Apple to Start Using Its Own Screens in 2024

[DVDR_Dog]

More proprietary bits and pieces for Apple to keep under their control? Break a screen on an iPhone, iPad or iMac? You are going to have to go to Apple to purchase a replacement. The EU should have a field day with this one. I know Apple is a hardware manufacturer and that's their sole source of major income but this is pushing it.
Read about it at Bloomberg

 

[Hotrod369]

More proprietary bits and pieces for Apple to keep under their control? Break a screen on an iPhone, iPad or iMac? You are going to have to go to Apple to purchase a replacement. The EU should have a field day with this one. I know Apple is a hardware manufacturer and that's their sole source of major income but this is pushing it.
Read about it at Bloomberg

They want too much control over the hardware they build. The way I see it is if a drop a grand on a new Apple device I should be able to sideload anything I want to it. It's why I chucked my Roku and got a Shield TV Pro. You should be able to completely remove their OS and install a ROM you like better but no the greedy B@s!a#ds won't let you do it. Amazon is just as bad. They put an eFuse in their Firesticks to prevent you from doing that. If you change the OS after v6.2.6.8 When it reboots the script runs the eFuse blows and it's toast. Luckily I unlocked the bootloader on one of my Firesticks rooted it and installed a custom ROM before that.

 

[DVDR_Dog]

I sideload all my firesticks (lite, 4K, max 4k and my 1 cube.).I got the cube mainly b/c the high-bitrate 2160p video was overheating even the max stick. Granted I usually get all my movies primarily from the Usenet (that's right). There are some semi-private groups out there who's posts avoid DMCA take downs and have some pride in the quality of their posts. Kodi to me is a royal pain in the ass, I got tired of fiddling around and playing hide and seek. Much of the side-load stuff just ain't as good since they busted Mobdro. I sideload TVTap on all my sticks, great for all kinds of sports, network stuff is ok but not 100% reliable. I have one of those 17 boxes of mine inside my home theater. I use that for audio through my 2.1 sound setup which is really good and I run USTVGO through a browser on the i7. It gets all the live network programing and National news from many sources as well as those specialty networks for animals, home, history, discovery network, Nat Geo blah blah blah.
That pretty much covers all I need. I try to stay away from the live stuff, that's for the GF. Frankly TV commercials make me crazy on many levels.
I do have Amazon Prime for the free freight so I get all their programming although I have already seen most of the stuff I care to watch before they offer it. I had a complimentary subscription from some gaming site for like $2 for the year. It wasn't worth 2 bucks to me. I think it was Paramount+ Ho hum. Then I got a free 6 months of Disney and Hulu with commercials. Didn't reup when that ran out, not worth it to me.
I probably missed some things, those above are my main sources Jan 2023. My firesticks do what I need them to do and continue to do so. Haven't had many problems with the firestick lineup since either what I was using closed or were busted and the operators ran into the "Trap".

 

[Hotrod369]

I've got about 8k channels with my IPTV service but really only watch 4-5 channels. lol! I mostly watch all my content on my Plex Server. I can tell you the reason you don't care for Kodi. Firestick and Kodi don't play very nicely together. The firestick just can't handle the load of running kodi. Once I bought my 2019 Shield TV Pro I never looked back. I've got an HDMI switcher connected to my monitor that I connect a BuxxTVXR400 a Transpeed 8k Ultra HD and a Firestick to it. I use them for testing. I've got a custom ATV ROM flashed on the Transpeed. and the Firestick. You could get a lot more out of your Firesticks by connecting an OTG cable to it and then a USB Hub with an ethernet port on it. If you ever want to nerd out with me on Android streaming devices I game any time. I really enjoy the challenge of doing things that most people aren't and that are hard to do. I've got an app called Flakie it's similar to ADB Link but it will let you connect to and control Android devices over WAN and LAN not just LAN. This is great for family members that are always calling to have me come over because something isn't working right. I can do it all right from my PC at home.