Across May 2, 2019 and May 3, 2019, Microsoft is hosting Mixed Reality Dev Days. These events will allow developers to view and use Microsoft’s latest Mixed Reality technologies. Developers will also be able to interact with other dev’s and other people from the virtual and augmented reality industry. Microsoft says during the Mixed Reality Dev Days, attendees can: “Code alongside our engineering teams. Learn and test the latest in our portfolio: HoloLens 2, new Azure mixed reality services, Azure Kinect Developer Kit, and more!...

Sure, Bing Maps is still a very distant second to Google Maps, but Microsoft’s support for the suite has been solid. Indeed, through a few years of consistent updates, Bing Maps is now a very solid maps package and is packed with features. At the same time, Microsoft has admittedly stopped collecting its own imagery. That said, Bing Maps may not be getting new image updates, but it is already well stocked....

This discovery comes from highly respected Microsoft reporter Brad Sams, as well as Thurrott technical contributor Rafael Rivera and YouTube’s Nazmus Labs. The basis of the assumption is the free release of State of Decay on PC, which has some interesting properties. Though State of Decay downloads from the store, its assets don’t come from the usual place. Some digging reveals that they’re actually pulled from assets1.xboxlive.com. Further, the installer uses the ....

“These cloud-based data analytics and visualization services will empower government employees to visualize data, glean valuable insights and intelligence from their vast data resources to take informed action to improve citizen services, reduce taxpayer costs and increase efficiency, all while adhering to the most stringent security requirements,” said Curt Kolcun, U.S. Public Sector vice president for Microsoft. HDInsight Capabilities in Azure Government Kolcun also provided further detail on how each can be utilized in Azure Government....

“Many of our government and utility customers already use Microsoft services, it’s a trusted and familiar brand, so when customers hear that we are on Azure, that gives them confidence in delivery and helps speed up adoption of emerging technologies like ours,” explained Vapar CTO and co-founder Michelle Aguilar. “Hosting on Azure gives us the ability to integrate securely into our customers Active Directory, which streamlines the customer experience”. Vapar’s AI can reportedly analyze sewer and stormwater pipes at 85% accuracy, far above the human review rate of 60%....

In an update to the tracker, Microsoft says Bing Maps can now track and chart COVID-19 vaccines. According to the company, the tool can find vaccine candidates around the world and users can track progress of trials. Of course, no vaccine for COVID-19 exists. However, there are several in-development vaccines that are being explored. For those who are tracking COVID-19 information, the Bing Maps expansion could be a valuable tool....

On October 18, Azure and Office 365 users in North America reported problems with their Multifactor Authentication and sign-ins. Users with MFA could not sign-in properly to those services for a three-hour period. Microsoft confirmed the problem and that .51 percent of users in the region were affected. In an explanation post, Microsoft says a hotfix for the problem was quickly created to completely bypass the external service. This restored MFA functionality long enough for the network to recover....

Skype notifications for Outlook.com and OneDrive on the web have been available since last year. However, Microsoft did not offer users a way to turn notifications on and off. This naturally meant that whenever Skype wanted to notify something, it would send a flood of pings. One to the open Skype app, and one each to Outlook.com and OneDrive, if those services were open in a browser tab. Considering Microsoft wants users to use services seamlessly, this was a messy experience....

The new Power BI template gives tools to find key trends and manage posts and comments on a Facebook Pages page. Moreover, users can look into sentiment data and perform other data analysis. Microsoft Research technology has been employed in the new feature, while Azure service provide easy analytics for campaign and brand managers. Importantly, the template brings the ability to track multiple Facebook Pages. Not only can these pages be viewed, but they can also be compared and data anaylzed across them....

“This update includes some new and exciting capabilities, improvements to existing features, and extended support for additional platforms,” the post points out. There are four new features announced in the Power BI Mobile March release. However, they are split evenly with two specifically for iOS users and two for Android devices. For iOS, Power BI customers are receiving improvements to the Q&A experience. Microsoft has recently introduced this feature in preview....

Alongside the preview build, Microsoft confirmed it will be launching RS4 RS_PRERELEASE branch previews to both Fast Ring and Skip Ahead at the same time. Looking at Windows 10 Build 17025, Microsoft has added Ease of Access Settings, new controls for Startup tasks, and improvements to the Yahei Font. Starting with Ease of Access, Microsoft has overhauled the Settings so control for seeing, hearing, and interaction are now grouped together....

According to fresh reports, Microsoft is working on a model that will allow it to build and sell a low-cost PC that customers pay for through ads and subscriptions. It seems this project is the real deal because Microsoft has a job listing that discusses it. The position is for a Principal Software Engineering Manager that will help to build a Windows 11 PC that is affordable. It seems that the whole concept will be underpinned by Windows 365....

While Nadella’s base salary is still $25 million, his stock awards have increased from $33 million to $42.2 million. Other areas of Nadella’s earnings have also been declared in Microsoft’s latest Proxy 2022 Statement. It shows the CEO’s Non-equity incentive plan compensation fells from $14.2 million last year to $10.6 million this year. In total, Nadella is getting a $55 million package, which the company says is 96% performance-based (up from 71% the year previous)....

The so-called “sneak and peek” warrant would result in Microsoft giving the government customer data. However, the high-profile organizational customer would not be given notice of its data being shared. “We have challenged that order in the lower court, and we will pursue an appeal in the appellate court if necessary,” said Dev Stahlkopf, Microsoft’s general counsel in a blogpost. According to Stahlkopf, Microsoft did not have full information on this case....

And the cost for tapping into Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services? Well, a cool $20,000 each month for each tenant. For that kind of outlay, it is essential that the cloud solution offers a lot to organizations. Microsoft points out the vertical cloud platform provide financial insights, data management tools, and actionable insights into how to use data to build solutions. Furthermore, the offering also helps to increase productivity and help organizations better understand customers....

If you are unfamiliar with CloudKnox Security, it develops Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) services. As a leader in the space, the company allows organizations to manage permissions and privilege access. Using analytics, the platform protects against security breaches. Microsoft previously discussed how it will use the platform in Azure. It seems those plans are coming to users in the form of CloudKnox Permissions Management. This is a unified CIEM that allows Azure customers to manage permissions across their cloud infrastructure....

At the end of June, Microsoft will mark the end of its fiscal 2018. Ahead of the new corporate year, the company has announced more changes to its executive team. Now, its engineering divisions are being shuffled to put even more focus on intelligent cloud/intelligent edge. Among the changes saw Microsoft Corporate Vice President Kudo Tsunoda leaving his position. He was part of the Mixed Reality, Story Remix, and HoloLens departments....

Well, besting it in one key area at least. Loup Ventures, the investment firm run by known analyst Gene Munster conducted a virtual assistant IQ test amongst the leading industry candidates. Involved in the test were Alexa, Cortana, Siri, and Google Assistant. Google Assistant was victorious, answering 86% of the 800 questions correctly. Maybe that’s not a surprise considering Assistant is widely regarded. However, Siri’s performance is perhaps more of note....

However, just as Nadella was building bridges, Microsoft’s marketing team was performing an own goal. It seems the company has been trying to get some cheap PR goodwill from the racial tension that has flared up in numerous countries, but especially in the United States. Microsoft tapped a New York City ad agency to create a mural to show the company’s solidarity with minorities. For a start, the mural itself was to cover the company’s boarded up 5th Avenue store, probably in an effort to protect it from looters and rioters....

In collaboration with Huawei, the company has achieved a translation breakthrough. Thanks to the Chinese phone giants’ new NPU (Neural Processing Unit), you can now use Microsoft Translator offline. Admittedly, it’s a feature that was available before, but now there’s a twist. The Mate 10’s Neural Processing Unit allows for “dramatically better and faster offline translations as compared to existing offline packs.” The BLEU Test When Microsoft says dramatically, it’s not lying, either....