In the big Nintendo Direct presentation yesterday, we learned of two of the four Xbox titles Microsoft said would appear on “the other consoles.” One of them is Pentiment, coming to Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PS5, well, today.

Microsoft

The critically acclaimed Pentiment has been an Xbox, PC and Xbox Cloud exclusive since launch in late 2022. It has an eye-catching animated historical art style — and is delightfully niche. The game’s director, Josh Sawyer, said creating and launching a game like this would never have been possible without Game Pass, which, as Kris Holt notes, makes it an unusual pick to be transferred to other platforms. Xbox boss Phil Spencer said earlier this month the titles hopping platforms had all been on Xbox and PC for at least a year and had hit their “full potential” on those platforms.

The other game coming to other consoles is Grounded — pretty much Honey I Shrunk the Kids, the game — and will land April 16. Microsoft also later confirmed that Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves are coming to PlayStation 5.

— Mat Smith

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Watch the first Borderlands movie trailer

It stars Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart and Jack Black.

YouTube

There’s a Borderlands movie coming out, and we have our very first teaser trailer. This footage gives us a glimpse of all of the major characters. Cate Blanchett is taking a nice fat paycheck starring as the famously short-tempered Lilith, who’s searching for a mysterious vault. Comedian Kevin Hart portrays the mercenary Roland, and Jamie Lee Curtis plays the scientist Dr. Tannis, who featured in all three games. Also, you can’t have a video game adaptation without Jack Black, it seems.

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Apple Sports puts real-time scores on your iPhone lockscreen

It’s a smoother way to follow your favorite teams.

Apple

Apple has launched a new iPhone app, offering real-time stats for a number of major sports leagues. Once you’ve installed Apple Sports, you can set your favorite team and get a trove of data on your lock screen in the live activities box when the team is playing. The app is free and available in the US, UK and Canada for basketball, hockey and soccer. The company said other sports, including baseball and football, will debut when new seasons kick off.

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FTC concludes Twitter didn’t violate data security rules, in spite of Musk’s orders

Staff disregarded Musk’s directive to provide outsiders with “full access to everything.”

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concluded Elon Musk ordered Twitter (now X) employees to take actions that would have violated FTC rules on consumer data privacy and security. Twitter security employees “took appropriate measures to protect consumers’ private information,” likely sparing Musk’s company from government repercussions. FTC chair Lina Khan wrote: “Ultimately, the third-party individuals did not receive direct access to Twitter’s systems, but instead worked with other company employees who accessed the systems on the individuals’ behalf.”

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After teasing it for the past couple of weeks, Google is rolling out a new sign-in page with a slightly cleaner design. The changes are small and don't affect functionality, but it's something that users encounter often, and Google has been using the previous version since it changed its logo, as far as I can see. 

The refresh puts the sign-in (and sign-up) page more in line with the company's Material Design ethic introduced back in 2014. To that end, it's now aligned left (instead of centered) and features an orientation that automatically adjusts to your screen's size — so it's wider on PC screens and narrower on smartphones. It shows up on all types of devices, but may not appear on older browsers, the company said. 

The biggest previous change Google made to its sign-in page was putting password entry onto a second page back in 2015. That update was made "in preparation for future authentication solutions that complement passwords," and to reduce confusion among people who have multiple Google accounts, it said at the time. 

Google emphasized that the change will be permanent, much like the switch to Gmail's integrated view. The rollout will be fairly gradual, starting on February 21 and set for completion by March 4, 2024.

You don't have to type in your password every time you log into your PlayStation account anymore. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has launched passkey support for PlayStation accounts, which means you can simply sign in through your mobile device or computer and use its screen unlocking method to log in. If you use a PIN, your fingerprint or your face to unlock your phone, for instance, that's also how you'll be able to get into your PlayStation account. On desktop, we were easily able to link our account with 1Password and use its passkey capability. 

In its official page for the update, the company touches on the benefits of using passkeys, such as reducing account vulnerability. Passkeys can't be reused or given away, whether it's inadvertently or on purpose as SIE explains, making them resistant to phishing and data breaches. 

To set up a passkey, you simply have to go to Security under Account Management. There, you can activate the option and create a passkey by following the on-screen instructions. The company warns that some hardware security keys could cause issues, and it might be better to use synced passkeys on mobile devices instead. It also cautions against the use of mobile PIN codes as passkeys on Android and recommends iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager, 1Password and Dashlane as a passkey provider. After setting up the option, you'll be prompted to use your passkey whenever you need to sign in on a PlayStation 5 or a PlayStation 4 console. You can deactivate the option anytime, though, if you want to go back to signing in with a password.

Intel's relatively new Foundry division — formerly known as Intel Foundry Services until earlier today — has just landed a notable order from a big name. According to Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that his company will be tapping into Intel's latest 18A (1.8nm) fabrication process for an upcoming in-house chip design. But given Intel's process roadmap, this means we likely won't be seeing Microsoft's new chip until 2025.

While neither company disclosed the nature of said silicon, Microsoft did unveil its custom-made Azure Maia AI Accelerator and Azure Cobalt 100 CPU server chips last November, with an expected rollout some time "early" this year to bolster its own AI services. The Cobalt 100 is based on Arm architecture, and it just so happens that Intel has been optimizing its 18A process for Arm designs since April last year (it even became an Arm investor later), so there's a good chance that this collaboration may lead to the next-gen Cobalt CPU.

In addition to the usual efficiency improvements as node size decreases, Intel 18A also offers "the industry's first backside power solution" which, according to IEEE's Spectrum, separates the power interconnect layer from the data interconnect layer at the top, and moves it to beneath the silicon substrate. This allows for improved voltage regulation and lower resistance, which in turn enable faster logic and lower power consumption, especially when applied to 3D stacking.

In Intel's Q4 earnings call, CEO Pat Gelsinger confirmed that "18A is expected to achieve manufacturing readiness in second half '24." Given that Intel's very own 18A-based processors won't arrive until 2025, chances are it'll be a similar time frame for Microsoft's next chip.

Intel

At Intel's event earlier today, the exec shared an extended Intel Foundry process technology roadmap, which features a new 14A (1.4nm) node enabled by ASML's "High-NA EUV" (high-numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet) lithography system. According to AnandTech, this 14A leap may help Intel play catchup after its late EUV adoption for its Intel 4 (7nm) node, though risk production won't take place until the end of 2026.

Intel Foundry is the brainchild of Gelsinger, who launched this department right after he assumed the CEO role in February 2021, as part of his ambitious plan to put Intel up against the likes of TSMC and Samsung in the contract chip-making market. Before Microsoft, Intel Foundry's list of clients already include MediaTek, Qualcomm and Amazon. The company still aims to become "the second largest external foundry by 2030" in terms of manufacturing revenue, which it believes is achievable as early as this year.

Samsung said Wednesday that the Galaxy S24’s AI features will arrive on last year’s phones (including foldables) and tablets in late March. In January, Engadget’s Sam Rutherford reported that the AI suite would soon be available on the Galaxy S23 series, Z Fold 5, Z Flip 5 and Tab S9. Today’s announcement makes that device list official while adding the more specific arrival window of late March 2024.

That group of 2023 devices will receive a software update next month with the AI features from the S24 series. Those include communication-based AI tricks like Chat Assist (adjusts message tone and translates messages), Live Translate (real-time voice and text translations) and Interpreter (split-screen translation for in-person conversations).

They’ll also get the productivity-based AI features Circle to Search (search for anything on your screen by drawing a ring around it), Note Assist (formatting, summaries and translations of notes), Browsing Assist (summaries of news articles) and Transcript Assist (transcribe and summarize meeting recordings).

Finally, image-based AI features coming to those devices include Generative Edit (reframe shots, move subjects around or delete and replace them), Edit Suggestion (recommended image tweaks), and Instant Slow-Mo (generate extra frames to transform a standard video into a slow-motion one).

Photo by Sam Rutherford / Engadget

The full list of devices receiving the update starting in March includes the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23+, Galaxy S23 Ultra, Galaxy S23 FE, Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Tab S9. But Samsung says you can expect more devices to join them later. “This is only the beginning of Galaxy AI, as we plan to bring the experience to over 100 million Galaxy users within 2024 and continue to innovate ways to harness the unlimited possibilities of mobile AI,” Samsung President TM Roh wrote in a press release.

We were mostly impressed with the AI features in our Galaxy S24 Ultra review. “While harnessing AI might not be a super exciting development now that everyone and their grandmother is trying to shoehorn it into everything, it does make the S24 Ultra a more powerful and well-rounded handset,” Engadget’s Sam Rutherford wrote in January.

Although he noticed a few hiccups in the AI tools at launch, he found most of them to be a genuinely helpful complement to the phone’s high-end hardware. “Samsung finally has an answer to the sophisticated features that were previously only available from the Pixel family,” he wrote. “Sure, the S24’s tools aren’t quite as polished as Google’s offerings, but they get you 80 to 90 percent of the way there.”

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday issued a safety communication warning people to stay way from smartwatches and smart rings that claim to measure blood sugar levels without pricking the skin. “The FDA has not authorized, cleared, or approved any smartwatch or smart ring that is intended to measure or estimate blood glucose values on its own,” the agency wrote in the communication, and asked consumers, patients, and caregivers to stay away from such devices.

Non invasive blood sugar monitoring isn’t currently possible on any consumer device Popular wearables like the Apple Watch and the Oura ring can, instead, pair with FDA-authorized wearable devices like the Dexcom G7, which uses needles to read your blood sugar levels. Getting a smartwatch or a smart ring to monitor blood sugar levels without penetrating the skin would represent a huge medical advance, allowing people with diabetes, for instance, to stop pricking themselves each day, and alerting pre-diabetics.

Both Apple and Samsung have reportedly been working on the tech for years. Last year, Bloomberg reported that Apple’s no-prick monitoring was at a “proof-of-concept stage” and could come to the market once the company managed to figure out how to shrink its size. Apple has been working on the project since 2010, although it will likely still be years before the technology is small enough to be built into the Apple Watch. Samsung, too, is exploring ways to build the technology into the Galaxy Ring, a product that the company recently announced.

Until that time, be skeptical of any device that claims to do this right now. Current smartwatches and smart rings “do not directly test blood glucose levels,” the FDA writes. If you spot any company selling a device with these claims, you can report it to the FDA through the agency’s MedWatch Voluntary Reporting Form.

One of the worst-kept secrets in gaming is now official. Former Xbox exclusive Hi-Fi Rush is coming to PS5 on March 19. Many expected the announcement to come during Wednesday's Nintendo Direct, which focused on third-party games, but Bethesda confirmed the news a few hours later. 

It emerged during the Direct that Pentiment and Grounded were Switch-bound. Both titles are also coming to PS4 and PS5 on February 22 and April 16, respectively. Grounded will have cross-play support between Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC.   

Meanwhile, Microsoft revealed that the fourth game making the jump to other platforms is Sea of Thieves, which is coming to PS5 on April 30. It will support cross-play between PS5, Xbox and PC.

Hi-Fi Rush debuted in early 2023 when Microsoft announced and released the game on Xbox and PC on the same day. The rhythm-based beat-'em-up quickly found a fan base in large part thanks to its killer visuals and soundtrack — the fact it was immediately available on Game Pass at no extra cost helped too. 

The PS5 version will include all content, including the two extra modes from the Arcade Challenge update. A digital deluxe edition will include more cosmetics and grant you additional Gears to splurge on upgrades.

Microsoft is looking to improve the bottom line of its gaming division. In recent months, the company has carried out mass layoffs and folded in Activision Blizzard revenue to help it do that.

Perhaps in line with that strategy, Xbox leaders recently confirmed rumors that they were going to release some more first party games on "the other consoles." They revealed earlier this month that four games would cross the great divide but declined to mention their titles, other than to confirm Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle would not be among them. 

The four games have all been out on Xbox and PC for at least a year and have reached their "full potential" on those platforms, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said. Two (Grounded and Sea of Thieves) are community-driven/multiplayer games. The others are "smaller games that were never really meant to be built as kind of platform exclusives." Hi-Fi Rush fits in the latter category, given that it was in development long before Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, the parent of both studio Tango Gameworks and publisher Bethesda Softworks. 

We often recommend Logitech gear in our guides and right now, a number of the brand's keyboards, webcams and mice are discounted up to 25 percent. The sale puts the Pebble 2 Combo keyboard and mouse at $50, which is $10 off and matches its all time low. You can get the deal from Amazon or directly from Logitech. The Pebble mouse is the newer model of a recommendation in our guide to productivity mice and the keyboard is the next generation of a callout from our MacBook accessories article. Both Bluetooth accessories are compact, portable and quickly swap between devices with a button press. Plus this new generation is made from around 50 percent recycled plastic. 

Elsewhere in the Logitech sale, the Brio 301 webcam is down to $45, which is a 25 percent discount and matches the low it hit a few times over the past few months. We named it a less-expensive alternative to our overall pick in our guide to webcams. It shoots 1080p video, has a noise cancelling mic and uses auto light correction to make up for a dimly lit room. It doesn't support HDR or have an adjustable field of view, but at just $45, it offers a lot of features at a low price. 

The Signature M650 mouse, which we recommend in our gift guide, is down to $35 (instead of the $40 list price) for a few different configurations, including a left-handed version. Logitech is running the same sale price. The mouse is lightweight, made from recycled materials, and has a SmartWheel that lets you swap between precision and super fast scrolling, depending on what you're working on. And it'll run for two years on a single AA battery.  

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Google doesn't have the best track record for naming its products, especially when it comes to messaging and video chat apps, and it looks like that trend is continuing into its AI apps. After announcing its new lightweight AI model Gemma earlier today, Google is also revealing that its Duet AI for enterprises using Workspace has also been rebranded to Gemini. If you'll recall, that's the next-generation AI model Google announced late last year, a name which also ended up being used for its Bard AI chatbot too. What's next, an AI model for smartwatches called Gem?

Businesses will have two Gemini for Workspace plans to choose from: Gemini Business, a new option for $20 a month that's available to organizations of all sizes, and Gemini Enterprise, a $30 a month offering for larger companies and "heavy uses of generative AI." Just like before, consumers will also have access to the AI features in Workspace apps by subscribing to a Google One AI Premium plan, which starts at $20 a month.

Consumers and businesses subscribed to these plans will also be able to use the Gemini chat experience at gemini.google.com. The company says it has "enterprise-grade data protections" and copyright indemnification, so it won't use your conversations for ads, AI training or data sharing. "By leveraging Gemini 1.0 Ultra, one of our largest AI models, we are able to provide insighul and expert responses to help people at work," Aparna Pappu, General Manager and Vice President of Google Workspace, said in a blog post. "Now, diverse teams in SMBs to large enterprises can use Gemini in more sophisticated ways with confidence that their interactions can be kept private."

Apple has today announced Sports, a new iPhone app offering real-time stats for a number of major leagues. Once installed, users can set their favorite team and get a trove of data on their lock screen in the live activities box when the team is playing. Available free from today in the US, Canada and the UK, the app presently supports Basketball, Hockey and Soccer Football. The company added that other sports, including Baseball and American Football will debut for their upcoming seasons.

There are plenty of reasons you might not be able to watch your team of choice play live. You may have a prior engagement, the game may not be televised, or Todd Boehly has done so much damage to the club you can’t bear to look at it any more. In those situations, push alerts from major sports apps has been a lifeline, but it’s not always entirely reliable.

Now, it has been possible to get this working since iOS 16, if you fancied messing around in the depths of the Apple TV app. And some third-party platforms, like MLB’s homegrown app, would put this data in your lock screen or Dynamic Island. But Apple says that its own setup offers a “simple and fast way to stay up to speed on the teams and leagues they love.” The setup will also sync up with any sports preferences already stored in the Apple TV or Apple News apps.

Of more concern is that Sports will also offer up live betting odds for the games as they’re in play. It’s worth noting it will be possible to deactivate the live odds feature in settings, but it seems like it would have been smarter and less potentially harmful to make that opt-in, rather than opt-out.

Apple Sports is available to download right now, with support for English, while French and Spanish are supported where available.