In an announcement, the company says it is looking to be more efficient through the Skype business: “This proposal is consistent with our long-term aim to reduce our geographical footprint and co-locate teams to enable better collaboration, improved engineering efficiencies and increase the pace of innovation and quality. We are deeply committed to doing everything we can to help all those impacted through this process.” While Microsoft says it will seek new opportunities for employees at the Stockholm office, it is clear at least some will lose their jobs....

The device was introduced by Surface chief Panos Panay. In his usually buoyant style, the executive was quick to point out how popular the Surface brands has become. More importantly, the hardware line has become an increasingly important part of Microsoft’s output. To emphasize the point, Panay walked amongst the media gathered in the crowd and highlighted how many of them were using Surface. As we mentioned last week, Microsoft’s new device is called the Surface Pro 6, despite the company dropping the numbering method for last year’s Surface Pro....

The flaw has been recently disclosed and affect the Intel CPUs running in non-supported Windows 10 builds. Intel revealed the problem recently and said it was working with partners on a solution: “Intel has worked with operating system vendors, equipment manufacturers, and other ecosystem partners to develop platform firmware and software updates that can help protect systems from these methods. This includes the release of updated Intel microprocessor microcode to our customers and partners....

Windows 10 21H1 was launched in May 2021 and Microsoft recently said the build is coming to the end of servicing (EOS) in three month time. With that in mind, users on 21H1 will soon no longer get feature or security updates. To overcome this, they will need to update to a newer version of Windows. While Microsoft still supports newer Windows 10 builds, the company says 21H1 users should skip Windows 10 and move to the newer Windows 11....

Before getting into the details of the tool, it is worth noting the new Rewrite is only available on Microsoft Word for the web. When users type in Word, the tool will help them rephrase awkward sentences and make them easier to understand. This might mean changing the entire sentence structure or offering tips for making the phrase read better through more efficient expressions. According to Microsoft, the Rewrite Suggestions AI is built on “cutting-edge, neural-network, machine learning models, which are trained on millions of sentences“....

FireEye described the original flaw and has since told Microsoft. The company says it will issued a fix as part of April’s patch Tuesday yesterday. However, it seems some attackers have exploited Microsoft Word prior to the company finding the gap in security. FireEye says one attack allowed attackers to weaponize a Russian military training manual. The document contained malicious content in the form of FinSpy, a surveillance software used by governments....

With that in mind, a new Your Phone update is rolling out that provides a bunch of more advanced features. For example, there is a new What’s New screen and the ability to delete images across devices within the app. Looking at the What’s New screen, this will appear in the Your Phone app following an update. As you may guess, it breaks down some of the new features included in each update....

1 Changelog2 Technical updates Available since Thursday, this is an extensive update for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition. Players can pick up the update from Minecraft Preview. Packaged into the release is a new music disc, loads of new tweaks and improvements. There is also a package for The Wild Update that includes features like frogs, a Warden, a sculk, and more. It has been a busy April for Minecraft. Earlier this month, Mojang launched its latest seasonal update called Luminous Night....

It features iconic locations like the Candy Kingdom and Ice Kingdom, as well as various characters from the series. Here’s Mojang’s description: “Yes! Finn, Jake, Ice King, Marceline, Princess Bubblegum and tons more of your favorite characters from the excellent animated series have arrived in Minecraft! But this isn’t just another skin pack – goodness no – as the entire land of Ooo takes over your Minecraft world! Take Fionna and Cake on a tour of the Candy Kingdom, fight Ice King in the Ice Kingdom and even take a trip with Flame Princess to the Fire Kingdom!...

Oculus Rift S is available for $399, which puts it directly in line with Microsoft OEM partner build Windows Mixed Reality HMDs. It is also significantly less that the launch price of the old Rift, which cost $599 when new. It is worth noting the Oculus Rift S is currently only available for pre-order. When the device was launched in Marsh, Oculus was vague about its launch date. The company would only commit to a spring release for the headset....

The most notable feature is for Excel. Microsoft has added Insights, which helps users analyze data intelligently and offers relevant visuals in the task pane. It should save a ton of work and headaches in many scenarios. It’s joined by several Outlook features, including the ability to listen to your emails, set pop-up reminders, and mark deleted items as read. These are all features users have been asking for and should make day-to-day management much less of a pain....

This integration will be available through a dedicated site known as Shutterstock.ai. Shutterstock and OpenAI have been partner since 2021, with the former helping to train DALL-E: “The data we licensed from Shutterstock was critical to the training of DALL-E,” said Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO. “We’re excited for Shutterstock to offer DALL-E images to its customers as one of the first deployments through our API, and we look forward to future collaborations as artificial intelligence becomes an integral part of artists’ creative workflows....

The company’s new strategy will opt for complete versions to enable cross-platform editing and propel growth in its subscription model. According to Bloomberg, users will be able to begin editing on one device and finish on another. It draws strong parallels to Microsoft’s Office 365 strategy, which lets users access apps in close to full form on any device at no extra cost. It’s proven hugely successful for the company, which recently surpassed a market cap of $800 million....

AWS’ sales staff will seemingly focus on some of the areas Microsoft excels in – artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and data analytics. It’s looking for employees with deep technical knowledge to close “large corporate deals”, answer technical questions, and generally speed up the sales process. Either way, some employees told The Information that AWS has previously struggled to keep up with demand due to insufficient sales staff that meet its customer’s needs....

We already know the company has postponed its 10nm Cannon Lake processors until 2019. However, this year will see a refresh of the current line-up. It is worth mentioning Intel only debuted its flagship first ever Core i9 in April. Considering that 8th generation chipset is still new, we will treat the rumor of an October launch with a pinch of salt. Still, the reports circulating this past week also offer more information about the 9th generation and what we can expect....

November is an important month as Internet Explorer rides ever closer to the setting sun. This is also the month Microsoft confirms the browser will stop working through Microsoft Teams. Dr. Windows reports it will also become next to useless for Microsoft customers who want a seamless experience. By removing support for Microsoft Accounts and apps, the company is essentially forcing customers to move on or risk not being able to sign into any services....

The news comes just days after researchers revealed a ‘fatal flaw’ in Microsoft’s Meltdown patch. Despite assurances from Intel, it’s clear that patches haven’t been enough to keep users safe. According to Heise, one of the flaws was discovered by Google’s Project Zero, and all eight have been assigned CVE identifiers. It believes Google will stick to its schedule and reveal its vulnerability on May 7, one day before Patch Tuesday....

On Twitter, Huyn said he wanted to focus more on UWP, WinUI, and .Net 5. He told Windows Central his focus going forward will be “mainly UWP”. To those wondering why he is leaving Dropbox to work on a platform that has been slow to get its start, Huyn explains further. “For information, Desktop app development with .Net 5 will be very very close to UWP: the UI tech will be the same than UWP, the framework will also be the same + extra win32 access,” he explained “… What we call ....

In a report by The Wall Street Journal believes a deal could be finalized in the coming days and an announcement made this week. If this is happening, it should happen before both Salesforce Q3 earnings report on December 1 and Slack’s own Q3 reveal on December 9. For the most part, Slack has struggled to make the most of the increased remote work environment driven by the COVID-19 pandemic....

Bixby was originally scheduled to ship with the Galaxy S8 flagship back in April. Samsung used the smartphone to get closer to Microsoft than ever before. Bringing the virtual assistant to the LinkedIn is a further extension of the growing relationship. Microsoft acquired the business social network in a $26 billion deal last year. Since then the company has worked to bolster LinkedIn’s features and integrations. Introducing Bixby gives users the ability to automize some tasks on the network....