I have GrapheneOS on my Pixel and I experience this notification issue.

I felt nostalgic and was playing Beatles Rock Band on my 360. The dlc I bought couldnt be accessed in-game or through my purchase history (which had a lot of content unavailable in it). Most other stuff was there it seemed.

Except now many loyalty cards are now required to get sale prices that were previously available without them. It is a bleak world where folks have to potentially choose between affording groceries and protecting their privacy.

“at no additional cost” - my bill went up nearly 25% in January. Their generosity is underwhelming.

Ah well - supporting the dev isn’t the worst possible outcome. It sure does make me happy to not see the Google ads regardless.

It doesn’t even matter if Gamepass or Xbox is currently profitable or not. It’s about whether it can be more profitable. They originally thought the path to that was through exclusivity - now they don’t (just as Sony changed course in regards to putting stuff on PC). Anyone who thinks that corporate decision-making is ever based on anything else is being naive.

The practical concern here for me is at what point does MS find it most profitable to stop supporting my ability to use my accumulated physical and digital xbox software. Another reason walled gardens suck.

I just got Projectivy Launcher. You need to get premium (one-time 7.25 cost) to set it as the default but it has some nice customizations. Works great on my Shield and a Google TV.

It went up like four bucks this month for me this past month. I feel like I am in a no-win situation. I want to support the authors of the videos and music I like, make the platform sustainable, and I hate ads and data harvesting. There doesn’t seem to be reasonable way to satisfy all three objectives (or even two).

I just moved from a Samsung - migration was a lot of manual work for me. Whether it’s worth it depends on how much the increased security and control are worth to you. They were to me - I haven’t had any issues otherwise.

Fury Road being made was a miracle driven by Miller’s unstoppable vision - it went through three studios. At one point it was two weeks away from shooting with Mel Gibson like ten years before it was actually shot. It really is an inspiring story of perserverence.

Recently read Blood Sweat and Chrome about the making of Fury Road - Furiosa was written during the decades long production of that movie. Originally was going to be an anime tie-in like the Animatrix but they thought it was too good not to save for a movie.