Dieter Bohn A lot of XBox news you maybe weren't expecting

Okay so look, I have been covering the launch of SMS’s replacement, RCS (Rich Communication Services) for a year and a half now. Every twist, turn, and disappointment. I’ve written the same four paragraphs explaining what it is, why it’s complicated, and why it never seems to arrive too many times to count. It’s been a train wreck that was completely predictable from the jump.

The news that Google is finally rolling out RCS chat for all Android users in the US is very exciting for me personally because it may mean I can stop writing those four paragraphs soon. However: there will be other paragraphs to write. Paragraphs about how Apple refuses to say peep about whether it will support RCS on the iPhone. Paragraphs about how Samsung phones are the most popular Android devices and also the most left-out because their default texting app isn’t supported yet. And many, many paragraphs about the back and forth between Google and the carriers.

If we learned anything from the Syniverse Valentine’s Day texting bug, it’s that texting is still big money and you can be sure everybody wants to make sure they get their cut.

Google’s decision to not wait on the carriers is is good news, but we are not out of the woods yet. RCS still has the potential to be a disastrous fiasco. A Disastiasco. I’m sure I’ll have many more paragraphs to write soon enough.

Verge Deal of the day 

Lenovo’s competent Legion Y545 gaming laptop is $1,099

You can get a nice computer for $1K, but usually not one that’s also powerful enough to smoothly play through most games. Lenovo’s 15.6-inch gaming laptop is an exception to this rule since Walmart knocked $500 off its usual price. With its Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of fast PCIe SSD storage, and Nvidia’s RTX 2060 graphics card, you’ll get a lot of power for your money.

Gaming news

+ X019: all the news from Microsoft’s big Xbox event

Unless you have been paying a lot of attention, you might not have been expecting Microsoft to drop a bunch of gaming news this week. Don’t fret: it’s all here in a place where you can catch up.

+ Xbox chief says Project Scarlett ‘will not be out of position on power or price’

After watching the launch of the 16-inch MacBook Pro earlier this week, can I just say how refreshing it is to see a tech executive just up and admit a screw up? Wait, I can, it’s my newsletter.

This is damn refreshing: “If you remember the beginning of this generation we were a hundred dollars more expensive and yes, we were less powerful.”

+ Microsoft’s xCloud preview now has 50 new games, more than Stadia’s launch list

+ The Final Fantasy series is coming to Xbox Game Pass

+ Microsoft is cutting prices on Xbox One consoles, controllers, and first-party games for Black Friday

$149 for an Xbox One S digital edition mean that a full-onm gaming console that can also run many of the streaming apps you want is literally cheaper than a full-price Apple TV 4K and the same price as an Apple TV HD.

Apple TVs cost too much, is what I am saying.

+ Microsoft to launch xCloud in 2020, with PS4 controllers and PC streaming on the way

Tom Warren has all the details. With Google Stadia looking ever-more disastrous, Microsoft is smart to be showing caution.

Microsoft is obviously talking more about xCloud this week as its main competitor, Google, prepares to launch its Stadia service next week. Google is being aggressive with its launch plans, even if it has had to scale some promised features back into what’s slowly looking like a paid beta test. Microsoft’s approach has been relatively slow in comparison. “I view it as responsibly aggressive,” jokes Choudhry when I tell him that Microsoft looks cautious.

+ The world is waiting for Google Stadia to flop

I’ve said a few times now that all the news for Stadia lately has been bad. Sean Hollister synthesizes that much better than I could. Things are looking very dire for Google’s game service ahead of the launch.

More from The Verge

+ Andrew Yang wants to tax digital ads and launch a new algorithm regulator

Makena Kelly breaks down all of Yang’s proposals -- don’t miss her Twitter thread either.

+ States to expand Google antitrust probe into search and Android businesses

It’s sort of wild that these weren’t part of the probe in the first place. Search is obvious to everybody. But Android is too, at least to me. The iPhone takes up so much of the mainstream conversation that people forget just how big Android really is.

+ The everything town in the middle of nowhere

This is just crackerjack storytelling by Josh Dzieza. It’s a portrait of a small town, the entrepreneurial women in it, and how Amazon just straight up changed everything for this city without having a clue it was doing so. Read this.

+ Apple could bundle news, TV, and music into one subscription as soon as 2020

I suppose Apple didn’t just lead with this because it wanted to see if it could have these services succeed on their own? It would have made more money that way, probably. But given the really low numbers for Apple News Plus that have leaked out, it will need to pivot.

Or maybe Apple isn’t playing 4D chess and this is just scramble. I often find that when you assume a company is planning that far ahead you end up surprised to learn that there wasn’t a coherent plan at all.

+ AirFly updates wireless headphone dongle with aux input support

I’m going to be testing these along with the most sketchy Bluetooth dongle imaginable that I bought on a lark from Amazon last week. Stay tuned.

+ Ford’s all-electric SUV gets an official name: Mustang Mach-E

This is exciting but you know what? Americans buy a lot of trucks. I would like everybody to move much more quickly towards getting electric pickups on the road and to getting charging infrastructure into rural America.

+ PayPal abruptly cuts off Pornhub’s payroll, leaving performers with few payment options

PayPal is a real profile in cowardice.

+ Good: The NSA has stopped collecting location data from US cellphones without a warrant