Every now and again a company decides to remind us that many of the digital products we’ve paid for aren’t really ours to keep forever. More than a decade ago, Amazon caught flak for (somewhat ironically) removing copies of George Orwell’s 1984 from Kindle users’ devices. When Microsoft stopped selling eBooks a few years ago, the company also killed your ability to read books you’d already paid for (although at least Microsoft issued refunds).

And now the company that recently acquired the rights to the Deus Ex video game franchise is not only removing Deus Ex Go game from mobile app stores… it’s also letting paying customers know that the game will stop working altogether next year.

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

Embracer is ripping a beloved mobile game away from people who paid for it [The Verge]

The new owner of the Deus Ex video game franchise has not only removed Deus Ex Go from mobile app stores, but even if you’ve already bought the game, you won’t be able to play anymore after Jan 4, 2023.

Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition reviews are live! [Framework]

The first Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition reviews are live. While some might balk at spending close to $1000 on a Chromebook, it’s a modular, repairable, upgradeable device that costs a little less than Windows versions (and gets better battery life). Xda-developers also has a review. And, since there’s very little difference in the hardware between the Chrome OS and Windows version of this laptop, I guess Liliputing kind of does too.

The world’s first Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 phone is the Vivo X90 Pro Plus [Ars Technica]

Vivo’s X90 Pro Plus is the first phone announced with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, although we’ll likely see many more soon. It hits China Dec 6 for $900+ and has a 6.7 inch, 3200 x 1400px 120 Hz display, 12GB RAM, 256GB storage & IMX989 camera.

Honor’s improved Magic VS foldable will go on sale outside China in 2023 [Engadget]

Honor Magic VS foldable phone with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, 5000 mAh battery, 54MP Sony IMX800 primary camera, and upgraded design is up for pre-order in China now for around $1050, and should be available in other countries early next year.

Honor 80 Pro and Honor 80 debut with 160MP main cams, 66W charging [GSM Arena]

Honor 80 Pro

Honor launches the Honor 80, 80 Pro, and 80 SE smartphone lineup in China. All models have 120 Hz OLED displays, but the Honor 80 SE is a cheaper model with a MediaTek Dimensity 900 chip. The others have Snapdragon processors.

Alpine Linux 3.17.0 released [Alpine Linux]

The latest stable release brings OpenSSL 3.0 as the default version, Rust support on all architectures, and deprecation of PHP 8.0, among other things. Alpine forms the base of postmarketOS, the mobile Linux distribution designed for smartphones.

Keep up on the latest headlines by following @[email protected] on Mastodon. You can also follow Liliputing on Twitter and Facebook, and keep up with the latest open source mobile news by following LinuxSmartphones on Twitter and Facebook.

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3 replies on “Lilbits: Deus Ex Go(es away), Framework Chromebook reviews, and new phones”

  1. “Every now and again a company decides to remind us that many of the digital products we’ve paid for aren’t really ours to keep forever.”

    With rare exceptions like GOG and DRM-free MP3 files (iTunes and Bandycam?) pretty much every digital product isn’t really ours, at best you can get a refund if they feel generous (Stadia’s demise was a recent example). Going by Ida Auken’s prediction we’ll still be happy enough, though. People still keep buying, so I guess she was right.

    1. As one James Stephanie Sterling famously said: piracy is not only an option it’s an obligation. They also said “something something Capitalism Bad”.

    2. Happy enough for commerce to continue. But people won’t know what happiness really is (let alone how to reach it) yet will gleefully punish anyone who complains.

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