WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.980 Man, buying products used to be so simple. 00:00:02.980 --> 00:00:05.080 You pay money for like a hammer 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:06.920 and then you can use it however you want, 00:00:06.920 --> 00:00:08.800 provided we're not talking about settling a score 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:09.640 with your neighbor. 00:00:09.640 --> 00:00:12.920 But did you know that many electronics have hidden features 00:00:12.920 --> 00:00:16.680 that for one reason or another, you can't even use? 00:00:16.680 --> 00:00:18.820 There are actual functional parts in your devices 00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:20.880 that you, the paying customer, 00:00:20.880 --> 00:00:23.440 are totally blocked from accessing. 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:24.620 What's up with that? 00:00:24.620 --> 00:00:25.680 All right, let's start with something 00:00:25.680 --> 00:00:28.440 you might be using right now, your CPU. 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:30.100 You see, if you've ever looked at a review 00:00:30.100 --> 00:00:33.260 of a newly released CPU or GPU for that matter, 00:00:33.260 --> 00:00:36.120 you might've noticed that certain cores or execution units 00:00:36.120 --> 00:00:39.640 are there in the die shot, but are disabled. 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:41.400 So you might think it logically follows 00:00:41.400 --> 00:00:43.720 that there's some way to enable them again. 00:00:43.720 --> 00:00:46.740 And suddenly you have an i7 instead of an i5. 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:49.700 In fact, in the past, enthusiasts have done just that, 00:00:49.700 --> 00:00:53.460 with a famous example being AMD's Tri-Core Phenom CPUs, 00:00:53.460 --> 00:00:57.500 which could be unlocked to quad cores, sometimes. 00:00:57.500 --> 00:00:58.440 As it turns out, 00:00:58.440 --> 00:01:00.140 disabling in this context 00:01:00.140 --> 00:01:03.220 usually isn't just a switch you can flip in software. 00:01:03.220 --> 00:01:06.460 You see, when CPUs and GPUs roll off the assembly line, 00:01:06.460 --> 00:01:08.340 some cores or execution units 00:01:08.340 --> 00:01:10.040 don't function at peak performance, 00:01:10.040 --> 00:01:11.480 or they have enough impurities 00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:12.960 that they might not even work at all. 00:01:12.960 --> 00:01:15.280 And other cores might work perfectly fine, 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:16.160 but aren't good enough 00:01:16.160 --> 00:01:18.600 to hit the advertised power consumption target. 00:01:18.600 --> 00:01:22.080 Now, it would be a shame to throw out the entire chip 00:01:22.080 --> 00:01:24.540 just because a small part of it was messed up. 00:01:24.540 --> 00:01:27.260 So instead, these cores or execution units 00:01:27.260 --> 00:01:28.260 are factory disabled. 00:01:28.440 --> 00:01:30.700 Sometimes even at a hardware level, 00:01:30.700 --> 00:01:33.640 and sold as lower tier products at a lower price. 00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:34.540 In cases like this, 00:01:34.540 --> 00:01:36.880 there's no way for an end user to get in there 00:01:36.880 --> 00:01:38.740 and enable these extra components. 00:01:38.740 --> 00:01:40.020 And even if you could, 00:01:40.020 --> 00:01:42.760 you might run into serious stability problems, 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:45.060 and maybe even a crisis of conscience. 00:01:45.060 --> 00:01:45.900 Moving on. 00:01:45.900 --> 00:01:47.080 For another example, 00:01:47.080 --> 00:01:50.560 the reason printers are cheap and ink is expensive 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:53.200 is because printer companies make most of their profit 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:54.500 on ink cartridges, 00:01:54.500 --> 00:01:56.980 which they can sell over and over and over again, 00:01:56.980 --> 00:01:58.240 as opposed to the printer, 00:01:58.240 --> 00:02:00.220 which they can only sell once. 00:02:00.220 --> 00:02:03.360 Lure an unsuspecting grandma in with a cheap printer, 00:02:03.360 --> 00:02:06.260 and you've got a sale every time her grandkids come over 00:02:06.260 --> 00:02:09.780 and print 60 copies of their beautiful artwork. 00:02:09.780 --> 00:02:11.800 Unfortunately, it's kind of an open secret 00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:14.220 that the printer companies often take this too far 00:02:14.220 --> 00:02:16.400 by serving users low ink warnings, 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:18.260 even when there's a significant amount of ink 00:02:18.260 --> 00:02:19.500 left in the cartridge. 00:02:19.500 --> 00:02:20.580 And while it's true, 00:02:20.580 --> 00:02:23.280 ink cartridges that still have a very small amount of ink 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:25.400 in them are too dry to be usable, 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:28.040 many users have reported getting lots of extra life 00:02:28.040 --> 00:02:28.880 out of their cartridges, 00:02:28.880 --> 00:02:30.680 even after these warnings pop up. 00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:31.680 And in some cases, 00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:33.640 cartridges may refuse to print at all 00:02:33.640 --> 00:02:35.280 once they get below a certain level. 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:37.000 But there's ink in there. 00:02:37.920 --> 00:02:39.820 Unsurprisingly, there's been backlash 00:02:39.820 --> 00:02:40.980 against these practices. 00:02:40.980 --> 00:02:43.340 So printer companies have actually thrown customers 00:02:43.340 --> 00:02:47.280 a small bone in offering models with refillable ink tanks 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:50.080 instead of sealed cartridges that can lock them out. 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:52.980 For our last example, we'll use a more everyday item. 00:02:52.980 --> 00:02:55.160 A couple of car makers have played with the idea 00:02:55.160 --> 00:02:58.020 of enabling certain pre-installed features for a fee, 00:02:58.040 --> 00:03:00.240 after you buy the car. 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:03.540 For example, Tesla installs batteries in lower range cars, 00:03:03.540 --> 00:03:07.360 whose full capacity can be unlocked microtransaction style. 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:10.840 And BMW has plans to sell features like heated seats 00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:13.700 as a subscription for a certain length of time. 00:03:13.700 --> 00:03:16.300 So you could pay just to have them enabled during the winter 00:03:16.300 --> 00:03:18.440 and turn them off during the summer. 00:03:18.440 --> 00:03:19.560 That's horrible. 00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:23.320 That's a bad, that's so dumb. 00:03:23.320 --> 00:03:25.100 It might seem expensive for the companies 00:03:25.100 --> 00:03:27.920 to make cars with features consumers might never use, 00:03:27.920 --> 00:03:30.140 but the justification is that it simplifies 00:03:30.140 --> 00:03:33.500 the manufacturing process to build mostly identical hardware 00:03:33.500 --> 00:03:35.540 and allow people who don't want the features 00:03:35.540 --> 00:03:37.340 to save a few dollars at the till. 00:03:37.340 --> 00:03:39.100 Another argument for this practice 00:03:39.100 --> 00:03:41.740 is that it could make reselling cars easier 00:03:41.740 --> 00:03:43.580 as a new buyer could just enable features 00:03:43.580 --> 00:03:45.620 that the previous owner may not have wanted. 00:03:45.620 --> 00:03:47.340 Of course, the other side of the coin would be to say 00:03:47.340 --> 00:03:48.880 that this is just a way for the automakers 00:03:48.880 --> 00:03:50.320 to squeeze more money out of you 00:03:50.320 --> 00:03:52.740 by getting you to pay again for materials 00:03:52.740 --> 00:03:55.880 that were clearly covered well enough by the price you paid. 00:03:55.880 --> 00:03:57.200 And the truth is, unfortunately, not. 00:03:57.200 --> 00:03:57.720 And the truth is, unfortunately, not. 00:03:57.720 --> 00:04:00.020 Unfortunately, probably somewhere in the middle. 00:04:00.020 --> 00:04:01.360 Of course, you could just refuse 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:02.780 to play this whole game entirely 00:04:02.780 --> 00:04:05.700 and go back to the good old days of taming wild beasts 00:04:05.700 --> 00:04:07.920 and using them as your steed. 00:04:07.920 --> 00:04:11.040 Speaking of taming wild beasts, here's a wild one. 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--> 00:04:46.210 But you know what you should do regardless? 00:04:46.210 --> 00:04:48.070 Give us some suggestions for future videos 00:04:48.070 --> 00:04:48.970 down in the comments. 00:04:48.970 --> 00:04:51.250 Check out our other videos slash channels, 00:04:51.250 --> 00:04:52.750 whatever you want. 00:04:52.750 --> 00:04:55.950 And don't forget to subscribe to this channel and follow. 00:04:55.950 --> 00:04:57.050 TechWiggy. 00:04:57.450 --> 00:04:58.590 Gonna make more.