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Microsoft Wishes Xbox Game Pass Subscribers a Bloody Christmas With Mortal Kombat 1

«Get over here!» and celebrate the holidays with Scorpion.

Just in time for the holidays, Microsoft has a new batch of games on Xbox Game Pass. Leading the pack is Mortal Kombat 1, the bloody reboot of the fighting game franchise. It’s the perfect time of the year to sing carols and decapitate some digital heads.

Xbox Game Pass offers hundreds of games you can play on your Xbox Series XXbox Series S, Xbox One, Amazon Fire TV, smart TV and PC or mobile device, with prices starting at $10 a month. While all Game Pass tiers offer you a library of games, Game Pass Ultimate ($30 a month) gives you access to the most games, as well as Day 1 games, like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, added monthly.

Here are all the games subscribers can play on Game Pass. You can also check out other games the company added to the service in November, including The Outer Worlds 2.


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Mortal Kombat 1

Available now for Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers.

The Mortal Kombat series has gone back to the beginning, sort of. Mortal Kombat 1 is a reboot of the franchise with some changes, such as series protagonist Liu Kang becoming the Fire God who created this new universe. Pick your favorite fighter from the mainstays, including Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Johnny Cage, or splurge a bit and purchase the downloadable characters, including the T-1000 from the Terminator series, Conan the Barbarian or DC Comics’ Peacemaker. 


Lost Records: Bloom & Rage 

Available now for Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a narrative adventure game from Don’t Nod, the studio behind Life Is Strange, and follows a group of friends as they uncover long-hidden secrets from a pivotal summer in 1995. Decades later, they reunite to confront the secrets they buried and the fallout that still haunts them.


Monster Train 2

Available now for Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers.

Monster Train 2 is the sequel to the deck-building roguelike from Shiny Shoe, bringing back strategic card combat with new factions and mechanics. Players once again battle through shifting hellscapes while defending their pyre from invading forces. The sequel expands on the original with deeper customization, more dynamic battles and fresh ways to build powerful decks.


Routine

Available now for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers.

Routine is a first-person sci-fi horror game from Lunar Software, finally released after more than a decade in development. Set on an abandoned lunar base, it blends exploration with tense, survival-driven encounters against rogue machines. The game’s long road to launch has made its atmospheric world and polished retro-futuristic design a key part of its appeal.


The Crew Motorfest

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can start playing on Nov. 20.

The Crew Motorfest is a massive car culture festival spanning the Hawaiian islands, featuring races, stunts and open-world driving challenges. The game features more than 700 vehicles, including cars, bikes, boats and planes, letting you pick how you want to explore the islands. Now in its third year of free updates, Motorfest adds new locations, customization options, a race creator tool and NASCAR content.


Death Howl

Available now for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers.

Death Howl is a genre‑blending soulslike deckbuilder where players craft tactical decks and face relentless spirits as Ro, a grieving mother on a mythic quest to bring her son back from the dead. You’ll be building decks, dodging deadly spirits and wondering if that creepy forest is watching you back.


Dome Keeper

Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers can start playing on Nov. 25.

Dome Keeper is a roguelike survival miner from indie studio Bippinbits, where players dig for resources and upgrade their defenses while protecting a glass dome from relentless alien attacks. You’ll still be digging for scraps and blasting alien hordes as you juggle mining for upgrades and zipping back to shore up your dome before it gets wrecked.


Games leaving Game Pass in December

While Microsoft is adding those games to Game Pass, it’s also removing five others from the service this month. So you still have some time to finish your campaign and any side quests before you have to buy these games separately.

On December 15:

On December 31:

For more on Xbox, discover other games available on Game Pass now and check out our hands-on review of the gaming service. You can also learn about recent changes to the Game Pass service.

Technologies

Google’s Pixel 10A Is Coming to Japan With an Exclusive Blue Edition and Special Wallpaper

This model comes with creatively designed stickers and a special look for Pixel’s 10th anniversary.

Don’t be blue: Google is releasing an Isai blue edition of the Pixel 10A to celebrate the Android phone line’s 10th anniversary, setting it apart with its own sticker set, specialized wallpaper and custom icons. But it’ll only be available in Japan.

Announced Tuesday on the Google Japan blog, the Isai blue Pixel 10A has a dark blue look and includes bonus decorations designed in collaboration with Japan’s Heralbony art company. These include an exclusive bumper case and stickers for customization.

This edition of the Pixel 10A will arrive in Japan on May 20, following the April 14 release of the Pixel 10A in its original colors of lavender, berry, fog and obsidian. The Isai blue model costs 94,900 yen, which roughly translates to $595, and includes 256GB of storage. 

This makes it slightly less expensive than the US model’s 256GB edition, but it comes with a number of fun extras at no additional cost.

Google’s creation of a country-specific model for Japan may also reflect strong sales in that market. In 2023, the IDC analytics firm (via 9to5Google) reported that the Pixel 7 series accounted for 10.7% of the country’s market share, a 527% increase from 2022.

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Technologies

Can’t Wait for New Emoji? Here’s How to Create Your Own on iPhone

Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhones can create custom emoji in a few easy steps.

Apple brought new emoji to all iPhones when the company released iOS 26.4 on March 24. The new emoji include «🫍» orca, «🫪» distorted face and «🫈» hairy creature — or as we might normally call it, Sasquatch. According to Emojipedia, there are 3,953 emoji with more on the way, including a pickle. But there’s no emoji for a dog wearing pajamas, a plate with burgers and fries and many other things. But if you have Genmoji on your iPhone you can create these emoji and many more.

Apple released iOS 18.2 in 2024 and the company introduced its own emoji generator, called Genmoji, to Apple Intelligence-capable iPhones at that time. The Unicode Standard, a universal character encoding standard, is responsible for creating new emoji, and approved emoji are added to all devices once a year. With Genmoji, you don’t have to wait for new emoji to appear on your iPhone each year. You can just create them as you need them.

Read on to learn how to use Genmoji on iPhone to create your own custom emoji. Just note that only iPhones with Apple Intelligence, like the iPhone 17 lineup, can use Genmoji at this time.

Note: The new emoji may not display correctly for Apple users whose devices aren’t on a 26.4 software version.

How to make custom emoji

1. Open Messages and go into a chat.
2. Tap the plus (+) button next to your text box.
3. Tap Genmoji.

You can then type a description of an emoji into the text box near the bottom of your screen and tap the check mark on your keyboard to enter that description into Genmoji. You can also tap different suggestions and themes that are right above the text box. And with iOS 26 or later, you can also combine and use emoji to create others rather than describing a new emoji or using suggestions.

Your iPhone will generate a series of new emoji for you to pick from according to your description, and you can swipe through these new emoji. When you find the one you want, tap Add in the top right corner of your screen and the new emoji will be available to use as an emoji, tapback or a sticker. Now you don’t have to wait for the Unicode Standard to propose, create and bring new emoji to devices.

For more iOS news, here’s what to know about iOS 26.4 and iOS 26.3. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet for other tips and tricks.

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Technologies

Save Over 20% on This Handy 10,000-mAh Anker Nano Power Bank

Keep your devices charged on the go with this Anker Nano power bank, now down to just $46.

We’ve just spotted the Anker Nano 45-watt portable power bank for just $46 at Amazon right now. This saves you $14 — a 23% discount on its list price. Though it’s $6 more than the lowest-ever price we saw during Black Friday, it’s still a solid discount when you take the rising cost of tech accessories into account. It also matches the lowest price we’ve seen in 2026. It comes in four colors: black, green, pink and white. They’re all on sale for the same price.

This Anker Nano portable charger weighs approximately 8.2 ounces and measures a compact 3.21×1.99×1.42 inches. Despite its small size, it has a retractable cable and supports fast charging in compatible Apple, Samsung, Google Pixel and other smartphones. It also has a large 10,000-mAh capacity and a smart display so you always know how much juice is left in your power bank.

The Nano can charge an iPhone 17 to up to 50% battery in an estimated 20 minutes, and is powerful enough to charge tablets and laptops. Need to charge your devices while charging your power bank? You can do so safely thanks to pass-through charging so you’ll never have to go without battery life.

We’ve also compiled a list of the best power banks for iPhones and for Android, in case this deal isn’t quite a fit for you.

Why this deal matters

If you travel, have a long commute time or are otherwise always on the go, a portable charger can help you keep your devices fully powered. This 45-watt Anker Nano power bank is compact, includes a loop that lets you keep track of it easily and has a built-in cable so you don’t have to keep up with extra cords. Amazon’s $14 discount makes this a solid deal for anyone looking for a compact power bank.

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