STERN: “They’re hiring people on Facebook Marketplace to drill out the light for as much as $100. According to our reporting, folks are offering this service in at least 30 states — despite Meta’s attempts to stop it… In most states, we found multiple listings. In the New York and New Jersey area alone there were 23 listings.”
Stern watched a man in New Jersey disable and then conceal the light with a drill and dental probe in a New Jersey garage (a skill he learned watching YouTube and TikTok videos). He said the same day he’d already been contacted by eight more interested customers, and Stern also found at least 10 other people willing to do the same thing, just in New Jersey. “But what we found is they’re all over the country.”
Meta sold 7 million smartglasses in 2025, but a Meta spokesperson insisted to the videomaker that a “majority” of their smartglasses owners aren’t blocking the recording light. And furthermore, they added “We aggressively target anyone advertising tampering tools, have removed thousands of violating ads and Marketplace listings for these services, and pursue legal action when appropriate.” (The reporter acknowledges “many” of the Marketplace ads disappeared after they brought them to Meta’s attention — and Meta also said they were working with other retailers and sellers to take down listings for smartglasses-tampering parts.)
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The reporter also heard from one journalist who said they’d used it so they could record the activities of federal immigration agents without being targeted. “Others told me they just don’t want people asking questions when they’re recording.” (There’s video of one young man saying “It’s already difficult enough to film in public. I don’t want to have a blinking light on my face.”)
Tampering with smartglasses isn’t illegal — though it is against Meta’s Terms of Service, and could void your warranty. But a lawyer in the report says recording others without consent may be illegal, depending on a wide range of “jurisdictional nuances” like whether you live in an all-party consent state or a one-party consent state. “This seems to be our new reality,” the report concludes: “more cameras, more microphones everywhere, and less certainty about who and what is recording.” (Tech blogger John Gruber offered this assessment. “Using a Meta platform to find people to hack a Meta device so you can surreptitiously record strangers. So perfectly Meta.”)
Stern’s report points out that “People are trying to fight back. Apps have popped up that use Bluetooth to scan for nearby camera glasses.” (In the video one app-maker wonders why Meta isn’t offering the same service themselves. “There are technical solutions to these problems.”)
Ironically, when I watched the report on YouTube, it was preceded by… an ad for Meta’s Ray-Ban AI smartglasses.
The WWDC swag bag for 2026 has arrived, with attendees getting a bag, a bottle, and a collection of pins, including one of Little Finder Guy.
Each year, visitors to Apple Park taking part in the WWDC festivities can pick up exclusive Apple merchandise from the on-site Apple Store. At the same time, attendees can pick up a swag bag, made specifically for the developer event.
The 2026 swag bag was picked up by Canoopsy, who posted pictures to X on Sunday. The merchandise consists of:
A black tote bag with WWDC branding
WWDC 26 water bottle
A selection of stickers
A selection of pin badges
There are four pins in the photographs, consisting of the Apple skull and crossbones, an Apple 50 pin that’s different from the employee anniversary pin, Clarius the Dogcow, and Little Finder Guy. The latter was an unexpected social media phenomenon, prompting its inclusion in the bag for 2026.
The bag is relatively similar to the 2025 edition, except for some changes in style, and that the stickers replace the lanyard.
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Apple’s swag bag is just one early surprise in its WWDC week of events, which will provide the first access to the company’s fall software updates, including iOS 27 and macOS 27.
We have an idea of what the solar system’s past was like: It was violent and chaotic. However, we are still studying how violent it was. Current models suggest that at some point after their formation, the giant planets went through a phase of such extreme instability that one or even two bodies the size of Uranus or Neptune were ejected into interstellar space. If that scenario occurred, we may find clues in the most unexpected places in the solar system, such as the moons of Jupiter and, especially, those of Uranus.
A recent article published in Icarus analyzed 122 possible scenarios of such instability to assess how the satellite systems of the “left behind” planets would have reacted. The researchers concluded that it would be extremely difficult to explain the current characteristics of Uranus’ moons without some episode of violent instability. And that type of instability only appears in models where more giant planets existed than we see today.
Most likely, the authors point out, the moons of Uranus were destabilized at least twice in the past: First by the impact that tilted the planet, and then by close encounters between giant planets during the instability. That chaos, fueled by the presence of one or more planets that were later ejected, would have destroyed and rebuilt the system of moons to what we see today.
Miranda, the moon of Uranus considered the most unusual in the solar system.
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The Solar System and Chaos
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune did not always have their current positions in the solar system. According to the planetary-instability model, they were born a little closer to the Sun and closer together. After millions of years, they migrated towards their current orbits.
But there are details of this model that do not fit with the observations. For one thing, the current orbits of Jupiter and Saturn are eccentric, while there are specific structures such as the Kuiper belt that seemingly should have prevented Neptune from moving into its current position. In the simulations, the planets did not reach where they are today.
It is therefore possible that the solar system at one point had more planets, and these were the ones that “pushed the others.” Under this hypothesis, the puzzle of the solar system fits better. The problem is, those bodies, if they existed, are gone—they were ejected and left no physical traces or fragments. This leaves the idea of missing planets in the realm of hypotheses, waiting for sufficient evidence to be accumulated to confirm it.
The Unusual Moon
The new Icarus study tested the missing planets hypothesis using the moons of Uranus as direct evidence. It used a total of 122 solar system evolution simulations. In 85 percent of the scenarios, the Uranus moon system collapsed. Only in a handful of scenarios did its moons survive, and, in all of them, the hypothesis of lost and ejected planets fit very well.
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The report points to Miranda, the smallest moon in Uranus’ major system. Astronomers consider it to be the most unusual in the solar system. It is patchy, as if sewn together from scraps, too icy for its size, and quite small considering the rest of Uranus’ moons. It is also geologically active.
Astronomers think that Miranda is the debris of a larger body. The study reinforces that idea and proposes that it is the clearest example of traces of planetary instability.
AMD, which has already been moving in that direction with its Strix Halo chips, does not appear rattled. If anything, the company’s executives are portraying Nvidia’s arrival as long overdue. Read Entire Article Source link
Xbox opened its 2026 Games Showcase with extended gameplay from Gears of War E-Day, handing the series the lead spot for the first time. What followed was a focused look at the opening days of the Locust War, rebuilt from the ground up and aimed squarely at longtime fans who remember the original tension. Release arrives October 6, 2026, exactly twenty years after the first Gears of War reached players. The game lands on Xbox Series X and Series S, on PC through Steam and the Xbox app, and via cloud streaming. Game Pass Ultimate subscribers gain day-one access. Xbox leadership confirmed during the show that this release stays exclusive to Xbox consoles and PC, with no version planned for PlayStation 5.
Kalona is the game’s whole setting, modeled after real-world coastal and industrial locations such as waterfront refineries, dense residential neighborhoods, a stadium district, and enormous industrial yards. The plot then successfully confines you within the Bravo Squad’s minds for three long, dramatic days while the world around them implodes. You meet Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, who are still shaken up by Dom’s loss of his older brother Carlos some 6 years ago, despite being younger veterans with a lot to prove. The crew is completed by Mags Carter, a seasoned Gear who used to work in the Imulsion refineries and was seriously harmed by it, Lucas Reyes, a young communications cadet, and Tai Kaliso, who crosses paths with them as the crisis spirals out of control.
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Combat is classic, as one would expect from a Gears game, but there are some unique twists that keep things interesting. You may now jump up and take out a rooftop or elevated position, slip from a full sprint right into cover if your timing is good, climb over obstacles if necessary (and you will), and vault through gaps. The cover components are now available in a range of shapes and sizes, allowing you to select a flanking angle or hold many angles at once. When it comes to destruction, both good and bad, the consequences are serious. A few well-placed rounds from a small-arms rifle can gradually destroy a barrier, as can a larger event such as a sinkhole dragging a car or structure section into the depths. Locusts can appear anywhere on the planet, and a well-placed grenade will essentially imprison them in an e-hole before more emerge.
The weapons have been totally revamped, yet the Gnasher still dominates close-quarters fighting while the Longshot continues to hit its target from afar. The Gut Puncher is a new toy in town that functions as a grenade launcher, firing armour-piercing bullets that may also be manually detonated for maximum damage. There’s also the Incinerator, which essentially melts things with an Imulsion-powered flame. Even the Lancers get a new backstory, as they are depicted as an early prototype chainsaw rig that men put together on the front lines in the early days of the war.
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Consoles support four-player online co-op and two-player split-screen, allowing you and your friends to approach tasks in different ways. One squad can press along a narrow street while the other goes to the balcony to lay up some support fire. That adaptation works equally well in narrow alleys as it does in the larger communities that emerge later in the three-day span. Multiplayer’s role extends beyond the campaign mode. Horde Siege has 12 players divided into three teams, each defending a greater area of Kalona. Players can choose from positions such as Assault, Marksman, Medic, or Breacher and form four-person teams to fulfill common objectives and battle massive global bosses. Versus mode has also been updated, with all-new 4v4 maps set in and around the city. New movement aspects supplement the traditional cover-based gameplay, and playlists are available for both ranked and social play.
An open beta begins on August 6th, albeit much of it is reserved for pre-orders or Game Pass holders at the highest tier. The Coalition’s creators started with a completely blank slate in Unreal Engine 5, with no existing assets to import; every single street, building, weapon, animation, and sound effect was created from the ground up. That implies continual destruction throughout the city, and the new lighting tools make night sequences feel much more frightening, particularly in collapsing interior scenes.
Microsoft has officially kicked off celebrations for Xbox’s 25th anniversary with a nostalgic new limited-edition console that pays tribute to the original Xbox era. Unveiled during the Xbox Games Showcase, the new Xbox Series X25 combines modern hardware with the iconic translucent green aesthetic that defined Microsoft’s first gaming console back in 2001.
The special edition console arrives ahead of Xbox’s official 25th anniversary in November and is clearly designed to appeal to longtime fans who grew up during the original Xbox generation. Officially called the Xbox Series X25, the console features a translucent green shell inspired by the classic debug-style look associated with the first Xbox hardware.
Microsoft has also included several nostalgic touches throughout the design. The Xbox power logo lights up in green, while the front of the console includes a dedicated 25th anniversary emblem. Despite the visual overhaul, the hardware specifications remain identical to the standard Xbox Series X, including the same 1TB storage configuration and overall performance capabilities.
Microsoft is leaning heavily into Xbox nostalgia
The anniversary edition highlights how important nostalgia has become in the gaming industry. Console makers increasingly rely on retro-inspired hardware, limited-edition designs, and legacy branding to reconnect with longtime fans who grew up alongside iconic gaming platforms.
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For Xbox specifically, the translucent green aesthetic carries significant emotional weight. The original Xbox launched in 2001 with a bold industrial design language that helped differentiate Microsoft from Sony and Nintendo at the time. The green color scheme quickly became one of the brand’s defining visual identities.
Series XXbox
The new console also reflects the growing popularity of translucent gaming hardware again. Over the past few years, companies including 8BitDo have successfully revived retro transparent designs through Xbox-themed keyboards, mice, controllers, and accessories inspired by the original console generation.
Alongside the console, Microsoft also announced the Xbox Wireless Controller X25 Special Edition. The controller features the same translucent green shell along with colored ABXY buttons and bumpers inspired by the original “Duke” controller that shipped with the first Xbox.
For longtime Xbox fans, the controller may end up being just as nostalgic as the console itself. The Duke controller remains one of the most recognizable – and famously oversized – controllers in gaming history.
The anniversary launch shows that Xbox still values hardware identity
The limited-edition release arrives during an important period for Xbox. Microsoft has spent the past several years expanding beyond traditional console gaming through Game Pass, cloud streaming, PC integration, and AI-powered gaming initiatives. Some industry observers questioned whether Xbox hardware itself would remain central to Microsoft’s long-term strategy.
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Instead, the anniversary launch reinforces that Microsoft still sees emotional value in dedicated gaming hardware and the Xbox brand identity. Even as the company pushes toward subscription ecosystems and cloud gaming, nostalgic console releases continue to generate excitement among collectors and longtime players.
Series XXbox
Microsoft says the Xbox Series X25 Console and Xbox Wireless Controller X25 Special Edition will launch together in select markets starting in November. The controller will also be sold separately for fans who want the retro design without purchasing a new console.
Pricing and pre-order details have not yet been announced, but given the limited-edition nature of the hardware, demand from collectors is expected to be high once sales begin later this year.
So you happen to have a gramaphone– maybe a big old Victrola/HMV, perhaps a Columbia– regardless of brand, it’s a big, beautiful conversation peice for your living room. It might not be the most practical listening device, since isnomuch as there is a vinyl renessance, it’s restricted to vinyl, not the old shellac 78s the these all-mechanical beasts were born for. [JGJMatt] decided to bring his gramophone into the 21st century, turning it into a bluetooth speaker without altering any of its original internals.
What’s really interesting is that this hack was once a commercial product– sort of. Back in the 1920s when everyone was listening to Jazz, the problem of ‘ what do I do with this massive gramophone cabinet when I’m not cutting a rug?’ was equally valid, and a solution was found: the Dulce-Tone Radio Speaker. A very weak speaker sits under the needle, turning the gramaphone mechanism into an amplifier for the radio. The very same concept, [JGJMatt] would work equally well in the 2020s with a bluetooth signal as in the 1920s with an AM one. There’s no demo video for this project, but you can hear how its 1920s inspiration sounded in the video below.
The driver for this device is made using a neodymium magnet and the voice coil from a 3W speaker. A 3D-printed needle-holder captures the gramophone’s needle– a much thicker and sturdier thing than the tiny diamond-tip you’d find on a modern turntable, we should note– and holds the magnet to it. The voice coil gets driven via a MH-M38 bluetooth module, and everything is held in a nice 3D-printed case along with the battery.
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The hack is, of course, totally reversible: at any moment, you can remove the needle from this device and drop it on a 78 for some Jazz-era fun, or swap back for 21st century brainrot. If you happen to have some of those old shellac records and a modern turntable, note it takes more than the right RPM to get good sound.
T-CREATE EXPERT P35SG enables remote SSD destruction via cellular control
Hardware level wipe prevents recovery even after advanced forensic attempts
Physical button allows instant local activation of secure data wipe
A storage device capable of destroying its own contents remotely has emerged as one of the more unusual technologies unveiled at Computex 2026.
Teamgroup unveiled the T-CREATE EXPERT P35SG, an external SSD that combines portable storage with an integrated cellular communications system.
The device incorporates an independent 4G LTE modem, allowing it to receive commands without depending on a connected computer or host network.
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How the wireless destruction actually works without a host computer
The built-in cellular network bypasses limitations that the host machine might impose on the drive, so a user can trigger confidential data destruction remotely, even when far away from the physical device.
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For on-site use, the SSD also includes a physical button that enables instant one-touch data wiping when needed.
It uses a patented two-stage safety push-button system paired with Teamgroup’s dedicated destruction circuit, both protected by utility patents in multiple regions.
The company has also integrated a proprietary destruction trigger notification system, which sends real-time updates so users can confirm when the wipe process has completed successfully.
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The drive performs its wipe sequence at the hardware level rather than through any operating system, a bare metal execution which makes it resistant to software-based interruption once the process begins.
On-board power reserves ensure the wipe completes even if the device is suddenly disconnected, and a combined high-voltage physical breakdown and logical data wipe further strengthens the destruction process.
The company claims this method meets strict standards designed to prevent forensic recovery.
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A fail-safe locking mechanism helps reduce the risk of accidental activation and unintended data loss.
A business traveller carrying sensitive client information may find value in this level of remote destruction control.
The drive essentially acts as a data “dead man’s switch,” ensuring information cannot be recovered if the device is compromised.
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Previous self-destruct storage technologies and early concepts
Self-destructing storage technology has evolved through several experimental stages over the years, ranging from military-style designs to more practical consumer approaches.
In 2021, Technodynamika, a subsidiary of Rostec, reportedly prototyped a USB drive with a built-in detonator designed to physically destroy NAND chips when triggered.
The mechanism was intended to make recovered data completely unrecoverable once activated.
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More recent consumer-oriented concepts, such as the Ovrdrive USB, took less extreme approaches.
These included heat-based data destruction and secure multi-step unlock processes designed to prevent unauthorized access.
TEAMGROUP has also entered this field with devices like the P250Q Self-Destruct SSD and the P35S SSD, which can permanently erase data with user-initiated commands.
They combine hardware-level data erasure, AES-256 encryption, and power-loss resilience to ensure sensitive information cannot be recovered even after interruption.
Yamaha has entered the premium wireless hi-fi speaker category with the NX-70A, a new active stereo speaker system aimed at listeners who want proper stereo performance without a rack full of separates, speaker cables, and the 7 a.m. Dunkin’ drive-thru conversation where you try to explain why the “simple wireless speakers” cost more than the family vacation.
The NX-70A is not another lifestyle speaker pretending to be serious because someone gave it a fabric grille and a fancy app. Yamaha is bringing real hi-fi engineering to the category, including Harmonious Diaphragm drivers, Synergistic Drive amplifier integration, YPAO room calibration, HDMI eARC, MusicCast, AirPlay, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, and Roon Ready support.
Yamaha has clearly noticed that KEF, Klipsch, Cambridge Audio, DALI, Fyne Audio, Sonus faber, and others are doing well with active and wireless hi-fi speakers. The NX-70A is Yamaha’s attempt to bring its loudspeaker, amplifier, DSP, home theater, and musical instrument experience into a modern wireless stereo system.
Yamaha Returns to Wireless Stereo with Real Hi-Fi Intent
The NX-70A is Yamaha’s first wireless stereo speaker system in roughly a decade, and it arrives with a feature set aimed at modern living rooms, smaller listening spaces, and TV-based systems where a soundbar may not be the ideal answer.
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Each speaker uses Yamaha’s Harmonious Diaphragm technology across its driver array. Yamaha says the diaphragm material is made from a carefully balanced blend of PBO fiber ZYLON and spruce wood. ZYLON is used in Yamaha’s flagship loudspeakers, while spruce wood is used in the soundboards of Yamaha grand pianos.
The NX-70A also uses Yamaha’s Synergistic Drive, which integrates the amplifier circuit and speaker unit as a dedicated system. Yamaha says this direct amplifier-to-driver approach helps manage current flow more precisely and reduce distortion caused by conventional amplifier/speaker interactions.
Yamaha rates the system at 100 watts for each woofer and 60 watts for each tweeter, confirming that the NX-70A is a fully active design with dedicated amplification for each driver rather than a passive speaker with wireless convenience bolted on.
Yamaha also lists frequency response at 50 Hz to 35 kHz when the speakers are connected by wire, and 50 Hz to 21 kHz when used wirelessly, both measured at -10 dB. That distinction matters because the NX-70A is being marketed as a wireless system, but Yamaha is clearly giving users a wired option for maximum performance and stability.
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The primary speaker includes HDMI eARC/ARC, optical digital, 3.5mm analog input, Ethernet, USB-A for music playback and firmware updates, a YPAO microphone input, and an RCA subwoofer output. The secondary speaker can connect wirelessly or via Ethernet/LAN, and Yamaha includes a 3-meter LAN cable in the box for that purpose.
Physically, the NX-70A is compact but not featherweight. Each speaker measures 189 x 234 x 333mm, or roughly 7.5 x 9.25 x 13.125 inches. The primary speaker weighs 5.7 kg / 12.6 pounds, while the secondary speaker weighs 5.4 kg / 11.9 pounds. That puts the NX-70A firmly in the serious desktop, den, or living-room category rather than the “cute wireless speaker for the kitchen counter” pile.
YPAO Room Calibration and Wireless Left/Right Placement
One of the NX-70A’s most useful features is YPAO room calibration. Yamaha’s system uses a dedicated microphone to measure the listening environment and adjust playback for the room. In the NX-70A, YPAO R.S.C. addresses early reflections, while EQ is used to fine-tune tonal balance.
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That matters because active wireless speakers are often used in real rooms, not review spaces with perfect symmetry, acoustic treatment, and no furniture that anyone actually owns. Walls, windows, bookshelves, coffee tables, and questionable placement all have a say in the final sound. Yamaha is at least giving users a tool to manage some of that.
The left and right speakers can also connect wirelessly, so users do not need to run a cable between them. That should make placement easier, especially in living rooms where “just run a cable across the floor” is how arguments start.
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HDMI eARC, MusicCast, and Roon Ready Support
Yamaha has given the NX-70A the kind of connectivity that makes sense in 2026. HDMI eARC/ARC with CEC allows the speakers to connect directly to a TV and be controlled with a TV remote. That immediately makes the NX-70A a serious alternative to a soundbar for listeners who care more about stereo imaging than simulated surround fireworks.
Streaming support includes Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Google Cast, AirPlay, MusicCast multiroom playback, and Roon Ready compatibility, which should cover most potential buyers. Qobuz Connect does not appear to be supported at this stage.
Designed for Sound, Not Just the Showroom
The NX-70A cabinet uses rounded surfaces intended to avoid parallel internal walls and reduce standing waves. Yamaha also uses a 5mm aluminum top plate secured to the cabinet to increase rigidity and help control unwanted vibration.
The system will be available in black and white finishes, with a matching SPS-70A stand also listed by Yamaha.
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The Bottom Line
The Yamaha NX-70A matters because it is not just another wireless speaker system with a premium badge and a tidy app. Yamaha is bringing a properly active 2-way design to the category, with dedicated amplification for each driver, YPAO room calibration, HDMI eARC, subwoofer output, wired or wireless speaker linking, and broad streaming support that includes MusicCast, AirPlay, Google Cast, TIDAL Connect, Spotify Connect, and Roon Ready compatibility.
At a reported £2,587, or roughly $3,500, the NX-70A is not inexpensive, and it will have to compete with strong active and wireless systems from KEF, DALI, Fyne Audio, Sonus faber, Klipsch, and others. What makes Yamaha’s entry different is the combination of hi-fi, DSP, home theater, and musical instrument engineering behind it. That does not guarantee victory, but it does make the NX-70A one of the more credible new wireless stereo systems to watch in 2026.
The real test will be whether Yamaha can turn that spec sheet into a system that sounds balanced, images properly, integrates well with TVs and subs, and makes traditional separates feel less necessary. On paper, the NX-70A has the right pieces. Now it has to prove they belong together.
Microsoft released a new pre-recorded Xbox Showcase on Sunday morning as part of this year’s Summer Game Fest event, which also marked new CEO Asha Sharma’s first big public event since taking over the company’s gaming division.
Back in February when Sharma took over Xbox, some analysts, including me, openly wondered if she was there to shut down the department. Instead, Sharma appears determined to give Xbox a shot in the arm, telling Bloomberg News earlier this week that she aims to make Xbox “the number one gaming and entertainment company” by 2030.
For a product that seems to be permanently stuck in third place behind Sony and Nintendo, and which is facing at least one significant consumer boycott, that’s a frankly awe-inspiring level of ambition. That set up high expectations for this year’s Showcase.
Instead, Sharma and Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty seemed content to let their games do the talking. The focus of this year’s hour-long Showcase was firmly on new and upcoming releases from the Xbox studio network and its partners, as part of a low-key celebration of the Xbox project’s 25th anniversary.
The Showcase began with a new look at gameplay for the forthcoming Gears of War: E-Day (Oct. 6). The Gears of War series has, since the beginning, been focused on the conflict between humanity and a subterranean species called the Locust Horde.
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E-Day is a prequel set on the first day of that conflict (“Emergence Day”), 14 years before the original Gears of War. It once again puts the player in the role of the series’ traditional protagonists Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago.
We’ve known that E-Day was coming for a couple of years, and Gears has traditionally been one of the bigger franchises in Xbox’s network. The big surprise here isn’t the game itself, but rather the quiet announcement that E-Day is an Xbox console exclusive.
This is a big reversal of policy from Microsoft, which made headlines over the last couple of years by deliberately publishing several of its first-party games on competitive platforms such as the PlayStation 5. While this appeared to be financially successful for the company, it’s also traditionally been the kind of move that video game companies (i.e. Sega) do right before they leave the hardware market.
Now Xbox is at least attempting to chart a new course. Both E-Day and the forthcoming steampunk action-RPG Clockwork Revolution (2027) were specifically identified as Xbox console exclusives. While several other first-party Xbox titles weren’t, including the Fable reboot and Halo:Campaign Evolved, any move towards console exclusivity is a big departure for modern Xbox.
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The company later specifically confirmed via Xbox Wire that E-Day and Clockwork are not timed exclusives. For the foreseeable future, if you want to play either of these games on a console, you’ll have to own Xbox hardware to do so.
This suggests that Sharma’s Xbox may be moving back towards more proven market strategies for the platform, as opposed to the Spencer/Bond tactic of attempting to redefine the terms of success or the product itself.
Fable may be the next biggest news out of this year’s Showcase, as it’s been suspected of being vaporware for several years now. The original games were some of the biggest Xbox exclusives, as famously open-ended fantasy RPGs that allowed you to play as a hero, a villain, or something in between.
The series has been on hiatus since Fable III in 2010, so Microsoft got fans’ attention back in 2020 when it announced plans for a reboot. Then, nothing happened for quite some time. Every major press event at Xbox would feature some small piece of information about Fable, just as proof of life, before the project vanished again.
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Now we actually have a release date for the new Fable: Feb. 23, 2027. In addition, the Showcase trailer marks the debut of Fable’s villain, Isabel, who’s played by British actress Hayley Atwell (Captain America).
Speaking of projects that seemed like they’d never come out: this year’s Showcase featured a new trailer for Seattle-based Undead Labs’ State of Decay 3.
This co-op zombie survival game, set in the post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest, has been in development for years, but a 2022 scandal about its toxic work culture nearly sank Undead Labs before it could be released. It’s frankly shocking that Microsoft never pulled the plug. Instead, State of Decay 3 is coming in 2027.
The Master Chief, now in Unreal Engine 5. (Microsoft press image)
This summer, we’ll finally see the next project from the rebranded Halo Studios, as the Unreal Engine remake of the original Halo is coming on July 28. In addition to the remake ofHalo’s story,Campaign Evolved will feature three new missions set one year before the game’s events, which team the Master Chief with fan-favorite character Sergeant Major Avery Johnson.
Other first-party news out of the Xbox Showcase includes:
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To celebrate the Xbox’s 25th anniversary, Microsoft plans to release a new edition of the Xbox Series X in November which features a translucent green shell and a matching controller. This is meant to recall the limited-edition Halo Xbox that released in 2004.
This year’s Call of Duty is a fourth entry in its Modern Warfare subseries. It features a new mode, DMZ, set in the fictional Hajin Exclusion Zone in Korea, which is the setting for a high-stakes extraction shooter.
Mojang Studios’ Minecraft Dungeons II is coming out on Sept. 29.
Activision plans to revive the Spyro series, featuring one of the most recognizable mascots of the 2000s, with A Realm Beyond, coming in the spring of 2027.
Ninja Theory’s award-winning Hellblade series is getting a third entry next year, simply titled Senua.
Last year’s Doom: The Dark Ages will receive a DLC expansion, Revelations, on July 7.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 has a new “world update” planned for July 4, which is meant to “celebrate the beauty of the United States” by adding multiple national parks to the game’s environments. Now you can fly through an ultra-realistic Grand Canyon or over the Dry Tortugas.
(Xbox press image)
Announcements from Xbox partners included:
Atlus debuted a remake of its popular Japanese urban-fantasy RPG Persona 4 and, after a long period of silence on the topic, has confirmed it’s making Persona 6. While nothing is known about P6 aside from its existence, that’s still new information.
As a celebration of the Castlevania series’ 40th anniversary, Konami plans to publish Belmont’s Curse, the first new entry in the core series since 2008’s Order of Ecclesia. It follows Rose Belmont as she and her father Trevor investigate a monster attack on the streets of Paris in 1499. It’s due out on Oct. 15.
The French developer Asobo Studio revealed another trailer for its forthcoming prequel Resonance, which is a new entry in the Plague Tale series. These action-horror games, set in 14th-century France, deal with a supernatural take on the Black Plague and its protagonists’ attempts to survive it.
Sega plans to revive its Crazy Taxi racing series with a new entry, World Tour, coming next year. Within minutes of the reveal, fans noticed that World Tour‘s Steam page features an AI-usage disclaimer, which has already begun a mild furor on Western social media.
Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja revealed Wo Long 2, a sequel to its fantasy action-game, set during China’s Three Kingdoms period.
Serenity Forge, an indie studio that specializes in both weird horror and “cozy” games, seems to be splitting the difference with its newest project. Vivarium is an anime-inspired, hand-animated game about life inside a small town… which is contained in a glass jar in what appears to be an abandoned house. It’s due out next year.
This is very handy when you want to share an excerpt of writing in context, a concept that is totally lost if you just take a screenshot with a highlight.
How This Works
This feature is made possible by a web standard called Text fragments. It’s been built into browsers for years now; it’s just not the kind of feature that made a lot of headlines at the time.
The feature basically creates a URL that includes enough information for your browser to find the highlighted text portion. If you copy a URL made this way and paste it into a document so you can study the link’s structure, you can see how this works.
In the simplest cases, the URL will include the entire highlighted portion. That works fine for short fragments, but for long passages, the URL gets ungainly pretty fast. When you’re linking to longer text fragments, the URL includes a reference to the beginning and end of the excerpt. Either way, the URL tells your browser not only which page to load, but what part of the text should be highlighted. Your browser finds the text, highlights it, and jumps directly to it.
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There are subtle differences in how browsers handle this. Safari highlights text in yellow, for example, whereas in my tests Chrome seemed to prefer purple. But since this URL structure is standardized across browsers, a link created in one browser works in every browser.
It’s worth noting this feature doesn’t work in all contexts. If the website you’re reading is behind a paywall, and the person you’re sharing with doesn’t have access, they probably won’t be able to see the excerpt you’re trying to share. The feature also doesn’t work inside PDF files, even when you open them in your browser.
But sharing a text fragment, in most cases, is a lot more useful than sharing a screenshot. Give it a try the next time you’re trying to win an argument online.
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