Last year, President Biden took credit for Microsoft pivoting to support Right to Repair.
No matter who deserves the credit, announcements like the one today and several others in Microsoft’s recent history show that they are committed to helping consumers repair their devices.
In the iFixit announcement, they focus on their expanded ability to assist their customers in repairing 15 Surface devices.
You can visit the post to get a link to each device on the iFixit site, or head directly to Microsoft’s Repair Hub for more help.
As Microsoft pairs with more of their Authorized Service Providers to distribute official OEM parts to repair their outstanding Surface products and other hardware they may have planned in the future, they become a more trusted and dependable company for customers to invest in.
With Satya Nadella’s recent comments on how canceling the Windows Phone was a mistake, maybe we will see it make a come-back with repairability in mind, leading the mobile segment in this consumer-first approach to technology devices.
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Embracing the sustainable… sounds good Tablets especially have no reason to not be easy to take apart they shouldn’t be a device consumers expect high IPX ratings for and their tasks can make them viable for a long time. I just went from 0-2 iPads a 2 and a first gen air, the air has a dodgy battery and the ifixit guide has about 80 steps! But both function fine in 2023 apart from the by design obsolescence.
I’m still on the Go 1 waiting for a 512gb version ;-). It’s probably not what you want as a daily driver. For me it’s something I use in meetings and on airplanes when I travel. For that it’s perfect.
That’s mostly what I used my pro 7 for, but even that it struggled with. With nothing else running doing RDP I get 2-3 hours of battery life which is just awful. And if I try to do widi or just about anything at all on the screen I get closer to an hour of battery life until the throttling sets in and it’s unusable. Thank god the pro 8 added a fan for all models.
Battery life is much better on the go I think. Even on my old model, if I turn off wifi and turn down the brightness I can take notes all day. On full brightness with no Wi-Fi I can watch videos for like 4-6 hours on the plane. But when I have Wi-Fi or LTE enabled, it’s probably only 3 hours. I’m sure a new one would improve that by 50% or so. But you don’t want to have more than 2-3 apps open at a time, and you wanna use Firefox instead of Chrome.
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Click here to see the summaryIn a significant development for Xbox users, the era of tinkering with your console to use unapproved accessories is drawing to a close. I asked for a photo of the controller, and I’m not surprised it didn’t work, given the included adapter looks like something you get for free at the bottom of a box of cereal. we have received player feedback concerning these products when used on Xbox consoles (the latest OS version 10.0.25398.2266. released on 10/16) during online gameplay. Brook Gaming’s statement highlights a series of issues that have been plaguing third-party, unlicensed accessories, particularly since the rollout of console build 10.0.25398.2266, which was released on October 16. As of right now, we haven’t seen any evidence that these types of accessories will be affected by the recent changes since Xbox has historically been unable to detect them, but we’re investigating. Our sources indicate that Microsoft is lifting restrictions on the ability for third-party hardware manufacturers to build wireless accessories for Xbox Series X|S devices. — Saved 84% of original text.
I’ve never been one to play competitive online games since I have the hand/ eye coordination of a house plant, so I can’t weigh in on the advantages of blocking controllers that are “unfair”; but as someone who hated button mashing “A” in Animal Crossing, I can say that custom controllers can definitely have a place with a console.
In my opinion, this feels like Microsoft simply wanted more licensing money and is doing it under the guise of fair online play. It reminds me of Apple locking faster charging and data transfer on USB-C to their own proprietary USB cables.
Hopefully this does not negatively affect too many people.
The unfair advantage argument definitely holds water, mouse and keyboard can be like a sports car racing against a bicycle. But if someone had the budget to tackle this issue through software, it would be Microsoft. So I’m inclined to agree that it’s mostly just MS squeezing money out of third party manufacturers.
If they’d care only about the “unfair”, they’d put a fair, almost free, price on the official license that covers the cost of testing or whatever. Truth presumably here is also a bit more complicated, maybe third party controllers could be easier to hack resulting in an ineffective licensing system, idk. But yeah smells like money for Microsoft and a loss for consumers.
Wouldn’t the unfair advantage only hold water if they blocked unauthorized accessories only with online multi-player games and leave single-player experiences alone?
All HID input devices have identifiers that they communicate to the host to determine their functions. I guess you could potentially make a device that appears to be a controller and translates keyboard/mouse with a couple USB inputs. You could probably get a Pi to do that. But no one cares about winning on console that badly, they just go play on PC 🙄
Okay, then I’m going to default back to the fact that someone’s going to break the DRM and still make those devices, and this is only going to hurt people using accessible controllers.
You are probably right. Devices like these in the old days used to require you hook up an official controller to it to get past the drm. Likely will evolve back to that.
I guess you could potentially make a device that appears to be a controller and translates keyboard/mouse with a couple USB inputs
They control the console, the OS, the controller hardware, and can require the console to connect to them. They already have the ability to push out controller firmware updates. They can have the controller cryptographically authenticate to the console and push blacklists to the console of keys that get leaked (like if someone somehow extracts a key from a legit controller and uses it to make a knockoff).
One thing that kinda sprang to mind was accessible controllers. Ik Microsoft makes one and I’m sure there’s some approved but my thoughts are what if it doesn’t serve your needs
I wonder if QuadStick has approval. Specifically designed for people with minimal to no hand function, which their controller isn’t going to fucking work for.
I hope this isn’t Microsoft becoming more Apple-like. That said, if this leads to a restriction on the use of cheat-capable controller accessories such as the Chronos Zen then it could be a significant positive for FPS console gamers.
It reminds me of Apple locking faster charging and data transfer on USB-C to their own proprietary USB cables.
Are you sure of that? It was certainly rumoured before the release of the iPhone 15 Pro that Apple would require MFi cables for high speed data transfer but I don’t think that turned out to be true. As far as I can tell any high speed USB-C cable will allow full speed transfer from an IPhone 15 Pro. It might need to be a Thunderbolt 3 cable, especially for recording to external SSD, not sure, I’m no expert, but I don’t think it needs to be an MFi cable.
You’re correct about the specs of the device. However, after announcement/release there was controversy that the cable included in the box is only capable of USB 2.0 transfer speeds. But Marques Brownlee pointed out that the same is usually true with the included cable for Android devices too. I got a portable SSD to use with my iPad Pro and it just comes with a short high-speed cable anyway…
Edit: The included cable with the iPad is also only 2.0 speeds, even though it has a USB4 40Gbps port.
Do they realize this may be the only way some people can legally play the games? I can imagine lots of disabilities that only let people play with a niche controller
Microsoft makes some very good quality adaptive controller accessories. IMO that still doesn’t make this move OK, but at least disabled people still have a supported option.
100% it’s a total moneygrab.
At the detriment of those who struggle the most already - those who need special equipment, and those who can’t afford official ctrls.
I bet they also won’t approve controllers designed to work on other consoles/devices as well. Necessitating getting one accessibility controller for your xbox and one for everything else.
Likely this will target modded controller jigs like “Chronus”.
This is definitely due to them now owning Call of Duty where these fucking users are rampant and since it’s not software hacks, it could be done on consoles…at least until now
Same here. Ironically I’m using a bunch of original Xbox controllers on it. I just like the shape. whaddayagonnado microsoft? Your OS and your consoles are shit! You are the third party now!
Me too. And I even purchased the official proprietary dongle from Microsoft and play it wireless. Why not Bluetooth? I don't like Bluetooth, as I have bad experience with it in the past and would need a dongle for it anyway. Otherwise, the controller works very well with Steam and with non Steam emulators. Microsoft knows how to make good controllers, I give them that.
But on the other hand, I wonder how it is to have a PS5 controller. First, Sony has open source drivers for it and they are included in the Kernel I think (tag me wrong, if it's not true). Plus it has some features, which the Xbox controllers do not have. I'm very curious, but the prices for new controllers are so expensive!
Or just allow them always. It’s about the money, not about cheating. Also many games these days have cross play with PC anyways, where you can literally use a modified toaster as a controller if you want to lol.
the problem is that there are some really good devices on the market that essentially let players cheat in shooters, getting mouse-like input while retaining the game’s built-in aim assist features.
really the best compromise would be to let game developers decide whether unlicensed input devices can be used in their games (just like how they can choose whether to support m+kb). then shooters could impose reasonable restrictions without fucking over the fighting game community.
Microsoft sure loves blocking things from its game console nobody actually wants to use in the first place. Who exactly is going to want to buy a license to make video game controllers for the system that's last place in the console wars? Specialty controllers like the Neo-Geo click stick by 8BitDo are almost sure to be released for major formats, but NOT Xbox, if 8BitDo has to pay an extortionate fee for a license.
The 8BitDo stuff is what I had in mind as well. Everything I have from them has Xinput mode, and works great for PC Game Pass and Xcloud games. I was hoping that anything that supports Xinput would be available on the actual consoles, but walled garden.
Surely it will help them reclaim their spot as the de facto fighting game console in a scene where many people use unlicenced controllers with Brook boards.
Not really, just let the game devs chose when to request that the console enforces stricter verification of accessories and otherwise just allow whatever
But if someone wants to do an arcade controller, this changes almost nothing. Just solder the wires on the contact pads on an official Xbox controller. Impossible to detect via software
Even the turbo button can be done, with an intermediate IC that transforms the signal from the button to be intermittent
In a significant development for Xbox users, the era of tinkering with your console to use unapproved accessories is drawing to a close.
I asked for a photo of the controller, and I’m not surprised it didn’t work, given the included adapter looks like something you get for free at the bottom of a box of cereal.
we have received player feedback concerning these products when used on Xbox consoles (the latest OS version 10.0.25398.2266. released on 10/16) during online gameplay.
Brook Gaming’s statement highlights a series of issues that have been plaguing third-party, unlicensed accessories, particularly since the rollout of console build 10.0.25398.2266, which was released on October 16.
As of right now, we haven’t seen any evidence that these types of accessories will be affected by the recent changes since Xbox has historically been unable to detect them, but we’re investigating.
Our sources indicate that Microsoft is lifting restrictions on the ability for third-party hardware manufacturers to build wireless accessories for Xbox Series X|S devices.
The original article contains 1,026 words, the summary contains 167 words. Saved 84%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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