Microsoft Xbox Game Pass gives unlimited access to over 100 games, debuts in Spring 2017

Ahead of Microsoft’s holiday launch of its “most powerful console ever,” Xbox gamers are in for a treat. There will be a new gaming subscription service called Xbox Game Pass. For $9.99 a month, it’ll give you access to over 100 Xbox One and backward-compatible Xbox 360 games with titles including Halo 5: Guardians, Payday 2, NBA 2K16, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, and Tekken Tag 2, to name a few. The service allows for better discovery of new games and if you want to make the title yours, Xbox Game Pass members gain access to exclusive discounts from the catalog. Microsoft plans to cycle games in and out of the service for a constantly-updating library of games.

The service will be rolling out to the broader Xbox community in the spring. But at the moment select members of the Xbox Insider Program will get an Alpha Preview of it. There will only be around 20 titles there and expect it to be buggy, as this preview program is meant to work out the kinks in the service.

New drone footage shows what Apple Park now looks like

Following the announcement that the new Apple campus will be named the Apple Park, a new 4K drone video from Matthew Roberts shows the progress that has been done to the campus as official move-in date approaches. Solar panel installation on the parking garages have been completed. There are also more solar panels on the main circular building but it isn’t fully complete yet. Landscaping efforts are also on the way with more trees showing up above the underground tunnel. The two-mile walkway is also now more visible. The video also shows a fitness center and the progress with the large courtyard within the main building. Over 12,000 employees will be working at Apple Park and that includes the company’s CEO Tim Cook.

Source: MacRumors

Mozilla buys ‘read-it-later’ service Pocket

Mozilla, the team behind the Firefox web browser, has made its first acquisition. The company has bought Pocket, a read-it-later service, for an undisclosed amount. Pocket will operate as an independent subsidiary of Mozilla and is said to help bring the company to more mobile devices. It’s not exactly clear how that will help but Pocket does bring with it 10 million monthly active users and new potential businesses for Mozilla, such as advertising, analytics for publishers, and premium subscription service. The acquisition is like a homecoming for Pocket as it started out as a Firefox add-on.

Pocket previously rejected an offer from Evernote after it became apparent to them that their service would just be a feature inside the bigger company’s app. But it seems with Mozilla, they can remain a standalone service. According to Mozilla, over time Pocket can help them with its “content graph” initiative, which is the company’s effort to create a recommendation engine for the web and baked into the browser.

Source: Pocket + The Verge

Porsche Design outs Surface Book competitor

Looking for a stylish, premium Surface Book competitor? Porsche Design outs a new 2-in-1 at Mobile World Congress that bears a lot of similarities to Microsoft’s own 2-in-1. It comes with its own digital stylus that you can stick to the right side of the device magnetically. It’s detachable like the Surface Book. But unlike it, the screen on the Porsche Design Book One can rotate 360 degrees.

This device has a 13.3-inch touch QHD display and runs on an Intel Core i7 processor, Windows 10 Pro, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD storage. It comes with a 5-megapixel camera with an infrared sensor to support Windows Hello login. It has two USB-C ports, two USB 3.0 ports, and a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3 support. The Book One also comes with a precision touchpad and backlit keyboard. It’ll set you back a hefty US$2,495 (around CA$3,300) and is expected  come to the US in April.

Source: The Verge