Valve has confirmed that its Steam Deck handheld gaming PC is on track to begin shipping in February, following a short delay. And Apple may be looking at a somewhat longer setback for the virtual reality/augmented reality glasses it’s reportedly been developing since 2015: originally expected to ship this year, they may not be ready until 2023.

In other tech news, Google is rolling out a highly anticipated (and much needed) update for Pixel 6 phones that should bring a bunch of bug fixes, Google Voice continues to get less useful over time, and the Humble Choice game subscription membership is about to drop support for Linux and Mac games from the archives.

Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.

Steam Deck on track to ship in February [Valve]

After announcing late last year that shipments would be delayed until February 2022, Valve has now confirmed that the Steam Deck handheld gaming PC is still on track to begin shipping in February to customers who have pre-ordered. Incidentally, with this week’s launch of the ONEXPLAYER Mini, I’ve updated Liliputing’s comparison of specs for current-gen handheld gaming PCs. If this keeps up, I’m going to run out of space in that comparison table though, so I might need to find a better way to represent this information. 

Apple’s New VR/AR Headset Risks Being Delayed Until 2023 [Bloomberg]

Apple may delay the introduction of its mixed reality headset rather than unveil it at WWDC in June. Overheating, camera, and software issues may be to blame. At this rate, it may not be available to buy until 2023.

Slimbook 4K Linux-friendly video capture card mini-review [It’s FOSS]

The Slimbook 4K capture card is a Linux-friendly video capture device with a USB-C port, HDMI input and output, and support for 4K/30 Hz or 1080p/120 Hz recording. Available for 99 Euros from Slimbook.

Rumor: Google’s foldable might be called ‘Pixel Notepad’ and may cost less than the Galaxy Fold [9to5Google]

Take this with a grain of salt, but an anonymous “source that has proven knowledgeable about Google’s Pixel plans in the past” tells 9to5Google that the long-rumored Pixel foldable will be called the Pixel Notepad to differentiate it from the company’s other Pixel devices including phones and Chromebooks. There’s a chance this could change before launch though. Also, the device is said to be more affordable than Samsung’s $1800 Galaxy Z Fold3. 

How Google patched Android (twice) in response to the Sonos patent dispute [Esper]

While Google has disabled the ability to control the volume of Cast-enabled speakers with your phone’s volume keys in response to a Sonos lawsuit, it’s possible for users to restore it with a custom RRO… but you’ll need a rooted phone.

Legacy Google Voice users are in for a rough transition [Android Police]

Google Voice may not exactly be dead yet… but Google does keep slowly killing of features. Starting next month, the legacy website is shutting down, and taking a few features with it.

Google starts rolling out January update for the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro [9to5Google]

Google releases the January update for Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro smartphones with a lot of bug fixes (following the introduction of numerous bugs in the last update).

Humble subscription service is dumping Mac, Linux access in February [Ars Technica]

Humble Bundle is revamping its $12/month Humble Choice deal to make it simpler. But starting in February it will also require use of a Windows-only Humble app for some features and Mac and Linux versions of DRM-free Humble Trove games go away on Jan 31 (so download while you can).

Eero could be close to launching a Wi-Fi 6E mesh networking system [Engadget]

eero 6+ and eero 6E mesh WiFi routers show up at the FCC website. It’s unclear how the Plus model will differ from the current eero 6 and 6 Pro, but the 6E will most likely support WiFi 6E.

Keep up on the latest headlines by following Liliputing on Twitter and Facebook and follow @LinuxSmartphone on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news on open source mobile phones.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,545 other subscribers