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A number of Google employees resigned, and chief executive Diane Greene assured those remaining that it was worth a measly $9 million. Reports now suggest that figure was not entirely forthcoming. According to emails obtained by The Intercept, Google’s business development arm expected the revenue to grow from the initial $15 million to $250 million a year. “Total deal $25-$30M, $15M to Google over the next 18 months,” said Google’s Cloud head scientist Dr....

Let’s start with the IdeaPad S540, which has been upgraded to feature Intel’s 8th Gen Core i7 or AMD’s Ryzen 7 3700U processors. There is also a configuration option for Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 discrete graphics cards. Elsewhere, the IdeaPad S540 looks slimmed down compared to its previous generation, mostly thanks to bezels that are now 25 percent thinner. Lenovo has also drafted in some of its premium laptop features, such as a privacy guard for the webcam....

The ARM processor ensures a longer battery life than regular laptops, as well as integrated 4G LTE so users never have to worry about losing connection. It features a base model with 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage, with a 1080p screen, 13MP rear camera, and 5MP front. Design-wise, the Miix 630 draws many similarities to Microsoft’s Surface Pro devices, featuring a tablet stand, detachable keyboard, and pen....

Speaking today, Smith said customers have already reached out to Microsoft. He says they want the company to relocate its Azure data centers in the region outside Australia. Last year, the Australian government passed new data encryption laws. A first of its kind in the world, the legislation was created in an effort to stop crime and terrorism. Critics have said the laws could have a worse impact on security and will compromise user privacy....

But what about limitations? Well it seems Microsoft accidentally published a full list of Windows 10 on ARM limitations before quickly pulling it. Of course, it was much too late to stop the list spreading. It is worth noting that Microsoft clearly did not want this information out, but the company may not necessarily be hiding the details. In fact, there is still live documentation that details at least some of the limitations....

1 Office 365 subs reportedly available for purchase2 Office Mobile offering to end? Back in February, we reported that Microsoft would introduce the full Office suite for Windows Store, using the Desktop App Converter. Now, according to a report by Aggiornamenti Lumia, the Redmond giant could be ready to launch the Office Centennial apps on May 2. According to the report, Microsoft appears to have finished its internal testing phase and several Office apps have appeared in the Windows Store under food-related codenames....

According to a Microsoft blog post, the integration will allow customers to access more edge computing solutions. Tony Shakib, IoT business acceleration leader for Microsoft Azure, says the partnership will further adoption of edge computing across customers. “By enabling Azure IoT with Cisco IoT network devices infrastructure, IT, and operations teams can quickly take advantage of a wide variety of hardware and easily scalable telemetry collection from connected assets, to kickstart their Azure IoT application development,” Shakib wrote....

Currently, though, they’re far from perfect. Despite thousands of hours of training on practice courses, they still make mistakes. Other humans can lead to unpredictable situations, and poor decisions can lead to injury or death. As a result, a new model from Microsoft and MIT focuses on identifying weaknesses. During training, researchers let the AI know each time it was about to make a mistake and included it in the machine learning model....

The first is Playground Games, a British developer that we first discussed last week. That was when Microsoft’s interest in the company was first revealed. At Xbox E3 the company confirmed that interest was concrete. This is arguably the most clear-cut acquisition considering Playground Games develops Microsoft’s own Forza Horizon series. Last week we also speculated on the company potentially developing another Microsoft franchise. Playground Games is rumoured to be working on an open-world title thought to be the next Fable game....

This lets admins apply device protections as soon as a threat is detected, notifying Intune and enforcing conditional access controls. “Mobile threat defense is becoming an important need in the enterprise, but it can be tricky to protect devices that are used for a mix of personal and professional activities. Skycure’s integration with Microsoft EMS provides protection for a wide range of devices that access corporate data, while making it as easy as possible for IT teams to configure,” said Andrew Conway, general manager of product marketing for EMS....

Compared to last quarter, Microsoft’s quarterly dividend has been bumped by 11% (5 cents), equating to $0.51 for each share. The company says existing shareholders on record by November 21 will get their end on December 12, 2020. This means November 20 is the ex-dividend date, which is when the share stock will begin trading with the dividend subtracted. Looking at the share buyback program, Microsoft has previously initiated buybacks before....

“This partnership signals a deep collaboration with Microsoft on an array of technology projects, including big data and artificial intelligence, that will transform the delivery of everyday services and mobility solutions in Southeast Asia,” said Ming Maa, president of Grab. “As a global technology leader, Microsoft’s investment into Grab highlights our position as the leading homegrown technology player in the region. We look forward to collaborating with Microsoft in the pursuit of enhancing on-demand transportation and seamless online-to-offline experiences for users....

Much of the information that has been leaking online recently was accurate. In terms of design, this is mostly the same aesthetic as the original model that arrived two years ago. That means the same 12.4-inch touch display with the 3:2 aspect ratio Microsoft is known for. The resolution on the panel is 1536 x 1024. Measurements are mostly the same at 10.95 x 8.12 x 0.62 inches and a weight of 2....

BlackRock is a leader in the investment management market. The company is the world’s largest asset management firm and oversees over $7.4 trillion in assets. Aladdin is BlackRock’s end-to-end investment management and operations platform. It allows customers in various sectors to access services. Under the terms of the partnership with Microsoft, Azure will allow Aladdin to arrive on the cloud. Together, the companies will aim to bring new scale and innovation to customers....

When a PC runs into performance problems, registry cleaners are often recommended to users. According to HTNovo, Microsoft has put CCleaner.com on their blacklist of domains on the company’s Support forum. It is worth noting that this does not mean Windows users are banned from using CCleaner. Indeed, they can find and download the registry cleaner whenever they want. Instead, Microsoft’s ban means any links to CCleaner posted on Microsoft Support forums will be automatically censored....

Azure Advisor, Monitor, and Resource have been used internally by Microsoft to run and monitor Azure at scale. Starting today, the capabilities are available for all users, allowing them to receive notifications when Azure has issues. Customers running virtual machines can utilize metrics with Azure Monitor, which allows alerts to offer deeper Log Analytics. Azure Advisor offers help and tips to improve the Azure experience across security, performance, and cost....

The two have created a “ledger agnostic blockchain capability that supports a multi-layer strategy”. In non-technical terms, the system will mean extremely secure communication between Financial Framework’s core, customer technologies, and ecosystem middleware. Blockchain will handle transactions and contracts for a verified and scalable system. “With multiple blockchains in use by various industry participants, we believe that the combination of NFF and Microsoft’s blockchain technology can remove some of the project complexities that exist in this realm,” saidTom Fay, senior vice president of enterprise architecture at Nasdaq....

During Microsoft’s annual shareholders’ meeting this week (via Business Insider), the CEO was asked directly how Microsoft can speak to young users through LinkedIn. Nadella said this is something that the LinkedIn team is focusing on. “As population ages, we do need to make sure that both the younger population, as well as the older population, can both find the economic opportunity,” Nadella said. “That’s really the pressing need of our times, and we are very focused on that, specifically for some of the younger folks who are joining LinkedIn....

To help avoid update issues caused by hardware partners, Microsoft is now publishing a document with dates for driver releases. Partners will have to release driver updates within these dates to gain Microsoft’s approval. In the document, the company describes how it is changing how it blocks affected Windows 10 upgrades when driver problems are evident. “Recently when a driver update is released alongside OS updates, it has resulted in a poor experience and significantly impacted end users,” Microsoft explains....

1 Microsoft Chromium Edge Channels2 Microsoft Chromium Edge Beta Download What’s interesting here is the Chromium Edge Beta channel has leaked directly from Microsoft’s own servers. We guess this means the channel was close to launch anyway and someone pulled the trigger too early. It will be interesting to see if the company keeps the downloads available or not. Of course, this is an unofficial, official, release. It comes from Microsoft, but the company has not yet announced it....