Polysics

100% agree

I’m sorry man but you are just plain wrong on this front. Try any games that are on Switch and compare them to whatever settings you need to get 30+ fps on a Steam Deck. A couple that come to mind would be The Witcher 3, and The Outer Worlds. The Switch versions of those games are absolutely abysmal to play, but on the Deck you can absolutely play both of them all the way through just fine. No one on the planet should expect a Steam Deck to hold up to a proper gaming rig or even a PS5 Pro, but to say it’s worse than a Switch is just ignorance or a flat out lie.

They are, in almost every way, taking the console model approach. Updates when there is a significant generational leap and not just yearly updates because AMD made a slightly faster APU (though they did the switch to switch OLED thing but no one complained about that because they kept the LCD models for sale and the OLED really is nicer), selling at a loss (and making up for it in game sales) and of course, the ease of use that a console interface offers over a traditional PC interface.

Then they step it up beyond that by making it as open as possible (software/emulation, games from any source, it’s really a PC) and making the hardware repairable (making parts available and easy to fix in the first place,) and of course, cheap games and practically every game you’d ever want.

What the other handheld PC companies are lacking is (with some exceptions) repairability, that console experience, and price. Us nerds that can do whatever with technology will do it, so a legion or an ally or a gpd will sell just fine to that demographic, especially for the frame rate chasers. But for most of the rest of people, they would just get a switch or a PS5 or Xbox because it’s just plug in and game, and at least in the case of a Switch or Xbox S, the cost of entry is way lower than a PC, be it a gaming desktop/laptop, or even many of the handheld PC competitors. Yes you can build comparable cheap PCs to an Xbox or PS5, but that means building a PC, and most people don’t want to do that (I’m not talking to you, I know you have a sweet rig.) Yes I know games on PC are usually cheaper especially Steam sales or key seller/bundle sites, but console gamers often don’t consider that, and initial cost of entry is very important to non-enthusiast type people in any given hobby.

There’s a reason why Nintendo consoles sell so well despite being behind the competition in raw horsepower. It’s the console model (and in their case aggressive exclusivity of their famous IPs)

The things keeping Sony and Microsoft in the competition are basically the console ease of use, and their all you can eat subscriptions. Even they both realized that they can get more sales putting their games on PC, but that still means forking over MSRP for a single game, so those ps+ and gamepass subs are keeping them afloat at this point.

I’m a huge tech nerd and have been deep in related industries for over 20 years. I know how to do whatever I want with any pc hardware or software, I own a steam deck, and a rog ally, a proper beefy gaming desktop, a gaming laptop, a Switch, and a PS4. Despite all that, in the past 2 years, easily 90% of my gaming has been on the Steam Deck. It does everything I need it to and more, and it does it anywhere, anyhow. If I want to tweak and tinker with it I can, but more importantly, I can just PLAY GAMES with almost no friction. At home, on a break at work, at the airport waiting for my flight, cozy in bed, wherever, whenever, and fast, and easy.

The Steam Deck is the swiss army knife game device that childhood me always dreamed of, and now it exists. That is why it’s outselling it’s competition, and genuinely making PC gaming a viable thing for the masses. No it won’t beat Nintendo anytime soon, but it’s gaining steam on them and other consoles faster than any other attempt ever has before, and it will only get better.

Overdrive (which is Libby) integrates directly into the Kobo OS so you can borrow books directly on the device instead of the roundabout way you have to do it on the Kindle.

Yeah I’ve actually thought about doing that and making it an office desk calendar or something. Thanks for reminding me!

I sure am glad I got a Kobo for myself for Xmas and ripped all my books to it. Guess I’ll be recycling my Kindle for good.

Well seeing as how Tim was right up there next to Sundar I’m not the least bit surprised.

It’s actually both horror and porn.

You can download a demo version on itch.io it’s actually fun and you don’t necessarily have to play the parts with boobies.

Thankfully all those hours I put into Anomalous Coffee Machine will probably confuse people since the title doesn’t really give away what it is.

It’s porn in case that wasn’t obvious.

I got the first gen rog ally while it was on a sale because I was curious if I’d like it more than my steam Deck.

Yeah the ally is collecting dust…

I wanted to then give it to my (not technically inclined, plays all games on a switch) partner when steam family library went live so she could play the vast library I have (and I was gonna setup emulators too) but I just couldn’t give it to her in good conscience. I’ve been working in IT for over 20 years and the UX for windows on a small device like the rog ally is such an utter pain in the ass that it basically ruined the experience. I used it as a living room PC for awhile by hooking it up to my TV with a KB/M but that’s just defeated the purpose of it’s form factor. It’s just a desktop PC now.

If using a Windows handheld as a traditional PC is the only comfortable way to use it for someone like me, there’s no way I’m giving that experience to someone that is used to console experiences.

Having steam OS on the rog ally (yes I’m well aware of Bazzite already existing and I’ve played around with it on the Ally, it’s just not quite there yet) would be a godsend to make the rog ally a useable device not just for myself, but definitely for the average person that grew up on consoles.

And yeah anything that can be done to get away from windows is better in my opinion. Even if Microsoft turned around tomorrow and made a “great UX for handhelds” it would still be windows. No thanks. I’ll keep a PC for the few things that just work better (or at all) on one just in case, but I don’t currently play any of the games that have the anti cheat issue on Linux anyway.

It’s great for hardware manufacturers, the consumers, and it’s great for Valve too. I for one welcome this expansion (finally) of the steam OS platform.

They absolutely took the console business model on the Steam Deck. Just like the other big guys Sony, Nin, Micro. Sell the hardware at a loss with the promise that the customer will buy the associated products, in this case, the games from the steam store. The bigger and better difference of course being that you can do whatever with the steam Deck. But Valve knows that the majority will still get their games from Steam because it’s just easier that way.

It’s the old razor blade model. Sell the handle cheap because you know people will buy the razors for it, and they most likely buy your brand of razors since you bought their brand of handle.

Printer companies (at least home consumer ones) do it too but are slimy about it. Get a printer for $50 then buy ink for it that often costs twice as much.

Don’t worry, rule34 has covered that very thoroughly. Both of your questions actually.

Hell yeah. Another vote for Seal!

Tell that to 2FA apps for banks and enterprise security systems.

Casshern (the 2004 live film not the original anime)

Tokyo Xtreme Racer

And thankfully, they just released a teaser for a new one so I guess my wish is going to be granted!

I thought Arch people are of the Subaru tribe

Yes

https://www.conservapedia.com/Marijuana

The entry on Marijuana is absolutely wild.

This is something that some people read and genuinely believe whole. This is 10,000% propaganda. Just unbelievable.

The general public still doesn’t seem to grasp the current capabilities of AI. It’s still just mimicry. AI is a parrot that “learns” something and repeats it to the best of it’s ability, but it doesn’t understand the thing it learned. You can teach a bird to say “Polly want a cracker” but it doesn’t know what a cracker is, and while it does have wants like any other animal, it doesn’t know what “want a cracker” actually means.

ML models get a billion images of mushrooms and then “learn” what “mushroom” looks like, but even if the images of mushrooms are properly labeled poisonous and not poisonous, it doesn’t really know that in the same way humans do. And it gets even worse when the AI tries to make new things from those sets it’s trained off, which all of those certainly do. Making new mushrooms that don’t exist, how can it tell which one of these new fantasy mushrooms are poison and which ones aren’t? It can’t know, but it sure as hell can make it up.

Hell, most AI can’t even get text right.

Don’t trust AI for anything that isn’t hard coded math, or systems that reference and directly quote known good sources without doing any kind of creative embellishments.