Subscription for your OWN things?

I mentioned this in a recent thread, but this is insane.

If this is allowed to continue, we'll be locked in or out of things we pay good money for. Pay a subscription or lose functionality. It's already started, it has to be stopped somewhere. I put this in the science and tech forum, because .. well, it's tech.

Can someone justify this?

I'm subscribed to him actually
What he says about the phones , needing to be replaced entirely because if the battery fails and the battery can't be replaced, how hypocritical of these companies!
They are soooooooo worried about 'climate change' and the environment , how is this acceptable when it just adds to the current landfills ?
Yes to the 'right to repair' , that should be standard and obvious!
I will never pay for a 'subscription' to use some stupid feature , F that!

a reply to: jerich0

Windows 11.

Cheers

a reply to: jerich0

There was a thread awhile back about this bullsnip being used in cars.
Car Companies going too far Subscription for Heated Seats

BMW wanting people to pay a subscription for the software that controls...

features like advanced driver assistance systems, augmented sports exhaust sounds, adaptive M suspension and, yes, heated seats, could be offered on a subscription basis, with periods mentioned ranging from one month to three years.

www.forbes.com...

Microsoft has been leading the subscription service for a while, lots of other tech services getting into it. Yeah, it is sad and troubling to see this getting applied to cars. The philosophy of J. P. Morgan helped set this standard, if he could not put a meter on an electrical power system, he would rather shut it down.

Guess it is part of the dark side with capitalism. The self correcting nature of capitalism may eventually sort it out as where people put their money decides on which business grow.

For a business taking this path, can see how the reoccurring payments look enticing for economic stability. There is also a risk as competition by other suppliers will provide a competitive advantage to them if they don't have such conditions with their sales.

John Deer tractors have already gone down this path a while back with its only authorized service personal working on the tractor. Without the tractor getting that verified software update, it ain't going anywhere.

For business that have a monopoly it does make it a lot easier to force such conditions on its customers.

a reply to: ancientlight

Absolutely. But if things keep going the way they are, we will not have a choice but to not use anything. Give me back my old nokia dumb phone, if only the networks would support it.

Subscribe to use what you own and have paid for? hehe, not in my life, I'll pay for a service. Not something I own.

originally posted by: F2d5thCavv2
a reply to: jerich0

Windows 11.

Cheers

I've .. haha.. never paid for windows in my life. Yet somehow I am using windows 10 and have a verified M$ account. Might be from when I worked in IT and we were given free for all serial numbers, which I used. idk... but W10 is terrible enough with all the updates, be a long time before I hit 11. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Especially if I have to change everything to go there.

a reply to: BrokenCircles

Bloody hell... that's beyond insane. Heated seats? What next, the air con? That day will come, I'm sure. You know, I'll just either wind the window down, or up. F that noise.

a reply to: kwakakev

This is why we need hackers. Not for nefarious reasons, but ethical ones.

The day they start putting people in jail for using their own property as they see fit, is when I hope tshtf.

a reply to: jerich0

To be clear: I personally am totally against this...


However, there is one thing mentioned in the Forbes article that does make it somewhat understandable from the Companies point of view..

On the production line this makes some sense. It is likely more cost-efficient for BMW to send the same highly-specified cars down the production line, complete with the hardware of those aforementioned features fitted and ready to go, instead of making each car to the buyer’s exact requirements. Buyers can then use the feature if they ticked the box on ordering, or forget it existed if they didn’t.

www.forbes.com...

The way I see it, if it is already in the car then that means you already paid for it, but I do kinda get how it might make a little bit of sense from the business standpoint.

Building houses in the cloud just means eventually it will burst.

Some people have already lost good money in placing their trust in cloud services.

What is the cloud? It is basically the same thing as what Napster was it is file sharing protocol where every one's computer that has logged or signed up for whatever it is becomes a user network that shares the information or server load but not the whole thing just bits and pieces core to whatever it is that add up to one whole.

Best thought of as an electromagnet where the iron core and the amount of batteries involved boost the magnetic response or bandwidth or GHz potential where one user in millions is a small ping but usually will be bogged in bandwidth due to all the other users wanting in they likely have 100% of the program and those with !% trying to download out of those millions are killing that persons other functions until of course several thousands are at 100% to share the volume load.

It is known to some people a use net.

But fyi there are way more people that built most of the internet and it's base that want it to remain free and also open source not some closed off maze where corporate entities(Democratic governments) try to treat it like it is a republic(dictatorship governments) for profit only basis or closed source.

Information sharing is the very foot core or basis for all of the internet/use net as a philosophy there would be no internet without that as that is what built it sustains it and maintains it at its very core.

There is not any money in it there is an idea that there is but that money rolls over all back into itself and rarely does any digital exchange see a printer as cold hard cash or dollars meaning most all of the worlds online currency is digital and not really based on anything like a mortgage being the same thing as a domain name sitting there either that piece of property is worth its value or not.

When I hear some website was to be purchased for billions how does anyone not find that funny? Such sales occur and less than three years avg the entire website falls apart after being sold. So how is it or was it worth billions? The users information the same way a major social networking site does not hide how or whom it's money comes from... some websites allow users to sell or market themselves and pay them instead of corporate snooping and selling that persons history through cookie tracking.

Such a thing arose in politics called super pacs where corporate interests and entities where trying to call themselves "family" just because a majority or people bought their crap... and then started trying to incorporate America through corruption of tying to basically buy every county in every state and such a thing was tied to all the voting scandal and the political donors.

The right to vote was superseded by people saying you needed to be affiliated with some party to do so... No everyone by the constitution of the united states has a right to vote period... forcing party affiliation to do so? Constitutionally illegal.

I have thought for a long time now that leasing / subscription will replace private car ownership, maybe within the next few years. The sudden increases in fuel prices (blamed first on Covid19 issues and now Russia) and the push to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles in favour of electric only will only hasten this plan.
Unfortunately, they will never be able to produce the charging infrastructure for everyone or the generated power to cope and I see this as part of the WEF plan to have us owning nothing being happy! Given the high cost of electric vehicles, a large portion of the workforce will be priced out of ownership and possibly even a subscription service too.

There are already lease / rental / subscription services in most business sectors and this will only increase rapidly over the next few years, with the big corporations providing the services being free to gouge customers, to provide an even bigger return to the big three investment firms that already own most of them - State Street, Blackrock and Vanguard!

Maybe they need another plandemic to get rid of the underclass that will not be able to afford their services first!

originally posted by: Britguy
I have thought for a long time now that leasing / subscription will replace private car ownership, maybe within the next few years.

This seems to be the only way this could all tie together. For example. Let's say you buy the Mercedes where the rear axle can also steer if you pay a subscription. You purchase the car and don't care or want that feature. Eventually, there is going to be a problem with some aspect of the mechanics of the feature...even if you aren't using it. Parts will wear out or have a problem. If you have purchased the car...who will be responsible to pay for those repairs? I don't think I would be happy to be repairing parts I'm locked out of using. If the company just charged you a lease fee which includes service, possibly based on miles driven, that would solve that friction point between the customer and the company.

originally posted by: BrokenCircles
a reply to: jerich0

To be clear: I personally am totally against this...


However, there is one thing mentioned in the Forbes article that does make it somewhat understandable from the Companies point of view..

On the production line this makes some sense. It is likely more cost-efficient for BMW to send the same highly-specified cars down the production line, complete with the hardware of those aforementioned features fitted and ready to go, instead of making each car to the buyer’s exact requirements. Buyers can then use the feature if they ticked the box on ordering, or forget it existed if they didn’t.

www.forbes.com...

The way I see it, if it is already in the car then that means you already paid for it, but I do kinda get how it might make a little bit of sense from the business standpoint.

Well continue with that thought experiment...
What happens when they do that but.... No one subscribes... Does it still make sense?

To me it sounds like gambling that they spend all this money making every car have extras.... In hopes that some will subscribe.... But lose A LOT of money if everyone decides they just want the basic package

originally posted by: BrokenCircles

There was a thread awhile back about this bullsnip being used in cars.
Car Companies going too far Subscription for Heated Seats

Car makers, for the most part, have not been very good tech companies. Recently a pretty significant vulnerability had been found in certain keyless entry systems, and the industry's response has been "meh" and "we're not fixing it". That culture won't fly with costly Internet-based subscription services.

originally posted by: kwakakev
Without the tractor getting that verified software update, it ain't going anywhere.

... and quite literally.

In this area a large tractor and digger had stalled out in the middle of a highway intersection, with one of the three digital screens helpfully advising "Call dealer".

Somehow the farmer fiddled with controls and got the thing moved out of traffic. But without that dealer laptop plugged into it there was literally nothing he could do.

a reply to: ancientlight

Sure you will. When it's the only way....

We pay $125 a month for a sub Serv...to show us all the movies and channels...that we still...have 2 pay for....it's a racket now, worse than before across the board w "necessary" subscriptions...or you don't get it.

originally posted by: jerich0
a reply to: BrokenCircles

Bloody hell... that's beyond insane. Heated seats? What next, the air con? That day will come, I'm sure. You know, I'll just either wind the window down, or up. F that noise.

You won't be able to roll them down.
They control those too 😬

originally posted by: F2d5thCavv2
a reply to: jerich0

Windows 11.

Cheers

XBOX Live too.

This is why I have been a PC gamer for the last twenty years.

originally posted by: mysterioustranger
a reply to: ancientlight

Sure you will. When it's the only way....

We pay $125 a month for a sub Serv...to show us all the movies and channels...that we still...have 2 pay for....it's a racket now, worse than before across the board w "necessary" subscriptions...or you don't get it.

There is a difference between paying for an ongoing service, and something that you own already. If you have all that you need to make something do a thing, there should not be a fee to make it do so. Different to new content, or different things.

I don't subscribe to be able to walk, I walk. But if I opt into driving a car, I pay registration fees. Not the best analogy, but close.