What those drivers do is patented in the US. See MPEG licensing. VLC is based in the EU which does not have a mechanism for software patents that do not solve a physical problem (moving bits around isn’t patentable there) so they can avoid issues. Microsoft, Corel, and Nero would not be able to do that, they have assets in the US, even if it would only be a bank account.

I would not be surprised if codec licensing would not allow shipping with old and open codecs like MJPEG, Theora and AV1 with an addon for the proprietary codecs.

There is also the added advantage that half of the world’s population lives within 150 miles of the ocean, so finding personnel shouldn’t be a problem.

Seems like Phil saw them as a decent software company and a bad hardware company. Kinect, Zune, Kin, and Hololens don’t stack up to the PS Move, Walkman, Xperia, and PS VR. The Switch 2 is selling, so the execs can’t blame shrinking demand for hardware.

I think I’m doing my part but the extreme discounts in the app every two weeks mean I’m still visiting. It is a nice break from ramen.

Depends on location. It would be best to have one for each cell carrier’s network at your location +1 that is WiFi only. Therefore you can easily check where service is possible, and which one you’re going to run the battery down on. Always use different logins on each device so you can exploit multiple app-based freebies.

Note that any email can be used for a Google account, for instance my username is the same @gmail, @outlook, and @yahoo and all three can be used to log into android. Prepaidcompare if you’re in the US will give you the cheapest way to each network and typically Samsung, Apple, and Google (with Graphene) are the three phone brands to have.

Need to look at the hardware cycle as nVidia is still making more efficient hardware to bring the $/token down. BoA dude probably got burned on some loser AI companies that don’t have enough compute to deliver before the bills are due and is extrapolating it to the whole industry.