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Lilbits: Layoffs at Mozilla, Android 15 Dev Preview coming soon, and Playdate is finally “in stock”

The Playdate handheld gaming device with a 1-bit display and a hang crank on the side is a cute and quirky device that’s very different from some other handhelds. But it’s also been a lot harder to actually get your hands on. Playdate began taking pre-orders in mid-2021 and finally began shipping the handheld almost a year later. […]

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Lilbits: A 1-bit camera for the PlayDate, and Sipeed is designing a RISC-V laptop and tablet, but not a smartphone

When Sipeed launched the Lichee Pi 4A dev board with a RISC-V processor earlier this year, the company also revealed that the system-on-a-module powering the board could be used in other form factors, and that a tablet, router, and cluster board were already under development. Sipeed also said it was developing a Lichee Phone that […]

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The Playdate hand-cranked game console gets a game store (and a price hike to $199)

The Playdate is one of the most unusual handheld game consoles to launch in recent years. The small yellow device has a 2.7 inch black and white display, a mono speaker, and very low-power specs. But it stands out thanks to an unusual design and an emphasis on original titles designed for the system. When […]

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Panic’s quirky Playdate handheld game console is now shipping (hand-crank and all)

The Playdate is a handheld game console that’s different from most. With an unusual design that includes a 2.7 inch black and white display, a few basic controls on the front, and a hand crank on the side, it’s nothing like the Nintendo Game Boy or Switch clones we’re used to seeing. First announced in […]

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Lilbits: Fitbit recalls its first smartwatch, Amazon closes its physical bookstores, and new Apple hardware is on the way

Apple has scheduled an event for March 8, where the company is likely to unveil new hardware that could include an updated iPhone SE and iPad Air and one or more new Mac computers sporting Apple Silicon chips. In other hardware news, Nothing plans to launch something soon: the company’s first smartphone. Google’s Pixel 6a […]

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Lilbits: Playdate dissected, PC shipments continue to rise, and Chromebooks lose support for MS Office Android apps

Chromebooks are basically just laptops that ship with Google’s Chrome OS rather than another operating system. But since Chrome OS was designed to put the web browser front and center, some folks have insisted that it’s not a real operating system – after all, it loses much of its functionality if you lose your internet connection. […]

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Playdate is up for pre-order, ships in late 2021 (handheld gaming with a hand-crank)

It’s 2021 and some handheld gaming devices have OLED displays. Others are basically full-fledged PCs running Windows or Linux. And others… have a black and white display and a hand crank. The Playdate is an unusual gaming device first unveiled in 2019, and after it’s finally available for pre-order for $179. The first batch of […]

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Lilbits: Handheld gaming… and more handheld gaming

First announced in 2019, the Playdate handheld game console is scheduled to ship later this year, and now its makers have announced that it’ll go up for pre-order starting in July for $179. That’s $30 higher than originally anticipated, but there’s a global chip shortage going on, which led to the price hike. The good […]

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Lilbits: Windows, Linux, and Intel news

This week Microsoft released Windows Insider Preview Build 21343 which introduces new icons for File Explorer and brings improvements for the Windows Sandbox and Microsoft Defender Application Guard. It turns out there are also a few features Microsoft didn’t mention – including an option to restart currently running apps after you sign out and sign […]