2026-04-07 07:55:00
Last month, I wrote about how Apple is working on adding support for encrypted RCS messages between Apple Messages on iOS and Google Messages on Android. At the time, I said I hoped Apple would make this work with Samsung's messaging app as well so that basically all Americans could get the benefits here.
Well, today Samsung announced they are ending their custom messaging app and are directing users to switch to Google Messages instead.
Well, problem solved.
2026-04-04 04:40:40
Just 6 months ago, Lenovo launched their Legion Go 2 handheld PC game console. It came in 2 versions, each with a different chip (AMD Ryzen Z2 or Z2 Extreme) powering the device. They came in at the profoundly premium price points of $1,099 and $1,349.
Now, those are profoundly high price points compared to the competition. The Steam Deck OLED was (and technically still is, but it's been out of stock for over a month) $549-$649 which outside of the OLED screen being nicer, does lag behind in a bunch of specs, so the price difference is somewhat understandable. Still, a bit north of $1,000 for a portable gaming console is pretty wild.
But now the Legion Go 2 has gotten a price increase. And not a small one…
Instead of $1,099 and $1,349, now they cost $1,499 and $1,999. Yes, those are $400 and $650 increases, or put another way, one top-of-the-line Steam Deck more than before.
As I said back at the start of the year, 2026 is going to be a very painful year in tech.
On the plus side, if you did want a portable gaming PC with the power of the $1,999 Legion Go 2, you could look at the seemingly-reasonably-priced-in-comparison $999 ROG Xbox Ally X, which has the same Z2 Extreme chip as the $1,999 model, 24GB RAM (down from the Go's 32GB), and a slightly lower res screen, but honestly I think it's a way better buy, even if the software sucks hard. Install Bazzite on that sucker and enjoy life.
2026-04-03 23:04:46
Nintendo: About Nintendo Switch 2 Game Pricing
Beginning in May 2026, and starting with preorders for Yoshi™ and the Mysterious Book, new Nintendo published digital titles exclusive to Nintendo Switch™ 2 will have an MSRP that is different from physical versions.
Considering Nintendo caught up with Sony and Microsoft and made their first party games $70 this generation (except for Mario Kart World, which cost $80 which is honestly outrageous), it's nice to have at least one video game headline that isn't about how a company is increasing prices further.
2026-04-02 08:00:00
jess77x in a Reddit post about Pluribus:
The discourse around this show is so weird. It's either a masterpiece or a total slog. And everyone is just talking past each other and calling people illiterate/TikTok brained for disliking it or pretentious shills for liking it. And it's a shame because engaging with this show, the ideas presented in it, and how the show goes about exploring those ideas (for better and for worse) could be so interesting, yet so much of this discussion is centered around this unproductive binary.
This is just how it goes with media discourse. It's good or it's bad, there is no in between. There is no space for "art is subjective, there will always be many opinions". Get in line or get wrecked in the comments.
2026-04-02 07:30:00
Ben Thompson: Apple’s 50 Years of Integration
It’s also worth noting that OpenAI has, in its relatively short life, managed to frame itself as a competitor to basically everyone in tech, from Google to Meta to Microsoft, only to find itself forced to pivot in the face of Anthropic and its focused approach on coding and productivity in the enterprise. The audacity of taking on everyone is impressive; the effectiveness of fighting everyone for everything may be less so.
I hadn't really thought about it in these terms before, but OpenAI has effectively positioned itself as competing with literally every single tech company in the world. What can't GPT do, you know? But they kind of have to, don't they? Their investment implies a valuation that makes them effectively as big as all the other big tech companies combined.
I don't know exactly how we're going to come down from this AI bubble, but it certainly seems like it will dawn on people that OpenAI could be a generational company in the long run. We could be celebrating their fiftieth anniversary in several decades, just as we're celebrating Apple's today.
However, several examples are notable deviations from the narrative that AI, and OpenAI specifically, will be taking over the world. Apple was seen as a laggard in AI development, and in fairness, they clearly saw themselves that way and invested billions in trying to catch up to the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic, but they failed miserably. And yet, they seem like they're going to be doing just fine. You need a computer to do all this vibe coding on. You need a phone to talk to an AI agent. Who makes the best computers and phones? Apple does.
Similarly, there's Anthropic, the company that some analysts derided in the past for being an incredibly niche AI player who got too many headlines for the number of users they had. They forced OpenAI to pivot several times because they focused their efforts on work and coding specifically. Now OpenAI has tried hard to pivot to get their Codex app to catch on to even a fraction of the extent of Claude Code.
And they've already entered their Elon era, where now they're talking about building a ChatGPT super app that combines a chatbot, a browser, and a code editor. I don't know if it's a law of nature, but it definitely seems to be a law of the tech space that once you start talking about building a super app, you're kind of flailing as a business.
2026-04-02 07:29:39