1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:02,980 Man, buying products used to be so simple. 2 00:00:02,980 --> 00:00:05,080 You pay money for like a hammer 3 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:06,920 and then you can use it however you want, 4 00:00:06,920 --> 00:00:08,800 provided we're not talking about settling a score 5 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:09,640 with your neighbor. 6 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:12,920 But did you know that many electronics have hidden features 7 00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:16,680 that for one reason or another, you can't even use? 8 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:18,820 There are actual functional parts in your devices 9 00:00:18,820 --> 00:00:20,880 that you, the paying customer, 10 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:23,440 are totally blocked from accessing. 11 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:24,620 What's up with that? 12 00:00:24,620 --> 00:00:25,680 All right, let's start with something 13 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:28,440 you might be using right now, your CPU. 14 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:30,100 You see, if you've ever looked at a review 15 00:00:30,100 --> 00:00:33,260 of a newly released CPU or GPU for that matter, 16 00:00:33,260 --> 00:00:36,120 you might've noticed that certain cores or execution units 17 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:39,640 are there in the die shot, but are disabled. 18 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:41,400 So you might think it logically follows 19 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:43,720 that there's some way to enable them again. 20 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:46,740 And suddenly you have an i7 instead of an i5. 21 00:00:46,740 --> 00:00:49,700 In fact, in the past, enthusiasts have done just that, 22 00:00:49,700 --> 00:00:53,460 with a famous example being AMD's Tri-Core Phenom CPUs, 23 00:00:53,460 --> 00:00:57,500 which could be unlocked to quad cores, sometimes. 24 00:00:57,500 --> 00:00:58,440 As it turns out, 25 00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:00,140 disabling in this context 26 00:01:00,140 --> 00:01:03,220 usually isn't just a switch you can flip in software. 27 00:01:03,220 --> 00:01:06,460 You see, when CPUs and GPUs roll off the assembly line, 28 00:01:06,460 --> 00:01:08,340 some cores or execution units 29 00:01:08,340 --> 00:01:10,040 don't function at peak performance, 30 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:11,480 or they have enough impurities 31 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:12,960 that they might not even work at all. 32 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:15,280 And other cores might work perfectly fine, 33 00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:16,160 but aren't good enough 34 00:01:16,160 --> 00:01:18,600 to hit the advertised power consumption target. 35 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:22,080 Now, it would be a shame to throw out the entire chip 36 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:24,540 just because a small part of it was messed up. 37 00:01:24,540 --> 00:01:27,260 So instead, these cores or execution units 38 00:01:27,260 --> 00:01:28,260 are factory disabled. 39 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:30,700 Sometimes even at a hardware level, 40 00:01:30,700 --> 00:01:33,640 and sold as lower tier products at a lower price. 41 00:01:33,640 --> 00:01:34,540 In cases like this, 42 00:01:34,540 --> 00:01:36,880 there's no way for an end user to get in there 43 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:38,740 and enable these extra components. 44 00:01:38,740 --> 00:01:40,020 And even if you could, 45 00:01:40,020 --> 00:01:42,760 you might run into serious stability problems, 46 00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:45,060 and maybe even a crisis of conscience. 47 00:01:45,060 --> 00:01:45,900 Moving on. 48 00:01:45,900 --> 00:01:47,080 For another example, 49 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:50,560 the reason printers are cheap and ink is expensive 50 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:53,200 is because printer companies make most of their profit 51 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:54,500 on ink cartridges, 52 00:01:54,500 --> 00:01:56,980 which they can sell over and over and over again, 53 00:01:56,980 --> 00:01:58,240 as opposed to the printer, 54 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:00,220 which they can only sell once. 55 00:02:00,220 --> 00:02:03,360 Lure an unsuspecting grandma in with a cheap printer, 56 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:06,260 and you've got a sale every time her grandkids come over 57 00:02:06,260 --> 00:02:09,780 and print 60 copies of their beautiful artwork. 58 00:02:09,780 --> 00:02:11,800 Unfortunately, it's kind of an open secret 59 00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:14,220 that the printer companies often take this too far 60 00:02:14,220 --> 00:02:16,400 by serving users low ink warnings, 61 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:18,260 even when there's a significant amount of ink 62 00:02:18,260 --> 00:02:19,500 left in the cartridge. 63 00:02:19,500 --> 00:02:20,580 And while it's true, 64 00:02:20,580 --> 00:02:23,280 ink cartridges that still have a very small amount of ink 65 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:25,400 in them are too dry to be usable, 66 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:28,040 many users have reported getting lots of extra life 67 00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:28,880 out of their cartridges, 68 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:30,680 even after these warnings pop up. 69 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:31,680 And in some cases, 70 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:33,640 cartridges may refuse to print at all 71 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:35,280 once they get below a certain level. 72 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:37,000 But there's ink in there. 73 00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:39,820 Unsurprisingly, there's been backlash 74 00:02:39,820 --> 00:02:40,980 against these practices. 75 00:02:40,980 --> 00:02:43,340 So printer companies have actually thrown customers 76 00:02:43,340 --> 00:02:47,280 a small bone in offering models with refillable ink tanks 77 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:50,080 instead of sealed cartridges that can lock them out. 78 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:52,980 For our last example, we'll use a more everyday item. 79 00:02:52,980 --> 00:02:55,160 A couple of car makers have played with the idea 80 00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:58,020 of enabling certain pre-installed features for a fee, 81 00:02:58,040 --> 00:03:00,240 after you buy the car. 82 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:03,540 For example, Tesla installs batteries in lower range cars, 83 00:03:03,540 --> 00:03:07,360 whose full capacity can be unlocked microtransaction style. 84 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:10,840 And BMW has plans to sell features like heated seats 85 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:13,700 as a subscription for a certain length of time. 86 00:03:13,700 --> 00:03:16,300 So you could pay just to have them enabled during the winter 87 00:03:16,300 --> 00:03:18,440 and turn them off during the summer. 88 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:19,560 That's horrible. 89 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:23,320 That's a bad, that's so dumb. 90 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:25,100 It might seem expensive for the companies 91 00:03:25,100 --> 00:03:27,920 to make cars with features consumers might never use, 92 00:03:27,920 --> 00:03:30,140 but the justification is that it simplifies 93 00:03:30,140 --> 00:03:33,500 the manufacturing process to build mostly identical hardware 94 00:03:33,500 --> 00:03:35,540 and allow people who don't want the features 95 00:03:35,540 --> 00:03:37,340 to save a few dollars at the till. 96 00:03:37,340 --> 00:03:39,100 Another argument for this practice 97 00:03:39,100 --> 00:03:41,740 is that it could make reselling cars easier 98 00:03:41,740 --> 00:03:43,580 as a new buyer could just enable features 99 00:03:43,580 --> 00:03:45,620 that the previous owner may not have wanted. 100 00:03:45,620 --> 00:03:47,340 Of course, the other side of the coin would be to say 101 00:03:47,340 --> 00:03:48,880 that this is just a way for the automakers 102 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:50,320 to squeeze more money out of you 103 00:03:50,320 --> 00:03:52,740 by getting you to pay again for materials 104 00:03:52,740 --> 00:03:55,880 that were clearly covered well enough by the price you paid. 105 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:57,200 And the truth is, unfortunately, not. 106 00:03:57,200 --> 00:03:57,720 And the truth is, unfortunately, not. 107 00:03:57,720 --> 00:04:00,020 Unfortunately, probably somewhere in the middle. 108 00:04:00,020 --> 00:04:01,360 Of course, you could just refuse 109 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:02,780 to play this whole game entirely 110 00:04:02,780 --> 00:04:05,700 and go back to the good old days of taming wild beasts 111 00:04:05,700 --> 00:04:07,920 and using them as your steed. 112 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:11,040 Speaking of taming wild beasts, here's a wild one. 113 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:14,040 Our sponsor, the Drop Enter Keyboard. 114 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:15,860 It's a new keyboard from drop.com 115 00:04:15,860 --> 00:04:17,640 made with enthusiast grade materials, 116 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:20,840 including an aluminum top plate and plastic bottom plate. 117 00:04:20,840 --> 00:04:23,460 It's got white LEDs for visibility in dark conditions 118 00:04:23,460 --> 00:04:26,840 and PBT key caps using a double shot shine through design. 119 00:04:26,840 --> 00:04:30,240 Weighing in at 964 grams and available in three colors 120 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:32,080 with your choice of mechanical switches, 121 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:33,960 it's the Drop Enter Keyboard. 122 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:35,780 Buy it today at drop.com. 123 00:04:38,270 --> 00:04:40,610 Whoa, that was a video for sure. 124 00:04:40,610 --> 00:04:41,530 I thought it was pretty good. 125 00:04:41,530 --> 00:04:42,830 If you agree, give it a like. 126 00:04:42,830 --> 00:04:44,590 If you don't agree, give it a dislike. 127 00:04:44,590 --> 00:04:46,210 But you know what you should do regardless? 128 00:04:46,210 --> 00:04:48,070 Give us some suggestions for future videos 129 00:04:48,070 --> 00:04:48,970 down in the comments. 130 00:04:48,970 --> 00:04:51,250 Check out our other videos slash channels, 131 00:04:51,250 --> 00:04:52,750 whatever you want. 132 00:04:52,750 --> 00:04:55,950 And don't forget to subscribe to this channel and follow. 133 00:04:55,950 --> 00:04:57,050 TechWiggy. 134 00:04:57,450 --> 00:04:58,590 Gonna make more.