It seems like Microsoft just can't stop confirming Xbox partnerships this week. On Tuesday, Xbox Cloud Gaming support for Meta Quest 2 and some new Chromebooks was announced. Now, Microsoft has linked up with Apple to finally offer an Apple Music app on Xbox consoles.

As spotted by Eurogamer, you can snag the app on an Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S console by searching for it on consoles, or download it remotely from the Microsoft Store. As with other music apps on Xbox, such as Spotify and Pandora, you can listen to Apple Music in the background while you're gaming. In the Apple Music app, you can watch music videos, follow time-synced lyrics while you listen and create playlists. You'll be able to access curated gaming-focused playlists too.

Although Apple Music has been available on PlayStation 5 for the last year, Xbox users have had to wait until almost two years into the Xbox Series X/S lifecycle for the app. Apple TV, on the other hand, has been available on Xbox consoles since the Series X/S debuted in 2020.

The timing of Apple Music's arrival on Xbox is definitely interesting. It comes just ahead of Microsoft's big Surface event. Perhaps there will be a little more Xbox news to come out of that showcase.

It's Microsoft's turn to host a big fall hardware event and we'll be following it every step of the way. You can keep up with the news as it happens by joining Engadget deputy editors Nathan Ingraham and Cherlynn Low on our livestream, which you can watch below. The event starts at 10AM ET.

On top of that, Senior Editor Devindra Hardawar and Senior Writer Sam Rutherford will offer real-time insight and analysis on our liveblog. Of course, we'll have full, in-depth coverage of the event on Engadget as well.

Unless something completely unexpected happens, Microsoft will have a bunch of Surface devices to show off. We're expecting the company to reveal the Surface Pro 9. Rumors suggest you'll be able to choose between a 12th-gen Intel Core CPU or a custom version of the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 to power it. We're anticipating the Surface Laptop 5 and Surface Studio 3 as well. Perhaps we'll get a peek at the previously teased Project Volterra mini PC and some accessories as well. In any case, you'll get your first look at what's on offer right here:

Roku is expanding beyond home theater setups and into smart home devices. The initial batch of Roku Smart Home products, on which it collaborated with Wyze, includes a smart doorbell, cameras, smart bulbs, smart light strips and smart plugs.

The company didn't reveal specs for the devices in advance, but previous reports suggested they are rebadged versions of Wyze products, including Cam v3, Cam Pan V2 and Bulb Color. The floodlight camera, video doorbell and indoor plug, for instance, look just like Wyze's own offerings.

Roku's versions, however, will tie into its other products and services. You'll be able to use the Roku Voice Remote to bring up live camera feeds on your TV, for instance. Roku says the devices will support third-party voice assistants as well as its own.

Roku

In terms of security, Roku Smart Home devices will support two-factor authentication, user data encryption, secure boot and other features (Wyze came under flak when it emerged the company knew about a camera security flaw for three years). Roku is also offering a camera subscription plan that includes cloud video recording history, package delivery notifications, smart alerts and more.

Wyze products have become popular in part because of their relatively low prices. It doesn't seem like Roku is drifting too far away from that approach. Roku didn't offer a breakdown of pricing, but said its cameras "start below $27."

Roku Smart Home devices are available starting today from the Roku and Walmart websites. They'll also be in Walmart stores starting on October 17th.

Meta has announced several updates to the avatars that it wants you to use in the metaverse and beyond. And hey, the avatars will have legs! At least in the virtual sense, if not the physical or metaphorical ones. 

Meta says "legs have been one of the most requested features on our roadmap, and it’s been a significant area of our focus." These upgraded avatars will initially be available in Horizon Worlds before Meta opens them up to other developers.

On that note, Meta has created a software development kit so the avatars can be used in third-party virtual reality experiences and other apps. This actually makes a lot of sense. Meta will never be able to create a true metaverse by maintaining a walled garden. As such, the SDK will soon include Unreal Engine support for VR and iOS and Android support for Unity. The SDK will also enable what Meta is calling "natural facial expressions" on Meta Quest Pro — the high-end VR headset will be able to replicate your actual facial expressions on your avatar.

Elsewhere, Meta wants to make it easier for you to create an avatar in the first place. It says you'll be able to get started by taking a video selfie with your phone camera. You'll then be able to tweak the avatar to your liking. Of course, if you want to have an avatar that doesn't look like you, there's nothing to really stop you from creating that instead. There are pre-sets you can use as a starting point too.

In addition, you'll soon be able to create and share your Meta avatar in WhatsApp. Avatars will be available on Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp video calls next year as well. They'll replicate your expressions and movements during calls, seemingly in a similar fashion to Animoji.

It's the legs, and better-looking avatars than ones we've previously seen from Meta, that'll capture the most attention, though. In early August, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a screenshot of his avatar from Horizon Worlds and it was widely mocked. One person said it was akin to "a 2002 Nintendo GameCube release called like 'World Baby.'" Zuckerberg swiftly claimed that “major updates” for VR visuals were on the way, and we learned more about those (which were reportedly fast tracked) during Meta Connect today. 

The weird, floating avatars that are currently seen in Horizon Worlds will eventually be a thing of the past. This image will live long in the memory, though:

Meta

You'll eventually have another way to access Xbox Cloud Gaming titles beyond consoles, PCs, tablets and phones. Microsoft is working with Meta to bring the service to the Meta Quest Store, which means it will be available on Meta Quest 2 headsets and perhaps even Meta Quest Pro.

A Game Pass Ultimate subscription is required to use Xbox Cloud Gaming. On Meta Quest 2, you'll be able to play console games from the service on a giant virtual 2D screen, so you won't actually be playing VR versions of them. What's more, you won't need to use the Quest 2 controllers either. You'll have the option to connect an Xbox controller to your Quest 2.  

Microsoft and Meta haven't said exactly when Xbox Cloud Gaming will be available on the headset. However, they hope to share more details soon.

The Department of Labor has issued a proposal that could make it more likely for millions of people to be classified as employees rather than independent contractors. Should the proposal become a formal rule, gig workers (such as Uber and Lyft drivers) would likely gain benefits and protections afforded to employees if they're reclassified. Those may include a minimum wage, overtime, unemployment insurance contributions and their employer paying a share of Social Security taxes, as The New York Times notes.

Last year, the Department of Labor rescinded a Trump-era rule that made it easier for companies to classify gig workers as contractors. However, a federal court in Texas reinstated that rule in March, as Bloomberg notes.

Under the latest proposal, the Department of Labor plans to implement a test to determine if workers should be classed as employees or contractors. Factors such as how much control workers have over how they carry out tasks and how much bandwidth they have to increase their earnings by offering other services would be assessed. Other considerations include whether workers need to buy their own equipment and if their work is critical to a company's business. There would be a lower threshold for requiring employee status than the current test.

Even if the proposal does become a final rule, it wouldn't directly affect the guidelines that states and other federal agencies have for determining employment status. It would have more of a direct impact on laws that the Department of Labor enforces, including the federal minimum wage. However, as the Times points out, many employers, regulators and judges may defer to the agency's criteria on worker classification.

“While independent contractors have an important role in our economy, we have seen in many cases that employers misclassify their employees as independent contractors, particularly among our nation’s most vulnerable workers,” Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said in a statement. “Misclassification deprives workers of their federal labor protections, including their right to be paid their full, legally earned wages. The Department of Labor remains committed to addressing the issue of misclassification.”

Some states have attempted to have gig workers classified as employees, but the likes of Uber and Lyft have fought against such requirements. In 2020, California voted to pass a ballot measure backed by ride-hailing and delivery companies. The passage of Proposition 22 stripped app-based drivers of employee protections by classifying them as independent contractors. A judge ruled last year that Prop. 22 was unconstitutional, but that decision has been appealed.

Google has announced a string of updates for Workspace, including one that may be especially useful for those tasked with recording meeting minutes. Users can already save Google Meet calls as video files and they'll soon get an automatic transcription of their meetings too. You'll be able to receive a transcript in a Google Doc. This feature will be available in English starting this week. Support for French, German, Spanish and Portuguese is coming next year. This follows an expansion of live translated captions for those languages.

Later this month, Google will roll out a Meet feature that will automatically center meeting participants in the frame of their video tile before they join a call. You'll be able to reframe yourself manually at any time.

Google

Looking further ahead, Google revealed two other useful Meet features that will arrive in early 2023. One called "meeting room check-in" will let everyone see a list of all participants, which seems like an overdue update. It will also show the names of multiple people who are joining a call from the same physical conference room.

Meanwhile, the second-screen Companion Mode feature is moving beyond the web, Nest Hub Max and Meet-dedicated hardware to mobile. You'll be able to virtually raise your hand, chat and ask questions from your phone while you're on a call on your computer or tablet.

Elsewhere, Google will support inline threaded conversations in Google Chat starting later this month. It will try to take on the likes of Slack on another front by offering custom emoji later this year.

There are Prime Day deals flying around for just about everything under the sun (well, as long as it's on Amazon). If you're on the lookout for a solid deal on budget-friendly headphones in particular, consider Audio-Technica's ATH-M20xBT. Sure, the name might not easily roll off the tongue, but they were already solid value before they dropped to an all-time-low price for Prime Day. You can now pick up a set for $59, which is $20 off the regular price.

These are our favorite budget wireless headphones on the market right now. They have physical controls and Bluetooth multipoint connectivity, which enables you to link them to more than one device simultaneously (say, a laptop and a phone). There's also a wired connection option.

The headphones have 40mm drivers designed to bolster low frequency performance. A low-latency mode should help to make sure audio and video are synced, which could prove useful for gaming.

You'll get up to 60 hours of battery life on a single charge, so, given that they're pretty comfortable, you might end up wearing them all day. If you need to, you can top up the battery with up to three hours of listening time after just 10 minutes of charging.

On the downside, there's no active noise cancellation. You won't be able to fold these up, either. If you can live with those tradeoffs, though, it's certainly worth considering the M20xBT as a budget-conscious set of headphones for yourself or even as a stocking stuffer for someone else.

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For our money, Sony's WH-1000XM5 is the best set of wireless headphones on the market right now. They're absolutely worth considering if you're in need of a new set of cans or simply want an upgrade from what you're already rocking. Now might be the right time to take the leap, as the WH-1000XM5 is on sale for Prime Day. The headphones are currently $348, which is $50 off the regular price.

The WH-1000XM5 offers almost across-the-board improvements over the WH-1000XM4, our previous favorite headphones. An overdue redesign makes this model more comfortable than its predecessors, thanks to improved weight distribution and synthetic leather ear cups.

These headphones have new 30mm carbon fiber drivers, which we felt deliver punchier bass than the M4. In fact, the all-round sound quality is more refined, save for occasional skips while connected to a MacBook Pro — which may be a Bluetooth issue. Bolstered by eight active noise cancellation microphones, double the number found in the M4, the M5's ANC is better at minimizing background noise too. Speaking of mics, we found that the M5 offers the best call quality yet from the 1000X series.

Sony claims you'll get up to 30 hours of listening time from a single charge, and that's with ANC enabled. Our only major gripe with the M5 headphones is that they're typically $50 more expensive than the M4's regular price of $348. At least during the Prime Day sale, that's no longer an issue.

Apple's second-gen AirPods Pro haven't even been available for a month and you can still already find a deal on them. The price has dropped a bit as part of Amazon's major Prime Day sale. You'll be able to pick up a pair of the new AirPods Pro for $235, which is $14 off the regular price. Sure, that's not the steepest discount ever, but it's the lowest price we've seen for the earbuds to date.

We gave the latest AirPods Pro a score of 88 in our review, an improvement over the 87 we gave to the first-gen set. While the design is ostensibly the same, Apple made some upgrades to the internals (including the introduction of an H2 chip), as well as one on the outside. Its latest higher-end earbuds have swipe controls. However, we found them somewhat finicky and had to steady the stem with a thumb in order to control the volume by swiping. The second-gen AirPods Pro also offer so-so battery life (six hours with active noise cancellation enabled and seven hours with it off) and we had mixed results with the Personalized Spatial Audio feature, with a sound profile that was too treble-focused.

Overall, though, we felt that the second-gen AirPods Pro are a solid upgrade over the first-edition earbuds. Apple has improved the sound quality (including for SharePlay audio) and it offers the best transparency mode in any earbuds. The new AirPods Pro deliver solid ANC performance as well. On top of that, the ability to seamlessly switch from one Apple device to another is handy for those who are entrenched in the company's ecosystem.

As for the charging case, that now has a speaker, which should make it easier for people to pinpoint its location if they've misplaced it (having a U1 chip to locate it with Find My helps too). The case is IPX4 rated, like the earbuds, and it has a lanyard loop — though you'll need to buy a lanyard separately.

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