I know we hate Reddit here but this site is just taken from and rephrasing this post, which is more informative (which at least they were nice enough to link to): https://www.reddit.com/r/blackberry/comments/1jmalqp/a_startup_is_bringing_back_an_updated_blackberry/

(There’s also a pretty damn good chance this is total BS - the poster says he “used AI to cover up their actual design”).

I love VRR when it works but man it can look horrible when it doesn’t. Prince of Persia; The Lost Crown on the PS5 runs great at 120hz with VRR… if you don’t mind the entire screen flickering rhythmically every few seconds, just like this article describes.

Honestly, not having a new Xbox, the best I’ve seen VRR look in action on my TV is on my docked Steam Deck, but that has its own problems - the display drivers on the deck completely wig out if you leave VRR on when putting it into sleep, and if VRR is on on your TV the picture won’t even display after waking it if you have the resolution set to anything other than “automatic.” (You can sort of work around this by keeping the cursor on the VRR toggle and “blindly” toggling it in the quick menu on wake, but still… wonky stuff that really proves how many years it takes for things to catch up to display innovations.)

It’ll break saving books you bought from Amazon, but you’ll still be able to send books you got from other places to it from Calibre. Fortunately barely any of my ebooks on my kindle are from Amazon (though my next ereader isn’t going to be a kindle, that’s for sure).

I put my microfiber cloths in one of those delicates laundry bags and toss it in with a regular load on cold, then let them air dry. Never had any problem with them scratching lenses.

Uhhhh if someone is asking for a randomly generated authentication code you might want to double check who you’re talking to and make sure you’re not being scammed.

Edit: seems it might be normal? https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/customer-service/customer-service-asked-for-my-2fa-code-to-verify-my-account-over-the-phone-despite-the-text-saying-not-to-share-with-xfinity-reps-normal/6410d59641879c3c4d1c6128

Holy shit that’s bad practice. Great way to get less tech savvy people used to customer service reps asking for verification codes and trusting them without hesitation.

Oh yeah, 160ms is definitely brutal in that context. I’m surprised there’s not a game mode or something to cut that down.

And you’re totally right, VR is generally USB-C when wired. I was more commenting on where 8K and up is actually going to make a noticeable difference, which really has little to do with HDMI. It’s not such a bad thing for the cable standards to be ahead of the tech, but I think we’ve got a while before hardware that can really push that well is in the mainstream.

As for the barfing - I’ve found the better the tech (clearer visuals, higher refresh rate) the lower the barf rate! I definitely know the feeling

The one place where I think 8K and up is really gonna matter is VR, when you’ve got pixels inches away from your eyes, but that tech is still niche and a long-term work in progress (Apple jumped the gun trying to make it mainstream too soon). 4K and HDR are great, but 1080p really does still look good even on a big TV.

Also, I’m the biggest freak in the world about input latency but even in the craziest rhythm games, there is no possible way just over 0.1ms of lag is screwing you up unless you are an actual machine. That’s 1/10,000th of a second! Guessing you either meant .1 second or you’re Skynet.

Yeah, that’s weird. Like, I get the idea, but the tech just hasn’t caught up to it yet. It needs to be as convenient as just putting on a light pair of glasses - on top of not being especially light or comfortable, VR is still a “process” which requires a degree of effort and adjustment every time you use it, which really kills the whole concept of it being a convenient tool.

I think Apple is probably more likely than most to make something like this take off eventually (Google Glass’ biggest failing was also that it made you look like a total dork, whereas Apple somehow managed to make AirPods cool), but this seems more like a software proof of concept for hardware that doesn’t exist yet.

I don’t think Apple themselves marketed it this way, but viral photos of people being spotted on subways and walking down the street wearing one probably didn’t help sell the product.

No, but it’s the only reason for HDMI (along with AV receivers) because it’s all the manufacturers support, so all of us home theater nerds that do care about this stuff have no real* choice but to keep up with the HDMI world. Yes, you can set up a media server that streams 4K video, but you’re not going to find a DisplayPort 4K UHD player, or a 7.2 AVR that plugs into your 77” OLED and supports all of your game consoles. HDMI is just the unfortunate reality there.

That said, the tech that actually takes advantage of the new cable specs tends to lag behind significantly, and new gaming consoles that support HDMI 2.2 likely will in a limited (ultimately disappointing) capacity for years, just like previous versions.

(Also the top comment in this thread doesn’t really seem to reflect modern reality for most people I know. Most people are using their TV to stream at 1080p - 4K, not watching broadcast TV - in which case, yeah, get a $60 720p LCD or whatever, HDMI specs won’t matter to that kind of viewer. Still, subscription streaming quality definitely doesn’t take full advantage of your expensive shiny new TV the way physical media - or a media server - might, but that’s another conversation).

4K discs are so niche that this just isn’t really true, since they simply don’t bother to add that stuff anymore with the money all going to streaming. Almost every 4K disc I have just loads right into a bland generic menu with only a skippable logo for universal or whatever at the beginning. On top of that, they’re all region free. Odd that when the consumer base for physical media is smaller than it used to be, the consumer experience is better.

Now most of these 4K discs also come with a regular (often older) Blu-ray which contains the features from previous releases or whatever, and THAT’S where the bullshit you’re talking about is - lots of trailers (with it being a crapshoot whether you can skip straight to the menu, need to skip one at a time, or have to actually fast forward them), and, worst of all, defunct BD-Live stuff that in some cases you have no way to skip loading at all, even if you completely disable network connectivity in the player. None of this junk is in any of my 4Ks. Sometimes the features are even on the 4K too, if you’re really lucky.

But yeah, modern 4K discs are mostly great and still absolutely way better video and audio quality than any streaming service I’ve used - the worst thing you usually get is maybe one dumb copyright notice. (LG’s 4K players were terrible anyway though making the experience bad for consumers for a different reason, but that’s for another comment).

Some people can’t hear the dog whistles until they become bullhorns.

Yeah if the point of the statue wasn’t clear, the blatant sarcasm of the writing on the plaque on it gives it away.

Kinda says a lot about this country when someone can make a statue of a turd on a desk and people aren’t sure if it supports the desk poopers. Honestly if that plaque wasn’t on the side of it I would bet a lot of January 6’ers would share it thinking it was made by their team. Hell a lot of them probably still will on account of not being able to read.

I had that happen (an empty, sealed box with nothing inside) and started a chat and they refunded me right away without question. I think you just gotta get lucky with the right support rep.

I still have two stuffed monkeys I “won” from that site, from when I was young and stupid and didn’t realize I was probably paying for them with my personal data.