Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive has a demo available on Steam

 I just tried the new demo of Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive on my Steam Deck.

 I've never used a controller with the original game, so it wasn't the easiest to play. However, it worked very well for what it is/  I got through one dungeon battle somehow with a SSS at the end. 

The display only goes to 1280x720, so the graphics seemed okay and mostly, the text was legible.  The audio was in Japanese and that worked as well as it does on Windows. 

I'm feeling a bit enthusiastic that they've got it working for Steam Deck.  Maybe, they can get their other games working on Steam Deck, as well.  I've heard that you can play Genshin Impact on Steam Deck, but you can't load it through Steam and that is their interface, unless you go into Desktop Mode. 

Apple's Liquid Glass sounds like Aqua

 I want to like Apple.  I've been a Mac user since 1993.  I've had an iPhone since the iPhone 4S.  I had an iPod, albeit an HP version because it was on clearance for a good price with maximum storage.  They're doing good things with ARM-based System on a Chip designs.

 I didn't watch the WWDC keynote.  I looked at MacRumors here and there for relevant information.  Since Apple doesn't announce hardware at WWDC, it is interesting, but just.

They're introducing Liquid Glass to all operating systems.  It's what they've been using in VisionOS.  It reminds me of what they did with Aqua when Mac OS X was being created.  Every progress bar and button had a rhythm and they had depth.  The eye candy was tough on systems so they kept smashing it until they stopped using it.

Now, there are Apple Silicon SoCs that have enough power.  woohoo.  However, you can disable it in the beta test release.

For the record, I'd really appreciate if they took care of all the !@#$ bugs first.  The Adobe way of software development isn't critical.  Then again, the thin-is-everything design isn't either.  Adding new functionality before you get the previous functionality to a stable point is risky because there is a good chance that you'll never find the problems. 

They've introduced Foundation Models Framework, a set of APIs to allow access to Apple Intelligence (whatever that may comprise at the time) for integration into applications.  They're still not ready with Personalized Siri, but whatever.

I remember posting on MacRumors that I would wait for iOS 20.7.1 (I was running 16.7.1 at the time) for Apple Intelligence to be ready and working.  Now that they've flipped the numbers up to 26, I guess I can't get that.  What I thought would be three major releases later to be a safe, working release with AI.  We'll see if 28.7.1 will be safe.

Oh, macOS Tahoe is the last release for Intel-based hardware.  Maybe, they can clear out some of the crap and code more effectively for the next release.

Two Years with a refurbished M1 MacBook Air

 I am surprised that I've been using my loaded M1 MacBook Air for two years.

I bought a refurbished model because new models just seemed too expensive, if I wasn't satisfied.  I'd been using the last MacBook Pro that allowed you to change the RAM, the drive, and the battery.  It's a mid-2012 machine with a quad-core i7 and GeForce 650M.  That was powerful in 2012 and it's still usable today. I had an Omen by HP with a quad-core i7 7th generation and GeForce 1050M that wasn't that much quicker.

When I got the M1 MacBook Air started, I was shocked at how much faster the M1 SoC (System on a Chip) was over the 3rd generation quad-core i7.  Plus, it wasn't hot enough to boil water.  While editing video, my mid-2012 MacBook Pro would be at 100 degrees C.  The Intel-based MacBook Pro was great in winter.  The M1 MacBook Air was not a good heater at all.

With a 13.3 inch display, it's much smaller and lighter than the MacBook Pro with the 15.4 inch display, or even the plastic Omen by HP with 15.6 inch display.  One thing I don't understand is when I see someone complaining about how heavy the current MacBook Pro machines are.  Watching a video, someone mentioned carrying one with a Anker Power Bank, a camera, and a couple of other things in a backpack and how heavy it was.  When I was photographing at skate parks, I took a backpack with 3 camera bodies, 6 lenses, the mid-2012 MacBook Pro, and a few other things.  My friends seemed to struggle with it, but I just picked it up and moved, and I'm not strong.  So, how can these people making videos get through ordinary life?

 I have not used this machine outside of the house but I have used it on battery a few times and it's just as quick.  I've tried to use a gaming laptop on battery and it was incredibly bad.

I'm still waiting for a bunch of games to appear, games that I want to play.  During the PowerPC era, I found many games that I liked, such as Unreal Tournament and UT2004.  Back then, you had to have a desktop machine to play those and you had to have a decent graphics card.  I had an ATI XClaimVR.  Now, the simplest MacBook Air can play limited games.

Lately, I've been playing Wuthering Waves, Death Stranding, Lies of P.  They work fairly well, considering that the machine only has 8 graphics cores.  The new M4 MacBook Air is much more powerful and when a refurbished machine arrives, I might buy one.  The current new model is only US$50 more than I paid for this refurbished M1 MacBook Air.

Games are arriving slowly.  I'm just surprised that it's been almost five years since the M1 and there are still developers unwilling to flip the Apple Silicon switch to enabled and figure out what makes their software run best.  The Intel-based Macs aren't going to last forever.  Rosetta 2 has been good, but it only runs 64-bit x86 code.

My Affinity Designer 2, Photo 2, and Publisher 2 are Apple Silicon applications.  They run really well.  Capture One Pro 22 is a Universal application as well. Dropbox is not, but Evernote is.  Steam and GOG Galaxy are not.  I'm not surprised that Steam is not being updated.  Apple and Valve do not get along.  Apple could have worked with Valve on making Proton part of macOS, but noooooooo.  Every so often, Apple says that they like games, they throw some technology and money at it and two years later, they haven't updated it.  Valve has updated their games and left the Mac versions to rot.  I still buy games on Steam and occasionally, there are Mac versions.

If you haven't tried the Heroic Games Launcher, you should.  It's an Apple Silicon application and connected to GOG and Epic.  It's certainly better than the game launchers from GOG and Epic Games, which are both Intel applications.

GeForce Now is another way to get your game fix but you need to buy a subscription to get to play quickly and not wait for hours for your game to be available.

I have a Steam Deck and sometimes, that is the easiest way to play.  You don't have any distractions.  I paid the US$649 for the top LCD device and it works well, but with the OLED models having a processor built on a more efficient process, they're somewhat better.  There is better performance in the 2nd generation Lenovo Legion Go S model that runs SteamOS but it's HUGE for a handheld.

Back to Mac every day, there isn't much that the M1 MacBook Air can't do and the M4 MacBook Air makes that gap of things it cannot do much smaller.  Given what I've seen in videos lately, the M4 machines, even base machines, are very powerful.  I wouldn't buy a machine with 256 GB of storage.  I'm still struggling with 1 TB but I try to do everything with my machine.

 If there is one problem with the M1 MacBook Air, that has been rectified with the M3 and and M4 MacBook Air, it's that there are only two type-C USB ports and one has to be used for power input.  I could use a USB or Thunderbolt Dock, but my desk doesn't have the room.  Then again, I could just use it on battery for hours. 

Update 2025.06.09: Just noticed that MacRumors is saying that the M1 MacBook Air is still on the list for a new macOS version.  It seems as though the Intel-based machines are out.  We shall see in about 10 hours.  Then again, they were talking about moving everything to version 26, so I don't know what the people at Apple are smoking.

If they stop developing operating systems for Intel-based computers, that will lead to a more efficient operation and hopefully, better quality.  When they stopped developing for PowerPC, the people with Intel-based machines seemed happier.

It should be interesting to see if they've got more interesting hardware.  I'd like to see a gaming machine with good airflow, better heat dispersion, etc., but I doubt seriously that will happen.