Technology

One of the more prominent changes introduced in iOS 14, and one that is generating a lot of interest, is the addition of widgets that can be added to any page. There are all sorts of weird and useful things you can do with them (especially if you’re willing to play around with apps such as Shortcuts and Widgetsmith). To begin, here’s how to add an existing widget to your home screen: Touch and hold an empty area on your screen until your apps jiggle and show minus symbols Tap the plus sign in the upper-left corner, and you’ll bring up a menu of existing widgets Touch and hold your screen and tap the plus sign. You’ll get a selection of widgets to choose from. Tap on the widget you want to add. Swipe left and right to choose the widget’s size and shape. Tap “Add Widget” Once you’ve added th...

iFixit took apart the Apple Watch Series 6 today, getting an inside look at the new sensors added to enable blood oxygen tracking. There’s also one major piece of hardware that’s disappeared from the Watch: the tech used to enable Force Touch. Force Touch allowed the Apple Watch’s screen to recognize how much force you’re applying, and it’s been a part of the Apple Watch since the first model was released in 2015. But the latest version of watchOS removes Force Touch from prior models, and now it’s clear why: it’s not part of the Series 6 Watch at all. Apple had an equivalent feature, known as 3D Touch, for phones starting with the iPhone 6S in 2015. The tech giant began removing 3D Touch on its smartphones and replacing it with Haptic Touch in 2018. The smartwatch also has a bigger batter...

Microsoft’s priciest video game acquisition, a $7.5 billion purchase of Bethesda Softworks parent company ZeniMax Media, shocked the industry on Monday. The deal puts Bethesda, one of the industry’s biggest publishers and owners of some of the most successful gaming series, under the Xbox brand. It also raises a simple but powerful question: how does buying Bethesda fit into Microsoft’s overall Xbox strategy? The immediate and inevitable reaction from consumers focused, naturally, on competition, and whether future Bethesda titles will become Xbox exclusives. It’s a sensible concern — why, after all, would any company in an industry as cutthroat as gaming purchase a major entertainment brand if not to deprive its primary rival the ability to distribute coveted intellectual property on comp...

It’s September 21st — the final day of summer, the eve of the equinox, and far more importantly, the day memorialized by the 1978 Earth, Wind & Fire classic, “September.” It’s also the day when the internet impatiently tweets at comedian Demi Adejuyigbe, waiting for him to post his latest celebration of the day and date. Adejuyigbe has been making videos for five years now where he dances along to the most salient part of the song, and they have truly turned the 21st of September into a holiday worth celebrating. His latest is now here, and it is — as always — a remarkable celebration of Sept. 21, 9/21 (21/9, even), the 21st, or whatever you prefer to call it: But look, if you enjoyed this, do us all a favor and donate to the fundraiser Adejuyigbe shouts out because next year’s video i...

Marvel Studios’ first big Disney Plus project, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, is being moved back to 2021, making a rough year for Marvel fans a little bit rougher. Although Marvel hasn’t made any official comment on the matter, the description for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney Plus has changed to note it’s coming in 2021. The show, which follows Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan’s characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, Sam Wilson (Falcon) and James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes (Winter Soldier), was supposed to be released in August. A couple of things impacted The Falcon and Winter Soldier’s production, including earthquakes in Puerto Rico that affected a planned two-week shoot in January, and the pandemic. The show was originally delayed in July after it became...

Microsoft’s redesigned Xbox store rolls out digitally to all users today, after its successful initial deployment to insiders early last month. As my colleague Chris Welch pointed out in his early review, the new storefront loads dramatically faster than its predecessor. It’s been “optimized for the era of Game Pass,” meaning it’s easier to see the differences between different versions of a game in the store, and there’s a new focus on parental controls. [embedded content] The company has also updated how it feels to navigate the store: it’s now easier than ever to scroll through titles, categories, and pages. The new parental controls also emphasize safety; the company says there are no more anonymous logins, among other improvements. The changes underscore just how far Microsoft is look...

Facebook is going to let people take more control over the images they own and where they end up. In an update to its rights management platform, the company is starting to work with certain partners today to give them the power to claim ownership over images and then moderate where those images show up across the Facebook platform, including on Instagram. The goal is to eventually open this feature up to everyone, as it already does with music and video rights. The company didn’t give a timeline on when it hopes to open this up more broadly. Facebook didn’t disclose who its partners are, but this could theoretically mean that if a brand like National Geographic uploaded its photos to Facebook’s Rights Manager, it could then monitor where they show up, like on other brands’ Instagram pages...

One of the biggest bands in the world is coming to one of the biggest games in the world. Today, Epic Games announced that K-pop group BTS will be debuting their next music video on Fortnite’s party royale island. It’ll be a choreography video for the single “Dynamite,” and it will be airing on September 25th at 8PM ET. In addition to the video, two new emotes — which Epic says were “choreographed by BTS” — will go on sale starting September 23rd. [embedded content] BTS is the latest big act to venture into the virtual world of Fortnite, following large-scale musical events from the likes of Marshmello and Travis Scott. Earlier this year, Epic debuted a violence-free space in the game called party royale, which is a completely separate island with areas designated for watching movies and m...

Microsoft has agreed to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Doom and Fallout studio Bethesda Softworks, for $7.5 billion in cash. The acquisition follows earlier Bethesda games coming to Xbox Game Pass on console and PC, and it gives Microsoft control of upcoming games like the space epic Starfield. Microsoft says future Bethesda games, including Starfield, will launch on Xbox Game Pass the day they come to Xbox or PC. The news arrives just as Microsoft is gearing up to launch two new consoles, the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S. The companies haven’t confirmed how this might affect the launch of specific future Bethesda games across different platforms, including the Bethesda-published Arkane game Deathloop, which was previously announced as a timed PlayStation 5 and PC excl...

Tesla’s Battery Day is upon us. The September 22nd event in Palo Alto, California, “will blow your mind,” CEO Elon Musk promised in a recent earnings call. “It blows my mind, and I know it!” Musk also hinted that we should expect “many exciting things” at the event. What sort of things? Musk has left a trail of breadcrumbs over the years in the form of tweets, public comments, patents, and research papers published by his team of battery scientists, hinting at what kinds of battery breakthroughs Tesla may unveil. Many exciting things will be unveiled on Battery Day 9/22 ⚡️ — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 11, 2020 Tesla is already the industry leader when it comes to squeezing range out of lithium-ion batteries in electric cars, so it will be interesting to see what other ad...

Last night’s Emmys saw the arrival of the debut trailer for WandaVision, which could be the first major Marvel TV series to arrive on Disney Plus. If the trailer is anything to go by, it’s Marvel’s most surreal show yet. It opens with a black-and-white recreation of a 1950s sitcom featuring Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), before gradually becoming a lot more colorful and bombastic. WandaVision is a TV series taking place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, set after the events of 2019’s Avenger’s: Endgame. Paul Bettany’s Vision technically died during the events of Avenger’s: Infinity War at the hands of Thanos (and his death is even referenced in the trailer), and it’s unclear what exactly has brought him back for the events of the show. Multiple Marvel shows ...