The sponsorship comes out of Microsoft’s own hiring practices. Two years ago, it launched its Autism Hiring Program and is looking to expand its reach. Disability as a Strength According to director of inclusive hiring Neil Barnett says Microsoft’s hiring practices aren’t simply to meet quotas: “At Microsoft, we see disability as a strength,” he explains. “While we are early in our journey, we are dedicated to growing our program as we listen and learn from the broader community....

The team is led by Jamie Shotton, the former Head of Machine Intelligence and Perception at Microsoft. He’s joined by Principal Scientist Andrew Fitzgibbon, Research Engineer Federica Bogo and more. This division will be part of the larger HoloLens research team, led by director of science Marc Pollefeys. “Just the Start” According to the joint blog post of Pollefeys and Shotton, we’re in a “golden age” for computer vision. Though there have been innovations in almost every sector, the Microsoft team is particularly excited about HoloLens....

It received investments from the Microsoft M12 venture fund, as well as Startup Capital Ventures, 205 Capital, Wesley Colver, Tim Eades, and Tom Noonan. With the huge rise in large-scale cyber attacks from Russia, ransomware, and more, the company is looking to put attackers on the back foot. “Every industry professional today is facing unrelenting adversaries,” said Hyas founder Chris Davis. “At Hyas, we have dedicated ourselves to helping them finally put their attackers on the back foot....

Leading the new features is an update that gives users tools to manage which notifications they see from applications. This same button can also be selected to enter the Settings for more options. In the settings screen, the menu has been simplified to make management more efficient. Microsoft has added images to show how notifications will look on the desktop when a change is made. Also on the settings page, there is now a button for muting all notifications across Windows 10....

Along with the GA of SQL Server 2017, Microsoft also announced new innovations in SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS). SSAS give IT admins the tools to create semantic models across integrated managed datasets. It runs on Windows and is combined with the SQL Server BI suite. With SSAS 2017, Microsoft has added new modelling and connectivity features, alongside analytic solutions for enterprise customers. The company added the following new features to SSAS 2017:...

The idea is to let dedicated users test the next version before Redstone 5 even releases, getting a head start on development. The result is less strain on Microsoft during its biannual update cycle, though bugs do often slip through. As you would expect, these builds are even buggier than those in the Fast Ring. They’re not recommended for daily use as many essential apps and services may not work....

In the Microsoft Patent, the company describes a control system that will manage thermal levels in a device. With a focus on mitigating overheating issues, the technology would function on gaming consoles, PCs, tablets, and other hardware. WindowsLatest spotted the patent, which discusses the use of an internal controller that measures the power load of a device before creating a thermal marker. The tool will then take another measure of power load at a different time to compare....

The patent is particularly topical now that we have concrete confirmation that the company will release a dual-screen Windows device. The Surface Neo places two thin-bezel displays together with a 360-degree hinge and magnetic keyboard. Alongside the Surface Duo, its set to be a major shakeup in the company’s hardware lineup, but it comes with its own challenges. “The behavior of some devices is difficult to represent on existing emulators in a form that can be quickly and easily understood by developers and testers,” explains the patent....

Users of Sphere now have a secure boot system that protects firmware and hardware. Microsoft Pluton also provides a secure communication link with the Azure back-end. Other capabilities of the subsystem include management of Wi-Fi hardware to protect IoT apps from attack or hijack. Indeed, Microsoft Pluton and Azure Sphere are a welcome addition. They show companies are finally starting to take security on IoT seriously. Microsoft time tested Pluton in Xbox firmware protection to ensure maximum security....

Perhaps the standout additions on the “coming soon” list is a tool that allows Microsoft PowerPoint to record videos of a presenter during a slideshow. As the world continues to shift to a remote work and education environment, this seems like a timely tool. It allows the presenter and presentation be on the screen at the same time. Certainly, it will help to make presentations and classes more dynamic and interesting....

Arrow Launcher 3.0 Changes Arrow Launcher users will notice an immediate visual change, with the addition of a brand new “utilities” page. Users can pin their favorite information to this page in a card-like format, a choice between recent media, frequent apps, people, reminders, and documents. This also acts a central hub of sorts, letting you create individual pages from each category. The other main change is the ability to choose between vertical and horizontal scrolling on for widget pages....

In contrast to previous Windows 10 SDK Preview builds, build 15042 will formally only be supported by Visual Studio 2017 and greater. The Visual Studio 2017 Release Candidate is available and might already be in its final form or close to that. Microsoft will commemorate the full launch of Visual Studio 2017 on March 7. A launch event will run for two days, detailing changes and providing training to new users....

A project between Microsoft Research Asia and Harbin Institute of Technology proposes a new method of generating comments from videos. Previously, research has centered on encode-decoder models. While this has generated comments, the results are typically irrelevant to the video. In a paper published on Arxiv.org, the Microsoft-led project discusses a model that using machine learning can better represents comments from video. In its experiments, the research team says the AI is better than current models....

Of course, coming from Microsoft Research, Path Guide puts a breakthrough twist on navigation apps. Indeed, the description says: “Path Guide” is a “completely map-free infrastructure-free, play-and-play- indoor navigation service.” It is worth pointing out that the app is for indoor navigation, and not maps. For example, Path Guide does not rely on beacons to make it easier to create and map indoor routes. The technology makes indoor mapping much easier and efficient by using the following three steps:...

Specifically, Windows 10 21H2 will bring some new features to users, including passwordless improvements for Windows Hello for Business. Elsewhere, Microsoft will add WPA3 H2E support, GPU compute for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), and Azure IoT Edge for Linux on Windows (EFLOW) deployments. Sure, hardly a hamper of goodies for consumers, but then that is what Windows 11 is for. Windows 10 21H2 is Microsoft showing that it will continue to improve and support what is soon to be a legacy platform....

Recently, the company had renewed IP trademarks for Lost Odyssey, suggesting the franchise could return to Xbox. One way to appeal to Japanese gamers is to develop games that speak directly to them. The gaming market in Japan is unique and Microsoft wants to start creating for gamers in the country. Bringing back Lost Odyssey would help as it was one of the few Xbox exclusives to really appeal to Japanese players....

The bug additionally led to the inability for some applications to use WinHTTP and WinINet, which rendered Halo: The Masterchief Collection and Bleeding Edge players unable to connect. “An out-of-band optional update is now available on the Microsoft Update Catalog to address a known issue whereby devices using a proxy, especially those using a virtual private network (VPN), might show limited or no internet connection status,” said Microsoft in its documentation....

The multi-skill capability gives AI bots the tools to have more natural conversations with users. Engineers at Microsoft say AI can now predict what someone will say next, and have real conversations by knowing when to pause and when it’s ok to interrupt someone. With this breakthrough, Microsoft could power its virtual assistant Cortana to be more expressive. The first positive is the assistant could hold more natural conversations with users....

Microsoft first introduced GitHub Copilot in 2021 and has been previewing the service since. It costs $10 per month or $100 per year (per user). GitHub Copilot runs on a new AI platform developed by OpenAI known as Codex. Copilot is designed to help programmers across a wide range of scenarios and frameworks. Copilot gives access to code archives users can access to plug gaps or fill in areas of their code....

Before getting into the wider details of January 2022 Patch Tuesday, we will look at that RCE bug. Microsoft is tracking the issue as CVE-2022-21907. According to the company, it impacts Windows at a protocol level, including Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022. The company describes the vulnerability as an RCE in HTTP Protocol Stack (HTTP.sys). A threat actor could exploit it by simply sending a packet to a target server using HTTP Protocol Stack....