If you're attached to your Xbox 360 gamerpic but hate how that it looks small and ridiculous on modern consoles, don't change it for a newer one just yet. Microsoft developer Eden Marie has announced that a recent fix for Xbox 360 gamerpics on newer consoles is now rolling out to Insiders, so everyone should get it soon. 

As a reminder, tiny 72x72 pixel Xbox 360 gamerpics were never scaled up on new consoles, so they've grown smaller and smaller and are the wrong shape, to boot. Marie and others engineers originally fixed the issue by scaling the icons to the right size, fitting their square shape into modern round gamerpic (rather than cutting off the corners) and even using transparency for a more seamless appearance.

According to a tweet from Marie, the transparency fix was "walked back a bit due to user feedback that the square images looked too different from normal gamerpics." Rather, the circle is now semi-transparent. It will only show up if you've ever had an Xbox 360 gamerpic, "and if your current gamerpic isn't already your Xbox 360 gamerpic," she said. Once set, any changes you make on an Xbox 360 console will "automatically carry over." 

The fix arrived first to the Xbox Alpha Ring, but has now hit the Insider ring starting with Alpha Skip Ahead users. Pending more feedback and possible changes, it should work its way up the Insider ring levels and arrive to all users in the near future. 

California governor Gavin Newsom has signed AB-701, the bill that aims to regulate warehouse productivity quotas, into law. As The Washington Post notes, that makes California the first state to put a restriction on productivity quotas in warehouses like Amazon's, and it could lead to better conditions for workers. After the law takes effect on January 1st, 2022, companies will be required to have transparency around productivity quotas. They have to disclose those quotas to their workers and provide authorities with a detailed description of the targets workers are expected to meet.

In addition, it will prohibit the use of algorithms that prevent workers from being able to take state-mandated meal and bathroom breaks or force them to do things that aren't in compliance with health and safety laws. Workers can't be fired or retaliated against for failing to meet unsafe quotas, as well. In his office's announcement, Gov. Newson said in a statement:

"We cannot allow corporations to put profit over people. The hardworking warehouse employees who have helped sustain us during these unprecedented times should not have to risk injury or face punishment as a result of exploitative quotas that violate basic health and safety. I'm proud to sign this legislation giving them the dignity, respect and safety they deserve and advancing California's leadership at the forefront of workplace safety."

The bill's proponents had Amazon in mind when they wrote it up. Amazon's warehouse workers previously spoke out about having to urinate in bottles just so they wouldn't have to be disciplined for "idle time." The e-commerce giant also has a massive injury rate, because workers are expected to be able to keep up with the machines they're working with. 

California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, the bill's author, said in a statement:

"This bill is simply about giving workers some basic dignity back and empowering them to keep themselves safe. As workers are increasingly surveilled on the job and supervised by algorithms, AB 701 is just the beginning of our work to regulate dangerous quotas and keep employers that have operated above the law in check."

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, however, previously denied that the company has unreasonable productivity quotas. In a letter to shareholders back in April, he said that employees are "are able to take informal breaks throughout their shifts" and that the company doesn't set "unreasonable performance goals." He added: "We set achievable performance goals that take into account tenure and actual employee performance data."

Starting on September 29th, Samsung will start selling limited quantities of the Thom Browne Edition Galaxy Watch 4 Classic it announced at its recent Unpacked event. The release will mark the first time Samsung has sold a Thom Browne-branded Galaxy Watch separately. Previously, you had to buy the wearable as part of a bundle that included other Galaxy devices.

Each watch comes with interchangeable straps made from leather, rubber and fabric and features rhodium plating. It also includes five custom watch faces. One thing to note about the Thom Browne Edition Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is it will only be available in a 42mm size with Bluetooth connectivity. At $799 for a single watch, you’re paying a hefty premium to get the Thom Browne model over the $250 Galaxy Watch 4 and $350 Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, but that’s how it usually goes with high fashion.

Just a couple of weeks after bringing its “chicken” nuggets to restaurants, Impossible Foods is launching another plant-based product. Its spin on ground pork, the inventively named Impossible Pork, will be on restaurant menus this fall.

If you're in New York, you can try Impossible Pork starting on Thursday. Chef David Chang's Momofuku Ssäm Bar in Manhattan will serve a version of its spicy rice cakes made with Impossible Pork ragu as of tomorrow. Starting on October 4th, more than 100 restaurants in Hong Kong will offer dishes using the ingredient, which will also arrive on some Singapore menus in the coming weeks.

Impossible claims its faux pork is more sustainable than ground pork from pigs. The company says the product uses up to 85 percent less water and as much as 82 percent less land than is needed for typical pork production, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 77 percent. In addition, Impossible claims the ingredient has fewer calories, less fat and more iron than 70/30 USDA ground pork.

We tried Impossible Pork at CES 2020 and found it tasted pretty similar to the real thing. Eateries in the US and Hong Kong can now order the product from major distributors, so you might find it on the menu at your favorite dining spot soon.

Twitter plans to address a longstanding complaint people have had with its mobile app. If you use the software frequently, you may have noticed tweets will sometimes disappear from view just as you’re partway through reading one. You see this happen when your timeline refreshes and it happens most often when there are a lot of people replying to a single tweet.

“We know it’s a frustrating experience, so we’re working on changing it,” the company said, adding that it plans to roll out a variety of updates over the next two months to address the issue. Twitter didn’t detail what those changes will look like but promised they will keep your timeline fresh while preventing tweets from disappearing as you’re reading them.

Twitter has been iterating on new features at an increased clip in recent months. For instance, the company recently said it would begin testing a tool for removing followers sometime this month. Twitter also recently began rolling its Communities feature to users.

Discord has started testing a feature called Watch Together that allows users to create playlists of YouTube videos they can then watch directly on the chat platform. First spotted by The Verge, the feature is only available to friends and family servers at the moment. However, the company reportedly plans to roll it out to the broader Discord community by the end of October. Users can add a video to the server queue either by searching directly through the included interface or pasting a link from YouTube.

Discord didn't have much to say about the test when we reached out to the company. "As a company founded in innovation, we're always experimenting and building things we believe our users will enjoy," a Discord spokesperson told Engadget. "We don't have anything more to share right now, but stay tuned."

However, the integration comes just weeks after YouTube sent cease and desist letters to Groovy Bot and Rythm, two of the most popular tools for playing music from YouTube, Spotify and other streaming services directly over Discord. The move forced both apps to shut down. As The Verge points out, the company tested a feature similar to Watch Together toward the start of the year, but ended up shelving it temporarily before bringing it back this week. The company appears to have reprioritized development on the feature following the shutdown of Groovy Bot and Rythm.

Facebook is about to close an important chapter in its history. CNBCreports the social network's chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, is stepping down from his role after a total 13 years at the company. He'll move to a part-time position as Facebook's first Senior Fellow at some point in 2022. The move will let Schroepfer spend more time with his family and philanthropy, according to the CTO's blog post.

Developing...

What has Steve Ballmer excited now that he can't channel his boundless enthusiasm into Windows developers? Lavatories, apparently. As ZDNetnotes, the former Microsoft chief (and now LA Clippers owner) told The Washington Post and others that he has been obsessed with toilets at the Clippers' upcoming stadium, the Intuit Dome. And yes, Ballmer declared "toilets, toilets, toilets" — when he repeats a word multiple times, you know he's serious.

This doesn't mean the toilets are about to run Windows or flush water in Microsoft colors. Rather, it's that the Intuit Dome will have an NBA-leading ratio of toilets (one for every 27 seats in the upper deck). Ballmer hates waiting in line for the washroom at a sports arena, and that high ratio will make sure you spend more watching the game than doing your business.

It won't surprise you to hear the Clippers used technology to solve that problem, however. The team used a computer model to estimate how long it would take a fan to use the washroom, grab food and return to their seat. That high toilet-to-fan ratio should help you get back in the space of a typical NBA timeout. Don't laugh too loudly about Ballmer's toilet fixation, then, as you might just appreciate it when nature calls in the middle of a playoff game.

There's no shortage of ways to capture YouTube videos on the web. Take your pick of dangerous websites, or just go old-school and record a video of your desktop. Now, YouTube is finally offering a simpler solution for computer users: A download button. As Android Police reports, it's currently available as an experimental feature for Premium subscribers. That's not a huge surprise, as YouTube already offers mobile video downloads for subscribers too. 

Once you've flipped it on, you'll see a download button right next to the share option below videos, or alongside the three dot menu when browsing. After downloading a video, it gets placed in your offline YouTube library. You can choose to grab videos in resolutions from 144p to 1080p — sorry, 4K fanatics. At this point, there doesn't appear to be any size limit, aside from your available storage.

From my quick tests, the feature works as advertised on Safari and Chrome. Personally, it's not something I'd use as often as mobile downloads, but it's a nice option to have for future trips.

Do you pepper your messages with emoji like they're going out of style? You'll now have an easier time ordering food. Uber Eats has introduced searchable pickup maps that lets you find restaurants by typing not only text, but emoji — a single hamburger or sushi roll could be all you need to locate an eatery. This should save time, of course, but it's also helpful if you're traveling to another country and don't know the word for a given dish.

The map itself shows restaurants relative to your location, with symbols that make it clear what kind of food you'll get. You'll know if a pickup is just around the corner, or if it would be smarter to request delivery instead.

 You can find the searchable map in Uber Eats' app and the web. The addition is well-timed — now that the pandemic is (slowly) easing up, you may be more inclined to pick up your food than wait for a courier. If nothing else, this could improve searches for anyone who grew up with emoji and might not be keen on writing whole words.