Certainly, Xiaoice has been one of Microsoft’s most enduring chatbots. Because it is excellent at injecting emotion into conversations, it has become a popular tool. In fact, it’s no longer confined to China and has been released in Japan (as Rinna) and in Indonesia. Microsoft says spinning Xiaoice off into its own company will help it to continue growing. Specifically, the focus will be on creating a “commercial ecosystem” that pushes innovation....

If this is the case, it means Microsoft will continue with having two Xbox consoles. Currently, the company offers the Xbox One S and the Xbox One X. The latter is just a year old and is the most powerful console in the world. Microsoft may want to continue this model, with Project Scarlett functioning as a replacement to the Xbox One S and Project Anaconda replacing the Xbox One X....

Comments on Reddit show that users are finding Windows 10 privacy settings are keeping the keylogging feature turned on by default. The feature that tracks typing and handwriting information is always on. Microsoft says this service helps users improve their typing and handwriting. Ok, it is definitely worth mentioning that this is not a keylogger in a traditional sense. However, it is tracking what users type. Also, it is not a new feature as part of the new privacy settings....

To access the APIs, developers can simply add the NuGet to their project via the NuGet Package Manager console. They can then choose to target contracts for Windows 10 1803, 1809, and 1903. Microsoft has provided an example of a project using the NuGet packages on GitHub. The page contains detailed documentation, as well as explanations of the example app’s various features: “WindowsXamlHost: Adds built-in or custom UWP controls to the User Interface (UI) of WPF or Windows Forms desktop application....

Organizations are seeking services that allow for collaboration, remote access, while also maintaining security in a difficult cybersecurity environment. As for employees, they need tools that they are familiar with, are usable, and work across their devices. Microsoft says Windows 365 Cloud PC meets these demands. It will function on both Windows 10 and Windows 11 and brings Windows to Microsoft Cloud. It offers a secure version of Windows complete with apps, settings, and data, to corporate and personal devices....

Windows Virtual Desktop is one of the services that has put Microsoft in a good position in recent weeks. It is built on the premise of remote use and Microsoft has introduced new features to the service this week. Microsoft 365 users now have more management tools for virtual desktops, while security, compliance, and deployment tools have been added. Furthermore, Microsoft Teams is now more functional within Windows Virtual Desktop....

“After 15 years at XBOX, I announced today that I would be leaving,” his tweet reads. “I made so many friends, learned so much and truly had a blast! I’m extremely excited about the next opportunity in my career and I will be announcing that very soon, you all will be pumped! 😉 Thank you!!!” At the moment, details around the decision are vague. For example, Microsoft has not announced who will head up Xbox Live....

Though the date for Ignite, November 4, was already known, Microsoft Build was less certain. The tech giant tends to run it in May, but the dates aren’t stable. It seems it’ll be late May 19 launch this time, compared to the early month starts of the past couple of years. Build is, of course, Microsoft’s developer conference. As with Google’s I/O and Apple’s WWDC, though, it’s become much more than that....

In a support page, Microsoft confirmed what many suspected; UserVoice forums are disappearing for good. In recent years, the company has given and taken in equal measure when it comes to the forums. During 2018, the company debuted a Skype UserVoice forum to allow users to make feature requests. On the flip side, a year later in 2019 the company shut down the Windows Developer forum. That shuttering was a precursor for this latest cull and now decision to entirely remove UserVoice....

Of course, captcha’s are common and a base level of security for weeding out bots during a sign-up process. That Skype has one if hardly a surprise. What is surprising is just how annoying this captcha is. Again, annoying captcha’s are par for the course, but Microsoft is really taking it to the extreme. It seems new users coming to Skype must complete the captcha puzzle 10 times before being allowed to progress....

Microsoft is now addressing this with the rollout of wish lists and an improved shopping cart experience. The new cart is available now for Xbox Insiders, while wish lists will launch later in the week. As with other retail platforms, the wish list will act as a hub for items you have your eye on. Users will be able to quickly see when items are on sale and share the lists with friends....

The confusion came from the fact Microsoft already has a shopping service called the Microsoft Store. The Windows Store was specifically for apps and software services, while the Microsoft Store was for hardware and physical products. Microsoft did not clarify the situation last week, but it seems the company is unifying both stores. This means the Microsoft Store will replace the Windows 10 Store and also sell hardware, as well as apps....

Office 365 Enterprise customers in 181 regions and 44 languages can now use Microsoft Stream. As well as the roll out, Microsoft is also adding some new intelligence features to the platform. The idea behind Stream is to provide a dedicated video platform for business users. While other platforms, like YouTube, have business content, enterprise is not the focus. Microsoft has access to millions of business customers through services like Azure and Office 365 and wants them to use the single destination video platform....

A recently discovered Microsoft patent suggests the company wants to bake in a fingerprint sensor on a future Surface Headphones release. In some ways, this is a logical step. Headphones are increasingly coming with interaction features such as swipe and touch gestures. Looking at the details, it looks like Microsoft wants to the fingerprint sensor to act as a way of controlling the headphones and connecting them. For example, users could read their prints to connect the Surface Headphones to a PC....

Concerningly, the vulnerability would give hackers visibility of end user accounts simply by seeing a message. In other words, no interaction by the user is needed to enact an exploit of the flaw. According to security researcher Oskars Vegeris, this is a wormable exploit in Microsoft Teams could target a vulnerability. It would access the client chat and view the messes resulting in a “complete loss of confidentiality and integrity for end-users — access to private chats, files, internal network, private keys and personal data outside MS Teams....

For example, users can build flows which monitor all activity on social media forums and alert their team about events that they didn’t expect or require action. In addition, users can alert their team of new activity with the Teams connector. The new feature will post a message to an existing Microsoft Teams channel. With users gradually switching to Teams and Flow in order to collaborate, a connector that brings these two services together should improve the experience....

The new update does not add any new features to the app. Instead, Microsoft has focused on making improvements and solving problems. There are not the usual unnamed bug fixes and improvements. For example, Microsoft says it has fixed an issue that was causing a crash when Microsoft To-Do was switching to another app. Elsewhere, VoiceOver improvements have been made, although Redmond does not say what they are. You can check out the full iOS changelog below:...

Previously available in the Microsoft Store, the Edge Insider extension allow members of the Insider Program to keep up to date with the development status of the browser. Users could see the latest features, announcements, and known issues from the browser. While the Edge Insider extension was removed in April, Microsoft is now preparing a new version. According to ALumia, the company will launch a version that is based on development from Chromium Edge....

According to The Verge, features for the service will depend largely on operating system, with iOS naturally being more restricted. For Android users, however, it’s a chance to view the entire phone interface on PC, reducing the need to check your phone for notifications or view apps. So far, details on iOS integration are sparse, but it seems users will be able to access texts, photos, and notifications. Thurrott says users will be able to drop documents straight to their PC without the need for cloud services, as well as other media....

Thanks to the latest update, the utility page of Arrow Launcher now supports multiple widget cards. Beta testers of the app are now able to add their favorite music, news, and weather cards in the utility page. In addition, Arrow Launcher v3.3 adds a new card and a new page. Users that are part of the app’s beta testing now have access to a Calendar card and a Calendar page....