May 16 Tech news roundup: Xbox is now XBOX, Microsoft Edge’s new update is all about Copilot, Update the ChatGPT app on Mac now

Microsoft rebrands Xbox, it’s now XBOX

This maybe the biggest change ever made. Xbox is now XBOX. That’s no joke. As reported by The Verge’s Tom Warren, the creative change came after Asha Sharma, the CEO of Xbox, held a poll on X asking players if they liked Xbox or XBOX. Fans voted XBOX as the winner. Did you know that when Microsoft launched Xbox, the logo was in all caps.

Sharma has made some interesting changes since taking over as the head of Microsoft’s gaming division, notably reducing Game Pass prices, albeit moving the Call of Duty games to the highest tier of the subscription service. The XBOX console is getting a new boot-up animation. These subtle changes matter, and listening to fans is an important thing for the future of the console.

Microsoft scored a big win this week as Forza Horizon 6, which launched in early access for Premium Edition owners, crossed the 170,000 concurrent players mark on Steam (as observed by SteamDB). In comparison, the all-time peak for Forza Horizon 5 was just 81,096 and that was when the game launched. That makes Forza Horizon 6’s numbers a remarkable achievement, especially considering that the price tag of the Premium Edition is a hefty $119.99. The regular edition of the game, which costs nearly half of that at $69.99, will debut on May 19, 2026. One can only imagine how popular the cheaper version would be.

Also, Gamestop’s weird bid to buy eBay was rejected.

Microsoft Edge gets a massive Copilot update

Microsoft Edge got an important update focusing on Copilot. Chipp.in reports that Edge can now reason across multiple tabs, which allows users to ask questions, pull data, compare prices, products, etc. Edge’s redesigned new tab page is now available on the mobile app, making it easier for users to access chat, search, browsing from the same place. Journeys, which was previously exclusive to the desktop browser, is now available on Microsoft Edfe for mobile devices. This feature allows users to pick up their browsing session where they left off, by grouping the browsing history based on topics. Edge can use long-term memory to analyze your browsing history to deliver more relevant answers. Microsoft says that users can control what the AI can access.

Edge’s Vision and Voice feature is now available for all desktop and mobile app users. It lets you share the screen with Copilot and talk to it about the things on the web page. Users can also turn their tabs into a podcast. The new Study and Learn mode has been designed to assist students by creating interactive quizzes on topics. Writing assistant, which can be triggered using the blue dot, can help you generate drafts, rewrite text or adjust the tone as required.

Microsoft is testing a movable Taskbar and resizable Start Menu in Windows 11

Staying with topics about Microsoft, this is a big one. The tech giant is testing an Experimental channel build in the Windows Insider program that adds 2 features that users have been requesting for a long time. The first of these is a movable taskbar, which can be placed on any side of the screen, i.e. the top of the screen or on the left or right sides. The option to customize the Taskbar can be found under the Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar position.

Users will also be able to select the icon alignment for the Taskbar. Additionally, this also allows users to access other shortcuts on the Taskbar such as the Start Menu and Search (icon). Flyouts (right-click menu) and window previews are also supported by the movable Taskbar. Microsoft says that the new Taskbar does not support Auto-hide and Tablet-optimized Taskbar yet, Touch Gestures are still a work-in-progress, and Search boxes don’t work currently. Want more space on your screen? You can reduce the Taskbar’s size by selecting the “Show Smaller Taskbar buttons” from the Settings, and set it to “Always”. This will reduce the icon size and the taskbar’s height to make room for your needs.

Windows 11 is also testing a resizable Start Menu, that will let you choose whether you want a Small or Large menu. Users can also toggle the Pinned, Recommended and All sections for a cleaner experience. Speaking of which, Microsoft is renaming Recommended to Recent, which it says better reflects the fact that it shows recently used files and recently installed apps.

The Redmond company has also been working on 100% native apps for Windows 11, thus shifting from web-apps. That was quite a busy week for Microsoft. Let’s move on to some other interesting topics.

Netflix’s new animation studio will produce AI short-form videos

Netflix seems to have gone all in on AI. The streaming service has a new studio called INKubator, solely for the purpose of creating short-form videos. What’s the problem? It will use AI to produce animated content. The practice of using AI to generated videos has drawn mixed reactions among fans, and movie studios. Netflix however has not hesitated to use AI in its products, it has used them in its advertisements, and certain shows.

It’s also worth noting that Netflix recently released a vertical video feed called Clips, which features short videos from shows, movies that are available on the streaming service. Rumors suggest that Clips could feature AI-generated short videos that are produced by INKubator. It remains to be seen how subscribers react to AI generated videos on a paid platform.

Was your ChatGPT macOS app binned? Here’s why it happened

Mac users who have the ChatGPT app installed will need to update the app to the latest version to fix a security issue. Forbes reported that users have discovered that macOS binned the ChatGPT app, and displayed a warning message that it could contain malware. This is the exact message – “ChatGPT.app was not opened because it contains malware. This action did not harm your Mac.” Some users say they also encountered the message when they tried to use the ChatGPT Atlas browser.

While it may seem alarming, the apps themselves don’t contain malware. Last month, a third-party library (Axios) used by OpenAI was revealed to be linked to threat actors, and that it could be used to deliver a malicious payload. But, OpenAI revoked the old certificates to prevent users from accessing the outdated app. This in turn triggers macOS security, to display the warning. It highlights the reason why the app was moved to the trash, because it is no longer notarized as a secure app. OpenAI is advising users to update the ChatGPT apps on Mac (including Codex and Codex CLI) to continue using its services.

ChatGPT on the web, iOS, Android, Linux, and Windows apps from OpenAI are not affected by the issue. The AI company has denied that there is any evidence to suggest that user data was accessed or that its systems were compromised.