Ulrich

joined 7 months ago
sorted by: new top controversial old
Steam had already shown its true face, itch.io and GOG are fighting censorship alone. in c/games@sh.itjust.works
[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 14 points 16 hours ago

Blaming the wrong people. Blame Collective Shout and Stripe

Battlefield 6 will be a unplayable on Linux systems due to the anti-cheat in c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world
[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

As if you needed more reasons not to buy games from EA...

Also the game being developed on Godot and being a footnote in the article is a travesty....

New GameNative update boosts Windows game emulation on Android with multiple improvements in c/android@lemdro.id
[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've never gotten this app to work. What's been your experience?

haha in c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

Suh dude

Apple Is Selling iPad Repair Parts for Astronomical Prices in c/apple@lemmy.zip
[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Article textIn late May, Apple announced what seemed on its face to be a big, positive development for iPad owners: It was going to begin selling repair parts for iPads to the general public, which is a requirement of a series of new right-to-repair laws. “With today’s announcement, we’re excited to expand our repair services to more customers, enabling them to further extend the life of their products—all without compromising safety, security, or privacy,” Brian Naumann, Apple’s vice president of AppleCare, said in a press release announcing the move.

The announcement was generally covered positively by the press: “Save Money, Make Your iPad Last Longer,” a Forbes headline read, for example. But independent repair professionals who have used the program told 404 Media that the prices Apple is charging for some repair parts are absurdly high, and that this functionally means that the iPad is as unrepairable as it has always been.

“As is typical for Apple, they’ve been pushing and testing the limits as time has gone on, and now they pushed too far. There are plenty of other examples of absurdly priced parts from Self Service, but these iPad parts are by far the worst,” Brian Clark, the owner of the iGuys Tech Shop, told 404 Media.

“For years, Apple effectively considered the iPad non-repairable. They did not offer any repairs on iPads, and Apple authorized service providers were not allowed to do iPad repairs of any kind, so this was a huge shift in their view of iPads. I was excited until the day they actually put the parts up and seeing the ridiculous prices of things, it was really, really disappointing,” Clark added. “It kind of sends the message that they don’t really want iPads to be repaired.

Clark points out that a new charge port for an iPad Pro 11, a part that goes bad all the time, costs $250 from Apple. Aftermarket charge ports, meanwhile, can be found for less than $20. “It’s a very basic part, and I just can’t see any reasonable explanation that part should be $250 from Apple,” he said. “That’s a component that probably costs them a few dollars to make.”

Clark said a digitizer for an iPad A16 is $200. That part can be bought from third-party suppliers for $50, and the iPad A16 sells brand new from Apple for $349, Clark said. The replacement screen assembly for an iPad Pro 13 costs $749 from Apple.

Jonathan Strange, the founder of XiRepair, put together a spreadsheet of all the new parts and found that more than a third of the iPad parts Apple is now selling are not being sold at a price that is economically viable for independent repair shops. The way he calculated this was by taking the price of the part, adding in $85 for labor and a 10 percent profit margin for a repair shop. If the total repair cost was more than half the price of buying a totally new device, he considers it to be not economically viable.

“Almost NO iPads with multi-repair needs (meaning an iPad has a cracked screen and needs a battery, for example), is a viable option when using only genuine OEM service parts,” Strange said.

Strange said that when analyzing iPad part prices, he found that nearly every part seemed to be correlated with the replacement value of the device versus what the part should probably actually cost.

“I don't believe Apple prices parts based on their cost to manufacturer plus a small margin, I fully believe they are pricing parts based on retail replacement cost of the device. Apple seems to keep almost all their repair parts plus an average shop's labor right at about 50 percent of the replacement cost of the device. I believe they do this to discourage repair,” Strange told 404 Media. “It doesn’t cost $250 or even $100 to manufacture a charge port cable, but I believe Apple is charging this because they know if the price is high enough no one will buy it. If right-to-repair laws force them to sell parts they'll do it but they will make them super high.” It’s not clear what, if anything, can be done about Apple’s iPad part pricing. State right-to-repair laws require companies to sell parts to the public on “fair and reasonable terms,” but it’s not clear whether Apple’s iPad part prices are egregious enough to be out of line with different state laws.

Nathan Proctor, head of repair for the consumer rights group US PIRG, told 404 Media that Apple’s pricing is not competitive in many cases. “If Apple wants repair shops to use their brand-name parts, they should be more competitive in how they price them,” he said. “Some of the problems that we have is that Apple has long treated the iPad as a non-repairable product, despite the fact that many independent shops fix them. I expect iPad repair to get better over time, and there is more thought in the design process to repair—another positive development driven from progress on right-to-repair.”

Strange echoed this sentiment, and said that regardless of the sometimes absurd pricing, the program is a good start because “Apple has never repaired iPads.”

“Apple hasn't repaired their iPad products not because they aren't repairable, but because Apple's network of retail shops can't handle the complexity. A geek squad or genius bar employee at an Apple store doing an iPad repair is like a Ford sales rep doing a Ford transmission replacement—it would be a disaster due to complexity, differences in training and just lack of experience,” Strange said.

“Imagine the average customer breaks their iPad, goes to their nearest Apple store only to be told that they have to mail it off and they will replace it with a new one, only to have a friend tell them that a local repair shop that's partnered with Apple can do it in house the same day,” he added. “I believe that Apple being forced to service iPad parts will ultimately break their service model: either they admit that independents have skills their average retail worker doesn't have or they will damage a whole lot of customer's iPads over the coming months.”

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Apple Is Selling iPad Repair Parts for Astronomical Prices in c/apple@lemmy.zip
[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

alwayshasbeen.jpg

Collective Shout Purge Sees Horror Games In Crosshairs in c/technology@lemmy.world
[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

Yeah I already stopped using them years ago haha

SteamOS helps transform iMac into a gaming PC, running games like Hades II & Forza Horizon 5 at 60+ FPS in c/linux@programming.dev
[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 7 points 2 days ago

It was Bazzite on a 27" 2017 iMac

SteamOS helps transform iMac into a gaming PC, running games like Hades II & Forza Horizon 5 at 60+ FPS in c/linux@programming.dev
[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

I tried installing Linux on my iMac and it was a nightmare. No audio. No WiFi. Apparently Linux doesn't support 5k displays? And somehow I managed to erase the existing MacOS install. Which was a whole other insane nightmare just getting it reinstalled.

Proton releases a new app for two-factor authentication in c/protonprivacy@lemmy.world
[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 8 points 2 days ago

As does Ente Auth. But really, how many apps do you expect them to list here? They've listed what are by far the most popular ones.

Robocop: Rouge City in c/games@lemmy.world
[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 1 points 2 days ago

Badger badger badger badger mushroom mushroom?

Proton releases a new app for two-factor authentication in c/technology@lemmy.world
[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 1 points 2 days ago

Proton Pass is a password manager designed to securely generate and store strong passwords, and protect your digital identity with features like email alises and dark web monitoring. It also includes an integrated authenticator that can store and autofill 2FA codes - but not the ones used to log in to your Proton account. Proton Authenticator is a standalone 2FA app that allows users to enable 2FA protection for their Proton account, it also allows users to store their 2FA codes separate from their passwords if they wish to do so.

Seems like basically an ad platform/gateway to Pass.

4
Problems with hybrid GPU (feddit.org)
 

Hi all, big fan of Bazzite and have it installed on several of my devices.

I just picked up a new (to me) laptop. This laptop has an 8845HS APU w/ 780M iGPU and also a NVDA 3050 6GB dGPU.

Using this laptop in desktop mode works perfectly fine. However, I reallllly want to use gaming mode, which, upon initial installation works just fine, but after reboot it opens to a black screen.

Now the Bazzite website says:

Some devices with two AMD GPUs (iGPU and dGPU) cause gamescope to be unable to detect your display resulting in a black screen. If you are affected, use an image without Steam Gaming Mode or disable your iGPU.

Obviously neither of those suggestions are ideal...

I assume this also applies to AMD iGPU + NVDA dGPU.

However the issue they link to in the above message pertains to several Framework 16 users. And if you select the Framework version of Bazzite, you get this message:

Enjoy enhanced dGPU support on the Framework 16…Applications like Steam and Lutris are automatically configured to run on your dGPU for optimal performance…Be sure to select Steam Gaming Mode for the ultimate console-like gaming experience

Implying that there's no problem with hybrid GPUs? So is there a fix somewhere they're not pushing to other versions? Or is this a hardware issue I'll never be able to overcome? Should I try and install the Framework version?

I posted this on the Bazzite Discourse forum but honestly it seems dead as hell over there.

Currently I'm using Nobara and using NVDA on desktop and AMD in Game Mode but that's obviously not ideal and Nobara doesn't ship with Game Mode + GNOME and honestly I really don't like KDE. 😬

10
Overview is empty? (feddit.org)
 

Can't see my comment history... Using phtn.app

193
AI Slop: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (vid.freedif.org)
7
MacOS install failing ☹️ (infosec.pub)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Ulrich@feddit.org to c/apple_enthusiast@lemmy.world
26 comments fedilink
 

Hardware: 27" 2017 iMac

Connection: Wired

Storage: 1TB SSD

Hi all. I installed Linux Mint on my Mac on an external drive, which was all good fun. But when I went back to boot into MacOS, I got the 🚫 symbol. Booting into recovery mode and running first aid revealed that the disk was corrupted. The only advice it gave was to run first aid in recovery mode, which I was already doing.

Whatever, no big deal, everything important was backed up. So I went ahead and erased the disk using Extended Journaled (I guess APFS is unavailable for Sierra, which is what recovery mode wants to install). I made an installer disk with a later OS but I just received 🚫 again upon selection. Ran first aid again and it passed. Backed out of disk manager and selected install MacOS. Then after about 3 mins. received the error "an error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again". Tried several more times, receiving the same error every time.

The log reveals even more errors including:

  • "Could not find package ref in any source for:" 15 times for different packages such as "base system resources", "essentials", "OSInstall" etc.
  • No native mechanism to verify InstallESD.dmg
  • Couldn't mount base system dmg! (error code 110)
  • IATOOL: Failed the mount outer dmg

I have installed MacOS several times before, including on the same device.

23
Alternative to Steam Link/Sunshine? (feddit.org)
 

I have an exclusive gaming PC. Ideally what I'd like to do is shove it in a closet or other vacant room to contain the heat and then stream games over LAN.

The problem with existing solutions is:

  1. They need a monitor connected
  2. The monitor to be powered on
  3. They don't support varying refresh rates/resolutions. Only whatever is displayed on the connected monitor. I want to play on my 4k/60Hz TV in the living room for AAA visual spectacle games that work best with controller, and the 1440p/120Hz display in my office for FPS or otherwise fast-moving games that demand KBM, and the 5k monitor for photo/video editing.
  4. I haven't had much success getting these working at all. Red screens, 1/4 screens, image noise, etc.

They're literally just mirroring the screen of the connected display.

I really don't want to have to buy a dedicated PC for each use-case. Does a solution like this exist? What are their pros and cons? Preferably something that doesn't require a degree in software engineering.

Currently I am using Bazzite OS with 5700x + 6800xt, if that matters.

38
Is there a federated Strava alternative? (feddit.org)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by Ulrich@feddit.org to c/fediverse@lemmy.world
25 comments fedilink
 

Strava is an absolute nightmare to use. My feed is absolutely chock full of ads and dog-walkers. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy they're taking a 0.2 mile walk around their block and logging their progress, but I don't need to see it. Nike, TrainerRoad, Zwift, Peloton all have giant ads every time their users upload an activity. And I don't understand it because it's not an ad-supported network. Like I would happily pay to have all this shit hidden. It would be extremely simple for Strava to fix this, which would just be to provide me with a simple filter for what type of activities I'd like to see. The fact that they haven't done so, a long time ago, leads me to believe that they simply don't want to, for whatever reason. Plus they've already begun to enshittify by breaking integrations with third parties.

Are there any good options for this?

E: to be clear, I'm asking about the social aspect of Strava.

38
Why doesn't Steam support Android? (feddit.org)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by Ulrich@feddit.org to c/gaming@beehaw.org
85 comments fedilink
 

Steam revenue estimated 2024: $10.8B

Google Play Store gaming revenue 2024: ~$31B

Why doesn't Valve want a part of that? I mean they already have an Android app. Several, actually. I realize there's some amount of investment but surely the payoff is worth it, and they have the necessary funds and skills? I mean if F-Droid can do it with nothing but volunteers and grants...?

Certainly plenty of games won't lend themselves well to the mobile experience but also plenty of them do.

From a personal perspective: I don't really care a whole lot for mobile games but I do like Balatro and want to play it on my phone, but if I want to do that I have to buy another license, which I can't even do because I don't run Google Play Services.

Epic got in on this already. Where's Valve?

Edit: my reflections on this conversation:

Valve could distribute their own app like Epic but they'd also probably have to remove it from the Play Store because now a cross-platform game would give them an Android version, thus breaking Google's ToS. So would doing such a thing outweigh lost sales from the Google version, and would it impact customer satisfaction? I wonder how many people are actually purchasing PC games in the Steam Android app...?

1
Testing video embeds via PeerTube (neat.tube)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by Ulrich@feddit.org to c/Test@europe.pub
4 comments fedilink
1
Testing video embeds via catbox.moe (files.catbox.moe)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by Ulrich@feddit.org to c/Test@europe.pub
2 comments fedilink
121
GrapheneOS claims "greatly overhauled" desktop mode coming soon to Pixel 8 and up (grapheneos.social)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by Ulrich@feddit.org to c/android@lemmy.world
19 comments fedilink
 

Android has a greatly overhauled desktop mode on the way to replace the current primitive proof of concept in developer options. 6th gen Pixels added hardware-based virtualization support and 8th gen Pixels added USB-C DisplayPort alternate mode. It will all come together soon.

Overhauled desktop mode is already partially shipped as a disabled-by-default feature. Android enables some of it for the Pixel Tablet already but not Pixel phones. We plan to enable the same feature flags for phones too. Either way, it's an experimental developer option for now.

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