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girlwhowaspluggedout writes:
"The European Commission reports that, fearing high roaming charges, many EU citizens forgo the use of their mobile phones outside their home country. According to a survey done by the Commission (pdf), when travelling to another EU country, 90% of all EU citizens limit their e-mail use, 47% do not use their mobile internet connection, 33% never place calls, 25% do not text, and a staggering 28% simply turn off their mobile phones.
Roaming charges, the Commission suggests, are hurting the fledgling EU app sector. In trying to avoid paying data premiums, travelers limit their use of data-heavy apps, like travel guides, maps, and photo applications. Frequent travelers are even more likely to turn-off their phones, perhaps due to being better informed about the costs of data roaming.
The Commission reports that data roaming use across the EU has increased by 1500% since the introduction of price caps in 2008. It suggests that by eliminating all roaming charges, mobile providers will gain a further 300 million customers. These findings give further support to regulations proposed by the Commission that will create a single mobile phone market throughout the EU, enabling all customers to enjoy domestic rates when travelling within the EU."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by combatserver on Wednesday February 19 2014, @01:10AM
"I have a big monitor with a tuner."
Regression turns out to be a good thing sometimes. I've been regressing in terms of consumer electronics--I am getting better quality without added cost, at the expense of what I think are relatively incremental increases afforded by newer technology.
Example: My wife and I had been looking for a sturdy, American-made electric counter-top griddle--All we could find was cheap, imported, primarily-plastic griddles that cost $65-$125. One day my wife is walking past a coin & stamp shop that sells other items they get when they buy estate packages. In the window she saw a solid-aluminum, solid-state griddle from the early 50's. It has a rheostat, a cord and a heating element (cast inside the aluminum!) and four Bake-Lite legs. It works better than any other griddle I've ever used...and it cost $5. It looks cool, and is easily repaired if anything does fail. The company that made it (Du-Wal) doesn't seem to ever have existed, if you ask the Internet.
As you mentioned, while some components might have shiny-new features, they often fail in an aspect that should have at least remained as good as before, but for some reason didn't--speaker quality in TVs, per your example. I myself have purchased a good-quality, solid-state tuner that will be my primary sound system once I locate the rest of the components (turn-table (records are cheap these days!), speakers, etc). Sure, I have a 35GB library of MP3/FLACs on my computer, but a decent portable MP3/FLAC player integrates nicely with the older hardware, giving me the best of both worlds.
In addition to getting better quality, I feel much better about purchases that help keep stuff out of landfills.
I hope I can change this later...
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:56AM
Not to turn this into the "soylent cooking show" (although that would probably be hilarious) but I am one of those "home chefs" who used to need to buy a non-stick frying pan annually or worse because I'd cook the hell out of it, almost every day. True, the $5 specials fall apart in a month, but from $25 to $250 there has unfortunately proven to be no value in paying more for a celebrity endorsed or expensively marketed non-stick pan, and the $25 pans are pretty much junk. So a couple years ago I said F-it and went old school cast iron. Works beautiful, cost like $15, once, lasts forever. Re-season every couple months. Free upper body workout (I can see why women, who typically have lower upper body strength than men, don't like CI).
Also modern slow cookers are "legendary" for poor temp regulation, to the point of food sanitation danger.
I've also noticed a decline in quality of flatware, and you can't buy 6 or 8 place settings anymore, its either the 4 pack (for the price of what used to be an 8 pack) or shipping crates of 72 for restaurant service, and not much in between. So, this stereotypical SS set of forks and spoons is twice the cost and half the size of the set I got in the 90s, and my 90s set looks professional but the modern sets look like a kids failed high school shop project, like China only sends the USA the QA/QC reject bin instead of the good stuff.
I've also seen this with plates, you could use 1970s Corelle like frisbees but the modern stuff shatters easier. As a kid we only managed to break I believe two of my mom's plates despite being hyperactive baby monkeys on crack, but my own kids break about two dishes a year without even trying and I'm not sure how they're doing it. Maybe my food is more corrosive. Must stop using hydrofluoric acid to pickle cucumbers.
I don't mind the eco hug a tree stuff, but I really just want a Fing frying pan that works, flatware that doesn't look like a failed shop class project, dinnerware that doesn't shatter for fun... The "free" market refuses to sell good stuff to me, so F them I'll buy good stuff that happens to be used.