Hi! Are there games you could play with iOS devices against Android devices over bluetooth? I have to ride by train every couple of weeks. My colleague has an iPhone and I am using Android. So we would like to play games against each other. The internet connection is really bad once the train starts so we can only rely on bluetooth.
Any hint is welcome!

Hey all...I've been pretty exhaustively trying all the current streaming services. I know this is a Stadia group but I thought if anyone out there is curious about what the experience is like on other services, perhaps you could benefit from a layman's experience using each service and trying to make it my "main" service. Like I said, I'm a layman, not a professional reviewer, so there's a lot of things I'm still learning, but having tried all three of the major services, here's my thoughts.
Edit: Please bear in mind this is not an exhaustive list, just some thoughts based on a couple of months of on and off testing. I'm certainly not trying to sway or influence anyone's purchasing decisions, just giving some general thoughts that might help when trying to decide which service to look into. I know not everyone can get ahold of / rush out and buy all of the devices I have listed here - I happen to work for a tech company so I have a lot more devices floating around than most other people. Your mileage, of course, may vary!
I know there's also Steam Link, but since that requires you to have a PC capable of playing the game in the house somewhere, I'm not considering that a streaming service.
Testing Devices:

• ChromeCast Ultra (Stadia Only)
• iPad Pro 2020
• Asus G14
• Pixel 2 XL (xCloud only)
• iPhone 12 Pro Max (Stadia only)
• nVidia Shield (GeForce Now only)
• Samsung Galaxy Chromebook (Stadia only)

Amazon Luna

Notable Games: Control, lots of highly rated indie titles (Blasphemous, Bloodstained, Iconoclasts)
To be fair, I only have about 6 hours on Amazon Luna, but they've been pretty excruciating. My wifi averages about 75-90 MBps, and about half of the games I tried suffered from lag and graphical smear, mostly the Ubisoft+ games. The indie games played fabulously well. Luna is probably the service I have the least to say about. It's $6 a month for Luna on it's own, so it's kindof like the "also-ran" effort - it's cheap, but might be the most forgettable of the bunch. The user interface is better than GeForce Now, worse than Stadia, and unlike Stadia it doesn't seem like Luna can be enhanced with browser extensions.
I have Ubisoft+, so I tried to play Immortal: Fenyx Rising on Luna and it was absolutely horrible. Smeared graphics, dropped frames, input lag, the works. It was the only experience across all of the big three services that was literally unplayable. This seemed to be a problem only with the Ubisoft games, however, I have to stress.
Pros

• Netflix-style game selection, with lots of indie titles you don't see many other places. Control is the only standout AAA title, and it looks and plays fantastically. Indie games were great too.
• Integration with Ubisoft+ is seamless and the games just become part of your library.
• Twitch integration is pretty cool - nice to see streamers who are playing the game live when you jump into the game page.
• Runs in the browser but also has dedicated apps - a plus for me.
• Luna is probably the best service for Twitch streamers - it's integrated right into the UI. I don't stream so I wasn't able to test it, but it seems pretty easy.

Cons

• Seems to be in Early Access, so I literally don't know anyone else who has gotten an invite.
• The pro of having niche indie games is offset by the con of not having a wide game selection. Of all the services, seems like Luna has the least, but broadest, selection.
• Seeing an ad for Luna, WHILE PLAYING LUNA, was irrationally annoying. Amazon just can't freaking help themselves I guess.
• I signed up for Luna fully expecting to play all of my games claimed through Prime Gaming...literally none of those games are available.
• If there's a way to find Luna from the main Amazon home page, they've hid it pretty well. I'm sure it's buried in one of their dozens of menus but I could not for the life of me find a quick and easy way to get to Luna from Amazon dotcom.
• This is a very minor point, but Amazon Luna ONLY works on Chrome, while Google Stadia works in either Chrome or Edge Browser (since it's built on Chromium). Probably doesn't make a difference for most people, but to me Edge seems to run better, so I'm docking a point.

GeForce Now

Notable Games: Cyberpunk 2077, Control, Immortals: Fenix Rising, Metro series, Destiny 2 (all paid)
I picked up an nVidia Shield specifically for GeForce now, but my wife and I have ended up using it primarily for Kodi and to watch Netflix more than playing any games on it. I'll just say it straight out - GeForce Now sucks ass. It's a broken, shoddy, inconsistent mess. It's actually WORSE on the Shield than it is on PC, because there are so many times when I needed a keyboard to do anything. I tried playing Immortals: Fenyx Rising on GFN on my Shield which required me to log into Ubisoft+. I'm fine with that, since you only have to do it once...but using the Shield remote that came with my Shield, the on-screen keyboard never popped up, forcing me to track down a second keyboard from in my garage and plug in. After I plugged in the physical keyboard....THEN the onscreen keyboard popped up and just mirrored what I pressed on the physical keyboard. What? Why?
Games are all over the place as well. Witcher 3 was a nightmare - every time you try to play the game, it wants to install the DLC packs onto whatever virtual machine you've been assigned. Then when you can play, it dips so far under 30 fps it's literally better to just play it on a budget PC with Hairworks off.
Plus the Shield ain't cheap - it was like $200 at Best Buy, and didn't include a controller. $100 more gets you a Series S, and $100 LESS gets you a Stadia-enabled Chromecast WITH a solid as hell controller, just for comparison's sake.
Pros

• Raytracing, I guess. Control looks great?
• Links with Steam, GOG, and Epic, so you keep your games if the service goes down at some point in the future. Also technically "cheaper" overall than Stadia cos you can find cheap keys online or Steam sales (which seem to be more frequent than Stadia sales) and still get the game in your GeForce Now.
• GFN seems to have the widest selection of enabled games. Not all that impressive since you have to own the game already, but this does give it somewhat of an advantage.
• Links to Epic library, which is cool. 80% of my games on Epic were not GFN enabled, which is not as cool.

Cons

• Literally the hardest of the big three services to use. Not a "pick up and play" experience. Requires a lot of effort to get working, and even then, inconsistent across platforms.
• Even on nVidias own hardware, it can be tricky to figure out what games actually are on GeForce Now and which aren't and get them running right.
• Some games just don't play well. Witcher 3 is a buggy, low framerate mess...while Control is smooth as butter. No rhyme or reason as to why. I couldn't get Mankind Divided to play full-screen - it always wanted to play in a window.
• Since you're just running a virtual machine, you still have to fiddle with graphical settings. Some games don't look right when first started, and you have to remember to go into the settings and change things to match whatever screen you're on.
• Twice I still had to wait in a queue to play even though I paid for the Founder's subscription. Insanely frustrating.
• One hour limit to gameplay if you don't pay for the Founder's subscription, and you're stuck waiting in a queue. There were times where I was in a queue of over 300, which translated to upwards of 18 minutes one session, waiting to play. I would go as far as to say, if you don't pay for Founder's, don't bother with GFN at all.
• Also, just because I don't have anywhere else to put this, Ubisoft's Cloud Save system is atrocious. This isn't nVidia's fault, I just want to complain about it.

Google Stadia

Notable Games: Cyberpunk 2077 (paid), Hitman: World of Assassination (Pro), Destiny 2 (Pro), Red Dead Redemption II (Paid)
Stadia is easily the best overall, but it still has its cons. I came to Stadia thanks to Cyberpunk 2077 so I have the most hours played on Stadia of the big three services. Stadia on the Chromecast Ultra seems to me to be the hands down best way to play streamed games currently.
Of all the services, Stadia was the one that felt the least like a "me-too" service and more like a dedicated platform. Almost all of the other services felt like a way for corporations to dip their toe in the water and figure out if there's money to be made, while Stadia feels like someone who really grasps and cares about gaming is at the helm.
Pros

• Least barrier to entry. Download Chrome or Edge Browser, grab any bluetooth controller, and you're off the races.
• No subscription required. You can play any game purchased on Stadia without a subscription with no queue system, no picking a virtual machine, no Steam big picture mode...it's just, hit the Play button and go.
• This is a big one for me - seems to have the best "capture" integration. Though, the iOS / Android app could use work (just let me download the image and share it? Why do I need to share a link?) overall, sharing your snaps and vids is pretty easy on Stadia.
• Playing with the Stadia controller on my TV after picking up a Chromecast Ultra felt like magic.
• Similarly, being able to "pick up and play" games like Cyberpunk 2077 on a Chromebook felt similarly magical. The game looked its best, believe it or not, on a Samsung Chromebook that I tested at Best Buy. Random side note but the Google guy at Best Buy was SO EXCITED that I wanted to check out Stadia on a Chromebook. He was over the moon.
• The game selection for Pro does have some interesting titles that I wouldn't have picked up otherwise. But see Con 1 below.

Cons

• The game selection for Stadia Pro is a tad lackluster at the moment. Definitely enough to keep me playing, but there wasn't really a "must have" title that jumped out at me. Bunch of average, quite playable titles
• The game selection for purchases is a little thin as well, seeing as how the service is over a year old at this point. I know it’s on literally every other platform but I would have loved to do a second play through of Control on Stadia, and stuff like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Hades, even some older indie titles like Transistor or Pyre, some of the Lego games...
• UI seems like an complete afterthought, which is a little weird since this is a Google product. This is solved a little bit by extensions like Stadia Enhanced, but that's a third party fix so I'm still listing it as a con. No search? Captures seem deprecated?
• Probably the highest "cost" to play, since you have to buy the games outright, and sales seem few and far between. If Stadia just vanishes at some point (which, let's be fair, Google has a track record of doing with their services) they haven't really outlined what happens to your library.
• No raytracing yet. Not really a con for me personally, but other services offer it.
• This may just be a bug but I'm listing it as a con - a number of times the Stadia homepage just wouldn't load. I was left staring at the Stadia logo wondering what was going on for minutes at a time. I'd have to close out of the browser and restart. Not sure if that's an issue with Chrome, but it seemed to happen on Edge browser as well.
• Stadia-specific versions of games. Now, hear me out - usually this is a PRO not a con, but in Stadia’s case it seems to be a con as making a wholly new build of a game for a specific platform probably just isn’t in the cards for a lot of developers. That could be what’s slowing down a lot of games coming to Stadia - the time and money required to build a new version of the game. Hopefully we see some “Stadia first” games that will convince other developers to jump on board.

Xbox Game Pass / Game Pass Unlimited / Gold / Live / Play Anywhere / xCloud / Whatever it's being called these days

Notable Games: Nier: Automata BAG Edition, Dragon Quest XI S, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda
Xbox Game Pass gets added to this list on a pure technicality.
So, technically Xbox Game Pass isn't a streaming service, but I include it because on Android, there actually is a "cloud" option for playing your console Game Pass library. The Cloud streaming works surprisingly well, but you're limited to either an Android tablet or phone because it doesn't seem to work properly on Android TV. I've heard you can sideload onto the nVidia Shield, but that was beyond the scope of what I was trying to accomplish with these reviews...I just want something I can pick up and play. So, yeah if you don't mind playing on your phone, Game Pass Cloud is actually probably the best of the bunch in terms of ease of use and game selection. There are so many things I want to play on Game Pass it's actually a little overwhelming. However, I don't want to stare at a 5" screen for hours to do so.
Pros

• Wide game selection with lots of games being added every month (almost every week, seems like)
• Broad game selection - seems to be some standouts from just about every game genre. I know this seems like a repeat of point one, but they're very different things - it's one thing to just throw a ton of games on your service, its another to make sure you're representing every genre out there, which Game Pass seems to do more admirably than any other service.
• Streaming seems to work just fine. I was able to play Dragon Quest: Inquisition on my Android phone with very little issue. Couple of times the connection dropped, but it was no better or worse than Stadia.
• It seems like services are stumbling all over themselves to get included in Game Pass.

Cons

• Again, inconsistent experience. Offerings are different on console than on PC...why is Torchlight III a console exclusive? Why are all the good games pushed to console and cloud, with PC being an afterthought?
• Games seem to come and go randomly - some popular games pop up for a few months and are gone, other seemingly niche titles have been on the service since launch
• Probably the biggest con - no streaming on PC, iOS, or Android TV. Baffling choice. Maybe there's business reasons I'm not aware of, but as a user, it's maddening.
• Minor point, but good lord Microsoft needs to simplify EVERYTHING related to Xbox. No one can figure out what the hell service we have when I try to talk to people about it - there's Game Pass, but there's also Games with Gold, then there's Live, then there's Game Pass Ultimate, but there's also Play Anywhere, which isn't really a service, just some sort of cross-play, And the number of times people thought I have a Series X when I actually have a One X was insanely frustrating as well. I know this doesn't have anything to do with the service, but jeez man why is everything Microsoft does so haphazard?

Whew! I actually had way more to say on this topic than I thought, I guess. I've probably spent more time and energy on this than I should have, but working from home has given me a lot of time on my hands, so hopefully my experiences can help save someone else some time and effort. Would love some counterpoints as well!

Dear Travelers,
To ensure all Travelers have the best-possible Genshin Impact experience, our developers will soon begin performing update maintenance. After this is complete, the game will update to a new version.
After Travelers install the new game client, they will be able to continue playing. It is recommended to install the update over Wi-Fi owing to the large file size.
While the update maintenance is in progress, Travelers will be unable to log in to the game. Please take note of the update time and schedule your game time accordingly to avoid losing your progress. We hope Travelers will bear with us during the disruption. > <
〓Update Schedule〓
Update maintenance begins 2021/02/03 06:00:00 (UTC+8) and is estimated to take 5 hours.
(Note: Precise timings are subject to change. Players may also experience disruption outside of this period.)
〓How to Update Game Client〓
PC: Close the game, open the Genshin Impact Launcher, and click Update.
iOS: Open the App Store and tap Update.
Android: Open the game and follow the directions on-screen. (Alternatively, you may open Google Play and tap Update.)
PS4: Highlight Genshin Impact from the PS4 Home Screen and press the OPTIONS button > Check for Update.
Please do not hesitate to contact Customer Service if you encounter any issues installing the new version. We will do our very best to resolve the issue swiftly.
〓Compensation〓
Maintenance Compensation: Primogems ×300
(60 Primogems for every hour the servers are down. No change to compensation amount if the update is completed early.)
〓Eligibility〓
All Travelers who have reached Adventure Rank 5 or above by 2021/02/03 06:00:00 (UTC+8)
Our developers will distribute compensation to Travelers via in-game mail within 5 hours after the update maintenance is finished. Please log in and claim it before Version 1.3 ends. The mail will expire after 30 days, so don't forget to claim the attached compensation in time.
〓Update Details〓
(All times below based on server time)
I. New Character
5-Star Character "Vigilant Yaksha" Xiao (Anemo)
◇ Vision: Anemo
◇ Weapon: Polearm
◇ A yaksha adeptus who defends Liyue. Also heralded as the "Conqueror of Demons" and "Vigilant Yaksha."
Elemental Skill "Lemniscatic Wing Cycling": Xiao instantly lunges forward, dealing DMG to enemies in his path. This maneuver can also be executed in mid-air.
Elemental Burst "Bane of All Evil": Xiao dons the Yaksha's Mask, giving him enhanced abilities at the cost of draining his health: He deals increased DMG, attacks are converted to Anemo DMG, and his jumping ability is greatly increased.
During the event wish "Invitation to Mundane Life," from after the Version 1.3 update to 2021/02/17 15:59:59, the event-exclusive 5-star character "Vigilant Yaksha" Xiao (Anemo) and the 4-star characters "Kätzlein Cocktail" Diona (Cryo), "Uncrowned Lord of the Ocean" Beidou (Electro), and "Blazing Riff" Xinyan (Pyro) will have their Wish drop rates greatly increased!
II. Rate-Boosted Characters
5-Star Character "Driving Thunder" Keqing (Electro)
◇ Vision: Electro
◇ Weapon: Sword
◇ The Yuheng of the Liyue Qixing. Keqing has much to say about Rex Lapis' unilateral approach to policymaking in Liyue — but in truth, gods admire skeptics such as her quite a lot.
During the event wish "Dance of Lanterns," from 2021/02/17 18:00:00 – 2021/03/02 15:59:59, the 5-star character "Driving Thunder" Keqing (Electro) and the 4-star characters "Eclipsing Star" Ningguang (Geo), "Trial by Fire" Bennett (Pyro), and "Shining Idol" Barbara (Hydro) will have their Wish drop rates greatly increased!
More character event wishes to follow during Version 1.3.
III. New Equipment
◇ New weapons: Primordial Jade Cutter (5-Star Sword), Staff of Homa (5-Star Polearm), Lithic Spear (4-Star Polearm), and Lithic Blade (4-Star Claymore)
◆ During the event wish "Epitome Invocation," from after the Version 1.3 update to 2021/02/23 15:59:59, the event-exclusive 5-star sword Primordial Jade Cutter and the 5-star polearm Primordial Jade Winged-Spear will have their Wish drop rates greatly increased!
*Staff of Homa (Polearm), Lithic Spear (Polearm), and Lithic Blade (Claymore) will appear in future event wishes.
IV. New Events
Take part in Version 1.3's flagship event, Lantern Rite, for the chance to obtain a free 4-star Liyue character of your choice!
◆ Gameplay Duration: 2021/02/10 10:00:00 – 2021/02/28 03:59
◆ Event Rules: No Original Resin needed to take part. During the event period, Travelers can claim a 4-star Liyue character of their choice in "Stand by Me." Complete challenges in "Theater Mechanicus" to obtain Peace Talismans, which can be spent in the Xiao Market on rewards including Crown of Insight and a new namecard style "Celebration: Lantern-Light."
〓All That Glitters〓
Duration:
The Origin of the Lanterns: 2021/02/10 10:00:00 – 2021/02/28 03:59:59
Currents Deep Beneath the Lanterns: 2021/02/14 04:00:00 – 2021/02/28 03:59:59
Light Upon the Sea: 2021/02/18 04:00:00 – 2021/02/28 03:59:59
〓Lantern Rite Tales〓
Unlock Criteria:
Lantern Rite Tales I: Complete "The Origin of the Lanterns" to unlock.
Lantern Rite Tales II: Reach the Festive Fever stage "Guests Flock From Afar," complete the questline "Currents Deep Beneath the Lanterns," and complete all requests in "Lantern Rite Tales I" to unlock.
Lantern Rite Tales III: Reach the Festive Fever stage "Glow of a Thousand Lanterns," complete the questline "Light Upon the Sea," and complete all requests in "Lantern Rite Tales II" to unlock.
● Complete requests in "Lantern Rite Tales" to win Primogems and increase Festive Fever. Increase Festive Fever to progress through the Lantern Rite.
※ After the event gameplay ends on 2021/02/28 03:59:59, requests will no longer be available to complete.
〓Theater Mechanicus〓
Unlock Criteria:
Complete the quests "The Origin of the Lanterns" and "Liyue: Theater Mechanicus" to unlock
● Each attempt at Theater Mechanicus costs 1 Xiao Lantern (regardless of whether or not the challenge is successful). Xiao Lanterns can be crafted at a Crafting Bench, and the required crafting materials can be obtained by gathering plants and ore, or by defeating specified enemies.
● Progressing through the stages of Festive Fever unlocks new maps, new mechanici, higher upgrade levels, and increased difficulty levels.
● Progressing through the stages of Festive Fever unlocks new Theater Mechanicus challenges. Complete them to win Peace Talismans.
● Theater Mechanicus challenges can only be completed in Single-Player Mode or a two-player Co-Op session.
〓Xiao Market〓
Duration:
Stage I: 2021/02/10 10:00:00 – 2021/03/07 03:59:59
Stage II: 2021/02/14 04:00:00 – 2021/03/07 03:59:59
Stage III: 2021/02/18 04:00:00 – 2021/03/07 03:59:59
● Spend Peace Talismans at the Xiao Market to purchase items including Hero's Wit, Mystic Enhancement Ore, Character Level-Up Materials, Talent Level-Up Materials, the Crown of Insight, and the namecard style "Celebration: Lantern-Light."
〓Stand by Me〓
Duration: 2021/02/10 10:00:00 – 2021/03/07 03:59:59
● Reach the Festive Fever stage "Glow of a Thousand Lanterns" and spend 1,000 Peace Talismans in "Stand by Me" to receive one of the following 4-star characters: "Exquisite Delicacy" Xiangling (Pyro), "Blazing Riff" Xinyan (Pyro), "Uncrowned Lord of the Ocean" Beidou (Electro), "Eclipsing Star" Ningguang (Geo), "Juvenile Galant" Xingqiu (Hydro), or "Frozen Ardor" Chongyun (Cryo). You may claim only one character in this way.
Login Event "May Fortune Find You": Log In on 7 Days, Receive Intertwined Fate ×10
◆ Event Duration:2021/02/11 04:00:00 – 2021/02/26 03:59:59
◆ During the event, log in on 7 days in total to receive Intertwined Fate ×10 and other rewards!
📷
Five Flushes of Fortune
◆ Event Duration: After the Version 1.3 update to 2021/02/10 03:59:59
(Please notice that this event will start from 2020/02/03 04:00:00 on Euro and America Server.)
◆ During the event, Travelers can claim a Kurious Kamera from Ji Tong. Equip the Kamera and take pictures of specific targets to obtain photos of different colors. Collect photos of five different colors and exchange them for a Fortune Trove to obtain Primogems, Hero's Wit, Mystic Enhancement Ore, and other rewards!
More events to follow during Version 1.3.
V. New Questlines
1. New story quests
After the Version 1.3 update, Xiao's story quest "Alatus Chapter" will be available.
◆ More story quests are on the way, so please stay tuned!
2. New world quests
◆ A total of 26 festive World Quests will become available over the course of the Lantern Rite event, accessible from "Lantern Rite Tales" on the Events menu.
◆ A further world quest "Bough Keeper: Dainsleif" will also be added.
VI. Other New Content
• Gameplay

1. New monsters: Geovishap, Primo Geovishap
   
2. New gadgets:
   

Parametric Transformer: Enhancement Materials can be converted into Character EXP Materials, Character Level-Up Materials, and Weapon Ascension Materials by placing them in the Parametric Transformer to undergo transmutation.

1. New achievement "Transmutation Nuclide"
   
2. New consumable: Dust of Azoth can convert the Elemental Type of Character Ascension Materials.
   
3. New recipes: Fullmoon Egg, Vegetarian Abalone, and Stone Harbor Delicacies
   

• System

1. Archive addition "Living Beings": Records information on enemies defeated and living things caught or discovered. Travelers can consult the Living Beings section of the Archive to view how many times they have defeated different enemies and also review tutorials for certain enemies.
   
2. New conversion function on Crafting Bench: Combining some Character Ascension Materials with Dust of Azoth at a Crafting Bench lets you convert their Elemental Type.
   
3. Travelers' profile pages now include Achievement progress and a Character Showcase.
   
4. Controller support added for devices running iOS 14 or above. Currently, the following controllers are supported: Xbox Wireless Controller (Bluetooth Version), Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, PlayStation DualShock 4 Wireless Controller, some other Bluetooth Wireless Controllers designed for iOS.
   
5. On the Weapon Enhancement screen, holding the selected material will add it rapidly.
   
6. A quick delete function has been added to the mailbox. Does not delete unread mail or mail with unclaimed attachments.
   
7. New photography method added for the PS4 version. Take a photo and save it to the PS4's local storage in one single action.
   

VII. Adjustments & Optimizations
• Characters

1. Adjustments to Zhongli:

1) Adjusts the effect of holding Zhongli's Elemental Skill "Dominus Lapidis":
◇ Original effect:
Causes nearby Geo energy to explode, causing the following effects:
·Creates a shield of jade. The shield's DMG Absorption scales based on Zhongli's Max HP, and absorbs Geo DMG 250% more effectively.
·Deals AoE Geo DMG.
·If there are nearby targets with the Geo element, it will drain a large amount of Geo element from a maximum of 2 such targets. This effect does not cause DMG.
◆ Post-adjustment effect:
Causes nearby Geo energy to explode, causing the following effects:
·If their maximum number hasn't been reached, creates a Stone Stele.
·Creates a shield of jade. The shield's DMG Absorption scales based on Zhongli's Max HP. Possesses 150% DMG Absorption against all Elemental and Physical DMG.
·Characters protected by the Jade Shield will decrease the Elemental RES and Physical RES of opponents in a small AoE by 20%. This effect cannot be stacked.
·Deals AoE Geo DMG.
·If there are nearby targets with the Geo element, it will drain a large amount of Geo element from a maximum of 2 such targets. This effect does not cause DMG.
2) Adjusts the effect of Zhongli's second Ascension Talent "Dominance of Earth":
◇ Original effect:
Planet Befall deals additional DMG equal to 33% of Zhongli's Max HP.
◆ Post-adjustment effect:
Zhongli deals bonus DMG based on his Max HP:
·Normal Attack, Charged Attack, and Plunging Attack DMG is increased by 1.39% of Max HP.
·Dominus Lapidis' Stone Stele, resonance, and hold DMG is increased by 1.9% of Max HP.
·Planet Befall's DMG is increased by 33% of Max HP.

1. Optimizes Mona's Talent "Illusory Torrent": When Mona is hit, she can use Illusory Torrent more quickly, as is the case with sprinting for other characters.
   
2. Adds a new idle animation for Kaeya.
   

4. Optimizes Zhongli's animation under "Weapons" on the Character Screen.

1. Resolves issues with Aiming Mode for Bow-wielding characters when obstacles are present nearby, such as character shaking and off-center shots.
   
2. Optimizes precision when firing shots at moving targets.
   
3. Resolves issues of shaky clothing/movements when some characters perform actions such as walking, attacking, skill casting, and sitting.
   

• Monsters

1. Adjusts combat logic for Dendro Slimes: When a Dendro Slime is hiding relatively far from your location, you will not enter combat mode.

• System

1. Spiral Abyss

Updates the monster lineup on Floor 12 of the Spiral Abyss.
The Ley Line Disorders on Floor 12 are adjusted to:
• For this floor only, the ley line flow will be normal
• No Ley Line Disorder
Starting from the first time that the Lunar Phase refreshes after updating to Version 1.3, the three Lunar Phases will be as follows:
Phase I:
When active character's HP is less than 70%, ATK is increased by 20% and ATK SPD is increased by 15%.
When active character's HP is less than 35% and they are under the protection of a shield, CRIT Rate is increased by 20% and CRIT DMG is increased by 40%.
Phase II:
A Charge will accumulate every 10s, with a maximum of three existing at any one time. If the active character's HP is less than 50%, they will consume a Charge when they hit an opponent to create an unstable energy orb at the opponent's position. This orb will explode after 1s, and only one of them can be created every 2s.
Phase III:
When the active character's HP is less than 50%, they gain a 2% DMG Bonus for 10s after hitting an opponent. This effect can stack up to 10 times, and each character in the party will have their own independent stacks and durations. Each time the stack count or duration of this effect resets, there is a 50% chance to release an Energy Blast. An Energy Blast can be triggered once every 10s.

1. Deleted chats will not appear in the chat list.
   
2. Optimizes display order of chat column: After entering team setup in Co-Op Mode, the chat column will automatically switch to the team column.
   
3. Optimizes the display hierarchy when there are multiple overlapping icons on the Map.
   
4. Optimizes UI transparency on mobile devices upon entering Aiming Mode in the Spiral Abyss.
   
5. Optimizes the Kamera gadget for the PS4 version: When equipped, using the Kamera directly stores a screenshot with the UI hidden to the local storage.
   
6. From Version 1.3 onward, extra Fragile Resin rewards will be included in the BP system:
   

Starting from BP Level 5, Sojourner's Battle Pass and Gnostic Hymn provide Fragile Resin ×1 every 10 BP Levels. The original rewards of Mystic Enhancement Ore provided at these BP Levels will be added to the rewards at other BP Levels instead, and the total quantity of Mystic Enhancement Ore that can be obtained from the BP system will not change.

1. Removes the Delete button from the Portable Waypoint interface of the open world map.
   
2. Optimizes the size of the Wind Glider on the Dressing Room screen for certain characters.
   
3. When using a controller, improves the refresh rate when switching between tabs in the Paimon's Bargains section of the Shop.
   
4. Optimizes the display hierarchy when there are multiple overlapping icons on the Map.
   
5. Optimizes the experience of moving the crosshair in Aiming Mode when the frame rate is low.
   

• Audio

1. Voice-Over Optimization:

a. Adds a reverb effect to internal monologue voice-over in quests.
b. Character combat voice-over can interrupt idle voice-over.

1. The Chinese voice artist for Amber will be changed, and this adjustment will take effect in Version 1.4.
   
2. Adds Chinese voice-over for some characters.
   
3. Adds Japanese voice-over for some characters.
   
4. Adjusts the audio effects for some voice-over on mobile and PC versions.
   

• Other

1. Adjustment to the Geo Elemental Resonance "Enduring Rock":

◇ Original effect:
Increases resistance to interruption. When protected by a shield, increases Attack DMG by 15%.
◆ Post-adjustment effect:
Increases shield strength by 15%. Additionally, characters protected by a shield will have the following special characteristics: DMG dealt increased by 15%, dealing DMG to enemies will decrease their Geo RES by 20% for 15s.

1. Geo Shield balance adjustments:

Geo Shields are adjusted from having "250% Geo DMG Absorption" to having "150% Physical DMG and Elemental DMG Absorption."
This adjustment affects the following:
• The Geo Shield produced by Zhongli's Elemental Skill
• The Geo Shield produced by Noelle's Elemental Skill
• The Geo Shield produced upon picking up a Geo Crystal dropped by a Geovishap Hatchling

1. Amends the tab for the standard wish "Wanderlust Invocation." *Only the tab has been changed. The Wish contents and rules remain unchanged.
   
2. Optimizes item source descriptions for Mist Grass Pollen, Mist Grass, and Mist Grass Wick.
   
3. Adjusts descriptions for the materials Fragile Bone Shard, Sturdy Bone Shard, and Fossilized Bone Shard and adds their sources.
   
4. Adds a description for the rules of Elemental Orb drops in the "Test Run" event (the actual mechanics in-game are not affected by this change).
   

*Note: In order to allow Travelers for a quicker use of Elemental Bursts and more efficient testing experience, the opponents on trial stages drop additional Elemental Orbs. However, due to our negligence, this effect was not individually listed in the event details, leading some Travelers to misevaluate characters based on their trial stage performance. We sincerely apologize for any confusion this might have caused. After this update, the event details will be supplemented with the relevant rules. We will continue to optimize the trial stage experience in the upcoming versions.

While there are many more companies that are discussed much more than TSMC (NYSE:TSM) on here, such as Apple, AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, etc, TSMC is a hidden gem that is getting ready to take off over the next few years. Here's why:

TSMC was founded in 1987 with the intent of bringing Taiwan into the global tech market. Morris Chang, who previously worked at Texas Instruments for over 30 years, is the founder and former CEO of TSMC and widely regarded as the "godfather of computer chips". TSMC is currently the world's largest semiconductor producer, with over half of semiconductor revenue from TSMC. Other notable competitors include GlobalFoundries (AMD used them for Zen and Zen+, switching to TSMC for Zen 2 and Zen 3), Intel, and Samsung. TSMC is a pioneer in the pure-play foundry business, meaning that they do not produce any chips for their own products. Instead, they manufacture and sell chips to companies, meaning that those who choose to source chips from TSMC do not have to build expensive silicon fabrication plants to manufacture their own chips. TSMC currently operates 10 different silicon fabs, manufacturing over 10,000 different products using over 250 distinct technologies to cater to 499 different customers in 2019.
Not only is TSMC the largest semiconductor foundry, it is also a pioneer in advancing semiconductor production and performance. Currently, TSMC has 7 customers for its new 5nm chips, including Apple, for A14/X chips and ARM-based chips for Mac products, Qualcomm and MediaTek for 5G smartphone chips, AMD, for next-generation Zen 4 CPUs, Bitmain, Intel, and NVIDIA. TSMC is also currently engineering its N4 chips, built on a 4nm process node, its 3nm chips, and its 2nm chips, which will use new GAAFET (Gate All Around Field Effect Transistor) technology instead of the traditional FinFET technology.
So who are some of TSMC's biggest and most notable customers?

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Apple is the world's largest company in terms of market capitalization (2.17 Trillion), and has become widely popular due to its heavy and cohesive integration between its products and widespread use by many prominent figures. Currently, it offers many products such as laptops, phones, smart watches, smart TV products, fitness products, and more. It also offers many services and software products, which all integrate with each other via iCloud, continuity software such as Handoff, and more. Recently, Apple has confirmed that they are cutting support for Intel CPUs on their Mac products in a few years, meaning they will shift to using entirely Apple Silicon chips for all of their Mac products. This is in addition to Apple using their own chips for all other products that they currently produce - iPhones, iPads, smart watches, etc.
Apple is one of TSMC's largest customers, and that is only expected to grow as they ramp up production for their M1 and next generation ARM chips for Macs. Apple's M1 chips are a strong competitor to AMD and Intel CPUs, especially if they can scale well up to 32 and 64 cores. They are extremely efficient and consume drastically less power than x86-based CPUs (Intel and AMD CPUs), meaning that thermal requirements are much lower. Macs have typically been targeted by PC enthusiasts as an overpriced, underperforming lineup, but we may see that change as Apple's new chips perform extremely well.
Apple reported a yearly revenue of 274.5 billion US Dollars in 2020, roughly a 5% increase from 2019. Since Apple relies on TSMC for their chips, and Apple's Mac lineup is likely to become more popular, I would expect that TSMC's revenue from Apple will increase more than we've seen in previous years.

Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD)

AMD has certainly made a huge return since Lisa Su became CEO in 2014 and the production of Ryzen, which was widely popular due to its high core counts and high price to performance compared to Intel. Now, Ryzen has developed into a strong all-around player, sporting high core counts and great single thread performance. Currently, AMD Ryzen 5000 desktop CPUs outperform Intel's current generation Comet Lake CPUs in games, which is the first time that AMD has surpassed Intel in gaming performance.
AMD has slowly been regaining market share, both in the PC enthusiast side and the server side. In the past two years, AMD has doubled their server market share from 4.5% to 8%. This may not seem like much, but considering that server upgrades are not frequent and those who buy Intel server CPUs are more likely to stick with Intel, that is a massive increase. On the PC enthusiast side, AMD CPUs have accounted for 84% of CPUs sold on mindfactory.de, a German PC Retailer. This is a massive increase considering that in 2016, before the release of Ryzen, Intel accounted for roughly 75% of CPU sales on mindfactory.de.
AMD launched their Zen 3 chips in 2020, which was followed by huge demand and a shortage of these CPUs. This was in part due to demand at TSMC not being able to keep up with AMD's orders. Zen 3 CPUs perform extremely well, and next-generation Zen 4 CPUs, which will be on TSMC's 5nm process, point to a shortage of fab space at TSMC.

Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM)

Qualcomm is a semiconductor company that creates wireless technology chips, CPUs, software, and services related to wireless technology. Their most prominent products include their Snapdragon CPUs, used in phones from some of the largest smartphone companies such as Samsung, LG, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Motorola, and more. They also produce application specific processors for things like cameras, IoT devices, kiosks, robots, and a lot more. Additionally, Qualcomm offers desktop CPUs, such as their Snapdragon 8cx. Qualcomm also produces various connectivity chips for things such as WiFi (onboard chips in laptops, desktop Wifi cards, routers, modems, etc), Bluetooth, and internet connectivity chips on smartphones.
Currently, Qualcomm relies on TSMC for the production of its Snapdragon chips. Although Samsung beat out TSMC for the production of Qualcomm's upcoming 5G chips, mobile chips accounted for 44.8% of Qualcomm's total revenue in 2020, while RF Front End chips (smartphone internet connectivity chips) accounted for just 9.8% of Qualcomm's total revenue.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

NVIDIA has been a long time customer of TSMC, dating all the way back to 1998 when NVIDIA switched over to TSMC's 350nm process for the Riva TNT. Since then, TSMC has manufactured nearly every NVIDIA chip up until RTX 3000 series, also known as Ampere. NVIDIA decided to switch to Samsung's 8N 8nm process node, likely due to financial reasons or fab capacity reasons.
However, NVIDIA is allegedly moving back to TSMC to manufacture more Ampere GPUs using their 7nm process. There could be a few reasons for this - TSMC might have offered NVIDIA a deal, or capacity for 7nm fabs may have opened up due to large customers such as Apple and AMD shifting more focus towards TSMC's 5nm process.
NVIDIA's RTX 3000 series GPUs, also known as Ampere, are a massive improvement in the GPU space compared to previous generations and just for performance in general. The RTX 3070 performs similarly to an RTX 2080ti, where the former has an MSRP of 499 USD and the latter has an MSRP of 999 USD. In addition to much greater price/performance, Ampere GPUs also heavily increase ray tracing performance so games that can take advantage of ray tracing hardware are actually playable. They are extremely popular, and currently Ampere GPUs are selling anywhere from 200 to upwards of 1500 dollars of their MSRP. NVIDIA is also huge in the AI/Computing space, teaming up with NIO for AI-based self-driving computation, Photoshop, for neural filters, and also powers some of the fastest supercomputers in the world. In regards to AMD, NVIDIA blows the new RX 6000 series GPUs out of the water for things like streaming performance and workstation performance.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

While Intel has traditionally manufactured most of their products (Internet connectivity products, processors, chipsets, etc), Intel is reportedly shifting a fair amount of their chips to TSMC. Recently, Intel announced they would use TSMC for 7nm Xe graphics chips on their CPUs. In October of 2020, Intel CEO Bob Swan said Intel would decide by January whether it was going to expand its 7nm production, outsource it to a foundry, or both. Intel has severely underperformed in the CPU space compared to AMD, but if they decide to shift some production to TSMC, this could mean that Intel will make a strong return into the CPU space and strong entry into the GPU space.

Cool, but what does this mean?

Again, TSMC is the largest foundry, outclassing the likes of Samsung, GlobalFoundries, and other similar companies. There is an insane amount of demand for TSMC's chips, and they are extremely competitive compared to other manufacturers. TSMC has customers such as Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm, which all have great products and are only expected to grow with the release of new technology such as CPUs or 5G networking. Many of its customers are expected to have massive growth over the coming years, meaning that TSMC will reap some of those profits.

Ok, but why should I buy now?

I mean, TSMC is already up over 100% over the past year, isn't it too late to buy in?
When you consider its most important clients, all of them are going to use TSMC for future products that are important to their respective segments. Apple has just begun their venture into producing their own CPUs for Mac products, the release of DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 is right around the corner with AMD's Zen 4 processors, set to release late 2021 or 2022, Qualcomm producing next generation Snapdragon CPUs (and we may see 5G production shifted to TSMC), Intel actually producing competitive CPUs once again (which might be with TSMC), and NVIDIA continuing to dominate in the computing space and the GPU space. Considering that all of these things are happening in the next few years, TSMC is getting ready to take off. 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀
TL;DR: TSMC has a lot of very large customers (Apple, AMD, QualComm to name a few) which are all producing technology that looks very promising. All of these things are coming up in the future, which mean that TSMC is going to the moon. BUY CALLS AND LEAPS LET'S GOOOOOO
Positions: Currently holding 4/21 calls, will definitely roll calls and load up on more once we get closer to expiry

INTRODUCTION
I have successfully rooted the Lenovo Tab M8. I would like to document this root, how I did it, and what I learned from it on this subreddit in order to give back to you folks for helping me in the past. This is going to be an in-depth guide which will hopefully help you understand the rooting process better, and help you troubleshoot if things go wrong. This guide is very detailed and overwhelming, but if you pay attention and read through it, I guarantee you'll be satisfied because you'll be able to not only root, but know what you're doing. This way, you don't have to go making all the mistakes yourself like I did.
Before you begin, I hope you have at least some experience with Linux, and the more general computer knowledge you have, the better. I try to make this guide n00b friendly, but it goes into a lot of nerdy detail. I also hope you're comfortable with command-line utilities and paths. If you don't know something, I have a list of helpful resources in the appendix. I was a n00b once too, and I can honestly say that this experience has turned me from a novice rooter to an actual rooter.
​
The Tablet
My device is a Lenovo Tab M8. More specifically it's a TB 8505fs I got at Walmart for 100 bucks. Pretty sure this is the identical model right here: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/tablets/android-tablets/lenovo-tab-series/Lenovo-TB-8505/p/ZZITZTATB58
This thing is a pretty good buy. It's the perfect size for E-books, can still fit in a large pocket, has good stats for its price, and has a great battery life. Here are some of the stats you can obtain from the above link:
CPU: MediaTek Helio A22 Tab, Quad-Core, 2.0 GHz
32 Gigs storage, 2GB RAM. The stats are decent, especially considering the thing doesn't come with too much bloatware, so it's not weighed down very much. Nevertheless, I wanted to root it primarily for the educational experience, but also in order to De-Google this device.
Android OS: 10, upgraded from 9 against my will before I could root it. Upon doing some research I believe the root process is the same, although your stock ROM might be different.
The OS I was using was Linux Mint, although the process is the same on Windows except for how you download ADB.
​
PREPARATIONS
This tablet is great cuz you don't need to do anything special to root it. Its bootloader is unlockable by default. It's the usual process to unlock: just tap your build number to unlock manufacturer options and then make sure you enable USB debugging and OEM unlocking. Now, you can use adb to get into the bootloader, or you can use the hardware shortcut to enter the bootloader which is the usual power button + volume down key hold. You don't have to actually unlock the bootloader with fastboot yet, because I'll explain that later.
First, make sure you have ADB and fastboot installed. If you're on Windows you have to download it, so here's an official updated link for Windows, as suggested by comments: https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools
A better alternative is to use Linux; I did this entirely on Linux Mint. If you are on Linux, you can use your distro's package manager (in this case apt since Mint is Debian based, use sudo apt-get install adb and sudo apt-get install fastboot to download your tools from verified repos.
Next, get on your Lenovo tablet and download Magisk Manager. Here's a link to it, complete with downloads and information. I recommend reading it.The official GH link is https://topjohnwu.github.io/Magisk/
IF YOU ARE DOING THE "NO PHONE HOME GOOGLE" CHALLENGE WHERE YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR LENOVO OFFLINE THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE ROOT PROCESS, YOU CAN INSTALL ANY apk VIA YOUR COMPUTER BY USING THE COMMAND adb -d install [package_name.apk] (the -d flag is for direct USB connection, refer to fastboot and adb guide posted at the appendix)
NOTE ABOUT SP FLASH TOOL: There is another way to root devices such as this one with MediaTek (MTK) chipsets using SP Flash Tool. Here is a link to it if you need, but we won't be using this method, as it's mainly useful if you cannot unlock/enter fastboot, which does not apply to the Lenovo M8. https://spflashtool.com/ Also in order to use this tool, you need the stock ROM and the scatter file for the device.
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THE STOCK ROM
Anyway, the most important thing you'll need in order to root your tablet is a stock ROM. You can find a variety of stock ROMs right here, but make sure it matches your build number: https://firmwarefile.com/lenovo-tab-m8-tb-8505f
NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU DOWNLOAD YOUR STOCK ROM FOLDER ONTO YOUR ANDROID DEVICE FIRST, not onto your computer. If you download it onto your computer, transfer it to the device.
Alternatively, you may google your build number and try to locate your stock ROM that way. The stock ROM is the most important thing. It should contain boot.img, system.img, recovery.img, user-data.img, vbmeta.img, and a scatter file as well as a whole bunch of other things. Make sure your stock ROM directory has all that, and that it has your build number in there somewhere.
"What are the .img 'image files'?" you may ask. Those are partitions that you can flash with fastboot. For this guide you'll only need boot.img and vbmeta.img, but in the highly likely event that you end up in a bootloop, having these partitions can help you get OUT of a bootloop.
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THE ROOT PROCESS
I chose the Magisk Manager patched boot image root method. It's pretty simple actually. Before proceeding, make sure you are all set with the preparation step. The general idea behind this root is that Magisk patches a boot image, which you flash to the boot partition. This custom Magisk image contains your su binary and custom kernel. If you haven't installed Magisk Manager yet, you should do it on your device. You should know how to install an apk file. At this point, you should also have your stock rom downloaded on your device, preferably placed somewhere you can easily access it like the Downloads directory.
"What is the su binary?" you may ask...
su is the switch user binary in Linux, which allows you to take actions as the root account. Getting "su" on Android is the same as rooting. On an unrooted Android, it's not that you don't have permission to use the "su" binary; the su binary doesn't exist at all! Thus, if you want root, you gotta add it.
"What is Magisk?" a n00b might ask...
Magisk is a lot of things, but in this context it is a way to root your device without alerting the fascist Google safety net which will discriminate against your device just because it was rooted. Additionally, Magisk Manager will control which apps can use root once you have the su binary added. Indeed, Magisk was made by ingenious Russian hackers. :)
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Patching your boot.img with Magisk
This part's simple. On your tablet, enter Magisk Manager and click Magisk, install, select and patch a file, then navigate to wherever your stock ROM directory is that you should have saved in Downloads probably, and find boot.img. This will make Magisk Manager patch boot.img, and create a custom boot.img that is named something along the lines of magisk_patched_boot.img. IT DOES NOT OVERWRITE YOUR STOCK BOOT.IMG, AND THAT'S A GOOD THING. I'LL EXPLAIN WHY IN THE RECOVERY/RESCUE SECTION. At any rate, if this is successful, your patched boot image is now in the same directory as the rest of your images. If you would like to know exactly what it's called, check the Magisk logs. If you're asking what the patched boot image is, you should read about how the boot image loads the kernel and the ramdisk. This patched one loads the su binary. If that doesn't make sense to you, don't worry about it.
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Extracting your ROM directory
Now that you have your stock ROM directory, with the patched magisk boot.img in it, you need to transfer it to your computer. This is because fastboot works with image files which are on your PC, and not on your Android. There are a lot of ways as I'm sure you know to transfer a file from Android to PC: you can use Google Drive for instance, or a standard USB media connection. Unfortunately, Linux doesn't usually support direct USB communication for media transfer, so I recommend doing this using adb if you're on Linux. This is how you'd do it with ADB:

1. Connect your Lenovo to your computer with a microUSB cable
2. Ensure USB debugging is turned on in dev. settings, and that your device appears when you use the command adb devices -l . It will probably say "unauthorized" and that's OK. If it says that, just open up your Lenovo and hit "accept this computer's RSA key"
3. Open up a shell using the command adb -d shell this is a Linux shell by the way, so I hope you know some basic Linux commands. If you don't you shouldn't be rooting. See appendix for a small guide. If you're too scared to use Linux, use a different method to transfer your stock ROM directory to your computer.
4. Find your downloads directory, or wherever your stock ROM folder is. It should be inside your sdcard directory. Once you have the directory filepath, use adb -d pull [path-to-directory] to copy the directory to your current working directory in Linux.
5. None of these steps are necessary if you're on Windows where you can just enable USB file transfer, or if you transfer the directory some other way like via internet or SD card. You can get creative here, it doesn't really matter. The end result must be that you have your stock ROM directory, together with the patched boot image, on your computer disk somewhere.

NOTE: to use adb or fastboot on Windows, you must open CMD in the directory where you have them installed. This is probably where your stock ROM image is going to be pulled.
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Unlocking your bootloader
This step is pretty straightforward, and can be done at any point once you get into developer mode and hit "enable OEM unlock." This must be done before flashing your patched image, however. At this point you probably have your patched boot.img together with your stock images inside your stock ROM directory, on your computer's hard drive. If you don't, refer to the guide above. Alternatively, you can unlock your bootloader first. It doesn't matter.
In order to unlock the bootloader, you need to get into fastboot mode. For a reference of fastboot commands, check the appendix. You can get into fastboot either by powering the device off and using the hardware key shortcut (power+vol down hold) or by connecting your tablet via USB and using the adb -d reboot fastboot command.
At this point, your Lenovo's screen should be black, and it should say FASTBOOT MODE at the bottom. This is good. You can use the fastboot devices command to see if your device is being seen. If not, you might need drivers, but I didn't have to install drivers on my Linux Mint machine. In order to unlock your bootloader, you must now use this command: fastboot flashing unlock. Your tablet will prompt you for confirmation. Accept it and wait for the success message. When you reboot your device again, for instance with the command fastboot reboot , you should see the message "ORANGE STATE, YOUR DEVICE HAS BEEN UNLOCKED AND CANNOT BE TRUSTED." That's a good thing, it means progress.
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Flashing the patched boot.img
This is the part where you actually overwrite your boot partition on your tablet. Beware, this is also the part where you're most likely to enter a bootloop, although I will explain how to get out of said bootloop in the rescue/recovery section. So, get your device into fastboot mode again. This can be done with adb -d reboot fastboot or through the hardware shortcut.
Once your device is in fastboot mode, navigate your computer to your stock ROM directory. If you're on Windows, I suggest putting your stock ROM directory into the same directory as your ADB and fastboot. Fastboot flash syntax is: fastboot flash [partition_name] [path_to_image_file_on_local_machine]
In order to flash our custom patched boot.img, we must first disable the verified boot verification. IF YOU DON'T DO THIS, YOU'LL END UP IN A BOOTLOOP! If you forget the --disable-verification flag, you will end up in a bootloop! I warned you! More info on VBMeta here: https://source.android.com/security/verifiedboot
Disable verified boot by using this command: fastboot flash vbmeta --disable-verification ./vbmeta.img where ./vbmeta.img is the path to your vbmeta.img file. It may be a little different, for instance if you're on Windows you use backslashes \ and not forward slashes / to separate directories, so if you're in your fastboot folder it would be something more like fastboot flash vbmeta --disable-verification .\stock_rom_folder\vbmeta.img. Seriously though, I hope you know how relative and absolute paths work, for your own good. From here on out, I will assume you know how to use paths. If you don't, you should brush up on the basics before rooting.
Now that you've flashed vbmeta with the --disable-verification flag, you can flash your boot partition. Use this command: fastboot flash boot ./magisk_patched_boot.img where ./boot.img is the path to your PATCHED boot.img. Watch out, you have a plain boot.img which is stock, and you don't want to flash that one, even though if you do it's no big deal; you just have to flash your custom boot.img afterwards. Also, if for some reason this doesn't work, the original post I read actually flashed the patched_boot.img twice: once BEFORE flashing vbmeta.img with --disable-verification, and once AFTER. However, they said that only flashing it AFTER is required. I flashed it twice, once before and once after, and it worked. The key is that you flash your custom boot image AFTER you flash vbmeta.img with --disable-verification. This is because Android Verified Boot (AVB) will not allow you to boot from your patched boot image if you allow it to verify it cryptographically, as it lacks the key. Check the verified boot link above for more info on that.
At this point, if everything went well, you can use fastboot reboot to boot your Android. It might take a while longer than usual, but once you boot, you should be rooted.
NOTE: Both adb and fastboot are tab-friendly. If you know how to use tab-autocomplete, it can help a lot as you're doing all this.
​
I HAVE ROOT, WHAT SHOULD I DO NOW?
If you followed the above guide, you should be able to give and revoke application root permissions using the Magisk Manager app you installed earlier. Google Play Store should still be usable. At this point, I would check if you actually have root on your device. There are a lot of ways to do this, but a safe one would be to connect your tablet via USB to your computer and open a shell with adb -d shell, and try to use the command su to switch user. It should lag a little and not let you, but you should get a pop-up question on your tablet asking if you want to grant the program "Shell" root permissions. Go ahead and do it, this is a safe program. It's your Android's internal shell. Now you have root privileges when you connect an ADB shell. Try using su again, and it should work. Alternatively, download any app that asks for root permissions and see if it works. Careful though, giving any app root permissions is a good way to get into all kinds of trouble. Many times you think you're the one hacking, but you end up being the one who gets hacked.
Now that you have root, you can go wild. The limits are up to your imagination and skill. I went about getting rid of every piece of Google spyware and adware on my tablet. I also installed hardware-identifier spoofing apps which allow me to change my MAC, my bluetooth MAC, and my IMEI. These are powerful privacy measures; so powerful that the mods of this subreddit might not even like that I mentioned them. It's not illegal, and it's fair game, mods! This tablet can't accept a SIM card!
BEFORE YOU GO CRAZY, please read my recovery section. For the love of god, back up your data before you proceed with doing anything to the system partition, or giving anything besides Shell root access!
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​
RESCUE/RECOVERY
I'm stuck in a bootloop!
So you bootlooped. No big deal. I bootlooped multiple times and figured out how to rescue my device, and now I'll pass that knowledge on to you. It's an enriching experience to be honest. Here's the bad news: this Lenovo does not support TWRP custom recovery, and to my knowledge it doesn't actually have a recovery partition that you can access. In other words, adb -d reboot recovery sends you into fastboot mode.
Here's the good news: if you have your stock ROM, then you just have to flash the stock copy of whatever partition you think you messed up. Don't forget, the fastboot flash syntax is: fastboot flash [partition_name] [path_to_image_file_on_local_machine] so for instance in order to reset my system partition to stock, I would do fastboot flash system ./system.img , assuming I'm already in my ROM directory on my PC.
I made this nice mini-guide which tells you which partition you probably messed up, depending on your action, and what resetting said partition will do. When in doubt, you can flash all of the following:
boot partition
If you're flashing the stock boot.img on your device, it's probably because you are in a bootloop that doesn't even get to the lock screen of your device. If something is the matter with your boot partition, you should only see the Red Lenovo Logo, and it should NOT do the normal boot thing it does where it cycles through a bunch of images with random people doing exciting things which have nothing to do at all with the tablet such as BMXing. The major reasons for needing to flash boot.img are:

1. Downloading the stock ROM for the wrong build. In this case, only flashing the boot.img from the correct build will revive your device. I hope you saved or wrote down your build somewhere.
2. Forgetting to flash the vbmeta partition with the --disable-verification flag before flashing your magisk_patched_boot.img will send you into a bootloop, as I warned you before. If you forgot to do this, then you can just flash vbmeta.img with the flag shown above, and then flash your patched boot.img again. You do not need to touch vbmeta if you're flashing the stock boot.img
3. Completely resetting the device. Keep in mind to lock the bootloader again, you must use the command fastboot flashing lock

fastboot flash boot ./boot.img is how you flash stock boot partition
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system partition
If you're flashing the stock system.img, it means you've irreparably messed up your system partition. This can happen if you remove the wrong system app or package, or if you otherwise mess with the system files. This type of bootloop may appear almost exactly like the bootloop from a bad boot.img, but it can be characterized by your device trying to boot, but then going into fastboot mode.
By the way, system apps/packages are things like Google Play Services; the ones you can't remove on an unrooted Android. Removing these can be good for battery and to remove Google's spying, but it can send you into a bootloop so fast it'll make your head spin. This is why I recommend to back up your system.img (see below) before every attempt of messing with it. One wrong move and you have to start over. In fact, if you're an inexperienced rooter, I don't recommend messing with any system app until you read about the Android system and Google what each app/package you want to mess with does. With that being said, you can make a flashable backup image of your current system.img if you use the dd command. More info on that below in the backup options section.
fastboot flash system ./system.img is how you flash stock system partition. This will restore all system apps and services. It may fail to rescue the device unless you also flash the user-data partition, depending on how badly you messed up.
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user-data partition
This is probably the most common bootloop. It's usually characterized by getting to your lock screen from boot, and the device shutting off. This happened to me because I installed an app from the Play Store which listed trackers on my device and could uninstall system apps, but people on the comment section were saying it caused bootloops. The device worked fine until I tried to reboot it, lol.
Flashing a stock user-data.img means you lose all your data. However, if your data isn't backed up, it's probably gone already unless you're a digital forensics expert and know secrets that I don't. This is why I advocate backing up your data, and discuss several ways of doing that in the following section:
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[CUSTOM IMAGES AND BACKUPS]
"I have root, but I am afraid of going into a bootloop and losing all my data!"
Smart. If you don't have that concern, you should. I lost all my data a few times because I didn't back it up. Here, I'll discuss backup options so you don't have to start all over from square one. Much like most things in life, serious failure with a rooted device is best addressed BEFORE it actually happens, by using a backup! Here are some viable backup options, together with their use cases and information:

1. Backing up user-data via USB on Windows: If you know how to connect your device to your Windows computer for data transfer, then you can back up the data on your user-data partition without doing anything fancy. This only works for the user-data partition, and does not create a flashable image.
2. Backing up via adb backup is great, and allows restoring with adb restore. I'm not going to post about this in-depth, but if you're interested I suggest looking these commands and their syntax up. It's all in the man pages.
3. Using a partition managebackup app. This is a risky idea because the app itself could have ads, or could bootloop your device. I don't recommend this method very much, especially for noobs. It may seem easy, but it's a good way to eat shit. Normally rooters flash TWRP to their recovery partition to do this, but this device doesn't support TWRP to my knowledge so we have to cope.
4. [EXPERTS ONLY] Use dd to manually back up your partition. Watch out! This is the hardest, most dangerous, but also most rewarding way. They call dd disk destroyer for a reason! One false move and you're going back to square 1! You need to know your partition layout and you may need to unmount your partition! If you know which dev is which partition (there are utilities for this in Linux), you may do something like this: dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd1 of=/sdcard/recovery.img bs=4096 to backup your recovery image, assuming your recovery partition is in /dev/mtd/mtd1

​
"Please help, I messed up so bad I can't even get into fastboot and I have a bootloop!"
This is the point where you have to use SP Flash tool to unfuck your device. I've never fucked it up that bad, but I hear you can still rescue it if you use that tool.
​
That's it! If you enjoyed this, give me a like or something. I'm starting a Youtube channel too where I'll show you how this is all done. Oh, I'm not responsible for you messing your device up. That's on you. Oh, if you want me to do a root guide for your device, I only do MTK (MediaTek) chipsets, and my next guide will be for the Alcatel A30 where I'll be rooting it with the SP flash tool scatter file method. But do feel free to ask me to do some other device, I might just make a guide about it.
​
A little about me
I'm a computer science student with a passion for hacking and Android rooting. I've rooted many devices before, but this was my first one where I actually knew what I was doing. It's one thing to follow instructions or use a one-click-root security exploit app, but it's a whole other thing to do your own research and actually understand the process. One day I hope to work in the mobile security industry, but if I end up somewhere else, I feel like Android will always be a hobby of mine. I feel like rooting sets you free from the tracking device in your pocket. It is a way to keep private information like where you are at all times and what you do on your phone private, and to get rid of the "it's your phone but it's actually ours to do with as we please" mentality of Google. You don't have to agree with me here, but that's what motivates me.
​
appendix
Fastboot and ADB command guide: https://www.androidjungles.com/adb-fastboot-commands/ (keep in mind, on Linux you can just use adb --help and fastboot --help as well as the manpages to see detailed information)
ADB and fastboot download (FOR WINDOWS): https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools
Basic Linux commands: https://maker.pro/linux/tutorial/basic-linux-commands-for-beginners
Creating backups of partition images (DO NOT COPY-PASTE DD COMMANDS. IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY NOT, THEN DON'T F*CKING USE DD) and read the manpage, please!
https://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/how-to-backup-your-android-phones-boot-recovery-and-system-partition-images/
https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/203891/how-to-take-full-image-backup-of-partitions-or-emmc (pay attention, this is not for the same type of device, though it mentions MTK devices.)
dd syntax: dd if=[path to input file] of=[path to output file]
Verified Boot Information (For those who want to become L33t Haxxors): https://source.android.com/security/verifiedboot
Stock ROM download page (but you can find your own or ask me in comments, but provide build number pls): https://firmwarefile.com/lenovo-tab-m8-tb-8505f
Magisk Manager Download: https://magiskmanager.com/ or on GH https://topjohnwu.github.io/Magisk/

Over the past few weeks, some tricks were floating around this subreddit for get Stadia working on iOS 14. I decided to ship a highly specialized browser app to the App Store which can make doing this super easy.
"Stadium" is a full screen, mostly single page serving, browser that allows you to change the user agent, and supports any game controller iOS can understand. When you open it, you give it your primary URL and a custom user agent.
IMPORTANT UPDATE (Nov 6): Stadoum has returned to the App Store after being removed by Apple! I made a blog post about how the new version works and how to use it with Stadia.
To use it with Stadia:
1. Set primary URL to https://stadia.google.com/home 2. Set user agent to Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_5) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/85.0.4183.83 Safari/537.36 3. In the … menu, select Authenticate, and visit https://accounts.google.com/ 4. After you've signed in to your Google account, tap done. You may also need to select "Go Home" from the … menu. 5. That's it! Now every time you launch Stadium, it brings you right to the Stadia landing page.
The game controller logic included is based on GrayBayPlay's reddit and Medium posts. Without that, controllers simply wouldn't work.
The browser is free, and has no ads or tracking code. Give it a try if you want an easier solution for Stadia on iOS!
Edit: Answering some questions I've seen.

• What controllers work?

In the 1.2 update, Stadia controllers will almost assuredly work, and Bluetooth + MFi controllers might work. See my linked blog post in the above important update.
Any controller that your iOS device can recognize should work. This includes MFi controllers, Xbox One S (and Elite Series 2) controllers, and DualShock 4 controllers. Pair them in your device Settings.
Stadia controllers may also work when paired via the web over WiFi.

• I'm getting login errors!

Make sure to use the Authenticate view to login. Google seems to not like using custom user agents while you're logging in.
Edit 2: a few more questions answered.

• GeForce Now support?

Maybe. I added support for popup login windows in version 1.1, which will get you logged in. I haven't done much research into getting a controller working with it.

• How do I access the menus/party chat?

In 1.2, you can disable "Require Full Screen Video" and restart the app to be able to see Stadia's menus.

• How can I keep up with any new developments or updates to Stadium?

I've set up a Discord server where I can share development updates and you can share your feedback and questions (and probably get a faster response from me). Come say hi!
Edit 3: Updated info on Stadia controllers.

Game & Watch Emulation with MAME on RetroArch for Android Beginner's Tutorial

Introduction

Hey everyone! This tutorial will explain how to emulate the original Nintendo Game & Watch games on an Android device, using the RetroArch emulator app and the MAME emulation core. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will be installing the software on a 64-bit Android device. Without further ado, let’s get into it!!

Context

RetroArch is an app, for many platforms, that allows you to emulate almost any game imaginable. First you download RetroArch, then you download the core you need to emulate the game you wish to play (in this tutorial, we’re using the latest version of MAME as our core), then you download the respective ROMs and artwork files. You need ROM files that match the version of MAME you’re using, or at least the latest version of the ROMs (with latest version of MAME).
The MAME ROM files each have an exact name that needs to remain unchanged. For the Game & Watch game ‘Oil Panic’, for example, its ROM file is named gnw_opanic.zip. The accompanying artwork file is named the same as the ROM file, and is always stored in the MAME artwork folder. In the case of ‘Oil Panic’, the artwork file is also named gnw_opanic.zip.
MAME is also available on Android as a standalone app, but there isn’t a MAME Android App that supports the Game & Watch games, which is why we are going with the RetroArch method: because it allows us to use the latest version of MAME, and thereby emulate the Game & Watch titles.
RetroArch is an amazing program, and it allows for a lot of customization, which we are going to be utilizing to make the most of our experience with the games. We are going to use custom configuration and control overlays to play the games as they were originally played (or at least, close to it).

What Files You Need

1. RetroArch app (for the device you’ll be using to play)
2. MAME core (match the bit depth to the app and device)
3. Game & Watch ROMs (the files must match your version of MAME / be the latest ROMs)
4. Game & Watch artwork files (these go with the ROMs to make them look pretty. They’re essential.)
5. A game (not Game & Watch) to test and configure the app with, you can download this in RetroArch, details below

Important Notes

We will now take a moment to manage your expectations for this emulation experience. You can indeed emulate every Game & Watch title made (the 60 Nintendo ones) on your device. The LCD screens are emulated with a vector image file (.svg) that is a replica of the LCD used on the actual Game & Watch devices. If you don’t add your artwork, you’ll only have the LCD traces, which are just plain black and white images (not very fun to look at, and in some cases, it impedes gameplay). After adding artwork to your system, the games look and feel like an original Game & Watch device, which is why it is assumed you’re reading this tutorial in the first place (this is why we all love the games).
The games won’t even load without disabling softlists. So you need to boot into a game for the purpose of accessing the emulation options menu, to disable softlists on the MAME core. This will allow the games to run.
You may notice, after booting into a game at this point, that it doesn’t run quite like it should (laggy, messed up sound, etc.). You need to enable the alternate render method to get better performance. You should also reduce the resolution of the image to the lowest setting (640 x 360). This gives a very pixelated image, but it is good enough that you can enjoy the game if you’re not too picky about the appearance.
Please also note that some ROM files are currently unavailable. Some artwork files are also currently unavailable.
At this time, this configuration seems to be the best that anyone can come up with. Until the apps are improved, or device technology comes further along, this is probably the best you can get.

Setup

Installation of apps and files

1. Download and install RetroArch on your device.
2. Download the latest MAME core that corresponds to your device and bit-depth (pre-compiled available in 64-bit Android here)
   1. It may come in a .zip archive, extract it in a file manager
3. Install the MAME core onto RetroArch
   1. Open RetroArch
   2. Make sure you’re on the RetroArch Home Screen
   3. Select ‘Load Core’
   4. Select ‘Install or Restore a Core’
   5. Find the extracted core file and select it to install
4. Install and run a test game
   1. Go back to the RetroArch home screen
   2. Select ‘Load Core’
   3. Select ‘Arcade (MAME)’
   4. Select ‘Online Updater’
   5. Select ‘Content Downloader’
   6. Select ‘Arcade’
   7. Select ‘Alien_Arena.zip’
   8. Return to the RetroArch home screen
   9. Select ‘Load Content’
   10. Select ‘Downloads’
   11. Select ‘alienar.zip’
   12. Select ‘Load Archive’
5. Disable softlists, enable alternate render method, and decrease resolution
   1. From the Alien Arena game we just installed and started up, we’re going to disable softlists, enable alternate render method, and decrease the resolution.
   2. If you’re looking at the running game now, with the gamepad, click the little Alien Invader button to access the ‘Quick Menu’
   3. Scroll down and select ‘Options’
   4. Scroll down and find ‘Alternate render method’ and toggle it ON
   5. ‘Enable softlists’ is right below, toggle it OFF
   6. Scroll down and find ‘Resolution’ and set it to 640x360
   7. Click the Back button to go back to the ‘Quick Menu’
   8. Scroll down and select ‘Overrides’
   9. Select ‘Save Core Overrides’

You should now be able to run the ROMs on your device. Place the ROM files in a conveniently accessible folder, such as in the RetroArch downloads folder. We’re not done yet, though! We’re going to set up our artwork next. Go ahead and test a ROM file now, if you want to. Try gnw_ball.zip, for example. If it runs, fantastic! You’ve so far configured everything correctly.

1. Add artwork to the MAME artwork folder
   1. Navigate to your RetroArch installation folder
   2. Look for a folder named system then open it
   3. Inside the system folder, make a new folder called mame
   4. Inside the mame folder, make a new folder called artwork
   5. Copy the artwork .zip files into the artwork folder.

Configuration for better picture / controls

Removing white backdrop

At this point, if you have all the ROMs you wanted and their accompanying artwork, you can finally enjoy the Game & Watch games as they were designed. Try opening a ROM now, try gnw_ball.zip again. If everything was done correctly, you should now be running Ball. It appears as the original Game & Watch unit, with a white backdrop. This is nice and all, but the white backdrop is just a waste of space on a device like a phone. We’re going to now blow up the image and make it even nicer! If you have a Bluetooth keyboard that you can connect to your device, go ahead and connect that now: you can use it to access the MAME options menu to blow up the image. If you don’t have a Bluetooth keyboard available, there is another way we can configure the game to show the ‘Unit Only’. And that is by placing a .cfg configuration file in the RetroArch installation folder.

Bluetooth / external keyboard method

To blow up the image of the Game & Watch unit, we need to access the MAME options menu. This is accomplished by pressing the Tab key on the keyboard, but if you’re on mobile, this isn’t readily possible without an external keyboard. We will use Ball as an example.

1. With a Game and Watch game running, and a Bluetooth keyboard connected to the device, press the Tab key
2. This will bring up the MAME menu. Press down on the arrow keys until you select ‘Video Options’ and hit Enter
3. Select ‘Unit Only’ and hit Enter
4. To exit the MAME menu, select ‘Return to Previous Menu’
5. Select ‘Return to Machine’

Config file method

To blow up the image of the Game & Watch without the use of an external keyboard, we can use a config file to do the same thing. We will accomplish this feat by saving a config file for the corresponding ROM / game, and saving it in the proper folder. The name of the .cfg file must exactly match the name of the ROM .zip file. We will use ‘Ball’ as an example.

1. Open a text editor, and copy the following code into the file:

​

 This file is autogenerated; comments and unknown tags will be stripped      

​

1. Save the file as gnw_ball.cfg.
2. Navigate to the RetroArch installation folder.
3. Open the saves folder
4. Open the mame folder
5. Open the cfg folder
6. Save the config file titled gnw_ball.cfg inside the cfg folder.
7. If you were running ‘Ball’ while doing this, you will need to close and restart ‘Ball’ to see the effects of the change.

Now the Game & Watch will appear in all its full-screen glory. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will be sticking with the ‘Unit Only’ view, but feel free to use any view you’d like. (See page 8 for how to rotate the game for optimal viewing, in the case of a dual screen Game & Watch, if you rotate it on its side, you get a bigger and better picture.) You can make your own custom control overlay that works best with your view of choice.
The ‘Unit Only’ view is nice, but it’s not exactly optimal yet. If we could blow up the image more, by for example, rotating the screen to landscape mode, we could get an even bigger view of the Game and Watch. The next step will demonstrate how to force the game to always load in landscape view (it will be locked in this view, and won’t be able to be rotated with auto rotation on mobile). If you don’t want to lock the view of the game, feel free to skip the following step.

Locking game screen to landscape orientation

To force a game to only load in landscape orientation, complete the following steps:

1. Load a Game & Watch ROM / game, we’ll use gnw_ball.zip as an example again
2. Press the Alien-Invader-looking button to access the ‘Quick Menu’
3. Select the cog wheel at the bottom of the screen to access ‘Settings’
4. Scroll down and select ‘User Interface’
5. Toggle ‘Show Advanced Settings’ to ON
6. Press the ‘Back’ button to return to ‘Settings’
7. Scroll up and select ‘Video’
8. Select ‘Output’
9. Select ‘Screen Orientation’
10. Select 90 deg or 270 deg for landscape mode. (What you should choose depends upon the model of your device. Depending on where your loudspeaker is, you may prefer 90 deg or 270 deg. I chose 90 deg because in that orientation, the speaker is not covered by my hand while playing the game, therefore allowing me to hear the game better.)
11. Click the ‘Home’ button to go to the RetroArch home screen
12. Select ‘Quick Menu’
13. Scroll down to the bottom and select ‘Overrides’
14. Scroll down and select ‘Save Game Overrides’

Now your Game & Watch should be looking really nice. If you followed the example provided by using gnw_ball.zip, you should be looking at the Ball unit in landscape orientation without a white backdrop. Looks really nice, doesn’t it? But looks aren’t everything! We now need a convenient way to play the game! If you’re doing this all for the first time, your ‘control overlay’ is likely the default set by RetroArch, which is meant for conventional arcade cabinets: it’s not meant for Game & Watches, which have much simpler control layouts. Luckily, RetroArch allows you to use custom control overlays, which are touchable buttons displayed on top of the game to allow you to control it. In the next demonstration, we’re going to look at how to enable a custom control overlay.

Setting up a custom control overlay

The authors of this tutorial are currently working on a set of custom control overlays for each of the 60 Nintendo Game & Watch titles. They will be making them available for download to use freely. Creating a custom control overlay is beyond the scope of this tutorial, we will however provide instructions on how to install and configure a custom control overlay.

Selecting an overlay to use

1. Create / obtain the custom control overlays. (As these are specific to RetroArch, and not involved with MAME in any way, there is no standardized naming convention for control overlays. They are a part of RetroArch, not MAME.) Download the overlays I've made so far here.
2. Place the overlays in an easily accessible folder.

The default folder where the default RetroArch overlays are stored is only accessible by root and RetroArch itself (you cannot easily place your overlays there), so it is recommended to change the overlay directory using the following method:

1. From within RetroArch, the home screen for example, press the ‘Settings’ button
2. Scroll down and Select ‘Directory’
3. Scroll down and Select ‘Overlay’
4. Choose an easily accessible folder to store the default overlays, and your custom ones together, if you wish. It is recommended to create a folder named overlays inside the RetroArch installation folder.
5. Once you’ve chosen your new Overlays folder, you must re-download your default overlays. Go back to the RetroArch home screen and select ‘Online Updater’
6. Scroll down and select ‘Update Overlays’

With your default overlays and custom Game & Watch overlays now in your overlays folder, you can now set them up. If you’re only testing the overlay and don’t want to save it as the default for the game, you can omit steps 9-11.

1. Start a game / ROM. We’ll use gnw_ball.zip as the example again.
2. From within the game, access the ‘Quick Menu’
3. Scroll down and select ‘On-Screen Overlay’
4. Scroll down and select ‘Overlay Preset’
5. From within the RetroArch browser, find the overlay that corresponds to the game you want to use it for, in this case, an overlay for ‘Ball’
6. Select the overlay file
7. Hit ‘Back’ to return to the ‘Quick Menu’
8. Scroll down to the bottom and select ‘Overrides’
9. Select ‘Save Game Overrides’

Make the overlay invisible / increase transparency

If your overlay you’ve chosen features visible buttons, you can adjust the opacity of the overlay if you’d like the overlay to be invisible. This is accomplished by setting the overlay opacity to zero. To hide the overlay, complete the following steps while running the game whose overlay you’d like to configure:

1. Access the ‘Quick Menu’
2. Scroll down and select ‘On-Screen Overlay’
3. Scroll down and select ‘Overlay Opacity’
4. Set the opacity value to whatever you like: Choose 0.00 for the overlay to be completely invisible, or a value closer to 1.00 for the overlay to be more opaque

How to rotate the screen from within MAME

For certain games that are taller than they are wide, like the dual screen Game & Watches, it may be desired to rotate the screen in MAME so that the unit is displayed on its side, thereby filling the screen more. This is possible through the same methods as removing the backdrop, with a keyboard to access the MAME menu, or a config file.

Bluetooth / external keyboard method

1. From within a Game & Watch game, while your keyboard is connected, press the Tab key
2. From the menu that appears, select ‘Video Options’
3. Down near the bottom, select ‘Rotate’ and set the value to 90° CW or 90° CCW. You should select the direction that is opposite of the direction you select to rotate the display within RetroArch, which is covered below. We’ll select 90° CCW in this example.
4. Select ‘Return to Previous Menu’
5. Select ‘Return to Machine’
6. Access the ‘Quick Menu’ and hit the cog wheel at the bottom for the global ‘Settings’ menu
7. Select ‘Video’
8. Select ‘Output’
9. Select ‘Screen Orientation’ and select 90 deg.
10. Hit the ‘Home’ button to access the ‘Main Menu’
11. Select ‘Quick Menu’
12. Select ‘Overrides’
13. Select ‘Save Game Overrides’

Config file method

Using the following method, we will make the configurations with a config file copied into the respective folder. We’ll use ‘Oil Panic’ as an example.

1. Open a text editor, and copy the following code into the file:

​

 This file is autogenerated; comments and unknown tags will be stripped      

​

1. Save the file as gnw_opanic.cfg.
2. Navigate to the RetroArch installation folder.
3. Open the saves folder
4. Open the mame folder
5. Open the cfg folder
6. Save the config file titled gnw_opanic.cfg inside the cfg folder.
7. If you were running ‘Oil Panic’ while doing this, you will need to close and restart ‘Oil Panic’ to see the effects of the change.
8. Access the ‘Quick Menu’ and hit the cog wheel at the bottom for the global ‘Settings’ menu
9. Select ‘Video’
10. Select ‘Output’
11. Select ‘Screen Orientation’ and select 90 deg.
12. Hit the ‘Home’ button to access the ‘Main Menu’
13. Select ‘Quick Menu’
14. Select ‘Overrides’
15. Select ‘Save Game Overrides’

The views available to choose from depend on the game selected. Each game has a totally different view selection from the next (although some view sets are more common). To change the view through the config file method, simply change the view name inside the quotation marks to the desired view. The name must exactly match, character-for-character. Here are the available views for ‘Oil Panic’:
Unit and Backdrop
Unit and Backdrop (No Shadow)
Unit Only
Unit Only (No Shadow)
Backgrounds Only
Backgrounds Only (No Shadow)
Case Top and Backdrop
Case Top
Screen 0 Pixel Aspect (480:323)
Screen 1 Pixel Aspect (64:41)
Dual Over-Under
Dual Over-Under (Gapless)
Screen 0 Standard (480:323)
Screen 1 Standard (64:41)

Conclusion

RetroArch and MAME are two wonderful projects that, in this instance, have come together to create one of the best emulation experiences available for Game & Watch games. Rest assured, these are indeed emulations of the actual Game & Watch chipsets and ROMs, and not simulations, as are sometimes available elsewhere online.
The full screen Game & Watch, combined with custom control overlays, allows for an immersive and authentic gaming experience. Using the provided methods, you should be able to configure each of the 60 available Game & Watch titles for the optimal gaming experience on your mobile device.

1. What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games (ex: resolution, FPS, settings) or programs you will be using.

2 purposes - home computing and software engineeprogrammer workstation. Home computing will include some BD ripping and video encoding, but NO gaming. This is not a gaming computer. Software engineering/programming will include: application/web development using IDEs like Visual Studio Enterprise, VS Code; database development running SQL Server (server installation and SSMS), multiple VMs, various product installations (client/server installations), miscellaneous development tools/utilities.
NOTE: This will NOT be used for gaming, unless my son decides to play MineCraft :)

2. What is your maximum PRE-TAX budget before rebates and shipping?

No budget restrictions, but I'm looking for value/bang-for-buck.

3. When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.

Immediately, as I require the workstation capabilities for a new contract with a new client. Typically, clients have provided their own hardware for longer-term contracts, but I'm working from home more frequently so I suspect that I'll be working on my own workstation and spinning up VMs for different clients/projects.

4. What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ex: toweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc)

CPU, Motherboard, CPU Cooler (if required/suggested), SSD (Boot Drive, 1TB), Power Supply, Case (see restrictions below)

5. If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? How old are they? Brands and models are appreciated.

Monitor (Dell U3419W), Keyboard (Logitech ERGO K860), Mouse (Logitech MX Master 3), WebCam (Logitech Brio), ODD (External 5.25" Asus Blu-Ray), KVM Switch (to switch between this new workstation and other client-supplied laptops).
Might consider re-using my Antec Sonata II case and Antec UP450 (450W) PSU, but wouldn't mind upgrading these just to freshen it up.
Might also re-use a 1TB 7200RPM hard drive. Or might buy a new SSD later.

6. Will you be overclocking (ex: CPU/GPU/RAM)? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line?

Not expecting to overclock, but would like the option. I have overclocked previous setups, so I'm familiar with the approach.

7. Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, VR, VirtualLink, tensor cores, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)

Want an appropriate CPU/RAM combination to satisfy my software development & programming requirements. SSD boot drive is a requirement.

8. Do you have any specific case preferences (ex: mITX/mATX/mid-towefull-tower sizes, styles, colours, window or not, LED lighting, etc.), or a particular color theme preference for the components?

Would prefer a compact ATX tower, but cannot be greater than 17.5" high (17" or less preferred), 19" deep, 9" wide. Would consider a mATX case/mobo. No windows, all black. IO panel must be on the front panel. Must have at least one 5.25" external bay for ODD.

9. Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? Note: some post-secondary students can get Windows 10 for free.

No, can obtain Windows 10 Pro via MSDN Subscription.

10. Will you be upgrading this PC in the future (ie: will you swap out better parts later on or will you build an entirely new tower later)? If so, when?

I have constantly upgraded my current home PC over the past 15 years so I anticipate I would upgrade this PC in the future.

11. Do you have a brand preference? (ex: AMD/Intel for CPUs, AMD/NVIDIA for video cards, etc)

No, I've used both Intel and AMD over the years. Whatever offers best value/bang-for-buck and long-term performance.

12. What are the specs of your old PC / laptop? Do you want to see if it can be upgraded instead? If so, paste its build from PCPartPicker here.

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Mobo: Asus P8Z68-V Pro RAM: 2X4MB SSD: Samsung EVO 860 256GB Case: Antec Sonata II PSU: Antec UP450 CPU Cooler: Cooler Master ODD: Asus Blu-Ray (will keep this)

13. Extra info or particulars:

I am also considering simply upgrading my RAM to 24-32 GB (likely 24 by buying a 2x8 GB pack). But I think it's time to upgrade so looking for suggestions on how to put together a suitable software engineering/programmer workstation that offers good/excellent performance.

I have a pair of 2nd gen airpods and an iphone XR currently on ios14.4. This issue has been on & off since ios 13 though, and have only gotten even more irritating since upgrading to 14. I use my airpods mostly paired with my phone, and occassionally with my windows pc. When I'm using one or the other, I turn off bluetooth completely on the unused devices to avoid interference. Therefore most of the time the only discoverable bluetooth devices around are the airpods & iphone.
When bluetooth is on on my iphone, my airpods in their case (so they should be off?) would randomly connect to my phone. It sounds like a small thing but the small irritations add up. Often I'd be watching a video on my phone through the phone speaker or even with plugged in earphones (I still use the wired earphones with the lightning jack), and suddenly it'd be muted because it connected, and I'd have to pause and change audio sources. I'd be on the phone talking with someone and it suddenly mutes. I'd be playing a game and it suddenly mutes. It's bloody annoying and there's been so many patches yet it's only gotten "stickier" than ever. It happens at least once everyday at some random time, there's no real pattern to it other than being in range of each other - sometimes it connects when there's no audio playing, but I see the pop up or I start to play something and wonder where the audio went before deducing it must've happened again.
These are the current settings for my airpods on my phone. I fiddled around because I didn't like some features of the default configuration so that might've tripped up a bug. I don't think it's a hardware issue with the airpods or the phone, since this never happened back when I got it with ios12, so I posted this here.
I cannot find anything online about this. The issue people have is with their bluetooth devices not connecting to their phone, while mine is connecting so well it does it when it's not supposed to. None of my other third party bluetooth audio devices have this issue of randomly snatching over the audio like that when its supposed to be off.
Would hope if there can be some hint about what might be causing this.

Hello all,
I installed Pop!_OS yesterday and I was very positively surprised with the system. It works pretty well out-of-the-box.
In case you're interested you can simply follow this guide: https://abskmj.github.io/notes/posts/rog-zephyrus-g14/popos/. I do also suggest you take a look at other posts here in Reddit and over the internet in case you get stuck with one thing or another such as Secure Boot (you have to disable it).
For those who are already using it, could you please advise on the following questions?
My system: R7 RTX2060, Dual-boot with Win10, external HDMI monitor, bluetooth mouse, Logitech Webcam & Keyboard (wired).

1. Bluetooth Mouse: is there a way to avoid losing the connection each time you log in in a different system? Every time I switch from Linux to Win or vice-versa I have to pair it again.
2. Is there any GUI version for the asus-n-ctl modes (backlight led, fan profile, animetrix, battery level)? I couldn't find any.
3. Is it safe to modify the /etc/resolv.conf? After checking my VPN status in (ipleak.net) I found out that my DNS is leaking in Linux. SurfShark VPN team recommended to edit resolv.conf by adding their DNS instead of the local loop (now it's 127.0...). I'm not sure I should do it, so asking you for advices. Maybe there is another way that I'm not aware of.
4. AMD GPU x NVIDIA GPU. Per my understanding, I cannot switch from one to another without rebooting. Is that correct? Can I enable dGPU while gaming only without the need of rebooting? How does it play with the system76 power management? Any tweak I should do with it or be aware of?
5. Is there any good equivalent of HWiNFO64 for Linux with real time temperature checks?
6. I found the sound pretty loud comparing with Windows. It seems that it is amplified somehow. Any suggestion on how to properly control? Is there Dolby Atmos for Linux as well?
7. Is there any recommendation for Pop!_OS and G14 together that I may have missed? Some nice tweaks or "must-haves"?

Many thanks in advance.

• Tweak name & description (Most descriptions I used are the developer’s one ,some are from idownloadblog.com and some I added ,as not all tweaks has description and some has vague or very long description).
• Repo.
• Free or Paid&Price.

Tweak list :
App Firewall (iOS 10-13) : Take control of apps' network access with AppFirewall! AppFirewall intercepts outbound connections and prompts for your permission before continuing, similar to iOS' other permissions. Afterwards, you can manage which sites are allowed & blocked in settings. Repo : http://apt.thebigboss.org/repofiles/cydia/. Free.
DoubleCut : let’s you bind text to a specific key and you can choose double tap, triple tap or hold. Repo : BigBoss. Free.
WiCarrier : Replaces status bar's carrier name field with the currently connected WiFi network. Repo : https://rpetri.ch/repo/. Free.
WiFiCarrier+ : WiFi network name and IP address in status bar. Repo : https://phil-highrez.github.io/repo/. Free.
MYbloXX : System wide Ad blocker. Repo : https://myxxdev.github.io/. Free.
BlockYouX : Systemwide Ads blocker. Repo : https://cydia.ceadd.ca/. Free.
UHB - iOS 9/10/11/12 (Untrusted Hosts Blocker) : System wide ads blocker. Repo : https://repo.thireus.com/. Free.
No Typing Indicator 13 : This tweak blocks the typing indicators from showing in iMessage. You can still see others typing but they will not see you typing. Repo : https://cydia.ceadd.ca/. Free.
AppStore++ : Allow downgrade apps in AppStore , block updates ,pypass 200MB download limit , disable search ads & disable app thinning. Repo : https://cokepokes.github.io/. Free.
SiriUnlock : Allow Siri to access sensitive data when phone is locked (i.e read text messages , show notes & contacts). Repo : https://cokepokes.github.io/. Free.
Kairos 3 : Kairos makes it easy to schedule messages to be sent at specific times. With options to have messages repeat to send on certain days of the week. Repo : https://supporter.cpdigitaldarkroom.com/repo/. Paid : 10$
TabBlocker : TabBlocker is able to block the opening of new tabs for specified websites.A lot of times when I try to watch a video, or open certain webpages that contain allot of ads. I get redirected to a new tab almost directly. TabBlocker will ask you if the webpage is allowed to open new tabs, or just block them. Repo : BigBoss. Free.
Spy : Allow you to Log and share usage of your apps when lending your phone to someone and see what apps tried to open and what time. Also has the ability to lock the phone or start alarm when chosen apps are lunched . Activation by CC toggle or Activator gesture. Repo : https://repo.packix.com/. Paid : 1.99$
Truecuts : Truecuts is a tweak for Siri Shortcuts that enables all automation triggers to run without prompting. Repo : BigBoss. Free.
StopShortcutsNotifications : This tweak prevents the shortcuts app from sending notifications. Repo : http://itsjafer.com/repo/. Free.
iCleaner Pro : iCleaner can free up space by removing unnecessary files from your device. Also allow you to manage Launch Daemons, Substrate addons & Preference Bundles. Repo : https://ib-soft.net/cydia/beta/. Free.
iSponsorBlock : iSponsorBlock | Automatically skip annoying sponsorships in YouTube videos. Repo : https://galactic-dev.github.io/. Free.
Messenger No Ads : Remove ads for Facebook Messenger app. Disable read receipt. Disable typing indicator and more. Repo : https://haoict.github.io/cydia/. Free.
HalFiPad : iPhone X Gestures: iPad StatusBarFloating Dock. Split & Slide Over. iPhone X Keyboard. Dark Keyboard. Swipe To Screenshot and more. And more features. Repo : BigBoss. Free.
LocationService (CCSupport) : You can turn on / off LocationService from the control center. Repo : https://cydia.ichitaso.com/. Free.
CCLinker : This tweak will let you navigate to the respective settings for the Control Center Module by using Gestures! Repo : Packix. Free.
WiFi List : See all the WiFi password you entered in your device (or another device if you have iCloud) You can even create a QR code for easy sharing. Repo : https://www.icaughtuapp.com/repo/. Free.
FreePIP : FreePIP is a tweak to un-snap and scale the view of Picture-in-Picture on iOS unlimitedly. Features : Snap / Un-snap the view by long-press the PiP view. Unlimited scaling. Repo : Packix. Free.
Similar tweak to FreePIP is BigPiPEnergy : Repo : http://itsjafer.com/repo/. Free.
CCModules Pro : Cellular Data expandable view. WiFi expandable view. Bluetooth expandable view. Hotspot button gesture. Power Actions module. Repo : Packix. Paid : 2.50$
CCModules : Add extra modules to your CC ( I use it to add silent mode ). Repo : https://jb365.github.io/. Free.
CC On & Off : toggle off WiFi and Bluetooth from CC. Repo : https://poomsmart.github.io/repo/. Free.
Snapper 2 : Snapper is a tweak that lets you crop a portion of the screen and keep it floating on the screen. Copy text from images to your clipboard. Repo : Packix. Paid : 3.00$
GoodWiFi : Remove RSSI Limit. Show Know Networks. Show Mac Address. Repo : https://julioverne.github.io/. Free.
MusiLyric : Fetch Lyrics on Music, Spotify, TIDAL, Pandora & LockScreen. Fetch in Background with best performance no Lags. After Fetch Lyric will Available Offline. Use Private API Musixmatch Database. Repo : https://julioverne.github.io/. Free.
Lyricify : With Lyricify you can easily view the lyrics to your songs on your lock screen. With lyrics support for songs played through Spotify, Soundcloud, TIDAL, Apple Music or any other prominent streaming service. Repo : Chariz. Paid 0.99$
DynamicTimer : DynamicTimer will dynamically change the timer sound between "Stop Playing" and a ringtone. If there is any music playing when the timer goes off it will stop it otherwise it will play the ringtone you set up in the settings. Repo : BigBoss. Free.
CarBridge (iOS 13, Lite) : View any app in CarPlay! Features include: View your device's screen on your CarPlay enabled display Watch DRM-free videos and play games directly on your car (google to check DRM status) Control your phone with touch right from your car without picking your phone up Activate your phone's home button by tapping the portal icon in the CarPlay dock. Repo : Packix. Paid : 4.99$
TFDidThatSay?: See what those pesky "[deleted]" comments and posts were without leaving Reddit! Repo : https://lint.github.io/repo/. Free.
ReProvision : keep applications signed even after 7 days are up. Automatically resigning of locally provisioned applications. Repo : https://repo.incendo.ws/. Free.
Sentinel : Sentinel is designed to help you avoid having to re-jailbreaking your device when you run out of battery. When the battery charge reaches a user-set percentage it will initiate a fake shutdown. Repo : https://repo.dynastic.co. Free.
Harpy : List all users on your local network/hotspot. Block Users from connecting to the internet on your local network. Block users from using your hotspot network. Repo : Packix. Paid : 1.49$
Choicy : Disable tweak injection for every process individually. Configure each tweak dylib for every process individually. Disable tweaks globally (with the ability to set exceptions for individual processes). Option for an application shortcut to launch the application with or without tweaks. Repo : https://opa334.github.io/. Free.
Safari Plus : Force Https. Upload any file and download manager. Custom user agent. And many more privacy, actions , gestures and customization for Safari. Repo : https://opa334.github.io/. Free.
White Point Module : Control Center module to toggle the "Reduce White Point" functionality. Long press / force touch to change the intensity. Repo : https://opa334.github.io/. Free.
ScreenshotActions : Copy latest screenshot to the clipboard & delete it. Uploading screenshots directly to Imgur. Share screenshots. Repo : Packix. Free.
SwipeToDeleteContact : Simple Swipe to delete an Contact. Repo : BigBoss. Free.
FLEXing : Open Flex anywhere! Repo : https://nscake.github.io/. Free.
HostsBlockerToggle (beta) : disable / enable host file from CC. Repo : https://petitstrawberry.github.io/cydia/. Free.
DontStopMyCall : It disable hangup of phone’s call when press lock button. Answer incoming call by pressing lock button 2 times. Pressing lock button 3 times will answer call using speaker directly. Repo : Packix. Paid : 1.50$
SwipeExtenderX : supercharges the iOS keyboard with up to 20 different swipe gesture-based actions to help make the process of typing on an iPhone even easier than it already is. Repo : https://repo.chariz.com/. Paid : 2.49$
SITUM Pro : SITUM Pro adds a new button to your Text Selection Menu which helps you look up the text you selected. Also with translation feature. Repo : Packix. Paid : 1.50$
VolSkip11 : Skip tracks & play/pause with volume buttons. Repo : https://cydia.rob311.com/repo/. Free.
Powercuff : Exposes access to hidden power throttling modes for better battery life. Repo : https://rpetri.ch/repo/. Free.
ConfirmPasteboard : Allow or deny apps accessing the clipboard. Repo : https://repo.co.k. Free.
NoClipboardForYou : Prevent apps from accessing your clipboard. Configure from Settings. Repo : https://shiftcmdk.github.io/repo/. Free.
Succession : Restore without updating. Repo : https://samgisaninja.github.io/. Free.
CCRinger13: Add a slider for ringer to control center volume module. Repo : https://shepgoba.github.io/. Free.
Night Shift Module : Change night shift from control center. Repo : https://shepgoba.github.io/. Free.
FUGap : Get rid of the ugly gap at the top of the control center !! Repo : Packix. Free.
YouPIP : picture in picture for YouTube &twitch . Repo : https://spicat.github.io/. Free. Best combination is YouPIP 0.0.6.2 and YouTube 15.22.4
Apps Manager : Wipe , backup , restore Appdata for installed apps. Repo : http://tigisoftware.com/cydia/. Free.
Filza File Manager 64-bit : File manager. Repo : http://tigisoftware.com/cydia/. Free.
YouTube Reborn : Features : - No Homescreen and No Video Ads (Both are on by default) - Enable Background Playback. - Allow HD On Cellular. - Disable Age Restriction. - No Stories (Beta). - Disable YouTube Kids Popup. - Enable iPad Style On iPhone. - Hide Tab Bar Labels- Hide Tabs (Explore, Upload [+], Subscriptions, Libary). - Picture-In-Picture (iOS 14+)- Video. - Downloading. - and many more features. Repo : https://repo.twickd.com. Free.
DockX : Add pasteboard shortcuts to your keyboard dock! Repo : http://udevsharold.github.io/repo/. Free.
Shortmoji : Bring life back into your keyboard by bringing tons of useful functionalities to the unused keyboard space. Shortmoji comes packed with tons of options to customize Keyboard, Predictive Bar and Keyboard Dock. Repo : https://miro92.com/repo/. Free.
Flex 3 Beta : Flex 3 is an incredible platform that lets jailbreakers create their own patches for the system or for installed apps.Moreover, a cloud-based system lets users mingle with one another by sharing their patches with the rest of the Flex 3 community. Repo : http://getdelta.co/. Free.
Activator : centralized gestures , buttons and shortcut management for iOS. Repo : https://rpetri.ch/repo/. Free.
Relocate Reborn : Minimalist GPS spoofer iOS 13+. Repo : https://repo.nepeta.me/. Repo is down , get it from here https://archive.org/details/relocate-tweak-module-and-app. Free.
CopyLog : CopyLog is a powerful clipboard history manager for iOS, it’s easy to use, works on both iPhone and iPad and will help you keep track of what you’ve copied on your device. Repo : Packix. Paid :2.49$
AppSync Unified : AppSync Unified is a tweak that patches installd to allow for the installation of unsigned, fakesigned, or ad-hoc signed IPA packages on an iOS device. AppSync Unified can be used to downgrade or clone installed apps, to download fakesigned IPAs. Repo : https://cydia.akemi.ai/. Free.
CallBar XS (iOS 12/13) : Callbar re-design the incoming calls view and allow you to use your device while it’s ringing or while in a call . Answer , decline or dismiss a call with ease without stopping what you’re doing. Repo : https://limneos.net/repo/. Paid : 3.99$
TetherMe for iOS8+ : Enables the native tethering for your device and give you the option to share data from data from a VPN or to share a WiF connection to Usb. Also allow you to edit APN settings. Repo : http://repo.tetherme.net/. Paid : 4.99$
CocoaTop : show CPU , memory usage...etc for processes&apps and allow to terminate/kill processes &apps. GitHub : https://d0m0.github.io. Repo : Bigboss. Free
RoadRunner : RoadRunner excludes the current now playing app from being killed when SpringBoard restarts. There's an option to exclude all running apps with the ability to whitelist/blacklist certain apps. Repo : https://henrikssonbrothers.com/cydia/repo/. Paid : 2.25$
Keyboard Accio : This tweak makes the "global" key always switch between the first and second input modes of your keyboard settings. Repo : BigBoss. Free.
ImLyingDownDamnit : A tweak to correct auto-rotate, so you can rotate your device freely, while lying down, relative to your face! Auto-detect typical lying down behaviour to avoid prompting you. "Rollover" prompts, to correct the orientation if you change direction in bed! and more features! Repo : https://repo.dynastic.co/. Paid : 1.49$
System Info : Show extra device and battery information and save blobs from settings. Repo : https://apt.xninja.xyz/. Free.
Zenumbra : Show number of installed packages per repo for Zebra. Repo : https://foxfort.yourepo.com. Free.
Note : Order of list doesn’t mean anything and I added more in the comment section as post reached it’s maximum words capacity . Again, tweaks in my comment below are as important as in the main post.
The list continues here https://reddit.com/jailbreak/comments/injcwv/_/g47xjw2/?context=1
& here https://reddit.com/jailbreak/comments/injcwv/_/g75vsw9/?.context=1
Any new tweaks that is not in the list and you think it’s important , please let me know, I’ll take a look. Thanks.

A little background, I purchased a Macbook Air for my daughter for Christmas to replace a cheap PC laptop that gets used to play Minecraft with a keyboard and mouse, both Java Edition and Bedrock. I play myself on the console, and I'm pretty aware that despite what Microsoft says about it being a "Better Together" version, that it's pretty dubious they'll ever release a Mac version (the engine is ported already, Education edition for Mac is bedrock) - maybe it's part of a strategy to push kids to be Windows users. Mouse support doesn't seem to be implemented in the iOS version, but would solve the problem if they ever made it work. So, I'm curious to see if anyone has any luck running Minecraft Bedrock with keyboard and mouse working on an M1 Mac, or sees anything coming in the near future that might solve the problem? Done a bit research myself however, and I'm not sure it's a dead-end nor a straight shot - hoping to get a better idea so that if I grab her computer to get Minecraft Bedrock running it won't end in disappointment and time wasted.
Saw some promise running an Android emulator on my Intel Mac, this would work if it's the best available - I myself was able to run Android Bedrock Edition on my Macbook with an Intel under Bluestacks as an acceptable minimum, however, I'm not sure this is possible yet on M1 Macbooks (I don't have one). The keyboard/mouse experience could have been slightly better, but was good enough. Also, in my research I saw a "minecraft pocket edition linux launcher" that looked promising, however, that also seemed like it's a bit of a game of whack-a-mole as a new version might mean an incompatible launcher on new releases until devs update to match. Not sure if anyone has any experience with using that to play Bedrock edition and can weigh in on any tradeoffs.
Another option that I've looked into is Streaming from the Cloud, however it seems like it's not on GEForce now (removed) or anything similar I'm aware of. It's possible to stream the game from my Xbox over the network, however OneCast (the app I use, maybe something else is out there) only mirrors controller controls (as oppose to mouse/kb) so would need to be able to connect mouse/kb to Xbox in living room, to kid's room which might be too far for bluetooth/wireless to travel for peripherals. May possibly build a gaming PC for streaming games on the local network, but trying to avoid dropping a bunch of money at the moment.
As it were with Intel Macs, running the Windows version is probably the best option, and while I suppose there seems to be some promise with Windows for ARM and x64 emulation on Insider builds - I guess my question is, are normal people actually getting their hands on this distribution, installing it and running UWP apps such as Minecraft or is it mostly hype at this point? If people have that working without much fuss, that would seem like the best seem to do. However, my initial impression though is it's only available for "Windows Insiders" or what not.

What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.

TLDR: The most I will be doing with this system is playing a VR game such as Half Life: Alyx with a camera/virtual avatar active while streaming/recording at the same time. If the computer can handle that, it can handle everything else.
In order of importance, this PC is gonna be used for streaming + recording, gaming, and content creation.
Streaming will be done at 1080p60 while recording at the same time and same resolution. I mainly stream console titles, but I'd like the ability to stream PC & VR titles fully as well!
Main games right now that I play in my off time are Final Fantasy 14 Online, Destiny 2, Valorant, as well as VR titles like VRChat and Beat Saber. I also have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, so I'd like to play all the games on there without issue (looking at you, Microsoft Flight Simulator), and run emulation through RetroArch without any major issues.
Content creation will just be editing photos using the Affinity suite, as well as video editing DaVinci Resolve. Nothing too serious here; mainly just putting clips together for highlight videos, and some vacation/hobbyist stuff.

What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?

The max I can go is $3500 CAD, but I'd like to keep it around the $2000-$3000 mark, if possible. Based on my research, $2500 seems like the sweet spot between price and performance?

When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.

Around the end of the month. I'm aware that parts are hard to come by right now, so if I need to backorder something I can do that and wait a bit longer.

What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc)

Just the tower and a monitor or two!

Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?

Alberta, Canada!

If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.

Here's all the peripherals I plan on carrying over:

• Oculus Rift S (may upgrade to Valve Index or a future VR headset within the next year)
• G915 TKL keyboard
• G Pro Wireless mouse
• Elgato 4K60 Pro MK2 PCIE Capture Card
• GoXLR Mini + Shure SM7B
• Elgato Ring Light + GoPro Hero 9 (USB-C powered)

Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?

No plans to overclock.

Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)

SSD for the OS for sure! Will need a USB-C port on the rear IO of the motherboard for my GoPro to use it as a camera/webcam. As long as I have enough USB ports for all my devices and a few spares I'll be happy.

What type of network connectivity do you need? (Wired and/or WiFi) If WiFi is needed and you would like to find the fastest match for your wireless router, please list any specifics.

Just wired should be okay! WiFi/Bluetooth would be nice to have, but not needed.

Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?

I like my compact mid towers for case size - I hate it when cases have a bunch of wasted space in them. I love the look of the H510 cases if that helps. No preference on LED lighting, but if there is, I prefer to keep minimal; maybe just like a single strip or a few fans and that's about it.

Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?

Not needed!

Extra info or particulars:

If possible, I want to see what the price difference would be between a 1080p build and a 1440p build, if any. My current monitor is a 27 inch 60hz panel, and I find the screen size is too big for me personally, and it seems like 1440p panels under 27 inches are not too common.

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https://t.me/BCH_clickbot?start=ktX1R (Bitcoin Cash)
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Both of these games are FREE to play! They say you can drop BTC for huge earnings but I don't recommend it at all. Buy I'm not a financial advisor either. After a while of playing they will payout but expect to be around for a while.
🚀Power Doge Telegram Bot🚀
http://t.me/PowerDoge_bot?start=1198846818
🛑[DANGER!! VERY RISKY!!]🛑 So out of pure curiosity I dumped 100 doge into this baby and like advertised 200 doge spat out 24hrs later. Withdraw went through fine and ever since I'm convinced it works but absolutely don't think it's sustainable and will eventually break down but it night be fun while it lasts?
🚀ONYX Round 3 Airdrop!!🚀
https://t.me/OnyxProtocol_Bot?start=1198846818
I'm sitting on so many shitcoins over the years I'm not sure what to do with myself but this project looks as good as any and with a very successful 2 rounds I think this may be another good coin to grab while you can!
🚀LOVE coin 50k Airdrop (Bonus Link!!!)🚀
https://lovecointoken.com/?ref=MjUyMzcmMTYxMzAwOTc3NA==
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🚀🚀 Both can be used with the Klever Wallet, which I recommend for your shitcoins and other Airdrops!
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