Can we expect the Samsungization of these brands? Should we be on the lookout for locked-down audio ecosystems, ever more extraneous features, phone apps, and smart appliances?
Ewww.
Ewww.
I should take a photo and post.
Also, the EU isn't even remotely like "a country".
The EU has a currency, parliament, elections, laws, presidents, courts, treaties, and is thinking about forming an army. That sounds an awful lot like a country to me.
In practice, being a country isn't just about filling out some checklist. The EU neither claims to be a country, nor does any country on Earth see it as a single sovereign state. It has democratic and political processes that are similar to a country's, but its sway over member states is limited. Also, its members aren't forced to stay in the EU, unlike the individual regions that are part of your country.
And if you truly, unironically believe that the EU is a single country, what do you think of its member states? By extension of this argument, is Spain not a country? Or is Poland a country that's contained within another country, being equal and unequal in status at the same time?
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it still might not be a duck.
How this is not behavior deserving of some kind of EU fine is a complete mystery to me.
Most devices do not support analog USB-C audio, and frankly I understand why given how affordable DAC based dongles are these days.
For context on why it was removed: it was replaced with a moisture detection functionality, which can be used to monitor and protect the USB-C port against shorts from moisture ingress into the charging port.
P.S. I have been using official Apple/Samsung dongles and they work fine.
so you should probably expect that these brands will continue operating the way that Harman, JBL,and AKG have since they were acquired. which is to say, pretty independently of anything samsung does.
[1]: https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-confirms-smart-refr...
In TV's they support the higher quality home theater scenario while still making most of their audio money from soundbars that can't compete on audio quality. They're well aware of that fact, and their strategy seems to be to keep all options on the table.
One of the TV execs is an audiophile FWIW.
you can't say that and not share some sample of that :)
Sometime around when the CEO got out of prison a bunch of weirdness occurred. Good managers left, bad managers got hired, and everything became top-down. The group head "retired" but last year un-retired in a different position; I didn't know you could do that.
Engineering-wise it went from technical free rein to "only use this suspiciously chummy cloud vendor" in a few months. I never got to the bottom of that deal, but costs exploded, and revenue flattened.
You don't need corruption to make bad decisions, though.