State taxes are probably an additional complication in the calculations that hasn’t been implemented yet for all states. And for those without a state income tax not covered, probably some other state-tax-adjacent thing
As much as I hate it, I was under the impression that US government agencies routinely purchased user data from brokers because it was a workaround for warrant requirements to acquire the data themselves.
btw you can get apple care indefinitely if you pay annually. I've decided throught his mechanism I'll essentially lease my macbook. Paying $100/year for the peace of mind that they'll fix anything thats wrong with the laptop until I decide to ditch it. Its probably worth keeping an eye on the used market to decide when its economically optimal to just drop the applecare and just replace the laptop in the event of it needing to be repaired.
Worth noting, you may have to be a stern self-advocate to get certain things fixed because they will sometimes pull some bullshit excuse that its not covered under applecare/warranty because of xyz, and xyz isn't even true (see Louis Rossmann / CBC News videos)
2 ebooks could easily be >15hours. OP sounds like a bullshitter to me. I don't see how they could come to the conclusion that "its also counting time listened during my paid-for ebooks". They could provide more info, but they arent. I think they just got mad that they couldnt finish the last 20 minutes of the book (understandably) and decided to flame spotify
I saw some avant garde shit the other day, and there it was on spotify. Everyone is on spotify
Honestly, like... who isn't on spotify? I think Metallica was holding out, but there on there now, and looks like Garth Brooks is also holding out. No one else I've ever looked up, including very small artists, were not on spotify.
First week of hits are free, and I'll give you another week of free hits every month. So as long as you don't need more than 1 week per month of hits, then you're golden.
Honestly though, if OP really got 27 days into the cycle before using up his free hits, its almost a perfect solution for them.
Ok, thats funny. But for real, what I'm lightly annoyed by is the way they seem to be using the 15 hours of audiobooks as a sort of free-trial to get you to buy more credits, and also how much podcasts and audiobooks are pushed even for those of us who exclusively use spotify for music. On the other hand, if you use the feature, it cost you nothing additional to use up to that 15 hours, or those free books, its strictly a value add.
Oh man, I did the hard work (it was easy) of reading some rules and answering some questions via irc to get an invite to MAM and wow is that a treasure-trove of ebooks and audiobooks.
There are plenty of reasons not to like apple products, but the 4-6 years for macbooks is unheard of. There's a reason I was able to sell my 2015 macbook for 60% of its purchase price in 2020. They keep chugging along, built physically strong, with great battery management that means it doesn't degrade much over time. And with launch of apple silicon, the performance of them is even better. They won't game, but for a certain type of person they are a good choice. And for other people they're a bad choice, that they'll make just for the sake of social status or whatever.
I have the m1 macbook air, and its wonderfully performant and long battery life for how I use it... mostly just word-processing and web-browsing.
But the repair concerns are legit, when I decided to get the macbook, I decided I was going to play apples game and opted to get their service plan. I've had apple care+ on a tablet before and their service is great when you don't have to pay their ridiculous repair fees. So at a rate of $100 per year, I'm essentially leasing my laptop after I bought it. I have it automatically backed up to my home server, in the event that one of their stupid engineering designs destroys my data (See Louis Rossmann videos).
Idk if I'd ever really recommend anyone get a macbook if they don't need to, personally, the battery life and standby time are just killer features for me. I have ADHD, and frequently forget to charge my laptop.... if I'm not on my meds and I pick up my laptop to do something and its dead... I'm not going to do that thing. With the macbook, I make next to no conscious effort to keep it charged. If it's under ~20% and I happen to be near a charger, I'll charge it. And thats the extent of me managing the battery.
My wife on the other hand, her windows machine (and most seem to have this problem as I understand) is always dead. She's resorted to putting it into full hybernation mode (significantly slower to wake up) and even then, it somehow seems to still lose quite a bit of battery in between uses.
Aside from that, its light, small, its sturdy. I use windows for work and for gaming on my desktop, so I've got not strong aversion to it, its pretty much just the battery life and standby thats the killer feature for me. So... yeah, thats my take. If the battery situation isn't a big deal for you, go for the framework. They seem like a solid company, making solid laptops, that are easily and affordably repairable and upgradable.
I might try that, city subreddit is a huge resource