Technologies

Microsoft App Store For Mobile Games Could Launch Next Year

The tech giant is planning an app store for Call of Duty and Candy Crush to rival Apple and Google’s mobile software stores.

Microsoft is planning to launch its own app store for mobile games as a third-party rival to Apple and Google’s phone software storefronts. It could happen as soon as next year, so long as Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard is approved.

Apple and Google will be mandated to open up their iOS and Android platforms to third-party app stores by March 2024, when the European Union’s Digital Markets Act comes into effect. That’s conceivably when Microsoft will be able to launch its own mobile app store, CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer told Financial Times in an interview.

«We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play,» Spencer told Financial Times. «Today, we can’t do that on mobile devices but we want to build towards a world that we think will be coming where those devices are opened up.»

But the plans for a Microsoft app store are linked to Microsoft’s acquisition of games publisher Activision Blizzard, which regulators in the US and Europe have worried would result in less competition among big gaming companies — and lead gamers to get shut out of games. Recent opposition has focused on whether the Call of Duty franchise would only come out on Microsoft’s Xbox consoles and PC, though Microsoft has assured that it will come out on other gaming platforms for years to come.

On the contrary, Spencer said the acquisition would lead to increased competition in the mobile software space, which is virtually nonexistent with Apple and Google’s hold on their platforms, as it’s very difficult to download software outside of their App Store and Google Play Store, respectively. Microsoft wants a place for users to download its roster of games, which would include popular mobile titles like Call of Duty Mobile, Candy Crush and Diablo Immortal should the acquisition be approved.

Evidence of an Xbox mobile store appeared in October as Microsoft filed documents with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, the UK’s regulators looking into the Activision Blizzard acquisition.

Technologies

You Can See 2 Meteor Showers at Once This Week. How to Catch a Glimpse

Reaching their full glory on the same day this week are the Alpha Capricornids and Southern Delta Aquariids meteor showers. Here’s when to look up.

While meteor showers happen all year, a rarer occurrence is having two meteor showers that peak at the same time. It’ll happen this week, on Tuesday.

The shooting star show comes courtesy of the Alpha Capricornids and Southern delta Aquariids meteor showers. The former is already happening and runs until Aug. 12, with a peak on Tuesday. Southern delta Aquariids will start on Monday, peaks early on Tuesday and runs until Aug. 12 as well. That means for one evening, the two meteor showers are peaking at the same time, giving stargazers a much better chance at catching a shooting star.

Of the two, the Southern delta Aquarids is typically the larger meteor shower, tossing upward of 25 meteors per hour during its zenith. Alpha Capricornids is a lesser meteor shower, with about five per hour on average. Combined, they’ll output an estimated 30 per hour.

See 2 meteor showers at once

Since the meteors are coming from two different points in the sky, you would think spotting meteors from both would be difficult, but that is far from the truth.

Alpha Capricornids, which hails from the 169P/NEAT comet, originates from the Capricornus constellation. It will rise from the eastern skies across the continental US around sunset and streak across the southern sky, setting in the western sky at sunrise.

For the Southern delta Aquariids, its radiant — the point from which its meteors seem to originate — is the Aquarius constellation. Aquarius is right next to Capricornus. That means it also rises out of the eastern horizon, streaks across the southern sky, and sets in the western horizon around dawn.

If you have trouble finding either of them, Stellarium’s free sky map will help you hunt them down. Set the time, date and location, and you’re off to the races. Once you find one, the other one is essentially right there next to it.

Tips on watching meteor showers

As per the norm, the tips here are the same as they are for the aurora borealis and planet parades. Light pollution and weather are your two biggest enemies. Since you can only do anything about one of those, let’s focus on light pollution. You’ll want to drive as far away from the city and suburbs as possible, as the light pollution will make it difficult to see the dimmer meteors. The farther away you are, the better, as even suburban light pollution can obfuscate most meteors.

Once out there, you just have to sit and wait. Since the constellations will move across the south as you watch, you may have to rotate your chair if you’re out there for a while. Otherwise, a pair of binoculars may help. Telescopes aren’t recommended, as they obscure your field of view and may actively obstruct your ability to see meteors.

Technologies

These Are the First FireSat Images for Finding Wildfires from Space

A new satellite program backed by Google and global nonprofits is looking to mitigate destructive fire seasons.

At Google I/O in May, Google revealed that it’s working with the Earth Fire Alliance on FireSat, a program that combines new high-resolution satellites with AI analysis to pinpoint wildfires in their earliest stages and help responders knock them down before they grow. This week the alliance released the first images captured by the initial satellite, showing how fires as small as 5-by-5 meters — about the size of a classroom — can be detected from space.

Existing satellite systems scan for fires, but at a coarser resolution. In one image from Oregon, using MWIR (Mid-Wave Infrared) heat-sensing imaging, a small roadside fire showed up as a bright speck. According to the alliance, it wasn’t detected by other space-based systems.

This example from Ontario, Canada, on June 15, 2025, shows the Nipigon 6 fire, a new blaze detected using the MWIR spectrum, but it also shows how LWIR (Long-Wave Infrared) was used to identify areas left over from a previous burn in 2020, which are heated due to a lack of vegetation. At the bottom, a false-color composite of SWIR (Short-Wave Infrared), NIR (Near-Infrared) and visible Red channels helps track the life cycle of the fire.

Currently, the Earth Fire Alliance has one protoflight satellite, built by Muon Space, aloft for testing. With three satellites in orbit, FireSat will be able to scan locations globally twice a day. And when the program is fully operational, in 2030, a network of more than 50 satellites is expected to cut that time down to 20 minutes; for areas that are more prone to fires, that interval will be every 9 to 12 minutes.

One key reason for Google’s involvement in the alliance is to sort through the massive amount of data that will be generated. Muon Space estimates that each satellite will cover 190 million square kilometers per day, and the multispectral instrument on each satellite records across six channels. With AI and software assistance from Google, the program should filter out false positives. AI is playing a larger role in fighting wildfires around the world — NASA is using its vast trove of Landsat satellite data to build predictive models of where fires are likely to erupt next.

«There are millions of things that can be mistaken for a fire,» said Chris Van Arsdale, Google Research climate and energy lead and chair of the Earth Fire Alliance board of directors. «Looking for fires becomes a game of looking for needles in a world of haystacks.»

It will also be important to prioritize fires that crews can respond to. A June 21, 2025, image of a remote area of Alaska shows a fire that wasn’t observable by ground-based sources.

In this image from Borroloola, Northern Territory, Australia from July 11, 2025, the FireSat satellite identified multiple wildfires spread over a large distance, which would help fire responders coordinate efforts.

The Earth Fire Alliance is currently working with some fire departments and other early adopters to help determine how best to parse the data and communicate with responders.

«What you’re looking at now is raw imagery that is helpful for the technologists, the scientists [and] the remote sensors,» said Kate Dargan Marquis, former California state fire marshall and senior wildfire advisor to the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, a main underwriter of the Earth Fire Alliance. «But for firefighters, we’ll build fire data products on this data.» That would include map-based tools with AI underpinnings to help them understand where and how they can make fire response decisions, she noted.

The data will eventually be made available for public resources, such as those used by the consumer app Watch Duty. Brian Collins, executive director of Earth Fire Alliance, explained that the current early adopter program includes pathways to determine how to disseminate the information being collected, be that through local dispatchers or other sources. «A very informed public can make decisions [such as when to prepare to evacuate] in advance of being told,» he said, adding that a public that understands fire is no longer scared of fire.

Although FireSat is still in its first stages and won’t be considered operational until three satellites are in orbit, in 2026, the initial data and imagery looks to be a promising tool for fighting wildfires around the globe.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Monday, July 28

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for July 28.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

I love to grill, but the answer to 5-Down was a little challenging for me. It’s legit, but it’s just not the way I typically use that word. That’s on me! Need a helping hand with today’s Mini Crossword? Keep reading. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.