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Microsoft announced its plans to “kill” off Skype on Windows Phone back in July 2016 and now is getting ready to go through with it. The news arrives just one day after the announcement that Skype for Linux 4.3 will retire in July as well. In the email, Microsoft says that after July 1, 2017, users will no longer be able to sign-in to these versions of Skype. Furthermore, the company directs Skype users to a Skype support page....

In a blog post today, Mozilla confirmed the new Firefox Android experience will be launched in full this fall. At the moment, the experience is available in preview. “We realized that users demanded a full-fledged mobile browsing experience, but more private and secure than any existing app,” Mozilla says. “So we decided to make Firefox more like Focus, but with all the ease and amenities of a full-stack mobile browser....

Speaking on a blog post, CEO Chris Beard accused Microsoft of “giving up on an independent shared platform for the internet”. The Redmond giant’s move cedes significant ground to Google, which is already dominant in the browser space. There are significant worries that the search giant will soon hold a monopoly over browsing. While Beard concedes that Microsoft’s decision makes sense from a business point of view, he believes it’s damaging for the internet at large....

Windows Hello is a security service that allows users to sign into Windows devices through authentication biometrics like fingerprint or facial recognition. Equally, users can set a PIN or enter through a FiDO2 device. With the upcoming launch of Firefox 66, users on the browser will be able to use Windows Hello to sign into Microsoft services like Office 365, Outlook.com, and OneDrive. As part of the service, Microsoft provides APIs for developers to integrate Windows Hello into their apps and services....

According to Reuters, the US, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Denmark are drawing up new cyber warfare principles. If implemented, they would redefine the justification needed to launch cyber attack weapons. The result could be a more aggressive stance on hackers from China, Russia, and North Korea who try to disrupt or steal technology. “There’s a change in the mindset to accept that computers, just like aircraft and ships, have an offensive capability,” explained U....

The research team describes it as “a fundamental computer vision problem of extraordinary difficulty,” and collaborated with members of Kingston University. The functionality is thanks to a neural network which was trained with 2D images and corresponding 3D models. The web app utilizes ‘a simple CNN architecture’ and detects facial expressions, masks, and various angles. You can try it for yourself via the online demo. It’s easy to see the applications once the researchers add more polish....

According to Nvidia, problems arose when device manager reported a code 43 error after install. It was compounded by problems on Windows 10 that caused the driver to be removed if the PC was left idle for a time. GeForce Driver Version 397.55 Changelog The driver also caused Netflix playback to stutter and didn’t support Microsoft’s Surface notebooks. The update claims to address all of these issues. Here’s the full changelog: “This is GeForce Hot Fix driver version 397....

The powerful feature lets users keep documents online rather than taking up valuable hard drive space. It integrates with services like SharePoint and can be accessed directly from File Explorer or Finder. When a user wants to access the file, they can edit without having to download it. You exclude certain important folders from the feature or specify only specific ones to ensure you a lack of connection doesn’t impact you too badly....

OneNote for Android is now running version 16.0.9029.2079 and comes with a single new feature. Specifically, the app will now remember notes you have been working on and show them when you reopen the app. Additionally, Microsoft has made the standard unnamed bug fixes and performance improvements. Below is the brief official changelog from Microsoft: When you reopen OneNote, it will remember the notes you were working on and open right to that place....

Despite the ongoing partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI, the founder of the latter was unhappy with this deal. That founder is Elon Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI. He took to Twitter to complain about the exclusive nature of the license. Musk says, “exclusive license” looks to be the “opposite of open”. He adds that “OpenAI was essentially captured by Microsoft.” Despite the exclusivity Microsoft was happy about last week, the company does not seem to be interesting in compromising the open nature of GPT-3....

According to IDC, the PC market grew 2.7% in the second quarter of 2018, while Gartner puts it at 1.4% due to differing definitions of ‘PC’. The takeaway is that Windows 10 business PCs seem to be behind some of the growth, though they’re somewhat offset by decreasing sales in the consumer market. “Once again business volume appeared to be the key driver with the top three companies reaping benefits across both desktop and notebook,” said IDC....

It seems bad actors initiating phishing scams are no hosting bogus websites on internet address with the padlock and starting with https://. Anti-phishing researcher PhishLabs has found 49 percent of all phishing websites during Q3 2018 used a padlock security symbol. This is a method attackers are increasingly using to fool users. Indeed, the rise in padlock symbol use has risen 25 percent quarter-on-quarter. Attackers are finding easy prey because many users have taken the padlock symbol to mean some guarantee of security....

It looked at the 10 most popular TV shows of 2018 and cross-referenced them with the virus submissions containing malware. Somewhat unsurprisingly, Game of Thrones was high on the list of infected titles, alongside The Walking Dead and Arrow. Per Kaspersky’s numbers, Game of Thrones accounted for 17% of its infected pirate content, with 20,934 users attacked with a single type of malware. It seems the first episode of the show is particularly dangerous, with 33 different types of malware found over two years....

As you may know, PowerToys is an open source platform. You may remember the platform was originally geared to power user’s way back on Windows 95. It has recently been revived by Microsoft and developers are can access the service. Last year, rolled out its re-tooled PowerToys in preview. 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....

While games like Catan and Lords of Waterdeep have had successful adapations, others require a more physical approach. Rolling a die, firing out Uno cards and stacking Dominos just don’t have the same satisfaction when you’re clicking a mouse. At the same time, getting a group of friends together isn’t easy. In the digital space, you can pull together individuals from across the world. Thankfully, Microsoft’s latest invention could be the best of both worlds....

The Snapdragon X20 LTE is built on Samsung’s 10nm LPE process. It comes with some notable improvements over last year’s X16 LTE modem. As a refresher, the X16 is integrated into the current Snapdragon 835 flagship SoC. The X20 will be included in future SoC’s. Among the enhancements in the new modem is support for x5 carrier aggregation (5x20MHz). This affords more flexibility on licensed and unlicensed spectrum with over 1000 carrier band combinations....

We have seen in recent times Microsoft increasingly push its news output towards AI. This is a part of a new push in Microsoft News. According to Microsoft, the shift to AI will help the platform deliver more unbiased news. MSN is powered by Microsoft News and recently Microsoft cut dozens of jobs from the editorial teams. Perhaps it’s a sign of the times, but the company would now prefer articles are curated by artificial intelligence....

However, new information suggests the main focus will be neither of those things. Instead, Microsoft will probably be talking about Windows 10 Cloud. The information comes from ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, who is known to have reliable sources. It’s further backed by Cassim Ketfi of Numerama. Part of the clue is in the codename. Sources say the event is called “Bespin” internally. Star Wars fans may recognize the name, as well as one of its settlements, Cloud City....

The company reports improved financials since the launch of the range. The steady upwards trend has put AMD back in profit. In its report, the company says Ryzen 7 drove an uptick in financial performance in Q1 and Q2 of this year. That small improvement can be attributed to the fact Ryzen was still new. Now the series has been widely available for a long time it has really pushed AMD to profitability for the first time in years....

That little + on the end is important, simply because this a refresh and not a full sequel. Indeed, Samsung has made incremental updates to the product and the result is the Odyssey+. Despite the unexciting bump, the HMD remains arguably the most potent available for Windows 10 Mixed Reality. In terms of improvements, the tweaks include a wider eye box to stop fogging. Users still get the same dual 3....