However, neither Microsoft nor Google had received any new information by Saturday morning. According to Thomas Fox-Brewster of Forbes, sources familiar with the companies’ security teams have said there has been no contact by WikiLeaks yet. In an emailed statement on Friday, originally sent to press on Thursday, a Microsoft spokesperson said that “[Microsoft has] seen Julian Assange’s statement and [has] not yet been contacted”. As of Saturday, Microsoft had not provided any further update....

We have seen some rivals emerge to Microsoft’s plans, including Oracle and Twitter. It now seems U.S. retail giant Walmart is also entering the race, but this time as an ally to Microsoft. In fact, the company has confirmed to CNBC it and Microsoft have made a joint bid for TikTok’s U.S. operations. On the surface, the interest in TikTok stems from President Trump seeking to ban the company from the United States....

At Build 2020, Microsoft confirmed it is making the full version of Azure Cosmos DB more cost-effective. In doing so, Microsoft is making the platform more tiered to meet the financial needs of more developers. The “free forever” version announced in March remains available, but for dev’s needing the full experience, the buy-in to Cosmos DB has been reduced. Called Azure Cosmos DB serverless, the new tier gives developers a service to manage workloads that are not consistent....

More specifically, Microsoft says the winning AI will be able to “collaborate with other randomly assigned players to achieve a high score in a mini-game within the virtual world.” In a blog post, the company says collaboration will be a key component of AI development. Artificial intelligence that can match the way humans learn and make decisions will be important. Microsoft says such an AI would make complex decisions and be an evolution in task-based automation....

In a blog post, Microsoft discusses new Azure and AI features that are coming to Azure Space. The company says the new additions and partnerships will break down barriers for those taking on space workloads. Below are the main draws for the expansion of the Microsoft’s plans: “NASA and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) are testing AI at the ultimate edge for Astronaut Safety. New partnerships are bringing development capabilities to on-orbit compute....

But it’s never been obvious what Mixed Reality means. So far, demos have just shown VR, which is really nothing new. However, with the release of the Fall Creators Update, it’s getting clearer what the long-term vision is. Talking in a promotional video, HoloLens creator Alex Kipman explained new APIs that let developers support VR and AR inside of the same app. They can tell developers whether the device is opaque or transparent, allowing them to deliver content accordingly....

This feature is rolling out to all Windows 11 users as part of Microsoft’s strategy to update Windows apps whenever a feature is available. That is opposed to rolling out features only on major OS-wide updates. To access iCloud Photos, users just need to update the Photos app from the Microsoft Store. Next, ensure there is iCloud for Windows on your Windows 11. If not, it too is available from the Microsoft Store....

Until now, the service has been limited to Office 365 Enterprise E5 as an integration. Users who wanted it for E1 and E3 bundles on Microsoft 365 and Office 365 needed to get it as an add-on. With today’s news, MyAnalytics is available directly in the suite as an integration. Natalie McCullough, General Manager of Workplace Analytics and MyAnalytics for Microsoft said in a blog post that explains how the service functions: “Via a personal dashboard, an Outlook add-in, and weekly emails, MyAnalytics summarizes how you spend your time at work, then suggests ways to work smarter—from cutting unproductive meeting time to reducing time spent working after hours....

This letter comes the same week Microsoft reported its Fiscal 2023 Q1 earnings, with revenue up and profits down. Nadella starts by saying the challenges of the changing world adds confusion for organizations and customers. He says Microsoft is best positioned to help overcome that confusion through its services: “Our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more has never been more urgent or more necessary....

That is April 30, so Microsoft will sneak its next major Windows 10 update through the gates just in time. It was initially believed the Windows 10 April Update would drop on April 11. However, that didn’t happen as Microsoft delayed the release due to a blocking bug. It is worth mentioning the company never confirmed this bug was there or that the first release was meant for April 11....

However, despite their breakthroughs, both companies have a major issue: stability. Their designs have significant error rates, making them close to useless for practical applications. Microsoft is coming at it from a different design, and a different angle. The company’s plans hinge on an elusive particle called the Majorana fermion. The elementary particle is interesting for several reasons. Firstly, their existence has never been entirely proven. In fact, the scientist who hypothesized their existence disappeared in 1938....

Microsoft has offered an incremental improvement for its seventh generation. At the event, Redmond confirmed the Surface Pro 7 would start shipping on October 22, 2019. Pre-orders for the 2-in-1 were opened on the day of the introduction. However, it seems one lucky customer has bagged themselves a Pro 7 ahead of time. Tweey posted on the social network a photo of the Surface Pro 7 in its retail packaging....

However, to start off in preview form, Backup Explorer is limited to Azure virtual machine backups. Microsoft points out Azure workloads support will arrive soon. Microsoft constructed Backup Explorer using its Azure Monitor Workbook. This is a part of the cloud platform that gathers metrics, text, and parameters into a single place. Through the Resource Graph tool, the tool can also access querie executions from Azure Portal. “Backup Explorer is a built-in Azure Monitor Workbook enabling you to have a single pane of glass for performing real-time monitoring across your entire backup estate on Azure,” Microsoft says....

Yes, this is the same new Xbox Dashboard Microsoft initially revealed in August. There’s not much going on in terms of layout changes. Although, the new dashboard does boost the performance of the Xbox system. Running the new software, the Xbox Series X loads 50% faster than the Xbox One version and consumes 40% less memory. We are unsure if this translates to a noticeable improvement for users, but Microsoft says it will....

With this app, Windows 10 users can place a news ticker on their PC desktop. The app is available now from the Microsoft Store although it is only currently in beta testing. Furthermore, it seems as though the app is now available globally. According to Microsoft, News Bar acts as a notification taskbar for news items. You can see the latest news stories and get added information such as stocks....

Windows executive Joe Belfiore mentioned that the cloud storage service will move to an on-demand model. The transition was described as “upcoming” and Microsoft left it at that. As I said, a cameo. Luckily, we have not had to wait long to find out what the company has planned. At the SharePoint Summit, the company has explained exactly what we can expect from OneDrive Files On Demand and introduced new features to SharePoint....

Available now on the Microsoft Store, the app offers a simple set of tools that allow users to tweak Windows 11 HDR display settings. The Windows HDR Calibration app also supports improvements for standard dynamic range (SDR) displays. “Calibrate your HDR (high dynamic range) display for a better experience with HDR content on your Windows 11 PC. The Windows HDR Calibration app helps you improve color accuracy and consistency. It also lets you customize how vividly colors will appear for both HDR and SDR (standard dynamic range) content when HDR is turned on,” Microsoft says in its description of the app....

As the company points out, this is a preview for the next Annual Channel release of Windows Server. Microsoft runs Windows as a service these days. That means the company updates the platform Semi-Annually with two feature upgrades. These upgrades are when users get new features and tools. In-between the Semi-Annual Channel releases, Microsoft sends out monthly patches. The now well-known monthly Patch Tuesday’s service to shore Windows against security problems and fix known issues....

Available now in the new Microsoft Store for Windows 11, the Microsoft Defender preview is still only available for some users. In other words, this is a limited preview right now and not available to all members of the Windows Insider Program. However, Ahmed Walid was able to get the installer and posted the following images of the new Microsoft Defender experience. It seems users are able to get quite far into the installation process before being shut out....

The company says engineers say working with Rust has been “generally positive”. Still, many features are still absent with Microsoft promising to add support to help continue with experimenting. While C and C++ remain very popular, they are aging languages. Rust is a modern programming tool that is considered “memory-safe languages”. That’s because it is specifically designed to protect against vulnerabilities in memory corruption. Microsoft has said it is exploring the idea of re-writing its products in Rust....