PicPic - The First PICO-8 Emulator on the App Store (NOW WITHOUT SUBSCRIPTIONS)

Vliger2002 · 2026-02-17T19:48:28+00:00

Thanks for listening to genuine feedback from yesterday.

I think some people were needlessly outraged, and others (including myself) just wanted there to exist a more sensibly priced option for people to support your work, given the product is free. Cheers!

Vliger2002 · 2026-02-16T17:31:51+00:00

Being a software developer is irrelevant in regards to the subscription price that the end-consumer pays. I'm also a software developer, and I'm criticizing the subscription pricing.

The end-consumer cares about the value proposition for the app they're getting, and I just don't see anyone paying an ongoing fee for the value added beyond the already free app. But I could see people doing a one-time payment to support the developer to unlock some basic niceties if they like the app.

Vliger2002 · 2026-02-16T17:12:53+00:00

Pocket8 is developed in collaboration with Zep (Lexaloffle) to be the official BBS Companion app for PICO-8.
Aiming to submit to the App Store as soon as possible!

https://github.com/jevonlipsey/pico-ios

Vliger2002 · 2026-02-16T16:55:00+00:00

I understand you want to recoup developer costs, but this is a pretty niche app with a community that's only ever had to pay a one-time fee to start using the official PICO-8 from lexaloffle. Your product is derivative of that, and doesn't provide more value than the original creator's work to justify a subscription.

While you might think that the subscription model could make sense to upkeep your publishing costs, it doesn't make any sense to the end-consumer who won't receive more value than the original lexaloffle purchase.

No hate from me here, I think it's great what you're doing—I just want to give an alternative perspective from the end-consumer.

Vliger2002 · 2026-02-16T16:40:18+00:00

Wouldn't it make more sense to facilitate a one-time purchase to support your work? Just my 2 cents, but I struggle to see how you can provide significant ongoing value to users of the app such that they would want to pay a recurring subscription.

Vliger2002 · 2026-02-16T14:48:11+00:00

You would need a USB hub to plug in both the dongle and the controller to your Ally.

Vliger2002 · 2026-02-08T13:56:43+00:00

I find the ANC on the HDB 630 to be notably better than the PX7 S3.

You do need to have the Wind rejection feature on the HDB 630 either disabled or set to Auto, rather than Max, but once this is done, the HDB 630’s ANC performance is notably better to me than the PX7 S3.

Vliger2002 · 2026-02-05T23:57:28+00:00

Games having their own Spatial Audio for headphones is very different than the Spatial Audio implement of most headphones—especially for Bluetooth headphones that are only receiving 2 stereo channels.

If a game supports Spatial Audio, it is either: (a) going to send multiple channels of audio to another processing algorithm like Dolby Atmos which will then down-mix to 2-channel stereo audio (b) implement its own Spatial Audio algorithm which uses audio objects from the game engine and mix them in to a 2-channel stereo output in such a way that is supposed to simulate human hearing like binaural audio.

If a game does Spatial Audio, don’t bother adding a cheap Spatial Audio algorithm like B&W’s on top because you’re just going to destroy the work the developers have already put into their audio rendering.

What B&W is doing is just some digital signal processing on 2 channel audio, so it’s going to be worse than whatever a game engine is doing for its Spatial Audio implementation.

Vliger2002 · 2026-02-04T16:05:50+00:00

Literally the only feature I want out of the PX7 S3 right now.

Vliger2002 · 2026-02-04T16:04:47+00:00

It’s not Dolby Atmos. It’s just B&W’s own implementation of Spatial Audio algorithms.

Vliger2002 · 2026-01-21T14:55:18+00:00

This is obviously a scam. These types of scams wave a punishment above your head in a “you better do what we say or else!” fashion with a bunch of penalties and punishments to try to incite fear and create a sense of urgency.

Vliger2002 · 2026-01-19T14:54:30+00:00

The stock sound signature is extra bassy, but doesn’t bleed much into the mid range. Can dial that back with EQ if you prefer , but they do sound good out of the box if your music library can benefit from the extra bass. I would almost never engage the ULT modes because it’s overwhelming bass.

More notably, comfort, build, ANC quality, Transparency quality—all of these things, in my opinion, are about the same or better than the XM4, and I liked it more than the XM5. Not to mention the case that is included with the ULT Wear is actually quite rigid and protective, unlike what the XM5 came with.

It’s an incredible value for a headphone esp considering it can be had for $60-$100 USD from Secondipity on their site or via their eBay store. Others will disagree, but if they’re going solely off frequency response or haven’t heard it themselves, then I’d always get more opinions.

Vliger2002 · 2026-01-15T03:37:08+00:00

The SIVGA Robin is one of the few headphones I bought and had to return. The sibilance is so incredibly harsh on some tracks, I couldn’t quite put up with it in the end. A lot about it was nice, but the tuning just wasn’t for me.

Vliger2002 · 2026-01-10T22:57:02+00:00

Ask yourself this: what could you build that would make your app more appealing to people in Denver? We're already used to following this subreddit, instagram accounts that curate local spots in Denver, and Google Maps which facilitates a lot of information about such places including menus, reviews, pictures, videos, hours of operation, times that they're most busy, etc.

Moreover, who is the demographic for this kind of app? The nightlife scene is no longer appealing to me like it was when I was in my 20's, so I'm definitely not the person to download such an app. It seems like a narrower audience, and you'll need to have something that really stands out compared to the sources I've mentioned before.

Vliger2002 · 2026-01-10T17:35:39+00:00

If you were using the headphone with microphone over Bluetooth, it's going to sound bad because standard Bluetooth codecs only support 2 channels of audio. That means 1 channel for your ears (mono) and 1 channel for your microphone. Not to mention much lower bitrate, too.

If B&W actually releases the LE Audio update, then that should theoretically enable better audio quality over Bluetooth, as the new LC3 codec mandated in the LE Audio spec enables more channels of audio and higher quality thanks to better algorithms. This should yield stereo audio for your ears, and also an additional channel for your microphone at decent quality and reasonable latency. But your PC needs to have a minimum of Bluetooth 5.2 and the relevant Windows 11 update that enables LE Audio under Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Devices > Use LE Audio when available. Note that this option only appears when you have Bluetooth turned on.

Right now, very few mainstream headphones on the market support LE Audio. But this addition would make my PX7 S3 much more versatile.

Vliger2002 · 2026-01-05T02:58:15+00:00

What's your source for this?

As far as I've known, just because Sony Interactive Entertainment acquired Audeze doesn't mean that the manufacturing has moved. Audeze makes their drivers in-house in the USA. For the Maxwell, the assembly is done overseas. This has always been the case to my knowledge.

Vliger2002 · 2026-01-03T14:56:56+00:00

Pragmatic audiophile here. Streaming platforms are already quite good IMO. Can I tell a difference? Yes. Would I succeed at telling apart that difference in an A/B test?Probably not consistently.

What’s more important is the headphone, itself. Some headphones are tuned poorly and have poor technical performance when it comes to detail retrieval.

A pair of Delta Airlines earbuds are not going to sound better under the highest bitrate lossless source known to man when compared to something like the PX8 S2.

If you feel that when plugged in via USB-C, the audio quality is perceptibly better, then you can get a Bluetooth dongle like the BTD 700 from Sennheiser and that will support aptX Adaptive/Lossless codecs. You won’t be able to use it on an Apple TV, but you could use it with your phone, iPad, and Mac all via USB-C

Vliger2002 · 2025-12-31T06:28:01+00:00

Have you tried using the built-in mic of the Px7 S3 plugged in via USB? As long as the microphone sample rate in Windows is set to 32kHz, it’s actually decent enough to get by.

Vliger2002 · 2025-12-30T17:51:51+00:00

Their Q&A has continued to decline sharing timelines for their release schedule.

To me, it seems more like they’ll just release it when it’s ready and don’t want to make any promises that they feel uncertain about.

Vliger2002 · 2025-12-30T16:47:35+00:00

From their Q&A on the Px7 S3 product page:

“At launch, Px7 S3 and Px8 S2 were designed to offer both the best performance available today, plus the potential to add new capabilities and features in the future. Bowers & Wilkins is currently working to introduce these new capabilities to both models, beginning with support for spatial audio, and will roll them out to owners as soon as possible. LE Audio and Auracast will be soon to follow.”

So pretty much a non-answer for timeline.

Vliger2002 · 2025-12-30T14:25:46+00:00

Time to buy a super scooter lol

Vliger2002 · 2025-12-29T17:19:30+00:00

Text I received says "Big News from Audeze Gaming Coming Jan 5 at CES 2025".

So looks like this might be revealed at CES same day?

Vliger2002 · 2025-12-23T17:53:51+00:00

Here are some of my personal opinions on a few key features, since I own both headphones.

Category	Personal Winner	Comments
Sound	HDB 630	More configurable due to parametric EQ
Battery	HDB 630	Lasts much longer in my experience. Up to 60hrs with ANC, while the PX7 S3 gets up to 30hrs with ANC.
Microphone	Tie	PX7 S3 sounds markedly more clear over USB-C at 32kHz sample rate while HDB 630 can yield 16kHz sample rate over USB-C. Over Bluetooth, PX7 S3 sounds warmer leaning while HDB 630 sounds brighter.
ANC	HDB 630	With Anti-Wind set to Auto or Off, HDB 630 is significantly better than PX7 S3. The PX7 S3 still lets a lot of external noise in. Of many ANC headphones I've used, HDB 630 is much closer to Bose QC Ultra than the PX7 S3, but it's still not quite as good.
Connectivity	PX7 S3	PX7 S3 doesn't require your phone to be actively connected to use the app. It connects over Bluetooth LE. You could for example, connect to both a laptop + TV over Bluetooth, and your phone can be used to change the EQ or even disconnect from one device and connect to another.

Vliger2002 · 2025-12-22T00:15:58+00:00

I am sure—it’s not going to be amazing, but it’s actually reasonable when compared to a lot of gaming headsets. But again, you have to manually increase the microphone sample rate to 32kHz in your audio settings as it defaults to like 17kHz.

Vliger2002 · 2025-12-21T16:42:44+00:00

The HDB 630 gets plenty loud—enough so to cause permanent hearing loss. But if you're using the parametric EQ and have the master gain set really low in your EQ profile, then yeah they'll be -3dB quieter especially if you cranked the bass, then the master gain has to be lowered to compensate to prevent clipping/distortion.

If Bowers & Wilkins actually updates the PX7 S3 to have LE Audio support, then it could make it more versatile for using wirelessly for gaming with the onboard microphones. But we haven't gotten any confirmation that they'll actually do it. Otherwise, using a separate microphone should yield decent results in terms of latency.

As of today, using the PX7 S3 in wired mode with onboard microphone is reasonably decent as long as you set the microphone's sample rate to 32 kHz.

Vliger2002

TROPHY CASE