have broken backs because they have to lift 350lb people without the proper equipment and they don’t get paid enough to afford to live in an apartment alone.

              The number of people trapped in outright dangerous relationships just to afford a place to live is too damn high. It’s a massive human rights issue, and the US will never address it under current leadership. They treat poverty as something that happens to bad people. They believe that their wealth proves that they are good people. They are myopic fools.

              They fucking hate us. Anything to make us feel low, they will do.

    • Ulrich@feddit.org
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      12 days ago

      There was a food truck I went to one time that required you to download some app to look at their menu and order your food. They refused to accept a credit card or cash. I walked. So fucking stupid. I don’t know why people allow shit like that to exist.

  • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    11 days ago

    THIS IS ACTUALLY SO REAL FUCKING SMARTPHONES I HATE STEVE JOBS FUCK YOU WHY DID YOU RUIN TECHNOLOGY.

    ok rant over, but seriously though, it’s so fucked how you basically just need a smartphone to do ANYTHING these days. I don’t want a phone, i have no use for one.

    • Ronno@feddit.nl
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      11 days ago

      Not sure if we can really blame Steve Jobs for this though, he wasn’t around when things turned to shit. The iPhone he introduced was merely a phone, web browser, email and music player.

      I think it’s fair if we blame Tim Apple for this and the other big tech CEO’s of the recent past.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10 days ago

        it was his idea, his vision. I blame him post mortem, because steve would’ve wanted the ecosystem to work flawlessly, and regardless of whether or not he was here today, we would have the same problem.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10 days ago

        i mean sure, but do i WANT to use it for that? No, i just want to fucking pay for my shit and leave. I don’t want your stupid little QR codes, i don’t want your silly little NFC, just accept card or fuck off.

        Just because you can invent some schizophrenic use for a smartphone, doesn’t mean i have a use for it.

    • Schlemmy@lemmy.ml
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      11 days ago

      In Flanders, 🇧🇪, teachers have a card that gives them certain benefits. Free acces to musea, exhibitions,… This year they made it app only. You need to buy a smartphone to get your benefits…

        • glitchdx@lemmy.world
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          11 days ago

          in the height of covid panic, there was a wheelchair bound, oxygen tank connected, customer whom I still respect for unrelated reasons, who insisted on entering my store without a mask because he was disabled. My dude. If you are so weak that a mask would kill you, you should not be going to stores right now. Do you not know that there’s a plague happening!?!?!? There are delivery services, and it doesn’t cost that much.

          Americans will find any excuse to justify their lazy entitled bullshit.

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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    13 days ago

    I flat-out refuse to do business with any that requires I use an app. I won’t even scan a QR code for a restaurant menu; that’s my cue to go eat elsewhere.

    • enkers@sh.itjust.works
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      13 days ago

      I don’t mind the whole online menu thing. It’s probably an environmental net positive, but it’s bs if they don’t have ANY physical copies for those who can’t or don’t want to for whatever reason.

      If they wanted me to install something, though, that’d be a 100% instant nope.

      • tabular@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        An online menu requires power to be used (on people’s phones and the server). Is that really a minor contribution in comparison to printing paper and maybe laminating it?

        • taladar@sh.itjust.works
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          12 days ago

          Considering your average printer is a piece of shit that needs to be replaced quite often, yes, using a website is probably more energy efficient.

          • minibyte@sh.itjust.works
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            12 days ago

            Most companies will be using laser printers, some of which may outlive me. Toner is cheap and lasts an age.

            Inkjet printers are cheap for a reason. They’re a scam.

          • timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works
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            12 days ago

            That and those servers are going to be running anyway. Powering a simple restaurant website is a grain of sand on the beach of internet usage.

            • enkers@sh.itjust.works
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              12 days ago

              Yeah, exactly. If you’re worried about the power draw to host a few hundred KB PDF file, you probably shouldn’t be using Lemmy, because scrolling through your feed probably uses 100x that in energy costs.

              You have to remember that the shared hosting or aws, or wherever is going to be cheapest to host a simple website is also going to be very power efficient. Wasting power is just throwing away free money, and if there’s one thing corporations don’t do, it’s throw away free money.

            • tabular@lemmy.world
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              12 days ago

              In fairness neither have I - though I suspect it’s not as insignificant as others have claimed.

              • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                12 days ago

                It’s not insignificant at all. Servers are beefy and take more power than a standard PC… a lot more. Further, failover servers mean you have to have exact copies of the same server up and available, which means you’re doubling, tripling, quadrupling power demands. Finally, you also have to have Uninterruptible Power Supplies, those take an amount of power as well.

                It’s a huge power draw. I know because I have a bunch of low-power devices runnig 24/7 as microservices and it still increase my power bill and use by a lot. I regularly get letters from the power company about how I’m using like 3x the power of the average person in my type of unit.

                • drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  12 days ago
                  1. You can host a webserver on a Raspberry Pi. I don’t know what you’re doing with your setup but you absolutely do not need hundreds of watts to serve a few hundred KB worth of static webpage or PDF file. This website is powered by a 30 watt solar panel attached to a car battery on some guy’s apartment balcony. As of writing its at 71% charge.

                  2. An Ampere Altra Max CPU has 128 ARM cores (the same architecture that a raspberry pi uses), with a 250 watt max TDP. That works out to about 2 watts per core. Each of those cores is more than enough to serve a little static webpage on its own, but in reality since a lot of these sites get less than 200 hits per day the power cost can be amortized over thousands of them, and the individual cores can go to sleep if there’s still not enough work to do. Go ahead and multiply that number by 4 for failover if you want, its still not a lot. (Not that the restaurant knows or cares about any of this, all this would be decided by a team of people at a massive IT company that the restaurant bought webpage hosting from).

    • CubitOom@infosec.pub
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      12 days ago

      The funny thing about qr codes for restaurant menus to me, as someone that studied menu design. Is that actual menus are designed specific ways make the restaurant more profit and make it easier for people to find what they want. Whereas qr codes often bring one to a hastily designed list of categories which are not only less intuitive but also less manipulative. So people will end up taking longer to order less profitable dishes.

      • Ulrich@feddit.org
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        12 days ago

        I’ve been to some that try to upsell you during the checkout process. Big pop up comes up “Add x to your order for $y.99!” Shut the fuck up!

        • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          11 days ago

          One of these seems to be one of the best ways to order pizza from Papa John’s.

          They usually have a special for a Large Pizza for pickup, and at the checkout, you can ignore the add-ons and choose “make it extra large” and it’s the best deal I’ve seen for papa johns XL pizza.

    • tiramichu@lemm.ee
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      12 days ago

      Scan QR code. Order on your phone. Pay on your phone. Asks for a tip.

      So uh, what exactly am I tipping you here for dawg?

      • glitchdx@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        that stuff is nice as an option. There’s a bar I go to that I can order my food and drink to the table my friends are at, while I’m walking to the place, and everything just arrives shortly after I sit down. Other people get offended about how fast I get served, it’s always amusing. I also enjoy not interacting with the staff, nothing against them, brain just doesn’t brain sometimes.

        But what if I didn’t have a phone? or if I left home without it? 24/7 pocket rectangle is not natural.

          • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            11 days ago

            Can confirm. Brother had his phone stuck in LA for 2 weeks.

            • Hard time signing into some sites as they only had text for 2 factor
            • Modern alarm clocks are awful, you only get two options and must be plugged in, so if you want 3 alarms while you’re outside of your house? Fuck you.
            • Harder to track public bus routes as not only can you not call dispatch, you can’t check with the app.

            There’s probably more but those affected him the most. Genuinely weird that in 2025 alarm clocks are stuck in 1985.

    • grooving@lemmy.studio
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      12 days ago

      Worst thing about qr menus for me is that when I finally order, I have to give my phone number and address. Bro, I’m sitting across from the kitchen and just want dumplings. Why I gotta dox myself for that?

  • CubitOom@infosec.pub
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    12 days ago

    If you don’t have a smart phone in the US, even temporally, your almost a second class citizen.

    Then if you don’t install corporate apps on your phone, there are even more problems for you.

    • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      11 days ago

      I remember this being true almost as soon as smart phones and QR codes were invented. There were so many things you just couldn’t do as easily if you didn’t have one. Even in 2006.

  • daggermoon@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    I’m young and I fucking hate apps. I have android phone without a google account which works well for the most part. I’m too dumb to install LineageOS. and Linux phones aren’t really an option in the US.

  • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pub
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    12 days ago

    Phone apps are nothing more than modern toolbars. And in case you forgot or missed this phase of the internet…

    • AstralPath@lemmy.ca
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      12 days ago

      Click to win a FREE LOBSTER Dinner 🦀🦞🦐

      Man I miss this era of the internet. It truly felt like a new frontier.

    • techforwhat@lemmy.today
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      11 days ago

      Could you expand on that thought a bit more? How is an app like the internet tool bars of old?

      Genuinely curious. I’m a little too young to have experienced internet toolbars like the ones in your image.

      • alekwithak@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        Every service and site had their own malicious toolbar they’d ask you to install and / or* sneak it into the install for other software. They also came loaded with malware and or siphoned data from you. Older/more tech illiterate people would have browsers looking like the picture above and come to you wondering why their computer is so slow or why they keep getting viruses.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          11 days ago

          Plus the even simpler: apps are like browser “toolbars” because they’re just a veneer to collect more data, add more tracking, appear to be useful without actually benefitting the user over a simple web page

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      Then you could agree with any barely computer-savvy person that such things should be killed with fire.

      Now a lot of very competent person will try to persuade you how you are a luddite and wrong, except 5-10 years ago they’d also promise some bright tech future in addition to that, and now you’re just wrong because they can exist in that environment and like it, and you can’t.

      • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pub
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        12 days ago

        you can’t.

        Can, but refuse. Big distinction for me. I’ve lived through these arguments once already, and have watched their computers keel over and die several time from the viruses these toolbars often bring, and I will now watch as their phones do the same.

  • dukeofdummies@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    I for one cheer and root for my flip phone friends.

    I’d never do it, but we have one at work and he’s singlehandedly causing so much grief at work. Because none of the engineers wanna use a security app for login. They want a fob.

    IT refuses to pay for fobs and wants us to use an app, but they also don’t want to pay for a phone for anyone in engineering just to use the security app because it opens a floodgate of people with company phones.

    It’s just wonderful to watch this fight from the sidelines sipping tea.

    • DeaDvey@lemmy.ml
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      11 days ago

      I have no smartphone and am unable to access any of my college resources or email from home because you need a security app for remote login. I’ve got in trouble a few times for it but idk what I’m supposed to do. I wasn’t able to access my Exam Timetable because of this and had to ask some friends when the exams were because my teachers didn’t know (somehow). It’s very annoying.

      Edit:

      It also took a few weeks of difficulty to get the free bus pass the college gives out as they only gave it out on the bus pass app, I have a card that you scan, I’ve never had any issues with the card and yet EVERY day people complain about the app not working as you need an internet connection (in an area with dodgy internet) for the app and the app is apparently not very good in other areas. I think people are starting to get jealous of my bus pass card.

      • toynbee@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        You could install an android emulator on your personal computer then run the authenticator from there.

          • toynbee@lemmy.world
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            11 days ago

            The OC said in a different comment that you must be on the college network to set it up.

            You don’t need to tag me, by the way; I get a notification if someone responds to me directly.

        • DeaDvey@lemmy.ml
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          11 days ago

          The authenticator requires you to be in the college’s network to set it up for the first time and I don’t have a laptop.

        • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          11 days ago

          BRB pulling up to a QR code scanner with my 15 inch thinkpad w520 running on 92whr of battery consuming literal watts of power because it’s from 2012.

          Hopefully i’m not an inconvenience.

    • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 days ago

      I’d never do it, but we have one at work and he’s singlehandedly causing so much grief at work.

      tell him the funny internet man that replied to you told him that he was based and that we collectively appreciate his efforts of basedness.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        Presumably they’re expensive and someone needs to manage them.

        My company’s approach is “we’ll pay your phone bill if you use an Authenticator app on your phone.” Cheaper for them, plus they don’t need to buy company phones or fobs, and who’s going to complain about their phone bill getting paid?

        A previous company tried similar but required putting your phone under enterprise management. A lot of us disagreed with that

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
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            11 days ago

            Well, my old company sure made a ridiculous profit selling them. You may be looking at the cost per fob hardware, but not including the management cost. They are much more expensive than an authentication app, plus authentication apps are mostly managed by someone else, and you don’t have distribution overhead

      • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        My job does this too. It’s literally just cost cutting. The fobs expire and need to be replaced every so often but the app lasts “forever”.

        IMO the fobs pay for themselves because what they are spending on fobs is the same as what they’re spending on IT members answering calls all day for employees that are having login issues with the app.

        • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works
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          11 days ago

          I worked a job where I had to have an app that tracked me wherever I went. I finally had to tell my boss I couldn’t use it anymore because it was killing my battery in like 3 hours.

          If I was still working and a job wanted me to put an app on my personal phone I’d tell them to go fuck themselves.

          Just another way capitalists thieve money from its workers.

    • commander@lemmings.world
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      11 days ago

      I for one cheer and root for my flip phone friends.

      Why are you cheering for a lack of self-control?

      Smartphones are great. You just need to be smart enough to not let them use you.

      It should put into perspective who is a useful idiot, and who is not.

  • ladfrombrad 🇬🇧@lemdro.id
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    12 days ago

    I literally had to switch bank accounts because I couldn’t reset my password “on the web” and required me to use Virgin Money’s app.

    Customer service agent(s) on the phone after prolonged discussions why their app wouldn’t work on three Android phones right in front of me surfaced, and I shit you not

    Well sir, I have my iPhone here and can login just fine maybe you should buy one of those instead

    That day I found out about this

    https://www.currentaccountswitch.co.uk/

        • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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          12 days ago

          So am so tired of people crying about it.

          JFC just ask mom and dad for the down payment… Can’t you holdna a steady job?!

          • ladfrombrad 🇬🇧@lemdro.id
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            12 days ago

            See that’s the thing, I work far too hard and after a night shift and then getting onto a “customer support” agent reveals the cracks in our society.

            Maybe you could work harder too!

            • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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              12 days ago

              Everyone I know works pretty hard and is underpaid but the teeveeue keeps saying nobody wants to work.

              Deep inside I know the teevee never lies 🤡

              • ladfrombrad 🇬🇧@lemdro.id
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                12 days ago

                It was the sheer arrogance of that “supervisor” I escalated it to and I hate to think how someone like a pensioner would’ve dealt with them that day wanting to access their bank account, especially since all the local branches have been closed 👺

                RIP Yorkshire Bank

    • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      11 days ago

      Your switch is guaranteed

      The Current Account Switch Service makes switching your current account simple, reliable and stress-free. You could even switch with an overdraft, just speak to your new bank first.

      Over 11 million current accounts have been switched so far and over 50 banks and building societies are already part of the service.

      The Account Switch Service Guarantee means your new bank will switch your payments and transfer your balance, and your old bank will take care of closing your old account. So you don’t need to worry.

  • leadore@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    I use a dumbphone. I’m not buying a smartphone just so I can play these stupid games, and I’m not installing an app for every fucking business I interact with. I realize there will one day be a point where I won’t be able to do things I need to do without one, but until then I have no desire for one. Fortunately they haven’t made the parking meters here require a smartphone yet.

    My grocery store still uses loyalty cards for most discounts (which is irritating enough), but also has “digital coupons” that require an app so I can’t get that. Theoretically I could go to their website and print them off but that’s not worth the effort. I have to pay close attention to the price signs they put up because some of them say “with digital coupon” in small print, meaning “not for you, bitch”. You know who doesn’t pull this kind of shit? Walmart. So I wind up getting a lot of my groceries there so as not to be discriminated against.

    • AlwaysNurture@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      11 days ago

      Flipphones… I want a full keyboard phone again. Maybe even a slider full keyboard. Those were the days.

      Apps… I evade most apps as much as i can or if i must use closed source apps, i will put them in a secondary profile.

        • theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          11 days ago

          Do NOT give these fucking cunts any fucking money. I was a backer for this phone on indiegogo.

          They are liars when they eventually did communicate any updates during the project. They produced around 2000 units, most of which were sent to people who backed the project years after the first backers on indiegogo because they backed on a different platform.

          Ultimately they just shut down the kickstarter giving no actual details. They stole thousands of peoples money through that. They made a product with the money people contributed to back the project and then just shuttered the project so they wouldn’t need to deliver a device to these backers.

          I didn’t realise they were now trying to sell them again but the units that did get shipped were massively out of date and barely worked as it is.

          If you want a keyboard on a phone Unihertz are about your only option right now.

          Fuck planet computers, thieving fucking cunts

          • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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            11 days ago

            It’s probably too late to do anything about it, but what you described there does directly violate Indiegogo’s TOS in regards to perks, so I’m surprised that people weren’t able to reach out to the platform itself and issue chargebacks against the Creator in order to get their backers payments back.

            They are actually obligated under the campaign owner obligations that in the case they can’t fulfill a perk, they are supposed to issue refunds to any contributor that was not fulfilled

            • theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              10 days ago

              I haven’t look at it in a while as I was pissed off that it went down the way it did. Although I personally didn’t contact indiegogo many people from the backers within the comments did so and indiegogo refused to do anything about it. So they are complicit in this theft too so by extension I wouldn’t advise anyone to use their “service” either.

              I did have a look at the campaign because of this comment and nothing has changed, lots of people still complaining about planet computers and indiegogo so it doesnt look like anyone got anywhere in terms of getting their money back.

        • AlwaysNurture@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          11 days ago

          Those are laptop keys on a phone, i have seen one of these before, i wonder if there are those with older “phone like” keyboards?

      • leadore@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        I have a flip phone with a touchscreen so I can type via the onscreen keyboard. When I bought it I wondered how well it would work since the screen is so small, but it works great! So much easier than using the keypad. BTW it also has maps with voice navigation.

    • cheers_queers@lemm.ee
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      11 days ago

      Walmart doesn’t let you use contactless pay unless you use their app. several times now I’ve gone there to grab a few things, not realizing i didn’t have my card with me, and had to leave a full cart behind because i will not install their adware.

      • leadore@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        Walmart doesn’t let you use contactless pay unless you use their app.

        By “contactless pay” I assume you’re talking about paying by using a smartphone app? Obviously I don’t care about that because the whole point of my post is that I’m not using a smartphone, so obviously I have no apps of any kind.

        But if by “contactless pay” you meant paying with your debit card by tapping it or holding it near the card reader, yes they do have that like everyone else.

      • s_s@lemm.ee
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        11 days ago

        Back in the day, Walmart and Apple fought over contactless pay standards for the US.

        Apple’s standard was eventually mass adopted, and since then Walmart has refused to license the tech. So you have to use their app, which uses their own tech stack.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    11 days ago

    I wouldn’t mind these apps if there was actually a technical need for them beyond just being a Chromium component, but with added data slurping and pointless notifications.

    If I have to use an app to use your product/store, I won’t use your product/store, with a side helping of go fuck yourself on top.

  • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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    11 days ago

    It’s true in many ways. If I buy McDonald’s without the app I pay more for it. If I fill up my gas tank without an app like upside, I pay more for it. There are services that aren’t even available to people without modern phones (I refuse to call them smart phones). Maybe we need legislation to ensure all available discounts, services and benefits are available to customers equally regardless of how they engage services.

    • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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      10 days ago

      It costs less with the app bexause you pay with your privacy and dignity. Now tgey can A/B test your behavioural patterns like a lab rat and create models to tweedle your knobs just right for optimal value extraction at the specified satisfaction level of you type or personnal prifile.

      Then they can use what they learned against non-app users that are also human. It won’t be as accurate but they’ll probably guess your profile type just from environmental and anonymizer data footprint.

      From tge cctv camera, gait tracking, face recognition, automatic demographic analysis, the car model and plate number you came with, your vocabulary grade when talking to the clerk and of cpurse the treasure throve of data they can buy from your credit card company, they’ll be able to know you as well as if you had the app. They might even end up knowing you better than yourself.

    • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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      10 days ago

      Pocket computer, phone is just an aspect of it. Surveillance capitalism monitors is what they are in the context you describe

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    11 days ago

    I’m open to hear if you guys disagree with me, but that is not simply about not having a smartphone as much as it is about not having cell service, not using data service. If a person uses a libre VoIP app, there is no need for cell service, and people actually can live happy lives disconnected from internet when they are outside or in public.

    Society must revert their mentality and not expect constant immediate access to everything. Absolutely nothing happens on the internet for personal activity that can’t wait a few hours or the next day.

    I use phone only for direct communication, zero multimedia, zero social media on phone. Everything else is done on computer. Especially banking, that is on computer website only for security, never on phone. I despise and resent using a phone for websites

    • LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works
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      11 days ago

      It is more about being able to constantly spy on everyone. Funny how this exact sentence would have labeled one as a conspiracy nut not too long ago.

      Constantly online means constant (more or less) analytics, means constant data to throw in the big computer to make you buy more shit or vote for the shit party.

      • novacomets@lemmy.myserv.one
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        11 days ago

        I think I would agree due to when I have been sitting in public somewhere with others sitting around, they have clearly been programmed by their phone, subservient to their master. I do also wonder if there is an IQ element to it. Having a lower level of personal intelligence so they have been conned into believe that they must have a phone that is connected to internet at all times everywhere.

        Spend 2 months without cell service, without mobile service, and you will see how far gone many, many people are. I’m fully serious about live without cell service for 2 months, the world does not look the way you think it does.

    • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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      11 days ago

      If a person uses a libre VoIP app, there is no need for cell service

      I don’t follow. Don’t you need internet for VoIP? Unless the point is to have a phone that gets zero connection while outside a wifi, which sounds kinda pointless?

      • novacomets@lemmy.myserv.one
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        11 days ago

        Correct, use VoIP with wi-fi service instead of cell and data. It also makes the calls untraceable for location for best privacy practices. There’s no way to trace where in the world a phone is if using wi-fi to call standard phone numbers. For personal calling, not a work phone, some people don’t care about messages and calling when they are out walking, shopping, attending events. They want to focus on the real world around them, not phone stuff.

    • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 days ago

      Society must revert their mentality and not expect constant immediate access to everything. Absolutely nothing happens on the internet for personal activity that can’t wait a few hours or the next day.

      yeah ok so, counterpoint, you pull up to an EV charging station (it’s tesla because of course it’s tesla) please show me where the card reader is. I’ll wait.

      oh but what about the non tesla charging stations you might say. those are still iffy right now, i’m hopeful they’ll improve in the future, but a lot of them have readers (that may or may not work) and a phone app (that may or may not work) also whose to say they don’t just fucking disappear.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        Bad example. Tesla chargers don’t use an app, they assume you have an account set up with a credit card on file. Most people do that through the app but I don’t think you have to. Once it’s set up, it just works with no further interaction.

        Or are you doing this as a non-Tesla customer? Yeah that’s not as smooth yet

        • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          10 days ago

          Bad example.

          what are you going to do setup android emulation so you can install the tesla app (which might not work in emulation because that’s sus, but maybe they dont have good security anyway lmao) sure, you can set it up once, but like, what do you do if your credit card is cancelled, or the app suddenly stops accepting purchases because “you haven’t been online in a week” and it’s for “security purposes” or some other stupid shit like that. This is the entire reason card based payment exists lmao. Why are we just reinventing it.

          i guess theoretically if it’s a webapp you could do it on the browser, but then like, how is it going to link information back to you personally? Unless you own a tesla, where you basically just save your payment info on the car directly at that point. Maybe they will invent credit card 2 electric boogaloo. Are they going to start installing NFC/RFID into charging ports for payment link info? Seems silly to me.

          If you own a non tesla, this is as you mentioned, a huge issue, considering that NACS is the charging standard for all of north america now.

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            Worst case scenario, call support to put a credit card on file with your account. This is what I did when I ran into problems with the app (turns out I was too eager trying to use it before they were done setting me up).

            When you use a supercharger, at least as a Tesla, there is a handshake where your car identifies what account to use, then it just works

            You definitely lose a lot of convenience features if you don’t use the app, but I believe you can do it, if you want it enough

            Edit: just use a web browser. I verified I can login through my web browser to manage my account, my products, my payment method. Not the car features though. I have no idea if this is new, but just use any web browser

            • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              9 days ago

              i’m really not sure how the non tesla super charger experience looks, that concerns me. Though i assume that must be a somewhat solve problem, if people are using it so.

              just use a web browser. I verified I can login through my web browser to manage my account, my products, my payment method. Not the car features though. I have no idea if this is new, but just use any web browser

              that’s good, there should definitely be some available features for the card, but you can at least handle payment. Though i would still prefer not needing to provide my payment info to a third party anywhere except for time of transaction. Just opens me up to more bullshit.

              • AA5B@lemmy.world
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                9 days ago

                For sure. Most of my objection is when the purpose is automatic renewal of subscriptions (which ought to be treated as a type of theft because it’s non consensual stealing my money), and at least it’s not that.

                My credit card does rotate the numbers a bit but I keep meaning to find one that can generate different virtual cards per service so I can turn a virtual card off when they get abusive with it or when they leak it

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    everyone wants to force you to use apps instead of websites, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of apps are just websites…in a app wrapper, because normal websites and normal browsers have inbuilt protections for you.

    Apps don’t.

    Idiots install apps, give them the 400,000 permissions they ask for, then go on their merry way…ignorant to the fact that they just installed a data vacuum on their phone thats siphoning everything off of it to be used and sold and resold for marketing purposes… Even the phone itself its not safe, cause its sitting there, listening to your conversations, even when not on a call, to more “Accurately” spam you with bullshit.

  • tabular@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    Even if you did want apps the majority only offer it from 1 of the 2 popular repositories (" stores "). It’s a shame they do not have a way to track that lost sale.