Matt

Valve is being sued because they are forcing others to follow policies that further entrenches Steam as the largest store.

Since Epic bought the game developer, it only applies to themselves. It is much harder to sue someone over a decision that only applies to something they own. How can a company be sued for not selling their product at a store? Should Valve be sued for not selling their own games on Epic or GOG?

Is Epic’s decision to only sell their games on their store annoying for users? Yes. But unfortunately, there is nothing illegal about. There would be a better chance of a lawsuit of Epic paying other game developers for exclusivity, but that would still not be easy as game exclusivity is still a significant factor on game consoles as well. Albeit much less than in the past.

The software is pretty good in my experience. The biggest problem is the hardware was already old when the Pinephone launched 6 years ago. There is only so much optimization that can be done on decade old mobile hardware.

What about it? The Pinephone is still available.

This is also my favorite mobile RSS app. I am currently using it with Miniflux.

Unpopular opinion: I like this idea. I like games that are essentially interactive stories with an open world to explore. I don’t want to be challenged when playing games, but even on the easiest difficulty level, I occasionally hit a challenge that results in me abandoning the game altogether.

AI is not necessary for this though. The Persona games handle this well where the player does not need to restart from the last save when they die. They get an option that fully heals them and they can keep going.

I love the design of this much more than the Time 2 and appreciate how easy they made it to switch my order.

eSIM. It is an integrated chip on the device.

It’s not just iPhone anymore. Pixel 10 removed the SIM card as well.

I wish they still included a SIM card slot.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

I use self-hosted Baikal for CalDAV (calendar and tasks) and CardDAV (contacts).

I self-host Miniflux. The web client is very good on both desktop and mobile, but I prefer using it with the lire app on iOS.

I have been using Brave Search for over a year and have been very pleased with the results. I have also seen a lot of good things about Kagi, but it does require a subscription.

It would not be that cheap since Netflix Premium already costs $25/month and HBO Max Premium is $23/mo. At best, they might do a lower initial price to get some positive press, but it will quickly get increased. Both Netflix and HBO Max are notorious for price increases and they both limit 4K quality to their most expensive plan.

There is also Collabora Online Development Edition or CODE.

If it has Google Play Services, it will be affected. Custom ROMs like Graphene OS and Lineage will keep working. The problem is if app developers and/or most of their users don’t use a custom ROM, it will likely push them out of Android app development. So while it is possible for some users to avoid direct impacts of this change, the overall fallout will be unavoidable.

I have had positive experiences with both Radicale and Baikal. I am not sure about the Home Assistant integration, but they both use CalDAV, so I would be surprised if there wasn’t a way of connecting them. iOS has native support for CalDAV, but Android needs the davx5 app (free on F-Droid).

From what I currently understand, they will need to be approved by Google, so F-Droid and many of the popular apps will likely still be available, but the overall selection will be limited. This will apply to devices with Google Play Services. If you are using a custom rom without Google Play Services, then this change will not affect you.

It was in the news a couple of weeks ago. Here is an article: https://9to5google.com/2025/07/26/samsung-galaxy-one-ui-8-bootloader-unlock/