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Microsoft’s Xbox Series X arrives in November

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We still don’t have a final release date for the Xbox Series X, but Microsoft is at least getting a bit more specific. The company just announced that its next-generation console will be arriving in November — previously it was just aiming for the holiday season. Unfortunately, it’ll be launching without Halo Infinite, which is being delayed until 2021. While we’re still waiting for launch-day specifics, Microsoft says you can expect over 100 titles optimized for Xbox Series X this year.

Given Halo Infinite’s lackluster gameplay premiere a few weeks ago, it’s not too surprising that developers 343 Industries would want to spend a bit more time polishing the experience. Still, the delay feels like a blow for Microsoft, as it would have been the perfect game to launch alongside the Series X. Even though Halo Infinite is also coming to the Xbox One and PC, I’d imagine many gamers would be eager to play it with the fastest console hardware.

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Facebook will label ads from politically connected publications

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The social media giant plans to impose other restrictions as well. The company says it won’t include their content in Facebook News. They also won’t have access to the Messenger Business Platform and WhatsApp business API. 

“… we believe it’s important to ensure when it comes to advertising, these Pages are held to the same standard as political entities on Facebook,” the company said.

Facebook says identifying politically connected publishers is a “new process” for the company, but today’s announcement builds on policies the company has been tweaking for the past few years. In 2018, the company introduced a rule that required election- and issue-related ads to include a “paid for by” disclosure. However, after the policy ended up affecting non-political ads and publishers, the company later exempt US-based media outlets from it.     

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Facebook has removed 7 million posts for coronavirus misinformation

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The company removes posts that spread false claims about cures or treatments for COVID-19, as well as other misinformation health organizations say is dangerous. The company has also taken steps to push credible health information, including debunking common rumors about the virus and pushing out PSAs about wearing masks. 

Despite these efforts, misinformation about the pandemic has been rampant on both Facebook and Instagram, and the company’s stricter policies have been repeatedly tested.

In May, a viral video that falsely claimed masks make people sick and that the coronavirus was created in a lab racked up millions of views before Facebook removed it. The scenario repeated itself last month when another video, which falsely claimed that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was a “cure” for COVID-19, got more than 20 million views in a single day before Facebook took action against it. In both cases, copies of the videos continued to spread across Facebook and Instagram well after the removals began. 

Last week, Facebook removed a post from Donald Trump after he claimed that children are “almost immune” from COVID-19. That video was also up for several hours and was viewed millions of times before it was removed.

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Google updates remote learning tools on Meet and Classroom

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It’s back-to-school season, and because of the coronavirus pandemic, many students will be hitting the books virtually this year. Consequently, Google for Education has announced a robust set of updates that will enhance Google Meet, Google Classroom and other aspects of the service. The updates were unveiled at Google’s The Anywhere School event — but if you missed the product keynote, here’s what you need to know about Google’s new tools to facilitate learning in 2020.

Google Meet has already seen several updates in the recent months, and updates that will make the app more accessible to teachers and students are still to come. Soon, meetings will not be able to start without a teacher present. Features like larger, tiled views, hand raising and whiteboards are planned. Teachers will have new controls, including the ability to mute all, disable chat, lock the presentation screen, block anonymous knocks and end the meeting for all users. More backgrounds, including blurred backgrounds, will also be made available.

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Will QLC SSDs make hard drives extinct?

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Flash memory has had a huge impact on the way we use computers. Flash, which powers everything from thumb drives, SD cards and the memory chip in your phone up to high performance SSDs in computers and data centers, stores information in a network of specialized transistors, and has big advantages over traditional hard drives. Flash is lightweight, has no moving parts, and can transfer data many times faster than a hard drive, and with lower latency.

But flash has struggled to keep up with our exploding demand for data. SLC, the fastest, most robust type of flash, can only one store one bit of data in each transistor, called a “cell”, meaning a terabyte of SLC storage requires literally a trillion transistors. To work around this, companies developed MLC and TLC flash, which store 2 and 3 bits of data per transistor. This massively increases flash drives’ capacity, but it comes at a cost. MLC and TLC drives are slower, and will wear out faster than SLC flash. Still, by adding some extra space or “over-provisioning”, MLC and TLC drives can last a long time, and smart cache systems boost read and write speeds for most workloads.

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‘Fall Guys’ is getting its first new level

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Since this is going into the Fall Guys final-round rotation (sorry), there should be less likelihood of you getting the frustrating Royal Fumble as the finale. Mediatonic is also lowering the weighting for that level, so it’ll appear as the final round a bit less often.

The patch includes a bug fix for the final-round stage Fall Mountain too. Players were sometimes unable to grab the crown to win the match, but that should soon be a less-frequent issue. In addition, Block Party will have more collisions to prevent players from bypassing the blocks. Until now, perching on the side wall and watching everyone else scramble to survive has been a viable strategy, but perhaps that won’t be the case anymore.

Among the other bug fixes are ones for “physics behaving erratically at high framerate on levels like Tip Toe,” display issues for player names with special characters and controller detection on PC. Mediatonic, which also said it’s getting better at catching cheaters, promises there’ll be even more levels soon, along with additional features and costumes.



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A ‘GoldenEye 007’ fan remake is dead after a cease and desist demand

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MGM and Danjaq asked the team to stop work on the project by August 19th, according to composer Yannick Zenhäusern, and remove all related social media posts. The GoldenEye 25 Twitter account will be removed by Friday.

However, not all of the work that’s gone into GoldenEye 25 will go to waste. The team plans to keep going with an “original game” based on “all the beloved aspects of our favorite ‘90s action shooter.” The crew set up a new Twitter handle, @projectianus, for the first-person shooter.

The GoldenEye name and James Bond characters are off-limits to the developers. There’ll be a different story, and the team will likely revamp some levels and add new ones. However, the developers can continue to use some elements of GoldenEye 007, including the watch menu, sound effects, models and textures, gadgets and most weapons. The guns will need different names, though.

It’s a shame that GoldenEye 25 won’t come to light as planned. Other fan remakes, such as the Black Mesa remaster of Half-Life, have made it into the wild. But as the GoldenEye 25 team noted, there was always the chance of a hammer falling on the remake, despite MGM and Danjaq allowing other projects to remain live.

There’s a bit of a silver lining in that the retooled project can make its way to Steam and perhaps even consoles. Still, for many who were looking forward to GoldenEye 25, they’ll be left to wonder what might have been.



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‘Red Dead Online’ is so broken it’s hilarious

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A recent Red Dead Online update has introduced some bizarre glitches: players not being able fire their guns, horses that run in place, missing characters and objects, a mysterious bald man and more. Fans are sharing their baffling gameplay experiences on Twitter, and so far, Rockstar Games hasn’t offered an explanation. 

The glitches first appeared shortly after Rockstar Games released a “massive” update and introduced a naturalist role. As Polygon notes, the update was supposed to include bug fixes, but it seems to have done more harm than good. The issues are so strange and vast that they’re kind of hilarious — though players who spent money on this game may feel differently.

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Xiaomi unveils a ridiculous see-through TV

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As part of its 10th anniversary celebration, Xiaomi revealed a transparent TV, the Mi TV Lux OLED Transparent Edition. When it’s turned off, the display looks like a piece of glass. When it’s turned on, images appear to float in thin air, or so Xiaomi says.

The 55-inch transparent OLED panel is likely based on LG’s 55-inch transparent 55EW5TF-A display. It has the same 120Hz refresh rate, 10-bit color depth and 1ms response time. 

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Xiaomi’s Mi 10 Ultra promises an absurd 120x hybrid zoom

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Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra

Xiaomi

The Mi 10 Ultra has a 6.67-inch FHD+ OLED display with 800-nit brightness and curved edges. Each screen panel is individually calibrated for color accuracy, and the display has a 120Hz refresh rate. The Ultra comes with a 4,500mAh dual-cell battery (smaller than the Mi 10’s 4,780 mAh battery). Like the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro, the Mi 10 Ultra offers wireless charging, but unlike those models, which support 30W wireless charging, the Mi 10 Ultra offers 50W wireless charging (120W wired charging).

Pricing starts at 5,299 yuan (about $760) for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The most expensive combo, 16GB RAM and 512GB of storage, costs 6,999 yuan (about $1,010). You’ll be able to choose from three colors — ceramic black, silver and transparent — which pay homage to three of Xiaomi’s classic designs, a fitting tribute for a 10th anniversary device. We don’t know when the phone will arrive in the US or Europe yet, but we’ll update you when we do.

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