Nope. See this article in the Economist, "Grand Theft Global".[1]
What happens to the stolen phones? They're shipped in bulk to Huaqiangbei market in Shenzhen, there to be taken apart, reset, repaired, parts replaced, and resold to people in China who can't afford new phones.
The amusing thing is that the phones were probably originally built in Shenzhen.
It's worse than motor memory (no thought required) gesture, because it requires a more expensive non-motor-memory physical movement that depends on context of the human. Face ID requires moving and orienting phone close enough for the Face ID sensor to capture a 3D image of face and moving eyes for attention, so it's a function of both phone and human position.
TouchID is context free: grab phone and touch button in fixed position. By the time the phone has turned to facing the user, it is already unlocked.
Stop what? Showing ads? They have to fund it somehow, there will always be ads. Most users aren't willing to pay for anything on the internet, and unfortunately revenue is required to run anything at scale. You can charge users, show ads, or maybe get funding from Saudis.
So just track you on the back end instead? I don't know what that really changes. If you mean to say just not track you at all and show you untargeted ads, well they are worth less, so they'll have to blast you with more of them.
Why be cryptic and weird when you can just plainly say whatever it is that you actually mean? Communicate clearly, nobody knows what the f you're on about.
Mine is a common opinion within this community. I won't deny that I was short in my replies but it is hard to know what is over-explaining in this context.
Additionally, it seems that "tracking with javascript" is pretty much exactly the topic of these comments so I'm not sure why I should not have assumed that it would be clear what I meant, especially when my first comment was explicitly about YouTube tracking on the back end.
Any credible evidence that they get enough money from the sponsorships to be considered fully funded by them? Or that ground news uses influence over these channels?
I can throw a dart and hit a random podcast that has been sponsored by blue chew for years, but that doesn't mean said podcast is funded by them or bends to their whims.
Why would thet be a conspiracy theory. The public facing guy who is behind Warfronts has 4 other channels that peddle content unrelated to natsec/warfare. If you follow "cappy army" and the drama he went through at "task and purpose" his former employer it becomes pretty clear that there are entire media companies behind what looks like "a single hobbyist content creator expat living in Prague" ...
That doesn't just target sponsor segments. It's for stuff commonly skipped. Like annoying parts of videos. Some video game guy I occasionally watching thinks he needs to sing for some reason, very useful for skipping those sections.
The people monthly payment plans target are not able to afford the thing because they bought 30 other things on monthly payment plans in the past year and can't keep track of all the monthly payments they're owing until it's too late. That's the intent and why they're so popular now. It's why DoorDash is getting in on the action, so people will buy a Taco Bell delivery with a tempting price tag of only $4 at the time of purchase, multiple times a week for months until you owe hundreds of dollars.
Regardless of who they target, I'm taking free financing any day of the week. It's like credit cards which I've received huge value from, and I've never carried a balance in over 30 years of use.
I'd rather optimize my $20 running shorts around my $1000 phone than the other way around tbh. No phone is comfortable in the pocket when running though, I used to use an arm strap and more recently just take the watch.
I carry two phones on me and if I run with just my SE it is comfortable enough to run with
But its not about optimisation it's about freedom. I don't enjoy having to baby around a lumbering 6 inch phone. I want my phone to optimise around me being able to not worrying about a brick sagging in my shorts.
The horizontal rear waistband zipper pocket on Patagonia Strider Pro running shorts genuinely makes my phone not noticeable at all during runs, unlike any other shorts I’ve tried. My experience is limited to smaller phones (6S, 12 Mini) without any cases, though.
largely don't exist because you can't do anything with the phone without the owner's password to reset it