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Comment by krtkush | Hacker News Reader

I am so glad that I bought so much new tech before 2025 that I can make do without them for a while now.

These prices are insane and there is no sign of things slowing down.

I would happily give up on the entire AI industry in exchange for more affordable hardware. No hesitation. The worldwide inflation resulting from the AI rollout is shameful to say it politely

I've thought a lot about that actually. I have a number of hardware purchases I'd like to make but I'm delaying due to the insane prices. That said, would I give up LLMs for the prior prices? No. Prices will come down eventually once more factories come online (it's just slow to bring up a new factory/fab, especially for RAM) and LLMs are such an awesome tool that I'll take the short-term pain of higher hardware.

That’s if you’re considering your personal situation. The increase in hardware is impacting every single institution that needs computers. Smaller hardware companies with low margins cannot operate in the current situation. That means less consumer choices, new projects delayed or cancelled. The impact on less developed countries is of course exacerbated. Hospitals, schools, government agencies are getting less for the same level of spending. And of course that results in worst services, worst infrastructure, more expensive services and goods

Luckily absolute performance still exists, it's just that we've normalized shipping less efficient software slopped out because there'll probably be new silicon in a few years so it doesn't matter.

Commodity hardware is plenty powerful and can be taken advantage of should prices signal efficiency is important again.

Maybe institutions and companies are gonna have to get smarter at making use of stuff that they have instead of just churning thru hardware. It's hard to see it being sustainable anyway to be constantly turning over hardware every few years if not yearly. In a way, this chilling of consumerism is kinda neat.

Yeah my 2006 core 2 duo running linux was more productive than any corporate Windows laptop I have ever used.

This is due to 20 versions of enterprise spyware running in the background + Windows being garbage.

But it is impacting everything. Even the new Sony RX camera has a slower sensor readout from the years old model simply because they can't get hold of the DRAM.

The Apple TV really threw me, $299 new but last gen started at $129

It's especially bad if you're non-American with multiple TVs.

e.g. I've got three screens in my house (office TV, living room TV, basement projector) in Canada — upgrading to the latest Apple TV on each of them would cost me $1,287.

You can choose to not upgrade, or forego Apple TV altogether.

I say this as an Apple shareholder.

> You can choose to not upgrade, or forego Apple TV altogether.

Sure, and I can also complain about the pricing being unreasonable — which I also say an an Apple shareholder.

Root-cause analysis suggests blaming the monopolists hogging all the silicon fab.

I have two televisions - living room TV with an AppleTV and bedroom TV with some Roku device. I'm going to buy the new AppleTV and put it in the living room, then move that AppleTV to the bedroom, then recycle the Roku (finally, I hate that thing).

It should be less expensive but I rely on it (cancelled cable TV and just have streaming now) and so I'm just happy they are still working on it.

Depending on what you subscribe to, streaming services are now as expensive (if not more) than cable was if you got premium channels. I hear also Disney will add ads to all tiers as well.

I'm sure we're spending more money, but the AppleTV just works so much better than any cable box I've ever had.

The key is to subscribe to Jellyfin, but even THAT is getting expensive if you buy drives.

In Europe, it’s closer to $400, which is downright insulting for what is essentially a cheap smartphone without a screen or battery.

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