… I didn’t say they can’t do so. I said they’re allowed not to. Since it’s allowed, that’s what they do.

Because they’re allowed not to do so. The answer is shitty yet simple.

Someone not tipping won’t change that either; all that will do is stiff a worker. This needs to be fixed by changing labor laws.

Service charge I would presume is primarily paid out to the non-wait staff at the restaurant. The kitchen in particular.
Tips go to the wait staff, and they will pay some of that out to other staff (e.g. front staff) depending on how the restaurant works.

These are going to be separate. The service charge is there so they can increase prices by a tightly controlled amount without needing to fuck up the carefully targeted price points ($8 or $7.99 is a lot better than $9.44). Which is shitty, to be clear: it’s a hidden way to increase prices while still advertising the same price. But it’s not something that replaces or complements the tip, it’s just a shitty price-adjustment.

A waiter or waitress is still going to be dependent on the actual tip.

Yeah you can usually turn it off, but it’s still annoying.

I bought a mechanical keyboard that I otherwise really like. But it came with full RGB on it. I can disable the rainbow pattern it does by default with the software, but the manufacturer cheaped out and didn’t include onboard memory for settings. I didn’t realize this would ever be an issue so I didn’t look for it when buying… The end result is that every time my computer turns on, my keyboard looks like it’s trying to summon a leprechaun, and that only stops once Windows has loaded the software up in the background.

The logistical cost to have separate connectors in two different markets would hit the multi-million dollar range. The financial benefit to Apple of not adopting USB-C in any given market cannot be that significant. It comes down to accessory license fees. Apple is losing that market with losing Lightning, but Apple’s image would take a hit from bisecting their connector across markets (“It just works” being their reputation and all — any unnecessary complexity harms that).

It’s really hard to imagine it being worth it to Apple to make USB-C an EU-only thing. I don’t know all the numbers, so I’m not going to say impossible. I would be very surprised though.

Thought this was going to be a more specific complaint about computer hardware/accessories. So much of the high end stuff is just littered with bullshit RGB lighting. Coolers, GPUs, keyboards, mice, monitors, case fans, even fucking RAM sticks! It’s insane.

For general appliances my complaint wouldn’t be the single LED on it but the brightness. Like you I cover up the bright ones with electrical tape. It wouldn’t even cost them any extra money to make it lighter. Just requires a different resistor value.

Pro Max prices have been static since their introduction with the 11: $1100 for the base model. Pro models have also been static at $1000, although this article only mentions Pro Max price increases.

That’s a big part of why I’m going to upgrade from my 12 mini.

Also looking forward to better battery life and the higher resolution camera (which if I remember right was mostly for low light pictures?).

Convenience fee is the best name they can apply to soften a fee, which is really just a way for them to charge more than the list price.

Fees should be universally folded into the list price by default.

I have an iphone 12 mini and hope to upgrade to a 15 Pro this year.

What I’m looking forward to:

• Better battery life. The 12 mini’s battery isn’t that great and the 1st gen 5G chips were quickly improved upon.
• USB C. Means all my chargeable devices would be on a single cable.
• The upgraded camera that was introduced in the 14.
• The A17 SoC in the 15 is expected to be the first major upgrade in a while. The SoC in the 14 was held back by TSMC’s N3 being delayed, and the SoC in the 13 was a decent but not great upgrade.

None of those particularly apply to you. I was on android before my 12 mini and what I like most about the change is: the interface is snappier, most apps are built for ios first and android second and generally that means you can rely on having a working version of the app. Also the biggest reason for me to make the switch: Apple supports their phones for 5+ years will full updates, not just security. I think android has seen improvement on that front since I switched, but still isn’t at the same level of software support.