I recently bought a Boox Palma, which is a phone-size Android device with a real E-Ink display.
It's not a phone (WiFi/Bluetooth only, no mobile radio), and with 4-bit greyscale it's definitely an adjustment to use with a lot of apps (it has per-app DPI & contrast controls to help), but they've done a lot of work on the refresh rate to make it feel responsive.
It even has midrange-phone specs (SD 6xx series CPU, 6GB RAM, 4Ah battery), with full Google Play, so it's a quite usable Android device overall. Like most modern E-Ink devices, has a CCT warm-to-cool frontlight, so great for night-time use.
Now would I want to use it as my only, everyday device (if it was a phone too)? Probably not. Could I? Almost certainly.
Colour E-Ink is still quite limited (in contrast, and resolution), but I expect the patents on that are quite a bit newer and we won't be seeing so much movement in that area so soon.
To expand on @doekniusgloek's comment, those categories usually directly correlate to a range of DWPD (endurance) figures. I'm most familiar with buying servers from Dell, but other brands are pretty similar.
Usually, the split is something like this:
Read-intensive (RI): 0.8 - 1.2 DWPD (commonly used for file servers and the likes, where data is relatively static)
Mixed-use (MU): 3 - 5 DWPD (normal for databases or cache servers, where data is changing relatively frequently)
Write-intensive (WI): ≥10 DPWD (for massive databases, heavily-used write cache devices like ZFS ZIL/SLOG devices, that sort of thing)
(Consumer SSDs frequently have endurances only in the 0.1 - 0.3 DWPD range for comparison, and I've seen as low as 0.05)
You'll also find these tiers roughly line up with the SSDs that expose different capacities while having the same amount of flash inside; where a consumer drive would be 512GB, an enterprise RI would be 480GB, and a MU/WI only 400GB. Similarly 1TB/960GB/800GB, 2TB/1.92TB/1.6TB, etc.
If you only get a TBW figure, just divide by the capacity and the length of the warranty. For instance a 1.92TB 1DWPD with 5y warranty might list 3.5PBW.
People started putting Airtags in their suitcases because they wanted to know where their luggage was and call the airlines on their BS, so they banned those in checked bags too.
Zero attempt to remedy the root cause, but damned if they aren't going to stop people trying to cure the symptoms.
My sister bought a low-end Samsung tablet (some years ago admittedly), and it NEVER received a software update in the 3 years she owned it. Not a major update, not a security patch, nothing.
I'd hope they've gotten better about that, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
[...] while Microsoft charges $10 a month for the service, the software giant is losing $20 a month per user on average and heavier users are costing the company as much as $80 [...]
Mmm hmmm.
This could be one form of "course correction"; few people are going to care to participate if they're forced to pay what it actually costs.
Except that they've ruined that too. You now need an account to view anything, so the reach of announcements is greatly diminished.
At this point leaving shouldn't really be too difficult, since a large portion of your audience already has; because they've been shut out, or have quit voluntarily.
Also - and I realise this might be contentious - but I'd suggest one that takes normal batteries. Mine takes 4× AAA.
With Eneloops (or similar low-self-discharge rechargeables), can have a 2nd set that gets you back up and running in under 30 seconds, and if you get really stuck they're sold in every corner store in the world (heck, throw a pack of Li-FeS2 batteries in the emergency kit, 20 year shelf life).
No worrying about having the right charger cable (commonly a Micro USB, something I don't tend to carry anymore), or remembering to charge the thing lest it go flat right in the middle of what you need to do.
NASA apparently used RTGs for deep space missions only, while in the same timeframe the Soviets scattered them all across the countryside, then promptly forgot about them.
If you habitually have a lot of tabs open, you'll probably know how annoying it is finding things when each page title has been condensed down to 4-5 characters. On widescreen displays (especially 16:9), vertical pixels are also a lot more precious, while horizontal ones are plentiful.
For me (3840×2160 display, 200% scale), its vertical tab sidebar fits about 30 tabs before needing a scrollbar, and you get a full width title for each and every one.
It can be a bit of an adjustment at first, but I've been using this since the pre-WebExtensions days (since around Firefox 4.0), it's definitely one of my must-haves.
As of USB-PD 3.1 there are now nine fixed voltages - 5, 9, 12, 15, 20, 28, 36, and 48V - and two variable-voltage modes; PPS with 3.3 - 21V in 0.02V increments, and AVS with 15 - 48V in 0.1V increments.
Combined with a few different current limits, some of these features being optional, and then doubling down with what your cable does or doesn't support, amazing anything gets charged at all.
Induction elements “cycle” on and off – hundreds or thousands of times per second [...] There is no human perceptible duty cycle
See unfortunately what you're describing here are good induction stoves, which is not the majority of what is on the market.
I've seen far too many of the bad kind, with duty cycles measured in the tens of seconds. Your 7/10 on the dial could be - like a non-inverter microwave - something in the neighbourhood of 7 seconds on / 3 seconds off. At that point they can actually be worse to use than old halogen glass cooktops, which at least remain hot during the off part of their thermostat's cycle.
This is not even just cheap no-name crap either, have witnessed it with big-name-brand in-bench stovetops with four-figure pricetags.
If you're doing something like poaching eggs (which typically calls for a wide, flat pan), you'll actually see the water starting and stopping boiling in a cycle as it switches. Absolutely terrible.
Sony pioneered that one, I reckon over the lifespan of a phone - especially since people tend to keep phones longer these days - it does make a difference. I'm glad other manufacturers have done the same (I believe Apple has something similar, and maybe one other Android OEM).
My Xperia 1ii (mid 2020) still reports around 83% of its original battery capacity, and it's been plugged in overnight more or less every day of its life.
I maintain that no reasonable person should ever call a product with sour cream in it "guacamole", but I presume that's the ingredient they're trying to identify is definitely not included.
I recently bought a Boox Palma, which is a phone-size Android device with a real E-Ink display.
It's not a phone (WiFi/Bluetooth only, no mobile radio), and with 4-bit greyscale it's definitely an adjustment to use with a lot of apps (it has per-app DPI & contrast controls to help), but they've done a lot of work on the refresh rate to make it feel responsive.
It even has midrange-phone specs (SD 6xx series CPU, 6GB RAM, 4Ah battery), with full Google Play, so it's a quite usable Android device overall. Like most modern E-Ink devices, has a CCT warm-to-cool frontlight, so great for night-time use.
Now would I want to use it as my only, everyday device (if it was a phone too)? Probably not. Could I? Almost certainly.
Colour E-Ink is still quite limited (in contrast, and resolution), but I expect the patents on that are quite a bit newer and we won't be seeing so much movement in that area so soon.