While it has been a long time coming, the relevant pricing changes have been made to the Microsoft Store App Developer Agreement. Announced yesterday (March 5, 2019) and effective immediately, developers can receive up to 95 percent of revenues. Specifically for consumer app developers, the new ADA will appear the next time they log into their Partner Center dashboard. A developer or anyone with administrative allowance can accept the new ADA before update or managing apps....

Microsoft has weighed in on the debate, with president and Chief Counsel Brad Smith criticizing Apple’s approach. “They impose requirements that increasingly say there is only one way to get on to our platform and that is to go through the gate that we ourselves have created. In some cases they create a very high price per toll — in some cases 30% of your revenue has to go to the toll keeper....

Indeed, this is a massive saving as the Surface Book 2 on sales is normally priced at $3144.99. This means consumers in Walmart can save a massive $1600 on the 2-in-1. If you are unfamiliar with the second-generation Surface Book, it is Microsoft’s flagship 2-in-1 laptop. Feature blazing high-end specs, it may be the best way to experience Windows 10 you can get. Now at half price, the model at Walmart is a steal....

The idea, I guess, is to better present the redesigned app, which Microsoft has previously used to emphasize knowledge sharing and group interaction. Inside of Teams, Communities is intended for more widespread broadcasts – anything from polls to announcements, Q&A’s, and company announcements. “By bringing Yammer into Teams, we want to make it easier for leaders and communicators to quickly and effectively communicate with their teams and organizations, even when they need to work apart,” explains Microsoft....

Specifically, Microsoft Teams now allows users on iOS to swap between contents and the video feed during a meeting. Elsewhere, the platform also has new audio settings for both the speakers and microphone on iPad or iPhone. Microsoft has also handled some of the usual bug fixes we associated with any app update. Below is a full changelog for version 2.0.1: Switch between content and participant videos during a meeting Mute mic and speaker by default when a meeting room is nearby and joined into the same meeting Bug fixes and performance improvements...

1 Commercial Cloud Growth2 Product Line Results3 Xbox Success For its third quarter earnings, Microsoft announced revenue of $35 billion and income of $10.8 billion. Revenue jumped 15% year-on-year and once again bested Wall Street predictions, which pointed to $33.66 billion in revenue. It is worth noting the results are until March 30, so how Microsoft does in its fiscal fourth quarter may provide a better understanding of how the company manages during COVID-19....

Speaking to Axios, Smith, who also serves as Microsoft’s chief lawyer, says the company will increase the division by 20% over the coming fiscal year. The drive is part of a wider recruitment push by Microsoft that is targeting key areas of its business. “This reflects a conclusion that this decade will bring expanded tech regulation around the world,” Smith said. “As I sometimes put it inside the company, the 2020s will bring to tech what the 1930s brought to financial services....

For those who aren’t familiar, Microsoft brought Planned smart list to Windows a few weeks ago. To aid organization, it places all calendar scheduled tasks on a new screen and orders them by date. It means that users who have multiple lists for different projects can get a quick overview of what needs to be done and when. They no longer have to jump between different lists to work out the order, saving time....

Microsoft To-Do is now available within Mail and Calendar as a part of version 11001.20106. With this integration, users can access their To-Do tasks directly within the Mail and Calendar application. At the moment, the feature is only available to Insiders in preview. However, it should move through the Insider program swiftly and reach end users on Windows 10 soon. Microsoft is extending its To-Do app as an integral part of its consumer Outlook branded suite of apps on for Windows 10....

Microsoft’s purchase is also under scrutiny in Europe and the United States. Across the board, it seems like the company will need to make concessions to get the deal across the line. And that seems to be what Microsoft is now doing just that with the European Commission. Both Sony and regulators have concerns about how Microsoft will use franchises from Activision Blizzard, such as Call of Duty. As Microsoft takes control of these brands, the company could decide to make them exclusive to Xbox Game Pass....

On the GDC in San Francisco, Microsoft has now announced it will begin shipping the first dev kits to its developer partners this March. Game developers who attended the company’s Mixed Reality session at GDC will also receive the Acer Windows Mixed Reality Developer Edition headset in the coming months. In an article on the Microsoft blog, HoloLens mastermind Alex Kipman has shared more details about the company´s vision for mixed reality and the upcoming headset....

Microsoft Translator Release Notes Version 3.0.165 is a relatively small update, with no new features in sight. However, it does remedy several annoyances that make the app hard to use. Here’s the full changelog for this build: “Slow start up time improvements Conversation mode disconnection fixes Improved error messages Other bug fixes” The slow start up fix is the most noticeable improvement here, and it’s actually quite important. In the real world, there’s not always time to wait for load screens....

Of course, this means users on those builds will not be able to download the app. Microsoft says the app will be removed from the Windows Store starting Wednesday, March 22. You may think that if you already have Microsoft Translator then you will be fine. Well no, because Microsoft says the app will stop working completely on those builds from April 30, 2017. That’s just over a month left before the app becomes useless....

In an announcement today, Microsoft says many customers need reliability, but cannot trade-off performance. A new generation of VPN Gateway services have been created which accommodate customers with intensive VNets workloads. Microsoft says it re-engineered its existing VPN Gateways for a significant improvement. The good news for customers is that the new gateways are no extra cost. In its post, the company explains how it achieved improved performance for the Azure VPN Gateways: “The new generation of Azure VPN Gateways provide single tunnel performance of up to 1 Gbps and aggregate up to 1....

That update for OneDrive on Windows 10 is now available. While there are no new major features involved, the look and feel of the whole client has been improved. For example, OneDrive now works more harmoniously with Windows 10’s battery saver mode. Thanks to this improvement, OneDrive will automatically stop syncing when a device has battery saver mode enabled. That’s obviously a fantastic addition for saving battery. Microsoft knows that not every user is micro-managing battery, so files can be synced by choice even in battery saving mode if the user requires....

In its announcement, the company says it wants AI to be accessible. Reaching out to innovators and incentivizing them to create could open doors. Called the AI for Good Prize, the competition is opening today. The competition is asking global start-ups to build transformative technologies that are based on artificial intelligence. Microsoft Ventures has set up a $1 million prize fund in collaboration with venture capital partners. “At Microsoft, we believe AI has the power to transform our world....

According to Microsoft, the C++ extension delivers numerous tools to Visual Studio Code, allowing for users to get more work done: “The C++ extension brings a rich set of productivity features to VS Code for C++ developers, including IntelliSense smart code completion, debugging, refactoring, code navigation, and more,” Microsoft’s Julia Reid says. “On top of that, these features are adaptable to various platforms, architectures, and compilers, enabling all your cross-compiling and remote development scenarios....

As this is an Insider update, it means the features is currently in testing and should come to Your Phone on Windows 10 in the future. Users can leverage this ability to respond directly to a text message with a phone call. If you’re unfamiliar with Your Phone, it is a bridging application that lets users view and use their smartphone on their Windows desktop. It has not been smooth sailing for Your Phone to reach the sort of functionality that will make it valuable to users....

WhatsApp is among the most used apps in the world when it comes to communications, with over 2 billion users. This year Meta has released some amazing features in the latest updates of WhatsApp. Suppose you are moving to the iPhone from Android and looking for a WhatsApp transfer tool that has kept pace with WhatsApp updates. Worry not; there is such a tool that can transfer the data of the latest features in its transfer WhatsApp from Android to iPhone function....

Importantly, this means the NHS missed a government mandated target to update all machines to Windows 10 by time Windows 7 became obsolete. Microsoft ended support for the platform in January. Organizations will no longer receive automatic bug fixes for security flaws. However, they can still get those updates if they pay a fee. That’s the situation the NHS now finds itself in. What’s amazing about this situation is the NHS was set up to upgrade to Windows 10....