Pixel Phones Finally Blowing Up - WAN Show October 17, 2025

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold experienced a battery fire during a bend test, highlighting persistent durability issues and high pricing in the foldable phone market, while ongoing discussions reveal a generational divide in app preferences and challenges in preserving old games and combating corporate anti-repair policies.

• Foldable phones face significant durability and pricing hurdles, as highlighted by the Pixel 10 Pro Fold's battery fire.

• Preserving original game versions is crucial, as remakes can alter fundamental gameplay and nostalgic experiences.

• Corporate policies by HP and Microsoft hinder product longevity and user freedom, prioritizing profit over support and repairability.

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold encountered a battery fire during a durability test, raising concerns about foldable phone durability and their exorbitant pricing, which parallels issues with other brands like Samsung. Google faces brand challenges in the US, particularly among younger buyers, due to Apple's ecosystem dominance. Additionally, companies like HP are criticized for removing support documents for retired products, hindering repairability, and the difficulty of preserving original game versions is debated.

Pixel 10 Pro Fold Controversy

• 00:02:15 The Pixel 10 Pro Fold caused a significant controversy after its battery went up in smoke during a durability test by Zach from JerryRigEverything, marking the first phone to fail in this manner during his tests. While some attribute the failure to the phone being fully charged during the extreme bend test, The Verge suggests it's not necessarily a design flaw. The hosts believe high pricing, often exceeding $2000 USD, is a more significant issue for foldable phones, including Samsung's offerings.

Folding Phone Market Issues

• 00:14:37 The folding phone market faces persistent challenges with durability, hinge quality, and screen scratch resistance, contrasting sharply with Apple's highly durable phone screens. Many users also find themselves primarily using the smaller outer screen, negating the benefit of the larger inner display. Apple is rumored to be developing a folding phone, which could potentially drive mainstream adoption and lower costs, but its release is uncertain given Apple's focus on screen durability.

Google's Branding Challenges

• 00:08:40 Google struggles with branding and market positioning in the US, especially among younger demographics, where Apple is dominant. This dominance stems not just from higher pricing, but from Apple's ecosystem that locks users in through social integration like iMessage, despite alternatives like RCS and multiplatform apps like Discord existing. Google previously raised Pixel prices to align with Apple, believing lower prices implied lower value, but this hasn't resolved their brand perception problem.

Importance of Game Preservation

• 00:18:20 Capcom's reluctance to re-release original games, believing remakes offer a superior experience, is debated, with hosts emphasizing the importance of preserving original versions. Remakes often change core mechanics, controls, and difficulty, altering the original experience, as seen in examples like Final Fantasy Tactics. Preserving originals caters to nostalgia, speedrunners, and those who appreciate the historical context and original design philosophy, which can be lost with modern 'quality of life' improvements.

Bureaucracy and Problem Solving

• 00:46:40 A broader societal problem of bureaucracy is discussed, where saying 'no' is easy and problem-solving is hard. This often stems from incompetence, laziness, apathy, or even stupidity from individuals in bureaucratic positions who are unwilling or unable to find solutions. This obstruction can be life-draining and significantly impede progress, even for widely supported initiatives, as exemplified by the hosts' personal and business experiences with permits and condo board approvals.

The Scarcity Mindset & Investing

• 01:06:50 The 'psychology of scarcity' impacts cognition and decision-making, where individuals who grew up without money or experienced periods of scarcity tend to be more risk-averse with finances. While this can lead to caution, it also means potentially missing out on investment opportunities like stock market bull runs, as seen with the hosts. Comfort in having money readily available often outweighs the desire to maximize potential returns through investments, leading to capital doing less work.

Corporate Anti-Repair Policies

• 01:46:44 HP is criticized for its policy of removing support documents, troubleshooting articles, and user guides for retired products, making it nearly impossible for users to repair or maintain older devices. This is particularly problematic for products reliant on vendor-specific drivers. While some older companies like IBM and Intel maintain archives, HP's actions appear to be a resource problem or a lack of corporate will, hindering the longevity of products and contributing to e-waste.

Google Product 'Enshittification'

• 02:01:43 Google products are increasingly experiencing 'enshittification,' where core services like search and Gmail deteriorate by prioritizing AI summaries or irrelevant results over user experience. This trend of jamming AI into everything, coupled with practices like forcing Microsoft account logins on Windows 11 installations, creates frustration. While workarounds exist for some issues, they often involve using unofficial scripts that can disable other Windows features, posing a security risk.