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Steam Deck OLED Review: internal storage is essential and other things you need to know
The OLED upgrade is more important than you might think
The OLED upgrade is more important than you might think
itch.io is back after Funko domain pop.
itch.io is back after being "taken down" by Brand Shield, which was being used by Funko for "AI" brand protection.
Brand Shield's website says the software "delivers cutting-edge online brand protection using AI-powered technology to proactively monitor digital landscapes for trademark infringements, phishing attempts, brand abuse, and counterfeit activity. Our dedicated team responds swiftly to mitigate these threats, safeguarding your brand’s reputation, revenue, and customer trust."
I kid you not, @itch.io has been taken down by Funko of "Funko Pop" because they use some trash "AI Powered" Brand Protection Software called Brand Shield that created some bogus Phishing report to our registrar, iwantmyname, who ignored our response and just disabled the domain
— itch.io (@itch.io) December 9, 2024 at 6:13 PM
Funko pops... never again 🥴We're back if you haven't noticed!
— itch.io (@itch.io) December 10, 2024 at 7:06 AM
[image or embed]
This is not a joke, Funko just called my mom pic.twitter.com/P1ST7DDD2i
— itch.io (@itchio) December 9, 2024
Put Vib-Ribbon on PlayStation 5 you cowards.
Billy Basso, creator of the sublime and inspiring one-person indie game Animal Well, was on the My Perfect Console podcast this week.
I won't totally spoil his 5 classic game picks for a desert-island console, but he did put obscure PlayStation 1 classic Vib-Ribbon on his list. The episode will be released to non-Patreon subscribers later today:
A rhythm-game pioneer, Vib-Ribbon could run entirely from the PlayStation 1's 2MB of RAM. You could remove the games disc from your console and replace it with any audio CD. The game would then dynamically create custom levels that would sync up with any audio CD, meaning you could pop in a Limp Bizkit CD and play along.
Or just play along with the included soundtrack, which I still play on Spotify from time to time.
Back when Sony genuinely cared about legacy, the company re-released Vib-Ribbon on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in 2014. At the time it promised to look into releasing the game for PlayStation 4, though that never eventuated, likely due to the lack of CD support on modern PlayStation consoles. This didn't stop the game coming to the PlayStation Vita though, or my Steam Deck.
(I promise I own multiple copies of Vib-Ribbon, physically and digitally.)
The OLED upgrade is more important than you might think
Anti-skill-based Ubisoft shooter XDefiant to shut down.
Ubisoft's Call Of Duty-competitor XDefiant, which hoped to throwback the online FPS genre to its Xbox 360 days, is shutting down. The game has been pulled from online stores today and new players won't be able to join the game. Multiplayer servers will be available until June 3, 2025.
Ubisoft also says it will coincide with "the closing of our San Francisco and Osaka production studios and to the ramp down of our Sydney production site, with 143 people departing in San Francisco and 134 people likely to depart in Osaka and Sydney."
XDefiant's key difference was a rejection of skill-based matchmaking, where players would be paired with other players of comparable skill. Ubisoft instead opted to put all players together, leading to more match variety but possibly less player engagement.
The game also lacked its own identity, introducing skins from other Ubisoft franchises and having a general free-to-play bright, vibrant but simple visual style.
Around its launch, Activision published a research paper basically rejecting the perceived downsides of skill-based matchmaking. "When skill is utilized in matchmaking, 80-90% of players experience better end-of-match placement, stick with the game longer and quit matches less frequently," the paper claimed. It's hard to argue with that.
The Verge introduces metered paywall.
Update: The paywall has launched. Via Semafor:
Editor-in-chief Nilay Patel told Semafor that the move was intended to drive additional revenue and insulate The Verge from changes made by social media platforms[...]
“I think it’s a tragedy that garbage is free and news is behind paywalls. I don’t want to make that worse,” Patel said. “I think that The Verge homepage and our news coverage serves a central utility function in our ecosystem.”
The website also hints at future integrations with ActivityPub and Bluesky in an effort to take the focus away from SEO and social-media traffic and make The Verge homepage a platform of its own.
Early benefits include unlimited access to posts, such as paywalled newsletters and metered product reviews and features, limited ads on all Verge content and a physical limited edition magazine. Also the original decentralised solution, RSS, is available to subscribers, with unabridged posts available through RSS readers.
Original post:
According to Semafor, Vox Media's technology website The Verge is going behind a paywall. Some content will remain free:
Beginning this week, the Verge will charge $7/month or $50/year for comprehensive access to the site as well as the already-paywalled newsletters Command Line and Notepad.
Some content and the publication’s homepage, which was redesigned in 2022 to resemble a social feed, will remain free. The Verge is Vox Media’s third major subscription push behind New York and Vox, which launched a membership program earlier this year.
Everything old is new again at Vox Media, which will also be introducing an app for its publication New York Magazine, focused on digital NY Mag subscribers:
It will be the magazine’s second crack at a mobile app; New York first launched an iPhone app in 2016.
Australia’s world-first under-16 year old social media ban has become law, via Sydney Morning Herald: As expected, Albanese gained Coalition support for the social media package, given Dutton called for the age limit in June, but the debate was marked by warnings from the Greens and crossbenchers, as well
The ABC wants younger viewers, listeners and readers. But when the effort will begin is yet to be seen. While cultural change at any organisation takes time, it feels like we hear a similar sentiment at the ABC every year with little change. At its 2025 Upfronts, where a new
Let's unbox the 30th Anniversary DualSense, in Sony's trademark PlayStation 1 gray colourway.
Steam Autumn Sale kicks off next week.
I’ve been poolside testing the Steam Deck OLED this week for Gloss. Definitely going to be tempted by some of these games going on sale starting November 27 (November 28 in Australia). The sale will end December 4 (December 5 in Australia).
According to new study, Tesla has highest rate of driver fatalities in the US.
This is despite the study also assuring readers that Tesla vehicles aren’t specifically unsafe and the company isn’t shipping “design flaws”. The higher statistic could be as simple as a Tesla feature, like the controversial “Full Self Driving”, giving drivers a false sense of security. The US National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration is investigating FSD’s safety, for now at least.
The study from iSeeCars analyses data from the U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). Via Road & Track:
The study was conducted on model year 2018–2022 vehicles, and focused on crashes between 2017 and 2022 that resulted in occupant fatalities. Tesla vehicles have a fatal crash rate of 5.6 per billion miles driven, according to the study; Kia is second with a rate of 5.5, and Buick rounds out the top three with a 4.8 rate. The average fatal crash rate for all cars in the United States is 2.8 per billion vehicle miles driven.
It’ll be exciting to see how Elon Musk brings this kind of efficiency to the US government. He should probably get cracking on improving FSD if he’s still worried about birth rates declining.
My guilty pleasure is old TV idents from other countries.
Twitter user @IdentsEveryHour is really one of the only reasons I still use Twitter. I love watching TV station identification graphics from other countries:
According to a report from the government Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in February, just 12% of Australians aged 18-24 accessed the news via news websites on the open web. In comparison, a pretty substantial 46% of Australian's in that age bracket accessed news via closed social
Limited edition white Steam Deck launching next week in Australia.
Australia really is finally part of Valve's hardware plan. The company's not only launching a normal lineup of Steam Deck models on November 19, but also a Limited Edition White model with 1TB of storage. Via Valve:
Steam Deck OLED: Limited Edition White has all the same specs as the Steam Deck OLED 1TB model, but in white and grey (and it comes with an exclusive white carrying case).
In a move that'll surely put Valve's servers to the test, the model will be launching at the same time as the Steam Deck's general Australian availability, Tuesday November 19 at 10am AEDT (Sydney time). And it's apparently a one-time option, so when models sell out for the extra $50 compared to the normal Black model, they're gone for good.
Shipping hardware is hard! And sometimes it's hard to guage the scale of an issue. Just look at early shipments of Amazon's new Kindle Colorsoft, many of which had a "yellow band of discoloration" at the bottom of their screens. Amazon announced it was
Valve has announced exactly when the Steam Deck will be made available in Australia. The company will start selling the handheld console-like PC on November 19 at 10am AEDT (Sydney time). Pricing starts at AU$649 for the 256GB LCD model, with the 512GB OLED model priced at AU$899.
As reported by TechCrunch, the Mozilla Foundation has sacked 30% of staff, including the closure of its open-web advocacy division. It's interesting timing for the news, which will likely be overshadowed by a big news event happening in the US at the moment. Mozilla Foundation lays off 30%
If you don't have every single US news channel open, are you really watching the US election? This site is a real punish: election.omg.lol Bonus points if you turn the volume for every channel all the way up.
ABC
0:00 /0:09 1× A little over a month ago, ABC youth brand triple j relaunched at its One Night Stand music festival. And it was a pretty big rebrand, touching the logo, typeface and general audio style of the station. A pretty big change is the new "
We need to bring back truly beautiful, mechanical electronics. Case in point: the Sony Discman D150: at the risk of being reductive, I think Xbox and Sony would fix the console sales problem overnight if they simply released consumer-technology that looked fucking cool again. https://t.co/97msh8Aso3 — dannyodwyer (@dannyodwyer)
Kindle
Amazon has announced new Kindle e-readers, though the most interesting one won't arrive in Australia until 2025. The Kindle Colorsoft features "a new light-guide with nitride LEDs that, when combined with our custom algorithms, enhances colour and increases brightness, all without washing details". The colour e-ink
Australia
Warner Bros. Discovery, which operates Max (formerly HBO Max), has been hinting at an Australian launch for months now. And while there was some talk of the company independently launching the service and possibly taking shows away from Foxtel and Foxtel-owned streaming service Binge, WBD may instead be giving Foxtel
Valve has officially announced the Steam Deck for Australia, after a very, very long wait. The handheld gaming PC will be available starting November, though no specific date was mentioned. You can wishlist the device on Steam, with the device set to ship as soon as orders open. Pricing is
Media
Vox Media looks to find new forms of revenue
Via Press Start: The PlayStation Network appears to have been down for most of today, with users reporting an issue starting at 10am, and it still being down at 1:30pm AEST. The PSN Is Currently Down For All UsersThe PSN Is Currently Down For All UsersPress Start AustraliaShannon Grixti
Gaming
The best bet going forward is JB Hi-Fi, which are offering a ballot approach to pre-orders. PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection Pre-Order BallotJB Hi-Fi is Australia’s largest home entertainment retailer with top products, great quality + value. Learn more about our product range online.JB Hi-Fi Otherwise Ebay has scalpers re-selling
iPhone 16 Pro Review
Thoughts on the button that isn't a button
iPhone 16 Pro Review
A quick demo of iPhone 16 Pro's 5x zoom
Gaming
Now, four years on, my guest is about to release UFO 50, a collection of games that combine an 8-bit aesthetic with pioneering design.
Valve
Australia forced Valve to implement a refund policy. Now it won't sell the Steam Deck in the country.
Shutdown
Cohost, a Tumblr-like social media platform from the not-for-profit Anti Software Software Company, is shutting down. The platform launched in June 2022. A core point of difference was the lack of advertisements or an algorithm. cohost will become read-only on Tuesday, October 1st. At this time, we will make best-effort
New
In Australia the AirPods 4 without Noise Cancellation are available for $219 AUD. If you want the main new feature of Active Noise Cancellation it'll set you back $299 AUD. From Apple: AirPods 4 feature an entirely new acoustic architecture, low-distortion driver, and high dynamic range amplifier, and
New
The iPhone 16 Pro 128GB is $1799 AUD, 256GB is $1999 AUD, 512GB is $2349 AUD and 1TB is $2699 AUD. The iPhone 16 Pro Max 256GB is $2149, 512GB is $2499 and 1TB is $2849 AUD/ From Apple: With Apple Intelligence, powerful Apple-built generative models come to iPhone in