The thinking in the comments here seems very US-centric (as usual).
Until recently watching HBO in the UK and Europe was not easy unless you’re prepared to watch it on Sky (in the uk anyway) so there’s money on the table for Netflix here in the form of eating some of Sky’s share. (HBO Max is coming to EU in Jan and UK sometime next year finally)
Secondarily adding HBO gives Netflix the opportunity to upgrade its production rather than downgrade HBO.
Having access to HBO/WB catalog on Netflix is going to add a lot of value imo.
Is your app open source? If not, have you considered that? You could just say in the readme, "fork it if you want it to do something specific". Sounds like it could be a good starting point for a bunch of things. :)
I did not enjoy Fifth Season, so never bothered going beyond that.
I didn’t enjoy the frequent switch between first, second and third person and I honestly didn’t think it was that interesting of a story, but for some reason people seem to rave about it. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.
I found there were too many new concepts just thrown about with little or no exposition. Where some authors would go on and on, I found Banks to be too light on the background. I realise the books would have likely been much longer had every piece of tech or new planet had been elaborated, and for the most part much of it was minor detail, but it disconnected me from his stories.
Largely the same situation here. When it’s iOS/macOS users only we use Signal and it’s great, but for anything involving Android users we switch back to WhatsApp because Signal is so unreliable.
Frederik Pohl had digital assistants in his 1970s Heechee Saga books (but mainly in Beyond the Blue Horizon and after). Not only that but they would emulate different personalities depending on the need, eg spitballing with Einstein. However Pohl was a lot less expositional; in his novels the technology existed and he didn’t feel the need to get meta about why or how. Much more accessible than Banks, in my humble opinion.
In the past I found freelancing in the UK highly dependant on personal network. I believe it is possible to find work if you know enough folk who are happy to work with freelancers. I built my network by attending interest/tech based events and networking.
An alternative might be contracting but these usually require setting up as a LTD, getting insurance, etc. you’ll also have to deal with corporation tax and other admin. The work you’ll get is more or less the same as perm work but with more risks (usually 3 or 6 month contracts, you’re the first to get fired if things get tough)
However day rates in excess of £500 are normal outside of London (£750 in London) so if you can deal with all that it can be lucrative. I use 220 as the number of working days in a year which can put your income north of £100k (ymmv).
If storage space is a consideration checkout the range of “Tiny Epic Games” by Gamelyn Games. I have about 20 decent games taking up the space of 3 or 4 “normal” size ones.