I just thought it was a speech impediment… 🤷🏻‍♂️

Have Samsung & Google actually delivered 7 years yet - or is that still just a promise on paper to continue supporting existing products?

Apple for all its faults has at least delivered on this premise.

I’m in House Ryobi; while it does the job, I needed to borrow a tool I didn’t have from our neighbour (wife’s rule; I can only buy one if I need to borrow it 3 times)… he had a set of Bosch Professionals - holy moly, those things are on a whole other level!

PAL/R4 PS1/2/3 & PSP collector here; there’s no hard & fast cut-off rule.

But I would need to have a deep and personal connection to the title, and it would need to meet a number of requirements (case type, game variant, CIB, disc scratches etc.).

Even then, I’m still going to struggle to part with >$1,000 dollarydoos for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Special Edition!

Not to hijack this post, but does anyone know or have a definitive list of which titles came bundled with a G-Con45?

The Ghoul Panic bundle in good condition is my collection’s white whale…

Did my best, but my European geography identity the best and may have missed a couple:

Germany & Poland oppose. Netherlands, Austria, Estonia, Slovenia and Czechia neutral. Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Greece support.

Probably safe to assume that the streaming app on your phone is collecting the same data about your viewing habits, whether or not you Chromecast it to another device.

Granted there was no standardisation in the industry, but I’m pretty sure they used the same remote across most of my portable MiniDisc players growing up (ie. from MZ-R55 to MZ-R900… the MZ-NH1 had a different remote altogether)… I didn’t even realise there were restrictions?

The issue with the inline controls that evolved since (and morphed into Bluetooth controls) is that they’re too basic, compared to what I’d like.

On the go, I long since ago switched to wireless audio - using AirPods Pro and a ‘vintage’ Apple Watch 3, but I would gladly opt for a wireless/bluetooth lapel clip style object with the same controls those old Sony had.

I’ve had a quick look around - but haven’t managedd to find anything that would fit the bill. Honestly, not even sure if smartphones offer sufficient functionality over Bluetooth to make something like that work out of the box?

If you’ve never used an inline remote, it’s really hard to explain why they were so much better from a UX perspective than what’s available now.

If I want to control media on my smartwatch, I need to flick focus on my wrist - usually stopping me from being able to fully use that hand, identify the right controls on the touch screen (and that it’s even on the right screen, and not obstructed by notifications) and hope that they register correctly.

Those old inline remotes were basically a useful ‘Bop It!’; control inputs varied: twist a dial, tilt the end, button press, slide, scroll dial and provided full tactile control which could be truly used one-handed (when clipped to my shirt).

It is a true shame that they were left by the wayside, when multiple devices ended up amalgamating into the modern smartphone.

I have one - but its touch screen is no replacement for bespoke, tactile controls.

This is all well and good, especially from a nostalgia perspective (in addition to the general pushback against cloud everything); but what I miss most about portable music nowadays is the lack of decent inline remotes (think early 2000s Sony MiniDisc players).

The player stated in your pocket, and the remote handled everything, volume, playback, and even had a dot-matrix screen to identify and navigate playlists!

If you just want something that’s more privacy-minded out of the box without messing about with custom ROMs etc, maybe consider an iPhone?

Currently running Windows 10, but refuse to upgrade to Windows 11. Next rebuild will hopefully be Linux-based, and am getting my head around it slowly through my Steam Deck. It has immensely improved since my uni days in the early 2000s.