Was around during the time an I can say with absolute certainty all things Sony including the Betamax products were smaller with a better overall user design (think buttons and external displays). Sony was just better than most every company when it came to analog video and portable audio.

Regarding licensing fees, consumers rarely saw those fees because they were mostly renting movies. Few people ever mastered the art of recording television shows in the US (fewer purchased recorders). And when they did it was oftentimes while they were at home. Literally everyone of that generation had a VHS whose clocked flashed because the owner could not set the time. I mention this because setting the time was required if you wanted to plan a recording while you were away from home.

I mention all of this because these machines were used by a generation who never utilized them for anything other than renting videos and recording while at home.

Beta lost because of marketing and the lack of choice among Betamax devices (this is where the licensing came to play).

If the person making the audio/video choices was technical or an audiophile they purchased a Betamax.

Not to be overly critical but that generation relied heavily on marketing to make those types of purchasing decisions. Product quality or the feature set could be easily overshadowed by dynamic marketing.

Regarding porn, there was porn on video but during the VHS/Betamax period most porn was in magazine form.

The whole green bubble/blue bubble stuff was such a contrived story to begin with. iMessage is only popular in the US and Apple’s RCS integration was pushed by the Chinese government who want their carriers to support it.

No Face ID issues thus far, but I can say third party app issues are to be expected. If there is a public beta track for their app there is a chance the developer will address those issues with a beta release. If not, you will have to wait for Apple to refine iOS 26 to the point the dependent behavior is resolved, Apple current released version of Xcode allows iOS 26 fixes, or for the GM release.

At this point I am experiencing some annoying CarPlay iMessage reply inconsistencies while music or a third party podcast app is playing.

www.macrumors.com/…/ios-26-automix-apple-music/

Can confirm this feature is really good. Was so surprised by a song transition that I pressed the headunit’s AppleMusic icon to see what happened (was using Maps at the time).

I’ve used the updated CarPlay a few times and I do not see any listing of ‘visited places’. In the US so maybe it’s not an exposed feature yet.

This is about my biggest real gripe thus far. And like you said, it relates to my Lock Screen background picture.

Also not really a fan of the keyboard’s more rounded off corners.

The CarPlay changes are really good. I have a smaller screen which means no room for widgets on the primary screen but it is still great. There are also in app Map changes I’ve noticed. It notified me of train tracks and there is some additional detail showing.

Just installed and surprisingly, I do not hate it. There is room for some iterative changes but it’s not bad. Rather legible as well.

Thus far all installed apps are working fine.

Are those low top Air Force Ones or Give Up Shoes?

The paper really needs to fact check that second paragraph. The Titans didn’t play the Bills in the 2000 Super Bowl 😬. The Bills and the Titans are both members of the AFC.