Technology

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 ...

Facebook estimates it has helped 2.5 million people register to vote this year across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, the company said. With more than a month until the 2020 election, that’s already higher than the two million people it helped register in both 2016 and 2018. The company has set a goal to help four million people register to vote this year, though, so it still has a ways to go. As part of its efforts to reach that goal, the company launched a “voting information center” that has resources about voting on Facebook and Instagram in August. And this weekend, the company started showing users information about how to register to vote at the top of Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Facebook says it will continue showing these notifications through September 25th. Image: Fa...

ActBlue, the FEC-certified Democratic fundraising site, says its fundraising following the Friday death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has topped $100 million. The tally broke ActBlue’s previous records for single-day donations, dollars raised in one hour, and dollars raised in one day, the organization said. Ginsburg died of cancer Friday at age 87. “Amid the devastating loss of Justice Ginsburg, it is inspiring to see people taking action to honor her legacy,” ActBlue executive director Erin Hill said in a statement. The surge of small-dollar donations began shortly after Ginsburg’s death was announced Friday evening. Donors gave 1.5 million contributions for a total of $91.4 million between 8PM ET Friday and end-of-day Saturday, with a record $6.3 million in donations betw...

Twitter it was looking into why the neural network it uses to generate photo previews apparently chooses to show white people’s faces more frequently than Black faces. Several Twitter users demonstrated the issue over the weekend, posting examples of posts that had a Black person’s face and a white person’s face. Twitter’s preview showed the white faces more often. The informal testing began after a Twitter user tried to post about a problem he noticed in Zoom’s facial recognition, which was not showing the face of a Black colleague on calls. When he posted to Twitter, he noticed it too was favoring his white face over his Black colleague’s face. Users discovered the preview algorithm chose non-Black cartoon characters as well. When Twitter first began using the neural network to automatic...

I was on a bit of a Star Wars kick the past week, watching The Empire Strikes Back, Rogue One, and The Last Jedi, inspired partly by the great news of a new trailer for The Mandalorian’s second season. Tonight, though, I’m planning to stream RBG, the 2018 documentary about the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday. Here’s the original trailer: [embedded content] RBG Ginsburg had an absolutely astonishing career and life, and this documentary, along with the 2018 drama On the Basis of Sex, are both great reminders. RBG is streaming on Hulu. [embedded content] The Mandalorian, Season Two Then of course, we have the first trailer for the second season of the wildly popular Disney Plus show The Mandalorian. The Child is back (aka “Baby Yoda”). Or, he will be back, on Disney Plus Oc...

On Friday, it looked like the US was ready to ban new downloads of TikTok and WeChat, two popular China-based apps that the Trump administration warned posed security threats to American users. The Commerce Department issued an order that would have prohibited new downloads as of Sunday. And on Saturday WeChat in particular saw a sharp uptick in new installs in the US, according to analytics platform Sensor Tower, with an 800 percent week-over-week increase. But as of Sunday afternoon, each has received a reprieve from a US ban, at least temporarily. President Trump said Saturday he had given a deal between TikTok, Oracle, and Walmart his “blessing,” prompting a one-week delay from the Commerce Department on TikTok’s ban. And a judge in California issued a preliminary injunction blocking t...