And so ends the great cull where Microsoft has been letting stocks die for the best part of two years. In fact, we have been surprised how long some of the inventory hung around. We thought the 2017 Holiday Season would have dried the well, but Windows Phone devices lived on. The HP Elite x3 and Alcatel Idol 4S were the two remaining devices and they are now out of stock....
1 Reported Feature2 General Users Over the weekend, Microsoft was forced to pull the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. Users had shown the manual update version of the release was deleting user files like documents and images. It was unknown how long Microsoft would take to issue a fix. We speculated the company would roll out a fix through yesterday’s Patch Tuesday and that’s what happened. The company says it is just testing the fix at the moment, but it should protect user files....
Firstly, Microsoft was proudly highlighting that Flight Simulator is the company’s longest-running game franchise. In fact, the series will be celebrating its 40th anniversary in November. Microsoft published a trailer for the 40th Anniversary Edition of the game, while also providing details on what to expect. Like other major updates, the 40th Anniversary of Microsoft Flight Simulator will be free and huge… it may be the biggest of the lot....
Summer of 2021 to be more accurate, although the company is also killing plans for an Xbox One launch. Or that’s how it seems because Microsoft does not mention the old console in the trailer. That’s a shame, especially since Microsoft said Flight Simulator would come to its now old console. No reason has been given for going back on that promise, but I think it’s obvious. The company wants as many people as possible to move with the Xbox Series X|S and Microsoft Flight Simulator is the kind of game that could push them to an upgrade....
What is interesting about the app is it brings high-quality curated news content to Microsoft’s gaming console. The news feed allows quick reading of news headlines and the option to open any story for more in-depth content. Your News also gives Xbox One users the ability to watch news content directly on their console. Microsoft leverages the power of its MSN platform to gather content. This allows the app to deliver video feeds directly from MSN....
When users enter tablet mode in Windows 11, they can now select between two options: First is a state where the taskbar is collapsed and displays important status icons only. The second is an expanded taskbar that will make it easier to touch apps and icons. Microsoft is locking this feature, which means it is exclusively for devices that can be used as tablets, such as full tablets and 2-in-1 convertibles....
[February 14, 2018 1:54 pm CET] As reported on Monday, a security vulnerability could give hackers access to system-level privileges. If properly exploited, attackers could use Skype as a backdoor to get full system rights and enter all areas of an operating system. In response, Microsoft said it was unable to fix the bug immediately because it would require a lot of work. Indeed, the company said patch the flaw would take a massive code rewrite....
As we reported in our wider look at Microsoft’s financial results, Xbox earnings increased by a massive 51 percent. This was part of a $15.1B haul for the overall More Personal Computing category. While Windows and Surface are also in that category, Xbox was the star of the show through last quarter. Xbox Live and Xbox Game Pass saw a 40 percent revenue increase. There were also a couple of records broken through the period; third-party title revenue topped $2 billion for the first time, while gaming revenue overhaul went over $5 billion for the first time....
The new series is designed for training and interface. Microsoft says the ND-series is powered by NVIDIA’s Tesla P40 GPU and is built on the Pascal Architecture. This allows customers to get double the performance compared to older generations. Improvements in AI workloads are also available with the new series. Microsoft is expanding the range because its NVIDIA Tesla-based GPUs have been a huge success. The company first launched these GPUs last year....
On the company’s IoT blog, Corporate Vice President Julia White said the company will pump $5 billion into IoT development. The money will be spent over the next four years, White confirmed. Make no mistake, this is a massive investment and shows Microsoft’s commitment to IoT. Let’s not forget the market is still nascent, albeit with the expectation of driving future technology. White says Microsoft has decided to invest heavily in IoT due to “increased adoption and exponential growth that analysts have been forecasting for years, and we’re just getting started....
1 Full Changelog2 Promotion Controversy This was no low-key update either as Microsoft introduced numerous new features and tools to the application. With the release, the app is now up to Preview build version 0.3. If you are unfamiliar with the new service, the Terminal is a dedicated app for command line implementation on Windows 10. Developers can leverage multiple tabs and customize the experience with themes. On that latter front, you’ll need to edit a JSON file to access the full suite of customization tools....
In a statement on Friday, the Pentagon revealed that it will provide these to the Defense Department, Coast Guard, and intelligence services. The contract is indefinite delivery/quantity, meaning Microsoft can give an indefinite number of services until January 10, 2024. “Support includes Microsoft product engineering services for software developers and product teams to leverage a range of proprietary resources and source-code, and Microsoft premier support for tools, knowledge database, problem resolution assistance, and custom changes to Microsoft source-code when applicable,” explained the DoD....
First up, Microsoft raised a curtain on a new Bing Maps SDK for mobile (iOS and Android) platforms. With the SDK, developers can write applications with Bing Maps integration. Among the features of the SDK are controls powered by a vector 3D map engine. This engine can offer several mapping capabilities when still running at native performance. Second of the new Bing Maps announcements was a new SDK for mixed-reality applications....
We will let you decide if that is bloatware or not, but it probably depends on whether you use Sling TV. The company also announced today that its Xbox One app has been given a UI refresh and new look. By coming pre-installed with Windows 10, Sling TV joins some other services that are locked in. For example, Candy Crush, 3D Builder, and Solitaire are also baked into the platform....
However, Microsoft is worried that’s not the end of it. Meltdown and Spectre were just two discovered bugs, and there could be more hiding out there. As such, the company is offering $250,000 to anybody who can discover a similar flaw. The bugs are known as speculative execution side-channel vulnerabilities. In essence, the discovery of Meltdown and Spectre unearthed a whole new category that’s yet to be fully explored. “Speculative execution is truly a new class of vulnerabilities, and we expect that research is already underway exploring new attack methods,” explained Phillip Misner, principal security group manager at Microsoft....
If you’re unfamiliar wit FLoC, it is Google’s response to websites blocking third-party cookies. Advertisers use cookies to target users with ads based on what they are browser online. It’s a controversial ad tactic and many users seek to prevent it. Of course, Google’s revenue is based advertising, so the company’s finances are directly impacted by ad blocking tools. So, the company developed Federate Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), which leverages web browsers to categorize users under interest or browsing behavior sections....
The functionality was spotted by user William Richardson, who provided videos to XDA. Assumedly, this is one of many preparations the company is making for the release of its Surface Duo foldable. Much like LG’s G8X, the device will have two separate displays, though they’ll be joined by a complex hinge mechanism rather than a standalone accessory. Functionality such as this is designed to make it easier to be productive and minimize the time spent switching apps....
In a tweet last week from Chris Gahlsdorf, a Windows Insider Most Valuable Professional (MVP), confirmed the closure. A link to an email his company received showed the following message from Microsoft: “Hi Olympia participant, “We are sending this email to notify you that we will formally be shutting down the Olympia program in a month. We will be unassigning Olympia licenses and deleting the Olympia feedback path. “Action Required: Take a backup of any data if you are using the provided Olympia licenses in the next 30 days, by September 12, 2022....
Yes, a mat (or rug) may not sound like a sexy innovation in the VR space, but it could be important. Moving around in the real-world environment when engrossed in the virtual one can be problematic. Users wearing a VR headset can often hit objects in the real environment. Of course, this is less of problem in the augmented reality as users can see and interact with the real environment....
Arguably the Surface Duo is the most exciting of the pair, considering it is Microsoft’s return to the smartphone market. It is a dual-screen Android handset that will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855. It will also have a 5.3-inch display that is 8.3-inches when opened. As for the Surface Neo, it looks like the Duo but in a tablet form factor. It’s running Windows 10X and not Android, with an Intel Lakefield processor running the show....
