Hasta La Gadget!

The internet has been buzzing the last couple of weeks with rumors that Microsoft will begin publishing Xbox first-party games on competing consoles. The company promised it would soon share more details about its “vision for the future of Xbox” and that looks to be coming on February 15. Phil Spencer will appear on the Official Xbox Podcast to share “updates on the Xbox business.”

The episode drops at 3PM ET and it’ll also feature Sarah Bond, President of Xbox, and Matt Booty, the head of Xbox Game Studios. Those are three big names, so this could be a real barnburner of a podcast episode.

We don’t know what the team has in store, but there have been all kinds of rumors flooding the web, from Hi-Fi Rush coming to the Nintendo Switch to Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle showing up on the PS5. It’s somewhat unusual for one of the big three to outsource first-party titles to competing platforms, but it’s not unheard of. Sony puts many of its biggest games on Steam and there are already some former Xbox exclusives on the Switch, like Ori and the Blind Forest and its sequel.

Many fans, however, have used these rumors to fuel wild speculations that Xbox is about to exit the console business entirely. This isn’t likely, even if the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles have underperformed when compared to the Switch and PS5. The company held an internal townhall last week and Spencer reportedly told employees that it has no plans to stop making consoles and that Xbox systems would continue to be a large part of its overall strategy, according to games reporter Shannon Liao.

Also, Game Pass is still a huge selling point for Xbox consoles, with a May 2023 survey indicating that 32 percent of gamers subscribe to the service. There were over 33 million subscribers back in 2022, and that number’s likely to have grown since then.

Microsoft isn’t exactly struggling, even when you factor in the games division. As a matter of fact, the company’s gaming revenue was up an impressive 49 percent for Q2 2024, due primarily to the Activision acquisition deal. A recent earnings report indicated company revenue of $62 billion (up 18 percent from last year) and profits of $21.9 billion.

Even with those numbers, however, Microsoft’s gaming division is still laying people off left and right. The company just slashed 1,900 jobs from its Xbox, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax (aka Bethesda) teams. If it’s looking for the constant growth that modern capitalism requires, dropping some of its more popular titles onto other consoles isn’t exactly the worst idea in the world. In any event, we’ll find out Thursday afternoon.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/phil-spencer-will-address-xbox-multiplatform-rumors-on-february-15-193755729.html?src=rss

The internet has been buzzing the last couple of weeks with rumors that Microsoft will begin publishing Xbox first-party games on competing consoles. The company promised it would soon share more details about its “vision for the future of Xbox” and that looks to be coming on February 15. Phil Spencer will appear on the Official Xbox Podcast to share “updates on the Xbox business.”

The episode drops at 3PM ET and it’ll also feature Sarah Bond, President of Xbox, and Matt Booty, the head of Xbox Game Studios. Those are three big names, so this could be a real barnburner of a podcast episode.

We don’t know what the team has in store, but there have been all kinds of rumors flooding the web, from Hi-Fi Rush coming to the Nintendo Switch to Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle showing up on the PS5. It’s somewhat unusual for one of the big three to outsource first-party titles to competing platforms, but it’s not unheard of. Sony puts many of its biggest games on Steam and there are already some former Xbox exclusives on the Switch, like Ori and the Blind Forest and its sequel.

Many fans, however, have used these rumors to fuel wild speculations that Xbox is about to exit the console business entirely. This isn’t likely, even if the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles have underperformed when compared to the Switch and PS5. The company held an internal townhall last week and Spencer reportedly told employees that it has no plans to stop making consoles and that Xbox systems would continue to be a large part of its overall strategy, according to games reporter Shannon Liao.

Also, Game Pass is still a huge selling point for Xbox consoles, with a May 2023 survey indicating that 32 percent of gamers subscribe to the service. There were over 33 million subscribers back in 2022, and that number’s likely to have grown since then.

Microsoft isn’t exactly struggling, even when you factor in the games division. As a matter of fact, the company’s gaming revenue was up an impressive 49 percent for Q2 2024, due primarily to the Activision acquisition deal. A recent earnings report indicated company revenue of $62 billion (up 18 percent from last year) and profits of $21.9 billion.

Even with those numbers, however, Microsoft’s gaming division is still laying people off left and right. The company just slashed 1,900 jobs from its Xbox, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax (aka Bethesda) teams. If it’s looking for the constant growth that modern capitalism requires, dropping some of its more popular titles onto other consoles isn’t exactly the worst idea in the world. In any event, we’ll find out Thursday afternoon.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/phil-spencer-will-address-xbox-multiplatform-rumors-on-february-15-193755729.html?src=rss

Meta is testing a new feature that will allow Threads users to see what kinds of conversations are trending on the platform. The app has begun testing “today’s top topics” in the United States, Mark Zuckerberg shared in a post on Threads.

The feature will surface “timely topics that others are discussing” and will appear in search and interspersed between posts in the app’s For You feed, according to Meta. Specific trends will be “determined by our AI systems based on what people are engaging with right now on Threads,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri said.

Interestingly, Threads will surface trends related to politics and elections. The company said last week that it would no longer suggest political content in its recommendations unless users choose to opt-in. But Meta has confirmed that restriction won’t apply to its trending feature. “Political content can be a topic,” a Meta spokesperson told Engadget. “We will only remove political topics if they violate our Community Guidelines or other applicable integrity policies.”

The addition of trends has been a long-requested update for many Threads users hoping to make the service more usable as a source for real-time information and updates. The feature was previously spotted in an employee version of the app, but it was unclear if Meta would roll it out more broadly considering Mosseri’s desire to avoid “encouraging” conversations about “politics and hard news.”

Though AI will determine much of what is surfaced, it sounds like the Meta does plan to do some curation of what appears as a “top topic.” A team of “content specialists” will “ensure that topics do not violate our Community Guidelines or other applicable integrity guidelines, and that topics are not duplicative, nonsensical, or misleading” a Meta spokesperson said.

For now, “today’s top topics” is only a “small test” but Zuckerberg said the feature would arrive in more countries and languages “once we get it tuned up.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-is-testing-a-trending-topics-feature-on-threads-201812349.html?src=rss

Have you got 30 minutes to check out one of Apple’s biggest, riskiest, and most controversial product launches of the last several decades? The tech giant is still hosting demos for its Apple Vision Pro in stores across the U.S. If you’re like us, and you don’t have $3,500 lying around in a coat pocket–or else you…

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Samsung has announced that its sleep apnea feature on the Samsung Health Monitor app, designed for compatible Samsung Galaxy Watches (like the Watch 6, that we have reviewed) and Phones, has received De Novo authorization from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — This makes it the first sleep apnea feature of its kind to be authorized by the FDA, following previous approval by South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) in October 2023.

The sleep apnea feature is targeted at users aged 22 and above who have not been diagnosed with sleep apnea, aiming to detect signs of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) over a two-night monitoring period. OSA is a common and chronic sleep condition often undiagnosed and untreated, causing interruptions in breathing during sleep, leading to lower sleep quality and daytime fatigue, and untreated sleep apnea can increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

To use the feature, users need to track their sleep for more than four hours on two separate occasions within ten days; With roughly 25% of men and 10% of women in the U.S. experiencing OSA, this feature is expected to help proactively detect sleep apnea, enabling individuals to seek medical care and reduce the risk of health-related complications.

When will it be available?

The sleep apnea feature is part of Samsung’s commitment to providing Galaxy users with advanced sleep tools. It is set to be available on the Galaxy Watch series in the U.S. via the Samsung Health Monitor app in the third quarter.

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Sleep Apnea Feature Granted FDA Authorization

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