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22 days agoThey still lock down features, as of like maybe 5 yrs ago. Idk about today specifically but I wouldn’t doubt it, if only because most people don’t realize that it’s locking something the OS can do by default.
For example, if you have a major brand phone (smaller brands that don’t have contracts with phone companies are unlikely to have this issue) with OEM OS, on a plan in which you pay separately for the WiFi hotspot feature, even though it’s built into your operating system, hotspot is locked and you can’t access it.
This is even true if you buy your own device, I discovered, and was very very very angry about. Enough that I switched providers, because fuck that nonsense.
I don’t know about this device specifically, since it seems a bit too specialized for plausible deniability and I’m not really sure what the regulations surrounding this specific market are, but a lot of times not being available through insurance is actually an effort to keep costs down for the uninsured and underinsured, as medical devices are regulated much more strictly than things which can be purchased by anyone who wants one, and meeting those regulations and undergoing testing and whatever else is super expensive.
All those weird “as seen on tv” gadgets are that sort of thing, where you go “who is that even for?” because they show able-bodied people using them so as not to imply the thing is a disability aid.