Microsoft has begun rolling out a new update for Xbox consoles. Among the more notable features the February release adds is the “carbon aware” functionality the company began testing last month. When your Xbox has access to the internet, you can set it to schedule game, app and operating system updates based on local carbon intensity data. According to Microsoft, doing so may lead to your console producing fewer carbon emissions because it’s programmed to download files when more renewable energy is likely available. It may also save you money on your electricity bill.

Additionally, all Xbox users now have access to the company’s new “Shutdown (energy saving)” option. If you don’t mind longer startup times and missing out on the Xbox’s remote wake functionality, Microsoft says the feature can cut your console’s power consumption by up to 20 times compared to if you were to leave it in sleep mode. “For every two consoles that switch to Shutdown (energy saving) for one year, we will save the equivalent amount of carbon removed by one tree planted and grown for a decade,” says Microsoft.

Separately, the February update adds a feature that allows you to prevent games from changing the background of your Xbox’s home screen. You can now set a solid color of your choice. You can do so by navigating to the Personalization menu within the Settings app. Microsoft has also partnered with Google to allow Xbox owners to use the company’s Home app as a touch remote for their console. “Now, when you add your Xbox console to your Google Home app, you’ll be able to easily turn your console on and off, navigate on-screen, control media playback and more,” Microsoft notes. Once you have access to the February update, open the Google Home app on your phone and pull down on the interface to refresh the list of available devices. Then tap on your Xbox to get started.

Amid ongoing unionization efforts at the company, Activision will soon require Blizzard employees to spend the majority of their week working out of the company’s offices. An Activision spokesperson told Engadget employees with the company’s publishing unit will be required to work from the office at least three days per week starting April 10th. On July 10th, the same policy goes into effect for Blizzard Entertainment employees. Staff at Activision’s King mobile division have been working a full five days out of the office since last July.

“Activision Blizzard has been returning teams to the office over the past year, and on February 13th, we updated our future-of-work plan,” the spokesperson said. “In close partnership with each leadership team, we customize a plan based on what’s best for our business and our teams. We look forward to the increased real-time, in-person collaboration and opportunities this change will foster.”

Information on the company’s return-to-office plan was first shared earlier this week by @LeastMyHairIsOk, a Twitter user who says they work at Blizzard’s customer support department (via Game Developer). In a Twitter thread, they said the “majority” of Activision Blizzard employees “have no interest” in returning to the office. The worker went on to predict Activision will see a workforce drain if it moves forward with the plan. On top of ongoing worries about COVID-19, @LeastMyHairIsOk alleges the company has failed to address employee concerns about the cost of living in many of the cities where Activision has offices and studios. Specifically, they claim leadership has repeatedly denied requests from “lower earning departments” to include yearly cost-of-living adjustments as part of salary negotiations. “Our most recent meetings from last month suggest that there are no plans for this to change this year,” they added.

Activision Blizzard did not immediately respond to Engadget’s questions about its salary policies.

Details on Activision’s return to office plan come amid allegations of union-busting. In January, the Communication Workers of America (CWA) withdrew a petition for a union election at Proletariat, a Blizzard support studio that’s currently working on World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. A CWA spokesperson accused studio head Seth Sivak of holding captive audience meetings that allegedly "demoralized and disempowered" pro-union workers enough that they felt the vote wouldn’t be fair.

2023 will be another big year for fans of Riot Games and League of Legends. This morning, the studio announced it will release not one but three games from its Riot Forge publishing label before 2024. The slate opens with The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story, a new action RPG from Digital Sun Games, the studio behind 2018’s Moonlighter. TheMageseeker casts you as Sylas, everyone’s favorite rogue Damacian mage, as he attempts to lead a revolution against the kingdom that imprisoned him. Riot is billing the game as a “2D hi-bit” title, meaning it features a pixel art style that takes advantage of modern rendering techniques. Judging from the trailer Riot shared, TheMageseeker looks like it draws inspiration from games like Hyper Light Drifter and Titan Souls. It will arrive this spring on PC and consoles.

Sometime this summer, Riot will then release Convergence: A League of Legends Story. Double Stallion, a Montreal-based studio that’s best known for its work on Speed Brawl, has been working on the game since at least 2019. It stars Ekko, one of the League champions who makes an appearance in Netflix’s Arcane animated series, in a 2D action platformer. This being a game about Ekko, expect to use time manipulation to solve some of the challenges and puzzles Convergence throws at you.

Lastly, there’s Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story. This spinoff comes courtesy of Rime creator Tequila Works and will arrive sometime in the fall. Of the three games that Riot shared release dates for today, Song of Nunu is probably the one I’m most excited to play since Nunu and Willump are such a loveable pair and Tequila Works has a consistent track record. Both Convergence and Song of Nunu will be available to play on PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store when they arrive later this year.

TuneIn is adding a new way for users to discover the more than 100,000 radio stations available to stream on its service. This week, the company – in honor of World Radio Day, which fell on February 13th – began rolling out TuneIn Explorer (via Android Police).

The feature plots everything TuneIn offers on an interactive map allowing you to see where some of the world’s most famous radio stations are based out of. You can access the map by visiting TuneIn’s website on your computer or mobile device. The company has included handy filters along the top of the interface, allowing you to narrow down the stations you see based on genre and language. You can apply multiple filters if you want more specific results. The map also includes a search feature and even displays emergency broadcast stations.

There’s no word yet on when the feature will arrive in the TuneIn app. In the meantime, we can imagine a few fun use cases for the map. You could turn to it if you want to rediscover a radio station from your hometown or as a way to immerse yourself in a language you want to learn.

Starting today, Meta is rolling out a new version of its “Why am I seeing this ad?” tool. The company says the redesigned interface is meant to provide users with more information about how their activities on Facebook and beyond inform the machine learning models that power its ad-matching software. If you’re unfamiliar with the tool, you can access it by clicking or tapping the three dots icon next to an ad on Facebook or Instagram.

Once you have access to the updated tool, you’ll see a summary of the actions on Meta’s platforms and other websites that may have informed the company’s machine-learning models. For instance, the page may note that you’re seeing an ad for a dress or suit because you interacted with style content on Facebook. Users will also see new examples and illustrations that attempt to explain how Meta’s machine learning algorithms work to deliver targeted ads. At the same time, the company says it has made it easier to access its Ads Preferences. You’ll see a link to those settings from more pages accessible through the “Why am I seeing this ad?” tool.

Meta

“We are committed to using machine learning models responsibly. Being transparent about how we use machine learning is essential because it ensures that people are aware that this technology is a part of our ads system and that they know the types of information it is using,” Meta said in a blog post published Tuesday. “By stepping up our transparency around how our machine learning models work to deliver ads, we aim to help people feel more secure and increase our accountability.”

The company notes it worked with “external privacy experts and policy stakeholders” to collect input on how it could be more transparent about its ads system. Meta doesn’t say as much, but the changes likely represent an effort to ensure the company is compliant with the European Union’s Digital Services Act when it becomes law in 2024. The legislation has several provisions that apply directly to Meta, including one that mandates more transparency around how recommendation systems work. The law will also ban ads that target individuals based on their religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or political affiliation.

More broadly, the changes come after Apple’s ad-tracking changes in iOS 14 significantly hurt Meta’s bottom line. One early report after iOS 14.5 went live estimated only four percent of iPhone users in the US opted into app tracking. Since then, Meta has seen revenue growth shrink significantly. More recently, in combination with its virtual and augmented reality spending, Meta saw its first-ever revenue decline in the second quarter of 2022.

BuzzFeed’sAI-powered quizzes have arrived. Starting today, there are six for readers to try. As you can probably imagine, the majority are themed around Valentine’s Day. Want help writing the perfect breakup text? How about a brief synopsis for a romcom starring your favorite actor as you? Those are just a few of the “Infinity Quizzes” BuzzFeed has on offer.

Each works in more or less the same way. You pick the quiz you want to complete and then answer a few questions to give Buzzy the Robot, an algorithm based on OpenAI’s public API, the material it needs to generate a personalized response to your prompts. “It’s like having a really smart coworker that you can bounce ideas off of and collaborate with who is always available and never eats at their desk,” BuzzFeed says of the software.

BuzzFeed

According to the outlet, each quiz was created by a human writer who wrote the framing, headline and questions. The personalized outcomes you see are the result of Buzzy combining the inputs from both the quiz writer and you the reader. “It’s a collaborative effort and we couldn’t do it without all three,” BuzzFeed said. “Human creativity is always at the center of our work, and our quizzes, but with the magic of AI we can now create things that were never possible before, like infinite results personalized just for you.”

The results Buzzy produces are predictably hit-and-miss. I enjoyed the breakup text it produced, but it took a few attempts and a few different quizzes before I got a result that made me chuckle. More than anything, BuzzFeed’s Infinity Quizzes highlight how hard it is to teach humor. However, I will say it’s a better use of the technology than we’ve seen from CNET, which tried and failed to use an AI to write financial explainers.

BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed’s foray into generative AI comes after the company laid off 12 percent of its newsroom this past December. However, it’s far from the only business turning to generative AI to improve its fortunes. In the same week that it came out BuzzFeed had plans to embrace the technology for both editorial and business operations, Microsoft announced a multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI’s text generation systems. The tech giant has since announced it’s working on AI-enhanced versions of Bing and Edge. Whether it's funny or not, generative AI is here to stay. 

Twitter is once again delaying the rollout of its paid API. In a tweet spotted by AppleInsider, the company said Tuesday it needs more time to complete work on the redesign. “As part of our efforts to create an optimal experience for the developer community, we will be delaying the launch of our new API platform by a few more days,” Twitter posted.

When the company first announced it was shutting down its free APIs, Twitter said it would cut access off on February 9th. It later pushed back the cutoff date to February 13th without warning. Elon Musk hasn’t said much about how paid access to Twitter’s APIs could work other than to suggest the company will charge $100 per month and add “ID verification” to limit bot abuse. The company has also said it plans to introduce a free access tier that will allow “good” bots to tweet up to 1,500 times a month.

It’s worth noting that third-party clients and the creators of automated accounts aren’t the only people who use Twitter’s APIs. Researchers frequently use the data the platform generates for a variety of purposes. For instance, in the aftermath of the recent 7.8-magnitude earthquake that has killed at least 36,000 people in Turkey and Syria, members of the Turkish diaspora have used tweets to create heatmaps that show where survivors could be located, with the intention of sharing their findings with rescue crews and aid organizations.

In a recent interview with Time, data scientists and people involved with the rescue effort said Elon Musk’s cost-cutting measures, including the multiple rounds of layoffs he has ordered since taking over the company in October, have slowed their work. The company’s API changes are likely to further impact the rescue effort. “If the API stops, the flow of data will stop and people will have to rely solely on slower ways of coordination for the relief efforts,” Sedat Kapanoglu, one of the software engineers involved in the project, told Time. “That can have life-altering effects. It’s that important.”

One of the Bay Area’s most popular ferry routes is going electric. The Angel Island Ferry is partnering with Pacific Gas and Electric Company to retrofit one of its watercraft, The Angel Island, as an EV. As part of the partnership, PG&E will help install charging infrastructure at the Angel Island ferry terminal and boost electrical transmission to the facility, so that the 59-foot-long Angel Island can carry residents and tourists without polluting the San Francisco Bay. Another company called Green Yachts will carry out the work of retrofitting the ship with an electric propulsion system.

According to PG&E, the electrified Angel Island will be California’s first zero-emissions, short-run ferry once it starts carrying passengers sometime in 2024. California is one of a few places where electric ferries are about to become a more common sight. In Canada, British Columbia’s BCFerries service recently began rolling out battery-hybrid ferries that can carry 47 vehicles between the mainland and outlying islands. Outside of North America, Stockholm, starting this year, plans to trial one of the world’s fastest electric passenger vehicles. The Candela P-12 will carry passengers between the city center and the suburban island of Ekerö.

After far too many delays to count, Dead Island 2 has a new release date once more. This time, however, publisher Deep Silver is pushing the game up by a week. Instead of arriving on April 28th as previously planned, the game will now hit consoles and PC on April 21st. “You asked for it, you got it. Dead Island 2 went gold and it’s coming out a week early,” the company said on Twitter.

Notably, the change of release date means Dead Island 2 won’t land on the same day as Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. The two games were scheduled to hit consoles and PC on the same day after Electronic Arts delayed Respawn’s new game at the end of last month. Deep Silver didn’t say as much, but after years of development hell, the last thing it likely wanted was for Dead Island 2 to compete directly against the big new Star Wars release.

Dead Island 2 was first announced all the way back in 2014. Over that time, it moved to two different studios before re-emerging this past August. The sequel to 2011’s Dead Island will be available on PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC via the Epic Games Store. It will be the first game to feature Amazon’s Alexa Game Control technology.

If you primarily game on PC, there’s a good chance you own more than one component with RGB lighting. You may have even made the mistake of buying RGB parts from different manufacturers. If you just nodded your head, I know your pain. Getting all the lighting in your PC to sync is a nightmare. In a best-case scenario, you sourced all your RGB parts from one company and only need a single, likely buggy app to control them. At worst, you’re forced to use multiple third-party programs in a futile attempt to make everything play nice. And while apps like SignalRGB promise to wrangle all your RGB parts, in my experience, they don’t work as great as advertised. All of that makes the news that Microsoft could be working on a native Windows 11 solution for controlling RGB lighting exciting.

This week, software developer Albacore noticed that the latest Insider build of Windows 11 includes a hidden feature for controlling RGB components. As you can see from the screenshots Albacore shared (via Bleeping Computer), Microsoft has added lighting controls to the personalization menu inside the Windows 11 Settings app. The interface provides an overview of all your RGB components, including external peripherals. Clicking on a part allows you to adjust the brightness and color of its lighting. You can also choose between a handful of different effects and the speed at which they repeat. Microsoft has even included an option to match your computer’s lighting with your Windows accent color.

Microsoft hasn’t officially announced the menu Albacore found as a feature of Windows 11 build 25295. Additionally, Albacore notes, “the spec for this is from 2018 and references to the feature have been around for years.” They suggest that means Microsoft is working on the feature again. For now, don’t get your hopes too high.