Technologies

How to Factory Reset Your Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S or Xbox One

These simple steps can protect your personal information when reselling or gifting your old console.

Maybe you’re giving away an older Xbox One to fund a new Series X purchase. Maybe you’re trading in an Xbox Series X or Series S for a PS5. Whatever the reason, if you’re selling or regifting an Xbox, the most important step is factory resetting it and wiping your personal data.

While you might not have the same sort of information on your Xbox that you would your phone or computer, it’s still an easy thing that you can do to protect yourself before you give up your device. (If you’re looking to sell a device for some extra money, there are many options, but Decluttr is a good place to start.)

You have options for resetting your Xbox

While completely wiping your device is the best practice when you are selling or giving away your Xbox, Microsoft gives you two ways to remove data from your Xbox. You can either completely wipe your Xbox or partially wipe your Xbox.

To access both of these options, press the Xbox Button to open the guide and select Profile & System,
and then under Profile & System select Settings. Under Settings, select System and then select Console Info.

Under Console Info, select, Reset Console. After selecting Reset Console you’ll be presented with two options: Reset and remove everything and Reset and keep my games and apps.

Selecting Reset and remove everything will reset your console to factory settings, while Reset and keep my games and apps will reset your operating system and keep your games and apps intact. Reset and keep my games and apps is a good option if you are troubleshooting a problem with your Xbox.

If you’re giving away or selling your Xbox, select Reset and remove everything so your Xbox will be reset to factory settings and your personal information will be completely deleted from the console. This process is the same for all Xbox consoles, regardless of which version you’re looking to get rid of.

Microsoft also lays out how to reset your Xbox via a USB flash drive, but this process is only necessary if your Xbox isn’t displaying on your screen or if you can’t access the settings menu.

Technologies

Google Rolls Out New Travel Features, Just in Time for Summer

Gemini can call around to find that one travel essential you forgot about.

It doesn’t matter that it’s late April. To me, it’s officially summer. With the days getting longer and warmer, and school wrapping up soon, a lot of us are dreaming of summer vacations.

Google launched some new travel features just in time to start planning those trips.

You might already be familiar with Google Flights and AI Mode, but Google’s two latest travel tools can help you round out the experience even more.

New Google travel features

On Friday, Google announced a new feature to track hotel prices and another that can help you in a packing mishap.

Track hotel prices with Google Search

Similar to how you can currently track flight prices, you can now toggle on price tracking for specific hotels on the Google Search results page or via google.com/hotels.

Last year, Google launched a feature that lets you track hotel prices for a specific city, but that only tracks one hotel you prefer.

On desktop, you can open Search, look up a hotel, then toggle on the new price tracking. On mobile, you find the price tracking option under the Prices tab. Once you toggle on price tracking, you’ll get email alerts when rates drop during your set dates, so you never miss a deal.

AI Mode will find products you forgot to pack

Picture this: You land in your dream tropical destination, open your suitcase and realize you forgot to pack sunglasses. A new feature in AI Mode will let you find products in stock nearby. Google’s agentic AI will call local stores for you to see if it has the products you’re looking for and any relevant deals.

To get started, you will just need to briefly describe your need, like «I forgot to pack polarized sunglasses. Where can I get some nearby?» From there, Gemini will call local stores and then send you results on where you can shop.

This tool launched directly on Search in November and is now rolling out over the coming weeks in AI Mode in the US.

For more travel advice, here’s the best time to shop for airline tickets and how to find cheap flights.

Technologies

Are You a Verified Human? Yes? That’s Exactly What AI Would Say!

World ID, an identity system designed to prove you’re human, is expanding to Tinder and concert ticket sales.

It’s hard out here for a human as artificial intelligence bots and agents increasingly take over the web, social media and even Hollywood. How does one prove that they are not a digital creation generated from large language models when engaging in, say, work meetings, online dating or buying concert tickets?

World ID is a platform designed to address this problem, with a familiar name behind it. It was founded in 2019 by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, along with Alex Blania and Max Novendstern, and has evolved from focusing on cryptocurrency into identity verification.

World announced it’s partnering with companies like Zoom to verify humans on calls and with dating service Tinder for online profile verification.

Zoom says it will integrate World ID Deep Face, «enabling real-time verification that meeting participants are human to strengthen trust in live communications.»

For Tinder, Match Group is trying out World ID for age verification on the dating app, starting in Japan. The site will add a verification marker to profiles for those who pass the human test.

World ID has also developed a tool called Concert Kit, a way for artists to sell event tickets with human verification to prevent sales to ticket bots.

It’s also working with companies such as Razer, DocuSign, Shopify and Coinbase for its World ID humanity verification.

It also offers a device for preorder, about the size of a soccer ball, called the Orb. (You can put a $100 deposit down if a futuristic-looking identity camera is on your wishlist.) The website says the Orb is an «open source device that verifies you are a unique human without knowing anything else about you.»