Daily Authority: ???? Smart TVs are Xbox consoles now

⚡ Good morning! I tried playing Diablo Immortal on an old iPad, only to realize it had just 32GB of storage, and the game needs 12GB of storage alone! Ouch. Anyway, read on for a happy tortoise story!

Xbox gaming via TV

The setup:

• Microsoft’s bringing Xbox gaming everywhere, so just as you could play Xbox games on your smartphone, now you can on your smart TV as well.
• The service essentially streams more than 100 games over the cloud, so something like Stadia, but now, you don’t need an additional anything; no console required.
• You can jump into Fortnite without a paid subscription, too.
• The service will stream in 1080p/60fps, so not 4K, and Samsung will upscale it for the TV.
• What you do need is a Bluetooth controller, but there are no Microsoft limitations here either: you can use an Xbox controller, or a Playstation controller, or whatever.

The catches:

• Okay, so you need a 2022 Samsung smart TV, which limits things quite a lot.
• Though Samsung’s press release mentioned that its “2022 Smart Monitor Series” is included as well, so the new $700 Samsung M8 will work with it.
• You need to get the Xbox app from the Samsung Gaming Hub or Media Hub, hook up to a Microsoft account, and pay for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
• Microsoft suggests plugging in your TV to wired ethernet, or if streaming games wirelessly, connecting to a 5GHz router which is more of the default these days anyway.
• From there, Halo Infinite and Forza and such are all at your fingertips.
• Some US reporters got to try it out, with previews of the tech saying things like: “I streamed two games through Xbox Game Pass on a Samsung TV, and it was like having a Series X next to the TV. Admittedly the connection was fast and reliable. Viability might come down to network speed and how much gamers are willing to forgive hiccups,” (link) and “it was a perfectly serviceable, yet inherently imperfect experience” (link).
• (One of our colleagues here at AA immediately said: my next TV is a Samsung. Another said: wayyy ahead of you, see pic below)

The hopes:

• For whatever reason, this is a Microsoft-Samsung deal only for now, but Microsoft said it hoped to work with other TV brands, and I hope they roll it out to older TVs as well.
• (I wonder if Sony TVs will get the Xbox gaming app? Hmm!)
• The other thing is if they can bring it to Google TV, and when is Microsoft’s own game streaming stick coming?
• Microsoft’s approach seems to be: Xbox anywhere, everywhere, all of the time.
• While the money is from subscriptions, just as it’s been doing with Office 365 and so on, it all leads back to supporting its Azure cloud service. A nice tidy loop.

Roundup

???? Samsung owns up to mistake after using iPhones in graphics (Android Authority).

⌚ Report: Facebook smartwatch no one wants has been canned: interesting feature is EMG or electromyography, where devices read your nerve impulses to make actions. Reading your mind and Facebook… well… anyway, Facebook has delayed its AR glasses as well, and Portal is being discontinued (Android Authority).

???? The Dell XPS 13 line got 12th-gen Intel CPUs and some big overhauls: XPS 13 gets more than a bump, and the XPS 13 2-in-1 is now a tablet/folio mix, something much more like a Surface Pro 8 (The Verge).

???? Gone in 130 seconds: New Tesla hack gives thieves their own personal key (Ars Technica).

???? NASA has been assigned to figure out how to get data on unexplained objects in the sky: UAPs make sense for NASA’s Science Directorate for many reasons, including seeing if they’re unidentified atmospheric phenomena (Ars Technica).

This is nice: A previously thought extinct Giant Tortoise was found just chilling on an island in the Galápagos, notes Gizmodo. (Image above via the Courtesy of the Galápagos Conservancy)

• A presumed-extinct giant tortoise of the Galápagos Islands was found alive in 2019, and a new DNA study confirms the female tortoise is the same species as an animal collected over a century ago. 
• “Fernanda,” as she’s called, is the only living Fernandina Island tortoise (Chelonoidis phantastica) known and just the second member of the species ever recorded.
• …The most famous of these animals is undoubtedly Lonesome George, the last (or ‘endling’) Pinta Island tortoise, who was around 100 years old when he died in 2012, marking the extinction of that species.
• So, a lot needs to go right for the species to continue given only one tortoise has been found. But hey!

Have a great weekend and keep an eye out as ever for The Weekly Authority

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.