Why are we OK with thick folding phones, but not with thick no-folds?

i think by “we” you mean the manufacturers? AFAICT they just gave away the game: the push for thin phones was more from the supply side than the demand side. not saying people don’t generally prefer thin phones – just that the preference is probably weaker than has been made out to be.

that said, i think it’s more fair to compare things like cubic volume and weight than just the thinness. a 1/2" thick full-size phone would be uncomfortable in my pocket, whereas a 1/2" thick wallet-sized phone might actually be more comfortable than a traditional smartphone.

Orion won’t make its way into the hands of consumers

not for you though (unless you’re a Meta employee).

but yeah good hardware is good hardware and if i could just use it as a display for any other device i have i would totally use it around the home: following a recipe without having to shuffle my phone and the ingredients; running a lengthy command over ssh and doing chores while i wait, without having to check my phone every couple of minutes to see when it’s done…

those things all rely on the software though. will they open it up as a dumb wireless display/terminal, or not? if they don’t, it’s kinda dead to me no matter how great the hardware is…

+1 for Darknet Diaries. got anything else to recommend in that nerdy/edgy genre of story telling?

• 99% Invisible (Roman Mars)
• Slate Star Codex (narrated form of Scott Alexander’s Astral Codex Ten column)
• Jack Rhysider - Darknet Diaries
• Maggie Killjoy - Cool people who did Cool Stuff
• Cory Doctorow’s podcast
• Jennifer Briney - Congressional Dish
• Lex Fridman

the first three are all tightly scripted storytelling: generally non-fiction, but exciting or interesting. sorted by general audience -> niche audience.

the next three edge into political territory, sorted from politically-adjacent to 100% political (not punditry):

• Maggie’s focuses on telling history. but she’s self-described anarchist and it bleeds.
• Cory’s is a narrated form of his blog. usually the overlap between tech & national policy.
• Congressional Dish is literally Jen watching hours of C-SPAN and reading 1000’s of pages of text from bills to give actual deep-dives into congressional happenings.

Lex Fridman is if Joe Rogan was hosted by someone who actually did his research upfront, planned out his questions, and chose guests that are less divisive, and more academic or entrepreneurial.

if you listen to any of these, please leave a recommendation for something similar you think i would like! ❤️