I love this. Thank you.

I try to keep an open mind, especially because I’m immigrant who has other concerns outside the US sociopolitical sphere, but this is exactly one of the things I immediately saw happening given the demographic of people paying for Twitter Blue.

Also disappointed, but kinda expected this to happen. I wanted to get the Phone (2) but at this amount it’s just not worth it. Meanwhile the Phone (1) is also still available, and if the price drops even more I might consider getting it instead.

That is highly possible. I have a few coworkers on my job (software QA) that are on an H-1B. They have to be very calculated about both their professional and even personal life decisions because it all hinges on having/keeping a job.

What a fucking glowing recommendation and endorsement from an absolutely reputable organization. /s

On the other hand, I feel for those engineers at Twitter. Yeah they are choosing to stay, but one, for those of them who really believe in Twitter as a tool, it’s not so easy to leave it behind all because corporate leadership is acting dumb, and two, even though Twitter still looks great on a resume, switching jobs is not as easy as stopping to go work for one place on one day and starting in another the next.

For me, the aesthetics. I’ve always thought the iPhone 4 looked GREAT with the flat front and back, and the straight-edged sides. The Phone (1) drew inspiration from that, and added transparent glass on top of it. Fast-forward to Phone (2), and although I’m not feeling the grey, I’m happy they’re keeping the same ethos.

Good standard features, I like the extra functions on the power button. But it lacks oomph. It just looks… meh, for me.

I’m gonna wait for US carriers to fully support the Nothing Phone (2). I was tempted to replace my 4-year-old Galaxy S10+ early this year with the Phone (1) since I’ve been hearing stories of it working on T-Mobile, but I can wait a few more months for an upgrade (and a black colorway).

When you said protocol, I think you were referring to the “type” of website kbin is, correct? If so, yes you’re correct, it is a hybrid of both Lemmy and Mastodon. So both a link aggregator/discussion website, as well as a microblog.

Although, when people say “protocol” in the context of the Fediverse, they are almost always referring to the ActivityPub protocol which allows all these websites to interoperate with each other - they all use it, and that’s what allows the users/content to flow from one place to another. So in that sense, no, kbin is not using a different protocol from the others.

I like it because it helps break my Coke addiction.

EDIT: Coca-Cola* addiction