Technology

Microsoft is announcing today that Xbox Party Chat will be free for Xbox owners soon. The software maker has started testing a new Xbox dashboard update with testers today that unlocks Xbox Party Chat, multiplayer in free-to-play games, and the Looking For Groups (LFG) feature. Xbox Party Chat is a surprise addition to Microsoft’s announced plans to remove the paywall for free-to-play multiplayer games. The removal came after Microsoft was forced to reverse a price hike to its Xbox Live Gold subscriptions earlier this year. Microsoft is also renaming its Xbox Live service to just Xbox network, which is part of dashboard changes the company is currently testing. Xbox Insiders in Alpha Skip Ahead & Alpha today we are flighting some new features. Multiplayer in Free-to-play games, Looking...

Amazon is well-known for its technological Taylorism: using digital sensors to monitor and control the activity of its workers in the name of efficiency. But after installing machine learning-powered surveillance cameras in its delivery vans earlier this year, the company is now telling employees: agree to be surveilled by AI or lose your job. As first reported by Vice, Amazon delivery drivers in the US now have to sign “biometric consent” forms to continue working for the retailing giant. Exactly what information is being collected seems to vary based on what surveillance equipment has been installed in any given van, but Amazon’s privacy policy (embedded below) covers a wide range of data. Data includes vehicle location, speed, “potential traffic violations,” and more The data that drive...

Supreme, the streetwear brand notorious for slapping its name on everything from feature phones to a literal brick, is turning its attention to film photography. Tomorrow’s drop includes a reusable Yashica MF-1 35mm film camera, available in either black or red and subtly adorned with a Supreme logo. It’s made of plastic, which isn’t particularly flashy, but it’s also got a built-in flash, which is. Like many of Supreme’s other branded accessories, there’s nothing particularly special about the camera this is based on. This specific model appears to have its origins as a 2019 Kickstarter, and reviews have generally been mixed. “Neither totally awful but not that great,” was one blog’s conclusion, while another more negative review called it “perhaps the objectively worst camera I’ve ever u...

Slack is starting to roll out a new feature that lets anyone using the service DM each other. Announced back in October, Slack Connect DMs will let Slack users privately message employees outside of their company. It’s designed for companies working with partners or clients, but you could even use it to message friends at other companies. This new DM feature builds on Slack’s work with Connect, which started appearing last year. Slack Connect is primarily designed to let businesses collaborate together through shared channels, and cross-organizational DMs is the next big part of Connect. DMs work by sending a special link to start a conversation and may require Slack admin approval depending on how your organization has set up Slack. Paid Slack users will be able to access Slack Connect DM...

Competitive games like Magic: The Gathering and League of Legends are absolutely dripping with lore. While they might not tell a story in the traditional sense, they have surprisingly robust fantasy worlds. Usually, you can only catch this in brief snippets through flavor text or character bios. But increasingly, game studios are attempting to build on these fictional worlds through more traditional storytelling, whether it’s comics, short stories, or TV shows. The latest example is Dota: Dragon’s Blood on Netflix, which fleshes out the world of Valve’s long-running Dota 2 via an eight-episode anime. The good news is that it’s a fun, albeit brief, fantasy romp you can enjoy even if you haven’t played the game. The bad news is that it does very little to explain what makes the world of Dota...

Tesla now accepts bitcoin as payment for its cars in the US, CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter. The option to pay using the cryptocurrency now appears on the company’s US website, where it’s available alongside the traditional card payment option. Musk said that the option to pay with bitcoin will be available to other countries “later this year.” As well as confirming the availability of the new payment option, Musk offered some details on how Tesla is handling the cryptocurrency. “Tesla is using only internal & open source software & operates Bitcoin nodes directly,” he said in a followup tweet, “Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency.” Pay by Bitcoin capability available outside US later this year — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021...

Valve is celebrating the anniversary of its launch of Half-Life: Alyx by offering the best price yet on the VR-exclusive game at Steam. Normally $60 (and worth every penny), you can snag it for $36, totaling a 40 percent discount that lasts until Wednesday, March 31st. If you’re looking for a new VR game to sink your teeth into, this is worth playing for many reasons. If the fact that is serves as the prequel to Half-Life 2 isn’t enough for you, it’s the total package for a VR game, with a fantastic narrative and graphics and immersive gameplay that makes a VR headset worth owning. Half-Life: Alyx $36 $60 40% off Prices taken at time of publishing. Valve’s latest Half-Life entry is exclusive to VR headsets, making one worth owning. Half-Life: Alyx is a prequel to Half-Life 2, serving up cr...

Disney is moving two of its biggest 2021 releases to streaming: Black Widow and Cruella are now set to debut on Disney Plus as $30 Premiere Access titles alongside their theatrical releases. Additionally, Black Widow has been delayed an additional two months: it’ll now debut in theaters and on Disney Plus on July 9th, instead of the previous May 7th release date. (Cruella is still set to release on May 28th.) Additionally, Disney announced further changes to its schedule: Pixar’s Luca will now be skipping theaters entirely (similar to last year’s Soul) and will release on Disney Plus for all subscribers with no additional fee on June 18th. Alongside the new release plan for Black Widow, Cruella, and Luca, Disney also announced new theatrical dates for several other major 2021 films. Notabl...

Yahoo is the legacy Web 1.0 brand that just won’t get dragged and dropped into the trash bin of history, and that’s largely thanks to Verizon’s tireless efforts to keep it going after buying the company a few years ago for nearly $5 billion. This time around, the telecom giant actually wants to expand the Yahoo brand to all of its consumer-facing web properties with a new series of subscription offerings organized around what it’s calling Yahoo Plus, according to a new report from Axios. It’s important to mention right now, before we go any further, that the official Verizon Media Group branding provided for Yahoo Plus stylizes it as “Yahoo!+,” with that deranged cousin of the interrobang slapped onto the end of it. Apparently “Oath,” which was the previous incarnation of Verizon Media Gro...

NASA has locked in a location on Mars for the first demo flight of its mini helicopter named Ingenuity, engineers announced on Tuesday. The four-pound rotorcraft is gearing up to attempt the first powered flight on another planet, demonstrating a new capability that could unlock access to hard-to-reach areas of other celestial bodies in the future. Ingenuity arrived on Mars in February, clinging to the belly of the Perseverance rover, surviving a seven-month trek through deep space and an intense seven-minute landing sequence through Mars’ atmosphere. Within a few hours of Perseverance’s landing, engineers started analyzing orbital imagery to find a prime flight zone to drop off Ingenuity for its first flight — “an area where it is safe for the helicopter to take off, and also safe for the...

Qualcomm is reportedly working on an Android-powered, handheld gaming console that’s similar to a Nintendo Switch, according to Android Police and XDA’s editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman. The device would be powered by Qualcomm’s silicon, and could hit store shelves by next year — if it ends up being a real product at all. According to the article, which cites images seen by Android Police, the device would feature detachable, Joy-Con-like controllers, an SD card slot, Android 12, and (of course) 5G. Also noted, and corroborated by Rahman, is a huge 6,000mAh battery. While the physical dimensions aren’t clear, Rahman tweeted that the screen could be 6.65-inches, with a resolution of at least 1080p (the Switch’s screen is 6.2-inches and runs at 720p). He also indicated that it could have a fan...

Goldman Sachs’ credit card policies were called into question when Basecamp designer David Heinemeier Hansson and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak claimed that their female partners received lower Apple Card credit limits simply for being women. But a recently concluded New York State Department of Financial Services investigation has found Apple’s banking partner did not discriminate based on sex (via Bloomberg). NYSDFS investigators conducted a statistical analysis of almost 400,000 New York applicants that showed that the models and algorithms Goldman Sachs uses to filter applicants “did not consider prohibited characteristics of applicants and would not produce disparate impacts”. The regulator also stressed that the idea that spouses with shared finances would receive the same credit te...