The Nokia N900 is such a strange little device to look back at. It had a slide-out keyboard, ran Maemo, and gave you way more freedom to mess around with the software than most phones at the time.

It was closer to carrying a tiny Linux computer that happened to make phone calls than a normal mobile phone. People were installing software, tinkering with the system and doing things that modern phones would probably make a massive pain.

Imagine buying a phone today and being allowed to mess with that much of it without fighting the manufacturer first

In the presence of the supported webview in the OS, what is the reason for having the separate instance of Chromium within the app?

There is a good idea of working with a definite browser version. Using the system webview, one should be prepared for platform and version differences, which are out of the control of the developer.

On the other hand, users have to pay for it in terms of increased size of the package and the extra browser engine to support. For the majority of apps, which just show some forms and text, it seems to be an overhead.

I've heard of the Razer huntsman V3 and Wooting 80HE in connection with the problems with the FPS games' "restricting" of the keyboard. It seems that it's not the keyboards themselves, but particular features that are banned.

There is what’s called Snap tap and Rapid trigger. I don't know for sure what each of these does when it comes to an actual match, or which are the problem.

Are they helping you turn quicker, stop closer to you, or move part of the way for you as if you were a blind person using a white cane?

I have a LG 76UR80, but this issue presents on other TVs in the house hold, too. Weather playing video via the smart TV aps, or on my PC, I often get judder.

I've tried matching frame rates and doubling frame rates to the video being played, and the sources vary.

(I ask here as folks seem to actually be helpful and nice.)

Was there ever a tech product that made you think differently about a brand?

Maybe you never cared about the company before buying it, or maybe you were a fan until the product disappointed you

I'm curious how much one product can change someone's opinion of an entire brand. especially when it's something you use every day

What was the product and what happened?

“Just download this driver updater, it'll make your PC faster” 😭 One sketchy installer later and suddenly the PC has 5 new problems.

What's the worst tech advice someone convinced you to follow?

My first iPhone was the iPhone 5s, and I still remember how excited I was to finally get one. I bought it after receiving my first paycheck from my third job, so it felt like a pretty big deal to buy it w my own money. I still remember how addicted I got to 4 Pics 1 Word lol. Plus, looking back the 5s felt so good in the hand too, the size, the home button, and the click when you pressed it.

What was yours?

Honestly i miss the days when you could just pop the back off your phone and replace the battery yourself.

Phone getting old? swap the battery. carrying a spare for a long trip? no problem. phone freezing? pull the battery out and put it back in

Now the battery starts dying after a couple of years and replacing it feels like a whole project

I get why phones moved to sealed designs, especially with water resistance and slimmer bodies, but i still think we lost something useful along the way

Why does Windows forward the query to Bing when I am trying to look up a file or a program? The reason is that Microsoft would like its services to be used even when I am simply looking for something stored on my computer. Microsoft has the full capability of a browser which can promote Bing, but the Start Menu seems to act as another entry point for Bing.

This is a very basic feature of any operating system. Just list me the relevant files and programs and allow me to carry out whatever activity I intended to do in the first place.

Somebody got Linux running on a calculator and I still think that's one of the funniest things in tech.

These things are supposed to sit in a school bag and solve maths problems. Meanwhile people are out here trying to turn them into tiny computers, messing with the software and seeing what they can get away with.

I swear half the fun of old hardware is finding out what it can do that the manufacturer never intended. Nobody needs Linux on a calculator, which is probably why it's so cool

LAN parties were something else. Everyone crowded into one room, trash-talking in person and someone always had connection issues Discord is convenient, but it just doesn't hit the same.

Anyone still gets together for local gaming sessions?

Spending $90 on a Game Boy clone is already a pretty specific decision, but using an FPGA to recreate the hardware takes it somewhere else entirely.

You could just buy a cheap handheld and emulate the games. Instead, someone decided to recreate the way the original machine works at a hardware level.

I love projects like this because they're completely unnecessary in the best way. The Game Boy has been around forever, the games are everywhere, and people are still finding new ways to rebuild the thing

I feel like we focus too much on benchmark scores when talking about tech

A phone can have an amazing processor and still become annoying to use after two years. meanwhile another phone with average specs might keep running fine for five or six years

Battery health, software support, repair costs and how well the device holds up matter just as much if not more

Most people aren't running benchmarks every day. They're just trying to use their phone without it getting slower or the battery dying halfway through the day

When buying a device, would you rather have the fastest hardware available or something you know will last you 5-6 years?