The Innkeeper

@innkeeper@gamerstavern.online
937 Followers
353 Following
3.7K Posts

๐Ÿป I'm the innkeeper of the Gamer's Tavern, a gaming community fully committed to the Fediverse

Relevant Hashtags:
- #Peertube
- #Owncast
- #Gaming
- #LinuxGaming
- #VideoGames
- #Fediverse
- #Mastodon
- #Writefreely
- #Pixelfed

My personal account: @ItsMeAlex

#fedi22

I speakEnglish ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง, italiano ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น
You can find me also onhttps://linktr.ee/thegamerstavern
Support the communityhttps://ko-fi.com/the_gamers_tavern
My questlog profilehttps://questlog.app/u/ivozzo
@BobDendry ๐Ÿซ‚
@barning ๐Ÿ‘‹

@Kdude @benny @EighthLayer

Adding @mawhrin to the thread ( source )

flere-imsaho ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ (@mawhrin@circumstances.run)

does anyone observe problems with the hetzner's s3-compatible object storage, or is it only me? #FediAdmin

GSV Sleeper Service

@benny seems like there's a widespread issue with a bucket storage provider, Hetzner, especially the FSN1 region (Falkenstein, DE if my memory serves)

I'm not sure if this is the issue for your instance too but it sure is for ours :)

Popping #FediAdmin #MastoAdmin tags to get feedback from other admins too and pinging @EighthLayer

Surprising to see Youtuber PewDiePie (110M subscribers) publishing a video last night , "I installed Linux (so should you)" with a call to his community to join the platform, underlining the fun of customisation and DIY, in opposition to all the enshitification of Windows. His main point of friction for moving was Photoshop, and he explained how he made the effort to adapt GIMP to his needs. Always good to see initiatives like that shared to large audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVI_smLgTY0

I installed Linux (so should you)

YouTube

#Ubisoft forces players to stay #online even for single-player games, #tracking #data like playtime and #game launches. Despite no clear consent or necessity, they collect personal information for "improving game experience" via third-party tools. No valid legal basis under #GDPR for such actions.

What do you think? Should we avoid games from Ubisoft?

https://noyb.eu/en/play-alone-ubisoft-still-watching-you

#Privacy #Gaming #Ubisoft #DataProtection #Surveillance #videogames

Like to play alone? Ubisoft is still watching you!

Ubisoft forces people to connect to the internet before they can play a single player game

noyb.eu

The EU is introducing an energy label for phones, together with mandatory requirements for phones sold in the EU;

- 5 years of software updates (AFTER they stop selling the device in the EU)

- providing important hardware parts (during sale and for 7 years after), including free software (if needed), to every repair shop, within 5-10 business days

- batteries have to make 800 charging cycles and still be above 80% original capacity

And on top of that, phones and tablets need this energy label (which also includes a fall damage durability and repairability score), and abide by the above requirements, from 20 June 2025.

(https://energy-efficient-products.ec.europa.eu/product-list/smartphones-and-tablets_en)

Smartphones and Tablets

Product Energy Efficiency - Smartphones and Tablets. The 2023 regulations cover smartphones, feature phones, cordless phones and slate tablets. They do not apply to tablet computers, to products with flexible main display (roll-up), and to smartphones for high security communication. Energy labelling is foreseen only for smartphones and slate tablets.

Energy Efficient Products
Oh boy, PULSAR: lost colony runs very well on the Steam Deck and I definitely didn't need to know this.
@therivercrow ๐Ÿซ‚
ร—

The EU is introducing an energy label for phones, together with mandatory requirements for phones sold in the EU;

- 5 years of software updates (AFTER they stop selling the device in the EU)

- providing important hardware parts (during sale and for 7 years after), including free software (if needed), to every repair shop, within 5-10 business days

- batteries have to make 800 charging cycles and still be above 80% original capacity

And on top of that, phones and tablets need this energy label (which also includes a fall damage durability and repairability score), and abide by the above requirements, from 20 June 2025.

(https://energy-efficient-products.ec.europa.eu/product-list/smartphones-and-tablets_en)

@ShadowJonathan Sometimes EU does do a good thing.
Patrick Stewart sketch: what has the ECHR ever done for us?

YouTube
People's Front Against Europe: What has the EU ever done for us?

YouTube
@stefan @dakira @ShadowJonathan For the record, I'm a progressive. I do believe the EU has brought the people and coutries under its jurisdiction many great benefits in funding, regulation and organisation.
But I'm sceptical of the EU, it's propensity to occasionally entertain regulation that would impede privacy or the general internet freedoms as well as its less than ideal record with people outside its borders.
And, like, it's basically an advanced trade agreement between global north countries, there's bound to be something horrid
somewhere in an organisation like that.
@ShadowJonathan hmmm... that's gonna be interesting 
@ShadowJonathan what a bad day to be british :( (will still affect us but still would.love the guarantee of this)
@null @ShadowJonathan come visit me in EU! move here so you can get the guarantee :3 !!!
@sodiboo @ShadowJonathan i wishhhhhhh i wanna move somewhere better โ€‹โ€‹
@sodiboo @ShadowJonathan @null Can't just do that any more. ***grr Brexit grr***

@null @ShadowJonathan
Are you aware of the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill, which just passed? It allows the government to dynamically alter British regulations when EU regulations change. So basically we now are dynamically aligned with EU regulations including this one probably.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10224/

@ShadowJonathan this is genuinely cool  there's so much planned obsolescense, especially with the batteries
@ShadowJonathan holy shit I can't wait to actually go shopping for a phone in a store and be able to compare the important specs :D
@ShadowJonathan now companies that brag about how great their phones are 24/7 will actually have to prove it 
@ShadowJonathan I wonder if that will hurt availability of the Lower end handsets, esp as a lot of the oems are at the mercy of if the chipset vendor can be bothered to support the soc
@Dragon @ShadowJonathan Chipset vendors will feel this pressure as well, which is good.
@Dragon I think prices in general will go up as these rules imply less sales (as individual phones last longer)
@ShadowJonathan
@prex @ShadowJonathan that and thereโ€™s a cost to supporting it for that long
@Dragon Possible that the smartphone market might just shrink to Apple, Samsung and Google? Not many companies have the resources to support their devices for that long, much less remain profitable while doing so.
@Abazigal @Dragon Very unlikely. People often forget that selling individual parts, access to schematics, extended warranties (which make more sense if the device has a long lifetime) etc. also adds revenue. It's more of a shift in how to make business, not how much.
Additionally stuff like this strengthens the second-hand market, which in turn causes more sales in repair parts, and so onโ€ฆ a lot of positive dynamics.

@Abazigal @Dragon

I suspect my #Fairphone4 already complies with most of these requirements.

And they just lowered the price of the #fairphone5 model.

@hlangeveld @Abazigal @Dragon Which I'm pretty sure complies with all of it.
@Abazigal fairphone has been in business for a decade iirc selling long lasting phones, so I'm hopeful others will find a way. Easier when you're in a niche I'd say, but maybe it can be imitated
@Dragon
@Abazigal @Dragon
I think the reduced competition, higher prices, and less cheap options are all possible scenarios. One concern is that the most financially vulnerable will be exposed to risky tech on the grey market.
For everyone else, phones wonโ€™t be โ€˜more expensiveโ€™. They will have the right price tag for a more sustainable product. The way it should always have been.
@Abazigal @Dragon I don't really have a grasp on the hardware side, but the software requirements are trivial to fulfill with modern Android, if you take part in Google's Vendor Stable program.
95% of the work is then done by Google, without you having to do anything.

@mxk @Abazigal assuming you donโ€™t have a binary blob from the soc vendor that they refuse to update to make compatible with newer software.

Thereโ€™s already other non mobile devices such as routers that ship on older software versions due to sdk availability

@Dragon @Abazigal I work in the industry, I am dealing with ARM vendors and am painfully aware of the situation.
But the way Android today works already means that you need to use a Kernel image built by Google and that hardware support is done using vendor modules that use a stable API, not the plain Linux Kernel module API.
That way the base Kernel Image and the /system partition can be updated directly through Google and don't even need additional effort from the Manufacturer and this can't really be blocked by SOC manufacturers either.
@prex @Dragon @ShadowJonathan I already donโ€™t buy a new phone more frequently than every 6 years, and I would go longer if I could. This is great!
@prex @Dragon @ShadowJonathan well, this is good if thatโ€™s the case. Less stuff in the landfills
@prex @Dragon @ShadowJonathan That would be the point in part. Less e-waste. Long lasting devices also mean that the people who want the new cool one are handing on a second hand device with a lot of life left.

Economics suggest that as demand goes down, prices go down, ceteris paribus.

@prex @Dragon @ShadowJonathan

@BradRubenstein @prex @ShadowJonathan to a point, but economies of scale also come into play, if theyโ€™re making significantly less of a thing then the per unit cost could go up.

I guess we will have to see how it plays out, another interesting component will be how easy these devices become to repair, even if you can get the parts no ones gonna want to repair a device ifs hours of labour to a repair shop

@BradRubenstein @prex @ShadowJonathan I do wonder if 7years was properly researched or if someone pulled a number out their backside. Thatโ€™s rather long time in the tech world

The tech aficionados will always move on to the newest thing. The regulatory question is whether the five year old devices get repurposed by poorer consumers down the line, or end up in landfill.

@Dragon @prex @ShadowJonathan

Agreed, it's complicated. But costs don't determine prices. Buyers and sellers determine prices.

Here, the regulators are banking that the sellers will continue to sell even though regulation may make their profit margins smaller. Could be. Or they could slightly pivot to get around the profitability impact of regulation.

@Dragon @prex @ShadowJonathan

@BradRubenstein @prex @ShadowJonathan donโ€™t think there is much margin on the Low end unless you are Apple.
@Dragon @ShadowJonathan Samsung is selling A16 for 130โ‚ฌ with 6 years of support, so it is possible.
Bunch of 6-7y old phones have LineageOS 22 (Android 15) build, but OEMs stopped supporting them years ago. Some companies like HMD have 5y for business users only (2y for standard models) even though hardware and software are the same.
Maybe these new regulations will put pressure on OEMs who are selling bad products, but it could actually make it easier (and cheaper) for those who already invest in repairability and/or longer support.
@Dragon @ShadowJonathan but LCC will be higher for low end phones and lower for higher end ones.
@ShadowJonathan Iโ€™m impressed! Now next up, the EU will mandate each phone to have a constant connection to police servers or something insane like that
@yassie_j @ShadowJonathan one bad policy to balance each good one. Can't be too based after all
@yassie_j @ShadowJonathan I believe these regulations also go in conflict with the Batteries Regulation and meeting them allows phone manufacturers to make the batteries non-replaceable, so... there's that
@yassie_j
And they would do that because of....what, exactly? Or are you just hating on the EU because you had to endure Brexit?
@yassie_j @ShadowJonathan They already do - it's called the mobile phone network.
@ShadowJonathan *spontaneously bursts into Beethoven's famous ninth symphony*
@ShadowJonathan could go a bit further (mostly by also requiring OEMs to provide all required resources to enable the development of 3rd party OSes for their phones, as well as users to run these 3rd party OSes), but itโ€™s undeniably a step in the right direction
@ShadowJonathan fortunatly aliexpress still will sell us cheap phones.
@ShadowJonathan Nice. But no wonder the tech bros want to get rid of the EU.
@deBaer @ShadowJonathan actual technology regulation? gasp

say it ain't so
@deBaer @ShadowJonathan GDPR and DMA already did that. There's a reason all the big tech companies funded the ascent of the current American administration. Capitalism wants a labor base of desperate, broken people, with no rights.
@ShadowJonathan some will leave the #eu market #phone
@muzicofiel Good. Getting the trash out at the same time sounds like a win :D
@max @muzicofiel I doubt they will leave the EU market. 500 million consumersโ€ฆ
@muzicofiel @ShadowJonathan yep. The crappy anti-consumer ones.
That will leave more market share for more ethical and better suppliers.
@ShadowJonathan niiiice, I hate how my phone stopped software support after only 3y and 9 months.

@ShadowJonathan

Perhaps credit needs to also go to #Fairphone as they proved these could be done even by a tiny company with few resources. It showed that the excuses made by larger companies were untrue.

Hey @WeAreFairphone did you see this?