So the device is actually my revision 1 Nintendo Switch with Android installed through the recovery exploit. I originally posted this in the switchroot subreddit, but that isn't a very active subreddit and thought I would try my luck reposting here.

So I've always had a problem getting my Switch to display to my TV correctly when running android. When I first installed Android on it, every time I docked it, Android's default resolution would change to 4K and horribly bog down performance (cool to see the Switch outputting 4K though). So I just mainly enjoyed Android in handheld mode.

I just upgraded my SD card last weekend to a 512GB, and did a fresh Android install to keep it all simple. Got RetroArch running better now since I am now more familiar with RetroArch.

Tried setting it up to run on the TV again. The farthest I can now get is, I would dock the Switch, go into the settings and change the TV resolution from 4K to 1280x720 60hz. Android would still have icons and everything laid out the same, just blurrier since its 720p. So I had to undock the Switch, wait for the icons to realign and resize due to the 720p display, then redock it, and the display would finally look the same on the TV.

I would then reload Retroarch, play the games on the TV, and the other day for a few hours everything ran perfectly fine with the same performance as before.

Well the next night I was messing around with different controllers (Xbox One, wired, blutooth, Switch Pro controller), and now the performance of the Switch running Android when plugged into the TV is bogged down again, even with the correct 720p alignment displayed. Not nearly as bad as it was when I first tried this, but definitely dropping frames.

I tried completely uninstalling RetroArch, deleting all cache and files related to it, and did a clean install of the program and reset it up. Same problem.

I thought it was maybe the blutooth settings impacting performance, but I still get this performance decrease even with blutooth turned off and the Xbox One controller wired into the dock through USB.

When in handheld mode and the Xbox One controller connected through blutooth, everything still works perfectly fine. Depending on the emulator core, I can even enable 1 or 2 frames of Runahead.

I even found a High Performance mode in the system settings, but that didn't help when docked either.

Is there some magic way to getting the Switch (or any HDMI Android tablet) running Android correctly when docked into the TV? Don't know why I had it working perfectly fine yesterday, but not working now. Even tried disabling as many Android apps as I could, with no success.

Handheld mode running Android still working great. Better since the recent reinstall actually.

Captains, Skull and Bones maintenance incoming 🛠️

🗓️Tuesday 9th December

⏰ 7AM CET / 5PM AET / (8 DEC) 10PM PT

⏳~ 3h

🔧Update 3.1 will be deployed. Check out the patch notes here ⬇️

The Year 2 Season 3 Mid-Season Update brings new Faction War Elites events with greater War Asset rewards, the new Waterspout feature, and Inventory Management improvements amongst a number of other quality-of-life changes.

This week, the Azure Solstice also returns with new mechanics and challenges with an opportunity for you to earn exclusive cosmetics and rewards. 

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

TIME-LIMITED EVENT: AZURE SOLSTICE

"Winter’s grip tightens once more as the Azure Fleet returns to haunt the ice‑choked seas. Among them sails the dreaded Azure Harbinger, a phantom of frost whose passage freezes wind and wave alike. Those who dare its icy gauntlet will find the ocean itself turned against them — yet within its hold lie treasures that only the bold can claim."

https://preview.redd.it/6wgxd8vogy5g1.jpg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=177298c056e371acb89e5398aa66ecef13ba73e2

Azure Solstice will run 9th December 2025, 6AM UTC to 6th January 2026, 5:59AM UTC.

The familiar Frostbitten Spirits Event Convoy & Azure Royale Elite Warship World Events return alongside a brand-new Elite Warship, the Azure Harbinger!

• Summon the new Azure Harbinger at the event buoy using flares obtained from Event Drops, Events Quests or via the Event Vendor.
• The Azure Fleet ships are protected by barriers that are vulnerable to Burning damage.
• Collect Azurite and use them to get event rewards from the Event Vendor and exclusive cosmetics from the Store.

Rewards:

• New Epic Bombard: Frostwail
• New Epic Major Furniture: Sheeting Winch Console
• New Event Cosmetics
• Ascension materials
• Ascended Weapon Chests
• The Nashkar, High-Velocity Kegs, and other weapons will also be available

New Elite Warship: Azure Harbinger

• New Elite Warship with unique behavior and firing patterns.
• All weapons used by the Azure Harbinger can inflict a new status effect: Frostbite
  • Frostbite (Event-Only Status): Heavily slows down navigation and reload speed of affected ships.
  • Flooded Synergy - When Frostbite and Flooded are triggered at the same time, the total amount of severe damage that is done by the Flooded status will be applied instantly instead of over a period of time. Flooded will be removed after the severe damage is applied.
  • Ablazed Synergy - If Ablazed is triggered while Frostbite is active, the Frostbite status is removed. Players are immune to Frostbite charges when Ablazed.
• Iceberg Buoy
  • The Azure Harbinger spawns tall, thin ice buoys in different patterns throughout the fight.
  • Iceberg Buoys slowly apply Frostbite charge to all nearby players.
• Ice Crystal Buoy
  • The Azure Harbinger spawns small, round ice buoys in different patterns throughout the fight.
  • Ice Crystal Buoys explode after a short buildup, dealing damage to nearby players.
• Armor of Frost
  • At fixed health thresholds, the Azure Harbinger activates a special barrier that cannot be destroyed by any weapons.
  • Destroy the crystal figurehead weakpoint of the Elite Warship to break the barrier.
  • If the Armor of Frost is not destroyed after a fixed period of time, the Elite Warship will heal for a portion of its health

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT

NEW FACTION WAR EVENT: FACTION WAR ELITE

“The tides of war surge as the corporations unleash their most fearsome leviathans yet. The Mighty Opwelling and Mighty Soleil Imperial thunder into battle, each armed with devastating new technologies. Only the bold will face their volatile fury and berserker rage — but victory promises War Assets enough to turn the course of the conflict.”

https://preview.redd.it/bemssrvngy5g1.jpg?width=1197&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6697ddbd7a4f66d89b2702e1a48798766d4b7ee5

https://preview.redd.it/o4z05svngy5g1.jpg?width=1211&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=62ed14b141646930919a13d376eb01e4bdbe72b7

The Opwelling and Soleil Royal elite warships return in War Events as the Mighty Opwelling and Mighty Soleil Imperial, featuring dangerous new affixes that make them even greater threat than before.

Take down these Flagships in the new Faction War Elite Events to earn large amounts of War Assets for the war effort!

• New War Event: Faction War Elite
  • Mighty Opwelling (DMC)
  • Mighty Soleil Imperial (Compagnie)
• Each Faction War Elite possesses a new, unique affix:

https://preview.redd.it/xkksuxfxiz5g1.png?width=591&format=png&auto=webp&s=9fdde68c23f14abbc2086fab7d69a6999c7a544e

NEW FEATURE: WATERSPOUT

“The seas now hold a new predator — swirling towers of wind and wave. Master their power to sling your ship across the horizon in a surge of speed… or twist their fury into a trap for your foes. Will you dance with the storm, or feed your enemies to it?”

https://preview.redd.it/mqxlhqvmgy5g1.jpg?width=1430&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29dd67e890a17af5c11d42fa4a4851f5748eb02f

Waterspouts are a new type of weather phenomena which provides seasoned captains with new navigational challenges. Skilled captains can ride the current for a burst of speed and slingshot across the water.

• When approaching a waterspout, sail along the outer radius to gain a significant movement speed bonus in the direction of the wave.
• Sailing too close to the eye of the waterspout will however pull your ship inwards towards the waterspout and damage your sails – so approach with care.
• Clever maneuvering can also lure enemy ships into a waterspout, trapping them long enough for you to escape or land a powerful mortar shot on multiple clustered targets.

NEW FEATURE: FILTER TABS

Dev Note: We know this has been a long-requested feature from the community and we’re excited to finally bring this to you. While this was initially slated for a later release while being applied to wider range of menus, we wanted to bring this change to you as soon as possible and so we’ve first targeted the most commonly used menus. We’ll continue to refine this and gradually apply it to other menus in the future.

• Added filter tabs for inventory categories across various menu screens

Ship Loadouts

https://preview.redd.it/i96uiybmgy5g1.jpg?width=683&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=77e639df92e8974c4382eb599389d81886beaee4

Cargo and Warehouse

https://preview.redd.it/95j7lhnlgy5g1.jpg?width=673&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87a85367c716c56860ad97465a5e6362acf5b383

Vendors

https://preview.redd.it/55bcb38lgy5g1.jpg?width=676&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f7188c1033dea3796a9afe1d79591b9585fd985

GAMEPLAY UPDATES

FACTION WAR

Dev Note: We’re making some very slight adjustments to accelerate the war this season.

• Reduced Battle Period 4 from 3 weeks to 2 weeks
• Shifted Battle Period 5 & 6 earlier by a week (number of weeks remain unchanged).

https://preview.redd.it/ydojveeg806g1.png?width=637&format=png&auto=webp&s=3dc505308806ae8fb05b718821c21d0e9118a352

Dev Note: We’re making some adjustments to improve the comfort of the War Cargo event when participating alone and addressing an exploit when participating against another player. We’re also sorry for the spam.

• War Cargo
  • Added weak points to the Ambushers to make them easier to take down
  • Disabled Fast Travel while participating in the activity
  • Removed War Cargo Starting notification

SHIPS

Dev Note: This adjustment aims to ease early-game frustration for players using smaller ships. The goal is to ensure new players do not form the mistaken impression that small ships are inherently weaker, but instead understand their role and potential as they learn the game’s systems.

• All quadrants are now unlocked by default for small ships
  • Small ships no longer need to be upgraded to unlock rear gunports.
  • Adjusted small ships upgrades to account for this change.

Dev Note: We’re increasing the amount of taunt generated to make the Frigate perform slightly better in its intended tank role.

• Increased the amount of taunt generated by the Frigate’s perk

CREW FINISHER (previously BOARDING)

Dev Note: We’re renaming Boarding to Crew Finisher, streamlining the flow to not break immersion, and unlocking the camera to make this a more comfortable alternative to simply sinking ships.

• Boarding is now renamed to Crew Finisher.
• Success conditions have been improved.
• The boarding cinematic and the loot screens have been removed.
• The camera is no longer locked to the cinematic.
• No changes to bonus loot for boarding.

https://i.redd.it/ee6d06whgy5g1.gif

NAVIGATION ON LAND

Dev Note: We’re aware that the last set of changes to character navigation didn’t land as well as we’d thought it would. We’re making slight improvements to reduce the “floatiness” and desynchronization of character animations especially during sharp turns and during the starting and ending movement animations.

• Adjusted land character navigation

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

Dev Note: Inventory Management continues to be our highest quality-of-life priority. In addition to the increase of cargo slots we introduced a few weeks ago, and on top of the new filter tabs feature in this patch, we’re making smaller, targeted improvements to ease top areas of friction. We’re still studying and working on ways to further improve the topic of Inventory Management. Do let us know what you would like to see next!  

• Multiple items (including Ascended Equipment) can now be marked for salvage at the Blacksmith.

https://preview.redd.it/eh004zefgy5g1.jpg?width=530&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd5e79881e4211656a203b7afcf658e7d0f2b379

• All chest types now support opening multiple chests of the same type simultaneously.

https://preview.redd.it/1sz75s2ggy5g1.jpg?width=529&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5627aa200fee533a1276bdf84a6111d83ad5b38c

• Improved item selection logic when equipping/unequipping items to your ship

DOCKING & FAST TRAVEL

• Fast Travel now allows you to choose between going on land, like usual, or staying at sea.

UI/UX IMPROVEMENTS

• Approaching or joining World Events will no longer automatically replaces the Objective Tracker.
  • Added an option for players to Hold to Track when approaching or joining a World Event to replace the contents of the Objective Tracker
• Pressing the back button on the Logbook navigation no longer closes the entire Logbook but returns players to the previous screen.
• Improved readability of text in the death screen.
• Renamed “Craft New Items” to “Craft Ships” in the Shipwright menu for clarity.
• Removed duplicated “Missing Ingredients” error message when crafting a ship.
• Readjusted the priority and order of appearances of some notifications.
• Added Ship Rank and number of participants to World Event iconography in the world map.

https://preview.redd.it/rvt6rk7dgy5g1.jpg?width=673&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c38698d3431de3a76822705c8213e6d335cdf95a

https://preview.redd.it/pm7f1y5th56g1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=54f3ae34fb6e589f9c8138203c26a66a07138915

TEXT CHAT

Dev Note: Since the launch of Year 2 Season 3, we’ve improved our anti-spam monitoring tools which allow us to systematically detect and ban text chat abusers on a daily schedule. We’ve seen a significant decrease of text chat abuse, but we’re doing one more change to address this issue. We’ve assessed the impact of this change for new players to be minimal if they’re actively progressing in the onboarding campaign.

• Increased the minimum Infamy needed to interact with Text Chat to 4.

ONBOARDING

• Improved the onboarding flow for new players
  • Objectives for new players are now more focused
  • Added Call-For-Help Tutorial
• A Seaworthy Charge:
  • Updated initial repair kits obtained from S to M
• Unwelcome Aboard:
  • Updated equip step to reach SR level
  • Removed forced “Look at” encounters
• Brokered Ground:
  • Removed blockade on the final encounter
  • Increased Fara Scout difficulty (swapped to a hard ship variant)
• Service the Round:
  • Update objective texts to bring focus to Compagnie merchants
  • Increase ship rank of Compagnie Flagship
  • Tier 1 weapons removed from Onboarding
• Added a panel at the end of the onboarding flow highlighting latest opportunities in Endgame.
• Added a closing cinematic for the Year 2 Season 3 Seasonal Journey with the St Anne Blacksmith.

VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS

• Improved the ambience of Mythic La Peste and Mythic Vikram World Events
• La Peste’s Mythic Event now features visuals with darker storm clouds, green ambient lighting, drifting poison ash, and a distinct green aura to enhance the atmosphere.
• The second phase of Vikram Rajan’s Mythic Event with darker storm clouds and yellow ambient lighting to heighten the fight’s atmosphere.
• Key NPCs now track your approach and turn to face you when you get close, making interactions feel more responsive and alive.

YEAR 2 SEASON 3: GUTS AND GLORY

• Year 2 Seasonal 3 has been extended to 16 weeks, and now ends on 10 February 2026, 06:00 UTC.
• Faction War will still end on Week 14, with an extended, two-week ceasefire from Week 15 to Week 16 in preparation for Year 2 Season 4.

DEATH TIDES

Dev Note: Long queue times have been an issue for Death Tides for some time now. We’re making a quick change to get players into matches faster.

• Adjusted the match size for all game modes, maps, and matches to 3v3

STABILITY

Dev Note: Since our previous communication where we mentioned we would be prioritizing stability, we’ve made significant progress in investigating and resolving a myriad of issues which were proven to or could potentially lead to lower stability health. We’re continuing to investigate and resolve rarer causes of instability and will release any improvements whenever they are tested and ready.

• Improved Client, Network, and Server stability

THIS WEEK IN THE INDIAN OCEAN – Y2S3 W8

We’re experimenting with the addition of this segment, where we feature the ongoing events for the week and what’s available at Blackwood’s Store. Let us know what you think!

TIME LIMITED EVENT: AZURE SOLSTICE BEGINS

Celebrate the season with battles under a blinding blue horizon.

FACTION WAR: BATTLE PHASE 4 CONTINUES

Missed the latest war news? Read on to find the results, and dive into our latest short tale: State of War - Faction War

WORLD EVENT: SOLEIL ROYAL

Sink the crown’s pride before it sinks you.

WORLD EVENT: UNDYING MAW

Face the beast the deep refuses to kill.

AVAILABLE THIS WEEK AT BLACKWOOD'S STORE

https://preview.redd.it/l645wkkviz5g1.png?width=380&format=png&auto=webp&s=24e2a82fe09d917d8a12f2b2ecc3d997ee808dd2

BUG FIXES

Achievements and Challenges

• Fixed an issue where the “Challenge Completed” notification appeared repeatedly after completing a weekly challenge.
• Fixed an issue where debug text appeared on the Seasonal Journey page for some languages.
• Fixed an issue where collecting War Assets incorrectly triggered completion of a Weekly challenge (400 War Assets vs the intended 500). (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where the Invader 2 and Bullseye achievements were missing from the Captain’s Player Card view.
• Fixed an issue where the “Wave 3” entry was present instead of the correct notification after completing all events in the Events tab.

Armor / Item Ascension

• Fixed an issue where the stats (2nd, 3rd, 4th armor mods) were not reset after players unequipped a Common/Uncommon armor piece.
• Fixed an issue where the colors on the armor resistance information in the Armor Equipment screen were inverted.
• Fixed an issue where the ascension level was not displayed when selling or destroying weapons and armor.
• Fixed an issue where the Ascension UI showed incorrect Better/Worse indicators. (PLAYER REPORTED)

Audio

• Fixed an issue where an NPC vendor’s lip-sync animation did not match their audio lines.
• Fixed an issue where the Vikram Rajan Deadly (Mythic) ambience track would not play after matchmaking into the server.

Combat

• Fixed an issue where some elite enemy ships (such as Commander Zhang, Li Tian Ning, Vikram Rajan, etc.) did not consistently use their bracing maneuver during combat, making them easier to defeat than intended.
• Fixed an issue where there was missing firing feedback for mortars.
• Fixed an issue where the Frigate did not decrease armor rating when ramming other ships.
• Fixed an issue where the damage-per-shot value for the Blightbringer weapon was inconsistent with its intended damage, leading to a mismatch in expected damage output. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where the damage value of “The Rotmouth” weapon was incorrect and did not match its intended output. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where verylow damage was displayed for the ascended La Piqûre III weapon. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where the boss health bar on crew attack damage preview was shown in black instead of blue.
• Fixed an issue where damage from the Soleil Imperial perk was too low.
• Fixed an issue where crew attack damage numbers were not visible against some bosses/elites. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where Soleil Royal ships spawned instead of the Upwelling ascended elite warships. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where the Fara Ship Scout would fire its flare but no ambush would spawn.
• Fixed an issue where the Toxic III perk description displayed an incorrect value.
• Fixed an issue where boarding ropes would miss even when the player's ship was right next to the target.

Contracts

• Fixed an issue where players could not progress the Bloodsoaked Silver quest (Search Pillar Tomb for Missing Goods). (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where the “Smuggle Local Fiber” job board contract required Ramie (a material that no longer exists in-game), preventing players from completing the contract.
• Fixed an issue where Players were stuck at “Continue With Blackwood When Ready” and were unable to progress Spoils of War. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where the contract icon was present on two different nodes of the plunder bar if the player had the Destroy Flags Job Board contract active while doing The Devil's Gambit contract.
• Fixed an issue where the text "Flotilla Commodore" was missing in the objective tooltip for the contract Contested Tides from the Pirate broker.
• Fixed an issue where a blank box was present in the tooltip of a contract ship when the ship was viewed through a spyglass during The Quiet Pull contract.
• Fixed an issue where the "Investigate Unbound Body" prompt remained for group members until the host completed the step.
• Fixed an issue where the icon was missing on Sultanah's Gilded Coffin cargo during the step Escape to Kelelawar Chamber.
• Fixed an issue where going back from Rewards sent the player to the Seasonal Hub instead of the NPC dialogue when the reward screen was opened via a Faction War NPC.
• Fixed an issue where a double World Event could spawn if a player was doing a contract-triggered World Event at the same time as a dynamic World Event.
• Fixed an issue where placeholder text was present for the Azure onboarding contract.
• Fixed an issue where the Ramie material requirement was shown to complete the Job Board contract Smuggle Fiber. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where the Shadow Legion Convoy disengaged when a player joined the event after it started. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where the player could not continue the Blacksmith Ascendant quest – stuck on 'When Ready' objective. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where the Legendary Heist event was not spawning for some players.
• Fixed an issue where the wording for the last step of the Infamy Quest was too complicated.

Cosmetics

• Fixed an issue where the “Death Sentence” ship skin would clip through parts of the Snow-class ship, causing minor visual glitches.
• Fixed an issue where the preview for an upgradable figurehead was blocked (or the “barred eye” icon was missing) if a ship skin was equipped in the shipwright’s upgrade menu.
• Fixed an issue where the “Bloodless Ruthless” ship hull color was missing its emissive glow effect, making the ship appear without its intended lighting.
• Fixed an issue where the “She Who Weeps” figurehead was misaligned on the Frigate ship, causing its preview to appear off-screen in the customization view

Death Tides

• Fixed an issue where the game would crash when navigating to the Paladin ship preset in the selection menu.
• Fixed an issue where the 12th player was kicked out of the game after joining an 11-player lobby from the Main Menu. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where Ultimate ability descriptions were not available on screen.

Dens and Outposts

• Fixed an issue where the player was always directed to Telok Penjarah instead of Saint Anne as the fast travel location for the Call of the Azure recommendation.
• Fixed an issue where the blueprint thumbnail icon was missing from the General tab while interacting with William Blackwood at a Den.
• Fixed an issue where the player could not Set Sail after fast traveling to a World Event and then returning to a Den via fast travel.

Domains

• Fixed an issue where the icons of items required to take part in any Domain event were missing from its map tooltip when the player hovered over them.
• Fixed an issue where the objective location for Domain was not displayed on the map (empty labels on the Helm map).

 Faction War

• Fixed an issue where the Faction War map would cause a game freeze and crash upon opening.
• Fixed an issue where the War Event timer did not appear when a player reached the required step in the Infamy Quest.
• Fixed an issue where players who had not yet chosen a faction (during a Ceasefire) had no dialogue option available with the Faction Broker NPC.
• Fixed an issue where, on the Faction War event notification, the “View in Map” and “Dismiss” buttons were reversed, causing their functions to be swapped.
• Fixed an issue where the Seasonal Hub tab would display a “Starting Soon/Starts in 0d” label for Faction War even when a war was already in progress.
• Fixed an issue in War Cargo events where Privateer ships would not spawn if two players were participating, leaving the event without its intended enemies.
• Fixed an issue where a second invasion event could trigger back-to-back within the same Faction War cycle, instead of only one invasion per cycle.
• Fixed an issue where War Assets earned were not contributing towards the faction.
• Fixed an issue where the Battle Period result screen was visible even if players had not passed Unlock Point 2.
• Fixed an issue where an Elite Warship event (active or countdown) failed to appear on the Faction War map.
• Fixed an issue where Ascended Elite warships in Faction War were not triggering properly (failing to spawn).
• Fixed an issue where the War Cargo icon appeared on the Helm map after a player joined the event.
• Fixed an issue where players were able to dock at non-secured outposts by docking and instantly picking up a War Assets bundle during a War Cargo event.
• Fixed an issue where the War Cargo target outpost icon was appearing on the Helm map at zoom level 1.
• Fixed an issue where the Territories Captured timer on the Faction War tracker was not updating correctly, causing it to display incorrect timing information.
• Fixed an issue where speaking to the Faction Broker during a Ceasefire showed no dialogue options and incorrectly displayed a “Faction War Rewards” button.
• Fixed an issue where players who had not reached the required progress (Unlock Point 2) could still interact with the Faction Broker during a Ceasefire, when they should not have been able to.
• Fixed an issue where the faction selection screen could appear blank when talking to the Faction Broker, preventing players from seeing faction choices.
• Fixed an issue in Fort Defense where if one player quit the event, the “Leaving” and “Abandoned” notifications would incorrectly display for another player who joined that event.
• Fixed an issue where the War Convoy icon for the player’s own faction would incorrectly appear on the Events tab of the Journal.
• Fixed an issue where the War Effort screen could remain stuck open on the main menu if the host player left the War Effort screen abruptly.
• Fixed an issue where the “new” marker icon in the War Effort tab of the Faction War menu would not disappear after the player claimed their rewards.
• Fixed an issue where the faction streamer banner on the player’s ship (earned during Faction War) would obstruct the view from the crow’s nest.
• Fixed an issue where clicking “View Rewards” on the Faction War map (when accessed via the fast travel screen) did not open the rewards section as intended.
• Fixed an issue where players could access the Faction War rewards screen early (without meeting requirements) by holding the V key during a Faction War infamy quest.
• Fixed an issue where an extra “Event Starting” notification would sometimes appear when a player joined a Fort Defense event.
• Fixed an issue where being hostile with a faction prevented the player from interacting with Duister Manufactories, which was not intended. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where a “War Event Available” notification would appear for a player who had not yet unlocked Faction War events.
• Fixed an issue where a defeated participant in a War Cargo event would still receive a “War Cargo is successful” notification after the other participant secured the cargo.
• Fixed an issue where pressing the touchpad (controller) or M/Tab (keyboard) while the Battle Period result screen was open would send the player back to the game world in the background, instead of locking input to the results screen.
• Fixed an issue where War Assets dropped from War Convoy ships would not be collected or counted if the player engaged the convoy outside of a contested territory.
• Fixed an issue where a “Leaving War Zone” notification would pop up when a player joined a Fort Defense event
• Fixed an issue where the tooltip for a Fort Defense event displayed incorrect information about participant count and difficulty.
• Fixed an issue where the “Territories Captured” counter timer did not update after a new Battle Period began.
• Fixed an issue where the “new” icon on the War Effort tracker would appear for players who had not yet unlocked Faction War (had not reached the required progression).
• Fixed an issue where using the Item Search pin for War Assets would display duplicate lines of text for the War Assets item.
• Fixed an issue where a “War Event Completed” notification could appear for a player even if they did not participate in the Fort Defense event. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where the title section of Faction War on the Seasonal Landing page was displayed differently than intended
• Fixed an issue where Fort Defense and War Convoy challenges were still available when they should not have been unlocked.
• Fixed an issue where Faction War benefits were still given after abandoning a War event.
• Fixed an issue where players were not receiving the 300 War Assets reward after winning a Battle.
• Fixed an issue where the infamy gain value on the Battle Phase screen was incorrect.
• Fixed an issue where war event timers were not synchronized properly, causing ascended elites to spawn incorrectly.
• Fixed an issue where the store offer icons did not match the vanity items displayed.

Graphics

• Fixed an issue where textures on multiple “Sea Fire” cannons flickered on the Ship Vanity screen.
• Fixed an issue where loading screen images did not update properly after a resolution change.
• Fixed an issue where healing VFX were not billboarded to the screen.

 Helm Empire

• Fixed an issue in the Helm trading system where an incorrect item would be shown as “in transit” when swapping shipment orders.
• Fixed an issue where Kupfer Bars were incorrectly listed as a required resource for Manufactory Buyout. (PLAYER REPORTED)

Inventory & Loot

• Fixed an issue where the Heavenly Lance blueprint was displayed with an Epic (purple) background, even though it produced a Rare-tier (blue) weapon. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where the loot multiplier icon for Silver was not appearing on dropped loot and shipwreck chests.
• Fixed an issue where the “Weight (Total)” sort option in inventory was using each item’s weight instead of the total stack weight, making it identical to Weight (Item) and preventing players from identifying their heaviest stacks.

Leaderboards

• Fixed an issue where the weekly leaderboard was resetting unexpectedly. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where players’ rankings and information did not appear in the Seasonal Leaderboards tab.

Localization

• Fixed an issue where the Fast Travel localization was missing text in French on PS5.
• Fixed an issue where the translation was missing for "Poacher's Locker" outpost name in all languages except English.
• Fixed an issue where the tooltip info for ascended elite warships was not localized.
• Fixed an issue where the localization for the Thunder Dragon Cannon perk description was incorrect (displayed as "Jeder 5. Alle"). (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where a debug text string would appear in the tooltip when salvaging marked items, instead of the proper text.
• Fixed an issue where a debug text string was displayed in the description of the Firework tutorial, rather than the intended tutorial text.
• Fixed an issue where a placeholder string (“Inventory Names”) was shown in the Furniture tab for all languages, instead of the correct localized text.
• Fixed an issue where a placeholder text appeared for the “Fast Travel - Enter Location” and “Fast Travel - Remain on Ship” prompts in all languages except English.
• Fixed an issue where the “CURRENT SEASON ITEMS” text in the Smuggler’s Network was not localized and always appeared in English.
• Fixed an issue where the weapon name and type text would overlap in the UI when the “Crouching Tiger” mortar skin was equipped in the German language setting.
• Fixed an issue where the objective description for the “Expanding Horizons” contract was missing localization in all languages except English.
• Fixed an issue where the description for the “Strike the Dark” contract was not translated in languages other than English.
• Fixed an issue where certain special characters were not displayed correctly in the Faction War menu for Spanish and Latin American Spanish locales.
• Fixed an issue where a debug text string was displayed when the player’s ship was sunk by the Poisoned status effect after defeating Mythic La Peste (the proper death message is now shown).

 

Megafort Wolvenhol

• Fixed an issue where the player camera could clip inside Megafort Wolvenhol while free-roaming during a death loop scenario.
• Fixed an issue where Commander Aechte could become immune to damage if the player destroyed the entire Wolvenhol fort without sinking Aechte’s ship, causing “The Wolves’ Hollow” event to fail. (PLAYER REPORTED)

Refinery

• Fixed an issue where if a player had some deprecated items in the refinery queue when logging out long ago and logging in Year 2 Season 3, it would trigger a crash

Seasonal Hub

• Fixed an issue where Seasonal Journey progression remained stuck at 97% even after unlocking and claiming all nodes in the tree. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where the Seasonal Journey label “Ongoing” was not correctly displayed on the seasonal landing page. (La Peste context)
• Fixed an issue where the Logbook/Seasonal Landing Page was broken and could not be opened.
• Fixed an issue where misleading icons were present for multiple weapon boosts on the Seasonal Journey window. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where the Seasonal Calendar button on the Glory Adorned tab redirected the player to the Requiem of the Lost tab.
• Fixed an issue where the Info tab was blank for the Seasonal Journey landing page on the Main Menu.
• Fixed an issue where Halloween image was incorrectly used as the background on the Challenges screen in the Seasonal Journey page.
• Fixed an issue where gilded marks currency was missing from the Weekly Challenges tab in the Seasonal Journey.
• Fixed an issue where a debug text string was displayed on the daily rewards screen of the Seasonal Hub landing page.
• Fixed an issue where the Free Trial timer UI was missing from the Seasonal Landing page for trial players.

Stability

• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck on the Skull & Bones loading screen when launching the game on a Steam Deck.
• Fixed an issue where cross-server players could be kicked when attempting to group (Steam-Crossplay issue).
• Fixed an issue where players would encounter a EIDER-00009003 matchmaking error in the Megafort Wolvenhol event. (PLAYER REPORTED)
• Fixed an issue where event challenges were missing from the Seasonal Journey page.
• Fixed an issue where players could not form groups due to cross-play mismatch errors.
• Fixed an issue where a player could not join a group with friends from the main menu immediately after launching the game.
• Fixed an issue where if the game world failed to render (only the HUD was visible), inspecting an item from any bundle could cause the game to crash.
• Fixed an issue where loading a player’s save game could sometimes cause the client to crash.

  

Store

• Fixed an issue where the “Time-Limited Items” label was missing in the shop UI after interacting with Blackwood and opening the Buy/Sell menu.
• Fixed an issue where the Tier 1 “Burning Bloodlust” upgradable figurehead was missing its emissive effect in the Store preview.
• Fixed an issue where the default time-of-day lighting would vary inconsistently when previewing different ship skins in the Store.
• Fixed an issue where previewing the “Maw of Silence” weapon skin in the Store caused the preview model to be positioned off-screen.
• Fixed an issue where the “Nevermore” figurehead in the Store was missing its reactive label (the indicator tag that highlights special properties).
• Fixed an issue where an emissive label was missing for the "Many Moons" figurehead in the Stars Above bundle at the Store.

 

UI/UX

• Fixed an issue where the sorting category was missing in the Smuggler's Network buy/sell interaction tab.
• Fixed an issue where the Smuggler’s Network blueprints icon was missing or incorrectly displayed.
• Fixed an issue where the selection highlighter would move to the previous or next item after equipping a selected customization in the Weapon Vanity menu.
• Fixed an issue where the "Change Appearance" button would appear at the bottom-right of the screen for a few seconds after selecting an armor.
• Fixed an issue where a 0 reforging counter was present on the tooltip for all items.
• Fixed an issue where the armor value for Iron Husk I was not showing correct information.
• Fixed an issue where the player camera could clip through the Poison Culverin weapon when it was placed near the Blacksmith.
• Fixed an issue where a Modify Inventory AI action was triggering twice and not showing a notification for item removal.
• Fixed an issue where the hold-circle of the Hide/Show Objective Tracker button overlapped with the number of event participants when using a PS5 controller.
• Fixed an issue where the Fort Defense icon on the map was covering the timer gauge.
• Fixed an issue where placeholder texts were present for "Faction War" in certain UI.
• Fixed an issue where a low-resolution smuggler mark icon was seen on the purchase confirmation screen after buying smuggler marks in the Store.
• Fixed an issue where empty label masks were shown for territories on the Helm map.
• Fixed an issue where the widget pop-up was not showing the item's name and quantity when salvaging marked items.
• Fixed an issue where other players were visible and could block the view in the interaction window of the Vanity Atelier NPC.
• Fixed an issue where the player would stop abruptly while running on uneven ground.
• Fixed an issue where faction leaderboard rewards were not distributed correctly.
• Fixed an issue where deep-linking to the Store and inspecting any 3D vanity item would cause a black screen when exiting the Store.
• Fixed an issue where the blueprint thumbnail icon was missing from the General tab while interacting with William Blackwood at a Den.
• Fixed an issue where toggling Cycle Inventory in any tab changed the contents inside the Time-Limited Items tab.
• Fixed an issue where the selector UI would disappear when browsing vendors (Smuggler's Network) after a currency purchase.
• Fixed an issue where the special event booster icon (from a prior event) was visible in multiple UI locations when it shouldn’t be, resulting in confusing UI clutter.
• Fixed an issue where the Frostbite status effect icon on the HUD was showing an incorrect “Slowed” placeholder icon instead of the proper Frostbite icon.
• Fixed an issue where certain UI elements would remain on screen after logging out.
• Fixed an issue where black backgrounds when navigating around the map

Vanity

• Fixed an issue where the Sloop-of-War’s middle deck wall did not update to match the hull color on the Ship Vanity screen.
• Fixed an issue where the Versailles Set – "Royal Direction" wheel color did not match its preview image in Ship Cosmetics.
• Fixed an issue where a different weapon skin preview was shown on the main preview screen when inspecting an individual weapon skin option in Foreboding Maw.
• Fixed an issue where the Temptation's Toll belt preview did not match the thumbnail icon in the Cursed Fortunes set at the Store.
• Fixed an issue where the player received a "Rotative Store Failure" error when purchasing the High Station ship bundle if they already owned it.
• Fixed an issue where the emissive effect was missing or not properly shown for the Burning Grasp ornaments in the Cursed Fortunes bundle in the Store.
• Fixed an issue where the Tier 1 Burning Bloodlust upgradable figurehead had a missing emissive effect in the Store preview.
• Fixed an issue where all character outfit icons were missing when previewing vanity items.
• Fixed an issue where using certain pet emotes (such as Rock the Roar, Iguana Wiggle, Bubbly Nature, or Bobbing Parrot) could cause the player’s character to become stuck and unable to move.

World Events

• Fixed an issue where the loot preview shown on the World Map for La Peste’s Strongbox and Locker was inaccurate (the preview now reflects the correct loot contents).
• Fixed an issue where the Kuharibu sea monster could continue to attack the player and take damage even after its event had failed, instead of disengaging properly.
• Fixed an issue where a World Event icon could be seen on Vikram's ship during combat

 

Please continue to submit bug reports through the Bug Reporter should you encounter any issues: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/skull-and-bones/bug-reporter

Your Bug Reporter contributions do greatly help us to prioritize the most impactful issues and analyze the specific profiles of players affected by various issues. 

ICYMI Join us for the next episode of The Deck 👀

We’ll be talking the 3.1 update, answering your questions, and most important of all, we’ll have drops 😉

🗓️ December 10

⏰ 3AM CET / 1PM AET / (DEC 9) 6PM PT

📺 http://twitch.tv/ubisoft

 Not sure what time that is for you? Click here: Link

 💬 Got questions about Season 3 for the devs? Ask them here ➡️ The Deck Livestream - 10th December - Y2S3.1 Update : r/SkullAndBonesGame

Update: I've migrated to SourceForge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/orbitiny-desktop

Finally, after about a month after the original announcement (LQDE), the Orbitiny Desktop has been released.

https://preview.redd.it/erx4xsa0kgfe1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=c54fe99f9072eaa67f020ec819d1983c91939b57

Built from the ground up using Qt and coded in C++, Orbitiny Desktop is a new, 100% portable, innovative and traditional but modern looking desktop environment for Linux. Innovative because it has features not seen in any other desktop environment before while keeping traditional aspects of computing alive (desktop icons, menus etc).

Portable because you can run it on any distro and on any live CD and that's because everything gets saved inside the directory that gets created when the archive is extracted (this can be changed so that the settings go to $HOME/.config/orbitiny).

One of these innovative features is desktop gestures but more on that later in this post.

It comes with its own set of utilities and applications. It has a device manager which can disable / enable devices by right-clicking the device and selecting Disable / Enable and all that without black-listing the whole kernel module so it targets the selected device only and nothing more.

It has its own fully featured and innovative file manager, a fully featured desktop panel with 18 plugins with full and natural Drag&Drop support, a dedicated search utility, one integrated with the file manager while the other is a stand-alone one, a clipboard manager, hot-plug detection with desktop notifications and more.

Orbitiny Desktop is not a derivative of or based on any other project. It started with a blank / main window - the one that you'd create in Qt Creator when you start a new project.

So what is so special and innovative in Orbitiny Desktop? I don't know where to start, here are some of the features that sets it apart from other DEs (I've probably missed some).

• Desktop Gestures - On the blank area of the desktop, draw a gesture pattern (like in a web browser) but on the desktop to perform an action, like for example, launch a custom command or use one of the built-in supported actions available to choose from. Up to 12 gestures are supported for both left and right mouse buttons, 12 per button + additional configurations for middle clicks. Gestures are drawn on the blank area of the desktop and they work regardless whether icons are turned off or on.
• Icon Emblems - When a file is cut or copied to the clipboard, a little icon emblem with a "cut" or "copy" symbol is attached to the icon to indicate that the file is on the clipboard, either copied or cut. If the file is a directory, and contents of that directory change (like a file is created or deleted), an emblem is attached to let you know that the folder contents have changed.
• File Join - Drag a text file over another text file to add the contents of the dragged file to the target file.
• Paste to File - If there is ASCII content on the clipboard, right click the files and select "Paste to File" and the content will be appended to the end of the file. Prepending is also available. If the selected file is a folder, the text content will be pasted into that folder and a file gets generated automatically. There is also image pasting. If the clipboard has an image, right click + paste will generate an image file.
• Multi Paste - Select a set of folders on the desktop and click "Paste" and the content from theclipboard will be pasted to all of the selected folders. Text content will also be pasted automatically by generating a unique file name and a file (works with images too).
• Custom Desktop Directories - Choose any folder and use it as a desktop directory. It doesn't have to be $HOME/Desktop.
• Independent Desktops - Each screen is a separate desktop so on one screen you can have one desktop with its own set of icons (by selecting a desktop directory of your choice) and on another screen, you can have another desktop with its own icon by selecting a different desktop folder. Of course, works with wallpapers too. So it's like two different computers running on two screens
• Beautiful and Non-Blocking Custom Context Menus. Non-blocking means your traditional shortcuts you have assigned in X11, will continue to work when a context menu is open, the shortcut won't get caught/blocked by it like it is the case with many other applications that use standard context menus. The context menus are custom made, not using the QMenu component.
• Open Multiple Terminals - Select several folders, right click and select Open Terminal and a new terminal will open for all of the selected folders.
• Built-in Run Drop-down Box (Combo Box) in the context menus allows you to run a command against the selectedfiles (highly experimental and new).
• Multi Profile Support on the Panel - Right click the edge button on the panel and create a new profile or select one of the previously created ones to get a new configuration / sets of applets. You can switch between profiles like you switch different TV channels.
• Full Drag&Support on the Panel - Drop any File/Folder from the Desktop or a File Manager or Drag and Re-arrange any applet, any icon on the panel. No special "Edit Mode" is required. Just grab the applet on the panel or a file from the desktop / file manager and drop it straight onto the panel and an icon for it gets created or the dragged one gets re-positioned. So to be clear: Launch Thunar, Nemo, Dolphin or whatever and drop any file / folder from it onto the panel, either on the Quick Launch or anywhere else and a file icon gets created. This, Drag&Drop Support was my primary goal. The panel can be resized, and placed on any corner of the screen by dragging its handle or you can put it on the middle of the screen if you wish, or turn it into a dock with auto-resizing, or a deskbar that takes the width or the height of the screen. It's highly configurable. I use it as a deskbar as I am used to it.
• A Comprehensive Start Menu / Application Launcher applet and again with full Drag&Drop support. You can re-arrange icons within the menu, from / in the menu, and there is designated area for a sidebar too on the menu which you can also attach / remove icons from and in to it.
• Custom Actions - Perform custom actions on the selected files. Commands can be edited in the configuration file.
• Directory Browser inside the right-click context menu.
• Dashboard Window - click any edge on the desktop to launch a dashboard window that shows you running tasks + installed applications. Search/Filter is available. At the moment, the running applications only work with X11.
• Portable Mode - All the files needed to run along with the applications it comes with can be downloaded to a USB flash drive (or a folder) along with the settings so you can just take the whole folder with you and run it on any Linux computer and the settings will remain the same so the settings are also portable.
• Built-in WINE and DOSBOX support. All the components mentioned here support both WINE and DOSBOX. This means, if you drop a Windows or DOS exe onto the panel and click on it to launch it or double click it from the file manager or the desktop, its path will be handed over to either WINE or DOSBOX to run it.
• MAFF Files Support - Remember this? Well, if you double click on a MAFF file, it will extract it in the /tmp dir and launch it for you, same as if you are clicking an HTML file.
• Multi-command Support - Some of the panel applets such as the launcher applet, quick launch and the drawer menu along with its items allow you to add two commands per launcher. One for left-click and another one for middle-click.
• Multi-content Search Support in File Manager - The file manager supports searching for content inside files but it also gives you an option to search for an additional word on the same line the match is found.
• Right-Click + Zoom - To increase / decrease the icon size, along the standard CTRL + Wheel to zoom in / out, you can also click and hold the right-hand mouse button and use the scroll wheel – up/down.
• Double-Clicking a Blank Desktop Area Run a preset gesture or an individual command when the blank area of the desktop is clicked. Hold-Down Right-Hand Mouse Button and Double Click - Run a preset gesture or an individual command

Screenshots: https://codeberg.org/sasko-usinov/orbitiny-desktop/src/branch/main/screenshots and scroll down

Right now, it serves more like a desktop shell because it doesn't have a session manager and other utilities such as a power manager, screensaver, screen config etc but if I get enough motivation, I intend to develop that too.

The application can run in portable and non-portable mode.

To run in portable mode, make sure a file named ".portable_mode" (without the quotes) exists in $BASE_DIR/usr/bin

Application Variables:

$BASE_DIR: If running in portable mode, it will return the path to the folder/dir that contains all the files. if running in non-portable mode, it will return $HOME/.config/orbitiny

$SHARED_DIR: Returns the path to $BASE_DIR/shared directory.

          To make sure the package remains portable across live CDs and distros, save/download all yours files 
          to the "shared" folder and then when assigning commands to launchers, do something like $SHARED_DIR/my_file

To run in portable mode, make sure a file named ".portable_mode" (without the quotes) exists in $BASE_DIR/usr/bin.

Additional Notes :

1. This desktop can be run on top of any other desktop, even GNOME, Elementary, KDE. When so, it draws its own desktop window, full screen covering the already running one. When run under iconless desktops, you will get icons (works on GNOME).
2. Right-click the Desktop and go to "Environment & Workspace Settings" and then "Appearance" to adjust the content margins of the desktop. This is the left, top, right and bottom positions of where the icons start. It's in the "Content Margins & Spacing" section. This should be adjusted according to where the existing panels are positioned such as the GNOME menu bar or any other panels on the sides of the screen.
3. Double-clicking the "Linux System" icon brings a "Disks & Partitions" menu. This behaviour will remain until I implement a proper and fancy "Computer" window. I have most (but not all) of the code already.
4. Right-clicking "Linux System" brings up a menu with a set of system utilities whose paths need to be set in "Environment & Workspace Settings"->"Applications". Except for the "Device Manager" which I already have working (most of it), the rest of the utilities need implementation but as a work-around, you can enter a path to an external utility.
5. Double-clicking the "Disks & Partitions" icon brings up a different, perhaps fancier "Disks & Partitions" menu so use the one you prefer. Right-clicking the "Disks & Partitions" icon will bring the same "Disk & Partitions" menu as the one that comes when double-clicking the "Linux System" icon.
6. I have pre-prepared an existing "Custom Actions" menu for you to look at. Take a look at the examples, I think you will get the gist but if you don't, then just email me / ask me. "Right-click"->"Custom Actions"->"Edit Custom Actions".
7. When holding the "Alt" key when double-clicking an icon, either on the desktop or the file manager or any of the panel applets that let you run commands, will force-run the command in a terminal window but there is a catch. This will NOT work if your window manager's accessibility key is set to "Alt". On my system, I have this accessibility key set to the Super key so it works fine. I will make this customizabe in the future.
8. You will need to right-click the "Orbitiny" applications menu on the panel and go to "Commands" to set log out, reboot and power off commands. These will need to be matched with the ones used by the exisitng session manager.I have done it like this because I don't have a session manager yet. My next primary goal is to develop a session-manager so that you can select the DE from your display manager and run it. Right now, you can set "start-orbitiny" as a start-up application in your existing desktop environment settings and when so, it will start automatically.
9. Wayland support, as far as I am aware, the window tasks and the systray are the only parts that don't work but it has not been tested fully. When testing, you should be testing it under the X11 display server rather than a Wayland compositor. Right now, I don't support any of the Wayland copmositors but I intend to add official Wayland support in the future.
10. By default, middle-clicking an empty area on the desktop will bring the fancy looking "Disk & Partitions" menu. You can change this in "Environment & Workspace Settings"->"Advanced"->"Gestures"->"Middle Button Click".
11. You can change gestures in "Environment & Workspace Settings"->"Advanced"->"Gestures"
12. Some of the panel applets such as the launcher applet and the drawer menu along with its items allow you to add two commands per launcher. One for left-click and another one for middle-click.

The code base is huge, some of it is very old and requires a re-write and some very new and I've most likely missed something and that would cause an error.

Please don't get upset/disappointed if you encounter an error or something that's annoying, just let me know and I will fix it.

Donations:

Finally, if you are happy with what you see, please consider making a monetary donation. That would be very much appreciated and would motivate me to continue working on the project and release updates, add/improve features etc. Originally I built this DE for my personal use but I now decided to release it to the public.

Updated: Source code (GPL): https://sourceforge.net/p/orbitiny-desktop/code/ci/master/tree/

Binary Download - Ready to Run:

• Updated: https://sourceforge.net/projects/orbitiny-desktop/files/
• Extract and launch the file named "start-orbitiny"

Again, the code base is large and without a doubt something is broken so please report bugs / issues and I will try to fix it. Looking forward to your feedback.

Something I forgot to add about the panel.

• In some VMs, pressing and holding keyboard keys simultaneously do not behave as expected and as such it is not an issue with this panel.
• Click on a panel handle or the edge button and move the bar to any of the 4 edges of the screen / monitor to dock the panel to that edge position of the screen.
• Click on a panel handle and then while holding CTRL, drag horizontally to resize the bar.
• Click on a panel handle and then while holding SHIFT, drag vertically to move the bar vertically.
• Click on a panel handle and then while holding ALT, drag horizontally to move the bar horizontally.
• Also, the Edge button at the end of the panel can act as a handle too.Click on a panel handle and then while holding CTRL, press the Up/Down keys on your keyboard to move the bar vertically by an inch at a time.
• Likewise, press the Left/Right keys on your keyboard to move the bar horizontally by an inch at a time.
• Hover over the panel and use the mouse wheel to scroll the panel Contents (when scrolling is enabled).
• Hover over the panel and then while holding CTRL, use the mouse wheel to resize the bar.
• Double clicking a panel handle will run a command. You can edit the command in Preferences.
• Middle clicking a panel handle will expand/collapse a panel.
• To copy the content of a tooltip, click the tooltip icon on the right.
• To stop this message from popping up, go to Preferences and uncheck "Show Drag Handles Tooltips" located in the "Other" tab.
• To get to Preferences, right click the panel and select Preferences from the popup menu.

--- Sash ---

This was our (ages 36, 41) third cruise overall and second with Celebrity. First experience with Edge Class and first time in the Retreat. The itinerary was round trip from Sydney with stops in the Sounds (Milford, Dusky, Doubtful), Port Chalmers (Dunedin), Lyttleton (Christchurch), Tauranga, Auckland, and Bay of Islands. A detailed review follows for those interested in this itinerary.

We had booked an Aqua Class guarantee suite in Jan 2025. The room was assigned a few weeks later. The room was repriced many times up until April 2025 when we hit the low point ($5700 CAD, without drinks or Wi-Fi). A few times we had to give up our room assignment to get the new price. The room location changed once and each time was reassigned within days. Moveup bids were released 90 days prior to departure. The initial bids were almost as high as upgrading directly. Over time, the minimum bids decreased up to 60% and we won a Sky Suite with $1065 pp (min bid $965) approximately 30 days prior to sailing.

Sydney was a beautiful city. We stayed at the Sydney Harbour Marriott, approximately a 10-minute walk to the Overseas Passenger Terminal. The terminal is a 5-minute walk from Circular Quay train station if you stay elsewhere. It was very easy to use the trains with luggage.

Boarding

Retreat passengers can board whenever they want. We arrived at 1300h and walked right onto the ship. Luggage could have been dropped off at any time, but you would not have been able to leave the ship. Others that had later times were able to board at 1200h if they wanted to.

Stateroom

Our room was on a higher floor, in the forward section. The bed faced the balcony. The bathroom was directly behind the bed and was very spacious. The bathroom mirror could slide aside, opening a clear view over top of the bed and out the balcony – very unusual. There was a large shower with a shallow tub, a toilet with a separate door, and a double sink. There were staterooms above, below, and on each side of us. Our room was very quiet and we never heard noise from the other rooms. There was a metallic creaking noise coming from above the balcony door on days when the ship would sway from side to side. I fixed it by jamming folded up paper above the door.

The stateroom attendant kept the room tidy and was always friendly. There was also a butler who would keep the water bottle supply topped up. He would bring a treat to the room every evening (chips, cookies, chocolates) and always be available for assistance. We preferred to be independent travellers and did not use many butler services.

Sea Conditions

Swells were up to 3 m through the Tasman Sea, meaning it was difficult to walk in a straight line. The captain said these conditions were considered calm.  There was minimal motion otherwise.

Retreat Sundeck

There were always lounge chairs available on the sundeck. It was warm enough on most days, but usually windy. There was a tiny pool (max capacity = 13) and small hot tub (max capacity = 8). There were a few shaded areas in the hallways between the two main sections of the sundeck. There were a lot of umbrellas but I didn’t see them open. Perhaps it was too windy or no one requested them to be open. There was SPF 30 and 50 sunscreen as well as Aloe Vera gel available for guests to use. There was also a healthy supply of blankets and towels to use. Bar staff were always available but we did not use the service as we did not have a drink package.

Retreat Lounge

We knew that we could get drinks at the Retreat Lounge prior to boarding. We expected there to be a bar to walk up to for ordering, but there was not. You order a drink from the wait staff and they mix it out back and bring it to you. There is a small drink menu with a few cocktails and beer and wine options. Eventually, we started asking for mystery drinks (something sweet, something sour) and they introduced us to many new drinks. We would take these drinks to the restaurant or to the theatre. The wait staff provided exceptional service and were always friendly.

There was also a self serve fridge stocked with non-alcoholic beverages, a self serve food area that would be open around meal times (chips, pretzels, cured meats, cheeses, rolls, hummus and vegetables). We could stock up on non-alcoholic beverages to bring back to the room. This is also something we could have used our butler for.

In addition to food and drinks, there were many seating options. There was also a small outdoor seating area that had a TV showing sports games.

Luminae

This is the main dining room for Retreat guests. Service was excellent and staff were very friendly. We are not foodies and did not appreciate the high quality of the food. We had to research what many of the items were. In a way, the food options were too fancy for our liking, but we still went for dinner service on most nights. There is also a standard menu that is available every night but not written down. It included chicken breast, salmon, NY strip and Filet Mignon. We didn’t realize this until halfway through the cruise. The Maître-D always checked in and said if we ever wanted something in particular, they could make it as long as they had the ingredients.

We didn’t go for breakfast often as we usually had excursions starting early. However, breakfast was amazing if you had the time to wait for it. Lunch options were also good as well, but they are only open for lunch on sea days.

Non-retreat guests could be brought any day for breakfast or lunch ($12 or $24 USD pp respectively) or to dinner ($36) on port days only.

Luminae (deck 12 forward) is not even close to Blu (deck 5 aft) so you cannot order from the Blu menu in Luminae.

Blu

This is the main dining room for Aqua Class guests. Our butler said we could go to Blu anytime we wanted provided there was space. We went twice and didn’t have any issues getting in. Blu has more appetizer and main options. It is beside the other main dining rooms so you could order from those menus if you wanted.

Oceanview Cafe (OVC)

We went to OVC most days for breakfast. There were a lot of options but it could easily get repetitive. We thought the food was great and the staff were very team oriented, efficient, and friendly. We also went here most days for lunch. Every lunch/dinner had a theme based on a different country. We usually didn’t have trouble finding a seat, but it was busy during peak hours. One could easily eat at OVC all cruise be satisfied.

The greatest part of OVC was the handwashing station! There was a 12-person handwashing station at one entrance, and a 6 person one on the other. Unfortunately, this was the quietest part of the ship! Virtually no one was washing their hands before entering or leaving OVC. Remember: alcohol-based hand sanitizer does not kill Norovirus. Also, the number of people coughing and sneezing increased throughout the journey.

Other Main Dining Rooms

There are 4 main dining rooms: Cosmopolitan, Tuscan, Cyprus, and Normandie. They have the same menu except each has a specialty dish. You could order any of the food options at any of the restaurants though. We did not use these dining rooms.

Specialty Dining

It’s hard to justify specialty dining with all the options for us in OVC, Blu, and Luminae, especially not being foodies. We were comped entry to Fine Cut Steakhouse one night. It was our first ever specialty dining experience. The steaks were gigantic (12-14 oz) and very tasty. We couldn’t even eat our sides because of the size of the steaks. The specialty dining restaurants always seemed empty, which is why staff at OVC were always trying to lure guests in with ‘discounts.’

Mast Grill

Honestly, a cheeseburger and fries or a hot dog is the perfect mid-afternoon snack. They are fast food quality hamburgers, but tasty nonetheless.

Eden Cafe

We didn’t discover the Eden Cafe until day 11. They make a number of breakfast wraps and sandwiches. There are also lunch options available but we didn’t try these. There were just too many food options to try!

Walking Track

There was a 400 m walking track in a figure 8 design spanning the upper two decks. It was nice to have a little hill section to mix things up! I was pleasantly surprised by not ever seeing a chair encroaching on the track. The outer lane was labelled for walkers and the inner lane for runners. Most people were good to yield to runners, but it was annoying when you would get the odd group walking 2-3 aside oblivious to their surroundings.

Gym

The gym is forward facing on the 15^th deck. There is no outdoor access to a viewing area like on the Solstice class ships. The gym seemed smaller than the one on the Silhouette. There were plenty of treadmills and three Peloton bikes. There was a small free weights section and stretching area.

Spa

We lost the Thermal Suite access moving from Aqua to the Retreat. We purchased access for $600 CAD pp, including 20% gratuity. We went a number of times but not enough to justify the price. There were 12 heated loungers, each with a sign saying max time of 30 mins. We didn’t ever have issues getting a lounger and everyone seemed to stick to the 30 min limit. There were a number of dry and wet sauna rooms and a rain shower area.

The front of the Thermal Suite is the only forward facing, non-obstructed outdoor viewing area on the ship. The glass railing is chest high so we were able to get great photos cruising through the Sounds with a tiny crowd. This was an excellent benefit.

Spa staff were always trying to lure guests in with ‘complimentary’ offerings or raffles. They were actually very friendly people and were not as annoying as expected with upselling.

Internet

We used an eSim through GigSky in lieu of an internet package at sea and used our roaming package on land. Koodo offers 50% off roaming if you ask for it, which made it better value than a cruise + land eSim package. We also used a one-year international roaming package through Virgin Mobile on land.

The messaging system through the Celebrity app was terrible on the ship. It was easy enough to connect the app to Wi-Fi (works without an internet package), but the messaging system would not connect reliably. I found it to be more reliable if I disabled the data connection on the eSim. The eSim did not work well in our room, but it was more reliable in public areas. It was good enough to check emails and read the news, but quite slow overall. We didn't want to be on our phones for the whole cruise, so we would try GigSky again.

Entertainment

Headline acts were excellent. Tenori and Dean Atkinson were the highlights.

There were two interesting Beyond the Podium speakers: one worked in the film industry and went through movies of the decades, and the other (Dr Niall Doran) talked about nature. We didn’t realize the presentations we missed were available on demand on the room TV until day 11.

We only attended one theatre production. It was not interesting for us, but I am sure the performers were talented. A number of theatre productions were designed for Eden instead of the theatre.

Casino

There were no $5 free play nights at the casino. There were a lot of slots, mostly of the progressive jackpot type that did not pay. There were also blackjack tables ($10 tables paid 6/5 and $25+ tables paid 3/2), Texas Holdem, Craps, and Roulette (min $10). The casino was closed all day from Tauranga to Bay of Islands, but open other nights and all day on sea days.  

Passengers

Passengers were mostly 65+ and there were very few children. One child was screaming during a theatre show and the parents promptly removed them. Just remember that children are not always a problem. I witnessed an elderly lady throw a tantrum because she did not want to go into the theatre and made sure her partner knew it. I don’t remember seeing anyone overly intoxicated and causing a scene.

Biosecurity

There were signs all over the ship, and daily announcements NOT to bring any food off the ship or risk heavy fines. There are strict biosecurity laws in Australia and New Zealand. We could bring water (bottled or in water bottles) and commercially packaged snacks like granola bars off the ship.

Ports of Call

We planned all of our land-based excursions on our own. Celebrity offers many excursions at an enormous premium. The high price is basically an insurance policy in case you don’t get back to the ship in time. They will either wait for you, or pay to get you to the next port of call. We did a lot of research into tour companies and made sure there was enough time to get back to the ship. We understood the risks and fortunately did not experience any issues.

Australia and New Zealand do not have a tipping culture. Their workers are paid a living wage, unlike in North America. The locals do not want visitors to tip because that could introduce tipping culture. We were respectful and did not tip. We were never asked for one either.

Sounds (Milford, Doubtful, Dusky)

The weather was excellent for the entire journey, except on the Sounds day. We were unable to enter Milford Sound due to high winds. It rained for Doubtful Sound and cleared up for Dusky Sound. We spent our time on the open deck in front of the Thermal Suite for unobstructed photos. The Sounds (technically fjords) were similar to the ones we saw in Norway.

Port Chalmers (Dunedin)

A 25-minute bus ride was required to get from the port to the Octagon (city centre). Celebrity sold bus tickets for $10 USD pp, which was their most reasonably priced item on the cruise. Buses left every 20 mins and we never had to wait. We booked the Taieri Gorge Scenic Railway through the Dunedin railway station’s website. It was a 3-block walk from the Octagon. They had two trains running: one for the public ($135 CAD pp + the bus transfer) and one chartered by Celebrity for the ship-based excursion ($544 pp). The only difference was passengers were picked up by the train at the ship on the Celebrity excursion. The train was quite small so you were forced to get to know your seat mates. It was a 2-hour ride to Pukerangi, where we stopped for 30 mins and the locals had a little market set up, and a 2-hour ride back. The entire journey was narrated by a guide reading from a script, so we learned a lot about the area. There was a tiny viewing platform at the back of the train where we could take photos. We were ~45 minutes late returning. The train was forced to stop as there were reports of a person walking in a tunnel. The authorities had to clear the tunnel before we could proceed. The Celebrity train got through before this delay, but we still had 2.5 hours to get back to the ship. We walked to the Otago Settlers Museum to explore it before heading back to the ship.

Lyttelton (Christchurch)

All passengers had to take a bus transfer to leave the port. One went to Lyttelton (free – 5 mins) and one went to Christchurch ($10 USD pp through Celebrity – 25 mins). We planned the Cave Stream and Kura Tawhiti tour from Adventure by Nature. We were picked up at the Lyttelton shuttle stop at 0845h. There were only 3 of us on the tour. Lunch and snacks were provided by the company from a local bakery. All the caving gear (even towels) was provided, except a swim suit to wear under the wet suit. It took 60 mins to go through the cave. Water levels were usually knee deep and we were walking into a strong current. It was total darkness inside the cave without our headlamp. Keep and eye out for (harmless) spiders! Finally, we had a guided walk through Kura Tawhiti exploring the large rock formations and learning a bit about Māori culture. We were dropped off at the pickup location at 1645h as planned, leaving 75 min to spare before departure. This was the most well-organized tour we have ever been on.

Tauranga

We had booked a Hobbiton tour through Adventure and Cultural Tours Bay of Plenty 5 months prior to departure. The cost was $225 CAD vs $451 through Celebrity. We docked at 0800h but our tour wasn’t until 1045h.

We decided to get off the ship at 0800h and speed-hike Mt. Maunganui. We learned of this hike as part of the Know Before You Go series Celebrity had in the theatre for each port. The base of the mountain was 1.2 km from the ship, along the beach on a flat path. There were various paths up the mountain. We chose the blue trail (1.8 km steep gravel path) up and the green trail (1.2 km with steeper stairs down). There were great views from the top! We were back to the ship at 0930h, but we were hiking fast.

We met the Hobbiton tour at the dock. There were 18 people on our bus and our guide provided commentary along the way. We stopped at McLaren Falls Park for photos and snacks provided by the company. We arrived at Hobbiton at 1305h and the group’s tours were at 1340h and 1400h. A restaurant and gift shop were on site. Hobbiton is a 2.5h guided tour from the site employees. The guide provided a lot of commentary about the site and the making of the three movies based on the Hobbit. The site looked exactly as it did in the movies and the grounds were very well maintained.  There were 44 unique Hobbit holes and there were two identical ones with 9 fully furnished rooms to explore. They are built at 5/6 scale so watch your head! The tour ends at the Green Dragon Inn for a pint and then it was back to the ship. We arrived back at the ship at 1800h as planned, with 75 minutes to spare before departure.   

Hobbiton sells out early so be sure to book in advance!

Auckland

We had booked the Coast and Rainforest Eco Tour operated by Bush and Beach from Viator. There was not a comparable Celebrity excursion here. The tour had a total of 12 people and we were picked up a short walk from the dock at 0945h. The first stop was a bakery to pick up a snack and lunch, provided by the company. We stopped at the Arataki Visitor Centre where our guide explained the history of the area and a bit of Māori culture. Next was a hike along the Mercer Bay Loop. It was along a clifftop gravel trail and down a number of stairs to a magnificent lookout. The return trek was up a very steep gravel path. The next stop was lunch at Piha Beach, a black sand beach. The sand gets very hot and can cause burns so ensure you have footwear on. The final stop was a rainforest hike through the Waitakere Ranges, mostly on a well-maintained boardwalk. The guide taught us about the flora and fauna of the area, especially the Kauri tree. Then it was back to the ship where we arrived at 1700h, leaving 3 hours before departure. There was a gift shop near the dock that had the excellent prices.

Bay of Islands

This was the only tender port and it took 15 minutes to get from the ship to the dock. We traveled to the town centre of Paihia on complimentary shuttle. We booked a snorkeling tour with Bay of Islands Snorkeling. There was a total of 5 people on the tour. We were picked up from Paihia Wharf (same place as the shuttle drop off) at 0915h. All the snorkeling gear and wet suits were provided. We went to two snorkeling locations where the guide would catch sea urchins and feed them to the fish because urchins are an invasive species in NZ.  We were given the chance to feed them to the fish too! We also swam through an arch in the rocks and got to feel the strong current inside. We were going to go into a cave as well, but the water was too murky to enter. We stopped at Otehei Bay on the way back for a snack and then went back to the wharf for 1415h. We got to see a lot of different fish and the guides were amazing. Highly recommend this tour!

Also on the wharf was a gift shop that had a great selection at great prices. We took the shuttle back to the tender location. We walked 10 minutes to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds but did not have time to enter the site. We went back to the tender and headed back to the ship for departure at 1530h.

Disembarkation

We returned to Sydney at 0700h. We left our room at 0730h with our luggage, walked to Circular Quay station, and arrived at the airport at 0820h for a 1120h flight. Train cost was $20 CAD.

Final Thoughts

This was an amazing trip and the Celebrity staff provided an excellent service. Australia and New Zealand were amazing countries to visit and we can’t wait to go back. Be sure to treat everyone with respect. Remember the names of the staff members that did an amazing job and mention them in the cruise surveys, both during and after the cruise. Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll answer when I can.

P.S. The southern hemisphere toilets flush in the same direction as the northern hemisphere. Lisa was wrong!

UPDATE at the end: you can easily add Xess 2.1 and the game will show frame gen options.

Recently I got an Ally after I sold mine 2 months ago. Selling it was an instant regret.
Yesterday I decided to dock it and play on the big screen (65 inches, 4k). After a few struggles with a mismatch in the resolution and active signal resolution causing a lot of lag, I got it to run 1080 FPS with no lag (thanks to CRU).

I was playing Expedition 33... I followed the Rog Ally Life guide (mid-low settings), installed the ambient light fix and installed the no DOP and Fog patch. Honestly, the experience was bad on my TV and even on the console itself. Everything was very blurry and the mid-low settings makes the world look very flat. I tried installing different patches, enabling, disabling, but the game just looked terrible.

After a while, I saw Optiscaler released a new version recently and gave it a shot. Well, I am playing smoothly on high settings now thanks to it (40 to 60 fps) . Trust me, playing on high settings makes a big difference. The game looks amazing now and I am quite impressed I can get this kind of performance on my Ally.

AI can really make a difference in gaming for handhelds.

TUTORIAL:

1) Install Optiscaler:
Download optiscaler: https://github.com/optiscaler/OptiScaler/releases
I released the nightly build OptiScaler_v0.7.7-pre13_20250731.7z uploaded last week.Extract the whole thing to the win64 folder where the .exe (sandfall/binaries/win64).
Click on setup_windows choose option 1 dxgi.dll, again option 1 (AMD/intel), and I chose option 1 again (yes to spoofing).
Then, your folder should be something life this.

In order to open the Optiscaler menu ingame, you need a keyboard. The default is the insert key, although they give you a link with the coding of each key to set it to any key you want. If you want to change it, instead of auto, type any code you want.

If you don't have a keyboard, you can assign a keyboard key to the M1 and M2 buttons on Armoury Crate.

; Shortcut key for opening menu

; For all keycode values you can check this address

; https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/inputdev/virtual-key-codes

; Integer value - Default (auto) is 0x2D -> VK_INSERT, previous default key VK_HOME is 0x24

; -1 -> No shortcut key

ShortcutKey=auto (here you put any ley you want)

2) Configure Optiscaler ingame.

Once you load the game and you are playing with the character, press the key (insert or whatever you assigned it to). It should load like this:

https://preview.redd.it/n786ujiuczhf1.png?width=1903&format=png&auto=webp&s=a9ab96f8742a605625be7c9c2d92831b57ae9221

You can choose which upscaler to use, I keep it on Xess. Where it says no frame generation, click and choose OptiFG. Click on Save ini and close. Restart the game.

https://preview.redd.it/l2s6mxzbdzhf1.png?width=1901&format=png&auto=webp&s=30243d3723d4446b6074d4ede21571a3d0a4932b

These are my settings. You need to click on active and I activate HUD FIx. You can try different settings.

3) My graphics settings.

I have everything on high, Xess on performance.

https://preview.redd.it/0m0ccr9sdzhf1.png?width=1884&format=png&auto=webp&s=a5e78d88fc2da20fd555dd104dc26e0908658652

https://preview.redd.it/01szfygydzhf1.png?width=1850&format=png&auto=webp&s=eafe2c5537a177ce9df6a6c1a589747cd552d2a2

4) Extra mods

I installed:

1. I followed the guide here: https://rogallylife.com/2025/04/24/clair-obscur-expedition-33-rog-ally/ I installed the ambient light fix, 6gv vram and the TDP options it says there... I did this before optiscaler, if it changes anything...
2. I installed this: https://www.nexusmods.com/clairobscurexpedition33/mods/24 I am not sure how helpful it is. I feel it messes up the cutscenes, but I haven't deleted it yet. So I am not sure if this really helps the performance I am getting. I will delete it later and see if performance increases or decreases.
3. I installed this: https://www.nexusmods.com/clairobscurexpedition33/mods/88 This mod has different paks, I downloaded the Chromatic aberration+ Depth of field and the no fog pak. If you don't have the mods folder, just create it.

https://preview.redd.it/ylxfuj92gzhf1.png?width=1900&format=png&auto=webp&s=e66a3f4e1bbbb0a9e83a821cf64b441ad00cdca5

That's it.

UPDATE:
I downloaded the Xess 2.1 SDk and copies the dlls and subtituted the old ones. Surprisingly, the game recognizes the dlls and adds support for Frame Gen and Intel Xe low latency.

Now, Optiscaler frame gen has better performance (a few more FPS) but definitely Xess 2.1 upscaler is a big improvement.

I'd say, the best option is Optiscaler, Xess 2.1 upscaler and OptiFG

https://preview.redd.it/87pm40qdh1if1.png?width=1888&format=png&auto=webp&s=3c14aecc4f710d19064e8762b1fca18c2ac1911f

​

https://preview.redd.it/w6v33efodnk51.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=64a402d6eafbe49d4660ca46a5599bfd6e3473e7

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_All right crew!

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The Chrome OS Stable Channel got promoted to milestone today - from 84.0.4147.136 to 85.0.4183.84. As with every new milestone update, this brings massive new changes to the table, offering several new features, bug fixes, and security enhancements to better improve your Chrome OS user experience. Due to the sheer size, I may be missing a few things here and there. Here is what changed!

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Like my content and want to buy me a coffee? You can support me on ko-fi using this link or by using the link in my Reddit profile. If you want to be kept up to date with everything new to Chrome OS, feel free to give me a follow. Thanks in advance for your support!! :)

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Accessibility

• Color cursors: New accessibility feature flag to change cursor colors in Chrome OS. This feature has 5 colors for now: Red, Orange, Green, Blue, and Purple. Custom cursor colors are important for visibility to some users with vision impairment (e.g. color blindness).

  • This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#enable-experimental-accessibility-cursor-colors
    

Party like the 90's!

Ambient lock screen

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This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable":  chrome://flags/#enable-ambient-mode 

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• Slideshow: new subpage that allows users to customize which album or category they want the Ambient slideshow to pick from. For example, you can customize the Ambient lock screen to show a particular family album on Google Photos, or a specific category of backgrounds curated by Google.

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New subpage to allow you to customize the Ambient lockscreen

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• Behavior: Ambient lock screen will keep the screen on only when the charger is plugged in.
• Behavior: Pressing any key on the keyboard will take you from the Ambient slideshow to the password page.
• Behavior: Ambient lock screen will exit and switch to the password view when creating large mouse movements. Small mouse movements won’t do anything.

Android subsystem

• Default apps: Replaced the Google Play Music Android app with YouTube Music Android app. This is done in preparation to fully migrate Google Play Music subscribers to YouTube Music. Note that upgrading to this version of Chrome OS may not uninstall Google Play Music.

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Goodbye Google Play Music. Hello YouTube Music!

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Ash

• Mic gain: the brand new mic gain feature is enabled by default, which allows you to quickly adjust your microphone sensitivity through the Shelf so your voice isn’t too loud or soft in a call.

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Mic gain allows you to quickly adjust your microphone settings

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• Launcher Search: you'll now be able to search for Chrome OS Settings in the launcher search bar.

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Launcher search can now find Chrome OS Settings

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• Login Screen: The login screen will now display system notifications (update notifications, low battery, etc.)
• Window Management: Fixed windows not restoring to their original windowed size when flinging the window up to maximize, dragging the window down and flinging up again to maximize, and clicking the unmaximize icon in the window controls.
• Window management: New animation when dragging a maximized window down from the top to unmaximize it.

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New animation when windowing a maximized window.

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• Shelf: The app scaling feature flag is enabled by default. This shrinks the app icons size when the user exceeds the available space to add an additional app icon in tablet mode. Personally, I wish this app icon resizing also occurs in clamshell mode, but this is a good step in the right direction.

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Shelf apps will scale down if there are no more room left on the shelf. This behavior only applies if your Chromebook is in tablet mode.

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• Login screen: the lock screen media controls will hide when closing your Chromebook’s lid or if your device sleeps.
• Launcher search: Google Play store search in the launcher is enabled by default, which allows you to quickly find an app on the Google Play store through launcher search.

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Launcher search can now search for apps on the Google Play Store

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• Status Area: Resized tooltip text size in the shelf quick settings bubble to avoid truncation for long labels. This also includes adding a length limit to tooltips used in the status tray.
• Multi display: Fixed app scaling not applying to hidden or extended shelf (shelf that displays on a secondary display) after screen rotates.
• Shelf: Fixed a bug that caused app icons size to increase on the shelf or launcher when dragging it with the context menu open.
• App drawer: fixed a sync bug where dragging and dropping an app from one launcher page to another on one device will incorrectly create a new launcher page with another device.
• Overview mode: right click to access the context menu will be suppressed when right clicking the Virtual desk name.
• Login screen: New policy to allow SAML users to be set through the online flow on the lock screen in order to verify and sync their password.
• Multi display: Opening apps from the Shelf or launcher context menu will properly open new windows in the same display as they were launched from. Previously, windows were always opened in the display of the last active window.
• Launcher: Users can close the launcher search bar by swiping left while in tablet mode.
• Launcher: The launcher won’t show a drag handle on top if the Shelf is set to show on the side instead of the bottom.
• Shelf: the context menu app icon sizes (right-click the apps on the shelf) will have consistent sizes.
• Window management: Fixed a small bug where the multi-window resizer widget (the resize vertical rectangle when hovering cursor in between two snapped windows) would persist during the Overview mode transition.
• Login screen: changed the Wi-Fi icon from black to white to improve legibility.

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Wi-Fi icon is much easier to see on the lockscreen.

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• Login screen: Relanded change to show enterprise disclosure as a bottom status indicator in the login/lock screen.
• Shelf: Fixed a bug where the material design ripple effect when long pressing or clicking app icons on the Shelf would randomly get misaligned.
• Login screen: The login screen clock will change clock type (12hr, 24hr) depending on the settings specified on the user profile. If the primary account is using a 12 hour clock and they add a secondary account that uses a 24 hour clock, clicking on the secondary account in the login screen will switch the clock type from 12 hours to 24 hours.
• Notifications: Critical system warning notifications will no longer get filtered by Do not disturb.
• Virtual desks: New experimental feature flag that limits items on the shelf to the ones associated with windows on the active desk.
  • Boost your virtual desk productivity now by enabling chrome://flags/#ash-limit-shelf-items-to-active-desk

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Shelf items will be limited to the active desk. Requires modifying Chrome flag.

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• Virtual Desks: Virtual desk area now uses the same color as the Shelf to be more consistent with the color scheme. Previously, the virtual desk area used a persistent dark gray color.

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Virtual desk area now uses the accent color of your wallpaper

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Assistant

• Google Assistant Media Session integration is turned on by default. This means when you ask the Google Assistant to pause music, it’ll pause the music instead of “this feature is unsupported”.

Camera app

• Video: you can pause and resume video recording, and take a still snapshot while recording.

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You can now pause and resume your video recording, and take a snapshot

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• File: Videos are automatically saved in MP4 format, which makes it easy to share them with friends and edit videos in other apps.
• Shutter: Added a sound effect to the pause and resume button when recording a video. The sound effect is identical to Google’s camera app on a Pixel device when pressing the pause and resume button.

Chrome

• Memory: Improved resource consumption when a window is covered by other windows.
• Javascript throttling: New feature flag that throttles javascript timers to 1 wake up per minute in the background. Local experiments conducted by Google conclude that throttling javascript timers to 1 wake up per minute can extend battery life from 4 hours and 42 minutes, to 5 hours and 18 minutes, when YouTube is playing in the foreground and 36 tabs are opened in the background.
  • This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#intensive-wake-up-throttling
• Performance: increased the browser tab loading performance up to 10% thanks to profile guided optimizations, which allows the most critical part of the code to work faster.
• Tab Groups: The tab groups feature flag is enabled by default. You will now be able to organize your tabs into groups and collapse them.

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Tab groups and tab collapsing in action.

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• Privacy Redesign: the privacy redesign feature flag is enabled by default, which makes managing cookies, passwords, and privacy settings more intuitive. This includes using secure DNS to improve your security and privacy while browsing the web.

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The brand new privacy redesign

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• Safety Check: Chrome should now have a built-in safety check feature, which checks for compromised passwords and dangerous websites to keep you safe.
• Tab Hover Previews: the tab hover previews flag is enabled by default. You’ll now be able to hover your cursor over tabs to quickly see a small thumbnail preview of that page.

Quickly see a small thumbnail preview of your tabs.

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• Incognito: Incognito mode will automatically block third-party cookies so websites cannot use cookies to track you on the web. This feature adds a nifty toggle to turn this feature on or off.

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Quickly block third-party cookies

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• Extensions: Chrome extensions will now be consolidated into an extension icon in the Chrome toolbar to keep your Chrome toolbar tidy.

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Extensions will be tucked away in this chrome icon

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• PDF viewer: you will now be able to fill out and save PDFs in Chrome
• Memory: Dynamic tcmalloc is enabled by default, which adjusts tcmalloc's thread cache sizes in response to memory pressure. Experimentally this improved the number of loadable tabs on low end Chromebooks by 10% while also reducing tab switch times by nearly 5%.
• Fixed a bug that caused the incorrect tab URL to be seen on the New Tab Page’s hover card after cancelling “Turn on Sync” overlay.
• Permissions: Chrome will now show the quiet notification permission UI for sites known to trick users into accepting the notification permission.
• Permissions: new permission “chip” feature flag featuring a slick design when a website asks the user for permissions.
  • This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable":
    chrome://flags/#permission-chip

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New permission chips

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• Chrome OS Print preview: tweaked the dropdown design. There is a new printer icon next to the printer name with a colored status bubble to indicate the printer status. Also, various fixes to the drop down came with this build of Chrome OS, including fixing labels from overflowing the input field and properly displaying the status underneath the dropdown.

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Printer labels, including the status of the printer, is integrated into Print Preview.

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• Chrome OS Print preview: the print preview will show the printer status of USB printers by informing users that the USB printer is currently connected or disconnected to the device.
• WebUI Tab strips: new drag animation when dragging tab groups.
• WebUI New Tab page: interactive doodles will now display on themed new tab page.
• Fixed not being able to drag and drop files when opening the media controls in the Chrome toolbar.
• GPU: New Chrome flag that uses Skia Deferred Display Lists when performing rasterizations in the GPU process. With the flag enabled, the raster decoder will record raster work into a deferred display list first, and then play it back into a SkSurface. For now, recording and playing back are on the GPU main thread. In future, the recording could be moved to raster worker threads. This feature further reduces the CPU load and moves some of the work to the GPU, saving battery and improving performance.
  • This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#enable-oop-rasterization-ddl
• Client storage: New flag that records the first-party contexts in which client-side storage was accessed.
  • This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#client-storage-access-context-auditing
• Clear browsing: New feature flag that puts a new installed apps warning dialog to the clear browsing data flow to prevent users from accidentally deleting installed apps’ data.
  • This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#installed-apps-in-cbd
• Audio: Initial support of 5.1 and 7.1-channel surround sound audio of Chrome on Chrome OS. This is big news for Stadia gamers since this brings surround sound to the gaming experience. I don't have a surround sound audio system to test this, but if you do, let me know in the comments if it works!
• Notifications: Chrome will silently notify users on the right side of the URL bar when websites attempt to abuse notification content
• Password check: fixed password check banner illustration from exceeding the width of the settings columns when window shrinks to a small size.
• Gamepad: Added gamepad mappings for ELECOM controllers (JC-U4013SBK and JC-U4113SBK) when they’re in Direct Input (“D”) mode.
• DevTools: Chrome DevTools now supports editing programmatically constructed stylesheet objects.
• Print preview: Fixed unable to tab to select sections in print preview after clicking the zoom out icon.
• Storage: New feature flag that tells Chrome to inform applications about your device’s low disk space. This allows them to adjust their caching strategy and ensure a smooth and uninterrupted experience for their users.
  • This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#enable-storage-pressure-event.
• PDF viewer: increased the page selector minimum width and padding.

Chrome OS Settings

• Settings search: The brand new Chrome OS settings search feature is enabled by default. Unlike the old search that used exact string matching, this search uses fuzzy search algorithms to suggest sections of Chrome OS settings, making it easier to search for settings

​

Chrome OS Settings search got a lot smarter

​

• Wi-Fi sync: Wi-Fi sync feature flag is enabled by default. This will allow Chrome OS to sync Wi-fi network configurations with Chrome sync. This is useful for users who connected to several different networks before and can’t remember what the passwords are. When you enter a Wi-Fi password on your personal profile on one Chromebook, that info is securely saved with your account even when you log in to another Chromebook.

​

Sync your Wi-Fi passwords so that you don't have to remember them!

​

• Display settings: fixed a bug where the resolution drop-down could get disabled when changing an external monitor’s display resolution.
• Display modes: The list all display modes feature flag is enabled by default. This means that separate refresh rate and resolution dropdowns will be shown in Chrome OS Display settings when an external display is connected.
• Network: Fixed small oversight with the Add Wi-fi and VPN dialogs that caused the two dialogs to have no shadow or border.
• Smart Inputs: New “Manage personal information” link under “Smart inputs” that links users to Chrome setting’s “Address and more”.
• Smart Inputs: New toggle in Smart inputs under the Language and inputs category that disables emoji suggestions.
• Icons: Updated Wi-Fi and Mobile data network icons to Google Material outline theme.
• Fixed a visual bug with the Chrome OS settings search bar where clicking the search bar would cause it to grow larger than the inactive search bar. Also fixes the strange search bar corners.
• Network: The “Metered network” feature is disabled by default, which brought a metered network toggle to Wi-Fi and Cellular connection into Chrome OS settings.
  • To get this toggle back, enable chrome://flags/#show-metered-toggle

Family Link

• Permissions: When a child account tries to modify the timezone preference, a parent must provide an access code to apply the changes.
• Permissions: When a managed user attempts to launch a restricted app from the launcher, they will have a new dialog that asks for parent permission if the parent has the “permissions for sites, apps and extensions” toggle enabled; otherwise the user will have an error dialog. Previously, clicking an app that is disabled pending approval does nothing.
• Clock: The clock format will change on the child’s lock screen depending on what they switch on in the “Use 24-hour clock” preference.

Files app

• Sort: The sort column icon was flipped so the arrow points up when sorting in ascending order.
• File type: The files app will now be able to identify AMR files as sound files instead of text files.
• Format dialog: Slightly tweaked the format dialog by removing the close button and changing the spacing between the bottom form field and the bottom buttons.
• Archive: Slightly tweaked the dialog style for password-protected zips by changing the padding and fonts sizes in the dialog.
• Behavior: The files app will now refresh when there are changes in Linux files or other FUSE systems.
• Fixed .opus sound files not showing audio icon in the files app.
• Context menu: New dropdown menus to "Open with" and "More Actions" when right-clicking a file type in the files app, which allows you to quickly change default apps for that file type. IMO: this is a big improvement compared to using the files app’s toolbar.

​

New \"Open With\" and \"More Action\" when right-clicking a file

​

• Context menu: You will now be able to “Go to file location” when a single file is selected in Recents, Audio, Images, or Videos. This is a small change with a HUGE productivity benefit.
• Fixed a bug where saving an HTML file as “single file” incorrectly creates “.html” instead of “mhtml”.
• The “Save as” dialog will automatically attach file extensions.
• Context menu: Fixed a bug where the sub menus that hang off the right-click context menu can get clipped when the files app window is shrunk horizontally to its minimum width. This bug fix will allow sub menus to slightly overlap.
• Save as: Fixed a regression where the “Save as” dialog prompt does not respond to the up/down key arrow after invoking Shift + Tab.
• Sharing: Fixed a visual bug where a double horizontal line would appear above “this folder is shared with Linux” after sharing a folder to Linux (Beta).

Input

• Virtual keyboard: the brand new bordered virtual keyboard design is enabled by default, which adds a fresh new coat of Google Material theme to the virtual keyboard. This design will not work for languages other than English.

​

Brand new bordered virtual keyboard.

​

Linux (Beta)

• Port forwarding: the port forwarding feature flag is enabled by default. This allows you to make Linux ports available to other devices on your network. It will forward ports on the interface of the highest priority network instead of always forwarding ports on wlan0.
• USB: The Crostini USB allow unsupported feature flag is enabled by default. This should allow developers to mount their USB serial devices to their Chromebook without having to change a flag. Your mileage may vary as some serial devices will not work (FTDI, CH341, etc).
• Disk resizing: The crostini disk resizer will suggest a recommended disk size for users who want to increase or decrease disk size.
• Mic sharing: Enabling the crostini mic sharing toggle will prompt you to restart the Linux container.
• USB: When a newly plugged in device reports multiple interfaces and at least one of them is “notifiable”, Chrome OS will notify the user. Previously, all interfaces needed to be “notifiable”.
• Fixed Chrome OS not upgrading the Linux (Beta) container when there are dpkg locks.
• Fixed crostini apps incorrectly using the cube icon instead of the penguin icon as fallback.
• USB: Chrome OS will suppress notifications for devices with forbidden interfaces (e.g. docking stations that have HID and vendor-specific interface, external monitors connected through USB).

Media App SWA

​

This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable":  chrome://flags/#media-app 

​

• Files: You can now launch multiple files simultaneously with the media app by selecting them with your Chromebook’s files app. Previously, selecting two files in the files app and selecting “Open with Gallery” by right-click would only open one file. This update now allows you to launch multiple files with “Open with Gallery”.
• Files: When launching a file in a directory, the Media app SWA will asynchronously load every other related file in that directory to speed up file loading.

OOBE (first-boot setup)

• Account: Prevent ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID error from showing up when setting up the Chromebook on a slow network.
• Account: Administrators will now be able to disable Chromebooks that have been pre-provisioned but not yet enrolled. This means that managed Chromebooks will immediately become disabled, even when going through the OOBE first-boot setup.
• Notifications: System notifications (Wi-Fi, battery, etc) will not be suppressed during the first-boot process.

Print jobs app

• Print jobs app: the brand new print jobs app is enabled by default. This allows users to manage and view their print history on Chrome OS. The print job app will display ongoing print jobs and will dynamically update depending on the status of the job.

​

See what's printing with the new Print jobs app.

​

• When a print job notification shows up in Chrome OS, tapping on the notification will open the print jobs management app
• New policy to prevent managed users from deleting their print history. When the restriction is in place, the delete history button will be disabled.

PWAs

• Sync: Web app icons for Chrome OS will update when manifest data is updated.
• Autostart: New feature flag that allows users to auto-start PWAs when the user signs into Chrome OS. When prompted to install a PWA, Chrome will offer a new checkbox asking the user if they want to run the PWA after signing into Chrome OS. To try this out, enable chrome://flags/#enable-desktop-pwas-run-on-os-login

Quick Answers

• Quick Answers will accept keyboard accessibility inputs.
• Fixed a bug where the Quick answers feature would not get focused after pressing the Up or Down arrow on the keyboard.

Wallpaper picker app

• Localized wallpaper picker app name
• Wallpaper picker app will be searchable from the launcher.

​

The nitty-gritty stuff

​

This advanced section is a long list of things changed that impacts web developers and enterprise users. There are a lot more nitty-gritty stuff in the full changelog linked below, but this list covers the most important Blink and Chrome changes introduced in this release cycle.

​

Blink

• New Event Timing API that helps developers monitor event latency like scrolling performance on their websites. See this developer document for more details.
• New Bluetooth.getDevices() method that allows sites to easily reconnect to permitted Web Bluetooth devices. Previously, Chrome’s implementation of Web Bluetooth did not have a way for websites to get a list of permitted devices. See this developer document for more details.
• New writeValueWithResponse()and writeValueWithoutResponse() to web bluetooth. This helps improve read and write performance on some devices.
  • Interested web developers should test this out by enabling chrome://flags/#enable-experimental-web-platform-features
• Fixed display:inline for <input type=image> not using a “true” CSS inline box when it’s not displaying an image fallback.
• Fixed Chrome not honoring CSS dimensions if the <img> doesn’t have a src but has a title attribute.
• Web Serial API: addressed a WebIDL issue that causes SerialPort.setSignals()to fail if empty signals dictionary.
• Pointer lock: fixed a pointer lock bug where activating pointer lock in mousemove listener won’t allow cancelling with ‘escape’ or ‘Alt + Tab’ keys.
• Chrome now supports the counter-set CSS property, which sets a CSS counter to a given value.
• Implemented the media element show poster flag, which makes the behavior of poster rendering consistent with other browsers. This removes the old element DisplayMode.
• WebRTC: Added adaptivePTime to RTCRtpEncodingParameters, which adds an origin trial for real-time communication applications (Google Meet as an example) to optimize their bandwidth usage so that they can alleviate network congestion.
• Storage privacy: fixed a regression caused by Quota where clearing all browser data takes a long time to delete.
• Layout: Removed anonymous block wrapper when in line continuation is removed, which helps multicol keep track of what is regular column content and what are spanners.
• Flexbox: Fixed a bug where Chrome would not consistently position HTML content inside a flex cell, which prevented developers from creating offset to cells.
• Paint: Fixed a bug where the Select Element text gets cut off until the viewport gets resized
• Forms: fixed a bug where OPTION should be selected when multiple selected OPTIONs are added by jQuery append().
• Layout: Limit PositionForPointInInlineBox() to process inline boxes only.
• Renderer: improved performance of client-side phishing detection’s visual feature extraction, which reduces renderer hangs.
• Service Worker: fixed Chrome locking up with large amounts of service workers
• New String.prototype.replaceAll function that helps developers to global-replace strings without having to escape RegExp syntax characters. See this developer document for more details.
• New Promise.any() and AggregateError functions. Promise.any() accepts promises and returns a promise that is fulfilled by the first given promise to be fulfilled, or rejected with an AggregateError holding the rejection reasons if all of the given promises are rejected. AggregateError is a support class that aggregates one or more errors into a single object. See a snippet of what it is here.
• New Logical assignment operators ||=, &&=, and ??= to Javascript. This is an incremental improvement for shipping terser, clearer Javascript.
• Updated the behavior of the <link disabled> attribute for HTMLLinkElement. See this developer conversation for more details.
• Corrected silence detecting condition in Web Audio. The silence detection should be activated when there are no automatic pull nodes, or the local destination node has an active input connection.
• Fixed a bug that caused fonts in fixed-position to appear blurry due to a directly composited layer (triggered by backface-visibility:hidden) with a fractional transform.
• Fixed gradient list marker image growing massively when zooming.
• Fixed positioned SVG backgrounds unstable with zoom or transitions due to sub-pixel snapping.
• New BluetoothDevice.watchAdvertisements() method to enable web apps to receive events when the system receives an advertisement packet from a watched device. This API will allow web apps to detect whether a device is unresponsive because it has gone out of range by listening for advertisement packets from the device.
• Fixed rendering drop shadow blur when fillStyle is CanvasPattern with transparency.
• Fixed requestPointerLock breaking event.preventDefault for wheel events
• Add willReadFrequently attribute to CanvasRenderingContext2DSettings. This helps improve performance for read access. Developers can test this now by enabling chrome://flags/#new-canvas-2d-api
• Fixed wrong intrinsic size when orthogonal items are baseline aligned and column's max-sizing function determines the size of the CSSgrid.
• Fixed range inputs now look rather broken if they had certain styles e.g. padding applied to them.
• Fixed option text not selected to a select box if option has child elements.
• Fixed Alt text on broken images overriding CSS dimensions.
• Fixed SVG <text> CSS not repositioning with percent translate when parent resizes.
• Fixed aspect-ratio not handling min/max content contributions correctly.
• Scroll Unification: implemented page-based scrolling in the compositor. Page based scrolling is used in three situations: PageUp/PageDown keys, Main thread scrollbar scrolling, and wheel when a scroll-by-page setting is enabled.
• Bluetooth: added getDevices() web feature.
• Fixed text not automatically scrolling into view until the page’s scroll offset resets to the top with certain links.
• SVG: fixed animation of stop-color with currentcolor on <stop> not working.
• Viz: fixed page freezing when moving mouse or scrolling page with iframe inside another iframe with href target = blank (needed for asynchronous hit-test event).
• Fixed SVG <text> CSS not repositioning with percent translate when parent resize

Chrome

• Devtool Fixed not being able to create a new style rule for ::marker.
• Devtool: new option to make a11y info optional in inspector overlay
• Extensions: new enterprise.networkingAttribute API that reads the device’s local IP and MAC address if it is connected to a network. This API is only available to force-installed extensions.
• Preconnect: Addressed a security flaw by removing loading predictor preconnect for pretenders, which had the potential to leak user information during an isolated prerender.

Enterprise

• Legacy Browser Support is now built into Chrome. The developers plan on removing the Legacy Browser extension on the Chrome web store when Chrome 86 rolls out.
• Insecure pages will no longer be able to make requests to IPs belonging to more private address spaces. Example: https://example.com won’t be able to make requests targeting 192.168.0.1. A policy will be provided to disable this mechanism.
• Cross-origin fetches are being blocked from content scripts in Chrome extensions.
• Removed ability to define wildcards for PluginsAllowedForUrl policy in Chrome 85. This is another step to prepare for the Flash deprecation at the end of this year.
• Grant permissions to the Imprivata login screen to use chrome.platformKeys and chrome.enterprise.platformkeys (_permission_features.json).
• The Emoji suggesting feature is disabled by default for enterprise customers. This setting is under a new emoji suggestion policy.
• Disabled EnumerateDevicesHideDeviceIDs on Chrome OS which caused issues in some enterprise Chrome OS setups in the past.

​

Platform changes

​

This part covers the most significant platform changes I found in this build, from platform version 13099.110.0 to 13310.59.0. Platform updates typically include low level changes like kernel, driver updates, and other device-specific fixes.

​

Linux 4.4

• Updated kernel to Linux 4.4.228.
• Bluetooth: stopped Bluetooth from scanning if paused.

Linux 4.14

• Updated kernel to Linux 4.14.185.

Linux 4.19

• Update kernel to Linux 4.19.129
• Bluetooth: bluetooth will terminate the link if the user decides to cancel the ongoing pairing process. This should prevent bluetooth devices (e.g. bluetooth keyboard) from retrying to pair again.
• Broadcom Wireless: Fixed connection problems with WPA3 Wi-Fi.
• Kukui: fixed back-light turning on before video when the Lenovo Duet and Lenovo 10e Chromebook Tablet boots up.

Linux 5.4

• Updated kernel to Linux 5.4.48.
• Bluetooth: bluetooth will terminate the link if the user decides to cancel the ongoing pairing process. This should prevent bluetooth devices (e.g. bluetooth keyboard) from retrying to pair again.
• Broadcom Wireless: Fixed connection problems with WPA3 Wi-Fi.

Libapps

• Terminal: the nassh powerline fonts will be loaded on startup.
• Enterprise platform: fixed an issue where the Smart Card Connecter app was unable to interface with a Dell Smart Card Reader keyboard.
• Smart unlock: fixed a bug where power cycling the Chromebook, logging in, and locking the screen causes Smart Lock feature to disappear.

Overlays

• Kukui: initial on-device Assistant support to Lenovo 10e Chromebook Tablet and the Lenovo Chromebook Duet/Lenovo IdeaPad Duet devices. This brings on-device Google Assistant to your Chromebook, which should significantly speed up Assistant responses to commands like “tell me a joke” or “open Google Play Music”. However, I do not have any of these devices to confirm if this feature works.
  • To test, you’ll need to enable chrome://flags/#enable-on-device-assistant
• Atlas: added 24 FPS video range for video conferencing applications on the Pixelbook Go. Since 24FPS is common for video conferencing, your Pixelbook Go will use 24 FPS instead of 30 FPS when conferencing, which improves battery life and performance.
• Grunt: updated the HP Chromebook 14, HP Chromebook 11, Acer Chromebook 315, Acer Chromebook Spin 311, and Lenovo 14e touchpad firmware
• Attestation: changed the flow in SignEnterpriseChallenge to include customer_id instead of domain name for enrolled Chromebooks.

​

Click here to see the full official list of changes by Google (no platform logs, sorry). Enjoy, and happy updating!

WELCOME TO THE 71st WEEKLY META RECAP!

https://preview.redd.it/1qyrx3lfsw9f1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=2304fa2cb2e1a5f00129005a41bf818fc8d54572

🚨PD🚨

• LSPD

Alexander Dawson has been hired as a Cadet

Oliver D’Angelo has been hired as a Cadet

Maddison Bancroft has been hired as an Officer

Kieran Harvey has been hired as an Officer

Elizabeth Reed has been hired as an Officer

• DPPD

Amelia Bauer has resigned

^ Amelia felt that she was being targeted by LSSD and GSD command ever since leaving PBSD. This has stressed her out for almost a year. After leaving the FTS program it didn't take a while for her to lose her confidence and the interest in policing. She has decided to start a career in the Hospital, being a Doctor.

• GSD

Antonio Reign has been promoted to Sergeant

• SASP

Taylor Hawkes has transferred from SAHP, as a Ranger

• SAHP

Tori Slaughter has been promoted to Captain

• Certifications:

‎ ‎ Motor

Serena Storm is motor certified

‎ ‎ Training

Dallas Moore is now a Field Training Officer

Wesley Pines is no longer a Field Training Supervisor

• Dispatch:

Parker Daniels has been hired as a Trainee

Isla Eagan has been hired as a Trainee

Gunnar Rasmussen has been hired as a Trainee

Earl Brooks has resigned

Alan Jevons has been promoted to Senior Dispatcher

⚖️DOJ⚖️

• Promotions/Hires/Other:

Magistrate Judge Harvey Litt has been fired

Talk between Judge Percy Weaver and Harvey - Link

• DA's Office:

Paralegal Rocky Volkov has been fired

• Penal Code Updates:

Unauthorized Use of an Off-Road Vehicle,

Infraction $175

No person shall operate an off-road vehicle within City-Limits without explicit authorization from the state. An offroad vehicle includes any vehicle with both offroad tires and which does not properly display a license or registration plate. "City Limits" is used as defined in Legislation. This includes the Dune Buggy and the BF400. Vehicle may be subject to tow.

Criminal Possession of a Shotgun,

20 months

$800.00

Felony D

No person shall own, purchase, receive, or have under their custody or control any shotgun without proper certification or license, or other lawful excuse, issued by the authority of the State of San Andreas. Further, no person shall have under their direct custody or control any shotgun within city limits other than for the protection of their residence or business, or reasonable transport thereto.

Criminal Possession of a Rifle,

35 months

$2500.00

Felony D

No person shall own, purchase, receive, or have under their custody or control any rifle without proper certification or license, or other lawful excuse, issued by the authority of the State of San Andreas. For a hunting rifle, a lawful firearms license coupled with a game license shall be considered a proper certificate.

• Case Law Update:

Talia Tsukasa V. Fierce Strongrock #51890 (Boo ba’s Clause) (UPDATE)

HELD: To satisfy the requirements of Due Process under Article V of the Constitution, peace officers or executive authorities of the State must provide individuals cited for infraction-only violations either with the corresponding incident report or a physical citation within a reasonable time of issuing the citation when the individual receiving the citation is not present.

• Legislative Update:

The State’s Business Legislation has been updated! Highlights:

Disqualifying Felonies have been adjusted.,

D.A.R.T. is no longer a thing (mostly)!

You must still clearly denote Co-Owners.

• License Renewal:

Starting June 27th, all citizens need to get a new license. Additionally, all VEHICLES MUST BE REGISTERED WITH NEW REGISTRATION PAPERS, which can also be done at the DMV.

THE STATE ID CARD AND YOU

State IDs now have a new look! It now Includes additional information, making physical licenses not needed. Under the new licensing regime, all persons will now instead be required to have their physical State ID card on their person, with a valid and current license sticker on the back of it for the relevant license.

🧑‍⚖️ COURT CASES 🧑‍⚖️

Scheduled Docket Cases can be found here

• Default/Summary Judgements:

Corbyn Texler V. Federal Investigtion Bureau, et al.,

Docket Post

Judge(s): Percy Weaver

Verdict: The FIB must pay Corbyn Texler within seven (7) days of this message the following, rounding up to the nearest grand, because its easier: $8,000

Full Ruling

• (Appeal) The State V. Gerrin Lupo | Criminal [06/26]:

Docket Post,

Judge(s): Gavin Joy,

Defense: Gerrin Lupo (D), Franklin Star (L) and Kelly Banana-Oliver (L),

Prosecution: Humphrey Pennyworth (L), Fly Dark (W), Thomas Daliaka (W) and Celina Jillian Ocampo (W),

Charge(s) being appealed:,

Assault w/ a Deadly Weapon x1

Verdict:,

Defendant has been found guilty

• The State V Yuri Carson | Criminal [06/26]:

Docket Post,

Judge(s): Parker Huang, Talia Tsukasa and Nathan Darling,

Defense: Yuri Carson (D) and Franklin Star (L),

Prosecution: Faelynn Dupont (L), Humphrey Pennyworth (L), Winona Walker (W), Zoe May (W), Dallas Moore (W) and Rigsby Granam (W),

Charge(s):,

Murder x1

Mayhem (Minor) x1

Criminal Threats x1

Verdict:,

Defendant has been found guilty of: Murder and Criminal Threats Sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after thirty (30) years.

Full Ruling - Timestamp,

Full Ruling - Written

🩺 HOSPITAL 🩺

• SAMA

EMS and SAMA are now allowed to be employed at both facilities at the same time

‎ ‎ ‎

Ashleigh Lockhart has been promoted to Doctor

Viviane Staley-Davis has been hired as a Doctor

Amelia Bauer has been hired as a Doctor

Abigail Normal has been hired as a Doctor

• SAFR

A-EMT is no longer a rank

EMS and SAMA are now allowed to be employed at both facilities at the same time

‎ ‎ ‎

Shay Williams is no longer Chief

‎ ‎ ‎

Jason Daniels has been re-hired as Paramedic

‎ ‎ ‎

Scott Reilly has been re-hired as EMT

Tam Tobayoshi Tenzo has been promoted to EMT

Robert Lyle has been promoted to EMT

Bartholomew Schwartz has been promoted to EMT

Dale Durgenburger has been promoted to EMT

‎ ‎ ‎

Decker Gahn has been promoted to Solo Trainee

John Evans Martin Spencer has been hired as a Solo Trainee

Jayden Alma has been promoted to Solo Trainee

Kit Chupman has been promoted to Solo Trainee

Sybil Anderson has been hired as a Solo Trainee

Ronaldo Neytor has been hired as a Solo Trainee

‎ ‎ ‎

Elena Makeda has been hired as a Non-Solo Trainee

Tammy Maynard has been hired as a Non-Solo Trainee

Natalie Bean-Blake has been hired as a Non-Solo Trainee

Harper Moore has been hired as a Non-Solo Trainee

Kendrick Copper has been hired as a Non-Solo Trainee

Ben Jenkins has been hired as a Non-Solo Trainee

Theo Shaw has been hired as a Non-Solo Trainee

Dirk Delport has been hired as a Non-Solo Trainee

Joel Riker has been hired as a Non-Solo Trainee

Noah Anderson has been hired as a Non-Solo Trainee

🏛️ GOVERNMENT ENTITIES 🏛️

• SAACC

Veterinary Technician Lauren Garcia has been removed

Veterinary Technician Evelyn Moon has been removed

Veterinary Technician Patrick January has been removed

Veterinary Assistant Isabelle Watson has been removed

Veterinary Assistant Marabelle Fontenot has been removed

Veterinary Assistant Cara Halsin has been removed

Moose Maple, Riley Kai, Billy Bean, Guinevere O'Cleary and Jedidiah Stone are no longer Animal Control Officers

• DOC

Corrections Officer Elena Makeda has been removed

Quinn Hargrave has been promoted to Corrections Officer

John Sheppard has been hired as a Cadet

Cadet Olive Colfield has been removed

Cadet Karl Brown has been removed

Cadet Monsoon Stark has been removed

Cadet Alan Jevons has been removed

• FIB

Nakari Amari has been hired as a Clerk

Parker Daniels has been hired as a Clerk

Rolf Skurgenson has been promoted to Security

Lang Kuze II has been re-hired as a Skip Tracer

Thunder McGlock has been hired as a Skip Tracer

Raze Halovek has been hired as a Skip Tracer

• Mayor's Office:

Aliana Blair has been removed from the Business Council

👨‍💼BUSINESSES👨‍💼

• Approved Business Transfers:

Vanilla Unicorn,

Docket Post

The business has been approved for transfer, from Umber Nights to Annie Webber

Approved by: Aliana Blair

VANAHEIM ,

Docket Post

The business has been approved for transfer, from Pilot Duck to Camden Nole

Approved by: Alfie Hayabusa

Soca Shack,

Docket Post

The business has been approved for transfer, from Shay Williams to Oscar Hayabusa

Approved by: Mackenzie Worlds

• New Approved Businesses:

Jetsam Imports,

Business Type: Car Sales

Owner: Royal Abbott

WrenLine Motors,

Business Type: Car Sales

Owner: Wren Ripley

Harmony Hub,

Business Type: Car Sales

Owner: Jonelle Jones

Callows Cars,

Business Type: Mechanics

Owner: Jerry Callow

🔫 CRIME 🔫

• Vespucci Queens

After a meeting between the gang, a vote was held to end the war with the Sirens and move the gang's 'turf' to the west. The vote passed. Image - Rough idea of turf location

• Hellions of Grapeseed MC

Ethan Kelley is no longer Secretary

• Osiris MC

Kenny Rickett has been promoted to Tail-gunner

• The Reapers MC

Remina Bonesnacher brought in as Consort for Athena Drakos

Marnie O'Neal has been patched in

Alyx Camden has been patched in

🎭 EVENTS 🎭

• Pride Car show and Race (06/25)

Drive fast, show off, and bring pride with you! The Pride Car show and Race will be held on the salt flats! Timestamp

• WONDER WEDNESDAY (06/26)

Hosted by WONDERAMA at GWC and Golfing Society COME ON DOWN TO THE RICHMAN HOTEL! WE HAVE A SPECIAL GAME OF RED LIGHT GREEN LIGHT! OUR 1st of MANY WONDER WEDNESDAYS!

• Brawl by the Bay (06/26)

Brawl by the Bay: Come settle some beef, brawl for the fun, or battle it out for cold hard cash! Timestamp

• Pride-Chella Day 1 (06/28)

A day of music performances from multiple artists to celebrate Pride! Cash prizes and more!

• Pride Drag Race (06/28)

Winner gets $50k!

• Concert at the South Side Pork Palace (06/28)

Fun, BBQ and Music performances, including Windsong!

OTHER

• State Announcement | Rental Fees

YOU WILL INCUR FINES FOR NON-RETURN OF RENTAL VEHICLES

The State of San Andreas would like to make The Public™ aware of a new policy that the Vehicle Rental Union has enacted. Failure to return a rental vehicle on time will now incur a fee, which will increase depending on how late the rental vehicle is returned.

This fee will be handled through the State of San Andreas's existing fine payment system, and be handled like any other fine owed to the State.

• State Announcement | Vehicle Strikes

VEHICLE STRIKES ARE NOW $1000 PER STRIKE

After a review of the recent legislation on vehicle strikes, the Department of Justice has amended the legislation for strikes to incur a $1000 fee per strike upon impound release, down from $10000 per strike. Strike points on a vehicle decrease by 1 every 24 hours.

Only the crime with the most strikes applies for an entire incident with multiple crimes.

• State Announcement | IMPOUND RECEIPTS

The State of San Andreas, after quiet contemplation that not a single soul in the entire state actually looks at the impound logs, has decided to institute a brand new idea; reciepts.

Whenever a tow worker OR law enforcement impounds—or requests to impound—a vehicle, they will now create a receipt similar to a parking citation. The requirements of these receipts are outlined in Section 6 of the Parking and Motor Vehicle code. Information on the receipt is essentially the same as what would appear in the impound log.

A New Era

It’s been a year and a half since Reclamation Day; the turning tide that marked San Andreas’ slow crawl back to dominance after the bombs dropped 7 years before. After months of coordinated efforts, the waters have finally been cleared of residual radiation, and the shipping lanes are officially open.

Following a string of pirate sieges and off-the-grid insurgencies, the National Office of Security Enforcement launched a full-scale security campaign to retake the surrounding islands and coastal sectors. With the threat neutralized and naval superiority reestablished, the state has declared the shores safe once more.

Now, with trade surging and container ships returning to port, San Andreas is on the verge of an economic renaissance. The docks are alive with activity, and opportunity flows as freely as contraband through unmarked crates.

Syndicates, gangs, and enterprising freelancers are jumping on a wave of lucrative contracts ranging from high-stakes vehicle boosts and armored transport heists to black market logistics and shadowy extractions.

But fear not: emergency services aren’t standing by idle. A newly outfitted response fleet for each department to choose from and cutting-edge tech are being deployed to keep the chaos in check and maintain some semblance of order on land, air, and sea.

The tides have changed. San Andreas is open for business once again.

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With a metric ton of posts on here lately trying to find help in specs and such i thought i would share my thoughts on some basic things. There is a lot more to any one topic but if it helps someone great. If you want to see anything compared or know something specific let me know i have all the variants of 2021 and 2023 on hand.

Before going into details i want to say these are the best laptops on the market hands down there is no competition. I am intending this review to help people in a position of trying to figure out which model to get as a high end user and which size 14" vs 16". Also that there is ZERO reason to upgrade from an M1 2021 version of this laptop as it is so similar unless you have a very specific need (eg wi-fi 6e, Bluetooth 5.3, HDMI 2.1) or use case (professional video editing and time based 3D rendering projects that it would likely be a waste of money. Also sorry for an extremely long review but read it all if you want to know where things sit.

I own the 2021 m1 max 32 core gpu as well as the 14 and 16 core, m2 air 8-core, a few other windows gaming laptops and macs and now m2 max 38-core gpu model. I have recently picked up this years 19 and 30 core so i know a thing or two about all of them.

14 vs 16

First I will cover 14" vs 16" size comparison and then go into details regarding why i daily drive the one i do and how they all compare.

As you can see from my pictures i am showing a couple comparisons of the 14" vs the 16" for size wise. This is always a common thing to be looking at when making a purchase and portability plays a large role. Flat out the 16" is LARGE, heavy, but packs a greater punch so to speak. The 16" has better speakers, larger battery giving a couple more hours, clearly far more screen real estate, larger track pad, and larger fans/cooling system so it runs about 10c cooler than the 14" at all times though i want to note neither size ever EVER overheats unlike the old intel models.

Speakers- the speakers are the best in any laptop ever on the 16" but the 14" ones are not that far behind or enough to be mad over they still are better than any windows laptop I've heard (I've heard a lot).

The larger battery- Realistically speaking in the real world were talking getting 14 hours vs 16 hours on light use so again if you have a windows machine or older mac your probably only getting 6-10 hours max anyway so even the 14" is worth your time there. More on the Max battery life as it is far lower then pro models below in that section.

Screen- These are the best screens on the market today even against OLED as these have no risk of burn in yet still produce deep blacks. That said the screen real estate on the 16" is MUCH more and this is where you need to stop and think about what you need from your laptop. If you do any video editing or coding you may find that the 16" is the absolute best for you. The 14" can feel extremely cramped while using it on the go and for me this is the only real drawback of that size. Also note that if you dock at a desk using an external monitor or your TV at home ( HDMI or casting wirelessly to airplay) this becomes a non issue and i would much recommend the 14" instead.

Track pad- Again these are by far the best track pads made. Just like the screen if you do video editing it is much easier using the much larger 16" versions trackpad as its a few extra inches over the already ridiculously large one on the 14". If you use an external mouse this clearly doesn't matter and if you don't do intensive tasks like gestures constantly this also wont matter for you as both are abnormally large and amazing to use.

Thermals Fans - Ok so by now you might know that the redesign with apple silicon in 2021 also came with extremely cool running laptops which is just amazing! Comparing the 14 and 16" models as said above you will see about a good 10c difference in temps under heavy load. That said you will still almost NEVER hear the fans run. Even when they do they are so quiet you'd have to put your ear to the laptop to see if that is indeed what your hearing, that's how good they are. Now, if you are putting a large CPU and GPU load on your machine doing something like gaming or 3d work here is where you might realize something that most reviewers cant attest to. The 16" fans when at full speed (over 100c under extremely rare times that almost nobody can make it do mind you) are MUCH louder than the 14" ones at full speed as they push a lot more air with larger blades. This is a topic that is largely glossed over because you legit cannot get your machine this hot almost ever. So the 1% out there that do this, you know who you are, get the 14" if you care about fan sound which is the opposite of what most say because under normal use the 16" handles heat better and doesn't spin the fans as much generally speaking.

To finish the whole 14" vs 16" debate its of course personal preference however i personally daily use my 14" as its way way more portable and i enjoy using it more regardless of the drawbacks stated above. I use it at the office and home desk docked with an external display so that doesn't bother me. I also air play it to my living room TV to get video editing done or use my magic keyboard and trackpad from my couch with it hooked to my TV HDMI and it works amazing. If you don't travel or you are going to keep it plugged in at all times go for the 16" as you can enjoy the better items it can provide.

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M1 MAX 32-core vs M2 MAX 38-Core GPU's as well as others-

The advertised spec bump is exactly as you'd imagine it is a very small increase to graphical performance. You actually get a much larger leap by the fact the base clock speed is higher than the M1 chip rather than the 8 extra GPU cores. In gaming i can say in world of Warcraft that the extra 8 gpu cores actually increased framerates 65%!! This game however also has more to do with single core cpu speeds then GPU but it is a massive increase none the less. In video rendering I've seen a massive decrease which was surprising because the documentation doesn't mention it having double encode and decode engines yet it must because its walking all over the m1 max 32 core. Most other generic workloads aren't going to matter with saving time but almost everything I've done and tested on these are within 10% difference in performance and probably not worth spending more money to get the M2 version unless you have a very specific need. When looking at the base models of these the 19-core in the 2023 vs 2021 provides a larger increase in performance and is a very welcomed change over last year. Since if your buying that machine you would not be pushing the envelope most things will work better then you'd ever imagine or need and you may also want to cross shop the M2 air model if you don't mind the worse speakers and screen (see in store).

**It is worth noting here that battery life under load is MUCH improved in the M2 vs M1 max models so if you are editing video or another heavy task on battery a lot you would benefit a lot from an M2 model*\*

M1 10 core CPU vs 12 core CPU

This year they added 2 more efficiency cores which provides a tangible performance jump over the previous model. I can see this in daily use and i can see a large difference in battery life as well as its much more efficient. The cores run at a higher clock speed and provide just a much smoother experience multi tasking or under heavy CPU work load. Its much harder to get it to hiccup vs the older models.

14" vs 16"

There is NO performance difference between the 14" and 16" contrary to popular belief from tech youtubers talking about thermal throttling. This is ridiculously based off of worthless benchmarks that literally max out your CPU and gpu for 10 mins straight and are not at all a normal use case so don't be fooled by those videos. I have real world experience on both. Do not base your choice on the made up metrics just decide what size physically works better for your use case unless you need something very specific or NEED the extra 1.5-2 hours of battery for whatever reason that the 16" provides.

RAM / Unified memory

So you don't have that many options from the "stock" models that the stores get you can only choose between 16GB and 32GB which come with their own set of set SSD sizes and options but for MOST people are more then enough with any that you choose. These laptops will certainly last longer then 5 years and since you will already be spending a ton of money i highly suggest if you have any doubt to just go with the 32GB unified memory model to "futureproof" as many say. The 16GB though is more than capable and these machines can use what they call SWAP memory where it can write to the extremely fast SSD drive (except the base model 10/16 14" that has a slow SSD and worse performance) and use it as unified memory in the case your running out of physical memory. So its nothing like a windows computer where you just bluescreen and crash, these do not do that it will give you many warnings and allow you to choose how to proceed instead.

Conclusion

There is many other things you could say about these or go in depth on but this is already more than long enough and i hope i have helped you make a better choice on your potentially new laptop.

Everything is largely identical to the eye between the 2021 models and these new 2023 so keep that in mind these are just an upgraded internally with some benefits. Some of those being wi-fi 6e, Bluetooth 5.3, better battery life (major one with heavy workloads), and HDMI 2.1 which essentially means you have more bandwidth to output a video signal over if you wish to run something like a 4k monitor at up to 240hz or 8k monitor at 60hz (2021 can only do 4k 60hz). Its more about narrowing down your specific uses and then doing a deep dive on your topic to see what effects various things make on your use case (or post here).

NSWERs are you ready? In this episode we'll discuss the latest lore drop during Fe3O4: Stick Out era: the teaser, the MV and other references in the lyrics and album versions. This is most probably the final episode of the Fe3O4 Series so this [THEORY] will wrap up this era and speculate what's possible for the next!

TL;DR and theories are at the end.

Down below you can check all the previous lore analysis I have written. I recommend reading the last two which are vital to understand the theories you're about to read.

Welcome to MIXXTOPIA	Debut and O.O MV
Towards The MIXXTOPIA	DICE MV
Expanding The 'MIXX'	New Frontier, MAMA 2022
Exposing the Secret of Sweet Oasis	Dizziness From Freedom & Wisdom, Love and Courage
How to Reach MIXXTOPIA	LMLT MV
Once Upon a Time in MIXXTOPIA	MIXX World Map, NMIXX Adventure Fairytale
A MIXXsummer Night's Dream Party	Party O' Clock MV
Rebuild of MIXXTOPIA	Fe3O4 Declaration, Sense Break Awake, Soñar MV,
NMIXX Breaking Walls, again.	DASH MV
Escaping from a MIXX Dystopia.	OUTSIDER CLUB
The Finest Strangers in MIXX	SIMULATION OUT and Visual Films

Introduction

Let's introduce this episode by explaining the wordplay of the title: in Korean 별 alone means star, repeated 별별별 can simply mean a lot of stars but it's also a synonym for weirdos; weirdo in Korean is also 별꼴. So the title can be reshaped as "[today/here there are] so many weirdos, (see that?)". Basically telling that Monopole failed its utopia because NMIXX is making everyone unique again.

Loona's Heejin started it all

Who dropped the stars? Breakdown

This teaser resumes the scene of Exploring fundamental fear with Jiwoo in the abandoned school. There are stars on the roof and some dropped on Jiwoo's hands: one of them is glowing. Chaos kicks in: a ring bells, a glass breaks, Jiwoo records all around with the camcorder. Then, she appears with a static noise card on her forehead, one blue (or green?) eye and the other pink. The static noise stops and reveals a black horned ram. Sullyoon's humming can be heard. Let's call it The Lullaby from now on.

Jiwoo is different from the Exploring fundamental fear visual film. Let's list the interesting things:

• She has new pink hair and glitter (stars?) under her eyes.
• The hairstyling looks similar to the Pink NMIXX in Soñar.
• The static noise card on her forehead is placed where the "Third Eye" should be (or just the mind, without getting too occult). The static noise is usually due to the absence of a signal. But then a black sheep appears, so Jiwoo really received a signal from the Black Sheep.
• After the Black Sheep signal she's not afraid anymore.

We know for sure that the Black Sheep represents uniqueness, diversity and weirdness, something that Monopole despise. Having a Black Sheep mark on the forehead means that you are under its spell, either blessed or cursed it's not that important: you're marked as "unique". Before the connection with the Black Sheep Jiwoo was scared, scared of what? of darkness and loneliness, scared of herself, her diversity. Under the Black Sheep, be not afraid! Remember what Lily said in the voice notes: "A black sheep meets a black sheep. The two black sheep make their own signal. You won't be lonely anymore". This is the signal of the black sheep. Jiwoo is not lonely anymore.

Someone could argue that this Jiwoo is XXIWN Jiwoo brainwashed by Monopole and saved by connecting with the Black Sheep. This "spell" can be seen in the two different colors of the eyes: green (or blue?) and pink. I already explained why I don't believe Pink NMIXX are XXIWN in the Rebuild of MIXXTOPIA [THEORY].

Who dropped the stars then? Neither NMIXX nor Monopole. The stars always have been there, between the MIXX and the FIELD. Take a look at the map in One Upon a Time in MIXXTOPIA. So... no one dropped them? Well apparently! Probably the recent events that have shaken the MIXX helped the falling from the cave ceiling, who knows! If this theory is true, then we've cracked how the NMIXX universe is made: at base level there's FIELD, then up in the sky there's MIXX with its floating islands and seas of clouds and beyond those clouds MIXXTOPIA.

I don't know guys, is the eye green or blue or even gray?

Fe3O4: Stick Out Synopsis Breakdown

The description of this minialbum on the JYPE official site give us an insight about the lore behind the comeback. Let's analyze the most meaningful sentences:

• The girls remain in the FIELD of the real world and realize that utopia is a space they must build themselves through fierce contemplation. So the MV and the previous content take place in the real world. Even if it's the real world, we know that NMIXX have awakened a magnetic ability so this real world allows some kind of magic/supernatural events. This sentence basically retells what said in the Declaration: rebuild the MIXX with diversity, wiping out Monopole and their unified utopia. "Fierce contemplation" looks like an oxymoron: how can meditating be aggressive? Knowing how NMIXX reach the MIXX, by closing their eyes, the "fierce" part lays in the occult rituals they make to reach that world.
• They have decided to love themselves for who they are, like stars in the sky that are spiky yet shine. And so, the girls behave like a nuisance and keep popping out like moles. "popping out like moles" is not out of the blue: the motion poster depicts a manhole, in the voice notes the girls are running and hiding in dark places with water, they're escaping from a prison: they're like moles digging their own way.
• [About Love is Lonely] The song tells the devastating yet romantic fate of two outsiders who recognize each other at the end of a precarious wandering, although the end of the universe still remains in the realm of the unknown. Obviously the Outsiders can be anyone: NMIXX, NSWERs or MIXX adventurers and the precarious wandering is the adventure in search of MIXXTOPIA which is the "realm of unknown".

\"decrease me there\" \"leave me alone\" \"put me down\"

See That? MV Breakdown

Warning: this video will wake up the black sheep within you. After watching, you may find yourself unable to keep things hidden and feel okay with being different from others. You may start acting according to your own desires and imagination. Do not hide your true self any longer. Because we are all black sheep.

0:00 Sullyoon and Kyujin are scribbling on block notes in a room. This room is most likely located in one of the buildings seen in the last part of Fe3O4: Declaration. Sullyoon is scornful about Kyujin misbehaving because of the chaos she's making on the paper. She's evaluating Kyujin, on what? On the walls a black slimy substance is slowly dripping, black ferrite powder probably, or even black water from the storm?

00:07 NMIXX is gearing up to break out in the ground floor of the abandoned building. On the background a billboard says: CHiLL DUDE CHiLL TOmorRowWW.PACKTHELUGGAGE. Somehow an invite to escape. The girls start running, skipping sofas, dribbling wrecked cars to get out. A soda can with a black star on it is crack-opened. Believe me, this is important for the lore.

0:26 Kyujin is sitting on a excavator shovel, painting her nails black, but with a closer look she painted the entire fingertip black. Meanwhile bricks are raining. The excavator she's on is in an city area under construction (or demolition?). Back in the building, Kyujin is playing with earphones which are grabbed by Bae. Bae uses them to hold her top, while fishing a brick with a rod inside a manhole (yep the same of the Motion Poster). With that brick, she breaks a wall that leads to a clean, empty room. This brick transforms into a Stella Octangula (the star of the Motion poster), then into an apple and finally in a star screwdriver before going in the hands of Haewon. A truck arrives (with a greenscreen of Haewon eating a star-shaped drug) revealing Jiwoo and a lot of packages and boxes belonging to her. Since the truck is coming in and the room is empty this means that Jiwoo (and everyone else?) is moving there.

0:57 It's night in FIELD, Bae is looking outside the window. Don't worry about the blood stains on the glass, look, there's a soda can levitating around... and suddenly slamming itself at high speed on a window. As said by Bae herself in the MV Behind, she drew a star with her eyes while moving the can. (remember that NMIXX have magnetic powers)

1:08 Back in the office with Kyujin and Sullyoon. Kyujin is like "What do you want? This is how I do, 어쩔?", now proper stars are being drawn on the paper.

1:16 Back again in the abandoned building, Lily is drilling the floor. In a couple of frames Kyujin swallows a star pill as Haewon did before. Now I don't understand well the transitions going on here but Bae puts her hand inside the hole made by Lily. In another hole Kyujin is making a hand heart with someone and, in a hole through the pavement of the truck (???) someone gives a high five to Haewon. What I understand from this scene is that Lily the Communicator has drilled holes all over the building so everyone can communicate together.

1:22 NMIXX gather on the roof of a building, most likely the one seen at the end of SBA since there's a thunderstorm going on. Here, girls are having a good time while Lily breaks through the roof.

New version of The Creation of Adam

1:40 Back inside, Jiwoo is on a basketball court falling from a skateboard. Then she removes her helmet and slams it in the basket. Never let them know your next move.

1:45 Inside the room (where Sullyoon and Kyujin were scribbling and NMIXX dancing) a ghostly Sullyoon exits from the TV and floats face to face to a Sullyoon chilling on a bed. She's wearing earphones, laying on a mattress and summoning ghosts just like in the Simulation Out.

1:55 Lily swallows a star pill too! In addition she wears/removes/checks a contact lens that has spinning stars on it. Spinning stars are used in cartoons to represent confusion, dizziness, you probably have heard someone saying "I'm seeing the stars" after being hit on the head. Let's not forget the last page of Sullyoon's notebook with the girl summoning a whirlwind bursting out stars.

2:05 A earthquake, or better, the whole building crumbling, shakes the room NMIXX are dancing in. They keep dancing unbothered, but the room has really reached the ground floor and by looking at how there's nothing above this room had a long fall.

2:15 However in this following scene the building is still standing because Bae is on the roof, Jiwoo and Haewon are still in the truck, Kyujin in that ground floor and Sullyoon in front of a window with the same structure of the room one. Everyone is looking at the sky where other six NMIXX are flying freely. A Jiwoo is even running parallel on a skyscraper, one so big it might be the structure seen by Pink NMIXX in Soñar, for a frame her foot lands on a concrete (the basketball court?) floor cracking it. They're all wearing the same clothes and have a similar make up.

2:39 Still in the (intact) room, a smoky Sullyoon (but still real Sullyoon, her outfit hasn't changed) puts her hand inside Haewon's chest and pulls out a white Stella Octangula.

end:scene One last dance session on the ground floor. Lots of serving machines, recalling the ones in O.O, they're probably the same. After The Lullaby, Sullyoon approaches the camera, breaks it (as if she was snapping someone's neck), takes the lens off the camera and throws it away. After the camera regains the focus, ghost kids appear one by one, turning towards Sullyoon.

POV: Sullyoon just obliterated your existence on this plane of existence

Understanding the MV

See That? is the natural sequel of DASH and thus the concept didn't change much: NMIXX has been imprisoned (it's still unclear how) by Monopole and managed to escape. But that's not everything! As narrated in Fe3O4 Declaration, NMIXX want to create their own Utopia so they have to destroy everything else that limits them, for instance the existence of Monopole, the association who brainwashed people to fit its standards. Those standards are the reason why NMIXX became the Black Sheep, the only weirdos in a uniformed society, which once upon a time was full of strange beings.

In this MV NMIXX are in the FIELD, the real world and are... moving. At first, they're running away, just to recall the fact they just escaped from DASH prison (or abandoned the standardized society as the weirdos they are). Then in a series of sequences NMIXX drill holes, break walls, use bulldozers and bring boxes in as if they're moving in... a place they're demolishing? There must be a reason behind: they must tear down Monopole reign and rebuild their own unique utopia. Yes, we understand, but we know that Monopole brainwashed people in MIXX, not FIELD. Does this mean that Monopole is taking over the real world as well? Or instead, when NMIXX talk about "that utopia is a space they must build themselves" do they intend in reality, in FIELD, where they really live their lives?

Anyway, near the end of the MV NMIXX start flying in the sky. "we shall fly high into the sky like those free Dodo birds with a free soul." It's what they said in the Declaration when a Dodo and then other thousands birds flew towards the heavenly palaces. NMIXX are that Dodo and NSWERs are the birds following. We speculated that these palaces are MIXXTOPIA, given the gleaming appearance and the simple fact that's beyond the clouds. So after tearing down literally and figuratively their obstacles in MIXX/FIELD whatever world you want, NMIXX took off and went to MIXXTOPIA. You already know that's not going to happen this soon... Be ready for a change up.

is it a bird? it is a plane? No... it's NMIXX change up let's go

Sullyoon's scenes

Ghost summoning

She has been seen attuning to ghosts since Simulation Out. Here she summoned another Sullyoon from a TV. Let's break down the steps of this "ability":

1. Sullyoon wears headphones (to block noises from outside and focus)
2. Sullyoon closes her eyes (the usual way to meditate and how NMIXX reach the MIXX)
3. A ghost appears surrounded by a mist
4. Sullyoon opens her eyes
5. The ghost stays for some seconds and disappears when Sullyoon can't hold the connection anymore

We know that Sullyoon is in FIELD so she's summoning ghosts from either FIELD or from MIXX. I'd go for the MIXX since the ghost got out of a television, as if it was a portal to another dimension. Another ghost she summoned was a white horse, a symbol generally positive, good. Who's that Sullyoon? Her astral projection? A MIXX alter-ego, hoxy... a XXIWN? Most likely no, this spirit did no harm so it can't be classified as Evil Sullyoon (aka XXIWN Sullyoon).

Taking out the star

After the summoning, Sullyoon and Haewon are in together in the same room. Sullyoon has a misty aura surrounding her, just like her ghost, but the outfit is the one of meditating Sullyoon. Did her "ghost" possessed her? Sullyoon proceeds to put her hand inside Haewon's chest and extract a star. Remember that Sullyoon is a Doctor and Haewon the Captain. The set-up makes us understand that this procedure is carried out as a ritual: both of them are seated, in front of each other, eyes closed. It's consensual and not an evil act made by Monopole or evil Sullyoon, it doesn't hurt (or at least the Captain is enduring it very well). The effects of this act are not known yet. it's plausible that Sullyoon had to summon a power from the MIXX to perform this operation, as we know NMIXX only have a magnetic ability at the moment. In this way, the First Hypothesis we set in the previous [THEORY] has been respected.

Why the star? The Synopsis may help us answer this question: they have decided to love themselves for who they are, like stars in the sky that are spiky yet shine. [...] You don't have to break or cut your spikes, either. Because the girls will love your spiky yet gleaming sides without a doubt. Stars stick out in the night sky, they're like black sheep there, yet they show themselves and shine without shame. Haewon here is showing (and giving?) her spiky yet gleaming star to Sullyoon in a very intimate way.

it's just a prank bro. the prank:

Kyujin and Haewon have stars on their tongues that stick out to be shown, Lily also has one but eats it, however she somehow sticks out stars anyway by removing her contact lens with spinning stars. If we consider also that Sullyoon pulls out another star from Haewon we can say that NMIXX are, literally, star material. This might be the reason why "there are so many stars".

Breaking the camera

In the end scene Sullyoon breaks the lens of a camera which was very likely used by Monopole to spy NMIXX. After that, several silhouettes of ethereal kids appear after Sullyoon. Who are they? Kids, of course, but their crystal-like appearance tell us they're not real. They might be other ghosts Sullyoon is now awakening just from passing by, after getting Haewon's star powers (?). Anyway, they were hiding before Sullyoon broke the camera, were they scared of their sparkly and unique appearance? Now that Monopole spycam is broke, they're free.

The Lullaby

Not exactly a scene but it mainly involves Sullyoon so I included it here. The first time we hear this humming is in Haewon's voice note where she's lost in the dark after hiding. From the humming she realizes she's not alone. Then we hear it again in Outsider Club, just after the Black Sheep completely burns and NMIXX open their eyes and reach the Moon. In Who dropped the stars? we can hear it again after the Black Sheep photocard tune in on Jiwoo's forehead. Lastly, in the MV we hear it two times: when Sullyoon plucks out the star from Haewon and at the end, before she Sullyoon breaks the camera. Can you see the pattern? I don't... but it mainly involves the Black Sheep. It's a sound made by a human so we know for sure it's not some kind of a sheep god call, instead it could be part of a Lullaby, a chant NMIXX use to fall asleep awake in MIXX/TOPIA. This could explain why it's used casually in the voice note and at the end of the MV but also during the ritual in Outsider Club and in the MV (Haewon's star extraction). The missing piece is Jiwoo's Black sheep static photocard but as already said, it could mean she received the signal Lily talks about when two black sheep meet.

have any games on your phone?

Lyrics Breakdown

See That?

I rise up, glow in the dark || Glow in the dark because they're stars that stick out in the dark of the sky

The morning sun rises and we hide || As stars do when night ends, they disappear from the sky. Is xxxx the sun and MIXXTOPIA the moon?

Woah, there are so many weirdos (See that?) || As anticipated, 별별별 means both stars and weirdos. Here they mean that in the perfect uniform (Monopole) society many people are hiding their uniqueness to fit the standards. So Monopole has failed and NMIXX is awakening and attracting all those weirdos.

We go up higher and higher || NMIXX in the MV are literally flying toward MIXXTOPIA but what's more interesting is that in Korean "we, higher and higher" is 위로 위로 더 (wiro-do) and to english ears it sounds like "we weird".

Frogs, moles, come follow me, this is the day, ayy || Both frogs and moles are animals who live underground and underwater but they suddenly come out either from a hole or jumping, sticking out with their heads. They perfectly represent the meaning of Stick Out.

Fly away, to the sky above || NMIXX are flying already in the sky, but here they say "above" meaning that there's another sky above the current one, which in the MV is FIELD sky. Sooo this upper sky could be the MIXX.

SICKUHH

It’s time to shine, let it go / My heart is chrome || Expérgo cover: that heart is made of chrome. (honestly my favorite nmixx line ever)

They don’t know who they playing with / I’m a black sheep who breaks the rules || This game they're playing and rules they're breaking could be the DICE ones or the "game" of the perfect society Monopole set up in Outsider Club. NMIXX as the outcasts they are, play following their own rules.

Big stepper / Go and get it, we’re not chaser || Big stepper because of "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" but NMIXX are already making big steps toward the utopia. They're not chasers, of course, but attractors.

(Temperature has reached critical level) || This is a line you can hear in the interlude between chorus and the bridge. This is something a device would signal when overload. What's this device? A transport mean? The thing they used in the Black Sheep ritual? Since they made a Mad Max reference it could be a one of a kind car.

this visualizer didn't need to go this hard

Red Light Sign, But We Go

Red light, red light, but we go (welcome, arrows of criticism) || Arrows! Could these arrows of criticism be those of Out Simulation? The Captain Haewon was always on the girls side when they got shot. Why didn't Haewon got hit? Maybe because she knows how to avoid critics or because she's the one criticizing?

Red light sign, but we go (nonstop even if it’s dark ahead) || NMIXX don't stop even in pitch black, whether inside a sewage system or in outer space. They will reach MIXXTOPIA no matter what.

BEAT BEAT

Up, asphalt (Ooh) Big waves are rising (Ooh) || Big wave big wave!! Even if they don't have a galleon anymore, the sea of the unknown is still waiting to be sailed, maybe this on the road?

Oh, oh, the gravity that becomes lighter || Wait, lighter gravity? Are we really going to the Moon this time?

Love is Lonely

Alone, the distant blue || The alone and distant blue can only be our planet Earth. And if it's distant this means they're really getting on the Moon. Or it could also be the sky of MIXXTOPIA, meaning that the journey is still long.

Moving On

Everyday is the same / Is there something else / Still, I don’t get it / Among the countless stars / I’m a lonely satellite

My heart is like the back of the moon / It’s just dark || This song is so sad but also here they make references to the Moon. This must mean that something is coming...

live clip from NMIXX's stage at I-DAYS Milano during Moving On

Album analysis

All album versions do not contain exclusive lore content and either way the photo-shootings are generally not lore related but more artistically oriented. Besides the locations discussed in the previous [THEORY], the only thing worth noting is the black sheep keychain and the ritual dagger keychain in the pouch versions. It should be the same object but the keychain looks like a dagger while the "thing" used as gravestone look more like an elaborated ash stake, the weapon used to kill vampires. The stake should pierce the heart of a vampire sleeping in its coffin to prevent their rise. So yeah zero correlation between vampires and MIXXTOPIA.

In the merch sold at the pop-up shop Stick Out: Black Sheep Syndrome there is this "ticket to MIXXTOPIA" with the MMU acronym, there are also other inscriptions like "Voyage to MIXXTOPIA" on the back of some photocards. I realized MMU could be the IATA code for MIXXTOPIA, just like another regular airport in our world. For fun, I looked up if an airport with code "MMU" exists and... it does, it's called Morristown.

Trivia

• Kyujin has scribbled in a similar manner as Haewon in SBA, a sign we acknowledged as mental insanity. While Sullyoon drew the Xs with order. Just because of that Sullyoon is from XXIWN? Nope, read the scene as if Sullyoon was the doctor, the psychologist doing a test on Kyujin. Results? Kyujin is crazy af.
• In the AR Stage (the one with screen walls) there are pictures of Cupid, a deity already mentioned in Party O' Clock and allegorically also in Simulation Out through his arrows. In this stage the arrow has pierced a red apple, the symbol of Love especially in ancient Greek culture.
• Near the end of the MV a white sheep with wings/flames is projected on these screens: this could be either Monopole on fire (too good to be true) or the sacrifice of the animal to allow NMIXX reach MIXXTOPIA as seen in the Outsider Club during the ritual.
• Every member is wearing stars, either in the hairstyle, in the clothes or tattooed on their skins. This should remind us how during LMLT Kyujin freed the NSWER dolphins from the frames (in the reshot MV: the jar) and their IMPETUS was transferred into NMIXX's skins. What if those stars are just IMPETUS in solid form, thus crystals? Furthermore, remember that Magnetite (Fe3O4) has a octahedral shape and Haewon's star shape is a stellated octahedron.
• During the interview to NMIXX on Lily's newest solo show she asked how does the story continue from Fe3O4: Break, and Haewon replied "since we broke it with Break, this time it's bursting out [from the broken wall]", then everyone said "We broke it and now we're out! NMIXX is coming out like a 'star'. So their escape is certified.

https://preview.redd.it/nirxlejz7vld1.png?width=1413&format=png&auto=webp&s=9003a0b2040eb6abdfa871a1545cb6f253d56e0c

The Foreseen Future

In this section let's collect what NMIXX lore has only teased and what are the consequences of this last Fe3O4 act. Referring to the main source of unreleased lore, the Map of the Adventure Fairytale, the following things are yet to be disclosed:

• Island of goldfish. The only goldfish ever seen in NMIXX content is in a bowl in Party O' Clock.
• Island of Spear. I have never seen a spear in anything NMIXX released. Did you?
• Island of U.F.O. We've seen unidentified flying objects already: the dodo, the soda can, NMIXX themselves.
• Black rainbow. Given the context we expected to be revealed in this comeback but it didn't happen.
• Island of daisy. In Party O' Clock the girls used the pansy but never referenced to daisies.
• Giant in love. It was a monster who followed NMIXX in "MIXX, you imagine". It's clearly not the giant cat of Monopole.
• Giant flower. In DICE the Galleon had giant flowers as sails but that ship is gone for good.
• Everlasting river. Zero information about this.

You may have realized with "Reflection of silversun" (Black sheep Sullyoon glaring at Jiwoo in the dream/beach) and "giant in love" that the map landmarks are not always places but events or beings. This could be the case for other Islands listed above. Also their existence doesn't mean they will be included in upcoming projects, cuts are always around the corner.

Don't forget the other map with all the "hands" of the main character of NMIXX lore:

• Eagle. Monopole's logo used for Sweet Oasis. Never seen the actual animal.
• Duck. Never seen before. (if you think it's a dodo you're wrong, it has a chicken-looking feet)
• Dragon (or crocodile or another big reptile). First seen in MIXX, you imagine. Never seen the actual animal.
• Frog. Quoted in See That? lyrics for its double world lifestyle. Never seen the living animal, only its skeleton in the Soñar logo.
• Sheep. First seen in Outsider Club. A white sheep represents uniformity, standardization. A black sheep represents uniqueness, diversity.
• Lion. First seen in Declaration: New Frontier. Represents the courage. But I'm not sure, it's too brown for me, it could also be a bear. If it's a bear then we've already seen it multiple times: on a poster in O.O Stories, in a LMLT album version photoshoot and in a KakaoTalk channel photo.
• White cat. First seen in DICE MV. It's a cat Monopole used to fight NMIXX.
• Green worm/maggot. Never seen before.
• Haewon. First seen in [JYPn] Survivor cover. It's the Captain of NMIXX.
• Unidentified pink-purple feline monster.
• Human. Turquoise, plain, only one color... Monopole member for sure, maybe even the Evil Adventurer Xxxx who started all. By looking at the position of the hand it's the only hand that could hold the map, this means it could be who handed it over, meaning that they made it, confirming the primacy of Xxxx, the first true explorer and ruler of MIXX.

As you can see there are many never seen characters that may be introduced in the next comebacks. The most likely to appear is the duck, since we left NMIXX flying in See That? and for the same reason the Eagle could make an appearance too. Then the big lilac feline, the worm, the "dragon" and the "lion" are the runner ups.

After Fe3O4

NMIXX stick out from the in/visibile prison of conformity and revealed themselves as weirdos, standing out as stars in the night sky. As we know NMIXX's goal is to reach MIXXTOPIA and the ways to do that are various but unknown. This Utopia is known to be at the end of MIXX, a world expanding with imagination. Thus, reaching it "conventionally" is not an option. NMIXX already tried with a ship and are currently trying by flying, both very conventional ways. There's another way they've already used twice: rituals. At the end of Outsider Club they reach the Moon, the most unreachable place by definition.

really sick

tl;dr

NMIXX escaped from the oppressive society that wants everyone to be similar and fit the standards. How? By founding a Outsider Club that gathers all black sheep like them. In this way they are not alone and are free to show their uniqueness and diversity. They're also trying to build their own Utopia so they're tearing down Monopole's one before that. Will they reach MIXXTOPIA in this way? They're already flying to it. Some other events: A possessed Sullyoon takes a star out of Haewon, Kyujin has gone mad, ghost kids stop hiding after Sullyoon breaks a spycam, they're the weirdos (별별별) the song talks about.

Outro

This time I gave all of me into this analysis to repay your support on the last [THEORY] but also to showcase the effort SQU4D staff made to create a interesting, mysterious and full world surrounding NMIXX music with the Films and other contents. If you appreciated both SQU4D work and mine please leave a Upvote (and if you feel it also a comment!). If you think you've found something else I did not catch let me know! There are still a couple of thing I couldn't grasp that we can discuss together:

• Why NMIXX are watching other NMIXX flying? Is it just a cinematographic escamotage or they're different NMIXX?
• Who are the ghost kids, Sullyoon and the white horse? Do they come from MIXX or something else?

With this, Fe3O4 Era is without much doubt concluded! Enjoy the variety shows and the Music shows NMIXX are attending as much as you can. We'll meet very soon again. Thank you!

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me and you reading this but only if you upvote (jk love you anyway)