Labor Day has been here and gone for weeks now, so El Kaiser and JD get back to business with a pile of news, including the new PlayStation and Xbox consoles arriving on November and recap of Apple’s September event. And because the year is only going to get more intense from here, this week’s episode also offers suggestions for science-fiction television entertainment to temporarily make you forget the current state of this world. Come on along for PTJ 344!

• Nintendo Said to Boost Switch Production by Another 20% (Bloomberg)
• PlayStation 5 preorders: Sony reveals release date and price (VentureBeat)
• Microsoft reveals Xbox Series S specs, promises four times the processing power of Xbox One (The Verge)
• Xbox Series X launches on November 10th for $499 (The Verge)
• Microsoft is adding EA Play to Xbox Game Pass (Engadget)
• Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and its game publisher Bethesda Softworks (Microsoft)
• Microsoft to acquire Elder Scrolls, Fallout, other hit games in $7.5B deal for Bethesda Softworks parent (GeekWire)
• A closer look at Luna, Amazon’s cloud gaming service (Engadget)
• Amazon Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Stick Lite announced, start at $30 (CNBC)
• Amazon announces all-new Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Dot with Clock (CNBC)
• Amazon Unveils Drone That Films Inside Your Home. What Could Go Wrong? (The New York Times)
• Amazon Ring security drone and swiveling Echo Show push the boundaries of surveillance, again (The Washington Post)
• Guitars Are Back, Baby! (The New York Times)
• Windows 10 running Android apps via Your Phone is fully rolled out – and the feature will soon get even better (TechRadar)
• The new Surface Duo (Microsoft)
• Streaming service Quibi explores strategic options, including sale —WSJ (Reuters)
• Mozilla shuts down Firefox Send file transfer service after malware abuse (CNet)
• Google ‘formally’ bans stalkerware apps from the Play Store (ZDNet)
• EU regulator orders Facebook to stop transferring user data to America (Seeking Alpha)
• Twitter rolls out new security features to prevent Election Day chaos (The Verge)
• Improved Account Security during the 2020 US Election (Twitter)
• Facebook Moves to Limit Election Chaos in November (The New York Times)
• New Steps to Protect the US Elections (Facebook Newsroom)
• Facebook to pay users to quit the app as part of election study (Business Insider)
• New Facebook and Instagram Research Initiative to Look at US 2020 Presidential Election (Facebook Newsroom)
• The Washington Post’s Elizabeth Dwoskin (Twitter)
• September 15th Apple Event (Apple)
• Apple Event 2020: Here’s everything that was announced (CNBC)
• Justice Dept. Plans to File Antitrust Charges Against Google in Coming Weeks (The New York Times)
• “Star Trek: Discovery” Returns October 15 (Star Trek)
• Baby Yoda has returned to redeem this terrible year in “The Mandalorian” season two trailer (Lainey Gossip)
• ‘She-Hulk’ Disney Plus Series Casts Tatiana Maslany in Lead Role (Variety)
• Chadwick Boseman’s legacy can be continued (CNN)
• It’s Hard to Make Dignity Interesting. Chadwick Boseman Found a Way. (The New York Times)
• Dame Diana Rigg: Avengers, Bond and Game of Thrones actress dies at 82 (BBC News)

Science-Fiction TV Shows for Escaping Reality

• “Doom Patrol” (HBO Max)
• “Thunderbirds” (Amazon Prime)
• “Doctor Who (BBC)
• “Battlestar Galactica” (SYFY)
• “Watchmen” (HBO)
• “The Expanse” (SYFY)
• “The Bionic Woman” (NBC)
• The Best Sci-Fi TV Shows to Binge-Watch Right Now (TV Guide)
• 20 Sci-Fi Shows Like “Westworld” Totally Worth Watching (Men’s Health)
• The Best Sci-Fi Shows on Netflix (Thrillist)
• “Thunderbirds” (Nostalgia Central)
• “The Expanse” Is the Best Science Fiction on TV (The Mary Sue)
• “The Bionic Woman and Feminist Ethics: An Analysis of the 1970s Television Series” (Google Books)