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Leaked packaging and materials for Xbox controller confirm the existence of the "Xbox Series S" console.

There has been growing evidence that Microsoft plans to release a cheaper, possibly disc-less version of its upcoming Xbox Series X next-gen console. The codename for the project is well known - Lockhart - and now its actual name may be confirmed as the Xbox Series S.

Twitter user Zak S obtained a white next-gen Xbox controller on OfferUp for $35 and The Verge verified its authenticity. The packaging and materials that come with the controller mention both the Xbox Series X, and the Xbox Series S.

Earlier in the summer, leaked documents also showed that the Xbox Series X devkit (codenamed Dante) includes a Lockhart mode. The Lockhart hardware is expected to have 7.5GB of RAM (down from 13.5GB in the Series X) and a lower performance GPU. While it will pack the same CPU as the Series X, it's likely underclocked. Series S would be expected to be part of Microsoft's Xbox All Pass subscription push.

The focus of the Series X is also suggested to be on 1080p and 1440p resolution gaming, rather than 4K.

Apple has clarified that Microsoft's cloud gaming service won't be available for iOS devices because it breaches its App Store rules.

Microsoft's xCloud gaming service is expected to launch on September 15, having been in beta testing since November of last year. It will allow users to stream games across a variety of devices from the cloud.

While it was available for testing on Apple's iOS devices, it will not be launching for them next month. According to Apple, the problem is that xCloud violates numerous rules enforced on developers.

Firstly, Apple's rules stipulate that all games that would be made available through the App Store are submitted to it for checks. This is an issue for xCloud because a large number of titles would be available through an interface on the app, with many games becoming available the same day as they launch for purchase.

Secondly, games must also appear in the search on the App Store, but that would not the case with the xCloud app. Furthermore, games available in the xCloud app would not appear in charts.

Microsoft is pushing back against Apple's explanation, however, pointing out that all the games available in the xCloud library would be probed by games' rating bodies like the Entertainment Software Rating Board in America, and that further checks should not be required on Apple's end.

World's leading chip manufacturer Intel has been a target of hacking, says a swiss software engineer and leak hobbyist Till Kottmann.

Kottmann received leaked Intel documents from an anonymous hacker that contacted him via his Telegram channel. The 20 gigabyte package was uploaded to Kim Dotcom's Mega cloud storage site.

Some of these documents were marked confidential or restricted secret, and some are clearly just marketing material or manuals.

According to ZDNet's unnamed expert, the leak seems authentic and there are indeed confidential information among the leaked documents. This includes schematics for unreleased Tiger Lake platform, silicon and FSP source code packages, as well as encrypted Intel Boot Guard SDK.

There's no sensitive information about Intel's customers or employees, however.

Social media is once again in turmoil as a new Chinese-owned contender TikTok has gained foothold in the US. President Trump and the administration aren't happy about the national security aspect of TikTok, and in fact are going to enact a ban unless control changes.

The administration has given TikTok just over a month to figure out how to restructure the ownership of TikTok's US business or else they will institute a ban on the app.

Microsoft has been in talks with TikTok owner ByteDance for possibly buying the US business, but that might not be the only thing on the table.

According to Financial Times, the deal might be far bigger and Microsoft might be looking to acquire the entirety of TikTok's international operations, excluding China.

If Microsoft could acquire a successful social media it would elevate its business beyond what Apple or Google has managed.

However, sources have told Business Insider that Microsoft is not going to extend the deal. Microsoft has already admitted that it has started negotiations about the operations in US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Sony has today announced new closed back headphones to its award-winning and popular WH-1000X series. The new WH-1000XM4 are the fourth generation, as the name suggests, in Sony's flagship headphone series.

While much of Mark 4 looks like its predecessor – and for a good reason, after all why try to fix something that isn't broken – there are some improvements.

Sony has improved upon what already was the market-leading active noise cancellation. While the chip itself is the same, Sony has worked on especially the high and mid pitches sound removal algorithms.

The noise cancellation uses two microphones on each ear cup to produce the best ANC experience yet. This process also uses a new Bluetooth Audio SoC feature to analyze data over 700 times a second.

As with WH-1000XM3, the new model features ANC optimizer that analyzes the users head size as well as the effect of hair, glasses and so on to provide the most accurate noise cancellation. This also includes air pressure optimization when flying.

Tinder, the world's most popular dating app, has introduced a new subscription tier, dubbed as Tinder Platinum. The new subscription level adds on top of the existing tiers (Tinder Gold and Tinder Plus), introducing two important new features to the app.

First and foremost is the feature called Messages without a match, which basically allows one to send a short message (max 140 characters) to the recipient even when there's no match between the two.

In order to send such message, sender must be subscribed to the Tinder Platinum. Message is then attached to a super like that user sends to the recipient. The recipient sees the superlike, along with the message and then decides whether to like the sender or not.

If the recipient doesn't like the sender back, sender wont be able to send further messages. If recipient likes the sender back, a new Tinder match is formed and the two can then continue chatting as normal Tinder matches.

Samsung's this year's Unpacked virtual event ended with a bang as the company unveiled their next-generation foldable smartphone. After the introduction of Galaxy Note20, Galaxy Tab S7, Galaxy Buds Live, and Galaxy Watch3, the company had a "one more thing" in their back pocket.

They officially unveiled the new Galaxy Z Fold2, the successor to last year's immensely controversial Galaxy Fold. The company's initial failure to produce a foldable smartphone was obvious last year after reviewers found out that dirt could fairly easily enter the hinge mechanism and even under the display and break the whole thing.

After a callback and few more iterations of development, the Galaxy Fold was finally launched, although not many probably actually bought one.

Samsung announced yesterday two new Galaxy Note20 smartphones as well as two Galaxy S7 tablets. In addition, the company introduced some upgraded peripherals, like Galaxy Buds Live earbuds and Galaxy Watch3, which we're going to take a look at here.

The new smartwatch offers an upgraded design that inches it closer to traditional watch in many respects. It is smaller, thinner, and lighter while still managing to improve upon the specs ever to slightly.

According to the company, Galaxy Watch3 is 14 percent thinner, 8 percent smaller, 15 percent lighter than its predecessor Galaxy Watch. Nevertheless, they've managed to include slightly larger, 1.4 inch display (instead of 1.3").

Yesterday's virtual Unpacked event produced us a pair of both Galaxy Note20 smartphones as well as Galaxy Tab S7 tablets. Neither of these come with a 3.5 mm headphone jack, which brings us to the this announcement.

Samsung updated also their Galaxy Buds lineup. The new Galaxy Buds Live is a rather large upgrade to the predecessor with a new design and important new features.

The bean-shaped design is said to come from looking for comfort and fit. That remains to be seen but they are definitely unique.

Samsung's Unpacked gave us most importantly the new Galaxy Note20 smartphones but the company had a lot of somewhat secondary devices to show.

One of these was the new Galaxy Tab S7 and its better-equipped sibling Tab S7+. The new S7 is only a slight upgrade – with one major improvement – to last year's S6.

Regular S7 features a 11 inch LCD display with QHD resolution while the S7+ upgrades it to a 12.4 inch OLED panel and slightly upgrading the resolution along with the size increase.

Both of the new displays have 120 hz refresh rate which is probably the most important upgrade over the last year's model.

Samsung's today's first ever virtual Unpacked event has ended and the company has a lot of new Galaxy products to unveil. The most important of them all was of course the new lineup of Galaxy Note smartphones.

The Galaxy Note20 comes in two different variants: regular Galaxy Note20 and Galaxy Note20 Ultra. They both offer massive AMOLED displays measuring in at 6.7 inches with Note20 and 6.9 inches with Note20 Ultra. However, only the latter supports 120 hz refresh rate – the regular model comes with a rather pedestrian 60 hz display.

As you might imagine, the larger size of the Note20 Ultra also means a slightly larger 4500 mAh battery while Note20 has a 4300 mAh one. Both, however, support 25 watt quick charging as well as Qi wireless charging.

Connections-wise the devices are largely similar with both supporting 5G networks as well as speedy WiFi 6. Both also have either Snapdragon 865+ or Samsung's Exynos 990 chips. Ultra does have more RAM with 12 GB compared to Note20's 8 GB.

In terms of camera, the Galaxy Note20 Ultra is similar to the S20 Ultra with a 108 MP shooter accompanied by 12 MP ultrawide and a periscope zoom camera. The cheaper Galaxy Note20 on the other hand has a 12 MP main camera in addition to a tele zoom camera and a ultrawide.

One of the most important privacy court rulings in recent history was delivered two weeks ago when EU Court stroke down the EU-US Privacy Shield agreement. Privacy Shield agreement between EU and the United States allowed American companies to store and process EU user data within the United States.

But EU Court ruled that because United States allowed its intelligence agencies to access such data, the agreement between EU and US had to be terminated immediately. Since then, basically all American companies that maintained the user databases in U.S. soil and had EU users, were breaking EU legislation.

Problem is massive: Companies wishing to maintain unified user database must basically move it out of the United States - or United States as a country to change its national laws that permit its intelligence agencies to do surveillance on its own soil. Obviously the latter option is highly unlikely to happen.

Technically splitting user database into two separate sets, with separate rules, processes and data location would be a massive technical challenge to the Internet gients like Google, Facebook and Microsoft.

The next generation of console gaming is soon upon us, and Sony is preparing its peripherals to support the PS5. The company has announced a new Ready for PlayStation 5 badge.

The tagline will be used among Bravia TVs that support the high-definition gameplay provided by the upcoming PS5. They've developed the branding in cooperation with Bravia teams and Sony Interactive Entertainment, and it should ensure that gamers find their favorite PS5 TV easier.

The first Ready for PlayStation 5 branded TVs are going to be ZH8 (pictured below) and XH90/92 models that are current occupants of the Bravia family. The latter supports 4K gaming at up to 120 fps and the ZH8 supports an epic resolution of 8K, where ever it is available.

This year has been riddled with cancellations due to the coronavirus pandemic, but most of us are hoping that it wouldn't be as big of a deal next year.

Some of the first indications that COVID-19 would be a serious issue outside China and in the west came from cancelled tech conferences. This included world's largest mobile conference MWC that was scheduled for late February.

The largest consumer electronics show in the US, CES, managed to run without much of a hiccup in early January when the spread was still somewhat contained. However, they won't be as lucky in 2021.

CTA, the organizer of Consumer Electronics Show or CES, has announced that they will be canceling next year's conference's physical manifestation. This means that CES 2021 will be an online-only event.

They've taken a page out of Apple's playbook, who very successfully held a virtual WWDC first time ever this summer.

Virtual CES 2021 will be held in the first week of the year. It remains to be seen how the reimagined conference will accommodate both exhibitors and the audience.

World's largest music streaming service has made immense investments recently in non-music audio. Most importantly the company acquired the exclusive rights to Joe Rogan Experience, and just yesterday it launched Michelle Obama's own podcast.

However, the Swedish powerhouse is still innovating in terms of music, too.

Spotify is testing a new feature that will extend the capabilities of Group Sessions. Group Session, a feature that was introduced in May, is essentially a party DJ that allows all the people in the area to add song to a playlist queue.

The new addition will allow online communities to use it too. Spotify Premium members can join the group and listen to the same songs at the same time no matter where they are.

You can have up to 5 people in a group and each member has the controls to pause, skip and add new songs to the queue.

To use the feature open Spotify and head to Group Session feature, located on the bottom right corner menu. You can share the link to your session by copying it to your social media or sending it to your friends.