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As is tradition, Apple is pulling the cover off of a new Apple Watch at its September event. Rumors suggested that the Apple Watch Series 8 would be a mostly iterative update to last year's model, and that appears to be the case so far: It looks essentially identical to the Series 7.

The first main new feature is a temperature sensor that Apple is tying to women's health. It'll use readings to give an estimate on when you may be ovulating. It's meant to be used overnight, sampling your wrist temperature every five seconds so you can see nightly shifts from your baseline temperature. This will work for everyone, but for people that ovulate it'll help indicate where they are in their cycle. You'll also get notifications on potential deviations from your norm.

There's also a new safety feature called Crash Detection. Much as current watches can detect when you fall, the Series 8 can detect car crashes thanks to two new accelerometers. It works in concert with the other sensors already included in the Apple Watch to detect four different types of crashes, including rollovers, front impact, back impact and side impact.

Apple says that the Series 8 has the same 18-hour battery life, but there's a new low power mode that can give you up to 36 hours on a full charge. It keeps a lot of the core features like activity tracking and fall detection while also turning off things like the always-on display. Anyone who knows they'll be away from a charger for a long time should appreciate this feature, and it's coming to older Watch models as well, from Series 4 onward.

Apple Watch Series 8 comes in four aluminum colors (silver, a black-ish midnight, a gold-ish starlight, and red), as well as three stainless steel finishes — looks like the titanium models are going to be saved for the Apple Watch Pro, which we'll probably hear about momentarily. The GPS-only model starts at $399, while the cellular models start at $499. All will be available on September 16th.

Follow all of the news from Apple’s iPhone event right here.

Microsoft is rolling out an Xbox update that includes handy consoles and cloud gaming features. There's a new way to hop into a game. When a friend shares a screenshot or game clip that catches your eye, you'll be able to tap the play button on a computer or mobile device and fire up the game in a browser. 

For instance, if you're on your phone and see a cool Forza Horizon 5 clip that your friend posted, you can start playing the game just by clicking the button. Given that this is a cloud gaming function, you'll need an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership to use it.

Xbox's take on the feature doesn't seem quite as advanced as Stadia's State Share, however. The latter allows you to join a game at the same point as someone else and experience a world exactly as they left it just by clicking a link.

Microsoft

There's another welcome feature that's available on Xbox Series X/S starting today: noise suppression for party chats. Microsoft says it can keep sounds like controller clicks, your breathing and background noise out of your friends' ears.

Noise suppression, which Xbox started publicly testing back in May, will be enabled by default. If you want your pals to hear music you're playing in the background, you can switch it off from the Parties and Chats options in the guide. Microsoft plans to bring the feature to more devices in the near future.

Microsoft

Nintendo is adding a new colorway to its Switch OLED line just in time for the release of the latest Pokémon games. The console will go on sale on November 4th, two weeks before Pokémon Scarlet and Violet arrive on November 18th.

The design is about as maximalist as possible. The red and purple Joy-Cons feature the emblems of two academies that will appear in the upcoming games. The back of the console is reminiscent of a school binder or yearbook, with a paint job that makes it look like someone had pulled out all their favorite stickers. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s three starters – Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly – make an appearance here. Meanwhile, the dock features Koraidon and Miraidon, the two new legendaries.

The My Nintendo Store and select retailers will sell the Nintendo Switch – OLED Model: Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Edition (phew, that’s a mouthful) for $360, or about $10 more than the standard OLED variant. You’ll also need to buy Pokémon Scarlet or Violet separately.

It's time once again for Apple to show off a bunch of new gear. The company's "Far Out" iPhone event starts today at 1PM ET and, as ever, you'll be able to watch it live. The stream will be available on Apple's website and YouTube channel, as well as the Apple TV app. Alternatively, you can simply hit the play button on the video below.

Barring a major surprise, we'll get our first official look at the iPhone 14 lineup, which is expected to once again include four models (even if we may have seen the last of the Mini). Reports suggest Apple has a "complete redesign" in store, with Pro models having hole-punch cutouts for the front-facing camera and Face ID sensor. Pro models may also have always-on screens. 

It's also likely that Apple will reveal the next Watch models. Rumors indicate we'll hear word of the first Apple Watch Pro, with a larger screen and a new button. AirPods Pro are due for a refresh, three years after Apple released the first model, and the company is expected to show off the next-gen version today. As for iPad, there could be some news on that front, but we might have to wait until later this fall for the company's next tablets.

With other virtual reality headset makers expected to bring face- and eye-tracking functions to their upcoming models, HTC is looking to keep pace with new accessories for its Vive Focus 3. The company says the add-ons will offer “more natural and immersive VR experiences” and enable accessibility functions such as gaze control.

The $99 Facial Tracker uses a mono camera to capture expressions from the wearer's lips, jaw, cheeks, chin, teeth and tongue. The idea is to replicate “lifelike facial expressions and mouth movements” from the user on avatars in real-time.

HTC says the Facial Tracker has a 60Hz tracking rate and can "synchronize lips to voice with minimal latency" — the system has a response time of under 10 milliseconds. The device plugs into the headset's USB-C port and weighs around 11.6 grams, so it shouldn't weigh your head down.

HTC

As for the $249 Eye Tracker, it has a dual camera system that can capture gaze direction and origin, blinks and your pupil size and position. It weighs around 54 grams and it attaches to the headset magnetically. HTC notes that "realistic" eye activity can improve non-verbal interactions in VR. What's more, the eye-tracking module can be used for research purposes.

The company suggests that presentation coaching, training and customer service management are good use cases. HTC, which released a wrist tracker accessory for the headset earlier this year, adds that eye and facial tracking could be helpful for fostering better engagement in virtual social settings, such as events, remote meetings and hanging out.

The attachments might even be employed for motion capture to help animate characters' faces in TV, film and games. HTC says developers can integrate users' biometric data into applications with the help of the Vive Wave SDK and upcoming OpenXR support. There's also Unity, Unreal Game Engine and Native integration.

HTC isn't the only VR company that's embracing face and eye tracking. Meta's next headset, which the company will reveal in October, will have eye and face tracking as well. Accessibility functions like gaze control are definitely welcome, but whether most users are comfortable with headsets monitoring their eyes and facial expressions remains to be seen.

For the past three days, one of the largest hospitality companies in the world hasn’t been able to accept online bookings due to a cyberattack. On Tuesday, the InterContinental Hotels Group disclosed that “unauthorized activity” had left its IT systems “significantly disrupted” since the end of the Labor Day weekend. IHG operates 6,028 hotels across more than 100 countries, with some of the company’s more recognizable brands including Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Regent.

When Engadget went to book a local InterContinental in Toronto on Wednesday morning, clicking “Check Availability” or “Book Now” produced a pop-up window prompting us to call or email the hotel to make a reservation. “IHG is working to fully restore all systems as soon as possible and to assess the nature, extent and impact of the incident,” the company said in a statement, providing few other details about what had happened. It says it's working with external experts and regulatory authorities to investigate the cyberattack.

Bleeping Computer suggests the disruption may be the result of a ransomware attack. In 2017, IHG found that over 1,000 of its US hotels had been infected by malware designed to steal credit card information. More recently, the Lockbit ransomware gang claimed last month it had stolen data from the Holiday Inn Istanbul Kadıköy.

Ring is expanding its end-to-end encryption (E2EE) offering to battery-powered cameras and doorbells, which the Amazon-owned company says are its best-selling products. It brought E2EE to several wired models last year.

"We believe we should offer a full range of privacy options to as many customers as possible," a Ring blog post reads. "And we know that different devices make sense for different living situations. That's why we've worked hard to bring this industry-leading privacy feature to as many of our camera and doorbell products as possible."

With E2EE enabled, only you will be able to access videos captured by your Ring camera. Ring and Amazon won't be able to see them. It recently emerged that Amazon has given US law enforcement footage from Ring cameras on several occasions without a court order or user consent. E2EE should prevent that from happening.

Recordings will only be accessible from a single mobile device. According to Ring's white paper, a direct connection is made between the Ring device and the phone over WiFi, with cryptographic keys and identity certificates used to establish trust between the two, and to encrypt and decrypt videos.

There are some tradeoffs for those who use E2EE. You won't be able to access Ring footage on other devices, such as Echo Show. Other features will be disabled, including the Event Timeline, Quick Replies, Alexa Greetings and Bird’s Eye View, which debuted on the Video Doorbell Pro 2 last year.

Elsewhere, Ring is making it easier to save videos when you get rid of one of its devices. Via the Deactivated Device State feature, subscribers will be able to save recordings from the doorbell or camera to their Ring account. Until now, the only officially supported way to retain the videos was by downloading them to a computer. If you cancel your subscription, Ring will delete all the videos and events from your account, but you'll be able to download the recordings first.

Microsoft Xbox has launched a new Elite Series 2 controller with a white cover plate, and it's now available for pre-order. Like its black counterpart, the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 – Core in white was designed with competitive gamers in mind, with its wrap-around rubberized grip, shorter hair trigger locks and 40 hours of battery life. It's now available for pre-order from the Xbox website and select retailers for $130. That's much cheaper than the black version that has a standard retail price of $180, because it doesn't come with a case and other spare parts needed for customization. 

Instead, Xbox is selling a separate Complete Component Pack, which is also available for pre-order, for $60. The pack includes a carrying case, a thumbstick-adjustment tool, a charging dock, two classic thumbsticks, one tall thumbstick, one dome thumbstick, one cross-shaped D-pad, two medium and two mini paddles, as well as a USB-C cable. By selling the pack separately, that means those who already have all those components from the black Elite Series 2 will be able to buy the new controller on its own at a cheaper price. However, that's $10 more than the black version for those who want to get both the white controller and the component pack.

In addition to announcing its new products, Xbox has also revealed that it's adding the Elite Series 2 Controllers to the Xbox Design Lab this holiday season. That means players will be able purchase personalized controllers designed with various colors and patterns of their choosing, so they can go beyond these current black and white options. 

Last week Twitter announced that it would finally be introducing an edit button that users had been requesting pretty much since the app came out. While we knew that it would let you make changes for up to 30 minutes after posting, we're now learning that you'll only be able to make up to five edits too, TechCrunch has reported. 

A legitimate concern about editing is that users could alter the contents of a tweet after it's disseminated widely, significantly altering the meaning. That could then potentially be abused to spread misinformation, scams and more, experts told The Washington Post. As such, the five-edit limit might be a way to prevent such abuse, though Twitter told TechCrunch that the number of edits could change based on user data it's currently collecting.

We already knew that the feature would be coming to Twitter Blue subscribers first "in a single country," Twitter said earlier. Now it confirmed that it'll launch in New Zealand later this month, and once the company learns more about how it's being used, it'll roll out to Twitter Blue users in Australia, Canada and the US. So far, the paid service is only available in those four countries. 

If you've been looking to cut the cord for good, Hulu's latest promotion on its Live TV subscription service may give you the push you need to do so. The streaming company has knocked $20 off its Live TV plan for three months for new and returning customers. That means you'll pay $50 per month for the service instead of the usual $70 for the first three months that you're subscribed.

This is a solid deal considering how rarely discounts on live TV subscription plans come around, namely Hulu's and YouTube's offerings. Hulu + Live TV also includes access to Hulu's ad-supported streaming library as well as Disney+ and ESPN+, so you're really getting access to four different platforms for only $50 per month for a limited time. The Live TV portion of the membership provides access to over 75 sports, entertainment and lifestyle channels, plus you can watch two streams simultaneously and record shows to your hearts desire with unlimited cloud DVR. The latter is a relatively new feature as Hulu got rid of its paid "Enhanced Cloud DVR" add-on earlier this year when it decided to make unlimited DVR a standard feature of its Live TV plan.

You have until October 5th to sign up for Hulu's three-month offer. The price of Live TV will go back up to the $70 after your first three months, but you can cancel at any time. It's also worth noting that the company has already planned a price hike, too: as of December 8th, 2022, the price of Hulu + Live TV will go up to $75 per month. That makes this deal even more compelling if you've been interested in trying out a live TV service like this.

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