So, remember the Samsung Note 7? New smartphone, excitingly thin, very popular, had a distressing tendency to ignite. Samsung has managed to get 90% of the ones that they sold back, but the remainder seem to be owned by people who will give up their Notes when you pry them from their charred, dead fingers. Personally, I’d just reprogram all those rogue Note 7s out there* with a terse IF YOU USE THIS PHONE YOU MAY DIE, BUT MAY NOT SUE US, but I guess that there’s a legal reason why they can’t let evolution do its intricate dance of consequence. Instead…
Judging from Korean news reports, however, Samsung is ready for the final step. It plans to issue software updates that stop the phone from working altogether.
The big question now is whether the type of people who’ve been determined enough to keep using the phone for so long are also the type of people who’d find a way to block or disable such an update.