HoloLens 2 will be made available later this year and will initially be available in key Microsoft markets. Those locations are the United States, China, United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. Microsoft says the number of countries will grow once the device is launched. As this suggests, HoloLens 2 is a full consumer device, unlike the original HoloLens which never left its developer edition. In terms of price, HoloLens is cheaper than its predecessor, but still a costly prospect....

Microsoft’s Bot Framework was introduced by Microsoft at Build 2016 back in March. The service gives developers tools to easily create bots and distribute them through a marketplace. Bots are not just for Microsoft services like Skype. They can also be created for third parties like Slack, Facebook, and Messenger. In its blog post, the company points out that it is happy with the number of bots already created. Bringing the Bot Framework to Azure in preview lets developers work on creations with the cloud in mind....

According to Microsoft Philanthropies lead Mary Snapp, TAF was founded in 1997 by former Microsoft leader Trish Millines Dziko. The investment will provide funding for its STEM by TAF program, which offers skills training, internships, and college preparation. Computer Science still sees significant misrepresentation in high schools, with only five percent of AP test takers African American and a quarter female. A study by CRA in 2013/14 found that African American’s made up 3% of Microsoft’s employees....

Can you imagine visiting an unknown place without the GPS on your smartphone? The answer is a big “No.” The same, however, was a reality a couple of decades ago, when all people had was a plain text address of the location they intended to visit. Naturally, this made the lives of salespeople and door-to-door marketers difficult since they had to plan their entire workday around a series of mere text-based addresses....

If you’re unfamiliar with the tool, it adds to the current Protected View that is a default security feature on Office 365. Safe Documents has been in private preview since February this year. With Protected View, Office 365 applications can open suspicious files in a special “read-only” environment. Users cannot edit these files by default but can choose to do so if they deem the content trustworthy. If you use Office 365 apps, you may have noticed Protected View is fairly widespread when vetting....

Titled “MULTI-FUNCTIONAL STYLUS”, the patent describes how new implementations can boost the functionality of a stylus. The tech detailed in the filing would likely be added to a new Surface Pen, possible for the future Surface Pro 7. The idea behind the patent is to replace a normal mouse entirely for input operations. This is achieved through a new “pointing stick” at the top of the stylus. Users will be able to use this tip as a moving unit for manipulating the cursor on a touch-enabled hardware....

“The Windows Defender Antivirus Service service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 100 milliseconds: Run the configured recovery program,” said the error in Event Viewer. In the antivirus program itself, users were told that their anti-virus service had stopped and prompted them to restart it. Such errors can naturally raise fears of a malware infection, so many will be relieved to hear it was Microsoft’s mistake....

However, users will now be able to create a new Sticky Notes note directly in the taskbar on a Windows 10 PC. This is possible because the app now integrates into the Windows 10 jump list. Other new improvements include a new font. Sticky Notes now users the Segoe UI font whereas it previously used the Segoe UI Emoji font. This is a minor change, but it means users can type Kaomokis....

Among the changes coming to the SDK with Windows 10 April 2018 Update are new machine learning models and the Timeline features. Elsewhere, users will find user activity tools and new UX controls for the platform. Microsoft has published a changelog for the features in its announcement: Installation Depending on your Visual Studio build, there are different ways to download the SDK. If your running VS 15.6, you can download the Windows 10 April 2018 Update SDK from here and simply install it....

Ex Microsoft employee Mouni Reddy took to Twitter to show an OpenCL benchmark of the affordable Surface tablet. In case you are unfamiliar with the rumor mill surrounding the hardware, it is an affordable Surface slate that should be launched this year. It will be more oriented to consumers than the business-minded Surface Pro and will have lower specs. So, what will lesser components mean for performance? Reddy compared the new Surface to Apple’s 2017 MacBook, incidentally a device that costs much more than $400....

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. Microsoft has insisted there is more profit allowing Call of Duty to remain a cross-platform franchise. It now seems that regulators in the EU will force Microsoft to commit to that claim....

Watchlists in Azure Sentinel are currently in preview and allow the service to collect data from outside sources to compare with events within the Azure ecosystem. Microsoft points out the tool is ideal for security operations (SecOps) teams who need help finding threats and improving detection. In a blog post, Microsoft explains Watchlists can investigate potential threats and create alert filters. It can also import business data to create allow and deny lists....

“Presently, most of our digital identity and personal data is controlled by a few central service providers. These providers, generally corporations, control our data, including having the ability to deny or revoke access to it,” explained Microsoft’s Alex Simons in a previous statement. Microsoft’s solution would anchor identifiers to blockchain solutions like Ethereum or Bitcoin, ensuring that users have control over their information rather than their account provider. Blockchain that Scales The solution follows a number of high profile breaches at Instagram, Facebook, and even Outlook....

Microsoft tipster WalkingCat has discovered a new page called Microsoft Edge Insider Addons, which seems to detail the extensions that will be available for Chromium Edge. The document shows Edge will be fairly well stocked from the start, with 82 Addons currently listed. Of course, it seems obvious Microsoft will add more extensions to the browser over time, especially considering Edge is now based on Chromium and can get most Chrome extensions....

“Until now, if your organization wanted to use GitHub for private development, you had to subscribe to one of our paid plans. But every developer on earth should have access to GitHub. Price shouldn’t be a barrier,” GitHub announced on its official blog. “This means teams can now manage their work together in one place: CI/CD, project management, code review, packages, and more. We want everyone to be able to ship great software on the platform developers love....

Known as The Duke, the OG Xbox controller will be available again in time for the holiday season. Xbox One users will be able to use the pad on all games. The peripheral will also work with Windows 10. Microsoft is not making the controller itself. Instead, the company has collaborated with accessory maker Hyperkin. As you can imagine, the company has added some modern twists to the new Duke....

Users of the Sophos antivirus software reported their machines would not boot after the updates were installed. Microsoft blocked the update for users without it. Those who had already updated were told to enter in Safe Mode and remove the patch. The latest problem suggests the problem has migrated to Windows 10, albeit with seemingly less impact. Sophos and Avast are not affected on Windows 10, but users of ArcaBit are reporting their devices won’t boost following Patch Tuesday....

Martin Lachter, senior research associate for Consumer Reports says Microsoft’s “reliability is now on-par with most other laptop brands”. While this recommendation is hardly binding, it is important, especially with new Surface devices launching next week. Consumer Reports is a go-to location for many customers who want to know if a product is worth buying. That Surface was deemed unreliable was a problem for Microsoft. Sure, it didn’t really affect sales of devices, but having a recommendation will help....

Surface Go is Microsoft’s tablet, which lacks many of the enterprise-grade power of the Surface Pro. However, LSAT clearly needs something more basic and says it chose the Surface Go over hundreds of other tablets. Presumably one of the those was Apple’s iPad, which is what the Go is competing against. So, in other words, this is a big partnership for Microsoft and its new slate. LSAT says the iPad was too expensive and iOS could not be modified....

To utilize the bug, an attacker has multiple avenues. However, one option is the crafting of a specially crafted document that would then use the flaw to execute code when opened or viewed in the preview pane. Thankfully, those running the latest version of Windows 10 should be well-protected by the OS’ in-built security. Microsoft says “a successful attack could only result in code execution within an AppContainer sandbox context with limited privileges and capabilities”....