Sean Hollister

Valve’s new Steam Deck OLED just went on sale today, but there are goodies for the original LCD model, too — the company is now rolling out a stable build of SteamOS 3.5.5 with a hefty list of fixes, changes, and upgrades. Some of the biggest are ones we’ve already seen in a September beta, like support for VRR and HDR external displays, the ability to tweak your screen’s color and undervolt your processor with new firmware, and a graphics driver update with a big performance improvement for St…

We have spent five days in a San Francisco courtroom watching witness after witness in the Epic v. Google trial. We’ve heard a lot about Google’s app store dealings, mostly from people who aren’t widely known to outsiders. But today, November 14th, we’re expecting to hear from Google CEO Sundar Pichai as he defends Google’s Android empire against antitrust claims from the publisher of megahit game Fortnite. --- [Image: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BWuPfrcqypu5j4TYPVjr9Lz4K0Y=/0x0:2040x1360/2…

And Google didn’t grant it. OnePlus would have had to give up substantial Google revenue share just to ship phones with the Epic Games Store / Fortnite launcher app needed to install the game. “They needed permission in form of a waiver from Google to do this, yes?” Yes, answered Kolotouros. The only way to preload was to give up its Premier rev share, he agreed. Update: here’s a summary of Google’s rebuttal. [Attachment: undefined]

“Oneplus Execs reached out today [...] this is OnePlus-initated request for sustainable long term growth,” reads part of an internal Google email about OnePlus’ decision not to preinstall the app. Epic’s attorney made this sound like a forced / bribed choice, and while that’s still within the realm of possibility based on what we’ve heard, it seems more complicated than that. Google also says that OEMs can put some phones in its Premier tier (eligible for full rev share) and other phones in…

Spotify isn’t the only one that negotiated with Google for special treatment. Netflix did, too. In 2017, Google offered Netflix a special discounted rate of 10 percent of its in-app payments on Android — meaning Netflix could keep 90 percent of the money — according to documents and testimony in the Epic v. Google trial. --- [Image: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BWuPfrcqypu5j4TYPVjr9Lz4K0Y=/0x0:2040x1360/2040x1360/filters:focal(1020x680:1021x681)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2…

On October 5th, we saw the first proof a refreshed Steam Deck was nigh. Now, Valve is officially revealing the $549 and up Steam Deck OLED, which starts shipping on November 16th. It’s an overhauled version of Valve’s handheld gaming PC but not one that’s focused on performance — the company is sticking with its plan not to produce a faster handheld for the next couple of years. Instead, the new Steam Deck OLED is designed to be the ultimate version of the original Steam Deck, the device that…

Good things often come to gamers who wait. There’s always a slimmer, more power-efficient PlayStation or Xbox on the way. Nintendo has long hammered out attractive new combos of size, screen, color, and battery life for its Game Boy, DS, and Switch. But Valve, with the new Steam Deck OLED, may have created the best console revision ever. It fixes my biggest complaints about Valve’s original handheld gaming PC and then some, without any new catch. Starting at $549 for 512GB of storage, it only…

After Google confirmed yesterday that it gave Spotify a sweetheart deal on Android app store fees, we were curious if dating company Bumble or any of the other 80 or so developers that have joined Google’s “User Choice Billing” program were similarly given an alternative arrangement or other sweeteners. Google spokesperson Dan Jackson would not answer our question. Jackson confirmed that “the standard service fee the developer pays is reduced by 4 percent” with User Choice Billing, and he poin…

King, Machine Zone, NCSoft, Aniplex, DeNA, Com2US, CyberAgent, Webzen, Colopl, and — I think it’s Playa or Playla, but it’s hard to make out on the screen — these developers all appear in an internal August 2019 document as receiving less value compared to the 30 percent Google charged ’em. Google estimated the average value the “top 100 most negative” devs were getting was just 19 percent. Simple math based on other slide deck numbers suggests the 100 devs overpaid $1.43 billion per year — Epi…

Is there something Google doesn’t want the world to know about its deal with Spotify? That’s what Google attorney Glenn Pomerantz suggested in Fortnite court this morning. Pomerantz argued that the court should seal portions of an upcoming exhibit revealing Google’s User Choice Billing agreement with Spotify — which lets Spotify use its own payment system for subscriptions while still giving Google a cut. “Disclosure of the Spotify deal would be very, very detrimental for the negotiation we’d b…

Could Google actually lose? When I walked into the courtroom on Monday morning, it seemed impossible. If Epic couldn’t prove Apple’s walled iOS garden is a monopoly, how could the comparatively open Google do worse against the windmill-tilting Fortnite developer? But now that both sides have made their opening arguments to a jury, I’m not quite as sure. Because while Google spent most of its first day attempting to explain complicated ins and outs of business, Epic was able to paint a black-an…

In a theoretical scenario where an angry Google employee might send an email to another employee, the “correct” answer was to “Talk to the team lead in the morning,” partially because “It’s less likely that a record of the conversation could be discovered by an adversary and used against you, and Google, in ways you didn’t imagine.” The second-best answer was “Don’t send the email, chat “off the record” via Hangouts instead,” because there’s still a risk that “any chat participant may save the…

Judge Donato allowed Epic to proactively tell the jury that Google may have something to hide — since Google employees all the way up to CEO Sundar Pichai set some of their chats to auto-delete to avoid them falling into lawyers’ hands. “All we know is whatever is in the destroyed chats, as bad as the documents are, is worse. Or at least it was worse, before they were destroyed,” Epic attorney Gary Bornstein told the jury.

That’s the title of Google’s slide attempting to explain that the 16 steps it takes to sideload Fortnite is a reasonable number. “A billion people have done it after getting notified of the potential risks,” says Pomerantz about sideloading apps. “That’s because Android users have a real choice.” Also: “Security is really important to competition — we need to protect users because it’s a critical point of competition between Apple and Android,” he says.

We knew the company was spending millions to give away free games every week, but we’d heard it was a bit of a money sink despite not actually paying for each and every copy given away. In case you’re keeping track, Epic Games Store boss Steve Allison says on the witness stand his store isn’t profitable yet. The goal is still growth, he says. Emails revealed during the Epic v. Apple trial suggested the company was hoping to claim half of all PC gaming revenue.

On Monday, Fortnite publisher Epic Games will drag a tech giant into court, alleging that its mobile app store is an illegal monopoly. You may be feeling some déjà vu! After all, didn’t Epic already go to trial with Apple, resulting in a ruling where Apple (mostly) won? Didn’t Epic fail to #FreeFortnite with its Llamacorn legal gambit? Didn’t that all happen years ago? What are we doing here again? The short answer: while Epic’s antitrust claims against Apple got their day in court, a similar…

I don’t think I’ve used one of Duracell’s famous coppertop batteries since I was a kid — but recently, I’ve had a compelling reason to try one again. The new Duracell M150, on sale today for $199, is one of the most packed portable battery banks I’ve ever seen. The 1.8-pound, 3.1-inch-wide canister not only sports two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, a MagSafe-compatible wireless charging lid, and a built-in ring light but it’s also got its own charging dock so you can keep it plugged in on a des…

Sure, it looks cool, but what can you do with a mini Game Boy Camera? Vjeran and I hit the streets of San Francisco to capture a few landmarks. Want one? The DIY design is ready if you’ve got fine soldering skills! [Attachment: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzBm2clOGR_/]

The latest entry in the renewed transparent gadget craze: your Asus ROG Ally handheld gaming PC. Today, lauded Steam Deck accessory maker Jsaux is taking the wraps off a $40 frosted RGB rear shell for the Asus handheld that lets you see some of its delightful innards. It might not give you a perfect look through the back, now that I see how much of that frosting blocks the red circuit boards. It also probably won’t enhance your cooling like the company’s Steam Deck backplate, but that frosted s…

Microsoft Edge is actually good, way better than the old Internet Explorer — but you wouldn’t think so based on how desperately the company tries to shovel it onto your plate! It’s the default browser in Windows these days, so it’s the primary way you’d download a different browser onto a new PC. You’d open Microsoft Edge, type the name of your new browser into Microsoft Bing search, and nab Chrome or Firefox or Opera (etc.) that way. But Microsoft has repeatedly taken advantage of that to re…