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Fortnite's original Save the World game mode will be free to play beginning on April 16. This is not the battle royale mode that went on to take over the world, but rather a PvE co-op campaign that focuses on crafting and survival. It currently costs $9 but that ends soon.
As a matter of fact, Epic Games will stop selling the paid version of the content tonight, March 11, at 8PM ET. If you have $9 burning a hole in your pocket to spend on something that'll be free next month, go for it. Current players will still be able to access the content, so there are no worries there.
Once the free version goes live, pre-existing players will get a bunch of perks as a thank you of sorts. This includes vouchers for V-bucks, gold bars and end-game resources that are used to boost player and item levels.
Save the World will still be a great way to gather V-bucks, for those worried the freemium shift will change things. Epic says players will earn this currency "through Daily Quests, Mission Alerts, Storm Shield Defense Missions and existing Challenges."
Pre-registration for the free mode
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Anthropic has launched a new research initiative called Anthropic Institute and has revealed that its Public Policy team is opening its first office in Washington, DC this spring. The company has made the announcement just a couple of days after it sued the US government to challenge the supply chain risk designation it received from the Defense Department. As Axios notes, Anthropic is tripling its Public Policy team at a time when AI companies are establishing a presence in Washington, so that they can influence future policies around artificial intelligence. In Anthropic's case, it might have to find a way to be re-accepted by the US government first after President Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using its technology.
Sarah Heck, who joined the company as Head of External Affairs, will take over from co-founder Jack Clark as Head of Policy. Meanwhile, Clark has taken the role as Head of Public Benefit and will lead the Anthropic Institute. The company explains that the institute's role is to "tell the world" what it learns about the challenges that arise as AI firms develop more advanced AI systems. Examples include how powerful AI technologies will reshape jobs and economies and what kinds of threats they'll magnify or introduce.
The institute will bring together and expand Anthropic's current research teams: The Frontier R
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 TikTok and Apple today announced that Apple Music subscribers will be able to listen to full-length songs on Apple Music without leaving the TikTok app.
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Checker Plus for Gmail (Chrome, Firefox, and Edge) allows you to see notifications and read, listen to, or delete emails. Checker Plus works without opening Gmail and supports the management of multiple accounts. This extension/add-on is a great way to continue browsing without having to bring up Gmail to manage your emails. [License: Freeware | Requires:
11|10|8|7|Linux|macOS | Size: Size Varies ]
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TikTok will soon let you stream full songs in its app via a new integration with Apple Music. The company's new Play Full Song feature makes it possible to link your Apple Music account toTikTok, and play any song that strikes your fancy directly in the app while you're scrolling.
Starting a song is as simple as tapping a button in the Sound Details page or your For You page. Assuming you pay for Apple Music, TikTok will then open up a streamlined version of Apple's music player, which you can use to listen to the song, save it for later or add it to a playlist.
TikTok says that Play Full Song is built using Apple's MusicKit APIs, which let developers surface elements of the Apple Music streaming service in their apps. TikTok has previously offered integration with multiple music streaming services through a feature it calls Add to Music App, which made it possible to save songs you heard on TikTok to your streaming library. What's particularly interesting about this new integration is that because it's using Apple's APIs, songs streamed with Play Full Song count as normal streams for the artists in Apple Music, so they don't lose out on any money.
Alongside the new feature, TikTok and Apple are also introducing a way for fans to listen to music live with their favorite artists. TikTok's Listening Party feature creates a live "shared environment" where people can listen to music and interact with artists directly, in what effectively sounds like an audio-only livestream. TikTok livestreams are a whole ecosystem in their own right, and Listening Party seems like a way to leverage some of the same technology for a more cont
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Microsoft first debuted its full screen Xbox experience for Windows in the ROG Ally Xbox handheld, in a bid to compete with Steam's nearly 15-year-old Big Picture Mode. That Xbox interface eventually made its way to other Windows 11 gaming portables last year. Today at GDC, Microsoft revealed that its big screen Xbox UI is headed to all Windows 11 devices (including laptops and desktops) in April. Oh yah, and it's now simply called "Xbox Mode."
Xbox Mode will only be available in select markets at first, and Microsoft describes it as bringing "a controller-optimized experience to your Windows 11 device, letting players browse their library, launch games, use Game Bar and switch between apps." You know, just like Steam Big Picture mode. Microsoft didn't have much else to share about optimizations in Xbox Mode, but when it debuted the feature for Windows 11 Insiders last fall, the company noted that its task switcher will let people quickly move between games, as well as their apps.
Microsoft revealed at GDC today that it plans to start sending Project Helix
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At the start of the year, Google brought a host of new Gemini-powered features, including built-in Nano Banana image generation, to Chrome. After debuting in the United States, those features are now making their way to Chrome users in Canada, India and New Zealand, with support for 50 additional in tow. Among the new languages Gemini in Chrome can now converse in are French, Gujarati, Hindi and Spanish.
To try out Gemini in Chrome, tap the sparkle icon at the top right of the interface. This will open the sidebar interface Google introduced in January. From there, you can chat with the company's Gemini chatbot without the need to switch tabs. From the sidebar, you can also access Google's in-house image generator. Additionally, Gemini in Chrome offers integrations with Gmail, Maps, Calendar, YouTube and other Google apps. If you live outside Canada, India or New Zealand, Google says it will make Gemini in Chrome available in more countries and languages throughout the rest of 2026. Oh, and if don't want to use Gemini in Chrome, you can right click on the sparkle icon and select unpin to never see it again.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-starts-rolling-out-gemini-in-chrome-to-users-in-canada-india-and-new-zealand-023000528.html?src=rss
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Google is rolling out Gemini AI agents to the Department of Defense's more than 3 million civilian and military employees, according to Bloomberg. The agents will initially operate on unclassified networks, with talks underway to expand them to classified and top-secret systems, according to Emil Michael, the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.
Eight pre-built agents will automate tasks like summarizing meeting notes, building budgets and checking proposed actions against the national defense strategy. Google Vice President Jim Kelly said in a
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