Microsoft’s Xbox app now lets you install PC games to any folder

The new Xbox app update is available now. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is finally allowing games from the Windows store to be installed to any folder that can be accessed freely. The software giant started testing this functionality last year, and it’s now rolling out in the Xbox all for all Windows 10 and Windows 11 users today.

This will greatly improve the game install process from the Windows store, allowing PC gamers to install titles into any folder of their choice with unrestricted access to game files. It should address the many headaches of installing games from PC Game Pass, and Windows users should be able to backup game files and restore them in the future.

The new install features on the Xbox app.

Microsoft previously forced Windows users to install PC games from...

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The internet is a force multiplier for Ukraine

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Photography by Sergei Guneyev / Getty Images

But how much will it matter?

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Microsoft Flight Simulator can now run on Xbox One thanks to Xbox Cloud Gaming

Microsoft Flight Simulator is launching on Xbox Cloud Gaming today, allowing Xbox One owners to access the game for the first time. The Xbox Series X / S exclusive was previously only playable on the latest Xbox consoles, but you can now play Microsoft Flight Simulator through a web browser, on Android and iOS devices, and on Xbox One consoles.

Microsoft Flight Simulator first launched on PC in 2020, before arriving on Xbox Series X / S nearly a year later. It was missing from the Xbox Cloud Gaming part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and is now available in the cloud thanks to Xbox Series X hardware upgrades that Microsoft has made to its datacenters. Before the upgrades, Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) was powered by Xbox One S consoles, and the...

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Microsoft’s Surface Headphones 2 have dropped to their lowest price in months

Microsoft’s Surface Headphones 2 are selling for their second-best price to date at Amazon.

A good pair of noise-canceling headphones can be useful when you need to tune out the world around you, especially if you need to multitask or are on a deadline. That’s why today’s deal on Microsoft’s Surface Headphones 2, currently one of the best pairs of noise-canceling headphones you can buy, is a standout.

Right now, multitaskers on the market for a solid set of headphones can pick up the gray model at Amazon for $225.50 instead of $249.99. That’s not as low as their sale price during Black Friday, but it’s the lowest price we’ve seen on the headphones since and their second-best price to date. If you prefer the matte-black model, you can pick them up for just a few bucks more at Target for $229.99.

Boasting excellent multipoint...

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This smart mosquito system works with Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant to keep biting bugs at bay

Thermacell’s new Liv smart mosquito repellent system runs on-demand, taking about 15 minutes to form an invisible dome of protection around your patio. | Image: Thermacell

When the snow melts and the flowers start to bloom, biting, buzzing mosquitos appear out of nowhere. Tackling these bloodsuckers is no easy task. While covering up and dousing yourself in bug spray or blanketing your garden in pesticides may work, it's not always the nicest experience nor the most environmentally friendly.

Thermacell, makers of a mosquito repellent that creates a zone of protection around you rather than you having to cover every inch of your skin, has an intriguing solution: the Liv Smart Mosquito Repellent System.

Launching today, Liv is Thermacell’s first connected, on-demand mosquito repellent system for the home. Starting at $699 for a three-repeller kit plus a hub, the app-controlled system should protect about...

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Razor updates its iconic kick scooters with electric motors and powerful batteries

Photo: Razor

Razor, the company that helped kick off the scooter craze over two decades ago, announced new, electrified versions of its classic kick scooter models. And this time, they’re built for adults.

Razor is launching a Kickstarter campaign for the new scooters, with the first models scheduled to start shipping in August 2022. The scooters, modeled on the company’s iconic kick scooters originally built for kids, will come in five different colors: orange, blue, red, pink, and black. And thanks to powerful 350W motors, these scooters will go a little faster than those that rely solely on leg muscles.

Razor is looking to tap into Gen Z’s nostalgia for the simpler times of their childhood with their marketing pitch for these new, electrified...

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Amazon Luna launches for anyone in the US, adds free games for Prime members and Twitch integration

Amazon Luna — the company’s cloud-based game streaming service — is officially launching in the US today for anyone to use, in addition to adding a variety of new features, including free games for Amazon Prime members.

Luna was announced in fall 2020, but since then, it has only been available to a limited number of customers through an invite-only “early access” program. Today’s launch, however, finally opens up the service for anyone to use in the United States, which could significantly expand the number of Luna customers.

Alongside the broader launch, Amazon also announced three additional “channels” (Luna’s term for bundles of games that customers can subscribe to on a monthly basis, similar to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass) that...

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Mobvoi says its newest fitness tracker is the first to track arterial health

The Mobvoi TicWatch GTH Pro claims to measure long-term heart health. | Image: Mobvoi

While smartwatches have generally opted to measure heart health through EKGs, Mobvoi announced today it’s taking a different tack. The company claims its latest fitness tracker, the TicWatch GTH Pro, can measure a person’s long-term arterial health.

The watch was developed over two years in partnership with global health tech firm Cardie X. According to Mobvoi, the $99 TicWatch GTH Pro introduces a new “Arty Heart Health” analytics platform that noninvasively measures central arterial waveforms. It’s essentially measuring the strength of your pulse to deliver insights about your heart health. While the watch does not measure your blood pressure, the platform is based on tech that measures central and brachial blood pressure data. Experts...

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Samsung’s Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus are the default Android phones to buy

The high-end Android phone of choice in 2022 — just go easy on the battery

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Uber adds new ways to buy concert tickets and book restaurants in its app

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Uber introduced a new app feature called “Explore” that allows customers to buy concert tickets, book restaurant reservations, and get discounted rides to popular destinations. It’s the latest attempt by the ride-share company to turn its app into more of a lifestyle product.

Uber has always had aspirations outside of just being a taxi broker. But as the company shifts more into food and grocery delivery, it can be hard to remember its roots as a product used by people to move around cities. Now, Uber wants to remind its customers of that legacy, while also bringing more Yelp-style features into its app.

Starting March 1st, Uber customers in over a dozen North American cities will see the new Explore tab when they open the app. Tapping...

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Watch Valve’s Gabe Newell deliver Steam Decks to mostly confused customers

Newell personally handing an early Steam Deck to a customer. | Screenshot: Valve

One of my favorite things about famous game developers is how hyper-specific their fame is. So naturally I was delighted to see a promotional video put out by Valve showing its co-founder and president Gabe Newell — one of the most famous game developers in the world — confusing the heck out of some members of the public by hand-delivering Steam Decks in person.

To be fair, a handful of recipients immediately recognize a face-masked Newell when he shows up at their doorstep with a Steam Deck in hand. But in a lot of other cases the deliveries are accepted on behalf of other members of the household. “What’s with the camera crew?” the confused wife of a man on a ski trip asks, while another politely checks whether they need to sign...

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YouTube blocks Russian news channels RT and Sputnik

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube has blocked Russian news channels RT and Sputnik across Europe in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Alphabet-owned company confirmed the news on Twitter, saying it would “take time for our systems to fully ramp up” and that it would continue to “monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action.”

It’s the latest example of internet platforms blocking Russian media outlets in response to the war. Yesterday, Meta blocked _RT_and Sputnik on both Instagram and Facebook after receiving requests to do so from a number of governments in the EU. TikTok also banned the two channels. YouTube had already stopped these outlets from generating revenue on its platform via advertising and restricted access to these channels...

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Amazon opens first Whole Foods equipped with cashierless technology

Dozens of cameras suspended from the store’s ceiling track customers and their purchases. | Image: Amazon

Amazon has brought its cashierless Just Walk Out technology to a Whole Foods store for the first time, allowing customers to shop and leave the store with their items without having to interact with any kind of cashier. The revamped store opened on February 23rd in Washington, DC’s Glover Park neighborhood, where there’s been a Whole Foods store for over 20 years.

Although Amazon has been operating cashierless grocery stores in increasinglylarge Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh-branded stores, this is the first time it’s bringing the technology to a Whole Foods store. Amazon bought the grocery chain for $13.7 billion in 2017, but until now the brand’s integration with Amazon has been more minimal, consisting of discounts and free delivery...

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Honor’s Earbuds 3 Pro come with built-in temperature monitoring

Image: Honor

Along with its 100W charging-capable Magic 4 phone, Honor has announced new Earbuds 3 Pro that include built-in temperature monitoring technology. According to Honor, this technology is an industry first, that owners can experience once the €199 buds are released.

Temperature monitoring, among other signals, has become especially important to tracking someone’s health during the pandemic, and checking your temperature at home using infrared ear thermometers is already widely available. Wearables incorporating temperature monitoring sounds like something that isn’t far off, and the idea even reportedly caught Apple’s eye while developing updates to its AirPods.

Image: Honor

Wearers can tap the buds three times to...

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Instagram says it’ll stop supporting the IGTV app

RIP, IGTV. | Image: Instagram

Instagram has announced that it will no longer be supporting the separate IGTV app, saying in a blog post that it will instead focus on keeping all video in the main Instagram app (via TechCrunch). While the writing’s been on the wall for Instagram’s YouTube competitor for a while, the official shutdown announcement marks the end of an era for one of Instagram’s forays into video.

In its post, Instagram says that it’s getting rid of the standalone IGTV app as “part of [its] efforts to make video as simple as possible to discover and create.” The post also says that any videos in the main app will have a full-screen viewer and tap-to-mute, and that Instagram is working on a consistent way to share the different types of videos (such as...

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Facebook blocks RT and Sputnik pages in the EU

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has blocked Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik across the European Union, the company said Monday. The change means that the RT and Sputnik pages aren’t visible in the EU on Facebook and Instagram, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone tells The Verge.

“We have received requests from a number of Governments and the EU to take further steps in relation to Russian state controlled media,” Nick Clegg, the company’s newly-named president of global affairs, said Monday on Twitter. “Given the exceptional nature of the current situation, we will be restricting access to RT and Sputnik across the EU at this time.”

We have received requests from a number of Governments and the EU to take further steps in...

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Poco’s X4 Pro 5G brings a 120Hz AMOLED display and 108MP camera at a budget price

Poco’s M4 Pro has a 6.43-inch display with a 180Hz refresh rate. | Image by Xiaomi

The Xiaomi-owned Poco debuted the X4 Pro 5G and M4 Pro at Europe’s MWC 2022, both of which offer fairly impressive specs for prices you’d typically find on mid-range phones.

Image by Xiaomi

The Poco X4 Pro 5G features a 6.67-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate.

Poco describes its X4 Pro 5G as providing a “flagship-level experience,” but for a price of €299 (~$335) or €349 (~$391), depending on the storage level you choose. The cheaper model comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage, with the more expensive model providing 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage.

Poco’s X4 Pro 5G is the successor to the X3 GT Poco released last July, with similar specs for an affordable price tag. The X4 Pro features a 6.67-inch...

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Lucid Motors says it expects to make fewer EVs in 2022 than it originally planned

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge

Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors is slashing its production forecast for 2022, citing supply chain constraints. The Newark, California-based company announced it was revising down its production expectations to 12,000 to 14,000 vehicles from the original prediction of 20,000 vehicles.

“This reflects the extraordinary supply chain and logistics challenges we’ve encountered and our unrelenting focus on delivering the highest-quality products,” Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said in a statement. “We remain confident in our ability to capture the tremendous opportunities ahead given our technology leadership and strong demand for our cars.”

“Supply chain and logistics challenges”

Shares of the company fell 14 percent in after-hours...

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GTA Trilogy just got a big performance update across all platforms

Rockstar Games has released a major update for the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy that brings improved performance across all platforms, including graphics modes that are included with the likes of the PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Generally, the update improves stability, fixes checkpoint issues and collision detection, along with touching up numerous textures and signage. It also addresses errors where achievements weren’t earned under specific circumstances. All of the fixes are listed on Rockstar’s support site (it’s an exhaustive list), with specific update notes listed under each game.

These fixes seem minor, but they could make particularly difficult sections within each game a little easier to bear. The collection, which launched in November...

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Netflix says it will not stream Russian propaganda channels

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Netflix will not distribute a number of state-run channels in Russia as mandated by a new law, the company says, following reports that it could soon be forced to carry the networks.

Varietyreported Monday that Netflix was among a number of services added to a register maintained by Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor of content distributors that reached over 100,000 subscribers. The new law, which Variety reports has not yet fully gone into effect, requires large streamers to carry 20 Russian broadcast channels, including state-funded Channel One.

Channel One was among a number of channels The Associated Press cited last week as skewing the narrative to align with the Kremlin’s messaging around Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Other...

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VESA will certify and label DisplayPort 2.0 cables to try to avoid HDMI 2.1 confusion

DisplayPort 2.0 is finally starting to make its way out into the world after months of delays, and the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) is working hard to make sure that customers will be able to actually tell whether cables or devices support the benefits of the standard with a new certification program, the group announced today.

The new program is specifically aimed at clarifying when a device supports the DisplayPort UHBR (Ultra-high Bit Rate) data transfer rates supported by DisplayPort 2.0. To that end, VESA is introducing new DP40 and DP80 UHBR cables. DP40-marked cables will be guaranteed to support the UHBR10 standard of 10Gbps across four lanes for a total of 40Gbps, while DP80 cables will support the UHBR20...

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Elden Ring: all of the updates about FromSoftware’s open-world hit

Image: FromSoftware

Arise now, ye tarnished

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A ransomware group paid the price for backing Russia

Illustration by Carlo Cadenas / The Verge

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its fifth day, a coalition led by the US and Europe has mounted a coordinated response focused on financial sanctions and, increasingly, military aid. While the conflict grows in scale and intensity, organizations far beyond the apparatus of military and government are being drawn in — including ransomware groups active in Russia and Ukraine.

That gravitational pull is particularly fraught in Russia, where the borders between hackers and the Russian intelligence services are sometimes porous, and one group in particular has been made to pay for its allegiance to the Putin regime.

On Friday, the notorious ransomware gang Conti surprised many observers by explicitly casting its lot with Putin’s...

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How to take advantage of Android 12’s new privacy options

Privacy is probably one of the biggest buzzwords in tech these days, and even the data-loving Google is getting in on the action.

The Android 12 update boasts a handful of privacy-related additions you’d be wise to explore. Some of them are under the hood and automatic — such as the new Private Compute Core that’ll allow certain types of sensitive computing to happen in an isolated environment, entirely on your device. But others are more on the surface. And that means it’s up to you to take advantage of them — or at least understand what they’re doing.

Here are the three most significant privacy-related additions in Android 12 and what you need to know in order to take advantage of them. (Note that these directions are for Pixel phones;...

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Sony Xperia 1 IV leaked in renders showing off a mostly unchanged design

Leaked render of the Sony Xperia 1 IV | Image: OnLeaks / Giznext

It looks like the new Sony Xperia 1 IV is coming soon, based on newly leaked renders coming from reliable leaker OnLeaks through Giznext (via Android Authority). The purported sequel to last summer’s Xperia 1 III looks to retain a very similar design, including a 6.5-inch OLED display on an elongated flat-edged slab.

The leaked render looks like the Sony Xperia 1 IV will also have a headphone jack, side fingerprint sensor, and top / bottom bezels that house front-facing stereo speakers and a selfie camera. And there are three cameras shown on the rear of the Xperia 1 IV, each reportedly touting 12MP sensors, including one that seems to be telescopic.

Image: OnLeaks / Giznext

The leaked Xperia 1 IV has a shutter...

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Elon Musk’s promised Starlink terminals have reached Ukraine, according to official

Image: Mykhailo Fedorov

SpaceX sent a truck full of Starlink user terminals to Ukraine, according to an image tweeted by the country’s vice prime minister, who had asked CEO Elon Musk for assistance duringRussia’s invasion. Over the weekend, Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted at Musk, asking him to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations. In response, Musk said that the satellite internet service had been activated for the country and that more terminals were on their way. Today, it seems that promise has been fulfilled, with Musk responding to Fedorov’s latest tweet, “You are most welcome.”

As fighting continues in Ukrainian cities, there have been concerns that there could be cyberattacks on critical internet infrastructure, which could make it harder for news to leave...

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No, Instagram still won’t build an iPad app

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri once again shot down the possibility of an iPad app (because who cares about the millions of iPad users out there, right?). It’s been 12 years since Instagram’s release — over a decade without an accompanying iPad app — and we’re tired.

Just think about it for a second: how absurd is it that iPad users either have to settle for an iPhone-sized Instagram app experience on their tablet or must succumb to browsing the platform on a web browser — as Marques Brownlee points out — in the year 2022?

Yup, we get this one a lot. It's still just not a big enough group of people to be a priority. Hoping to get to it at some point, but right now we're very heads down on other things.

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) February...

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Forza Horizon 5’s sign language support arrives on March 1st

Image: Microsoft

Forza Horizon 5’s developers promised shortly after the game’s November launch that they would be adding on-screen sign language interpreters, and they announced Monday that the feature would be added in an update available on March 1st. As part of the update, the game will support both American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) for its in-game cinematics.

While captions can be a useful way to know what’s going on during a game, sign language may be a better way for some to understand what’s happening, especially if sign language is somebody’s first language. If you have the feature turned on, a sign language interpreter will be shown prominently during a cutscene. You can get a look at how it works in the video...

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Bitcoin mining is ‘less green than ever’ after leaving China

A view of the Kizelovskaya State District Power Plant at the Gubakhinsky Coke and Chemical Works. Russian businessman Alexei Kolesnik bought the Kizelovskaya State District Power Plant to create a data center and a bitcoin mining farm. | Photo by Maxim Kimerling / TASS via Getty Images

Bitcoin’s carbon dioxide pollution has gotten even worse since China ousted Bitcoin miners last year, according to a new analysis. It’s likely the result of Bitcoin miners substituting China’s abundant hydropower with coal and gas, experts say.

“We actually see Bitcoin becoming less green than ever before,” says Alex de Vries, lead author of the analysis published last week in the journal Joule. That directly counters continued claims by industry groups that renewable energy would clean up Bitcoin’s operations.

The new reportshows that the Bitcoin boom is becoming a bigger problem for the world’s efforts to eliminate fossil fuel pollution. Mining bans, like the one China put in place last year, don’t seem to be very effective in curbing...

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European Space Agency claims joint Russian Mars rover probably won’t launch this year

An artistic rendering of the Rosalind Franklin rover on Mars. | Image: ESA

A joint Russian-European mission to Mars will likely be delayed in light of new sanctions against Russia and the country’s ongoing assault of Ukraine. The delay is the latest space partnership to feel the side effects of Russia’s invasion here on Earth.

Known as ExoMars, the mission entails sending a series of robotic spacecraft to Mars, culminating in the launch of a robotic rover to explore the Red Planet’s surface. The European Space Agency and Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos have been working together on the program for the last decade. As part of the initiative, ESA and Roscosmos launched the first phase of the mission in 2016, sending a spacecraft to orbit Mars and sniff out its atmosphere, as well as a test lander to...

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