The Xbox Game Pass is on its way to becoming the Netflix of video games. Microsoft announced this week that Sea of Thieves and other exclusives will be available for subscribers to play immediately at launch. Furthermore, these titles will be playable on the PC and remain permanently on the service.



Some years from now, when the line-up of new releases available in Game Pass expands to include more than three new games, when a Game Pass launch will be expected and not headline-worthy, these players will have to make a choice. Either extend their subscription or buy the games they’ll be playing the most. This is when Game Pass will turn the corner and start bearing fruit for Microsoft.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – First-Party Exclusives Will Be Added to Xbox Game Pass on Release Day

Fitness-tracking app Strava’s heatmap was designed to offer insight on where its users sported and exercised, but the GPS-dependent technology can be used to disclose both the location of bases and the movement of personnel. Soldiers wearing Fitbits are inadvertently tracing the layout of outposts and supply or patrol routes.



Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Strava’s Heatmap Is Revealing the Layout of Military Bases

The latest draft budget proposal suggests that the United States will no longer fund the International Space Station beyond 2025. The US has spent $87 billion on the station since its inception, and NASA is currently contributing $3 to $4 billion a year.



The International Space Station — a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit — has been circling us for two decades and is expected to be used for another ten years, at least. The annual cost (about $125 billion) is shared between all participating countries: Canada (CSA), Japan (JAXA), Russia (Roscosmos), the United States, and 13 members of the European Space Agency (ESA).

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Source: [H]ardOCP – White House Calls for End to ISS Funding in 2025

New patents suggest that new controllers may be on the way for PSVR. While the form factor would mimic the originals, the new controllers would include an analog stick surrounded by numerous buttons, in addition to a trigger on the back.



As interesting as these patents are, there’s no way of telling if Sony will actually ever release these controllers. The patent was filed back in July 2016, a few months before PSVR’s launch, so there’s a good chance they’ve since been altered based on the feedback from experiences released so far.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Sony May Have Just Patented New PSVR Controllers

The cashier-less Amazon Go store opened just this Monday in Seattle, and Linus (not Torvalds) adventured down to test the establishment’s security. The shopping experience appears to be as advertised, but some quirks in the current system may allow customers to get items for free.



Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Linus Tech Tips Visits the New Amazon Go Store

As Intel’s microcode updates for Spectre Variant 2 can result in “higher than expected reboots and other unpredictable system behavior” that may lead to “data loss or corruption,” Microsoft has issued an emergency update to disable Spectre Variant 2 mitigation. Dell, HP, and Red Hat Enterprises have all already done something similar.



Intel is not the only major CPU maker having issues with Spectre Variant 2 patching. This bug also caused issues for devices with AMD processors, so much so that Microsoft paused the rollout of Windows updates for devices with AMD processors. Microsoft resumed these updates, but only after AMD worked with Microsoft to correct reported BSOD errors.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Microsoft Issues Windows Out-of-Band Update That Disables Spectre Mitigations