Microsoft and Nintendo Reached a Ten-year Contract
Microsoft President Brad Smith issued an announcement on February 21, officially announcing a ten-year contract between Microsoft and Nintendo, which confirms that the Call of Duty series will be released simultaneously on Xbox and Nintendo platforms, and that the content of both versions will remain the same. Microsoft also said in the announcement that the move will allow Nintendo players to enjoy Call of Duty as much as Xbox and PlayStation players; Microsoft is willing to sign long-term equal treaties with other platform providers to enrich players’ choices and ensure healthy competition in the market. In addition, Brad Smith also mentioned that the current agreement is only part of Microsoft’s commitment, which means that Microsoft may make more statements in the future.
Beats Fit Pro comes in three new colorways
On February 21, Beats announced three new color options for the Beats Fit Pro: Coral Pink, Volt Yellow and Tidal Blue. Beats Fit Pro features an Apple H1 chip, an innovative ear wing design, IPX4 sweat and water resistance, active noise cancellation, transparency and adaptive equalization, and spatial audio support based on dynamic head tracking technology. The Beats Fit Pro will be available worldwide in Coral Pink, Volt Yellow and Tidal Blue starting February 24, with free custom engraving and numbering available when purchased through apple.com or the Apple Store app.
Apple adjusts iPhone battery out-of-warranty replacement service prices
On February 21, Apple announced on its website that it is increasing the cost of battery replacements starting March 1, 2023, with an increase of $169 for all iPhone models up to iPhone 14. The cost of battery replacement for the iPhone X through iPhone 13 series is $688. The iPhone 8 through iPhone SE series will cost $528 for a battery replacement. If you subscribe to the AppleCare+ service plan, you can get a free battery replacement for the entire duration of AppleCare when the battery health level falls below 80 percent.
Linux 6.2 kernel released with Apple M1 chip support
On February 19, the Linux 6.2 kernel was released, incorporating upstream support for the Apple M1 family of chips, introducing Protected Load Balancing (PLB) for the IPv6 stack, improving stability on devices with Intel Razzle graphics, and initially adding graphics acceleration support for the Nvidia RTX 30 family of cards (based on the Nouveau open source code). Linux 6.2 is expected to be the default kernel for Ubuntu 23.04 and will be included in Fedora 38 before the release of Linux 6.3 in late April.
Chrome officially rolls out memory saver and power saving mode features
The previously announced Memory Saver and Power Saver modes are now available to all users in the 110 stable update to Google Chrome for Windows, macOS and ChromeOS. The memory saver will automatically free up memory from inactive tabs and reload the corresponding pages when users need them, saving up to 40 percent of memory and up to 10GB of memory, while the power saving mode will save battery power by limiting background activities and visual effects, and allows users to set their own conditions for turning them on.