Technology

Following the announcement of a remaster of the original trilogy coming next year, BioWare announced that a brand new Mass Effect game is currently in development, in a surprise announcement for N7 day. Not much is known about the next installment in BioWare’s epic space opera, but the studio says a team of veterans at the company is working on it. Do not expect the game to come out anytime soon as BioWare general manager Casey Hudson noted in a blog post that the game is in “early stages” of development and the studio cannot share any additional details at this time. With the announcement of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition and a new game confirmed to be in development, this is a nice win for fans of the series. Many wondered what would happen following the poor reception of the most recent...

If you’re trying to get some holiday (or personal) shopping done ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this week hosted several great deals on wireless earbuds, tablets, and more that are still happening. Apple’s ever-popular and reliable AirPods fell to $100 for the first time (they’re usually around $130), which is the most affordable price we’ve seen. Both Amazon and Costco are offering the deal, if you’re interested in snagging a set. Apple AirPods $100 $160 38% off Prices taken at time of publishing. Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple’s AirPods Pro wireless noise-canceling earbuds don’t see as many steep price drops, but Back Market is selling refurbished models for $180 (normally $250 new). These are in “mint” condition, according to Back Market’s standards, and the refurbishin...

Fortnite developer Epic Games announced a new promotion that allows players who make a real-money purchase in-game and are new Disney Plus subscribers to get up to two months of the streaming service for free. The offer is valid November 10th starting at 7PM ET through December 31st for players 18 years old or older in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand where Disney Plus is available. Any real-money purchases made in Fortnite beginning November 6th, including the purchase of its-in game V-Bucks currency, will qualify users for the offer. Purchases made with V-Bucks are not eligible, however. Once the two-month Disney Plus trial ends, users will be charged the monthly rate for a subscription unless they cancel. Epic is currently embroiled in a legal dispute with Apple over Fo...

The Xbox Series S and Series X consoles will both be available starting on November 10th, and if you missed out on preordering either (or both — look, I’m not going to judge), you might be able to snag one online on launch day. Due to the pandemic, combined with the high demand for these consoles, retailers like Best Buy and Target are only selling online. That means you won’t be able to walk into a store to pick one up — unless you’ve purchased it already online. Only then will you be able to arrange an in-store pickup. Until we hear from more retailers, I recommend keeping it locked to other popular sellers like Amazon, Target, the Microsoft Store, GameStop, Newegg, and (if you have memberships) Costco and Sam’s Club. Xbox Series S Prices taken at time of publishing. The Xbox Series S co...

It’s the third day of the US presidential election, and the country is finally starting to get some clarity on who actually won the race. As states have been finalizing their vote counts, election maps have been updating their colors. And now, as a result, we have these. These are colloquially known as fancams. (More on that in a minute.) The videos have even extended to people like MSNBC anchor Steve Kornacki and Joe Biden. Let’s talk about fancams. As Twitter user @S_Bareerah pointed out in an archived thread, fancams are fan-made concert videos of idols taken by fans. “They often (but not always) focused on a ‘bias’, their favourite member of a particular group,” they wrote. “For a popular group you could find fancams of each member for any particular performance from a specific date.” ...

Spotify appears to be interested in launching a subscription podcast service that would offer access to original shows or exclusive episodes for a monthly fee. The potential service was described in a survey sent out through Spotify’s app, which was reported on by Andrew Wallenstein, president of Variety’s Intelligence Platform. The survey describes at least four possible subscription podcast plans, ranging from $3 to $8 per month. The cheapest plan would include “access to exclusive interviews and episodes,” but would still include ads. The most expensive plan would include access to “high quality original content,” early access to some episodes, and no platform-inserted ads. None of these plans would include access to Spotify’s premium music subscription. A spokesperson for Spotify indic...

A new video from Digital Foundry makes it immediately clear that the PS5 brings notable performance improvements to many PS4 games. The 30-minute video shows off a lot of big PS4 titles on running PS5, including Crysis Remastered, Dark Souls 3, Days Gone (with its PS5-exclusive 60fps framerate), Ghost of Tsushima (with its PS5-exclusive 60fps framerate), Hitman, Just Cause 3, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. I highly recommend that you watch it to see the games in action: [embedded content] In the leadup to the PS5’s launch, Sony promised that the “overwhelming majority” of the more 4,000 PS4 games would work on the new console, and we’ve seen some developers announce PS5-exclusive optimizations (like Ghost of Tsushima’s boost to 60fps), but we just didn’t know how w...

The iPhone 12 has just barely launched, but we already have some idea what next year’s lineup could look like — according to TFI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple’s 2021 iPhones will keep the new form factor and screen sizes introduced with the iPhone 12 line, but offer an improved ultrawide camera on the high-end Pro and Pro Max models (via MacRumors). Kuo predicted the iPhone 12 line and now seems set to reveal what to expect from the 2021 models nearly a year before they launch. This time, Kuo says the ultrawide camera of the Pro and Pro Max will be upgraded from the current f/2.4, five-element lens setup to an f/1.8, six-element lens with autofocus. The larger aperture should let in more light, potentially enhancing low-light shots, and we’re curious to see if the autofocus and an...

Gray wolves came out on top in a nail-biting Colorado state election that could be a boon for the species across the US. A ballot measure to reintroduce the species in Colorado, Proposition 114, won Tuesday’s election with a narrow lead. The wolves are native to the state but were completely wiped out there by the mid-1940s. Millions of gray wolves once called North America their home, but they were shot, trapped, and poisoned to near-extinction to make way for western development and livestock. There’s a long road ahead to ensure the species’ survival The passage of Prop 114 is the latest win in a decades-long push to destigmatize “the big, bad wolf” and bring their numbers back. Now the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission needs to craft a plan to bring the wolves back to regions west ...

Disney’s live-action adaptation of Mulan, one of the company’s biggest streaming titles this year, will finally be available on physical media next week. You’ll be able to get it on 4K UHD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on November 10th. Mulan’s physical media launch marks the end of a whirlwind release schedule brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The movie was originally set to premiere in theaters on March 27th, but was delayed to July 24th due to pandemic-related theater closures. As the year wore on, closures forced another delay to August 21st, which then was followed by another — and indefinite — delay. In early August, Disney made the notable call to have Mulan exclusively premiere on Disney Plus on September 4th, though subscribers had to pay $30 to watch the movie, on top of the $6.99...

Google Photos is a superb photo management and editing app. As it has grown in popularity, Google has made the occasional attempt to monetize Photos — most recently by launching a subscription service where customers receive a selection of 10 printed shots every month. But now, according to XDA Developers (and also highlighted by Android Police), Google might be planning to reserve certain editing tricks — some that were previously available for free — for Google One subscribers. That’s one way to start ruining a beloved service, Google. Maybe rethink this. Inside the code for the latest update to Google Photos, there are strings that clearly point to the app moving in this direction: As a Google One member, you get access to extra editing features. Get extra editing features with a Google...

If you’re still unsure of what Paramount Plus is, don’t worry — you’ll learn soon, because ViacomCBS is going to spend a good portion of 2021 trying to get you to sign up for it. Paramount Plus is ViacomCBS’s rebrand of its current streaming service, CBS All Access. The revamped streamer will carry live sports (including NFL games that air on CBS), live news, and thousands of films and TV shows from its networks. Those include Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, and both current and library programming from CBS. As the company prepares to end 2020 with “at least” 19 million paid subscribers in the United States, and plans to expand in 2021, executives used their time on an earnings call today to try and convince skeptical investors and analysts they know what they’re doing — ironic cons...