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Blizzard has released a statement titled "An Update on Shadowlands" where the Executive Producer of World of Warcraft, John Hight, has announced that the expansion has been delayed.

Hight details that they want the expansion in the hands of players but the right decision was to postpone the launch. At this point there is no release date, but for now the launch will happen later this year.

Originally World of Warcraft: Shadowlands was slated for October 26 release.

According to the statement the essentials of the game seem ready for release but due to feedback there are endgame issues that still need to be resolved. Also working from home is mentioned as a reason that the endgame content hasn't been properly tuned yet.

Microsoft announced yesterday without much fanfare the new and more affordable Surface Laptop Go as well as an improved Surface X.

The new Surface Laptop Go starts at $549.99 and the newly-updated Surface X 2-in-1 starts at $1,499.99.

Each version of Surface Laptop Go is equipped with a 10th gen Intel Core i5. RAM and storage options vary from 4 GB of LPDDR4x and 64 GB eMMC up to the 8 GB and 256 GB SSD on the highest-end version.

All of them have the same 12.4 inch and 3:2 touchscreen PixelSense display with a resolution of 1536 x 1024, and PPI of 148. Microsoft promises up to 13 hours of battery life, and charging via 39 watt charger.

The laptop is 15.69 mm (0.61") thick and weight 1110 grams (2.44 lbs). It's built from aluminum, polycarbonate and composite resin.

Connectivity options include one USB-C, one USB-A, 3.5 mm headphone jack and Surface Connect port. Wireless connectivity includes Bluetooth 5.0 and WiFi 6.

Power button has a fingerprint sensor (not on cheapest model) but there is no Windows Hello for face recognition, although it has an HD capable camera.

Google announced a new audio device at yesterday's Pixel event. In addition to the new smartphones, and Chromecast with Google TV, the company introduced the new Nest Audio.

This is the company's latest smart speaker that is aimed at people who want a great listening experience from their smart speaker. The single speaker comes with a 19 mm tweeter and a 75 mm woofer.

Unlike many of the smart speakers aimed toward Assistant functionality, this one doesn't have a 360 degree audio but instead is projected clearly to the front allowing better experience when listening to music in the designated area.

You can also combine multiple speakers to an array or room configuration like with Sonos.

As you might imagine the speaker works great with YouTube Music and Google has some celebrities, including Selena Gomez, demoing it with their own music service.

Nest Audio will be available on October 5 for $99.

Google announced yesterday two new Pixel phones but the event wasn't only about smartphones. Google also announced a new Chromecast device that will join the regular Chromecast and replace Chromecast Ultra.

The new Chromecast with Google TV offers now a remote control in addition to the dongle. You might ask what do I do with the remote, since Chromecast is traditionally controlled via other smart devices.

That's where the Google TV part comes in. The company also announced a new app, or user interface, called Google TV. Initially this comes with the new Chromecast but it will also be available to other Android TV devices and even smartphones.

The UI offers a compilation of all the different video and streaming services in one place and controllable via the remote. Also included in the remote is a separate Assistant button that can be used to control the Chromecast but also smart home devices.

Chromecast with Google TV became immediately available in three color options for $49.99 at Google Store. There's also a bundle with Netflix offering the device and six months of Netflix (dual screen plan) for $89.99, although it's out of stock now.

Furniture giant Ikea has decided to stop selling regular, non-chargeable batteries in its stores worldwide.

The change will come into effect in October 2021 after which date, company will only sell rechargeable batteries in its stores.

"By phasing out alkaline batteries and focusing on our range of rechargeable batteries, we are taking one step on that journey, offering customers an affordable and convenient solution to prolong the life of products and materials and reduce waste."

-Ikea Sustainability Development Manager Caroline Reid

According to Ikea, by switching to rechargeable batteries, customers could help it reduce more than 5,000 tons of electrical waste, as Ikea sold about 300 million standard alkaline batteries between September 2018 and August 2019. The 5,000 figure is based on calculation where company assumes customer would charge the rechargeable battery 50 times.

Source: Ikea press release

Google's much anticipated Pixel event has just ended, and the company had to offer two new Pixel phones. The new 2020 Pixel models are Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G. These join the already announced Pixel 4a.

These two new models actually have more in common than you'd think, and Pixel 4a 5G (pictured at the top) shares much more of its DNA with the new Pixel 5 than the namesake from earlier this year, Pixel 4a.

In fact, there aren't that many things at all that differentiate Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5. Both have the exact same camera setup with a 12.2 MP default shooter and a 16 MP super wide camera, as well as the 8MP f/2.0 selfie shooter. Both also feature the higher mid tier Snapdragon 765G chipset.

There is a little more RAM, 8GB vs 6GB, in the Pixel 5, and while the display is slightly smaller, 6.0 vs 6.2, the Pixel 5 does have 90 Hz refresh rate. Battery life should also be better on the Pixel 5 with slightly more capacity, 4080 mAh vs 3885 mAh, and you can charge it wirelessly.

Samsung surprised us yesterday with a new smartphone announcement. Usually after the Note announcements Samsung readies itself to reveal midrange A series phones but this time it was in fact a new Galaxy S.

The new phone is called Galaxy S20 FE and is thus a continuation of the company's flagship brand. Specs-wise it is a lower high-end or perhaps a top notch mid tier device, one that would challenge the likes of OnePlus 8, for example.

To fit neatly into S20 family it needs some specs from the higher end, and that is where the large 120 Hz display, triple camera with Space Zoom, and 5G connectivity comes in.

The display is 6.5 inches which fits nicely between the regular S20 and the S20+, but the resolution has been lowered to Full HD (1080 x 2400).

Some were expecting Tesla to announce yesterday the million mile battery, but perhaps unsurprisingly that didn't happen. However, there was an announcement that Elon Musk says will bring EV prices down.

Tesla has developed a new type of battery technology that will be much more cost effective. One of the main aims of the project has been to remove cobalt from the equation for its costly nature, both in terms of money and manpower.

Musk hopes that Tesla will be able to produce much of its future next-gen batteries themselves but partnership with Panasonic and their battery production is likely to keep going for a while.

Tesla's upcoming so-called "tabless cells" are going to be up to six times more powerful in addition to increasing the range by 16 percent. The official product name of the cells without tabs connecting battery cells to each others are 4680 cells.

There's potential for a massive price drop in prices of electric cars, and could be on par with combustion engines. Musk promised a $25,000 EV once the technology matures.

Musk also announced the new Model S Plaid which has the much-teaser Plaid drivetrain and impressive specs. Zero to 60 in under 2 seconds, over a 500-mile range, top speed of 200 mph and a price of $139,000. It should be available late next year.

Microsoft released the Xbox Series X as well as the smaller and more inexpensive Xbox Series S for pre-ordering yesterday. The company also expanded the accessories for the consoles ahead of the pre-orders.

In a blog post they've unveiled the new color version of the new Xbox controller. There aren't any surprises here, except for the color, the controller works just like the initial black and white versions.

In addition Microsoft announced a USB-C cable and a wireless adapter for people to connect their Xbox controllers to their PCs. If yours had Bluetooth neither of these are, however, necessary.

In a row between Facebook and European Union over data portability between Europe and United States, the stakes are getting higher.

After the European Court's ruling in August that terminated the Privacy Shield agreement between United States and European Union, U.S.-based tech giants such as Facebook haven't been allowed to transfer their European users' data to their datacenters located in United States.

The court ruling simply stated that because United States allows its intelligence agencies to snoop on data located in U.S. -based servers, data transfers from Europe can't happen anymore, as European citizens' data could be compromised.

Now, after the ruling, Irish data authority, Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) decided that Facebook must comply within three weeks and stop sending its European user data to United States.

Facebook has now sued DPC, stating if the data flow between two continents is banned, it can't continue in Europe. Meaning basically that services that rely on unified user database, namely, Facebook and Instagram, would shut down in Europe.

One of the very key problems with WhatsApp is the fact that very few of its users actually realize that their behavior can be tracked in real-time, no matter what.

Everyone using the popular messaging app knows the fact that WhatsApp shows your "last seen" status by default. And some also know that the "last seen" data can be hidden through WhatsApp's settings.

But you can't hide the "online now" status which appears whenever you open the app. And that particular information is available to all WhatsApp users, not just to your contacts. So, anyone who knows your phone number, gets the information when you're online.

Now, there are tons of apps and services available that hook into that data. Basically, you download one of those apps and tell which phone number you want to start monitoring. Then, the app tracks, anonymously, when the given phone number appears online and records that. And as the app "pings" the status every 30 seconds or so, you'll soon get a full picture of when the particular user was using his/her WhatsApp.

From that data, after, say two weeks' worth of monitoring, one can easily draw conclusions on user's sleeping patterns, when they might have been in night club, etc.

You know that feeling when you wanted to watch some good olde music videos from 1980s on YouTube, just to realize two hours later that you've spent the past hour watching conspiracy theories explaining how 5G networks caused liberal lesbians to invent coronavirus in order to replace all world leaders with lizards? Yeah. That feeling.

Now, how did you end up there? Nobody really seems to know. YouTube's recommendation algorithm has been in the spotlight of increasing controversy over the last few years, as it seems to prefer recommending user to watch as much weird and potentially dangerous stuff as possible. Videos about conspiracy theories, blatantly racist videos, anti-vaccine videos and even videos encouraging viewers to radicalize somehow (all the styles and genres are there, from far-left radical communism through far-right extremities to good olde jihadism).

Obviously, Google, who owns YouTube, wont tell, as the recommendation algorithm is one of its business secrets. But there's a word out there that even Google doesn't really know how it works anymore, as it is driven mostly by machine learning and some level of AI.

Mozilla, the foundation behind Firefox, now wants to understand how the YouTube's recommendation algorithm really works.

Back in the day, in 1980s, the world was mostly dominated by Commodore 64. But handful of countries, most notably, Netherlands, Japan, Brazil, Spain and Finland, had an alternative, too.

The system was called MSX, the first-ever standardized home computer platform. By standardization, it meant that any manufacturer that wished to build MSX-compatible computers, could do so. And the system actually worked: games and programs made for MSX platform worked pretty much perfectly on all MSX computer, whether they were made by Sony, Sharp, Canon or Spectravideo.

Later down the line, MSX standard evolved into MSX2, then to MSX2+ and finally, to MSX TurboR standards.

Now, as with most other popular computer platforms from 1980s, MSX is nowadays far from dead. It has decent hobbyist following that develops new programs, games and even peripherals for it.

And such dedication sometimes brings susprising results. This time around, it is 99% perfect port of super Mario World running on MSX2 platform.

This is SUPER MARIO WORLD on MSX for Mario 35th.
On MSX2, but pushing hard the limits of the 8-bit computer. Author Daemos said recently that it's only missing a boss & end credits screen. Took 6 years.#fangame #MSX #gamedev #8bit #pixelart #homebrew #retrocomputing #chiptune pic.twitter.com/dxR9Il6yRT

-- Dante 3d dev (@dantemendes) September 15, 2020

World's largest robovac manufacturer iRobot introduced a new pair of robotic vacuums to the mid-price range today.

First of all, there's Roomba i3+ that brings a very desirable feature from the company's high-end models to the mid-price range. Roomba i3+ has the similar self-emptying dustbin feature that is found from company's high-end models Roomba i7+ and Roomba s9+.

Roomba i3+ is capable of emptying of its own, rather small, internal dustbin to a much larger dustbin, located in the charging dock, whenever it goes recharging itself. In our tests of i7+ and s9+, such feature means that the owner needs to empty the (docking station's) dustbin only every three or four months.

Obviously, iRobot has hindered some features in $599 Roomba i3+ in order to maintain the difference between that and its $799 Roomba i7+. Most importantly, the new Roomba i3+ wont have the smart mapping features of Roomba i7+. Meaning that owner can't tell Roomba i3+ to only clean kitchen today, as can be told to i7+. Instead, i3+ simply cleans the entire apartment and then goes back to the charging station and empties its dustbin.

iRobot also released a cheaper sibling to Roomba i3+, dubbed as Roomba i3. The $399 robovac is identical to Roomba i3+, except for the fact that it doesn't have the self-emptying capabilities (which can be purchased separately at later date, but costing more than the $200 price difference between the models).

PS5 Showcase provides PS5 console launch date and price, along with information on accessories and launch day games.

We are getting close to the next major console battle. This time, Microsoft's Xbox Series X goes up against rival Sony's PlayStation 5 for your cash. Where can you get a PS5 and when? How much will it cost? What accessories will be available at launch and what games will be available? How much will those cost?

Here's how it breaks down.

PlayStation 5 hardware launch details

There are two options for your PlayStation 5 purchase this fall. You can buy a PS5 with an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive or you can purchase a PS5 Digital Edition at a lower cost. The lower cost results from the lack of a Blu-ray drive, if you hadn't already guessed, meaning that the only way to acquire games for this version is digitally.

Other than the Blu-ray drive, there is no other significant hardware difference between the two choices: they both the same x86-64-AMD Ryzen Zen 2 CPU and AMD Radeon RDNA 2-based graphics engine, support 4K graphics with ray-tracing, and both pack ultra-high-speed SSD with integrated I/O for speedy loading times.

Both consoles will be available in the U.S., Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea from November 12, and will launch a week later on November 19 in Europe, Middle East, South America, Asia and South Africa. Pre-orders are available now from select retailers.