It’s literally not, that’s steam running in big picture on an inconvenient setup. No controller wake up, no rest mode, stuck with windows, no convenient app switching, need mouse/kb to do anything outside of steam. Source: have gaming PC that I never use.
Steam machines were a great idea that the market wasn’t quite ready for, and were too niche at the time. The steam deck has proved people of all technical levels are ready and willing to embrace a non-windows OS, and don’t care what it is as long as it can easily give them access to their content. I have an Nvidia shield, a PS5, a steam deck and a desktop PC. My game library is disjointed and I rarely play anything on the PC, because there is no good way to make it convenient. The vast majority of the time I use my steam deck, I’m sitting on my couch, just like my PS5 .
A steam console could unify everything, cut my devices while simplifying my experience and giving me way more control over the invasive bullshit that comes with streaming and android devices. That has so much upside and value to me, it’s hard to even put a price tag on it tbh.
Yes I am that people. A gaming console media PC that sits still, has rest mode, and can interface with a server for my media, or run streaming apps like a regular ass PC but from the convenience of my couch. Like basically - my steam deck with a hardware upgrade at the expense of portability. That’s exactly what I want and I would happily pay for. Even at $700+, that value is there for me and I imagine for tons of others.
I honestly think (hope) valve should take a shot at a genuine console. I would absolutely love something that just WORKS like steam deck, but unlike my PS5 syncs with my steam library and can easily transition to my deck with no fuss. Library compatibility, graphic customization, capable of functioning as a one stop media device for the TV room. I feel like the steam machines were too early and too short sighted/compartmentalized, but now that so many games are coming to PC, valve could take everything the PlayStation 5 did right, while removing all the bullshit that drives people nuts.
I love my PS5 🤷🏻♂️
Your first download should be a guide on punctuation my brother.
Okay yes that’s what I remember reading. I have Express VPN now, and while researching found it’s still surprisingly highly and doesn’t log. it’s on the more expensive side though, so I may still give proton or one of the other recs a try.
Same, I used to use PIA for about a decade, but I could’ve sworn I heard they were one of the ones that had gone way downhill. Otherwise I never had an issue with them. I’ll have to do some digging, see if it was founded or just a reddit rumor.
Oh nice thanks for that. So should I not worry as much about seeding the private trackers?
Yo! What exactly is different about private trackers? Like how does that help? Im lucky enough to have one but due to the seed ratio rules, I find myself downloading from my usual sites more frequently because I worry about seeding indefinitely.
Yo! What’s a proper VPN these days? It seems like all the ones I used to trust went to shit.
Use a calorie counting app like lose it. Log everything you eat. It’s very tedious at first but pretty soon you get really good at judging how many calories are in things. Don’t stop logging! Track your weight. When you hit plateaus zoom out on the time scale and look at your trend line going down and feel good about yourself.
The trick is being honest with yourself. There are no free calories. Those 2-3 little cookies you had at work? They count. The extra scoop of rice? That counts. Most people have no concept of how many excess calories they’re really taking in.
Over COVID lockdown my wife and I both gained 10-15 pounds and I was already a good 20 pounds over where I wanted to be. We both started this and never stopped. I lost 40 pounds in about 9 months (230 to 185) , she lost 20, 155 to 134, and we’ve both kept it off for the last three years. We log all our meals and we exercise. Exercise becomes rewarding because burning extra means you can cheat! Did you bike twenty miles today? HAVE YOU A FUCKIN DONUT THEN!
Seems weird to me in a day and age where switching apps is literally just a swipe of a finger. People will jump from Instagram to tik tok to texting to emailing to Whatsapp without thinking about it at all, but a podcast app is a hurdle they don’t want to deal with. Even more bizarre because until very recently it was always like that, for the entire history of podcasts. It’s a shame too because podcast apps are so intuitive these days. Listening to podcasts on Spotify feels clunky by comparison.
To each their own I guess, but I personally just don’t understand it.
Makes a lot more sense. I don’t listen to very many but when I do I use an app that isn’t Spotify. I don’t mind fast forwarding the commercials in the app. I have no desire to have Spotify try and algorithm my podcast tastes, especially not on top of injecting extra ads into them
Genuine question - why does anyone listen to podcasts on Spotify? There have been and still are a TON of quality podcast apps that are 100% free and don’t do this bullshit. Like, I’m aware Spotify has podcasts but in my mind Spotify is music, podcast app is podcasts. It was that way for more than a decade. I just don’t get it TBH.
Yeah, unfortunately could just be (probably is) good ol’ enshittification then. In this case at least.
No, this was not a baked in ad by the podcast hoster but literally inserted by Spotify.
Just FYI, those two things don’t need to be exclusive. In this case Spotify is probably the one sponsoring the podcast, and so they inserted ads themselves, as opposed to the content creators including their sponsor ads. Many more successful podcasts are doing this now, and it seems like the ads get shoved in when there sometimes aren’t even breaks.
Not saying it doesn’t suck, it absolutely does. Just pointing out that it’s a new trend. So it’ll probably get worse!
FYI if you, like me, did not realize the third book was out, it is! I just bought it, gonna start it tonight
Seems to be invite only at the moment according to their sign up page. Any way for you to send an invite?
Because I don’t need or want it to do any of that, nor do most people that purchase a console. I want it to be a steam-friendly PS5 replacement, and serve the exact role that a console serves. A steam-friendly replacement would have the same OS features that deck has, and allow a similar degree of customization. You are not the use case if you don’t understand that.