Daily Authority: 🎮 Smart TVs are now Xbox consoles

Good morning! I tried to play Diablo Immortal on an old iPad but realized it only had 32GB of storage and the game only needs 12GB of storage! ouch. Either way, read on for a happy turtle story!

The set-up:

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

The catches:

• Okay, so you’ll need a 2022 Samsung smart TV, which narrows things down quite a bit.
• Although Samsung’s press release mentioned that its “2022 Smart Monitor Series” is also included, so the new $700 Samsung M8 will work with it.
• You need to download the Xbox app from the Samsung Gaming Hub or Media Hub, connect to a Microsoft account and pay for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
• Microsoft suggests connecting your TV to wired Ethernet, or if you’re streaming games wirelessly, connecting to a 5GHz router, which is more of the standard these days anyway.
• From there, Halo Infinite and Forza and the like are all within reach.
• Some US reporters were allowed to try it out, with previews of the technology saying things like, “I streamed two games via Xbox Game Pass on a Samsung TV and it was like having a Series X next to the TV. Granted, the connection was fast and reliable. Viability may have to do with network speed and how many gamers are willing to forgive the hiccups,”(clutch) and “it was a perfectly usable, but inherently imperfect experience” (clutch).
• (One of our colleagues here at AA immediately said: my next TV is a Samsung. Another said: a lot for you, see photo below)

The hope:

• For whatever reason, this is only a Microsoft-Samsung deal for now, but Microsoft said it hopes to partner with other TV brands, and I hope they roll it out to older TVs too.
• (I wonder if Sony TVs will get the Xbox gaming app? Hmm!)
• The other 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, Anywhere, Anytime.
• While the money comes from subscriptions, just like it has with Office 365 and so on, it all leads back to the support of the Azure cloud service. A nice neat loop.

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

💻 The Dell XPS 13 line got 12th Gen Intel CPUs and some major revisions: XPS 13 gets more than a bumpand the XPS 13 2-in-1 is now a tablet/folio mix, something much more like a Surface Pro 8 (The edge).

🚀 Gone in 130 seconds: New Tesla Hack gives thieves their own private key (Ars Technica).

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

This is fun: A previously extinct giant tortoise was found chilling on an island in the Galápagos, notes Gizmodo. (Image above via the Courtesy of the Galápagos Conservancy)

• A suspected extinct giant tortoise from the Galápagos Islands was found alive in 2019, and a new DNA study confirms that the female tortoise is of the same species as an animal collected more than a century ago.
• ‘Fernanda’, as she is called, is the only living Fernandina Island turtle (Chelonoidis phantastica) known and only the second member of the species ever recorded.
• …The most famous of these animals is undoubtedly Lonesome George, the last (or ‘ending’) Pinta Island tortoise, who was about 100 years old when it died in 2012, marking the extinction of that species.
• So much has to go right for the species to survive, as only one turtle has been found. But hey!

Have a nice weekend and keep an eye on The Weekly Authority

Tristan Rayner, editor in chief.