Initial reports from GiantBomb and WhatHiFi claimed that Microsoft is doing away with the always-online requirement.

Microsoft had previously said that users would need to check in periodically — as frequently as once per day — which means you couldn’t take your device somewhere that didn’t have an Internet connection.

This was particularly annoying to members of the U.S. military who were stationed in places — especially on ships and submarines — without constant access to the the Internet.

GiantBomb says Microsoft is also dropping region locks, so that people can bring their console with them wherever they travel, or again, wherever a service member is stationed.

Microsoft has also reportedly ditched its planned restrictions on trading or loaning games. The rules announced earlier this month said that games could only be resold to participating retailers, and that it was up to the publisher to decide whether a game could be resold.

Even more controversial was the rule about giving away a purchased game. Microsoft had said that users could only give away games to other users who had been on their “friends” list for at least 30 days, and then the game could only be given once.

Microsoft has now updated its Q&A to reflect the new changes, though the language used is still not exactly crystal clear.

For instance, on the issue of trading and reselling games, it just states: “We are designing Xbox One to enable customers to trade in and resell games. We’ll have more details to share later.”

And instead of an explanation about the change of policy on giving away purchased games, the Q&A has just removed that question altogether.

To that end, Microsoft’s Don Mattrick, who angered a lot of customers when he said last week that they could just keep using the Xbox 360 if they didn’t want to always be online, has posted the following explanation:

Last week at E3, the excitement, creativity and future of our industry was on display for a global audience.

For us, the future comes in the form of Xbox One, a system designed to be the best place to play games this year and for many years to come. As is our heritage with Xbox, we designed a system that could take full advantage of advances in technology in order to deliver a breakthrough in game play and entertainment. We imagined a new set of benefits such as easier roaming, family sharing, and new ways to try and buy games. We believe in the benefits of a connected, digital future.

Since unveiling our plans for Xbox One, my team and I have heard directly from many of you, read your comments and listened to your feedback. I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of Xbox One.

You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world.

So, today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360. Here is what that means:

An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.

Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.

In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console — there will be no regional restrictions.

These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.

We appreciate your passion, support and willingness to challenge the assumptions of digital licensing and connectivity. While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds.

Thank you again for your candid feedback. Our team remains committed to listening, taking feedback and delivering a great product for you later this year.

(Rob in PDX)

Sometimes there are no words in the human language that can adequately express the rage/excitement/annoyance/eyeroll one can feel when presented with a friend’s Facebook post. And because, you know, a picture is worth a thousand words, Facebook is rolling out the capability to respond to posts on the social network with photos.

Facebook hasn’t made an official announcement yet, but the company tells The Verge that the new commenting feature will roll out globally today on both desktop and mobile sites.

So your politically-opposite-from-you third cousin twice removed won’t stop going off about that thing you disagree with? Answer with a photo of you with your fingers in your ears!

A chain of replies on a link you posted involving that one thing in the news that everyone is arguing about is getting too heated? We recommend a cat photo — they go with everything.

The only downside as we can see it — no animated GIFs will be supported quite yet. That makes Sad Dawson very sad.

Boo hoo, Dawson. Boo. Hoo.

Facebook adding ability to post images in comments [The Verge]

(So Cal Metro)

American auto manufacturers are selling cars and making profits again, so that means that our auto industry has recovered from its terrible collapse of just a few years ago. Right? The companies themselves have recovered, but that doesn’t mean that they’re going on a hiring spree just yet.

The problem isn’t money: automakers have that. They’re not selling record numbers of cars, but the prices are higher. If anything, their problem is an excess of caution. Instead of expanding existing plants and building new ones, automakers are pushing productivity and demanding more from the workers they have. “[H]ow long can this go on before you start having some issue with morale in the plants?” one industry expert asked NPR rhetorically. Factories are at 90% capacity, and how many man-hours it takes to assemble a car is way down. Productivity is good, but it means that you can’t gauge economic recovery by the number of new people on the payroll.

Automakers must have learned their lesson from 2008 and 2009: they’re not about to invest in capacity for business they don’t have yet. They’re hiring and expanding, but slowly and cautiously.

U.S. Automakers Are On A Roll, But Hiring Is Slow And Steady [NPR]

It wasn’t. Here are the pictures that Walter sent in:

Coming across the tales of the various artifacts located throughout the land, I myself went on a journey to see what I could find. Much to my surprise, I came across this gem at a K-Mart not too far from my home. At first I disregarded it, but saw the date on the back and knew I found something of interest.

While it’s entirely possible that this radio has languished in a warehouse for years, or even that it’s been on the shelves since the first Clinton administration and this is an exceptionally dust-free store, there’s a more mundane explanation. This portable radio, the ICF-S10MK2, isn’t just widely available from mainstream retailers: you can get it directly from Sony. They just don’t appear to have redesigned the packaging in that time. That’s the advantage of classic packaging that doesn’t offer the top hits of 2005.

Of course, the product description hasn’t aged very well now that we have iPod Shuffles and teeny FM receivers. “Take your music with you. The ICF-S10MK2 pocket AM/FM radio fits easily into your shirt or jacket pocket for convenience and portability,” it says. More importantly, it runs for 48 hours or so on a couple of AA batteries, and can get your family through any emergency requiring a radio. Try that with your iPhone.

(RedandJonny)

The gap between tying on your apron springs and producing a family feast from scratch after a few hours and slapping down some fast food on the table and calling it dinner is narrowing. That’s good news for anyone who likes the idea of a homemade meal but isn’t exactly Julia Child in the kitchen, and it’s partly due to some crafty research by the big food companies.

See, packaged-food companies like Kraft and Bumble Foods have been tapping into the problems plaguing consumers, and have figured us out, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The result? Products that can be simply combined into full meals that have that homemade feel, but don’t take all the time and energy of a more traditional effort. There’s still enough “cooking” involved, however, to not instill that cheating feeling in consumers.

To wit: Kraft spent 18 months working on its new Recipe Makers products, which include at least two sauces mixed together with fresh ingredients. Those two sauces are important, as only having one step or fewer ingredients doesn’t make it feel as homemade, the company’s research showed.

Bumble Bee’s recent launch of its SuperFresh frozen seafood works along similar lines — fish comes wrapped in parchment paper for steam-cooking that is pretty hard to mess up. It cuts down on work but still has enough to do so the prepare feels involved.

In other words: They’re helping us fake it if we can’t make it. Make me chop a few things, prepare a few ingredients and actually cook it on the stove and I may as well be Mrs. Child.

The Art of Almost Homemade [Wall Street Journal]

(Planet Money)

Have you always wondered what happens to glass containers after the recycling truck scoops them up from the curb? The crack GIF-making team at NPR’s Planet Money visited a plant in New Jersey that’s now able to take glass bottles and turn them into something other than sparkly construction materials. In a series of animations, they take readers through the whole process. [Planet Money]

(sdc2027)

She tells College Station, TX’s The Eagle that she’d just dropped her cat off at the vet when she spotted the bag lying in the left-turn lane.

“It looked like a gallon-size baggie with a blue zipper on top,” she recalls. “It just barely caught my eye, and I thought it was money, then was like, ‘Nah, it’s probably a dirty diaper.’”

But when she looked closer, she realized this was not some haphazardly discarded nappy. Inside, there were two bundles containing stacks of $100 bills.

“At first I thought it was drug money or somebody threw it,” she tells The Eagle. “I was kind of scared when I got it until I saw the Chase label on the bag.”

There was a Chase branch right down the street, so she figured she’d take it there as that seemed to be the most likely source of the wayward cash.

She arrived at the bank to find that it hadn’t yet opened for business. Rather than sit around and wait, she began knocking on the glass in an attempt to get someone’s attention.

“[The bank manager] thought I had been in an accident or somebody had mugged me,” she says. “I told her ‘I have y’all’s money. She said ‘What?’ and then she thought I was a crazy person. I told her to stay right there while I got it. She saw it and opened that door up as fast as she could.”

The manager asked the woman if she’d counted the cash, but the woman said she didn’t want to know.

“She told me I’m the most honest person in the world, and I said ‘or the dumbest.’”

The woman initially believed that the bag contained hundreds of thousands of dollars, but Chase later confirmed to The Eagle that the bag contained $20,000. For her efforts, the bank rewarded the woman with a $500 gift card.

(Stirwise)

Sure, you probably know the basic ingredients in your fast food lunch — chicken or beef, lettuce and tomato, whathaveyou — after all, you’re the one who ordered it. But if you, like many consumers, care whether or not those ingredients include genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the ingredient list usually is no help. Chipotle announced that it will now mark those ingredients on its website for discerning consumers.

NaturalNews says that with this new effort, Chipotle is the first U.S. fast food chain to label GMOs in its food, even if only on the web site and not on menus in stores. The pink “G” stands for GMOs on each of its ingredients, along with the other keys for “Local” food or “Responsibly raised meats.”

While there’s still a lot of debate over whether or not its unhealthy to grow and consume GMOs, environmental and consumer advocates have been pushing for change in how such information is presented to consumers.

It’s worth noting, as Businessweek points out, that although Chipotle implemented this system back in March, no one has really noticed or paid attention until now. And that’s just the first step, says Chipotle:

“Our goal is to eliminate GMOs from Chipotle’s ingredients, and we’re working hard to meet this challenge,” the company explains. “For example, we recently switched our fryers from soybean oil to sunflower oil. Soybean oil is almost always made from genetically modified soybeans, while there is no commercially available GMO sunflower oil. Where our food contains currently unavoidable GM ingredients, it is only in the form of corn or soy.”

The Genetically Modified Burrito: Chipotle Tells All [BusinessWeek]
Chipotle becomes first US restaurant chain to voluntarily label GMOs [NaturalNews]

http://www.naturalnews.com/040751_Chipotle_GMO_labeling_Whole_Foods.html

(Morton Fox)

“We recognize the importance of providing our guests with many options, including alternative choices for people with food and dietary restrictions,” writes DD CEO Stan Frankenthaler in an e-mail to Bloomberg.

Dunkin’ has been testing the gluten-free products at some Massachusetts stores and is now selling them at outlets in Hartford, CT.

In order to keep the gluten-free products from the standard items, Dunkin’ will package them separately. Those with serious gluten sensitivities will probably want to ask questions of their local eatery about handling and training before they chow down.

Gluten-free foods have long been desired by people with celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder whose standard treatment involves a gluten-free diet. However, a growing number of people have begun avoiding the protein for a variety of other reasons. It’s estimated that gluten-free foods are now a $20 billion a year business in the U.S. alone.

But if you’re thinking the gluten-free products are going to have fewer calories, you might be mistaken. Bloomberg points out that the gluten-free donut has 60 more calories than its standard counterpart.

Gluten-free donuts will go for around $1.89 each, while the no-gluten muffins will run you around $2.39.

Domino’s Pizza began offering gluten-free pizza crust last year, targeted mostly at people with mild gluten sensitivity or people who are just trying to avoid the protein but don’t have celiac.

Speaking of “time to make the donuts,” a rep for the company tells the AP that it won’t be bringing back that classic slogan that was the company’s mantra for 15 years, anytime soon.

(The Consumerist)

Ah, butter! The most diety-of diet foods, guaranteed to slim your hips and trim your tummy! Wait — are we in an alternate universe? Why are people mixing butter into their coffee in some kind of new health/energy craze?

It kind of makes sense that butter would work in coffee, so far as taste buds go. After all, it’s a dairy relative of milk and cream. But as MSN Health says, there are some touting butter coffee as a way to get an energy spike and stay healthy.

Fans of the paleo diet — who are of the mind that eating animal proteins and fats like a caveman is the way to live healthy — say that putting butter in your coffee can give you a boost of energy when paired with. That’s the idea behind “Bulletproof coffee,” a recipe that combines a few tablespoons of unsalted-grass-fed butter plus a coconut-palm oil blend called MCT. Proponents of the stuff say it’s supposed to promote weight loss, boost energy and charge your brain up.

But health experts point out the obvious: Whether or not those various claims are true, mixing butter in your coffee will probably cause you to gain weight by the mere fact that it’s adding 100 to 200 calories to your diet per day.

And that energy boost is predicated upon the idea that MCT is digested faster than other fats, and thus must boost energy. There’s no evidence out there to support that claim, however.

So go ahead, mix that creamy butter in your morning Joe. It won’t hurt you, but don’t expect to turn into a svelte underwear model with boundless energy to burn.

Nobody better debunk my “Daily Intake Of Ice Cream Is The Best Diet Ever” fad I’m about to unleash on the world. It doesn’t promote weight loss but it does make you really happy in your mouth.

Butter coffee: Will it give you extra energy — or just make you fat? [MSN Healthy]