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In his effort to relate to journalists, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella admitted an internal nickname for the project. “We describe it as, shorthand, ‘Netflix for games,’” Nadella admitted on Monday at a press meeting at Microsoft’s headquarters. The phrase invokes the idea of a simple solution. You open an app or web browser, click on a game, and jump straight in. Just like Netflix, no specialized hardware is required – every modern PC is on a level playing field....

The answer seems to be with analytics and AI. Over the last year, Microsoft has made significant announcements regarding its plans in the healthcare sector. Last October, the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare service became generally available. The company also rebranding Microsoft Healthcare Bot service as Azure Health Bot service. At Build 2021 in May, Microsoft made several major health-related announcements, including Text Analytics for Health in Azure Cognitive Services. Speaking to ZDNet, Tom McGuinness, corporate VP of global healthcare & life sciences for Microsoft, explains how connection is key to the company’s goals in healthcare: “Some of the longest-standing challenges are around disconnectedness of data, disconnectedness of care teams, and frankly disconnectedness of patients to their own care,” says McGuinness....

From that date forward, Office Mobile applications for UWP will not receive any updates. This includes security fixes and bug solutions. All technical support will be shuttered in just over a year from now. “The Office apps for phones using Windows 10 Mobile – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote — will reach end of support on January 12, 2021. On that date, app users will no longer receive security updates, non-security hotfixes, free assisted support options or online technical content updates from Microsoft....

Gamers had reported inconsistent audio performance across games on Windows 10 1903 since September 10. Microsoft acknowledged the issue in a support page. Redmond says KB4515384 was caused by a “compatibility” change with some audio partners. Microsoft says it is solving the problem by reverting the changes it made, while also offering a workaround for users who have already updated. “Microsoft has received reports that audio in certain games is quieter or different than expected after installing this update....

Eric Horvitz, director of Microsoft Research Labs, spoke at the K&L Gate Conference this week. He reassured attendees and the wider public that Microsoft will ensure its AI bots are used for ethical purposes. To help enforce this ethos, the company created the Aether Committee, (AI and Ethics in Engineering and Research). The committee is tasked with reviewing how customers use Microsoft’s AI technology. Based on these reviews, the company will decide whether to remain in partnership with clients....

As the name suggests, TensorFlow-DirectML is a fork including Google’s TensorFlow machine learning platform and Microsoft’s DirectML API. DirectML offers GPU acceleration tools for machine learning tasks. DirectML works across hardware and drivers on DirectX 12 GPUs on AMD, Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Intel chips. With the TensorFlow-DirectML, Microsoft is providing a hardware acceleration platform that can be accessed by multiple vendors to train machine learning models. Microsoft says the open source project is now fully available via GitHub....

The performance/quality of Microsoft Defender has been a mixed bag over recent tests. AV-TEST ranked the suite as one of the best antivirus options for home users in February, but later tests by AV-Comparatives found no improvement, while TechPowerUp (TPU) recently found Defender is hogging resources on Intel machines. In July, AV-TEST found that Defender excels at preventing ransomware attacks. AV-Comparatives conducts tests on the real-world capabilities of anti-malware tools....

According to Microsoft watcher ALumia, a new Microsoft Defender Preview app includes the new version of the tool for Windows 11. Currently, Microsoft’s new OS is running the same Defender app as Windows 10. As for the new app, it is previewing under the codename GibraltarApp and is built with XAML and WPF. In a screenshot for the app, we can see Microsoft is promising “simple’ seamless and personalized protection”....

In a blog post, Microsoft says it has been developing C# 8.0 while simultaneously released versions 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3. The company says more details about features will arrive when Visual Studio 2019 previews drop. In the meantime, Microsoft has touched on some of the main changes coming in C# 8.0. Leading the way is the introduction of Nullable reference types. Microsoft says this feature will mitigate null reference exceptions which has been a problem in programming for decades: “It stops you from putting null into ordinary reference types such as string – it makes those types non-nullable!...

While most new Edge releases bring a bunch of features, Microsoft Edge 107 is more modest. In fact, there is only one additional feature available. Specifically, Microsoft has updated the sidebar to provide more productivity tools next to each other. When a browser page is open, tools are now shown in the sidebar side-by-side. Furthermore, the sidebar also allows you to view two websites in a single window by pinning one page....

However, there are signs that the company is willing to loosen its grip on the browser. Today, Microsoft took to Reddit to announce the ability to search with Cortana or Google from the right Context Menu. In fact, you can search with “any search engine”. This may seem a minor adjustment, but it is significant. Microsoft Edge has never previously allowed Google Search to be used in the Context Menu or to even set Google as a default in the browser bar in Windows 10 S....

As a report from Neowin points out, the company is planning to separate the fully OS-integrated browser to some extend by starting to manage its updates via the Windows Store. This would allow for more frequent feature upgrades as those could be pushed anytime and would not depend on larger Windows 10 Updates. (There are “just” three major Windows updates per year) While Edge is enjoying the benefit of being integrated in the OS, and promoted heavily by Microsoft, user adoption has been very slow....

While there are signs of improvement around COVID-19 in some regions of the U.S., others are experiencing second waves. It’s looking increasingly likely the virus won’t just disappear. Microsoft’s initial plan of having workers back in the office by October has been scrapped. Now, the company says its work at home policy is in place until at least 19 January 2021. Considering the ongoing problems with COVID-19, it is likely even this date may be too optimistic....

Back in November, Microsoft brought Project Cheshire to private beta. In October, the app had appeared in the Windows Store. However, it was a dummy test app that said, ‘coming soon’ when opened. At the time, I wrote that Project Cheshire did not seem to have any compelling features. In other words, it is just another note-taking and task management application. That said, Microsoft’s Cortana page leaked a feature that integrates the virtual assistant with To-Do....

These additions may not be the most exciting in the world, but they do help stability, especially for those using the builds as their daily driver (which isn’t recommended), or developing. A particular annoyance of the last build was the amount of CPU resources OneDrive has been using. This occurred after a Windows upgrade error and can have particular slowdowns in a VM, where the machine often has limited resources already....

Instead, users were left in limbo using Outlook Web Access, but a new update is now available. According to AskWoody, KB4461585 is now available and provides the same fixes without the associated issues. Microsoft’s support documentation has been updated to reflect this, telling users to download 4461585 if they experience the issue. The update should be available via automatic methods but can be downloaded manually here. However, it’s worth noting that the update only applies for users of the msi-based version of Office 2010, not Office 365 Home/Click-to-Run editions....

Users on iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile will now see a convenient share button, which lets them search their contacts. After sending it, they’ll still retain full control, receiving emails when someone new attempts access. Authors will also have more control over the data they collect from those buttons. They can now let users choose from a set of options, such as Low, Medium, and High for importance. New Microsoft Flow Connectors As usual, Microsoft has also added to its growing list of connectors....

The app requires Windows 10 version 16299 or higher but has no other requirements. It’s clearly aimed at users that have a touchscreen or graphics tablets but want the speed of typing. Microsoft Font Maker was initially planned for release with the Fall Creators Update but was delayed for unknown reasons. The final app is still relatively simple, but it has some tools to make the font creation process easier....

Specifically, Trove allows users to send images to AI projects to help artificial intelligence models train. In return, contributors can win gifts. “Trove, a Microsoft Garage Project, is an app that gives people an opportunity to contribute to AI projects by submitting their photos to help train AI models. Trove supports access to better data through an experimental marketplace that values transparency, control, enrichment, and connection.” Data Exchange All data is currently free to developers, although Microsoft says a fee will be installed when the Trove experience grows....

Yes, that’s probably news many of us have wanted to hear for some time. However, this is no Surface Phone. Instead, Microsoft has resurrected some of the classic (we guess) Lumia devices from yesteryear. Perhaps the company found a crate of devices at the back of a warehouse somewhere. Either way, the Lumia 950, 950 XL, 650 and 550 models are all currently available. Microsoft has put them on its online store this month....