It seems to differ by provider. When I was with Three it was an irritating process of having to either call up or visit a shop in person and say "I want to look at the naughty pages, please". Another provider (I can't remember which) had a method where you had to supply a credit card number.
I'm with "1p Mobile" now who are a virtual network on EE, and their adult content block is just a toggle in your online account, with no faffing around required - you can just hit the toggle. I presume the idea is that you don't give little Timmy the password to his own account portal, but I don't know what's to stop him getting his own SIM by himself.
With Three, I found the adult content block caused other problems with SSH connections dropping, various random stuff getting blocked and so on, which all went away as soon as I had it disabled, so it's worth doing even for non porn fans.
Meh. I live in a poorer area of the UK. We don't have indie bookstores any closer than a 45-minute drive away, and I'm lucky to have a car.
When the kind of people who run "indie bookstores" come and set up in areas like mine instead of staying in their twee suburbs and posh little towns, then I'll start using them and stop using Amazon. Until then, Amazon are the people democratising access to book shopping, delivering fair-priced books to people regardless of where they live, not to mention the convenience of Kindle.
I'm in Europe and had endless ads on my Xiaomi phone - normally for Xiaomi crap, like themes and games. I actively had to go in and turn off notifications for various Mi apps to stop them pestering me with notifications several times a day, but there are still full-screen ad interruptions in the stock apps like the file manager and notepad.
My Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus is nowhere near as good as my last Xiaomi - the ads seem to have increased, and the battery life has gone to shit after <1 year of usage. I won't get another.
I've found similar. I don't know if it was post-Covid, but I have completely asymptomatic high blood pressure. It's really scary to go to the doctor for an extremely routine health check expecting to be back at work in an hour, and then suddenly be told that your blood pressure is so high that you need to go to hospital immediately.
There's no obvious cause, I'm fit and healthy in all other ways, I've had multiple blood tests and ECGs, my cholesterol is normal, everything is normal, just the blood pressure. I also didn't know about this machine but I might get one. I have developed anxiety around having it taken (because of the experience of getting sent to hospital!) so it goes up when I take it, like extreme white-coat syndrome.
I'm definitely getting one of these gadgets so I can see what it really is, without the stress and pain (those things hurt!) of inflating cuffs.
The same goes for all services. I was able to sign up for an ISP service (in the UK) online very easily, with a few clicks and entries onto a form to enter my details, choose my installation date, choose my speed, etc. Fast forward a few years, I'm leaving that house and need to cancel the internet - snail mail letter needed.
I just started using and paying for Spotify, having been a diehard radio listener all my life (and, in a previous period of my career, worked in the sector). It was more of a reaction against radio rather than being in favour of Spotify, though. I was tired of my listening being characterised by inane commercials, constant depressing negative news, DJs telling us that it's some stranger's birthday, long interviews with some jerk I've never heard of, endless dreadful tracks that I wouldn't choose to listen to.
It got to the point where I couldn't figure out why on earth anyone would listen to radio when you can get all the music you like, with no ads, no news, and no Dave Doubledecks, for a few pounds a month. After a couple of weeks of using it, it started recommending music I'd never heard before, and really cool Scottish and Welsh folk music that the radio stations here would never touch, so I've discovered really cool stuff through it. I love that I can tell it never to show me certain artists - for instance, if I never heard Eminem again in my life it'd be too soon, so I've told it to never recommend any tracks by him, whereas local radio plays him incessantly.
Didn't Cities Skylines come out of a previous project by the same developer, a transport simulator called Cities in Motion? It's no wonder it has a heavy focus on transport management.
This is interesting - I hadn't noticed this, but my Chinese (Xiaomi) phone indeed has an IMEI starting with 86, which is China's dialling code. Perhaps a coincidence.
The ICCID starts 8944 - not sure of the significance of the 89, but 44 is the UK, where my SIM card (and me) comes from.
Places with few jobs and a low quality-of-life. I live in a place like that now, a car-reliant northern England town where there's no transit service, it's not safe after 7pm and the locals will threaten to fight you if you look funny. Luckily I have a job, it's not as well paid as the same job in other areas but I'm employed and don't pay a huge housing cost. But I'm miserable, it's a horrible place to live (especially as a childless 30-something single person) and I'm looking to move somewhere that's nicer.
I'm really struggling to do that, because trading up in areas is difficult, I'm looking at a doubling of housing costs (plus all the other costs of moving) in exchange for ~20-30% more pay in a more affluent area. There are a lot of people like me, trapped in crappy areas with low housing costs and unable to trade up despite being full-time employed. I feel like I just exist here, weekends are my escape but I need to escape forever.
I'm with "1p Mobile" now who are a virtual network on EE, and their adult content block is just a toggle in your online account, with no faffing around required - you can just hit the toggle. I presume the idea is that you don't give little Timmy the password to his own account portal, but I don't know what's to stop him getting his own SIM by himself.
With Three, I found the adult content block caused other problems with SSH connections dropping, various random stuff getting blocked and so on, which all went away as soon as I had it disabled, so it's worth doing even for non porn fans.