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  • Steam Deck Won’t Run Every Available Game

    Steam Deck Won’t Run Every Available Game

    Prospective Steam Deck buyers are in for a disappointment, with news the console won’t run all available Steam games.

    Valve announced it was releasing a Nintendo Switch-like console, named the Steam Deck. The console has already been making waves, with users excited about the possibility of having their entire Steam library at their fingertips.

    Valve has seemingly supported this notion with some of their comments.

    “This is the first time we’ve achieved the level of performance that is required to really run the latest generation of games without problems,” said Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais, according to Boiling Steam, via Rock Paper Shotgun. “All the games we wanted to be playable is, really, the entire Steam library. We haven’t really found something we could throw at this device that it couldn’t handle.”

    Unfortunately, those comments don’t paint a complete picture, at least according to CodeWeavers president James B. Ramey. Steam Deck is powered by a Linux distro, and CodeWeavers makes the Proton compatibility layer that allows the Linux-based Steam Deck to run Windows games.

    According to Ramey, not all games will be compatible with Proton right away, but Ramey suspects the confusion stems from Valve talking about how powerful the Steam Deck hardware is, not necessarily commenting on software compatibility.

    “I think there are two messages that have been kind of mashed together when people focus and talk on this,” Ramey told Boiling Steam. “The first message is when Pierre-Loup made his announcement and stated that the Steam Deck can support any and all games. I think what he was referencing is — and this is my opinion, this is my perception, this is not something I have talked to him about — but I think he was trying to state that the device itself, the hardware specs on this device, can support any game.”

    “I don’t necessarily think he was referencing supporting that game in Proton — I think he was referencing that the device has the horsepower, the video graphics, the RAM, the hard drive space to support any game out there.”

    As Boiling Steam points out, even if it doesn’t support the entire Steam library, the Steam Deck still supports a whopping 16,000 games. If the device is as successful as early feedback would seem to indicate, the remaining games may be tweaked for compatibility sooner rather than later.

  • ProtonMail Logs User’s IP at Behest of Authorities

    ProtonMail Logs User’s IP at Behest of Authorities

    ProtonMail is having a PR crisis as a result the revelation that the company logged a user’s IP address at the behest of authorities.

    ProtonMail has built its reputation as one of the most private and secure email services, providing end-to-end encryption. Despite that, French authorities wanted information on an activist being monitored.

    According to TechCrunch, ProtonMail did not initially cooperate with the French authorities. In response, the French enlisted the aid of authorities in Switzerland, where ProtonMail is based. While the company doesn’t log IP addresses by default, it will do so if local authorities require it to.

    With Swiss authorities aiding their French counterparts, ProtonMail was compelled to log the user’s IP and turn it over. In doing so, the company showed the privacy it provides has its limits — that limit being whatever the Swiss government says it is.

  • El Salvador Buys 400 Bitcoin on Eve of It Becoming Legal Currency

    El Salvador Buys 400 Bitcoin on Eve of It Becoming Legal Currency

    El Salvador has purchased 400 bitcoin — roughly $20.9 million — one day before the cryptocurrency is adopted as a legal currency.

    El Salvador passed a law in June adopting bitcoin as legal tender, making it the first country to do so. One the eve of the law going into effect, the country has purchased 400 bitcoin.

    Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced the purchase on Twitter.

  • Kids in China Limited to Three Hours of Gaming a Week

    Kids in China Limited to Three Hours of Gaming a Week

    China is continuing its crackdown on video games, limiting minors to three hours of gaming per week.

    China has a contentious relationship with its technology companies. On the one hand, the country encourages its tech companies to achieve dominance — even looking the other way when they engage in blatant IP theft — but on the other hand, it doesn’t approve of the impact technology has on its own citizens, especially video games.

    According to state media outlet Xinhua, via ZDNet, China will only allow minors to play from 8pm to 9pm, Friday through Sunday, as well as on holidays.

    As part of the ban, National Press and Publication Administration (NAAP) also called on companies to implement real-name registration to help keep users under 18 from playing more than the allowed time.

  • Instagram Will Require Users’ Birthdays

    Instagram Will Require Users’ Birthdays

    Instagram users will have to provide their birthday to the company if they want to continue using the social media app.

    Like many tech companies, Instagram is taking additional steps to protect children from threats. As part of that, they will require users to disclose their birthday so the company knows which accounts belong to minors.

    The company has made it clear that those refusing to provide the information will not be able to continue using the app.

    “First, we’ll start to ask you for your birthday when you open Instagram. We’ll show you a notification a handful of times and if you haven’t provided us with your birthday by a certain point, you’ll need to share it to continue using Instagram,” writes Pavni Diwanji, VP of Youth Products. “This information is necessary for new features we’re developing to protect young people.”

    The company will also include a birthday request in its warning screens for age-sensitive content.

    “Second, if you see warning screens placed on posts, we’ll ask you for your birthday before you can see the post,” Diwanji conintues. “These screens aren’t new, and we already show them on posts that may be sensitive or graphic, but we don’t currently ask for your birthday when viewing these posts. Now, we’ll start asking for your birthday on some of these screens if you haven’t shared it with us previously.”

    The company has also indicated it’s working on a system to detect when someone lies about their birthday.

  • Mavs Cryptomania: Buy $150 in Mavs Gear With Crypto and Get $25 Gift Card

    Mavs Cryptomania: Buy $150 in Mavs Gear With Crypto and Get $25 Gift Card

    The Dallas Mavericks are doubling down on their crypto support, giving $25 gift cards to anyone using crypto to buy $150 in merchandise.

    The Dallas Mavericks were one of the first major organizations to embrace Dogecoin, with Mark Cuban announcing the organization would accept the crypto as payment. 

    The organization is now rewarding users who purchase at least $150 worth of gear using eligible cryptos.

    Mavs Cryptomania: Free $25 e-gift card for purchases made with eligible cryptocurrency on DallasMavs.Shop! Must spend minimum of $150 (before tax and shipping.) Only one e-gift card per transaction. E-gift card will be emailed 5-7 business days after order is placed and expires 12/31/21.

  • Samsung Phone Owners at Risk of Losing Their Photos

    Samsung Phone Owners at Risk of Losing Their Photos

    Samsung smartphone owners are in danger of losing their photos if they don’t retrieve them from the cloud soon.

    Samsung offers its Samsung Cloud service for backing up one’s smartphone, and that includes backing up one’s photo library. Unfortunately, Samsung is killing off that particular feature. Samsung Cloud will still be able to back up other data from a smartphone, such as contacts, calendars and documents, but not photos or videos, according to Forbes.

    As a result, users have a limited time to retrieve their photos before the service shuts down. Unfortunately, Samsung isn’t making it very easy to know which group a person is in, as the company has split its users into two groups, each with their own cutoff date.

    Consider this a PSA: Download your photos off of Samsung Cloud now, or risk losing them forever.

  • Paid Ticketed Spaces Come to Twitter

    Paid Ticketed Spaces Come to Twitter

    Twitter is expanding its Spaces feature, adding paid Ticketed Spaces — at least on iOS.

    Spaces is Twitter’s answer to Clubhouse, and provides the ability to have audio conversations with one’s followers. The company is looking to help creators monetize Spaces by providing paid Ticketed Spaces.

    The company announced the feature via (surprise) tweet. Ticketed Spaces is currently rolling out to iOS only, but the company hopes to expand it soon.

  • Linux Hits 30! How it Changed the World and Where It’s Headed

    Linux Hits 30! How it Changed the World and Where It’s Headed

    Linux is officially 30 years old today, the single greatest open source success story that forever changed the world.

    Linus Torvalds sent a message to the comp.os.minix newsgroup on August 25, 1991, announcing he was creating a Unix-type operating system (OS) and asking for feedback and input on possible features. Three decades later, it’s hard to believe how far the OS has come.

    Because Torvalds based Linux on Unix, the new OS inherited many of Unix’s advantages. Unix had long been used to power mainframes, and had a reputation for stability. It was not uncommon for Unix computers to go months, or even years, without rebooting. The OS also had far better security built into it than many of the systems that would follow, such as Windows. Torvalds included many of those features in Linux, ensuring it could, and would, be used for the same type of mission-critical services and applications that were once the sole domain of Unix.

    Linux may not be a popular option on the desktop, with less than 5% market share, but the OS has had a profound impact on virtually every other aspect of the computing market. The majority of web servers run Linux, as do virtually all the world’s supercomputers. On the other end of the computing spectrum is the smartphone, with Android running on a modified Linux kernel, meaning billions of devices are Linux-powered. As a result, while Linux may never have reached its goal of truly challenging Windows and macOS, in many ways it has far surpassed them both.

    Even on the desktop, where its success has been far more limited, Linux has made great strides in the past 30 years. Rather than one single version, Linux is available in countless different distributions (distros), each maintained by individuals, groups, organizations or, in some cases, companies. Each distro offers unique advantages and focus, with some offering more fine-tuned control, others offering greater ease-of-use and still others offering top-notch security.

    In the early days, the Linux desktop scene was dominated by Red Hat, Mandrake, Caldera, SUSE, Debian and Slackware. Now there is no shortage of available options, including ones that mimic the Windows and macOS platforms people may be migrating from.

    Even on the smartphone, Linux is beginning to make progress beyond Android. Several years ago, Ubuntu, one of the most popular distros, made headlines when it announced it was working on a version for smartphones, Ubuntu Touch. The goal was to create true convergence devices: devices that had the form factor and convenience of a smartphone, but could be plugged into a dock and serve as a full-fledged computer. The devices would run the same OS, software and services, allowing a person to use a single device for all their needs.

    While Ubuntu eventually abandoned its plans, Ubuntu Touch was picked up by the community. Ubuntu Touch has continued to improve, and now supports an array of phones and devices. Other distros have also come out with smartphone and tablet support and some devices, such as the PinePhone and Librem 5, have been designed specifically to run Linux. It remains to be seen if these endeavors will make a dent in Apple and Google’s duopoly, but with the current anti-Big Tech sentiment, there’s never been a better time for an alternative to have a fighting chance.

    When Linus Torvalds sent that fateful message 30 years ago, he likely never could have imagined how important his creation would become, how much the world would depend on it, or the potential that still lies ahead.

  • Better Late Than Never — Hulu Starts Embracing HDR

    Better Late Than Never — Hulu Starts Embracing HDR

    Hulu is finally beginning to roll out HDR, years after other platforms have done so.

    Hulu is one of the top streaming platforms on the market, and its live TV service is widely considered the main competitor to YouTube TV. Despite its position in the market, the company has been slow to adopt improved technology, including HDR.

    According to TechCrunch, however, the company is finally embracing HDR, with the rollout beginning August 19. For now, only the company’s high-profile original content will get the upgrade, although Hulu intends on eventually bringing it to its entire catalog.

    The company’s plans are good news for Hulu subscribers, even if the implementation will take more time.