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The tool can pull a ton of content from photos, allowing for editable and translatable text, calendar events, email templates, and automatic file names. It will also be able to identify celebrities and deliver profiles or news, recognize landmarks, and search for similar products. Essentially, it sounds a whole lot like Lens, but on Windows 10. It Utilizes Azure’s Cognitive Services to provide Insights with as few steps as possible....

“You’ll soon be able to add phone numbers to existing contacts, have more control over your availability status, and more,” said a Skype spokesperson. “As we continue to focus on and improve Skype version 8, support for Skype versions 7, and below will end on November 1, 2018 on desktop devices and November 15, 2018 on mobile and tablet devices.” Despite the end date of November 1, Microsoft recommends users upgrade immediately....

With Action Center, the annoyance surrounded its rendering of the acrylic effect. Users on version 1903 will note that clicking the button first displays a panel with regular transparency, before the more matte acrylic loads in. It’s far from a big issue, but it’s one of those things you can’t unsee. A similar problem existed with the Start Menu, but that was thankfully resolved a while ago. Unfortunately, while this fix is in 20H1 Insider fast builds, it’s yet to make its way into the Windows 10 November 2019 update or Windows 1903 builds....

In the old days, a new Office release was major news. After-all, it was the productivity suite most enterprise and consumer customers would be using. Over the years, that excitement has diluted slightly. More competitors, such as Google Workspace, and Microsoft’s own Office 365 have taken over the traditional experience. Office 365 tests and hosts new features, so there’s no reason for many users to wait years for a new full Office experience....

This has proved incredibly frustrating for users, who opt into the channel specifically to avoid bugs. Instead of rolling out on release, the updates are supposed to be delayed for a number of months. For organizations, this can be essential, removing the need for extensive tech support when employees have issues. Historic Abuses As a semi-annual targeted update, there’s no reason for 1803 to roll out, and it isn’t the first time this has happened....

Naturally, the most obvious changes are the visual ones. Unspecified changes have come to the welcome page, settings page, widgets, and context menu. It’s difficult to pinpoint all the differences, but the letter search down the right-hand side of the widgets page appears to be smaller for easier reach. Another UI improvement is the ability to hide the page indicator on the home screen. The option is available in personalization settings and gets rid of the largely pointless circles that indicate which page you’re on....

The latest APIs let users query Azure usage details, as well as Marketplace charges, by any billing period. In combination with other tools, this gives organizations an extensive view into usage and expenditure on Azure. Azure Consumption and Charge API Features These APIs are still in development, but they already provide significant benefit to users. Here’s Microsoft’s full summary: “Balance and Summary: The Balance and Summary API offers a monthly summary of information on balances, new purchases, Azure Marketplace service charges, adjustments, and overage charges....

Viva Learning is part of the overall Viva employee experience, which also includes Viva Connections and Viva Insights. Viva Connections has been available to all SharePoint customers since March. The second, Viva Insights launched in public preview last month to give organizations actionable insights into productivity across teams. As promised, Viva Learning is now also available in preview. Microsoft explains how it used customer feedback to build the features of the service: “We’re continuing to build Viva Learning to seamlessly integrate learning into the tools you already use everyday – you can share learning via chat, pin learning content in existing Teams channels, recommend learning, see all your available learning sources in a personalized view, search across available sources, and so much more....

As a result, Nokia’s device interoperability standard Mirrorlink never saw the light of day, despite the fact that it was briefly demonstrated on Windows Phone 8.1. Mirrorlink is a standard developed by Nokia and the Car Connectivity Consortium which offers car mode display with features such as touchscreen and phone apps designed to be used safely while driving. Now, in a final blow to those hoping to access their Windows Phone apps from their in-car console, Microsoft has completely left the Car Connectivity Consortium....

Of course, this means all Office users can now download the full version of the add-in. Like other additional features, Centralized Deployment gives Office users more tools to personalize their experience. With the new feature, users can use PowerShell scripts or the Office 365 admin center to deploy Office web add-ins. These additions can be for groups, organizations, and individuals. Sharing the add-ins through Centralized Deployment directly from Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint....

The service lets users pay monthly to access a catalog of EA Games, including Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, Star Wars: Battlefront and more. It seems users have been charged for overlapping subscriptions in cases where they already had one. This appears to have affected a number of undisclosed services, with users primarily reporting problems with EA Access. Players have overpaid up to $27, and Microsoft has set up a website to streamline the refund process....

It’s a significant upgrade to GitHub’s previous free offering, which only allowed public projects. This meant that any students looking to utilize the platform for personal projects would have to pay a fee. “GitHub is ultimately a community, and the more collaboration that happens on GitHub, the better it can be for everyone,” said GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. “We often think of coding as a solitary activity, but in fact it’s the world’s largest team sport....

From the folding Surface Phone to Andromeda-powered folding laptops, Microsoft’s work has yet to be officially announced. However, the idea of folding a device onto a table, wrapping it around a wrist, or even rolling it into a pocket will appeal to many users. Samsung’s folding smartphone is mostly rigid with a flexible screen. A plastic housing at the rear is necessary to house the battery and other components. Microsoft may be working towards a complete flexible device which tackles the problem posed by batteries....

A new Microsoft patent explains a technology for increasing the display refresh rate. Before getting into why a high refresh rate is good and how this technology could be transformative, let’s lay down its benefits in simple terms. At its core, the “INCREASING EFFECTIVE UPDATE RATE FOR DEVICE DISPLAYS USED IN AUGMENTED REALITY HEAD MOUNT DEVICES“ patent would allow a headset to generate a new image per eye every 120th of a second....

Through Windows 10, Microsoft has been proud of the platform’s security credentials, even if some tactics have been controversial. While the company cannot (and likely wouldn’t want to) stop users viewing and sharing pirated content on PC, it is more willing to put in some roadblocks for cloud storage. The new patent, titled “Disabling prohibited content and identifying repeat offenders in service provider storage systems,” is aimed at stopping illegal content from being shared easily through the cloud....

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a PAC (Political Action Committee), it is a private fund for political campaigns made of voluntary donations. Almost all Fortune 500 companies have their own PAC. Laws in the United States forbid any PAC from donating more than $5,000 to one candidate through each election. Although a PAC can donate to more than one candidate. MSPAC is Microsoft’s PAC, which over the years has made donations to candidates across the political spectrum....

Specifically, it has been removed for users updating from the last Slow Ring release, build 18356.16. Microsoft says an issue is preventing users on that build upgrading to build 18362. The company has delayed the release for those users while it searches for a fix. “In the meantime, Build 18362 will no longer be offered to Insiders who are on Build 18356.16, so Insider PCs don’t continue to try and take Build 18362 and fail....

Doug Carmean, a partner architect at Microsoft Research, explains that the company aims for a “proto-commercial system in three years storing some amount of data on DNA in one of our data centers, for at least a boutique application.” Back in July 2016, Microsoft achieved a DNA storage breakthrough, revealing a 200MB DNA Storage cache. The company worked in collaboration with the University of Washington, creating the largest DNA storage cache ever recorded....

In October, Clint Rutkas returned to Microsoft to head up the PowerToys division. Rutkas was with Microsoft for years, including as Senior PM for the developer platform. In June he decided to move to Facebook as a Developer Advocate. Since rebooting PowerToys, Microsoft tweaked existing tools and added new ones like Keyboard Configuration and a PowerLauncher tool. As the development team moves towards version 1.0 of the suite, there are four new features coming....

The updates include vital improvements to security and reliability, addressing concerns raised over the past month. Unfortunately, they can also cause problems of their own. According to users on Reddit, KB4103721 is bricking some user’s PCs. The patch is the first for the Windows 10 April 2018 update, which had issues with microphones, driver compatibility, Chrome, and more. “The update is bricking my computer,” said Reddit user Khaelis. “After the update (KB4103721) download and installs, after restarting my computer will hang on a black screen and do nothing....