Google’s approach to Android releases has changed a lot over the years. We used to get numerous “point” releases like 4.2 and 8.1 that added notable new features, but now we get a monolithic whole number update each fall and security updates throughout the year. Google does still add features to Pixel phones, and it formalized the process with Android 10’s “Pixel feature drops.” The second of those just appeared, bringing changes to dark mode, Motion Sense, and more.
The headlining feature of the Pixel 4, and one of its more disappointing aspects, was Motion Sense. This gesture control system used the Project Soli radar sensor that Google has been toying with for years. The new feature drop adds the first new capability for Motion Sense since its release: play/pause. You could already change tracks by swiping in the air over your phone, but now you can also hold up a hand to play or pause.
Android’s official dark theme was also a major change in Android 10, but Google didn’t include the ability to schedule dark mode. Thankfully, that’s available in the new feature drop. Instead of manually toggling dark mode each evening and morning, you can set your phone to enable and disable dark mode at specific times. In bright light, the Pixel 4 and 4 XL will also boost their display brightness higher to be more readable.
The power button card wallet Google teased prior to the Android 10 release is a reality in this update — we were beginning to think that wouldn’t come out until Android 11 was final. You can now long-press the power button to access your Google Pay cards and passes. You will soon be able to add screenshots of airline boarding passes to Google Wallet for easy access.
This feature drop is the first time Google has added new emoji outside of a major platform release. There are 169 new emoji from Unicode 12.1. In the same vein, Google has added AR effects for Google Duo video calls. It’s a bit like animoji on the iPhone but less capable and limited to one app.
While Google has made a big deal out of feature drops in Android 10, the new feature drop update is also just the standard monthly patch. So, you’ll get all the latest security patches and bug fixes in addition to the new features. The OTA is rolling out starting today on the Pixel 2 and newer, but it might take a while to reach everyone.
SpaceX initially wanted to conduct a high-altitude test of its Starship vehicle last year, but setbacks pushed the timeline into 2020. Now, SpaceX may be looking at another delay. The company’s Starship SN1 prototype just blew its top at the company’s Boca Chica, Texas facility. The rocket was undergoing a pressurization test, but unlike a fuel tank test several months back, this one wasn’t supposed to end in an explosion.
SpaceX moves fast and isn’t afraid to make the occasional mistake. So, it can be hard to keep all the explosions and almost-explosions straight. In January of this year, the company intentionally pushed a Starship tank to the point of failure to test its capabilities. In November of last year, SpaceX lost a “Mk1” prototype rocket during pressure testing that was not supposed to destroy anything. This latest incident seems like a repeat of that November anomaly.
According to initial reports, the test failure on February 28th happened when the vehicle was being loaded with liquid nitrogen. The rocket appeared to split apart near the bottom, which launched the top section skyward. Photos of the site the following day showed little of the Starship SN1 survived. SpaceX likely intended to use the SN1 vehicle for a static test fire with at least one Raptor engine, but none were mounted at the time of the incident.
SpaceX hasn’t issued any official statement about the explosion, but CEO Elon Musk posted a tongue-in-cheek tweet of a video of the explosion with the caption “So … how was your night?” He clarified the company’s focus is on the Starship SN2 prototype that will eventually head up for high-altitude testing. Of course, it has to survive pressure testing first.
The loss of the Starship SN1 is unfortunate, but it wasn’t a vital piece of the development. The company has filed requests with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation for permits to launch the Starship. The applications ask for clearance for six months beginning in mid-March.
Musk eventually sees the Starship taking over all SpaceX launch operations from the Falcon 9. This reusable vehicle has enough power to send payloads to the moon and Mars. It’s also the key to Musk’s vision of colonizing Mars by later this decade. Elon Musk does tend to be overly optimistic with such timelines, but he’s determined to send people to the red planet at some point.
2020 Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit February 2020 Lime Kiln Road, Adirondacks
The 2020 Jeep Grand Cherokee is almost a decade old, and yet it’s currently the best-selling midsize SUV on the market: 242,969 sold last year, 200,000-plus most for much of the past two decades. The current body design has been around since 2011, there are 13 trim lines (model variants), multiple drivetrains, and varying levels of driver assistance technology.
Both despite its age and because of it – when the factory builds the same car year after year, reliability tends to improve – the Grand Cherokee has good fit and finish, a nicely controlled ride, a very nice interior on most trims, comfortable seats, and a solid infotainment system. Other than standard blind-spot detection and rear cross-traffic alert, driver-assist features are optional. The two rows of seats are both roomy, but no third-row seat is offered.
If one owner says their Grand Cherokee does fine off-road but the interior looks just okay and the center stack display is small, a second owner says it’s pretty luxe and the display is nice, and a third says the cockpit looks great and did you know it goes 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, that’s because, with those trim lines, there’s one that costs $33,000, a couple that run around $50,000-$60,000, and one that runs $88,000 with a 707-hp engine. (No, that’s not a typo.) You decide how much off-road capability, acceleration, and rear-seat entertainment you want, and you pay accordingly.
On the Road
I test drove the Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit. It is the premier Grand Cherokee for people who don’t feel the need to have a strong Dodge Viper flavor to their SUV, in which case there’s the performance-oriented Grand Cherokee V8 SRT and the high-performance Trackhawk. My test car totaled $62,775 with a four-wheel-drive system – not just all-wheel-drive – that added $3,000, a V8 engine that added $3,795, an eight-speed automatic, telematics, onboard Wi-Fi, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, an AC socket and plenty of USB jacks, and a $1,995 rear entertainment system. At this point, you’re pushing into Audi-BMW-Mercedes territory.
My time in the Grand Cherokee Summit included a late-winter run into the New York State Adirondacks area around Lake Placid. A detour through hilly, rutted dirt roads covered with about eight inches of snow proved no problem at all.
The ride up and back into the northwoods, on interstate highways, was pleasurable, with a comfortable driving position, decent audio, and very little road noise. The Grand Cherokee Summit is plenty comfortable for four adults and a weekend’s worth of luggage. Even with cupholders front and back and bins in the doors, in-cabin storage for little items was lacking.
Good Navi, but Audio Could Be Better
The UConnect 4 infotainment system on my car was quite easy to use. But note that not all Grand Cherokees get UConnect 4 and 8-inch center stack screens. For years, Chrysler-Dodge-Ram products have had very good navigation and infotainment. It doesn’t hurt that when you press the NAV button, the screen asks you, “Where to?” The only people who don’t get that are grade-school teachers looking for a verb and a complete sentence.
This was the first Harman Kardon premium audio system I’ve driven that wasn’t breathtaking. It had 19 speakers and the issue – to me – was the woofer in the driver’s kick panel area. It was so heavily boosted that with the volume up and listening to my workout playlist (you know: the songs you’re too embarrassed to share), the sound pressure made my pant legs flap. So much so it felt like a Rockford Fosgate system, a brand happy to be known for heavy – sorry, deep – bass. It was much improved by turning the bass setting below the midpoint.
Not Enough Driver Assists
The advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) are not all state-of-the-art and too many are extra-cost. Nothing wrong with blind-spot detection (standard) or lane keep assist (included on some trim lines). The optional ParkSense backup system auto-stops the car if you get too close to a stopped object. That’s all good. Adaptive cruise control goes down to zero but you have to manually resume forward travel, and if you’re stopped more than three seconds, ACC disengages.
Forward collision warning, a technology that requires a low-cost front-facing camera, is optional. Of the 18 midsize, two-row SUVs on the market, the only non-Jeep product lacking FCW is the revived Chevrolet Blazer, which, despite its heritage, is not a hard-core off-roader. Automatic emergency braking for highway and for city situations are also optional, and pedestrian AEB is not offered.
My Grand Cherokee Summit 4X4 was rated at 14 mpg city, 22 mpg highway, and 17 mpg overall. I averaged 20 mpg in a week of primarily highway driving.
So Many Models to Choose From
The 2020 Grand Cherokee comes in a dazzling array of trim lines, or model variants. Currently, there are 13. These prices include $1,495 shipping.
Laredo, $33,735 rear drive / $35,735 four-wheel drive
Laredo E, $35,390 / $37,390
Upland, $37,685 / $39,685
Altitude, $39,830 / $41,830
North Edition, $40,285 4WD standard
Limited, $41,545 / $43,545
Limited X, $46,640 / $48,640
Trailhawk $46,645 4WD standard
Overland, $47,985 / $50,985
High Altitude, $50,730 / $53,730
Summit, $54,085 / $57,085
SRT, $70,085 4WD standard
Trackhawk, $88,590 4WD standard
It’s hard to describe each model other than to note the Laredo E is a nicer Laredo, not a hybrid; North Edition and Trailhawk target wintry off-roading and off-roading; and SRT and Trackhawk are high-performance SUVs that also go off-road and tow boats.
Should You Buy?
The Grand Cherokee is the best of the seven Jeep models you can buy in terms of modern-day amenities and reliability without sacrificing heavy snow / off-road driving. It’s also the best-selling, with 26 percent of Jeep’s 923,2981 2019 sales. By our count, there are nearly 25 midsize, mainstream-price SUVs, and almost as many premium midsize SUVs. The top sellers, mainstream or premium, are:
SUV
2019 Sales
Change
Jeep Grand Cherokee
242,969
+8%
Toyota Highlander
239,437
-2%
Jeep Wrangler
228,042
-5%
Ford Explorer
187,061
-28%
Subaru Outback
181,178
+1%
(Note: The big falloff for the Ford Explorer came in the wake of quality-control problems while getting the sixth-generation Explorer and the sibling Lincoln Aviator into production at Ford’s Chicago assembly plant.)
The Jeep Cherokee is not an entry edition of the Grand Cherokee but a separate model eight inches shorter than Grand Cherokee’s 190 inches, with a base four-cylinder engine and not quite as refined.
The Grand Cherokee is your best choice among midsize SUVs if you want an one that goes off-road, not just negotiate a lightly plowed gravel road near the ski slope, and does it with a reasonable amount of passenger comfort. As a bonus, some Grand Cherokees can tow up to 7,200 pounds; the rest tow at least 3,500 pounds. If you have little kids (two), the dual rear entertainment system may be worth the healthy price. The V6 engines are good and the V8s are better but gas mileage suffers.
The mainstream trim lines fare well against the Chevrolet Blazer and Ford Edge. The roomier, longer, three-row Ford Explorer is also a competitor for those who value towing capacity. The Toyota 4Runner is very good off-road but not as smooth otherwise. If you want a competent all-around vehicle, look also at the Subaru Ascent, Toyota Highlander, Honda Pilot, and Hyundai Santa Fe. The Dodge Durango is a cousin to the Grand Cherokee, is longer, and has three rows of seats, but isn’t as skilled off-roading.
The Grand Cherokee upper trim lines compete nicely against premium brands. But it’s hard to match the NVH and highway manners of say, a BMW X5, when you go into battle in a design released the same year Ke$ha debuted We R Who We R.
Other top midsize SUVs don’t map to Grand Cherokee’s off-roader ethic. The Lexus RX is all-around excellent but is not what you want going off-road or hauling a trailer. The Mazda CX-9 is the sportiest and most fun to drive, but without the cargo capacity.
Jeep’s other sales advantage is that Grand Cherokee buyers are predisposed toward USA vehicles. According to JD Power research, 76 percent of Grand Cherokee owners say they prefer buying from a domestic company versus 58 percent for the midsize SUV segment as a whole. That means Grand Cherokee owners may not cross-shop the sporty Korean-flagged Kia Telluride (three rows but still midsize), even it’s built in Alabama, and the similar Hyundai Palisade. The Grand Cherokee would win on off-road driving. But in other areas, Kia and Hyundai are extremely competitive, particularly NVH and driver assists.
A new Grand Cherokee should be introduced this year as a 2021 model. Given how well Jeep has done to keep the fourth-generation model competitive, the new model should be impressive.
For those of us who grew up dreaming of jet packs, multi-rotor aircraft with electric motors and batteries are putting new life into the vision of personal flying machines. To spur innovation in this area, Boeing and others funded a $2 million “GoFly” competition for teams to develop prototypes that could carry a pilot or 200-pound mannequin aloft safely. Intrigued by the wide range of unique designs, I headed down to the GoFly Final Fly-Off at Moffett Field last weekend.
Like Self-Driving Cars, Personal Aircraft Are Harder Than They First Appear
From beginning to end the GoFly competition was about 2-1/2 years. Patterned after the original DARPA Challenge for autonomous vehicles, the timeline was split into phases, with increasingly difficult milestones and increasing development assistance funds accompanying each successive phase. However, much like the first DARPA Challenge, which I covered 15 years ago for our sister publication PC Magazine, no team actually completed the challenge.
To meet the challenge, teams had to come up with a vehicle that fit within the confines of an 8.5-foot sphere — for easy transportation. It also needed to have enough power to cruise at 30 knots (although one team said theirs would do over 100!). Noise had to be less than 87 A-weighted decibels at 50 feet (which is about the same as passing a diesel truck). Finally, it needed to have enough endurance to carry a person weighing up to 200 pounds safely for at last 20 minutes without refueling or recharging.
Phase I saw the top 10 teams who submitted plans awarded $20,000 each to continue work. Phase II saw 31 teams enter additional designs and show a prototype. Five winning teams were then awarded $50,000 to help develop a full-size aircraft.
Unfortunately, since no team met all the qualifications, no one was eligible for the $1 million Grand Prize. However, Team Tetra did win the Pratt & Whitney Disruptor Award of $100K for its design and technology. They didn’t get to fly during the finals, but you can see them showing off their winning craft in front of the crowd and Moffett Field’s historic Hangar 1 in the featured image for this article.
You know you’ve gone beyond hobby flying when you have to brief an entire fire department about your aircraft before you fly. Here, DragonAir is briefing the Moffett Field Fire Department.
DragonAir Aviation Wants Flying to be Transportainment
The most sophisticated team in the event was DragonAir Aviation, from Panama City Beach, Florida. Their craft is about as close as you can get to a flying Segway. In fact, co-founder Jeff Elkins explained that it is easy to teach anyone to fly it who has used a hoverboard, Segway, or any other of the many body-controlled mobility devices. That’s because aside from the throttle trigger, and a joystick you twist to go left or right, all other navigation on their AirBoard 2.0 is done by leaning. This has another interesting benefit, he added: Since the pilot is essentially assisting the aircraft’s motors with their body weight, it becomes more efficient, and has a longer potential flight time when manned than when flown remotely with a mannequin on board.
Co-founder and lead pilot Mariah Cain sets up their AirBoard 2.0 for a demonstration, in lieu of flying.
Co-founder Mariah Cain is also the group’s main test pilot. She got hooked on flying with a Hydroflight watersport device, and the GoFly competition represented a way to improve on their existing AirBoard prototype. She sees it both as a way to show people that anyone can achieve what they set their mind to, and to provide the uniquely freeing experience of flying to an increasing number of people.
Aggies Innovate With Quiet Dual-Rotor Design
Since you’ll be positioned just a few feet from the motors and rotors of your future personal aircraft, and probably are hoping to enjoy the experience, the quieter it is the better. This is one area where Team Harmony (the team from Texas A&M) has specialized. They’ve come up with an innovative dual rotor design that flips the top rotor around so that its controls are above it. That allows them to control each rotor with a separate controller — even though they are co-axial. The result is a system that’s roughly half as loud as other designs.
While their full-scale prototype wasn’t ready for the Fly Off, they were able to fly their 1/3-scale model as part of the multi-team judging event.
Three teams had been cleared to fly, and they unloaded their aircraft on the runway, but steady 16-knot winds were above the safety limit, so flying was called off.
A Star Wars Speedster Built Right Here on Earth
One vehicle that may not fly, but was by far the best-looking craft, is the Speedster-styled entry from (I kid you not) Phattony’s Rock & Roll Flying Motorcycle Circus.
Phattony’s Rock & Roll Flying Motorcycle Circus showcased a prototype Speedster, right here on Earth.
The brainchild of aircraft-savant Tony Windisch, it has everything from a massive ducted-fan engine to a hood ornament he bought off Amazon. Tony has been building flying machines since he was 9, but this is clearly the most impressive.
Opener’s BlackFly May Be in Another League
Opener’s BlackFly has more flight miles than all of the GoFly competitors combined
One name conspicuous by its absence is heavily funded aviation startup Opener and its BlackFly ultra-light eVTOL. The company has an all-star team of engineers and backers, and their craft has already flown over 31,000 miles in testing. Designed as an ultra-light, it should avoid many of the pilot licensing regulations that heavier aircraft have to deal with.
On the way home, I stopped to get a shot of Moffett Field’s Historic Hangar 1 airship hangar. It was falling apart, so the skins were ripped off and the frame has been repaired. Hopefully one day it will again house the Field’s Historical Museum.
Whether you think one of these efforts has the ultimate design or not, it is clear that sometime soon we’ll have the opportunity to pilot our own personal aircraft — at least if we’re willing to trust it.
A few weeks back, we discussed ongoing reports of a new black screen bug that was hitting AMD GPU owners. While there were scattered reports going back some time, the situation appeared to have gotten worse with the release of AMD’s 2020 Adrenaline drivers. We talked to AMD about the issue and the company assured us it was working hard to fix the problems. AMD has now released the Adrenaline 20.2.2 driver, and believes it has fixed the black screen issues that were plaguing customers.
The patch notes for this driver are extensive, so we’ve focused on the specific issues that refer to a black screen bug. All of the issues listed below are the issues AMD says it has fixed in the 20.2.2 driver. For a full list of fixes and known issues, see this Reddit post.
Black Screen Fixes
Performing a task switch with some Radeon Software features enabled or some third-party applications with hardware acceleration running in the background may cause a system hang or black screen.
When Instant Replay is enabled, a TDR or black screen may occur when launching games or applications.
A black screen may occur when toggling HDR on in the game settings of Battlefield V.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt may experience an application hang or black screen during certain parts of the game or intermittently during gameplay.
Some video content in Chrome may appear as a black screen or be unresponsive on Radeon RX 5000 series graphics products when hardware acceleration is enabled.
Known Issues
Again, I’m only hitting the issues that specifically refer to the black screen issue.
Enhanced Sync may cause a black screen to occur when enabled on some games and system configurations. Enhanced Sync has been temporarily disabled from the gaming profile and any users who may be experiencing issues with Enhanced Sync enabled should disable it as a temporary workaround.
Although Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.2.2 resolves many black screen issues, AMD is aware that some users may still experience black screen or system hang issues during extended periods of gameplay. AMD will continue to monitor and investigate reports of these issues closely.
Reading through user reports on the forum thread, a lot of people are sounding off and saying the numerous issues they’ve seen in previous games are now resolved. It’s too early to say that this driver fixes literally every black screen issue, but multiple people are reporting that the specific places they tested before to produce a black screen error are no longer doing so with the new drivers.
If you’ve been waiting for AMD to fix this issue, head over and grab the drivers from AMD.com. Let us know if it does or doesn’t solve your problems.
Microsoft has announced new changes to Cortana coming in the next version of Windows 10, and you probably won’t like them if you use any of the service’s consumer-facing features. Those of you who dislike Cortana and prefer to rely on local accounts, however, are getting good news. After the next Windows update, Microsoft will only allow Cortana to run if you have a Microsoft account — which means those of us without them won’t have to put up with it any longer.
I’m not sure the company has completely thought this through. While Microsoft is making it harder and harder to create a Local Account — you have to disconnect your PC from the internet if you want the option to appear during startup — they’ve never given anyone a feature-based reason to create one. The company may think it’s locking a capability behind a Microsoft account, but from my perspective, it’s adding features to having a local one.
Going Forward, Cortana is a Business-Only Feature
If you actually use Cortana for personal projects or PC control, however, we do have bad news. According to Microsoft:
[S]ome consumer skills including music, connected home and third-party skills will no longer be available in the updated Cortana experience in Windows 10. We’re also making some changes to where Cortana helps you. As part of our standard practice, we are ending support for Cortana in older versions of Windows that have reached their end-of-service dates. We recommend that customers update their devices to the latest version of Windows 10 to continue using Cortana. We’ll also be turning off the Cortana services in the Microsoft Launcher on Android by the end of April.
Cortana will still be able to set reminders.
In other words, there’s not going to be a way to keep access to these consumer-focused capabilities. Microsoft is beefing up the application, but the improvements are all going into the business side. The feature will be capable of handling searches (local or Bing), checking your calendar, setting reminders, and creating to-do lists. It will also “help you get answers from Bing, set alarms and timers, open apps, adjust settings, or give you a joke you can share with colleagues, friends or family.”
This is a further pare back of the features Cortana used to offer, but it’s been clear that Microsoft didn’t really have any interest in competing with Amazon or Google for quite some time. I never liked the way Cortana was forcefully integrated into search, but I thought Microsoft’s work in the home assistant market would help drive the space forward. The search assistant may continue to evolve as a business feature, but her consumer time is clearly over.
Samsung’s Galaxy S20 launched in South Korea recently, but early sales of the handset have been nowhere near what Samsung expected them to be. Coronavirus is one potential culprit, though the steep increase in smartphone prices could be another issue. The Galaxy S10 family was priced at $749, $899, and $999, while the 5G flavor cost $1,299. The Samsung Galaxy S20, on the other hand, is priced at $999, $1,199, and $1,399. That’s a 1.33x increase for the bottom-line device, 1.33x at the midrange, and 1.4x for the top-end SKU, if you don’t count the handful of people who might have bought the terrible 5G variant of last years’ phone.
In short, we’ve got a situation in which Samsung will undoubtedly blame coronavirus for its weak debut, probably because admitting people might not want to pay 1.33x more over the Galaxy S10 could make the product look bad. Samsung moved 70,800 units on launch day, compared with last year’s launch day volume of 140,000 units, and 220,000 launch day sales for the Galaxy Note 10, according to The Korea Herald. Telecom officials told that publication that the impact was caused by sharp declines in phone discounts and lower-than-expected subsidies towards new purchases, with coronavirus also listed as one contributing factor. Pricing on the devices in SK appears to be roughly similar to the US after accounting for inflation.
Are Modern Smartphones Overpriced Luxuries or Fairly Valued?
There are two schools of thought on whether these devices represent good values. My own opinion — which I’m disclosing right up front — is that they absolutely aren’t. The marginal improvements companies have introduced from generation to generation do not justify the dramatic increase in recent costs. Samsung and Apple have both radically jacked up prices from where they were just a few years ago, without delivering a single feature I’d actually consider worth paying for — which is why I haven’t. Modern smartphone companies want you plugged into their services, which is just another way of saying “We want to extract money from you on an ongoing basis so you find it more difficult to stop using our increasingly expensive products.”
I’m far from the only journalist to ask whether it’s worth it to pay $1,000+ or more for a device, but John Gruber over at Daring Fireball has a very different view. According to a post he published earlier this month:
Yes, phones that cost $1,000 or more are expensive. Yes, that’s outside the budget for most people. But why in the world would anyone argue this is ”hard to justify”? Phones are, for most people, the most-used computing device in their lives. They are also their primary — usually only — camera. A good camera alone used to cost $500-600.
There are way more people on the planet who’d rather have a $1,400 phone and a $400 laptop than the other way around. But you’ll never see a tech reviewer claim that $1,000-1,400 is “hard to justify” for a laptop. It’s ridiculously out of touch to argue otherwise. And, the fact that top-of-the-line phones have reached these price points does not negate the fact that truly excellent phones are available at much lower prices.
My response to this would be that while it’s true cheaper devices are also available, the price of those is also increasing, in many cases. When Apple launched the iPhone XR, it was lauded as the “budget” device of the new family. Given that it launched at $750, calling it a budget phone was absurd — but that’s what people did. (The actual “budget” device in the iPhone family is the iPhone 8, a 2.5-year-old device at $449.) Samsung does sell cheaper devices than the Galaxy family, but the entire point of increasing device price is that companies are trying to squeeze more revenue out of fewer smartphone sales.
Also, for the record — and as a tech reviewer — I’ll go ahead and say that I think paying $1,000 – $1,400 for a standard laptop is far too much money. One thousand dollars is a decent price for an affordable gaming laptop, and $1,400 isn’t too bad, either, but these are products designed for specific and more-expensive use-cases. Nobody who needs a basic machine for word processing and internet use should be stuck paying anything like $1,000. According to OEMs I’ve spoken to, the midrange market for smartphones barely exists in the United States. High-end devices are more popular here because of payment plans and the like. There’s nothing wrong with people choosing to buy whatever hardware they want, but that doesn’t mean they’re well-served by doing so, or that raising prices has no impact.
At the same time, the big difference between Samsung and Apple these days isn’t really in the objective experience of the hardware, but more in which software and ecosystem you want to be plugged into, as Ars Technica points out. On the one hand, this is potentially great, since many ecosystem capabilities are available whether you have an absolute top-end phone or a model from several generations back. However, this kind of explanation also cuts against the “It makes sense to buy a top-end phone” argument.
The Galaxy S20 rear-facing camera.
What bothers me the most over the argument of whether we should be paying more for phones, though, has nothing to do with whether you believe a $1,500 price is justifiable or how much you value the iOS / Android ecosystem. What bothers me is the idea we’ve all unconsciously accepted in phones — namely, that faster, better devices should always cost more year after year. The mantra of “faster, better, cheaper” drove the entire semiconductor industry and associated advances for decades. Median PC prices were celebrated as they fell from $2,000+ to $999 and below. The first computer I ever personally purchased was a $999 model, back when that price point was being regularly hit and celebrated with decent hardware for the first time.
I’m not claiming that relentlessly racing to the bottom didn’t have negative effects, because it absolutely did. By the time machine prices bottomed out, a lot of the median equipment was barely worth paying for given how cheaply it was built and how uninspired the design was. But there’s a middle ground between continually jacking up the price and cutting it to the point that the final device experience is subpar. It’s true that companies like Apple and Samsung have found ways to improve their hardware even as they’ve made it more expensive, but the price has increased significantly more than the features warrant, in my own opinion. Obviously people are welcome to buy any device they want for any reason they wish, but we’ve long since passed the price points where I’d personally consider upgrading to a new flagship device at launch.
I test drove the Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit. It is the premier Grand Cherokee for people who don’t feel the need to have a strong Dodge Viper flavor to their SUV, in which case there’s the performance-oriented Grand Cherokee V8 SRT and the high-performance Trackhawk. My test car totaled $62,775 with a four-wheel-drive system – not just all-wheel-drive – that added $3,000, a V8 engine that added $3,795, an eight-speed automatic, telematics, onboard Wi-Fi, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, an AC socket and plenty of USB jacks, and a $1,995 rear entertainment system. At this point, you’re pushing into Audi-BMW-Mercedes territory.
UConnect 4 infotainment system on my car was quite easy to use. But note that not all Grand Cherokees get UConnect 4 and 8-inch center stack screens. For years, Chrysler-Dodge-Ram products have had very good navigation and infotainment. It doesn’t hurt that when you press the NAV button, the screen asks you, “Where to?” The only people who don’t get that are grade-school teachers looking for a verb and a complete sentence.
The Grand Cherokee is your best choice among midsize SUVs if you want an one that goes off-road, not just negotiate a lightly plowed gravel road near the ski slope, and does it with a reasonable amount of passenger comfort. As a bonus, some Grand Cherokees can tow up to 7,200 pounds; the rest tow at least 3,500 pounds. If you have little kids (two), the dual rear entertainment system may be worth the healthy price. The V6 engines are good and the V8s are better but gas mileage suffers.
