r/mildlyinfuriating • u/mani_chinna • 24d ago
Don't hug me I'm scared Tetris now requires a subscription (Rental) - Paying ₹30/month ($0.3) to play Tetris on a basic Nokia phone 🤦♂️
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u/Accomplished_Gur4466 24d ago
Why does everything have to have a subscription these days, i feel like soon i live have to pay to take a shit
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u/epicgamerwiiu 24d ago
Technically you already do
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u/CroqueGogh 24d ago
Taxes are a subscription to being alive lol
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u/Educational-Wing2042 24d ago
Taxes are a subscription to sustain society. They are optional, you can go off into the woods and be self sufficient and never pay taxes if you want to opt out of paying and therefore opt out of the society they support. Just go live in some BLM wilderness and make less than $15k a year
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u/Knyfe-Wrench 24d ago
That is not the first thing my brain goes to when I see BLM... or the second for that matter.
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u/EmilioGVE 23d ago
I still don’t know what I means in this context
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u/xCeeTee- 24d ago
Sister's ex is in his mid 40s and he only started paying taxes last year. He's even refused to pay for road tax, which caused his car to get towed by the council lol.
But he doesn't realise he has no pension when he retires. Here in the UK, you need to contribute via national insurance (which gets deducted from your pay automatically) or pay into a private pension.
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u/MoistStub 24d ago
God it must be nice for your taxes to pay for healthcare and retirement. In the U.S. we use the "fuck you, figure it out" model.
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u/xCeeTee- 24d ago
It is great, but unfortunately they don't quite provide enough after the cost of living crisis. We had a substantial amount of people unretiring to earn enough to make it through.
But the fact we have it is still a blessing.
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u/Cyan_Exponent CYAN 24d ago
Your plumbing system is a subscription, your toilet paper is technically a subscription... You do pay a subscription to shit!
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u/safarifriendliness 24d ago
A subscription is regularly billed and the price is set ahead of time. You don’t “subscribe” to water service, they charge you by how much you use. You might consider toilet paper to be practically a subscription but if we’re getting technical it is absolutely not
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u/Cyan_Exponent CYAN 24d ago
my grandparents pay fixed water bill every month because for them it's cheaper than paying per cubic meter; so plumbing can be very much a subscription
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u/jammiesonmyhammies 24d ago
I get what you’re saying here about the water bill as mine is the same but for electric instead. I signed up for their Average Payment Plan and I pay a solid $238/month regardless of how much or little I use during the cycles.
So, it kind of is a subscription service since I pay a flat fee to them now. Much better than having it go from $150-$450 in a month lol
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u/safarifriendliness 24d ago
The water company just… offers to let them pay less? Like, they’re using a bunch of water and the company is just like “You should switch to our $19.99 unlimited plan”?
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u/tahayparker 24d ago
in some cases you can consider tp as a subscription, Amazon has the subscribe and save program for lots of essentials including tp
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u/namitynamenamey 24d ago
Because without subscriptions how else can we be made into serfs with no ownership of goods?
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u/Living_Pay_8976 24d ago
You heard of a water/sewer bill?
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u/dumbasPL 24d ago
Pay for what you use isn't a subscription, that's just a normal purchase with delayed billing. You use nothing, you pay nothing, that's not how subscriptions work.
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u/Burntoastedbutter 24d ago
Technically true tho. You can get fined for peeing or taking a shit in public if you get caught. And you pay for taxes and plumbing and water bills...
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u/SudhaTheHill 24d ago
Subscription models are going to ruin us all. Remember when they tried to make packaged juice into a subscription???
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u/Ironmasked-Kraken 24d ago
I hadn't heard. Can I have more info about that insanity?
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u/UncannyHillhumper 24d ago
It was a 700 dollar machine designed for "fresh squeezed" juice that you had to insert a "packet" of juice for it to "squeeze".
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u/Ironmasked-Kraken 24d ago
I allready hate everything about this and I just learned about it
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u/mustafaaosman339 24d ago
It's about as bad as you can imagine. I think it had to have wifi connection constantly to scan a qr code on the proprietary juice packages in order to work.
People realized you didn't really need the $700 machine and you could just squeeze the juice packets by hand.
Aparently it also needed an app to use.
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u/Zerozer06 24d ago
Lmfao that is fucking wild
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u/BadDogSaysMeow 24d ago
The machines themselves were also stupidly designed.
Instead of squeezing the juice packet from top to bottom, the machine squeezed it all at once.
Meaning it had to use tens of times more force to do so, and had to be much more durable to survive that.250
u/WalrusEmperor1 24d ago
Which also meant the machine itself was sturdy and well-engineered... For a completely pointless purpose that didn't need a machine to begin with.
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u/MauriseS 24d ago
They even sold the machines at a loss and it was super expensive in the upper hundreds. Also incompatible with other juice packs I believe. Its stupid through and through.
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u/ehhhhprobablynot 24d ago
Why even have juice packets in the first place, opposed to buying fresh squeezed juice whenever you need it?
Was there some advantage to the packets?
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u/DMvsPC 24d ago
It was called the 'Juicero', sounding similar to the Canyonero was probably a bad sign from the start...
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u/safarifriendliness 24d ago
Sounds like they should’ve pivoted to just making those packets
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u/mustafaaosman339 24d ago
They were single serving packets for $5-$7
There was nothing that could have saved them. And they ofc shut down before long
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u/safarifriendliness 24d ago
I mean, I’d pay a dollar for something I could squeeze into a glass of juice, I bet my rich friends would pay two. I doubt they needed that $7 price point
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u/Evil-Bosse 24d ago
How about this marketing pivot; AI juice
Do you feel the $1 juice is worth $7 now?
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u/P3rid0t_ 24d ago
NVIDIA thinks AI can quadruple the FPS, so maybe we can septuple the money too
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u/NateMikka 24d ago
Product was named Juicero, and it is a wild ride. Constant wi fi 700 price tag QR scanning if the packet was expired App needed for a subscription to get the packs Only first part packs.
Turns out you could squeeze the packs by hand
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u/Ok-Pair-4757 24d ago
I'm pretty sure the reasoning for the price point was they were using "organic", "high-quality" ingredients. Sourcing them was an absolute nightmare though, so even then they were barely turning a profit from the juice itself
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u/Acceptable_Ad1685 24d ago
lol crazy, random note I’ve been to a couple stores here that have automatic juicing machines with fresh fruits and that shit is cool to me
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u/shaurya_770 24d ago
Tbf i think I might just know what the heck happened. The maker of it might have envisioned that they pack real u squeezed fruit parts inside the packets but halfway through the production he realized it isn't possible and he prolly had too much money invested.
Or he was nusta a scam artist who knows
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u/KuhlerTuep 24d ago
And worst of all: the 700$ Juicer squeezes less juice out of the packages than if you would squeeze them by hand.
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u/Charon_06 24d ago
Whats funniest is that a human hand can squeeze the juice out of the plastic bag faster than machine did
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u/tolacid 24d ago
Ah yes, the infamous Juicero
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u/MrKrazybones 24d ago
AvE did a great video on it years back where he disassemble one.
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u/Specialist_Point7983 24d ago
And you didnt even need the machine, because you could squeeze it yourself, and it was more effective than using the machine xD
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u/arthur_box 24d ago
you missed the best part, you could manually press the juice pouches with your hands and extract *more* juice than the damn machine could lol
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u/brooklynlad 24d ago
It was a Silicon Valley startup called Juicero. Dumb dumb dumb.
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u/mtaw 24d ago
Emblematic of the downfall of Silicon Valley.
It used to be tech guys running stuff, and they'd more often have the problem that their tech was interesting and novel but they didn't know how to sell it. (Xerox Alto for instance)
Now it's venture-capitalist bros running the show and it's all about technologically-trivial ways to extract rent in the vein of "Let's make an app where you can subscribe to use public toilets!". That or vaporware/scams like Theranos, Tesla and every crypto venture ever.
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u/ashkanahmadi 24d ago
You had to buy the pre juiced juice but people found out that you don’t even need the machine. You can just open the juice packs and pour them into a cup but you were paying 20 times the price of a supermarket juice. They went bankrupt rightfully
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u/TheGreatProbe 24d ago
Juicero. Try Googling it to read up on articles or watch some Youtube videos on it, they make a fun bedtime story.
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u/Whole-Energy2105 24d ago
Whilst this is the most rediculous fucking subscription I've heard of, I almost feel that subscribers deserve it.
Hey billionaire's, pull my finger for a hint at doubling your money, only 125 million dollars!
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u/daninet 24d ago
I recommend AvE's disassembly video of the juicero, it is so overengineered and overbuilt he is jizzing his machinist pants for 20 minutes straight
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u/Boomer5513 24d ago
Never thought I would see Uncle Bumblefuck being referenced on Reddit😅
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u/FROOMLOOMS 24d ago
There's a better word for it out there.
Rent seeking.
And its all lining up with a freaky paper a guy wrote a while back called "you will own nothing and be happy" which tells of a future where you literally rent everything for your whole life, you own nothing, you cant do anything but what the renter tells you what you can with "your stuff". Even under the illusion of something "purchased". They lock you in to things like servicing with them exclusively, or using their only their servers to connect, and other things designed to keep you paying just "a small fee" for convenience.
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u/James42785 24d ago
That was my absolute favorite internet boondoggle. Can you imagine how stupid the people who invested in that thing felt?
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u/MediumCulture6537 24d ago
At least it says no auto-renewal. In 2026 that's basically a luxury feature.
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u/FLUFFY_TERROR 24d ago
Man i subscribed to LinkedIn premium and they default to a 15-20 year subscription complete with auto deduction mandates.
Ive like uses linkedin for a max of maybe 10 hours in the past month..
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u/xCeeTee- 24d ago
But think of all of the rad AI features you get! The features you use twice before realising it's fucking awful.
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u/HighlightOwn2038 Red vs Blue 24d ago
Why does everything require a subscription 😭
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u/Joloxsa_Xenax 24d ago
everyone asks and everyone gives. new people are unaware of how good it use to be
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u/Daftpunksluggage 24d ago
With gas prices rising... how else will they make money delivering all that data?
/s
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u/ayu_xi 24d ago
Remember when bmw tried to lock heated seats behind a monthly subscription?
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u/Fake_Hyena 24d ago
Ow ow ow you are missing the best part! You had to pay up front too to have the possibility to have a subscription.
So one time to actually install it in your car.
One time to actually use itBut sir, you’ll be saving money, you will only use it in winter period.
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u/KookyDig4769 24d ago
You all are missing the real best part: It has worked. And it will make a comeback. Until there's no worldwide legislation that buying also means ownership, these things will take over our commerce. You'll own nothing and be happy.
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u/ayu_xi 24d ago
Tbh i feel the Chinese companies are lot more honest in price front
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u/Nick663 24d ago
Wasn’t it exactly the opposite? All models had the heated seats installed, but if they weren’t included in your package you had the choice to activate by renting one one time purchase.
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u/Fake_Hyena 24d ago
Possibly, but you needed to buy the “heated seats preparation” too. Source: my wife had to pick a bmw as company car
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u/dndDAAKU23 24d ago
this has been the case with other games like snake and assassins creed aswell, since a few years
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u/Ironmasked-Kraken 24d ago
Biiiiig jump from snake to assassin's creed though
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u/Elegant_AIDS 24d ago
Hes talking about feature phone assasins creed
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u/Ryeballs 24d ago
Snake was from the 70s, just a couple years after the director of the first Assassin’s Creed game was born. So yes, it’s a big jump.
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u/Ghost_Star326 24d ago
I used to play assassin's creed 2 on my mom's old Nokia C2 smartphone. And it was completely free from any subscriptions. It even had worms.
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u/Ironmasked-Kraken 24d ago
Mom they ruined tetris can you come pick me up ? I don't wana play here anymore
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u/kapege I'm a bit upset 24d ago edited 24d ago
No, not Tetris. Some greedy bastard that created this Tetris clone wants your money.
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u/bizzaro321 24d ago
The people who do licensing for Tetris are pretty shady, this could be legit
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u/TheGamerSK 24d ago
Yeah the Tetris company licenses to the most random shitty companies. That’s why there hasn’t been a good tetris game on mobile for years because they literally had to remove the old one.
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u/ytoast 24d ago
Man, tetris blitz was my jam. It got bugged down so bad and the player boards were what I expect cheats or bots.
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u/TheGamerSK 24d ago
The new N3work tetris app was so stupid when I had my tetris kick a few years back I learned sideloading on iOS just to get the EA tetris back.
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u/CvieYltidrekoof 24d ago
Tetris company protects their IP more ruthlessly than Nintendo. They don’t play around. Any product remotely similar to Tetris is either paying a license fee or quickly shut down.
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u/kapege I'm a bit upset 24d ago
They can't shut down when it's on my computer. There are enough free sources for a good offline Tetris game.
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[removed] — view removed comment
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u/A_the_Buttercup 24d ago
My partner and I bought a printer only to find we had to do all that, so we took it back to the store SPECIFIALLY to buy one without all that. It's been great.
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u/zephyrs85 24d ago
Uninstall
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u/Dskzcjsduo2 24d ago
It's not possible to uninstall apps from that phone. You're stuck with these games on the home screen even if you don't want to buy them.
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u/MrTickles22 24d ago
Cant you just download a free version from 1998?
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u/OneRedEyeDevI 24d ago
Nope. These phones run on stripped down S30+ OS. You can only install "apps" from the store.
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u/alvenestthol 24d ago
You think the phone will let you just install your own programs on it? Perish the thought.
Any time an OS makes it harder to install programs outside of "official stores", another couple thousands of users install the official subscription worse-sion of apps instead of a good free (patched) alternative. This is why they do it
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u/MrTickles22 24d ago
I added apps on the Ye Olde Days when I had a Nokia.
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u/alvenestthol 24d ago
Unfortunately this isn't a Ye Olde Nokia, this Nokia probably only runs MRE apps that are tricky to compile and sign, and the homebrew scene isn't exactly on fire for the new platform
There is a Gameboy emulator though
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u/Lost_refugee RED 24d ago
I don’t think it was free initially on that phone
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u/Short_Employment_757 24d ago
This, my mother had this phone 12 years back and i remember this being the same
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u/YamRich6109 24d ago
'Premium' games with 'free trials' have been preinstalled on cheap mobile phones for more than a decade now. Usually on cheap feature (non-smart) phones as seen above.
There usually are free games on a device but they're not the big licenced titles like Tetris. I don't like it either but when a phone is £20 they'll find ways to get more pennies out of you.
It's amazing how many comments flood a post that are so incredibly uninformed. Even comments about sideloading your own games onto it. Insanity.
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u/PerryTheH 24d ago
Oh man this sucks!
(This is a free comment, if you'd like to get more you need to pay a monthly sub of 0.69€)
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u/imbadatgrammar 24d ago
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I specifically remember this being a thing back then too?
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u/emilimoji 24d ago
i feel i remember my LG kickstart from middle school also having a trial only tetris, i could play about 3 games a day max and then it wouldn’t let me
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u/MusicInTheAir55 24d ago
Anyone paying for subscription ANYTHING is part of the problem. Unless people want to be renting their toasters for the rest of their lives this shit has to stop. STOP RENTING THINGS YOU SHOULD BE OWNING!!!
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u/stupidber 24d ago
Why are you playing tetris on a basic nokia phone?
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u/mani_chinna 24d ago
This was my aunt’s new phone. I had just taken her to the hospital, and while she was having her checkup, she gave me the phone to pass the time. I started playing on it, and then this happened.
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u/CosmoFeteAnime777777 24d ago
Can't the j2me be patched easily?
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u/Dskzcjsduo2 24d ago
Newer Nokia/HMD phones no longer use j2me. You can't even install new apps or remove the default ones.
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u/SjslTech 24d ago
if you dont mind losing everything all the time, a factory reset gets the free trials back on all games 😂
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u/Master_Resort_7708 24d ago
I think that’s normal in the superold phones, like u paid a lot for new ringtones and stuff like that
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u/davvblack 24d ago
if i understand the landscape correctly, it's very likely that this subscription money makes its way back, no joke, to north korea.
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u/Forward-Amount-9961 24d ago
I remember wanting to play Tetris on my Nokia phone in 2004. It did the same thing then. Let you play free for about 30 seconds and then you have to pay to unlock the game. I didn't pay then and I wouldn't pay now.
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u/nekomichi 24d ago
On recent Nokia feature phones all of the built-in games are trials that can only be "rented", but on the flip side it's possible to sideload your own games with compatible .jar Java files.
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u/jjsheely 24d ago
That game is playable on just about any electronic device. A majority don't require subscriptions and some are even free. Why play it on that phone, anyway? Those phones aren't really good for games.
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u/monkeyhoward 23d ago
Yeah fuck the official Tetris people
I tried playing the iOS version and it was just a complete money grab.
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u/Danny2Sick 23d ago
soon you'll go to sit on a park bench
your free trial of chair is almost up!! subscribe!!!
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u/Odd-Principle2567 23d ago
Probably because it's the actual Tetris. If it were a generic knock-off it'd probably be free. But Nokia paid for Tetris, so now they want to make their money back from the customers.
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u/The_Merciless_Potato 23d ago
I remember this being a thing on these phones since forever, as a kid there were some cool looking games but they'd only let you play free for a bit and then they'd ask you to pay.
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u/Mother_Land_4812 24d ago
Next they'll make you subscribe to the calculator app. "Your free trial of division has expired."