Quoting: PenglingI'm surprised this was approved, considering that there's prior-art - the 1994 SNES RPG Robotrek featured robots who were kept in capsules and sent out into battle, for example.

Quoting: whizseNot a lawyer, but as far as I know, the only prior art searches done by the patent office before approval is by looking at current/pending/prior patents.

From a layman's point of view, as I understand it here in North America, whoever gets to the patent office first gets the patent. If the idea was developed earlier by someone else, then they have to challenge it in court and demonstrate proof of their prior claim. Often, the prior claimant cannot afford the legal challenge.

Obviously, this makes the situation ripe for abuse by patent trolls ...

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Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: Caldathras

Quoting: Penglingclaiming that there'd be an AI assistant from Perplexity that will play your games for you if you get stuck

Good grief!! What's the point of playing games at all, then! This is the sort of prosthetic I can do without ...

Apparently it will also have fun for you, so you won't have to experience that.

ROFL :grin:

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Quoting: Penglingclaiming that there'd be an AI assistant from Perplexity that will play your games for you if you get stuck

Good grief!! What's the point of playing games at all, then! This is the sort of prosthetic I can do without ...

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Quoting: tfkAh DOOM. I remember when it came out. My best friend and I got hold of the shareware copy. I believe it came on two 3.5" disks.

Ah, those were the days. The shareware distribution model. I still have the original full version of the game, purchased directly from an iD Software agent in my hometown. The 3.5" disks are blank now ... :sad:

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When the initial hype for the SD was going on, I had explored the idea of a portable display to use the SD on a larger screen. Obviously, a rechargeable battery was a must but I never considered the need for a keyboard, mouse and speakers. This is a really good idea!

Quoting: Purple Library GuyMakes me wonder--can you use actual laptops as docks, just sort of have them passively show you the stuff from a device hooked up to them?

Using an existing laptop as a passive display also sounds like a good idea, but it seems complicated to implement. Sadly, while I could find no Linux equivalent, I believe there is Windows-based software that can do this via networking.

Quoting: NoiramSangto make the Steam Deck output video as if it were a webcam

Inputting the video signal to a laptop as if it were from an external webcam is an intriguing idea. I'd love to know how to do it.

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Quoting: ElectricPrism2019, 06.28 -- Valve Index was released
2022, 02.25 -- Steam Deck was released
2023, 11.16 -- Steam Deck OLED was released

So we are about 2.5 years since Steam Deck's initial release.

Considering the R&D & time to market, I wouldn't really be surprised to see Steam Deck 2 in the next 12-18 months which would make the upgrade cycle interval about ~4 years.

I presume the Steam Deck hardware team (which previously achieved the Index, Steam Controller, and Steam Link) got pulled over to Deckard which would delay a Steam Deck 2 until after what I would imagine is either Valve Index 2 or Deckard Standalone VR. (Obviously the wuflu pandemic years messed up the timeline for R&D.)

I expect Steam Deck 2 to have a resolution of 16:10 1920x1200 (likely under this AMD Z2 chip), OLED, and largely be the same with better Wifi, Bluetooth, Increased Storage, Perhaps a 10-15% reduction in size or if they're feeling ballsie we'll see a flip up Nintendo DS style option (maybe from another manufacturer), but I largely expect it to look nearly exactly the same and function the same with better specs -- they may steal a page from Apple's book selling colored rectangles and make the personalization as simple as having different colored shells (Orange OLED shell is pretty sick, I'm looking at it right now) Translucent FTW.

What I'd love to see is a Steam laptop (the Steam Book?) using the same internal hardware as the SD but with a 15" WS display. I'm getting older. My eyes can't handle these tiny little screens.

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Quoting: alexleduc

Quoting: CatKillerI don't think this'll be in the Deck 2. The Deck is still ramping up as a platform - Valve want to wait as long as possible before they disrupt that. This chip will be useful for the annual-release also-rans, though.

I agree. The longer Valve waits, the more established the Deck 1 user base becomes, and is an increasingly appealing platform for devs to make sure their game works great on it. Some games now have a Steam Deck preset when you tweak their performance (Like Cyberpunk 2077). You wouldn't have that kind of recognition if they changed the device performance often. The Nintendo Switch is ancient hardware, but there are so many in circulation that it's still getting games. I'm not suggesting Valve should wait as long as Nintendo did, just that there is value in sticking with aging hardware for a while.

For those of us that prefer to game on older, less powerful hardware, I have no problem with this. This may increase the likelihood that game developers will not leave support for older hardware behind, as they have done in the past.

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Quoting: KlaasI think it was too early to stop wine-ge in February. It does not look like umu will be ready in the near future (latest release is 0.1-RC4 released in April).

This is exactly the point I wanted to make. Thanks, Klaas.

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyI don't trust Acer. I recently bought an Acer laptop for some reason and was reminded of why I don't trust Acer.

A common opinion I've heard over the years. Certainly, my story doesn't actually refute your opinion either.

I have an Acer laptop that I purchased in 2010. It still works. However, since that original purchase, I have replaced the OEM AC adapter, the OEM battery and then, to my dismay, the hard drive in 2014. That also resulted in my switch to Linux Mint -- so I now see it as a good thing. Other than replacing the 3rd party AC adapter a couple years ago, the remainder of the laptop with all it's replaced parts has been reliable.

I found an excellent deal on a used Lenovo T520 a couple years ago (under $250 Cdn), so the Acer got relegated to a backup PC. Had to pull it out a year or so ago when the year-old WD platter drive in my T520 failed and needed replacing (ironically, the 10-year old WD platter drive in my Acer is still going strong).

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Noticed that there is no mention of the overheating issues that seem to plague modern Intel CPUs ...

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