The sticky tentacles of capitalism have slithered into a fresh space: TikTok. Shopify and TikTok are rolling out TikTok Shopping, a new tab that business users can add to their profiles, syncing their product catalogues and linking out to their online stores for payment. 

The new tab will be available to Shopify sellers with a TikTok For Business account, and the program is live now as a pilot in the United States and United Kingdom. The beta will open up to some users in Canada over the coming weeks, with additional regions planned in the following months.

In addition to the new tab, Shopify and TikTok are launching product links in the app as well, allowing Shopify merchants to tag items in normal TikTok posts. The tag will send the user directly to the merchant's online store.

For everyday TikTok users, this means you can expect to see more links and opportunities to throw your hard-earned money at social media stars on the app. Truly, this was only a matter of time.

Just ahead of Gamescom's official opening, Microsoft is hosting its latest showcase on Tuesday. You can expect around 90 minutes of news and updates during the event, which starts at 1PM ET.

Microsoft is promising more info about Xbox Game Pass and some of the biggest upcoming Xbox titles, including details about some previously announced games from internal studios and third-party developers. Much of the focus will be on the company's holiday slate, so there's a good chance Xbox will finally reveal the release date for Halo Infinite (even if the game will lack a couple of core game modes at the outset). The event will also include another look at gameplay from Techland's Dying Light 2 Stay Human.

You can watch the Gamescom 2021 Xbox Stream on official Xbox channels on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, or simply watch it via the below embed. Microsoft is broadcasting the event on other platforms elsewhere, including Bilibili in China and VK in Russia. There'll be American Sign Language, German Sign Language and English audio description versions of the stream too. The company is subtitling the event in 30 languages, but not all of those will be available during the live broadcast.

It's worth noting that Xbox will stream the event in 1080p at 60 frames per second. A 4K version will be available on its YouTube channel afterward.

Yamaha is releasing high-end headphones with adaptive audio tech and an eye-catching design to help them stand out in a crowded marketplace. The $499.95 YH-L700A are the latest over-ears to join the exclusive head tracking audio club. Like the Dolby Dimension before them, Yamaha says its new headphones can identify where sound is coming from and re-orientate what you hear on the fly. 

Working in tandem with the 3D audio, the tech aims to deliver an immersive experience that lets you track individual sounds. It all sounds similar to Apple's Spatial Audio or Samsung's rival 360 Audio. Yamaha's feature is called "3D Sound Field" and essentially leans upon its Cinema DSP processing to convert stereo sound into multi-channel audio.

Yamaha

Overall, the headphones tick a number of boxes. There's "advanced" active noise cancelation (ANC) that can be switched on and off. Here, the system uses an algorithm and internal mics to adaptively remove ambient noise from the playback music signal. 

Plus, there are a range of audio modes that you can enable via an accompanying mobile app, which (along with the advanced ANC) are also available on the $350 YH-E700A headphones. They include a "listening optimizer" that can adjust the sound based on how you wear the headphones; "listening care" that promises a fuller range of audio at lower volumes; and "ambient sound" that uses the mics to capture external sounds and present them in the background of your audio. Yamaha claims you'll get an ambitious 34 hours of listening time per charge, though the jury's out on whether that will withstand rigorous testing.

While they retain some features from Yamaha's other headphones, they don't look like company's prior efforts. Yamaha has switched from round to rectangular earcups that can swivel and fold. Like the headband, they're covered in a foamy fabric. The new headphones are out now at select retailers and on the Yamaha store.

Facebook has started testing a feature that gives users a way to place voice and video calls from within the main app itself, according to Bloomberg. Like with any of the social network's experiments, it will only be available to a limited number of accounts. But those who do get access to the test will be able to call friends on the platform without having to fire up the Messenger app. 

As the publication notes, this looks like a move Facebook is exploring to further streamline its services that include Messenger, which became a separate app in 2014, and WhatsApp. Connor Hayes, director of product management at Messenger, told Bloomberg that it's meant to reduce the need to jump back and forth between the company's main app and its Messenger service.

Facebook already has plans to unify its messaging apps. In September 2020, it enabled the ability to chat and send messages between Instagram and Messenger, and the social network previously said that WhatsApp would also get inter-app messaging capabilities. The company tested putting a simpler version of Messenger within the main app last year, as well. That's something the social network been considering since at least 2019 when Jane Manchun Wong found an experimental feature that takes users straight to a "Chats" section when they tap on the messaging icon. Currently, doing so automatically opens the Messenger app. 

Hayes told the publication that Facebook now considers Messenger as a service instead of a standalone app. We may see more of its technologies across the company's other apps in the future — in fact, Instagram, Oculus and Portal devices already use Messenger's technology for voice and video calls. "You’re going to start to see quite a bit more of this over time," he said.

Oculus is rolling out an update to its Quest VR headsets that includes several tweaks and improvements. The highlight is the ability to auto sync your saved photos and video files directly to the Oculus mobile app. That way, you can manage and share those in-game captures when you're outside of the headset. 

The feature can be activated by opening the Files App from your Quest app library and selecting the cloud icon in the top-right corner of the panel. Your saved files will then be available in the the “Synced Media” section under the Devices tab in the mobile app. Oculus says that media will be unsynced and automatically removed from the app after 14 days.

The improvement is the latest aimed at saved media. In the v29 update earlier this year, Oculus introduced a Browser app that let you download and upload files to websites, making the task more seamless than plugging the headset into a PC.

Additional features include the option to gift games directly from the headset — a process that was previously limited to browsers or the Oculus mobile app. You can now also interact with your Facebook and Oculus friends from the People tab in Messenger.

Finally, Oculus is changing up its fitness-oriented Move feature. It's moving to weekly workout goals instead of daily ones, which will be viewable on the redesigned calendar. Keeping the focus on long-term targets, you'll now see revised suggested calorie goals and move minutes. Plus, you'll be able to share your workout stats to Facebook, including Groups, Messenger, and your timeline. 

Starlink has already shipped 100,000 satellite internet terminals before it has even achieved global coverage. SpaceX chief Elon Musk has revealed the figure on Twitter, where he also listed the 14 regions where the service is currently available. "Our license applications are pending in many more countries. Hoping to serve Earth soon!" he said in a follow-up tweet. 

SpaceX launched Starlink as a beta service in late 2020, offering potential testers at the time the chance to be the first ones to it for $99 a month. The terminal itself isn't included in the monthly fee: Starlink sells its starter kit with the user terminal or antenna dish, its stand and power supply, as well as a WiFi router for an additional $499, which customers will have to pay up front. You can see what the terminal looks like in the image above, showing a dish installed on the roof of a school in Chile. 

Starlink was designed to serve customers in remote locations where internet options are typically limited or even non-existent. Perhaps that's why customers are willing to pay the rather steep upfront cost. According to CNBC, the company reported having 90,000 users in July, indicating that it signed up 10,000 more customers within just a few weeks.

The service uses thousands of small satellites in orbit to provide internet connection to its customers. SpaceX already deployed almost 1,800 satellites for the Starlink constellation, but it has plans to launch up to 42,000 small internet satellites in the future. Company president Gwynne Shotwell previously said that Starlink will be able to offer continuous global coverage once all the deployed satellites reach their operational orbit, which could happen as soon as September.

Whether you’re an Android or iOS user, there’s a good chance you look at user reviews and ratings before you decide whether to download an app to your device. In hopes of making those more useful for everyone, Google plans to make two tweaks to the Play Store.

Starting in November, the ratings you see will be based on where you live. So, for example, if your device is registered to Japan, you will first see what other Japanese users think of the app you’re about to download. Then, sometime early next year, Google plans to further tweak Play Store ratings to better reflect the device you’re using, be that a phone, tablet, foldable, Chromebook or smartwatch. “This will give users a better impression of the experience that they can expect for the device they’re using,” the company says of the change.

In part, Google is making these tweaks to help developers. It wants to avoid a situation where ratings in one area impact the global perception of an app. This can happen in cases where a bug only affects one localized version of the software. Of course, that compartmentalization means you can learn of those same bugs before you download an app.

While Panic's pint-sized Playdate handheld won't make its way to early adopters until the end of the year, iFixit got a chance to look inside the device early. "Unfortunately it didn't come with any games, so a teardown was about all it was good for," iFixit said, for those who might be jealous the company got a unit before they did.

Panic

Taking apart the handheld, iFixit found a console with mostly modest internal components. The Playdate has a 180MHz CPU supported by 16MB of memory and 4GB of flash storage. Powering everything is a 2.74 Wh battery with about 25 percent of the capacity of the power cell you'll find inside the iPhone 12.

But what you want to know about is Playdate's signature fold-out crank. According to iFixit, Panic and Teenage Engineering embedded a cylindrical magnet into the shaft of the component. That magnet works in conjunction with a Hull effect sensor to trigger an input from the crank. It's a simple but effective design that should last. "One thing this crank won't do? Drift. There's no wiper or spring or sensor surface to wear out," the company says, referencing the Nintendo Switch's well-known controller issue.

Panic

While it's no Framework laptop, it's clear Panic and Teenage Engineering designed the Playdate with at least one eye toward repairability. A charming sticker iFixit found upon opening the device said "breaking," not removing, the components would void the warranty. Many of the internals most likely to fail first, including the battery and headphone jack, were either modular or easily accessible. Components like the display and USB-C port will be more challenging to replace, but the Playdate looks DIY friendly enough that it could enjoy a modding scene like the Game Boy Advance.

Around 38 million records from north of a thousand web apps that use Microsoft's Power Apps platform were left exposed online, according to researchers. The records are said to have included data from COVID-19 contact tracing efforts, vaccine registrations and employee databases, such as home addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and vaccination status.

Data from some large companies and institutions was exposed in the incident, according to Wired, including American Airlines, Ford, the Indiana Department of Health and New York City public schools. The vulnerability has mostly been resolved.

Researchers from security company Upguard started looking into the issue in May. They found data from many Power Apps that was supposed to be private was available for anyone to access if they knew where to look. 

The Power Apps service aims to make it easy for customers to make their own web and mobile apps. It offers application programming interfaces (APIs) for developers to use with the data they collect. However, Upguard found that using those APIs makes the data obtained through Power Apps public by default, and manual reconfiguration was required to keep the information private.

Upguard says it sent a vulnerability report to the Microsoft Security Resource Center on June 24th, including links to Power Apps accounts on which sensitive data was exposed and steps to identify APIs that enabled anonymous access to data. Researchers worked with Microsoft to clarify how to reproduce the issue. However, an Microsoft analyst told the firm on June 29th that the case was closed and they “determined that this behavior is considered to be by design.”

Upguard then started notifying some of the affected companies and organizations, which moved to lock down their data. It raised an abuse report with Microsoft on July 15th. By July 19th, the company says that most of the data from the Power Apps in question, including the most sensitive information, had been made private. Engadget has contacted Microsoft for comment.

Earlier this month, Microsoft said Power Apps will keep data private by default when developers harness the APIs. In addition, it released a tool for developers to check their Power Apps settings.

There's no indication as yet that any of the exposed data has been compromised. Among the most sensitive information that was left in the open were 332,000 email addresses and Microsoft employee IDs that are used for payroll, according to Upguard. The company also says that more than 39,000 records from portals related to Microsoft Mixed Reality were exposed, including users' names and email addresses.

The incident underscores the fact that a misconfiguration, no matter how seemingly minor, could lead to serious data breaches. That doesn't appear to be the case here, thankfully. Still, it goes to show that developers should probably triple check their settings, especially when plugging in an API they haven't designed themselves.

Lumen is a crowdfunded tracking device which purports to analyze your breath to determine what state your metabolism is in. Now, the company behind it is launching an app for the Apple Watch to make it easier for you to use the hardware when you’re on the go. Users will be able to use the device and then see the results on their wrist, in a way that CTO and co-founder Avi Smila says “seamlessly integrated into daily life.”

The pitch for Lumen is, essentially, to enable you to learn as and when you should be eating and in what quantities. The system can tell you when you should eat, based on your metabolism, and suggests carb servings, meal plans and macros for the day. Should it be a lack of a smartwatch app has held you back from buying a Lumen thus far, you can pick up a unit for as little as $199, plus a monthly subscription of $19 a month.