Microsoft has hiked the price of Xboxes and its Game Pass offering, adding significant cost to both buying and playing its consoles. The price of an Xbox Series X will increase in almost every country, by different amounts. And the Xbox Game Pass subscription will increase in cost for the first time since it was released in 2017. It makes Microsoft just the latest company to up the prices of its monthly subscriptions. Netflix has gone through range of price hikes, for instance, and other video and music streaming services have also recently increased the cost of their monthly payments. Xbox’s Game Pass allows players access to a library of games for a monthly fee. The company has repeatedly suggested that it sees such online subscriptions as the future of gaming. The Game Pass service launched in 2017. Since then, it has stayed at the same price, though Microsoft has added more expensive options in the form of its Ultimate offering. Xbox will move the Game Pass Ultimate offering, which adds Xbox Live Gold and other features to the normal Game Pass subscription, from $14.99 per month to $16.99, or £12.99. The normal version of Game Pass will go from $9.99 to $10.99, or £8.99. The changes will go into effect from 13 August for existing subscribers, Microsoft said, though annual subscribers will be safe until their next bill arrives. For new subscribers, the new prices will be in effect from 7 July. Almost every country will be affected by the price increase. The Xbox console itself will also be hit by a price rise. In almost every country apart from the US, Japan, Brazil, Chile and Colombia, the price of an Xbox Series X will go up considerably, though the cheaper Xbox Series S will not be affected. Read More US sues to block Xbox takeover of Call of Duty developer Activision Blizzard Elon Musk sparks outrage with threat to ban ‘cisgender’ as a ‘slur’ on Twitter Our nearest supermassive black hole ‘woke up’

By Sam Nussey TOKYO Nintendo made a pitch for the ongoing match fitness of its aging Switch console

Apple is in the processing of shutting down its “Photo Stream” offering – and could be removing people’s important memories with it. As such, users of any Apple devices such as iPhones that are still using the old system have been urged to check they have saved all of their latest images to ensure that they are not lost. Apple announced recently that it would stop taking new photo uploads on 26 June. But any of the images that were uploaded before then would stick around for a further month, meaning that the images will finish on 26 July, when the system will be shut down. The images will not be removed from the original devices that took the image, and so should be safe as long as that is the case. But various people use the Photo Stream tool to move pictures between devices, meaning that they could potentially get lost. Photo Stream was launched as an early way to synchronise photos across devices. It was launched in 2011, and has been operated as part of iCloud since. It allowed iPhone users to upload their most recent 1,000 photos, taken in the last 30 days, for free. Users on Mac or Windows could have those photos then automatically download to their device, meaning that those libraries would be easily kept up to date, even with photos that were taken on another device. In the time since, however, Apple has moved towards a new offering called iCloud Photos, which uploads all pictures automatically and then keeps them in sync across any devices that are logged in. While that means there are not the same kind of limits as with the Photo Stream, it also means that users are likely to need to pay for storage and need to set up the service. As such, many people may still be using that old Photo Stream service, even as it comes to be shut down. Anyone who is might in turn lose access to those photos that are still stored in Photo Stream and are yet to be saved. Thankfully, saving them is relatively easy. Users can head into the Photos app, click on “My Photo Stream” and then choose the images that need saving and add them into the library. If users already have iCloud Photos switched on, this will be unnecessary, and photos are already being kept in sync. If not, then the feature can be turned on from within the Photos settings on recent Apple devices, which will then ensure that those photos are kept in sync across any device with the setting switched on. Read More Apple finally lets people decide how they appear in Maps listings Apple sounds alarm over new government plans Google kills its rival smart glasses to Apple Vision

The North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC) said on Thursday it has concluded a two-day simulation with power

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Josh Richards is a Canadian influencer and a famous social media personality

Elon Musk has left his Twitter followers stumped with a bizarre comparison of Taylor Swift and Napoleon Dynamite. You'd think the tech mogul would have bigger things on his mind, but on Friday, it seemingly wandered elsewhere. Musk tweeted a picture of Swift and the awkward teen character, asking: "How do we know for sure they’re different people?" The caption above the photo collage of the two read: "When you realise Taylor Swift is actually Napoleon Dynamite." The tweet soon went viral across Twitter, with many flocking to the responses. "As both a Musk fan and a Taylor Swift fan, this is not the crossover I wanted," one person hit back, while another added: "Someone come get the owner of Twitter's phone, please. Now I can’t unsee it." Meanwhile, one person had enough and brutally wrote: "Elon pls go tend to ur baby DU-139X# before even coming on this shi**y app you wasted money on." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Now, this isn't the first time Musk has turned his attention to the 'Shake It Off' singer. In March, the Tesla founder complimented the star by saying her "limbic resonance skill is exceptional." Everyone was just as confused as each other, but it apparently means "a state of deep emotional and physiological connection between two people. The limbic system in the brain is the seat of emotions." He didn't stop there either. Under a series of photos from Swift's hotly-anticipated Eras Tour, Musk responded with a cigarette emoji which most people interpreted as him calling the singer smoking. When one Twitter user asked whether Musk and Swift would make a cute couple, he simply responded with a crying laughing face. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

In a long post, Pokimane revealed the reason she felt guilty about her role as a content creator and social media

A controversial cryptocurrency started by the founder of ChatGPT has surged in price in the days following its launch, with market commentators referring to it as both “outlandish” and “revolutionary”. Worldcoin, launched last week by OpenAI boss Sam Altman, offers people a free share of the crypto token WLD in exchange for their biometric data. More than 2 million people have signed up through an iris-scanning orb, which is currently operating in 35 cities across 20 countries. The biometric data collected by Worldcoin is used to verify an individual’s “unique personhood” to ensure noone signs up more than once. It also offers a way to differentiate humans from AI bots, which Worldcoin claims is a core offering of its technology. Regulatory and legal challenges mean people are unable to sign up in certain markets, however Mr Altman claimed shortly after its launch that one person every eight seconds was signing up for the crypto project. A spokesperson for Worldcoin told The Independent that 1,500 orbs were being distributed around the world to meet demand, including to London, New York and Paris. Crypto market commentators have said that a 50 per cent price surge in the day following its launch showed the level of interest and demand in the WLD token despite concerns surrounding its rollout. “OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project might just be one of the most ambitious cryptocurrency projects in recent years,” Louis Schoeman, a managing director at Forex Suggest, told The Independent. “The main aim of this global digital identification is to connect your World ID to websites and apps rather than traditional logins, proving you’re a real person without having to share personal data like names and emails. This sort of digital ID will be necessary in the development of AI, in order to tell the difference between humans and AI bots online. “A global digital ID enabling private identity verifications is undeniably revolutionary, however, it’s certain to stir up controversy, with many already calling the exchange of biometric data for crypto tokens an outlandish bribe.” The Worldcoin cryptocurrency spiked from $1.90 to $3.15 on the day of its launch, before dropping back below $2. It has since surged again and was trading above $2.30 on Tuesday, bucking broader market trends. Read More ChatGPT creator launches bitcoin rival that scans people’s eyeballs Meta is secretly building an AI chatbot with the personality of Abraham Lincoln Google Assistant to be ‘supercharged’ with AI like ChatGPT and Bard ChatGPT will now know who you are and what you want

MGM Resorts International said it has identified a cyberattack that is affecting some of the company’s systems. The

Check out The Day Before PC release times for all regions across the globe as the open-world MMO prepares to launch on Thursday, Dec. 7 at 1 p.m. ET.

The Biden administration is releasing new guidance and "legal resources" for colleges and universities that want to ensure student diversity in the admissions process after the Supreme Court gutted affirmative action in June.