The announcement comes a week after Microsoft told VentureBeat that machine learning is the next leap in AI development. “I think AI has to break away from being something that only AI experts can work on; otherwise the application of the AI and its impact on the world is going to be very limited. I think we have to get to the place where it’s not that 10,000 AI experts in the world are the only ones who can actually apply AI in different scenarios across many vertical domains,” Microsoft VP for Business AI Gurdeep Pall told VentureBeat a week ago....

Microsoft’s XDP for Windows is the company’s first foray into the community. As Microsoft makes the contribution, the company says it wants to see XDP become a true cross-platform solution. Even so, XDP for Windows is in its early stages and has major limitations. For example, it works just a network driver and placeholder user API. Microsoft says testing is ongoing but hopes the project will be ready for prototyping and previews in the near future....

Thankfully, it won’t be a problem for much longer. Google has announced that its auto-play blocking feature will finally arrive with the next major version of its browser, Chrome 66. However, rather than blocking all videos, Chrome will take a liberal approach. By default, it will only block auto-play on videos with audio. It will also play if the user has ‘signaled interest’ by clicking somewhere on the site during the session....

According to a report from ZDNet, Microsoft might be ready to open up the preview soon. During a recent Windows Developer Day webcast, Microsoft officials said the Cortana Skills Kit would go public preview on February 27. However, ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley claims to have contacted a Microsoft spokesperson who revealed that “[Microsoft is] finessing the final details of the Cortana Skills Kit and it will be available soon.” The Cortana Skills Kit was supposed to receive a broader availability in February 2017, however, the official website is still accepting signups....

The statistics can be inferred from EA CEO Andrew Wilson, who stated in a conference call: “Turning to our expectations for fiscal 2019, we expect sales of current-generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony to continue to be strong, with the installed base growing to 130 million consoles by the end of calendar 2018 from 103 million at the end of calendar 2017. Nintendo Switch is expected to have built an installed base over 30 million by the end of the calendar year....

The Runtime Service is being deemed invalid, specifically the OculusAppFramework.dll. It seems the problem caught Facebook owned Oculus completely off guard. The company would surely have patched this before problem occurred. Considering no fix is available, we guess the company is scrambling today. It is clear Oculus will need to send out an update to solve this problem. Until then, at least officially, no Oculus Rift HMD works. However, there is a workaround available which involves tricking the license into believing it is still valid....

Obvious questions emerged from this event and once again put a spotlight on social media providers. Should Facebook be more accountable when people abuse its platform in this way? Some now say yes. However, one question I and others almost instantly shared when the news of the attack broke was: How was it possible for this man to livestream a mass shooting for 20 minutes. Doesn’t Facebook have any way of stopping these kinds of videos the moment they go live?...

Utilizing drone technology has often been an avenue Facebook has exploring. Last month, we discussed the company’s partnership with Airbus to implement its technology. Facebook worked on project Aquila for four years, which was the development of its own drone hardware. Last April, Facebook revealed it had canned Aquila and seemingly killed its plans. The new report suggests the company simply shifted focus and will use Airbus Zephyr drones instead....

Facebook decided to launch the ability on Wednesday. This was a perfectly timed launch to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the GIF format. “We know people love communicating with GIFs on Messenger, and we’re also making it easier to use GIFs on Facebook. Today we’re introducing the ability to add GIFs in comments for all people on Facebook globally,” the company says. Adding a GIF to comments is easy....

In March, former smartphone giant BlackBerry filed a lawsuit against WhatsApp. The company says the Facebook-owned messaging service infringed numerous patents from BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). Facebook seemingly disagrees and has hit back with its own legal filing. Whether this is merely a retaliation remains to be seen, but the company has compiled a 118-page court filing. The document accuses BlackBerry of infringing six patents. In the filing, the network says BBM stole technology such as GPS algorithms, video and audio delivery tech, and voice-messaging software....

It is an absolutely crushing feeling to have worked hard on a document, having invested time, energy and thought into it, only to have it disappear with the click of a button. If this has ever happened to you, you know the sadness and frustration that can very easily take over and send you into a woeful spiral. Luckily, we have ways to address a failure to save. There are several different ways to go about recovering a lost Word document, and the solutions aren’t as complicated as you might think....

As of Firefox’s latest version, videos won’t start playing when you visit a page. This is an improvement over previous versions, which would just mute such media by default. The change means websites should use fewer system resources while not interrupting whatever else you’re listening to. On top of this, the browser will block cryptominers and third-party trackers by default, removing the need for performance sucking addons. It’s also doing a lot to address battery complains on macOS, while general Windows 10 performance should be improved....

That’s where the browser’s Test Pilot program comes in, and it just got two major upgrades. Named Firefox Color and Side View, they bring some exciting new features to the browser, ones that we can already see making a full release. Color’s name pretty much sums up its abilities. It lets you change the colors of Firefox to your liking, from bright pink top bars to custom dark themes. It’s presented in an incredibly simple UI and pairs with a URL to share with any of your friends....

The changes include a rollout of support for Windows Mixed Reality features. Others focus on system stability, with no security, battery life, or performance updates. Surface Book 2 Firmware Update Changelog Though none of the changes are major, they should help create a platform on which to build on. Users may note the following changes if they’re still running the Windows 10 Creators Update (1703): Intel Corporation – Display – 22....

Flutter is a mobile development framework by Google, and it’s the most popular way to make cross-platform mobile development. It’s being used by most of the giant tech companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, and plenty more. This speaks volumes about Flutter developer salary that even tech giants need top talent to build their apps! But the average salary of Flutter developers ranges a lot, and it depends on many factors....

“Microsoft has long been a leading voice in encouraging the adoption of cross-platform play and the potential of connecting players across PC, mobile and all consoles,” said a spokesperson to Kotaku. “We’ve worked closely with Nintendo to allow cross-network play between Xbox One and Switch and our offer to do the same with PlayStation players still holds. For any other questions regarding ‘Fortnite’ cross-network play between Xbox and PlayStation, please reach out to Epic or Sony directly....

Microsoft first introduced GitHub Copilot in 2021 and has been previewing the service since. Now it is widely available, users can access Copilot for $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: “GitHub Copilot understands significantly more context than most code assistants....

A PWA is a regular web page that can be used like a traditional or mobile application. They load like a regular page but can offer things like offline support, launching from the home screen, and push notifications. “In Chrome 76, we’re making it easier for users to install Progressive Web Apps on the desktop by adding an install button to the address bar (omnibox),” Google’s Pete LePage says. “If a site meets the Progressive Web App installability criteria, Chrome will automatically show an install icon in the address bar....

Google has been using site isolation as a default features since Chrome 67 on desktops such as Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS. However, it is now coming to Android users who will receive the ability to protect against web-based attacks that are deployed through side channels. Leading the abilities of site isolation is it can protect Chrome against websites that sim to deliver CPU-level attacks. These types of malicious campaigns take advantage of the fact browsers share the same processes across websites....

Austria through its Data Protection Authority (DPA) has found local sites that use Google Analytics are falling foul of GDPR regulations. DPA argues U.S. agencies can use the tool to access user information without permission. Dutch regulators are taking a similar stance and other EU nations are likely to follow. Google believes creating a shared EU-US data transfer framework is the only solution to conflicting data regulations. The company points out businesses now operate on a global scale and data sharing is fundamental to their success and impact on local economies....