TL;DR: Canberra authorities are embracing a tough approach to ransomware threats. A new law will require certain organizations to disclose when and how much they have paid to cybercriminals following a data breach. However, experts remain unconvinced that this is the most effective way to tackle the problem. Companies operating in Australia must now report any payments made to cybercriminals after experiencing a ransomware incident. Government officials hope the new mandate will help them gain a deeper understanding of the issue, as many enterprises continue to pay ransoms whenever they fall victim to file-encrypting malware. Originally proposed last year, the law applies only to companies with an annual turnover exceeding $1.93 million. This threshold targets the top 6.5 percent of Australia's registered businesses – representing roughly half of the country's total economic output. Under the new law, affected companies must report ransomware incidents to the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). Failure to properly disclose an attack will result in fines under the country's civil penalty system. Authorities are allegedly planning to follow a two-stage approach, initially prioritizing major violations while fostering a "constructive" dialogue with victims. Starting next year, regulators will adopt a much stricter stance toward noncompliant organizations. The Australian government has implemented this mandatory reporting requirement after concluding that voluntary disclosures were insufficient. In 2024, officials noted that ransomware and cyber extortion incidents were vastly underreported, with only one in five victims coming forward. Ransomware remains a highly complex and growing phenomenon, with attacks reaching record levels despite increased law enforcement actions against notorious cyber gangs. Although several governments have proposed similar regulations, Australia is the first country to formally enact such a law. // Related Stories Jeff Wichman, director of incident response at cybersecurity firm Semperis, cautions that mandatory reporting is a double-edged sword. While the government may gain valuable data and insights into attacker profiles, the law may not reduce the frequency of attacks. Instead, it could serve mainly to publicly shame breached organizations – while cybercriminals continue to profit. A recent Semperis study found that over 70 percent of 1,000 ransomware-hit companies opted to pay the ransom and hope for the best. "Some companies, they just want to pay it and get things done, to get their data off the dark web. Others, it's a delayed response perspective, they want negotiations to happen with the attacker while they figure out what happened," Wichman explained. According to the study, 60 percent of victims who paid received functional decryption keys and successfully recovered their data. However, in 40 percent of cases, the provided keys were corrupted or ineffective.

The joy of going camping is usually found in going off-grid for a few days and reconnecting with nature. However, having creature comforts like light and warmth, and even access to medical devices like a CPAP machine, make it worthwhile taking a portable power solution with you. That's where portable power stations come in. Think power banks, only bigger. Power stations come in a variety of power capacities and sizes, and that means that you can find a portable power station for every type of camping, no matter whether you're a backpacker, a car camper, or an RVer.  What is the best portable power station for camping right now?  We've tested dozens of portable power stations in a lab setting and have also done hands-on testing during camping trips and road trips. Based on both experiences, our pick for the best portable power station for camping overall is the Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus, thanks to its versatility and the amount of power it provides. As an avid camper myself, I've also included other portable power stations from brands like EcoFlow and Bluetti so you can improve your next camping experience. Sort by All The best portable power stations for camping in 2025 Show less View now at Amazon Jackery is a well-known brand in the power station space, and for good reason. Its versatile power stations consistently rank among our best products, thanks to the enormous power these devices provide and their flexibility in setup, especially in a camping scenario.Steve Conaway, the director of CNET Test Labs, at our sister site, has tested dozens of power stations and said the Jackery is one of his top picks. "The versatility of modularity is what makes this power station so impressive," Conaway said. "You can choose to take just the one unit for regular camping, but if you wanted a bigger setup to power a cabin, you could easily add on more units."Review: This portable battery station can power your home for 2 weeksAnd the great thing about this unit is that if you need more power storage capacity, you can add on the PackPlus E2000 Plus battery pack for an additional 2042.8Wh of electrical storage capacity to the system.Jackery has a long track record of building quality, durable, and long-lasting power stations -- which is exactly what you need if you are spending the big bucks on a power station.Remember that the more additions you add to this setup, the heavier it will be. On its own, it weighs 41.9 pounds but can reach well over 100 pounds with more units. Despite the weight, Reddit users note that the solar additions, in particular, have been useful in camping and outdoor situations.Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus specs: Watts/hr: 2042.8W | Continuous watts: 3000W | Surge watts: 6000W | Solar input (W): 1400 | Ports: 2 USB-A, 2 USB-C, 4 AC | Weight: 61.5 pounds Pros Clean, easy-to-read LCD display Expansion battery modules Solar panels are durable and highly efficient Wheels make moving it a lot easier Cons Expensive Jackery is a well-known brand in the power station space, and for good reason. Its versatile power stations consistently rank among our best products, thanks to the enormous power these devices provide and their flexibility in setup, especially in a camping scenario.Steve Conaway, the director of CNET Test Labs, at our sister site, has tested dozens of power stations and said the Jackery is one of his top picks. "The versatility of modularity is what makes this power station so impressive," Conaway said. "You can choose to take just the one unit for regular camping, but if you wanted a bigger setup to power a cabin, you could easily add on more units."Review: This portable battery station can power your home for 2 weeksAnd the great thing about this unit is that if you need more power storage capacity, you can add on the PackPlus E2000 Plus battery pack for an additional 2042.8Wh of electrical storage capacity to the system.Jackery has a long track record of building quality, durable, and long-lasting power stations -- which is exactly what you need if you are spending the big bucks on a power station.Remember that the more additions you add to this setup, the heavier it will be. On its own, it weighs 41.9 pounds but can reach well over 100 pounds with more units. Despite the weight, Reddit users note that the solar additions, in particular, have been useful in camping and outdoor situations.Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus specs: Watts/hr: 2042.8W | Continuous watts: 3000W | Surge watts: 6000W | Solar input (W): 1400 | Ports: 2 USB-A, 2 USB-C, 4 AC | Weight: 61.5 pounds Read More Show Expert Take Show less Show less Camping takes all sorts of forms, and there's a power station to suit everyone. For those who head outdoors in an RV or to a remote cabin, the EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra (DPU) is a powerful option. EcoFlow debuted the Delta Pro Ultra at CES this year, and compared to the EcoFlow Delta Pro model, the Ultra has double the power and charges, a dedicated 4G LTE modem port to access the app in remote areas with weak Wi-Fi signals, and a 32-minute faster recharge time.ZDNET editor Maria Diaz went hands-on with this unit and called it the "Swiss Army Knife of home backup systems," and its impressive specs back that claim up. The single unit has a 6kWh capacity, 7200W output, and 5.6kW solar input, allowing it to run an entire RV or cabin, especially when stacked with other units for increased capacity.This great power packs a lot of weight,186.4 pounds, to be exact. However, it can be divided into two pieces: the inverter, the top portion, is 70 pounds, and the battery, the bottom portion, is 116 pounds. Diaz noted that her family experienced a power outage recently, and her husband was able to transport the battery part much more easily by separating the pieces.EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra specs: Watts/hr. 7200W | Continuous watts: 6kWh | Surge watts: 10.8 kW | Solar input (W): 5.6kW | Ports: 2×USB-A, 2×USB-C (100W), 6×AC Output, 1×DC output | Weight: 186.4 pounds AC outputs 9 Total capacity 10 Expansion ready 10 USB ports 9 Max output 10 Pros Expandable to up to 90kWh Consumption insights in EcoFlow app Modular design Cons Expensive Heavy EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra Best portable power station for RV camping 4.8 / 5 Score Camping takes all sorts of forms, and there's a power station to suit everyone. For those who head outdoors in an RV or to a remote cabin, the EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra (DPU) is a powerful option. EcoFlow debuted the Delta Pro Ultra at CES this year, and compared to the EcoFlow Delta Pro model, the Ultra has double the power and charges, a dedicated 4G LTE modem port to access the app in remote areas with weak Wi-Fi signals, and a 32-minute faster recharge time.ZDNET editor Maria Diaz went hands-on with this unit and called it the "Swiss Army Knife of home backup systems," and its impressive specs back that claim up. The single unit has a 6kWh capacity, 7200W output, and 5.6kW solar input, allowing it to run an entire RV or cabin, especially when stacked with other units for increased capacity.This great power packs a lot of weight,186.4 pounds, to be exact. However, it can be divided into two pieces: the inverter, the top portion, is 70 pounds, and the battery, the bottom portion, is 116 pounds. Diaz noted that her family experienced a power outage recently, and her husband was able to transport the battery part much more easily by separating the pieces.EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra specs: Watts/hr. 7200W | Continuous watts: 6kWh | Surge watts: 10.8 kW | Solar input (W): 5.6kW | Ports: 2×USB-A, 2×USB-C (100W), 6×AC Output, 1×DC output | Weight: 186.4 pounds Read More Show Expert Take Show less Show less Looking for something more compact for overnight camping or hiking? The EcoFlow River 2 Max 500 weighs just 13.1 pounds but has a battery capacity of 500Wh. In addition, you can recharge the unit using one of four methods: AC, solar, 12V in-car, or USB-C. If you choose AC, the unit can go from zero to 100% in an hour, which means you can leave charging to the last minute while camping.The company claims that one full charge of the River 2 Max can charge an iPhone 41 times, a drone 10 times, and an electric blanket eight times.ZDNET's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes tested this unit and called it "compact enough to be portable, big enough to be practical." "If you want to go totally off-grid, EcoFlow offers a 160W solar panel that can recharge the River 2 Max in about four hours," he wrote. "The panel is durable and waterproof to IP68, so it's the perfect adventure companion for the River 2 Max 500."Verified Amazon customers note that this compact unit has been helpful for everything from camping festivals to powering a CPAP machine in primitive areas.EcoFlow River 2 Max specs: Watts/hr: 500W | Continuous watts: 500W | Surge watts: 1000W | Solar input (W): 220W | Ports: 3 USB-A, 1 USB-C, 4 AC | Weight: 13.14 pounds Pros Compact and lightweight Durable build Inexpensive Cons More limited ports and power Looking for something more compact for overnight camping or hiking? The EcoFlow River 2 Max 500 weighs just 13.1 pounds but has a battery capacity of 500Wh. In addition, you can recharge the unit using one of four methods: AC, solar, 12V in-car, or USB-C. If you choose AC, the unit can go from zero to 100% in an hour, which means you can leave charging to the last minute while camping.The company claims that one full charge of the River 2 Max can charge an iPhone 41 times, a drone 10 times, and an electric blanket eight times.ZDNET's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes tested this unit and called it "compact enough to be portable, big enough to be practical." "If you want to go totally off-grid, EcoFlow offers a 160W solar panel that can recharge the River 2 Max in about four hours," he wrote. "The panel is durable and waterproof to IP68, so it's the perfect adventure companion for the River 2 Max 500."Verified Amazon customers note that this compact unit has been helpful for everything from camping festivals to powering a CPAP machine in primitive areas.EcoFlow River 2 Max specs: Watts/hr: 500W | Continuous watts: 500W | Surge watts: 1000W | Solar input (W): 220W | Ports: 3 USB-A, 1 USB-C, 4 AC | Weight: 13.14 pounds Read More Show Expert Take Show less Show less View now at Amazon Portable power stations can get pretty pricey, but this one from Bluetti currently retails at only $359 for Amazon Prime members, making it a great budget pick. Plus, it charges quickly, especially when utilizing its turbocharging feature. Kingsley-Hughes also tested this model and praised it for delivering enough power to energy-intensive devices during a road trip. "It has enough capacity to meet the needs of a small group for several days," he wrote, adding, "I've relied on the power station to charge my smartphone, cameras, drones, and laptops efficiently."In his testing, he also found that charging the station from a car's 12V outlet is particularly efficient for keeping the unit charged, as long as the battery is not drained too much.Verified customers praised the AC70 on Bluetti's website, with most of the reviewers saying they bought it for camping and were pleased with the experience of using it for this purpose. Bluetti AC70 specs: Watts/hr: 768W | Continuous watts: 1000W | Surge watts: 2000W | Solar input (W): 500W | Ports: 2 USB-A, 2 USB-C, 2 AC | Weight: 22.5 pounds Pros Turbocharge feature Affordable price Cons Some of the better features are only available by using the app Portable power stations can get pretty pricey, but this one from Bluetti currently retails at only $359 for Amazon Prime members, making it a great budget pick. Plus, it charges quickly, especially when utilizing its turbocharging feature. Kingsley-Hughes also tested this model and praised it for delivering enough power to energy-intensive devices during a road trip. "It has enough capacity to meet the needs of a small group for several days," he wrote, adding, "I've relied on the power station to charge my smartphone, cameras, drones, and laptops efficiently."In his testing, he also found that charging the station from a car's 12V outlet is particularly efficient for keeping the unit charged, as long as the battery is not drained too much.Verified customers praised the AC70 on Bluetti's website, with most of the reviewers saying they bought it for camping and were pleased with the experience of using it for this purpose. Bluetti AC70 specs: Watts/hr: 768W | Continuous watts: 1000W | Surge watts: 2000W | Solar input (W): 500W | Ports: 2 USB-A, 2 USB-C, 2 AC | Weight: 22.5 pounds Read More Show Expert Take Show less Show less What makes this portable power station so versatile for camping is the amount of power and port options. There's a 100W and 60W USB-C port on the front, along with four USB-A ports, so all your devices are covered. There is also a 12V car socket capable of outputting 120W of power and six AC outputs, each capable of 1500W or 2400W in a power surge.Kingsley-Hughes tested this unit and said in his review that the Anker 757 Powerhouse is "well thought out, not overly complicated, built with ergonomics in mind, and packs quite a lot of power." Review: Anker 757 PowerhouseAnker is a company that has been in the portable power market for many years, starting out with chargers and power banks, and then later making the leap to power stations. That long heritage is obvious when looking at the overall build quality of the Anker 757.Customer reviews note that adding portable solar panels allows for greater battery charge retention, especially while camping. Kingsley-Hughes said that while he wouldn't carry this 43.9- pound unit too far, the ergonomic handles distribute the weight well, so it's well built for moving from the garage to a truck or RV.Anker 757 Powerhouse specs: Watts/hr: 1229W | Continuous watts: 1500 | Surge watts: 2400 | Solar input (W): 600W | Ports: 4 USB-A, 2 USB-C, 6 AC | Weight: 43.9 pounds Pros Ergonomic design Lots of ports Large display Cons Solar charging could be better What makes this portable power station so versatile for camping is the amount of power and port options. There's a 100W and 60W USB-C port on the front, along with four USB-A ports, so all your devices are covered. There is also a 12V car socket capable of outputting 120W of power and six AC outputs, each capable of 1500W or 2400W in a power surge.Kingsley-Hughes tested this unit and said in his review that the Anker 757 Powerhouse is "well thought out, not overly complicated, built with ergonomics in mind, and packs quite a lot of power." Review: Anker 757 PowerhouseAnker is a company that has been in the portable power market for many years, starting out with chargers and power banks, and then later making the leap to power stations. That long heritage is obvious when looking at the overall build quality of the Anker 757.Customer reviews note that adding portable solar panels allows for greater battery charge retention, especially while camping. Kingsley-Hughes said that while he wouldn't carry this 43.9- pound unit too far, the ergonomic handles distribute the weight well, so it's well built for moving from the garage to a truck or RV.Anker 757 Powerhouse specs: Watts/hr: 1229W | Continuous watts: 1500 | Surge watts: 2400 | Solar input (W): 600W | Ports: 4 USB-A, 2 USB-C, 6 AC | Weight: 43.9 pounds Read More Show Expert Take Show less What is the best portable power station for camping? Based on our hands-on experience and in-lab testing, the Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus is the best portable power station for camping. Its modularity makes it a versatile option for all types of camping. Show more Which portable power station for camping is right for you? It depends on the type of camping you prefer before you choose which portable power station will fit your needs. Consider what devices you want to bring with you and keep powered and whether you will be staying in an RV or cabin vs. a tent. Choose this portable power station for camping... If you want... Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus The best overall option. It packs a lot of power at 3000 continuous watts, and its modularity makes it versatile for camping. EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra A powerful portable power station best for RV camping. It can run an entire RV or cabin, especially when stacked with other units for increased capacity. EcoFlow River 2 Max 500A compact portable power station for camping. It weighs just 13.4 pounds and features 60 minute fast charging. Bluetti AC70 A budget-friendly portable power station for camping. This unit also has 2,000W surge capability and a turbocharging feature, which allows for super fast charging that can take it from flat to 80% in 45 minutes. Anker 757 Powerhouse  A versatile portable power station for camping with lots of ports. It also has an ergonomic build, making it easier to carry despite its weight. Show more Factors to consider when choosing the best portable power station for camping: Power stations are a significant investment, but they can ultimately upgrade your camping experience to allow for power off-grid. Before making our top picks, we considered several factors.Weight: Bigger isn't always better, especially when it comes to camping. Will the portable power station be wheeled down a paved trail, or will you be moving it from your vehicle to your camp? Do you want something you could carry in a backpack for a day? Battery capacity: If you plan to power an RV or bigger devices from your power station, you want as much battery capacity as you can afford, but for off-grid adventures, it's important to bear in mind that there's a penalty here in the form of weight.Cost: Some units cost several thousand dollars, while others cost a couple hundred. Plus, add-ons like battery packs and solar panels also increase the price.Charging: How do you plan on charging your power station? Are you mostly going to use AC power from an outlet, or do you want the independence of solar?Battery Chemistry: Lithium-ion (Li-ion) is the traditional battery technology, but the newer lithium iron phosphate batteries (LiFePO4) are safer and have a much longer lifespan. Show more How did we test these portable power stations for camping? Over the past few years, we've tested well over 100 different portable power stations to find out which are the best of the best. To do this efficiently, because it takes days to do properly, we've developed a comprehensive testing structure. This not only ensures that manufacturers aren't playing fast and loose with their spec sheet data but also checks whether the units are safe and reliable. Here's an overview of how we test portable power stations.Unboxing and visual inspectionCapacity testsLoad testingUPS capability testingThermal testsSafety testsReal-world usageFor more detailed information on how these tests are carried out, check out this post, where we explore the process more thoroughly.  Show more FAQs on portable power stations How long will a power station last while camping based on its watts? To figure this out, you're going to need to get a pencil and do some back of the envelope calculations.  You're going to need a couple of bits of information.First, you need to know what devices you are going to power. List them all, because forgetting that coffee pot or heated blanket could make the difference between the power station lasting all day, or giving up the ghost on you before the day is over.Specifically, you want to know how much power, in watts, each device draws. This information is usually found on a label on the device. For example, a heater might draw 1,000W, while a CPAP machine might draw 60W. This figure represents the maximum power consumption, and you will find that the power consumption of some devices, such as CPAP machines, fluctuates greatly, while for other devices, like the heater, the power consumption remains quite stable.Next, you need to know how long you plan on running your devices during a day, or between recharges of your power station. Your heater might run for two hours, while the CPAP machine could run for eight hours.Power station capacities are measured in watt-hours (Wh). A device drawing 1,000W running for one hour uses 1,000Wh. Therefore, the same device running for two hours will need 2,000Wh. Heaters are some of the most power-hungry devices that people find themselves needing to run.Similarly, a CPAP machine that uses 60W will consume 60Wh per hour, so running it for eight hours would consume 480Wh.Your total energy usage over 24 hours would then be 2,480Wh.Based on this, you might think that a 2,500Wh capacity power station would be sufficient. However, in reality, nothing is perfect, and there are energy losses in the system. The rule of thumb is to add 20% to your total and then round up to the next highest capacity available. So, you'd be looking at a power station with a capacity of around 3,000Wh to ensure you have enough stored power for the day. Show more How can I make my power station run longer? Simple: Find your biggest power draws and replace them with more energy efficient alternatives. For example, you might find that you can replace that 1,000W heater with a heated throw that only takes 100W to power. That quilt would run for 10 hours on the power that the heater would use in an hour!Another big power hog is incandescent lights. Swapping these out for LEDs will result in huge power savings and dramatically boost your power station's runtime.   Show more What is the difference between a power station and a power bank? The main difference between portable power stations and portable power banks is the amount of power and what they can charge. Power stations have AC outlets and allow you to charge more and bigger devices, including life-saving ones like a CPAP machine, a cooler, or a floodlight for the campsite while going off-grid.Power banks are much smaller and are best for charging devices like phones, headphones, and smartwatches.  Show more Other portable power stations we've tested Further ZDNET Tech Coverage Smartphones Smartwatches Tablets Laptops TVs Other Tech Resources ZDNET Recommends

Google's reckoning Google and DOJ tussle over how AI will remake the web in antitrust closing arguments Google and the DOJ get one last chance to make their cases. Ryan Whitwam – May 30, 2025 5:40 pm | 15 Credit: Ryan Whitwam Credit: Ryan Whitwam Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more From its humble beginnings in the late 20th century, Google has come to dominate online searches, putting it squarely in the US government's antitrust crosshairs. The ongoing search antitrust case threatens to upend Google's dominance, giving smaller players a chance to thrive and possibly wiping others out. After wrapping up testimony in the case earlier this month, lawyers for Google and the Department of Justice have now made their closing arguments. The DOJ won the initial trial, securing a ruling that Google used anticompetitive practices to maintain its monopoly in general search. During the time this case has taken to meander its way through the legal system, the online landscape has been radically altered, making it harder than ever to envision a post-Google Internet. To address Google's monopoly, the DOJ is asking United States District Judge Amit Mehta to impose limits on Google's business dealings and order a divestment of the Chrome browser. Forcing the sale of Chrome would be a major penalty and a coup for the DOJ lawyers, but this issue has been overshadowed somewhat as the case drags on. During closing arguments, the two sides dueled over how Google's search deals and the rise of AI could change the Internet as we know it. Collateral damage This case has examined the myriad ways Google used its influence and money to suppress competition. One of the DOJ's main targets is the placement deals Google signs with companies like Apple and Mozilla to be the default search provider. Google has contended that people can change the defaults anytime they wish, but the DOJ produced evidence at trial that almost no one does, and Google knows that. During closing arguments,  Mehta asked both sides about testimony from a Mozilla executive alleging that losing the Google search deal could destroy the company. Similarly, Apple's Eddie Cue said he loses sleep over the possibility of losing the Google revenue—unsurprising as the arrangement is believed to net the company $20 billion per year. Should Firefox die to teach Google a lesson? Credit: Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle Should Firefox die to teach Google a lesson? Credit: Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle The DOJ's David Dahlquist admitted that there could be some "private impact" but contended Apple and Mozilla are overestimating the risk. Mehta didn't seem totally satisfied with the government's position, noting that he didn't want to damage other markets in an effort to fix search. Google's counsel also went after the government on the privacy front. One of the DOJ's proposed remedies would require Google to license its search index and algorithm, which CEO Sundar Pichai claimed was no better than a spinoff of Google's core product. Google also claims that forcing it to license search would put everyone's privacy at risk because it has a vast amount of user data that fuels search. Google attorney John Schmidtlein said the DOJ's treatment of user privacy in the remedies was a "complete failure." Mehta questioned the government lawyers pointedly on the issue of privacy, which he noted was barely addressed in the remedy filings. The DOJ's Adam Severt suggested an independent committee would have to be empaneled to decide how to handle Google's user data, but he was vague on how long such a process could take. Google's team didn't like this idea at all. Case may hinge on AI During testimony in early May, Mehta commented that the role AI plays in the trial had evolved very quickly. In 2023, everyone in his courtroom agreed that the impact of AI on search was still years away, and that's definitely not the case now. That same thread is present in closing arguments. Mehta asked the DOJ's Dahlquist if someone new was just going to "come off the sidelines" and build a new link-based search product, given  the developments with AI. Dahlquist didn't answer directly, noting that although generative AI products didn't exist at the time covered by the antitrust action, they would be key to search going forward. Google certainly believes the AI future is already here—it has gone all-in with AI search over the past year. At the same time, Google is seeking to set itself apart from AI upstarts. "Generative AI companies are not trying to out-Google Google," said Schmidtlein. Google's team contends that its actions have not harmed any AI products like ChatGPT or Perplexity, and at any rate, they are not in the search market as defined by the court. Mehta mused about the future of search, suggesting we may have to rethink what a general search engine is in 2025. "Maybe people don’t want 10 blue links anymore," he said. The Chromium problem and an elegant solution At times during the case, Mehta has expressed skepticism about the divestment of Chrome. During closing arguments, Dahlquist reiterated the close relationship between search and browsers, reminding the court that 35 percent of Google's search volume comes from Chrome. Mehta now seems more receptive to a Chrome split than before, perhaps in part because the effects of the other remedies are becoming so murky. He called the Chrome divestment "less speculative" and "more elegant" than the data and placement remedies. Google again claimed, as it has throughout the remedy phase, that forcing it to give up Chrome is unsupported in the law and that Chrome's dominance is a result of innovation. Even if Mehta leans toward ordering this remedy, Chromium may be a sticking point. The judge seems unconvinced that the supposed buyers—a group which apparently includes almost every major tech firm—have the scale and expertise needed to maintain Chromium. This open source project forms the foundation of many other browsers, making its continued smooth operation critical to the web. If Google gives up Chrome, Chromium goes with it, but what about the people who maintain it? The DOJ contends that it's common for employees to come along with an acquisition, but that's far from certain. There was some discussion of ensuring a buyer could commit to hiring staff to maintain Chromium. The DOJ suggests Google could be ordered to provide financial incentives to ensure critical roles are filled, but that sounds potentially messy. A Chrome sale seems more likely now than it did earlier, but nothing is assured yet. Following the final arguments from each side, it's up to Mehta to mull over the facts before deciding Google's fate. That's expected to happen in August, but nothing will change for Google right away. The company has already confirmed it will appeal the case, hoping to have the original ruling overturned. It could still be years before this case reaches its ultimate conclusion. Ryan Whitwam Senior Technology Reporter Ryan Whitwam Senior Technology Reporter Ryan Whitwam is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering the ways Google, AI, and mobile technology continue to change the world. Over his 20-year career, he's written for Android Police, ExtremeTech, Wirecutter, NY Times, and more. He has reviewed more phones than most people will ever own. You can follow him on Bluesky, where you will see photos of his dozens of mechanical keyboards. 15 Comments

Reasoning tasks are a fundamental aspect of artificial intelligence, encompassing areas like commonsense understanding, mathematical problem-solving, and symbolic reasoning. These tasks often involve multiple steps of logical inference, which large language models (LLMs) attempt to mimic through structured approaches such as chain-of-thought (CoT) prompting. However, as LLMs grow in size and complexity, they tend to produce longer outputs across all tasks, regardless of difficulty, leading to significant inefficiencies. The field has been striving to balance the depth of reasoning with computational cost while also ensuring that models can adapt their reasoning strategies to meet the unique needs of each problem. A key issue with current reasoning models is the inability to tailor the reasoning process to different task complexities. Most models, including well-known ones like OpenAI’s o1 and DeepSeek-R1, apply a uniform strategy—typically relying on Long CoT across all tasks. This causes the “overthinking” problem, where models generate unnecessarily verbose explanations for simpler tasks. Not only does this waste resources, but it also degrades accuracy, as excessive reasoning can introduce irrelevant information. Approaches such as prompt-guided generation or token budget estimation have attempted to mitigate this issue. Still, these methods are limited by their dependence on predefined assumptions, which are not always reliable for diverse tasks. Attempts to address these issues include methods like GRPO (Group Relative Policy Optimization), length-penalty mechanisms, and rule-based prompt controls. While GRPO enables models to learn different reasoning strategies by rewarding correct answers, it leads to a “format collapse,” where models increasingly rely on Long CoT, crowding out more efficient formats, such as Short CoT or Direct Answer. Length-penalty techniques, such as those applied in methods like THINKPRUNE, control output length during training or inference, but often at the cost of reduced accuracy, especially in complex problem-solving tasks. These solutions struggle to achieve a consistent trade-off between reasoning effectiveness and efficiency, highlighting the need for an adaptive approach. A team of researchers from Fudan University and Ohio State University introduced the Adaptive Reasoning Model (ARM), which dynamically adjusts reasoning formats based on task difficulty. ARM supports four distinct reasoning styles: Direct Answer for simple tasks, Short CoT for concise reasoning, Code for structured problem-solving, and Long CoT for deep multi-step reasoning. It operates in an Adaptive Mode by default, automatically selecting the appropriate format, and also provides Instruction-Guided and Consensus-Guided Modes for explicit control or aggregation across formats. The key innovation lies in its training process, which utilizes Ada-GRPO, an extension of GRPO that introduces a format diversity reward mechanism. This prevents the dominance of Long CoT and ensures that ARM continues to explore and use simpler reasoning formats when appropriate. The ARM methodology is built on a two-stage framework. First, the model undergoes Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT) with 10.8K questions, each annotated across four reasoning formats, sourced from datasets like AQuA-Rat and generated with tools such as GPT-4o and DeepSeek-R1. This stage teaches the model the structure of each reasoning format but does not instill adaptiveness. The second stage applies Ada-GRPO, where the model receives scaled rewards for using less frequent formats, such as Direct Answer or Short CoT. A decaying factor ensures that this reward gradually shifts back to accuracy as training progresses, preventing long-term bias toward inefficient exploration. This structure enables ARM to avoid format collapse and dynamically match reasoning strategies to task difficulty, achieving a balance of efficiency and performance. ARM demonstrated impressive results across various benchmarks, including commonsense, mathematical, and symbolic reasoning tasks. It reduced token usage by an average of 30%, with reductions as high as 70% for simpler tasks, compared to models relying solely on Long CoT. ARM achieved a 2x training speedup over GRPO-based models, accelerating model development without sacrificing accuracy. For example, ARM-7B achieved 75.9% accuracy on the challenging AIME’25 task while using 32.5% fewer tokens. ARM-14B achieved 85.6% accuracy on OpenBookQA and 86.4% accuracy on the MATH dataset, with a token usage reduction of over 30% compared to Qwen2.5SFT+GRPO models. These numbers demonstrate ARM’s ability to maintain competitive performance while delivering significant efficiency gains. Overall, the Adaptive Reasoning Model addresses the persistent inefficiency of reasoning models by enabling the adaptive selection of reasoning formats based on task difficulty. The introduction of Ada-GRPO and the multi-format training framework ensures that models no longer waste resources on overthinking. Instead, ARM provides a flexible and practical solution for balancing accuracy and computational cost in reasoning tasks, making it a promising approach for scalable and efficient large language models. Check out the Paper, Models on Hugging Face and Project Page. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also, feel free to follow us on Twitter and don’t forget to join our 95k+ ML SubReddit and Subscribe to our Newsletter. NikhilNikhil is an intern consultant at Marktechpost. He is pursuing an integrated dual degree in Materials at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Nikhil is an AI/ML enthusiast who is always researching applications in fields like biomaterials and biomedical science. With a strong background in Material Science, he is exploring new advancements and creating opportunities to contribute.Nikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/This AI Paper Introduces WEB-SHEPHERD: A Process Reward Model for Web Agents with 40K Dataset and 10× Cost EfficiencyNikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/This AI Paper Introduces MMaDA: A Unified Multimodal Diffusion Model for Textual Reasoning, Visual Understanding, and Image GenerationNikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/This AI Paper Introduces Differentiable MCMC Layers: A New AI Framework for Learning with Inexact Combinatorial Solvers in Neural NetworksNikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/This AI Paper Introduces GRIT: A Method for Teaching MLLMs to Reason with Images by Interleaving Text and Visual Grounding

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Update 1.2.18 was huge for The First Descendant. It added the fanbase’s favourite new feature, jiggle physics, and it also added a new party finder system for public matchmaking. Because of it being newly introduced, Nexon have been “inspecting abusive gaming behavior” from between May 23rd to May 29th. The results of this crackdown on the TFD community have been revealed, and over 2,000 The First Descendant players have received penalties while over 50 players have received permanent bans. The First Descendant “Crackdown on Abusive Users” results Below are the results of Nexon’s “Crackdown on Abusive Users” following the release of the new public matchmaking system added on May 22nd. The results of this crackdown are from between May 23rd to the 29th: Creation, distribution, or use of unauthorized programs – Permanent game ban (36 users) Actions have been taken for creating, distributing, or using unauthorized programs Exploitation of all processes related to the Open Store – Permanent game ban (18 users) Actions were taken because of unfair gains by exploitation on store payment process. Detection of Unusual Gameplay Activity – **30-day restriction on game access (5 users) Unusual gameplay activity was detected, and actions have been taken in accordance with our operational policy. 3-day separate matchmaking penalty (2205 users) Notes The outcome of the crackdown on abusive users includes enforcement actions taken based on Descendant’s reports and monitoring. If you would like to vindicate yourself in relation to a claim on the exploitation of the Open Store’s payment process, please visit our official website > Customer Service > 1:1 Support and make your inquiry. If you would like to vindicate yourself in relation to a claim on the exploitation of the payment process through chargebacks, please contact the platform store where you made the payment. For more The First Descendant, we have a guide to the best skills and loadout for Viessa, along with the best skills, gear, and mods for the hugely popular Bunny. We also have a guide for Freyna along with fundamental tips for beginners. The First Descendant Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X Genre(s): Action, Adventure, RPG 5 VideoGamer Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

Nature, Published online: 29 May 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01637-4The COVID-19 pandemic showed the value of changing direction in research. It should be incentivized, encouraged and celebrated.

While large reasoning models (LRMs) have shown impressive capabilities in short-context reasoning through reinforcement learning (RL), these gains do not generalize well to long-context scenarios. Applications such as multi-document QA, research synthesis, and legal or financial analysis require models to process and reason over sequences exceeding 100K tokens. However, RL optimization in such regimes is plagued by slower reward convergence, unstable policy updates due to KL divergence fluctuations, and reduced exploration resulting from entropy collapse. These bottlenecks reveal a fundamental gap in transitioning LRMs from short-context proficiency to long-context generalization. QwenLong-L1: A Structured RL Framework for Long-Context Adaptation To address these limitations, the Qwen Research team introduces QwenLong-L1, a novel RL framework designed to adapt LRMs to long-context reasoning tasks. The framework is structured into three key stages: Warm-up Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT): Provides a stable initialization for the policy model by training on curated question-context-answer triplets, ensuring basic competence in contextual comprehension and answer extraction. Curriculum-Guided Phased Reinforcement Learning: Introduces a staged training process with gradually increasing context lengths. This progression enables the model to incrementally acquire long-context reasoning behaviors without destabilizing policy updates. Difficulty-Aware Retrospective Sampling: Enhances exploration by maintaining and reusing hard examples from previous phases, weighted by their difficulty, to encourage deeper reasoning and robustness across diverse inputs. These stages are complemented by hybrid reward mechanisms—combining rule-based exact match verification with semantic evaluation by a lightweight LLM—ensuring both precision and recall during policy training. Technical Design and Methodological Advantages QwenLong-L1 integrates recent advances in group-relative RL optimization, specifically GRPO and DAPO, to mitigate the computational overhead associated with long-context value estimation: GRPO estimates advantage by normalizing rewards within sampled groups, eliminating the need for a separate value network and encouraging diverse generation patterns. DAPO incorporates mechanisms such as dynamic sampling, overlength penalty shaping, and asymmetric clipping thresholds to prevent entropy collapse and mitigate length biases during training. The reward function is defined as the maximum of two signals: a deterministic rule-based match and a semantic judgment from a compact evaluator model (e.g., Qwen2.5-1.5B). This hybrid approach avoids overfitting to rigid formats while maintaining answer correctness across varied notations and phrasings. Moreover, the framework is optimized via progressive context scaling, where the RL process transitions from 20K-token to 60K-token input lengths in controlled phases, stabilizing training dynamics and facilitating policy generalization. Experimental Results and Benchmark Performance QwenLong-L1 was evaluated on seven long-context document QA benchmarks, including DocMath, Frames, 2WikiMultihopQA, HotpotQA, Musique, NarrativeQA, and Qasper. The 32B variant, QwenLong-L1-32B, demonstrated strong empirical performance: It outperformed baseline models such as R1-Distill-Qwen-32B by 5.1 points and exceeded leading proprietary systems like OpenAI-o3-mini and Qwen3-235B-A22B. Its performance was comparable to Claude-3.7-Sonnet-Thinking, indicating competitive reasoning capabilities under extreme context lengths. Pass@K analysis revealed consistent improvements with increased sampling, achieving a Pass@2 average of 73.7, surpassing DeepSeek-R1 and OpenAI-o1-preview, even at low sampling rates. Ablation studies further validated the individual contributions of SFT, phased RL, and retrospective sampling. Notably, RL played a decisive role in enabling emergent reasoning behaviors such as grounding, subgoal setting, verification, and backtracking—traits not effectively induced by supervised fine-tuning alone. Conclusion QwenLong-L1 represents a systematic approach to equipping LRMs with robust long-context reasoning capabilities through reinforcement learning. Its design effectively bridges the gap between short-context expertise and the demands of information-dense environments by combining supervised initialization, curriculum-driven context scaling, and hybrid evaluation strategies. The framework not only achieves state-of-the-art results across long-context benchmarks but also demonstrates the emergence of interpretable reasoning patterns during training. Check out the Paper, Model on Hugging Face and GitHub Page. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also, feel free to follow us on Twitter and don’t forget to join our 95k+ ML SubReddit and Subscribe to our Newsletter. Asif RazzaqWebsite |  + postsBioAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. The platform boasts of over 2 million monthly views, illustrating its popularity among audiences.Asif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/NVIDIA Releases Llama Nemotron Nano 4B: An Efficient Open Reasoning Model Optimized for Edge AI and Scientific TasksAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/A Coding Implementation to Build an AI Agent with Live Python Execution and Automated ValidationAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/Step-by-Step Guide to Build a Customizable Multi-Tool AI Agent with LangGraph and Claude for Dynamic Agent CreationAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/A Comprehensive Coding Guide to Crafting Advanced Round-Robin Multi-Agent Workflows with Microsoft AutoGen

Slayven Never read a comic in his life Moderator Oct 25, 2017 102,422 View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5lq4Q7YAjE The Asus ROG Ally handheld gaming PC is real, not an April Fools’ joke No fooling — but no specs or price, either. www.theverge.com The ROG Ally has a seven-inch 16:9 display with 1920 x 1080 resolution, 500 nits of brightness, and a 120HZ refresh rate, compared to the Steam Deck specs, which are listed as a seven-inch 16:10 display at 1280 x 800 resolution, 400 nits of brightness, and a 60Hz refresh rate. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I want more of these, but they need to think about adding alternative control interfaces built into the system. Maybenot a whole touch pad but maybe a nipple and some back buttons. Plus it is is ROG, you know it will cost 2 souls and a leg Dave2d Handheld View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drLZxyv79Oo  Deleted member 93062 Account closed at user request Banned Mar 4, 2021 24,767 Seems like it'll be pricey as hell but I do like that it has a 16:9 display, Windows with good looking dashboard for all your launchers, and how quiet it is. I just want that eGPU connector, or something similar to it, on the next Steam Deck.   nsilvias Member Oct 25, 2017 30,169 >1080p rip battery life  Dangerman1337 Member Jul 2, 2021 3,187 United Kingdom, The Wirral, Hoylake Sullivan said: Seems like it'll be pricey as hell but I do like that it has a 16:9 display, Windows with good looking dashboard for all your launchers, and how quiet it is. I just want that eGPU connector, or something similar to it, on the next Steam Deck. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Dave2D says it's apparently very appealing price point. However my biggest question is the release date because we keep seeing these handhelds with no release dates and being kept shown at performance expos all the time. Sick and tired of that nonsense.  Deleted member 93062 Account closed at user request Banned Mar 4, 2021 24,767 nsilvias said: >1080p rip battery life Click to expand... Click to shrink... >1080p >120hz >500nits  OP OP Slayven Never read a comic in his life Moderator Oct 25, 2017 102,422 nsilvias said: >1080p rip battery life Click to expand... Click to shrink... 80s kids know   Deleted member 93062 Account closed at user request Banned Mar 4, 2021 24,767 Dangerman1337 said: Dave2D says it's apparently very appealing price point. However my biggest question is the release date because we keep seeing these handhelds with no release dates and being kept shown at performance expos all the time. Sick and tired of that nonsense. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Dave doesn't know the price point. He's just assuming because they said it would be available at Best Buy and that they don't do low volume products so ASUS expects it to sell well, which means it likely has an appealing price point. I don't know though...   jack. Member Oct 27, 2017 1,357 I'd rather have 720p and that d-pad looks like ass but otherwise, this thing seems like it could be pretty good.   OP OP Slayven Never read a comic in his life Moderator Oct 25, 2017 102,422 Dangerman1337 said: Dave2D says it's apparently very appealing price point. However my biggest question is the release date because we keep seeing these handhelds with no release dates and being kept shown at performance expos all the time. Sick and tired of that nonsense. Click to expand... Click to shrink... In the time you you typed this post 3 more models of the Aya neo has been announced   AuthenticM Son Altesse Sérénissime The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 35,186 I didn't know that ROG was an initialism. I've always pronounced it like an acronym. So I can install my GOG games on this?  Dangerman1337 Member Jul 2, 2021 3,187 United Kingdom, The Wirral, Hoylake Sullivan said: Dave doesn't know the price point. He's just assuming because they said it would be available at Best Buy and that they don't do low volume products so ASUS expects it to sell well, which means it likely has an appealing price point. I don't know though... Click to expand... Click to shrink... Asus apparently told Dave it. Slayven said: In the time you you typed this post 3 more models of the Aya neo has been announced Click to expand... Click to shrink... Heh :p.   Koukalaka Member Oct 28, 2017 10,405 Scotland 1080p and 120Hz just don't make sense on a gaming-focused handheld.   Biosnake Member Oct 25, 2017 14,335 show me more   Radogol Member Nov 9, 2017 384 So that's nine As?   OP OP Slayven Never read a comic in his life Moderator Oct 25, 2017 102,422 Koukalaka said: 1080p and 120Hz just don't make sense on a gaming-focused handheld. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Sounds like the stats for a endurance battery tester   Dinjoralo Member Oct 25, 2017 11,729 Windows, ick. I've used Armoury Crate enough on my PC to know that the software side of things, at least what's pre-installed on the device, is going to be ass. I don't get why everyone seems to hate the Deck having an 800p screen. That's turned out to be a lifesaver for me in some games with weird resolutions that can't scale to 720p or 1080p well, like Rainworld.  Busaiku Teyvat Traveler Member Oct 25, 2017 17,947 Ya, nothing matters until we know about battery and price.   neoak Member Oct 25, 2017 16,877 However, in our experience, they've relied on an AMD 6800U chipset instead of a custom design and generally lack the right combination of horsepower and efficiency that we want to see from handheld gaming machines. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I swear the Verge reporter doesn't understand how crippled is the Steam Deck CPU for having 4 cores only when CPU matters a ton more in low resolutions. AMD doesn't do custom unless you are going to buy millions, but then again, it's the iVerge.  neoak Member Oct 25, 2017 16,877 Koukalaka said: 1080p and 120Hz just don't make sense on a gaming-focused handheld. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I'd argue not in phones either but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ And you are right, it's hard to get more than 60fps in recent titles even on 6800U with 45W TDP  Haloid1177 Member Oct 25, 2017 4,847 Dinjoralo said: Windows, ick. I've used Armoury Crate enough on my PC to know that the software side of things, at least what's pre-installed on the device, is going to be ass. I don't get why everyone seems to hate the Deck having an 800p screen. That's turned out to be a lifesaver for me in some games with weird resolutions that can't scale to 720p or 1080p well, like Rainworld. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Armoury Crate is a mess of a software but I will give it credit that it causes me way less issues than iCUE or the Lian Li fan/RGB controller.  OP OP Slayven Never read a comic in his life Moderator Oct 25, 2017 102,422 Dinjoralo said: Windows, ick. I've used Armoury Crate enough on my PC to know that the software side of things, at least what's pre-installed on the device, is going to be ass. I don't get why everyone seems to hate the Deck having an 800p screen. That's turned out to be a lifesaver for me in some games with weird resolutions that can't scale to 720p or 1080p well, like Rainworld. Click to expand... Click to shrink... You also squeeze out a bit more performance by turning down bigger games   Biosnake Member Oct 25, 2017 14,335 Keyser S The Fallen Oct 26, 2017 8,480 Do I pronounce this like Broccoli   neoak Member Oct 25, 2017 16,877 Keyser S said: Do I pronounce this like Broccoli Click to expand... Click to shrink... ROG is supposed to be spelled R.O.G.   cgpartlow Member Oct 27, 2017 3,476 Seattle, WA I prefer asymmetrical sticks on my controllers, but on handhelds where the sides are vertical straight up and down, they should not be offset due to where your thumbs land. The switch cramps my hand having to contort my thumb and rotate my hand to hit the sticks. It is better with and ergonomic attachment but it is not the most convenient.   bbg_g Member Jun 21, 2020 835 Looks interesting and I might bite depending on battery life and price. I'm a bit lukewarm on the steamdeck and still waiting to see what comes next.   Neoxon Spotlighting Black Excellence - Diversity Analyst Member Oct 25, 2017 93,547 Houston, TX Does this have a gyroscope like the Deck?   Mashing Member Oct 28, 2017 3,411 Haloid1177 said: Armoury Crate is a mess of a software but I will give it credit that it causes me way less issues than iCUE or the Lian Li fan/RGB controller. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I had to disable iCUE as it kept waking up my PC from power saving. I never really used it anyway so no big loss.  neoak Member Oct 25, 2017 16,877 ROG XG Mobile eGPU? That's interesting, seeing as Oculink on the Win Max 2 allows you to have only a 10% performance penalty vs a full desktop for external using PCIe Gen4 x4. This will make it interesting. Unfortunately Destiny 2 sucks ass on anything less than 10" >.<  Atolm Member Oct 25, 2017 6,154 120hz is actually great for games like Hollow Knight or Fight N Rage   BennyWhatever Member Oct 27, 2017 5,504 US Happy to eat crow on this, but I'd be very surprised if the starter model of this is < $800. Most of these handheld Windows devices are $1k+.   Cats_Schrodinger Member Oct 29, 2017 4,050 If the 120Hz display is VRR , that's a gamechanger. Framerates lower than 60 will benefit immensely. The Deck needs this too.   neoak Member Oct 25, 2017 16,877 Atolm said: 120hz is actually great for games like Hollow Knight or Fight N Rage Click to expand... Click to shrink... Actually, hadn't considered that. Very valid point.   Qwark Member Oct 27, 2017 10,263 I'm always down for more high-performance handhelds, that d-pad looks squishy as hell though. Lmao at the actor casually pulling the handheld out of his jacket pocket, those are some big pockets.  AmFreak Member Oct 26, 2017 3,220 It's like all these companies that are big enough to somewhat compete saw the Deck success and then made hand held. Logitech launches a $350 cloud one, Razer launches a $400 ARM one a year after the Deck and now Asus seems to think they have to one up the Deck everywhere (power, resolution, screen, OS) and will result in pricing themselves out of the market.   Charpunk Member Oct 25, 2017 12,555 Performance and cost will be interesting. Lack of touchpads is a bummer as that has been a great feature for the deck for me.   SaberVS7 Member Oct 25, 2017 6,750 Everyone's minds when they're playing AAAAAAAAA games on the handheld of the future   neoak Member Oct 25, 2017 16,877 Qwark said: I'm always down for more high-performance handhelds, that d-pad looks squishy as hell though. Lmao at the actor casually pulling the handheld out of his jacket pocket, those are some big pockets. Click to expand... Click to shrink... They had to one up this View: https://twitter.com/softwincn/status/1636605890429337600   topplehat Member Oct 27, 2017 1,083 Austin, TX These feel like a bunch of specs thrown at a wall - a screen like that will chew up battery in no time, and the hardware won't be there to back it up. This is what I really appreciated about the Steam Deck - it seemed thought out and that all the hardware was designed for a certain performance level.  Jon of the Wired Member Oct 25, 2017 397 It's good to see more products in this space, but I'm just never going to buy a PC handheld that doesn't have touchpads. It's frustrating that only Valve is making a handheld that can actually play the games I want to play.   Kline AVALANCHE Member Sep 15, 2022 524 Will come down to price of course. There's countless Windows handhelds around these days - many objectively better than the Deck, but none that can match it's price point. On that note, yes the 1080p screen is appealing for a handheld. I have a Deck, but I expressly use my Ayn Odin Lite for things like Game Pass, GFN, or even watching anime, because it can push double the pixels with ease. Then again, it's Android so it has battery for days.  Remeran Member Nov 27, 2018 4,129 Oh windows based, that mean native gamepass gaming? Hmm that might be interesting.   Pocky4Th3Win Member Oct 31, 2017 5,425 Minnesota I hope they support Steam OS as an alternative to Windows 11.   Deleted member 93062 Account closed at user request Banned Mar 4, 2021 24,767 Pocky4Th3Win said: I hope they support Steam OS as an alternative to Windows 11. Click to expand... Click to shrink... You could install SteamOS on it if you wanted I imagine.   DjDeathCool Member Oct 28, 2017 2,869 Bismarck, ND Koukalaka said: 1080p and 120Hz just don't make sense on a gaming-focused handheld. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I always want 120hz on any device that is capable of streaming gameplay. Moonlight at 120hz is *chef's kiss* neoak said: I'd argue not in phones either but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Click to expand... Click to shrink... General usage (scrolling) on a 120hz display feels much much nicer. It's one of those things you get used to and don't realize how nice it is until it's gone. It's not about gameplay. Lol.   Ada Member Nov 28, 2017 4,164 bad ergonomics - shallow grip, menu buttons out of reach. Single USB port! rocker dpad - why copy the 360s terrible dpad dual fans plus higher refresh/resolution/brightness screen - huge battery drain Windows instead of SteamOS - no suspend + license fee DOA   neoak Member Oct 25, 2017 16,877 DjDeathCool said: General usage (scrolling) on a 120hz display feels much much nicer. It's one of those things you get used to and don't realize how nice it is until it's gone. It's not about gameplay. Lol. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It's about battery life man. Never said it wasn't nice.   Tsunami561 Member Mar 7, 2023 5,383 This sounds like one of those other handhelds that are on paper way more powerfull than the deck but then is twice the price and the user experience sucks   toy_brain Member Nov 1, 2017 2,598 Looks interesting, and I'm always happy to see new entrants into this space, as it gives people more options. Specifically, if they are selling this in B&M retail stores, it'll open the market to people who aren't comfortable ordering a Steam Deck (for whatever reason), or getting a Chinese/HK manufactured device of unknown quality. (I have a GPD device and think its awesome) The resolution and refresh rates sound "ambitious", but if it's anything like the GPD I have, you'll be able to knock the refresh rate down to 40hz, and do the usual FSR resolution scaling to save on performance. I'd be surprised if a demanding game lasted more than 2 hours on a single charge though - that just seems to be the norm with the current tech, but its enough for a commute, or a long train journey if you are happy playing 2D stuff. As for it using windows, ehhh, It's the easiest way forward right now. Yes it takes a while to boot or come out of standby compared to SteamOS, and the UI kinda sucks on a small screen, but it has zero compatibility issues and allows every current launcher straight out of the box, so you get every advantage of a full PC with only a couple minor downsides. My only negative with what I've seen so far, is the size. It's only a shave smaller than the Steam Deck, which is already a chunky bugger. I'd have liked it to be more like the GPD Win 4. Oh well.  DjDeathCool Member Oct 28, 2017 2,869 Bismarck, ND neoak said: It's about battery life man. Never said it wasn't nice. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Adaptive refresh rate solves that issue and you can cap it if you don't like the energy cost. At least on mobiles, and assumedly for this device as well since you can do the same on Deck.  

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In a reaction to newly announced tariffs that initially appeared to target Apple's iPhone, California's Attorney General Rob Bonta said he would consider taking the Trump administration to court.Apple plans to reduce its tariff penalty on iPhones by making more of them in IndiaIn his initial announcement, President Trump appeared to be singling out Apple, saying that the company should make all of its iPhones in the US rather than in other countries. He said that Apple would pay a 25 percent tariff on iPhones made in India."The statement about Apple is something that is obviously disappointing," Bonta said in a statement first reported by Politico. "It's almost like [Trump] wakes up in the morning and he says, Hey, I think Apple should build more Apple phones, and so maybe I'll tell their CEO that he should do that.' And then maybe tomorrow, he wakes up and he says, Hey, I was just kidding.'" Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums