#Poll time!

It looks like #Apple's going to raise their prices. I mean, who isn't? Predatory capitalism is just the thing now.

I'm on an #iPhone 16 Pro, which I bought outright in early 2025.

It is adequate for my needs at this point, but I'm going to outgrow my storage soon because of videos and photos. I enjoy the camera quality and a lot of of the features on the phone, but I do not use Apple Intelligence because I think it's the devil.

What complicates the question is, the 20 TB storage device that I was looking at earlier this year to help ease my photo storage issues (and because this is not my only camera -- I have a GoPro and a Canon) has doubled in price to over $800 now thanks to AI data chips blah blah blah.

So that's half as much as a new phone, but, would be 20-40 times the storage (20 new phone, 40 this phone). I'm still considering that in spite of the price increase, but it's not a factor in this poll today.

So, my question to you is: should I bite the bullet and upgrade to a 17 Pro with a terabyte of storage before they raise prices? Do you think they will raise prices on their existing stock?

Or should I just try to hang onto this device, with its scratched screen and inadequate storage, for another two-ish years and hope that their lease program fails and that I'll be able to outright buy a much better device then? (Because of the scratches, they'll barely give me $50 if I trade this phone in, the jerks.)

For those of you itching to tell me to switch to other phones or operating systems, I'm not ready to do that, but I have been looking at all of the non-android and non-Apple options for a couple of years. Not in a space right now to make a platform switch because of how integrated my work is with my phone -- and the AuDHD. I don't like radical change.

But feel free to comment all you want about them! I enjoy hearing different perspectives, especially if you have had great success with a completely different type of phone. My needs are simple: I need good video and photo quality, and I need a good audio recorder. Then all the other stuff that phones do like calls, video calls, and texting.

Sidenote: I have asked almost every single year, since I got rid of my landline in 2014, if I could get one back, and zero providers do them anymore here.

It's getting worse.

There's a new law in #Kansas that #ICE is using against people who are trying to observe them -- which is still the peoples' right.

There is a 25 foot "circle" around any first responder, and once an observer gets warned for violating that circle, they can get fined, put in jail, or worse.

That circle distance moves *with* the individual first responder -- and ICE agents are now considered first responders.

But now, people are being trapped by ICE because of this law!

I fucking hate this timeline.

https://kansascitydefender.com/justice/fascism-watch/ice-gestapo-weaponize-new-fascist-kansas-law-that-makes-it-illegal-to-witness-ice/

So does anybody else also know not to take a shower during a thunderstorm?

Is that just urban myth?

It's raining today and it's thundering, and I'd like to take a shower, because I normally take my shower at midday, but... I think I'll wait.

Not really gonna see any other humans today, so it's OK. Dogs don't care!

Got a baby cam set up! Their first overnight in the hoop house was flawless. They seem really happy outside.

#ChickensOfMastodon #FediChooks

I forgot to wish everybody Bloomsday! Dang it.

Infobombing my BFF with information about how #astronauts figured out how to burp in #space and what they eat --
and what they don't eat -- when they're up there.

Bit much for eight thirty in the morning, but I go hard or I stay home. 😆