Good morning, and happy St. Patrick's Day. No doubt celebrations are a little different for many this year.

Something short but notable: I saw that LG is finally trying to do better launch pricing, unveiling the new LG V60 ThinQ for $799 outright ($899 with the Dual Screen Case), with carriers having deals too. No word on other regions yet.

The technical detail behind the coming Xbox Series X was unveiled in detail by Microsoft yesterday, and it’s a big unit with loads to dig into.

To bring yourself up to speed, start at the Xbox homepage announcement and then move on to Digital Foundry’s in-depth look at the array of interesting and impressive tech for the next flagship console.

The topline specs include custom CPU and GPU: the AMD Zen 2 CPU with eight cores clocked at 3.8GHz each, a custom AMD RDNA 2-class GPU with 12 teraflops and 52 compute units clocked at 1.825GHz each, built on a 7nm process.

“Xbox Series X is the biggest generational leap of SOC [System on a Chip] and API design that we’ve done with Microsoft, and it’s really an honor for AMD to be a trusted Microsoft partner for this endeavor,” said Sebastien Nussbaum, VP of semi-custom products and technologies at AMD.

That will offer hardware-accelerated DirectX ray-tracing, and Microsoft posted some compelling looks at how Minecraft will become more immersive with ray-tracing.

More specs:

Also In the box comes 16GB of GDDR6 RAM with a 1TB custom NVME SSD storage drive, plus a 1TB expansion card.

This proprietary removable/expansion storage is a fairly hot discussion point.

Proprietary anything isn’t ideal given the standards around storage that exist.

But it is designed with Seagate for faster load times and gaming performance, and as long as it isn’t priced at ridiculous levels for consumers it might be ok?

More on that here: how Xbox Series X removable storage will work (The Verge).

There’s talk about almost-complete Xbox One compatibility for accessories, game saves, and progression.

As we’ve previously known, the new console will support 8K gaming and frame rates of up to 120fps in games

It’s all cooled by a 130mm fan.

Also, the new Xbox is not as big as a fridge, despite previous jokes/reports (Twitter).

None of the hardware matters without games and hype - with E3 canceled that’ll move to digital unveils and online shows.

No price either - but the specs seem like $500+ given that many components are PC hardware.

In other news, still not much out of Sony for the PlayStation 5.

Round Up:

iOS 14 code detail reveals Apple is set to ship the 4.7-inch display iPhone 9 and iPhone 9 Plus with the A13 Bionic chip, the processor used in the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro. Plus four iPad Pro variants, as it approaches its fourth generation (9to5Mac).

Apple explains how returns and repairs will work while its retail stores are closed: longer return periods (The Verge). On that note, Apple’s website now says retail stores are closed ‘until further notice’ after initially saying they’d re-open March 27 (9to5Mac).

Samsung now producing UFS 3.1 memory storage, expected in smartphone flagships later this year (Android Authority).

Coronavirus outbreak causes Universal to release movies in theaters and at home on the same day (Android Authority).

Coronavirus ruining your music-making plans? These two synth apps are now free (Android Authority).

Tesla surprises everyone by delivering the Model Y six-months ahead of schedule (Ars Technica).

Here’s what is new in Tesla’s EV crossover (TechCrunch).

Amazon plans to hire 100,000 more US workers to handle coronavirus demand, will also pay $2 more per hour (and 2 euros more in Europe and £2 in Britain.) (CNET).

COVID-19: Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube say they're working with each other and government healthcare agencies to reduce misinformation (Twitter). Internet moderation is rapidly evolving right now.

TikTok told moderators to suppress posts by “ugly” people and the poor to attract new users (The Intercept).

Microsoft and GitHub strengthen their hold on open source (Wired).

🛒 Grocery delivery apps see record downloads (TechCrunch).

️‍♂️ Virtually tour 500+ museums and galleries while self-isolating (artsandculture.google.com).

First human trial for coronavirus vaccine begins (CNBC).

“I spent 2 years and 18 hours of exposure time to capture the Crescent Nebula,” and it’s epic! (r/damnthatsinteresting).

🧬 “Why do viruses mostly affect only one species?” (r/askscience).

“Is it actually okay to let my cat have a little salami, as a treat?” (r/nostupidquestions).