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After a long period of beta testing, Deezer is finally bringing its Windows 10 app out of preview for users of Microsoft’s newest OS. Here’s what Deezer highlights in the Windows 10 app. Lyrics – Sing or follow along to your favourite tunes and never miss a single beat. Playlist […]For nearly six years now, most who read this blog have been aware of Microsoft’s efforts to “revive” its smartphone platform. We’ve seen truly unique interfaces, only to be watered down. We’ve seen intriguing phone hardware, only to give away to your average run of the mill Lumias. For a fan of the ecosystem, staying with it has almost been as hard as being a Cubs fan… almost.
Now by no means am I an expert on how to change all this. I don’t have visions of revolutionary designs or UI schemes. I don’t have a magic wand to make all the bad press go away and see Windows Phone get a fair shake. I’m just an observer, one who sees two critical problems. And believe it or not, both issues have nothing to do with apps.
When the all-new windows phone was revealed several years ago, it was new. It was fresh. It was like nothing I had ever seen on a phone before. The design was questionable at first. But, the more I used it, the more I couldn’t go back to my iPhone. I was hooked. In the years since Microsoft has failed to innovate fast enough. The basic smartphone features that took far too long to complete. Remember copy and paste? The company that revolutionized the word processor couldn’t make that basic function happen right away. Over time, the software improved, but only to the standard that was already set by veteran iOS and Android offerings. By the time Microsoft caught up, they were another lap ahead.
Next came fascinating hardware gambles, first in the form of top-of-the-line cameras, and culminating in the outright purchase of Nokia. Unfortunately, the Microsoft-Nokia blockbuster deal had the same staying power as a Hollywood power couple.
While I am critical of the path Microsoft has traveled in the smartphone realm, they are not deserving of all of the blame. There are many ‘Microsofties’ who cannot stand the love affair with the iPhone, and the ability of millions to overlook significant problems in both hardware and software over the years. I agree. As a journalist myself, I see the coverage and criticism as slanted. But, like any public figure or company, there’s nothing you can do about it. And Microsoft took that mantra to a self-defeating extreme. There were passing attempts to better train employees at carrier locations. There was a splashy ad campaign or two. But what was lacking was the substance, the game-changing deal. At times, Microsoft was crying out for attention, like a once-beloved grandfather now in assisted living, wishing his young kids would pay him a visit now and then.
Through all of this, I’ve stayed. And although there are few of us still out there I know many still see the value of a Windows Phone. I know I do. I currently own my 5th-gen Windows Phone, a Lumia 950. Hands down, the best phone I’ve ever held, even though I had to shed a few extra bucks to buy a back cover that made it look like I hadn’t yanked it from a bin at Walmart. I am a member of the Insider Preview, living on the edge that is known as the fast ring. And I love it. The bugs are manageable and the growing stability and added features show promise.
Yes, there are still issues. Phone payments are still behind the curve, once proud hubs like People now seem a little half-baked and pointless, and there is the lack of any real support from carriers. But like grandpa in that home, Windows Phone ain’t dead yet. And there are ways that Microsoft can turn this thing around.
In 2012, Microsoft unveiled the Surface. The first version of this device was an unmitigated disaster. Nearly a billion dollars lost and a CEO reportedly tossed as a result. Prices slashed to dump inventory and a seemingly no-brainer brand left to the dustbin of history. And I know from personal experience. To this day I still own and regularly operate a Surface Pro (first-gen). Now, it’s hard to believe what could have been if Microsoft listened to the critics and gave up.
Today, we are on the threshold of the fifth-generation Surface lineup. And nobody’s laughing anymore. Companies are lining up to make the switch to Surface. And then there’s Surface Book, a productivity game changer, unlike anything Microsoft has developed. Despite all the bugs, and yes, the embarrassing deal with the NFL that left many accidentally calling Surface tablets iPads, this is a monster turnaround that took just a few years to accomplish.
It can happen again. Windows phone can be that turnaround. But it’s a much bigger problem than Surface and requires a much bigger gamble. First, let’s analyze the biggest rumor about Windows Phone we know today.
To the layperson, this seems like a slam dunk. Against all odds, Microsoft has created a PC juggernaut with the Surface line. Now that it has finally become a household name in the U.S. (unlike Lumia) it’s time to spread its wings. Rumors talk of a significant, high-end phone coming sometime in 2017. Other reports indicate it could be 2-3 models, in order to accommodate both personal and commercial use.
Without a doubt, if Surface Phone becomes a reality in the coming months, it is only the beginning of a long battle for Microsoft to again have a hand in the smartphone game. But, there are some ways to shorten that time, and it requires this titanic company to go all-in.
The current Surface image is expensive and high end. That setback to most consumers is a key reason why this success story took several generations to accomplish. In an established ecosystem like smartphones, that is too long to win the hearts and minds of the public and their wallets. Microsoft needs to think big… BILLIONS big.
I’m reminded of the days when new video game systems were released and creators took a big loss. The idea was to get the consoles in the homes and make all that money back on the games, the controllers, and every other peripheral you could think of. It’s time to bring that thinking to Surface Phone in a big way.
For the consumer, Surface Phone should be free. I say again, FREE. How can Microsoft write off such a loss? Without looking at the numbers, the only answer I have is the ecosystem. Grow the ecosystem. For example, set a competitive price for Surface Phone (consumer version). Sign up for a year of Groove Music Pass… take 25% off the price. Sign up for a year of Office 365 subscription… that’s another 25%. Want to join Xbox Live Gold… that’ll chop another 25% off the price. Sign up for free OneDrive storage… well there’s another 10%. And so on, and so on.
Granted, this does little to offer appreciation to those already in the ecosystem. But, although I’m one of them, we are already here. We don’t need convincing. Millions of others do.
Just because Microsoft can take such a financial gamble, doesn’t mean it will. Microsoft, like any large and successful company, is a cautious gambler. That’s especially so in the post-Ballmer era. Current CEO, Satya Nadella has turned his focus to more practical moves and innovation. Even HoloLens, although ambitious, is taking a slow and methodical trip to market (if it ever, in fact, makes it there).
Also it is unclear whether Microsoft even cares or has the fortitude to go all-in to restore their smartphone share. Although they continue to add to their hardware portfolio, this remains a software company. Rightfully, Microsoft’s resources are better spent on the evolution of Windows, Office and other core products.
Many believe it impossible to create a third ecosystem to rival Apple and Google and expect to gain any foothold in market share. That thinking might be true. But my call for optimism lies in the Surface name. Surface was not intended to compete with tablets or PC’s. Instead, its creation opened up a third, more versatile yet still productive class of devices. The smart money is on a possible Surface Phone heading down that same path.
The ability to run x86 programs on a smartphone is only now becoming reality. If a new class of phone, some kind of 2-in-1 smartphone, becomes marketable both to the business class and the consumer class, that is the small window Microsoft has of re-inserting itself into the smartphone realm.
Yes, offering such a game changer, possibly for free, seems crazy. But it might also be seen as a short term loss for a major long term investment. Think about it. What if the word Surface became as commonplace and casual in our vocabulary as iPad or iPhone?
It’s all about the subscriptions and the services. SaaS (Software as a Service), WaaS (Windows as a Service). Now, it’s time for WPaaS (Windows Phone as a Service). The losses could be huge. But the ecosystem is everything. And if Microsoft is making programs and services far superior to the competition, what do they have to worry about? Remember, by signing up for these services, users get a state of the art phone and access to all their new subscriptions on their phone, tablet, PC, Xbox and so on. None of this will make Surface Phone a runaway success, but imagine Microsoft with a 10-20% stake in the smartphone market. Such a level would put it nearly on par with the much-beloved Apple.
I know the setback to the bottom line by opening up the potential of a free phone. It is costly and it is almost unnecessary as Microsoft expands its services on other platforms. But any fan of Windows Phone isn’t interested in the practical or safe choice. Right now the safe choice is Android.
So to Microsoft, and all of their fans, I say this. It’s not too late. Windows Phone is something worth saving. It’s innovative and modernized software. In the six or so years I’ve used it, I can safely say that now is the time to finally showcase the universal benefits to the world of making such a monumental switch. So with stability and quality finally on our side, I call on Microsoft to take a leap. Yes it’s costly, yes it’s ambitious and yes, it could ultimately spell the end of Windows Phone. But why stay on life support, when you have a chance to meet the kids again?
Microsoft last night released one more Xbox One update to its preview users. This OS version rs1_xbox_rel_1608.160716-2035 includes fixes related to My Games and Apps. Last week, Microsoft released an update which allowed gamers to disable Cortana voice commands and use basic Xbox voice commands. Read about this current preview build below.
Announcements
• Certain content (games, apps, DLC) purchased in the new Store may only be available on consoles enrolled in the latest Preview update. This means… • Games purchased on a console running the latest Preview update can only be played on that console or other consoles running the latest Preview update. • Games purchased via Xbox.com can be played on any console. • Games purchased on a console running the previous update can be played on any console.
• Certain parental control features aren’t functioning appropriately in the current build. As a result, we encourage users to exercise caution when letting children access a console that is using the latest Xbox One update until these issues are resolved.
• We’ve added several settings that are already found on Windows today. These include SmartScreen Filter, which sends URLs you visit in apps to Microsoft to check against a list of potentially harmful sites, and advertising ID, which helps Microsoft present you with more personalized ads in Universal Windows Apps. You can choose to turn these off and manage your preferences for how Xbox One uses your information in Settings.
FIXES
Pins – Resolved an issue which could sometimes cause pins with no app installed to link to the wrong Store page.
My games & apps – Resolved an issue which could cause tile art to display at an incorrect resolution.
CURRENT KNOWN ISSUES
• Guide: The Guide may fail to launch by navigating to the left on the dashboard or double tapping the Xbox button.
• Xbox Preview Dashboard You may encounter an “Unexpected error” screen when attempting to launch the Xbox Preview Dashboard app or Report a problem.
• Blu-Ray Player When watching a video with the Blu-Ray Player, the screen may dim after a short period of inactivity.
• Payment & Billing You may be unable to add PayPal as a payment option.
• Profile: Users are able to select their own Gamertag at no charge once per account. After this you will be charged for future Gamertag changes. In the current update, any free Gamertag changes will complete successfully. Attempting to purchase a Gamertag change will charge your account, but will not change your Gamertag. Please avoid purchasing a Gamertag change on Xbox One at this time. To successfully change your Gamertag, visit http://ift.tt/29ca0VJ. • When selecting “Add new” to add a new profile, the add profile interface may take up to 30 seconds to appear.
• Cortana When using a language Cortana does not support, you may still see references to Cortana in text.
• Pins If you have pins on your Home to movies, TV shows, or music, they will disappear from Home when that app takes its new app update. The pins for the apps will stay on your Home, easy to get to.
• My Games & Apps You may encounter an error when attempting to load Ready to Install with a large number of digital games and apps.
• Community Calendar Links to the Store in Community Calendar event details do not currently function.
• The Crew may fail to launch if purchased via Games with Gold.
Microsoft last night released one more Xbox One update to its preview users. This OS version rs1_xbox_rel_1608.160714-2120 includes fixes related to My Games and Apps. Last week, Microsoft released an update which allowed gamers to disable Cortana voice commands and use basic Xbox voice commands. Read about this current preview build below.
Announcements
• Certain content (games, apps, DLC) purchased in the new Store may only be available on consoles enrolled in the latest Preview update. This means… • Games purchased on a console running the latest Preview update can only be played on that console or other consoles running the latest Preview update. • Games purchased via Xbox.com can be played on any console. • Games purchased on a console running the previous update can be played on any console.
• Certain parental control features aren’t functioning appropriately in the current build. As a result, we encourage users to exercise caution when letting children access a console that is using the latest Xbox One update until these issues are resolved.
• We’ve added several settings that are already found on Windows today. These include SmartScreen Filter, which sends URLs you visit in apps to Microsoft to check against a list of potentially harmful sites, and advertising ID, which helps Microsoft present you with more personalized ads in Universal Windows Apps. You can choose to turn these off and manage your preferences for how Xbox One uses your information in Settings.
FIXES
• My Games & Apps:
Resolved an issue which sometimes caused purchases not to appear in games until the title was restarted.
Resolved an issue so that CAST no longer crashes.
Performance improvement when scrolling with large collections (no focus loss, no excessive load times)
CURRENT KNOWN ISSUES
• Xbox Preview Dashboard You may encounter an “Unexpected error” screen when attempting to launch the Xbox Preview Dashboard app or Report a problem.
• Blu-Ray Player When watching a video with the Blu-Ray Player, the screen may dim after a short period of inactivity.
• Payment & Billing You may be unable to add PayPal as a payment option.
• Profile • Users are able to select their own Gamertag at no charge once per account. After this you will be charged for future Gamertag changes. In the current update, any free Gamertag changes will complete successfully. Attempting to purchase a Gamertag change will charge your account, but will not change your Gamertag. Please avoid purchasing a Gamertag change on Xbox One at this time. To successfully change your Gamertag, visit http://ift.tt/29ca0VJ. • When selecting “Add new” to add a new profile, the add profile interface may take up to 30 seconds to appear.
• Cortana When using a language Cortana does not support, you may still see references to Cortana in text.
• Pins If you have pins on your Home to movies, TV shows, or music, they will disappear from Home when that app takes its new app update. The pins for the apps will stay on your Home, easy to get to.
• My Games & Apps You may encounter an error when attempting to load Ready to Install with a large number of digital games and apps.
• Community Calendar Links to the Store in Community Calendar event details do not currently function.
Yesterday, we reported that the HP Elite x3 will cost $799 in the United States. A lot of people complained about the device being “too expensive” — even though it actually isn’t. The HP Elite x3 is a powerful device, a really powerful device. The device comes with 5.96-inch WQHD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 4, 64GB of internal storage (microSD slot included), the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, 4GB of RAM, a 16MP rear camera, and an 8MP front camera. The phone also comes with front-facing speakers from Bang & Olufsen, and it’s also dust and water resistant (IP67). The device comes with a huge 4150mAh battery, and it also supports wireless charging. Finally, the device includes an Iris scanner for Windows Hello and if you are not a fan of Iris scanners on phones, there is also a fingerprint scanner on the back. The device also supports Continuum for phones, which will technically allow you to use your phone as a laptop via the company’s Mobile Extender and Continuum dock. You get all of this with a device that’s only 7.8 mm thick and weighs only 190 grams, for $799.
For comparison, the Apple iPhone 6s Plus 64GB variant costs $849, and that comes with 2GB of RAM, a 5.5-inch 1080P display, a fingerprint scanner, a 2750 mAh battery, and no microSD card slot. The Samsung Galaxy S7, on the other hand, comes with a 5.1-inch WQHD display, a 12MP rear camera, a 5MP front camera, 4GB RAM, Snapdragon 820, and a 3000mAh battery for $799.
Of course, the main difference between these devices is the operating system. A lot of consumers won’t spend $799 on a Windows 10 Mobile device — but the thing is, the HP Elite x3 isn’t for consumers. From day one, HP has been targeting the Elite x3 towards businesses, and it’s one of their “business tablets.”
Windows 10 Mobile is actually a pretty good and secure OS for businesses. HP can’t just do what companies like OnePlus do with their flagships; the company needs to generate good profit from the Elite x3 devices.
In many ways the handset is more comparable to the Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets developed by Motorola Solutions which retail for closer to $2000.
And unlike those handsets for $799 you are getting a lot of power with the Elite x3. The device can theoretically replace your laptop, and that’s one of the key reasons why businesses might be interested in the Elite x3. Also, it’s worth noting that when businesses buy the device in bulk, they will get a better price from HP.
The HP’s Elite x3 should be a very nice device, but if you don’t need its powerful hardware, you are better off getting a Lumia 950 or a Lumia 950 XL. So yes, stop complaining about the Elite x3’s price. It’s expensive, yes — but it’s worth it.
Microsoft today released one more Xbox One update to its preview users. This OS version rs1_xbox_rel_1608.160714-2120 includes fixes related to Cortana, My Apps and Games and more. Earlier this week, Microsoft released an update which allowed gamers to disable Cortana voice commands and use basic Xbox voice commands. Read about this current preview build below.
Announcements
• Certain content (games, apps, DLC) purchased in the new Store may only be available on consoles enrolled in the latest Preview update. This means… • Games purchased on a console running the latest Preview update can only be played on that console or other consoles running the latest Preview update. • Games purchased via Xbox.com can be played on any console. • Games purchased on a console running the previous update can be played on any console.
• Certain parental control features aren’t functioning appropriately in the current build. As a result, we encourage users to exercise caution when letting children access a console that is using the latest Xbox One update until these issues are resolved.
• We’ve added several settings that are already found on Windows today. These include SmartScreen Filter, which sends URLs you visit in apps to Microsoft to check against a list of potentially harmful sites, and advertising ID, which helps Microsoft present you with more personalized ads in Universal Windows Apps. You can choose to turn these off and manage your preferences for how Xbox One uses your information in Settings.
FIXES
• My Games & Apps: You should no longer experience game or application installation failure to start after being added to the queue.
• Games should no longer display as apps in My games & apps
• Cortana You should no longer an issue which sometimes cause Cortana to fail to switch focus when snapped.
CURRENT KNOWN ISSUES
• Xbox Preview Dashboard You may encounter an “Unexpected error” screen when attempting to launch the Xbox Preview Dashboard app or Report a problem.
• Blu-Ray Player When watching a video with the Blu-Ray Player, the screen may dim after a short period of inactivity.
• Payment & Billing You may be unable to add PayPal as a payment option.
• Profile • Users are able to select their own Gamertag at no charge once per account. After this you will be charged for future Gamertag changes. In the current update, any free Gamertag changes will complete successfully. Attempting to purchase a Gamertag change will charge your account, but will not change your Gamertag. Please avoid purchasing a Gamertag change on Xbox One at this time. To successfully change your Gamertag, visit http://ift.tt/29ca0VJ. • When selecting “Add new” to add a new profile, the add profile interface may take up to 30 seconds to appear.
• Cortana When using a language Cortana does not support, you may still see references to Cortana in text.
• Pins If you have pins on your Home to movies, TV shows, or music, they will disappear from Home when that app takes its new app update. The pins for the apps will stay on your Home, easy to get to.
• My Games & Apps You may encounter an error when attempting to load Ready to Install with a large number of digital games and apps.
• Community Calendar Links to the Store in Community Calendar event details do not currently function.
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Duplex Player is a multimedia player designed to bring new and unique features to Windows users. It is not “just” another media player, but it is a smart media player which includes new features, such as Picture in Picture (Pip), Cast to Chromecast and DLNA devices, record media content to local storage, automatic search/download of subtitles, browse and play directly from OneDrive without the need to download, discover and play media content stored in network media servers and more…
Picture in picture (Pip)
Duplex Player provides support for Picture in picture (Pip); which means that you can play, cast and record two media content at the same time. When Pip powered with casting and recording you will have a lot of possibilities, for example: you can watch a movie while casting another one to your Kid’s TV.
Pip comes with several options to control its display, you can split the screen, or give a larger space for one player or even drag the players and adjust size/position as you want.
Casting to big screens
With traditional media players, the most common problem when casting to big screens is that “not all devices support all media formats, therefore casting may fail”. Duplex Player is designed to solve this problem. Duplex Player can cast any media content to any Chromecast and/or DLNA device such as smart TVs, XBOX, Media Renderers and etc. It doesn’t matter whether the device supports the format or not, Duplex Player will cast the content even if the device doesn’t support the format. For example, Chromecast doesn’t support .FLV files, with Duplex Player you can now cast .FLV and other files to Chromecast devices.
In addition, Duplex Player not only allows to cast while in Pip mode (casting two content at the same time), but it also allows casting each content to several casting devices. For example, you can cast the same movie to several Chromecast and/or DLNA devices at the same time.
Subtitles
Duplex Player will save your precious time by searching and downloading subtitles automatically for you. You can also browse available subtitles and choose the subtitle you need to download without leaving the app or searching on online sites. In addition to other features such as storing downloaded subtitles, loading local subtitles, configuring the appearance of subtitles, adjusting subtitle times and etc.
Recording
With a single tap, you can start and stop recording easily. You can record network streams to your device at any time. Even if you are using Pip, you can record each player separately.
Media Sources
In addition to playing files stored on you device or computer, Duplex Player provides quick access to your content on OneDrive and network Media Servers. You can browse and play stored content directly without the need to download to your storage. New media sources will be added in next releases to browse and play content from popular sites.
Usability
Duplex Player is designed to be user-friendly, all the features can be used without the need to close the running media and to open a menu and etc. The player is always docked at the bottom of the screen and you can switch to full screen at anytime. In addition, the home screen will provide a global view of the frequently used features such as quick play, casting, recording and recently played content.
In addition, it supports the common features such as creating and managing playlists, resuming from last played position, video rotation and mirroring, selecting audio/video track in videos with multiple tracks, support for all known video and audio formats including .dvd, .flv, .rm and …
Developer: Atef Shehata
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Facebook has recently announced that they are adopting Microsoft’s Office 365 service.
On their official blog post on the matter they claimed this was due to the service being mature, secure and cross platform, saying:
This is why we’ve implemented Office 365. Not only is it a mature and comprehensive platform, it meets our stringent security standards, it complements how we work with intelligence, flexibility, and it is continually evolving. It is globally deployed, accessible on every mobile platform we support, and it is secure. Most of all, it enables our productivity with powerful new capabilities for employees, such as the ability to share and edit traditional Excel documents at the same time, across devices.
ChannelWeb however revealed a very different reason- Facebook says Microsoft is cool once again, with Facebook’s CIO Tim Campos saying in a video:
“Do you really want to know the reason we picked Office 365? It’s because of Microsoft. Microsoft got cool again.”
Campos said Microsoft was chosen because its products matched Facebook’s mission to be bold and be fast, saying the company got its mojo back, saying:
“Collaboration and technology in general is evolving. Our workforce expects to be on the latest and most innovative technology and collaboration patterns are changing with this. Employees shift from using email to other things, and we need good partnership from industry leaders. And in this, we’re really happy to see Microsoft got its mojo back. We’re not just buying Office 365 for what it can do today, it’s for what Microsoft will bring tomorrow. We have great expectations.”
Microsoft’s general manager for Office 365 Giovanni Mezgec said Facebook was impressed with Microsoft’s approach to productivity.
“I think they’re saying they like the innovation we’re providing,” he said. “I think if you heard what Tim said, he talked about the fact Facebook uses email and there’s a lot of information in the company. He talks about how he loves Delve and Microsoft graphs. He said [we] are innovating every month with new features and new things he can do.”
A new Microsoft which is reaching out to their customers on whatever platform they are using is certainly better than an insular, sulking company in slow decline, and we can see the effect in Microsoft’s share price increase over the last 2 years under Satya Nadella’s leadership, both of which should help attract a higher quality of employee, which should have a positive feedback loop for the company and its users.
Do our readers think Microsoft is a cooler company than under Balmer? Let us know below.
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Age of Empires: Castle Siege game was updated to v1.19 in Windows Store. This update includes no.of bug fixes and supports for upcoming economy adjustment which will be released in the game on July 18th at 10 am PST (5 pm UTC).
Bug fixes:
-A bug where some players were getting double characters on surface devices has been fixed. They should now be able to type without double letters occurring.
-Connection improvements. Advanced connection logic to help players stay connected to the game.
Economy Changes: We will be making some adjustments to the Age of Empires: Castle Siege economy to help players age up! These changes will make it easier to age up at higher ages. Please see the information below for the changes:
Resource Collection:
Farms/Sawmills Hourly Production Changes:
Level 6 – Hourly production changed from 550 to 580
Level 7 – Hourly production changed from 715 to 800
Building Cost Changes:
Food Silo/Lumber Yard
Level 7 – from 100,000 to 75,000
Level 8 – from 325,000 to 150,000
Level 9 – from 525,000 to 500,000
Stone Storehouse
Level 4 – from 100,000 to 75,000
Level 5 – from 325,000 to 150,000
Level 6 – from 525,000 to 500,000
Farm/Sawmill
Level 7 – from 80,000 to 50,000
Level 8 – from 250,000 to 120,000
Level 9 – from 400,000 to 375,000
Quarry
Level 3 – from 80,000 to 50,000
Level 4 – from 250,000 to 120,000
Level 5 – from 400,000 to 375,000
Army Camp
Level 7 – from 575,000 to 400,000
Archery Range
Level 6 – from 325,000 to 300,000
Siege Workshop
Level 5 – from 350,000 to 300,000
Catapult Emplacement
Level 3 – from 200,000 to 160,000
Level 4 – from 640,000 to 580,000
University
Level 4 – from 160,000 to 100,000
Level 5 – from 500,000 to 300,000
Cathedral
Level 4 – from 160,000 to 100,000
Level 5 – from 500,000 to 300,000
Research/Tech
Food Gathering Rate
Level 3 – from 415,000 to 250,000
Wood Gathering Rate
Level 3 – from 120,000 to 80,000
Stone Gathering Rate
Level 3 – from 415,000 to 250,000
Resource Protection
Level 3 – from 415,000 to 240,000
Spear Infantry Upgrade
Level 5 – from 100,000 to 50,000
Level 6 – from 400,000 to 350,000
Raiders Upgrade
Level 4 – from 100,000 to 75,000
Level 5 – from 350,000 to 300,000
Laddermen Upgrade
Level 4 – from 125,000 to 100,000
Level 5 – from 400,000 to 350,000
Cavalry Upgrade
Level 5 – from 500,000 to 400,000
Battering Ram Upgrade
Level 4 – from 100,000 to 80,000
Catapult Upgrade
Level 4 – from 100,000 to 90,000
Level 5 – from 400,000 to 350,000
Trebuchet Upgrade
Level 3 – from 400,000 to 350,000
Longbowmen Upgrade
Level 3 – from 375,000 to 350,000
Knight Templar Upgrade
Level 3 – from 375,000 to 350,000
Teutonic Knights Upgrade
Level 3 – from 375,000 to 350,000
Raiders of Muscovy Upgrade
Level 3 – from 375,000 to 350,000
Mamluks Upgrade
Level 3 – from 375,000 to 350,000
Cheirosiphons Upgrade
Level 3 – from 375,000 to 350,000
Download the update from Windows Store for free.
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Microsoft today released another Xbox One update to its preview users. This OS version rs1_xbox_rel_1608.160712-2140 includes fixes related to Cortana, Xbox Universal Store and more. Earlier this week, Microsoft released an update which allowed gamers to disable Cortana voice commands and use basic Xbox voice commands. Read about it below.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
• Cortana Thanks for helping us test Cortana on Xbox One! We’ve received tons of excellent usage data and feedback, leading to dozens of improvements. While we continue to train Cortana, if you choose to opt out of Cortana, the “Xbox…” legacy voice command will be enabled.
If you choose to opt-out of Cortana, please be aware of the following:
If you wish to opt-out of Cortana and use the “Xbox…” legacy voice commands, launch the Guide, navigate to All Settings > System > Cortana settings, and flip the first toggle to Off.
At this time we’re also disabling Cortana for France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, as support for these regions was only planned to be available during this preview period. For now, please continue to use and give feedback on the “Xbox…” legacy voice commands in these regions.
FIXES
You should now be able to correctly fast forward and rewind movie trailers.
Resolved an issue which could sometimes cause the game to crash when launching multiplayer.
Resolved an issue which caused the “Xbox…” legacy voice commands to be recognized but all actions to fail after downloading an update which supported Cortana for the first time.
CURRENT KNOWN ISSUES
• Blu-Ray Player When watching a video with the Blu-Ray Player, the screen may dim after a short period of inactivity.
• Movies & TV When viewing a video in the Movies & TV app, the progress bar may fail to update when playing, rewinding, or fast forwarding.
• Profile • Users are able to select their own Gamertag at no charge once per account. After this you will be charged for future Gamertag changes. In the current update, any free Gamertag changes will complete successfully. Attempting to purchase a Gamertag change will charge your account, but will not change your Gamertag. Please avoid purchasing a Gamertag change on Xbox One at this time. To successfully change your Gamertag, visit http://ift.tt/29ca0VJ. • When selecting “Add new” to add a new profile, the add profile interface may take up to 30 seconds to appear.
• Cortana • If this is your first time downloading an update which supports Cortana, upon powering on the console, the “Xbox…” legacy voice commands will still be recognized but any actions will fail. Workaround: Launch Cortana from My games & apps or Snap Cortana from the Guide.
• Pins If you have pins on your Home to movies, TV shows, or music, they will disappear from Home when that app takes its new app update. The pins for the apps will stay on your Home, easy to get to.
• My Games & Apps You may encounter an error when attempting to load Ready to Install with a large number of digital games and apps.
• Community Calendar Links to the Store in Community Calendar event details do not currently function.
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Microsoft has pushed out a new update to the Insider Preview Movies & TV App, taking it to version 3.6.2350.0.
The update brings the following improvement:
You can get the latest updates for Movies & TV from the link below:
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Microsoft today released another Xbox One update to its preview users. This OS version rs1_xbox_rel_1608.160711-2017 includes notification fixes. Yesterday, Microsoft released an update which allowed gamers to disable Cortana voice commands and use basic Xbox voice commands. Read about it below.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
• Cortana Thanks for helping us test Cortana on Xbox One! We’ve received tons of excellent usage data and feedback, leading to dozens of improvements. While we continue to train Cortana, if you choose to opt out of Cortana, the “Xbox…” legacy voice command will be enabled.
If you choose to opt-out of Cortana, please be aware of the following: o Headset voice control support will be disabled. o Voice dictation will be disabled. o Universal Windows apps voice features will no longer function. o Only “Xbox…” legacy voice commands will be recognized.
If you wish to opt-out of Cortana and use the “Xbox…” legacy voice commands, launch the Guide, navigate to All Settings > System > Cortana settings, and flip the first toggle to Off.
At this time we’re also disabling Cortana for France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, as support for these regions was only planned to be available during this preview period. For now, please continue to use and give feedback on the “Xbox…” legacy voice commands in these regions.
FIXES
• Notifications This build contains additional fixes to address issues with notifications sometimes failing to appear (including for party invites, game invites, and unlocking achievements). If you encounter any further issues with notifications failing to appear, please submit feedback via Report a problem.
CURRENT KNOWN ISSUES
• Blu-Ray Player When watching a video with the Blu-Ray Player, the screen may dim after a short period of inactivity.
• Movies & TV When viewing a video in the Movies & TV app, the progress bar may fail to update when playing, rewinding, or fast forwarding.
• Profile • Users are able to select their own Gamertag at no charge once per account. After this you will be charged for future Gamertag changes. In the current update, any free Gamertag changes will complete successfully. Attempting to purchase a Gamertag change will charge your account, but will not change your Gamertag. Please avoid purchasing a Gamertag change on Xbox One at this time. To successfully change your Gamertag, visit http://ift.tt/29ca0VJ. • When selecting “Add new” to add a new profile, the add profile interface may take up to 30 seconds to appear.
• Cortana • If this is your first time downloading an update which supports Cortana, upon powering on the console, the “Xbox…” legacy voice commands will still be recognized but any actions will fail. Workaround: Launch Cortana from My games & apps or Snap Cortana from the Guide.
• Pins If you have pins on your Home to movies, TV shows, or music, they will disappear from Home when that app takes its new app update. The pins for the apps will stay on your Home, easy to get to.
• My Games & Apps You may encounter an error when attempting to load Ready to Install with a large number of digital games and apps.
• Community Calendar Links to the Store in Community Calendar event details do not currently function.
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In a deal that the companies have been working on since 2015, Google and LinkedIn have swapped more than 1 million square feet of property in the Mountain View region which has helped resolve significant development and expansion issues the two companies have been facing.
No money, but much property changed handsets, including LinkedIn’s current headquarters.
The swap will let LinkedIn build out a cohesive corporate campus years earlier than anticipated, and allow LinkedIn to consolidate its Silicon Valley employees – split between Sunnyvale and Mountain View’s North Bayshore – into a new, walkable main hub, and also allow Google to build their futuristic domed headquarters in the North Bayshore.
Randy Tsuda, community development director for the city, said the land swap could be a game changer. “This actually works out well for both parties, and the city of Mountain View,” he said. “It really helps simplify the coordination of transportation improvements.”
LinkedIn’s Jim Morgensen, vice president for workplace, recounted “It started in earnest last summer: How are we going to fix the things on Shoreline? What’s Google going to do, what’s LinkedIn going to do, and who’s going to commit to what?” The discussions “weren’t going very far,” he said, “because in the end Google was going to have to commit a lot of money to do stuff that was going to benefit LinkedIn,” and vice versa. “We were just at odds over how to solve it.”
At a meeting in July 2015 at LinkedIn’s Mountain View cafeteria, Morgensen suggested swapping some leased property.
“Somewhere in those conversations, someone said, Maybe we should swap owned properties,’” Morgensen said. “We said, Well, what are you guys doing at 700 East Middlefield? We just looked at it and started talking about it. It gave both of us exactly what our companies need.”
“Once the conversation got going and the idea put forward, it started to make a heck of a lot of sense for both parties,” Mark Golan, vice president of real estate and workplace services for Google, said. “It was a collaborative process to figure out how to solve the collective problems.”
The deal preceded and does not involve Microsoft, who on June 13th 2016 announced the purchase of LinkedIn.
“We were already in the very final throes of the definitive deal with Google,” said Morgensen.
Read more detail about the actual property involved at Bizjournal.com here.
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Microsoft today announced the availability of Turn 10 Select Car Pack for Forza Motorsport 6. It features one of the most diverse collections of cars ever seen in Forza history, with each vehicle hand-picked by the team at Turn 10.
Take a trip back in history in the diminutive BMW Isetta, or relive history in the 1969 Indy 500 winner. If you agree that “bigger is better” then you can experience the first European race truck to come to Forza Motorsport 6. Beyond that, this pack offers a bespoke race car, the latest McLaren masterpiece, an Italian classic worthy of some top-down track time, and some American competition for WTCC racing.
You can download the Turn 10 Select Car Pack for $7 or for individual purchase.
Read about the new cars in detail here.
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It’s finally here! The MSPoweruser app is now available for Windows 10 PCs and Mobile devices. The new MSPU app is based on the Universal Windows Platform, and it’ll be coming to other devices such as the Xbox One, HoloLens and the Surface Hub in the coming months. As this is an UWP app, it also supports Continuum for Phones which is a really great feature on Windows 10 Mobile. So what’s new in the new MSPU app?
Firstly, we have rewritten the app from scratch to provide a much better user experience, along with a lot of new features. Our app includes a beautiful user interface which provides a really good user experience on PC. On Mobile, the user interface is very similar to our previous Windows Phone 8.1 app, but we have improved a lot of UI elements throughout the app. On PC, you get a column-based UI which makes it really fast to read articles on our app. You can also use your keyboard’s left/right arrows to navigate between the articles, which is very handy. We also have a swipe-to-open hamburger menu on Mobile which lets you switch between the different sections very easily.
In addition to this, the app includes several themes: a dark theme, a light theme, a black theme, a light accent theme, and lastly, a dark accent theme. We spent a lot of time designing these themes, so we hope you’ll like it! If themes aren’t enough, we have also added the ability to customize the typography settings within the app; you can change the font size, and change the font itself, too.
All the usual features such as Live Tiles and Push Notifications are also included in our app. With the UWP app, we have improved reliability for the Push Notifications, as well as Live Tile — which a lot of our old Windows Phone app users will like. We have also added support for Hero Notifications, which you can enable from the Settings of the app. Additionally, if you don’t want latest updates from the Live Tiles and Push Notifications, you can disable then from the Settings.
Our app also supports other features like an integrated YouTube player, where you can change the quality of a video to save data. In addition to this, we have also added native support for the MSPoweruser Podcast — however, we have a better implementation for Podcasts coming with a future update. Once again, Comments support is also present in the app, and you can join the discussion very easily from your Windows 10 PC or Mobile device. You might notice that we’re using a web wrapper for the Comments section, and that’s because our comment system provider (Disqus), doesn’t have an official SDK for Windows 10 — which is coming soon, and we’ll update our app to add native Comments support once the Disqus SDK is available.
This is just the start of the app, and we are planning to release a bunch of updates in the near future. For now, here are some of the highlight features of the app:
And here are some screenshots of the app:
We have been testing the app for a few months, and you won’t find a lot of bugs or rough edges. But of course, there are some bugs and other issues which we might have missed. So, we need your help to address those. If you find any bug or have any feedback, please let us know here. And if you like the app, don’t forget to rate it in the Windows Store!
You can get the MSPoweruser app for your Windows 10 device from the link below. However, as we just published the app earlier today, it’ll take a little while for the Windows Store to show the updated description, changelog and the new screenshots. Additionally, the app isn’t available on Windows 10 PCs just yet as Windows Store is still processing the update, but it should be available wihin the next few hours.
Developer: MSPoweruser
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“Satya Nadella will bring a very thoughtful commitment to using cutting-edge technology to find new treatments and cures to cancer,” Christine Gregoire, head of the Hutch board said.
“Fundamentally, it’s going to be the science and the scientists and their work that are clearly going to be the key to curing cancer. But what is now possible are new tools — beyond their progress with chemistry and molecules and immunology,” Nadella said.
“Just imagine dreaming about a world where you can have the greatest immunologist, cell biologist working hand in hand with cloud computing infrastructure so that, in fact, scientists can better collaborate, be more productive in their discoveries, share. That’s what the dream is.”
To help prepare for his board role, Nadella said he read the book “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer” and he also read “cover to cover” the latest issue of Hutch Magazine, which explored collaborations between Hutch cancer researchers and their counterparts across the country and across the world.
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Microsoft today updated released a minor update for OneNote app on iOS. OneNote is now faster and more responsive on your Apple Watch with your.
— Capture anything —
Take a picture of the whiteboard in a meeting with auto-cropping and photo enhancements. Add your PowerPoint presentation or PDF for school. Clip website articles using iOS share extension. Leave your tape recorder at home and record audio notes on-the-go. Capture it all in OneNote and add your annotations.
— Powerful organization —
Organize your notes in a way that works best for you. Create, rename, search, sort, and copy pages, sections, and notebooks. Find your most recent notes quickly and pin the pages you use most. Secure your notes with a password and use touch ID to quickly access them.
— Think together —
Share your notes with your friends and colleagues. Whether it’s a party your planning with others, or a school project you’re working on with your group. Work together in a shared notebook at the same time.
— Always with you —
Access your notes on your Mac, iPhone, iPad and other devices. Your notes are synced to the cloud (OneDrive, OneDrive for Business and SharePoint) making it easy to access your recipe notes on your iPhone at the store, your homework on your Mac in class, or your itinerary on your iPad during your trip.
— Check these lists —
Create to-dos to keep track of your daily errands, groceries shopping, or travel planning.
–Write & Draw on iPad —
Scribble your notes at a conference, write math equations in class or sketch your ideas. With a variety of pen colors and settings, you can create beautiful handwritten notes and drawings. Draw with confidence with “Convert to Shapes” mode: we’ll automatically convert hand drawn shapes into crisp, perfectly regular polygons and circles.
I recently had the opportunity to talk with Joshua Clausen, one of the members of Reloaded Games. Reloaded is the company behind HAWKEN, a free to play mech shooter that recently released on the Xbox One. You can check out our interview below.
Andrew: We should probably start with introductions. What’s your role at Reloaded, and how long have you been with the company?
Joshua Clausen: I’m a producer on HAWKEN, and I’ve been here for nine years now. I started as a GM and then went into databases and infrastructure. When HAWKEN came along I had the skill set to be able to do something with it.
Andrew: So, moving on to HAWKEN, how would you describe the game in your own words?
JC: It is a class based, team based mech shooter. Originally it was designed to be an Xbox Live Arcade Game, that’s what the original founders had in mind. So it’s always going to be a very compact play experience, and focuses very much on the gameplay itself.
Andrew: What sets the game apart from its competitors?
JC: For me it’s always been the movement, the art style, and the fact it’s a pure mech shooter. I find myself mildly annoyed with other FPSes now not having the dodge move, I love that thing.
Andrew: How long has the Xbox One port been in development?
JC: We had the very first builds running in September/October. We had done the PS4 version as the initial port to get it running first, as that ends up being easier for most port projects.
Andrew: How’s the experience developing the Xbox One version of the game been?
JC: For the Xbox One it actually went fairly smoothly, the hard stuff ended up being the UI. It absolutely just blew up on us in November of last year, and we hit the point where we didn’t know if the existing UI was going to work at all. We started on an entirely new UI stack, went down that route and then came across the original UI programmer for HAWKEN. He had just come off a project and was “hey, sure, how about this”. He was able to turn around the entire UI aspect of the port. We did it in just two weeks, there was a lot of legacy code and he knew it.
Andrew: Has there been any particular high or low point when it comes to porting a PC game to the Xbox One?
JC: The nastiest part of most of these things ends up being the UI. So many projects dash themselves on the rocks of “wow, that was a totally unexpected way the UI was done”. It just doesn’t work to get d-pad input, the efficiency is just really low, or there’s a really old version of Scaleform for instance. It’ll be jittery, clunky, and we’ve had to fix all kinds of stuff with Scaleform at the source code level.
Andrew: Is there anything Microsoft could improve about the process of porting games to the Xbox One?
JC: The second hardest part – the non-ui stuff – was the friends and party management. It was a really tricky set of systems, and the documentation is a sometimes little bit older. Like handling multiple users on certain controllers, for example. It can be a hard problem. In our case the game’s party system on PC had a bit of a paradigm in a lot of ways with how the Xbox party systems work. It was like a giant logic puzzle to find out if we could still support the way the PC was gonna be working and at the same time do things right for the Xbox.
Andrew: Were networking and parties easier on the PlayStation 4?
JC: We did find it easier, yeah. Granted, there’s always snafus and stuff, and we do know that the PlayStation 4 is moving towards a model much more like what the Xbox has, so I’m sure the same problems will come up. The Xbox One is more comprehensive, it’s just a complex piece. It’s necessary complexity in a lot of ways, but yeah.
Andrew: Thank you for your time.
JC: Yeah, thank you.
It was really interesting to get to talk to Josh and hear about some of the things that have to be done to bring a game to the Xbox. If you’re a developer who would like to speak to MSPoweruser about your experience bringing your game to the platform, feel free to contact us.
If you would like to check out HAWKEN on your Xbox One, you can find it on the Xbox One store here.
Did you find anything in the interview interesting? Let us know in the comments below!
Suto Stream is one of the best Twitch viewing app?that?aims at improving user watching experience on multiple devices and platforms.
We are enthusiastic app developers and also active Twitch users, who were not satisfied with viewing experience on current Twitch official app and player in PC & Windows 10 mobile platforms.
We built Suto stream with the desire of upgrading the Twitch viewing experience. We don’t want anything that could ruin our enjoyment of watching games. We also want to build an app that could run in multiple platform, from traditional desktop PC to mobile and Xbox. ?With that in mind, Suto stream is designed so that user will find it the most convenient and intuitively as possible to watch online stream. First and foremost, every aspect of Suto stream is about user experience. From the UX/UI feedback and gesture support with the ability to play live stream and past broadcasts in windowed mode while browsing other content, to the compatibility with touch and mouse/keyboard input as well as difference screen sizes, Suto stream has been regarded as a Twitch app with the best UI at the moment.
Suto stream also integrate all current twitch player features such as search & follow channel with notification for favorite channels, Interact with chat, video quality setting to ensure users still have the same maneuverability as they are in the official twitch client.
KEY FEATURES:
By using Suto stream we can improve our productivity and effectivity as well. With windowed mode we can also enjoy our stream with Suto while doing other tasks. Most importantly Suto stream doesn’t use flash, and it eliminates all of the disadvantages flash brings on to other twitch player. Being lag-free and instant loading, Suto stream will give user the most smoothly viewing experience as ever.
With support for Windows Hello and Cortana integration incoming, Suto stream ensures that your experience of watching stream game will be maximized to its fullest.
Suto stream version 1.0 has been released in June 2016 in Window Store and will be available in other platform later in this summer.
We are planning to deliver major features for the app, including:
Within our ambition, we also want to extend Suto stream to cover more online streaming services beside Twitch, such as HitBox, Douyu, Livestream, Dailymotion, Youtube Live and so on.
Suto stream has received 4.1 rating in Window Store and it’s truly fantastic for us to see so many positive and well-thought comments on the app. Every comment, every suggestion is highly appreciated and many improvement so far have been made directly from the feedback. However, we want to bring the best app and experience to the users as possible and we are very eager to listen directly from you. Let us know what you think of Suto stream by downloading our app from here.
Moreover, we also launch a campaign in Appstretch to promote our app. Our mission is to bring the app to as many users as possible. As such, if you think the app is useful, you can pledge support for the app to help further development. Every support will be highly appreciated
Thank you!
Developer: thang2410199
With the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft is adding a major feature to Windows 10 for developers: Bash. This is a really nice addition to Windows 10 which will make using Windows 10 for development a lot easier for some developers. Now, as this feature isn’t enabled by default, you’ll probably have a hard time trying to use it — however, don’t fret as we’ll take you through how to install Bash on your Windows 10 machine.
Firstly, we’ll need to enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux (beta) on Windows Features. To do that, just open up Cortana/Search and search “windows features.” After that, scroll down in the Windows Features dialog and tick the “Windows Subsystem for Linux (Beta)” and click on the OK button. Then, Windows 10 will install the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Once that’s done, you’ll be required to restart your machine.
After installing the Linux subsystem, you will need to enable the Developer Mode on Windows 10. To do that, just open the Settings app, click on the Updates & Security button, then click on “For Developers” from the sidebar. After that, just select the Developer Mode and Windows 10 will install the Developer Mode package. If you get any error at this stage, just ignore them — Bash will still install.
After that, we will need to install Bash itself. To do that, go ahead and open Command Prompt (CMD) by searching using Cortana/Search. Once CMD is ready, type in “bash” and hit enter. When you’re asked if you want to install Bash, just type “y” and hit enter. Once that’s done, Windows 10 will start downloading and installing Bash. This can take a bit of time, so be patient at this stage. Once Bash is installed, you’ll need to enter a username for Bash, so just enter the username you want and hit enter. Then, you’ll be required to set the password for your account. Once this is done, Bash will be ready to use:
Now that Bash is installed on your Windows 10 machine, you can use Bash via the Command Prompt. To do that, just open up CMD, type in “Bash” and hit enter. This will take you to Bash, where you can use all the usual commands:
You can also checkout the version of Bash by typing in “bash –version” into CMD:
So there you have it, Bash is now installed on your PC. Once again, this is only available for Windows 10 Anniversary Update, which is coming as a free update to existing Windows 10 users on August 2. If you have any questions regarding Bash on Windows 10, feel free to let us know in the comment section below and we’ll try to help you out!
With rumours swirling around a Surface-branded all in one PC I can’t help feel in this case Microsoft is somewhat out of touch with the market.
I already have a laptop, and if you opt for a desktop PC it is unlikely you will settle for a less powerful All In One. What I really want is a PC for the kitchen.
The use case of a PC in the kitchen is pretty attractive – be it for recipes, entertainment, family coordination and communication, but the fact remains that we spend very little time in that room, vs the 8 hours per day we spend working on your PC, or the other 8 we spend clutching our smartphone. And when something gets little use we are not very willing to spend a lot of money on it.
A PC in the kitchen is attractive but only has limited utility – we have coped for centuries without one, and it is unlikely to fundamentally change what we do there. For that reason it needs to be cheap – ideally less than 300 dollars, but still with a large-enough screen to be useful (probably more than 24 inches, the resolution is not that important.)
Also the interface needs to be adapted to the use case, meaning voice and gesture, not touch or keyboard, neither of which would not work very well with greasy fingers. In fact the kitchen is the ideal testing ground for a next generation user interface, vs demanding we use voice and touch when our hands are already on the keyboard and mouse.
Now you could easily roll our own hardware with a cheap 24 inch screen, a HDMI-based stick PC, a cheap webcam and some free software for well under $300, but of course it will ultimately be rather clunky and see little use by the target market. The whole concept of a cheap low margin PC itself is not very attractive to OEMs and not something Microsoft aspires to with its Surface brand.
Conversely however a Surface-branded All In One PC will likely be a premium product with very limited sales, due to being tethered permanently to one position, and therefore also less useful.
If Microsoft is to increase their contact point with consumers (not necessarily the goal of the company these days) they need to break into new consumer markets, and one of those very under-served markets is one of the most important rooms in your home.
A kitchen PC with a next-gen user interface could be Microsoft’s Amazon Echo, but only if Microsoft price it right, and do the work necessary to adapt the user interface.
Do our readers agree there is room in the market for a cheap, limited-use PC for use in the kitchen, or should Microsoft leave this market well enough alone? Let us know below.
http://mspoweruser.com All of Microsoft, all of the time Thu, 07 Jul 2016 14:47:12 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://ift.tt/28TnS0F http://ift.tt/29RDzaS http://ift.tt/29kChmO Thu, 07 Jul 2016 14:43:12 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfyZt
Microsoft today announced that COO Kevin Turner is leaving the company to become CEO of Citadel Securities. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sent an email today morning to his employees about his departure and the changes in the senior leadership team. First of all, there is no direct replacement for Kevin Turner, instead Microsoft is assigning Kevin’s responsibilities among five senior executives, Judson Althoff, Jean-Philippe Courtois, Chris Capossela, Kurt DelBene and Amy Hood. Kevin Turner today sent an email to Microsoft employees in the Worldwide Sales Marketing & Services Group about his departure. Read it below.
]]> http://ift.tt/29kC8Qm 0 http://ift.tt/29tfvgi http://ift.tt/29kBzpR Thu, 07 Jul 2016 14:41:59 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfhpDFrom: Kevin Turner
Sent: Thursday, July 7, 2016 7:48 AM
To: WW Sales Marketing & Services Group
Subject: Two words++
Thank you…
These two words seem highly inadequate and insufficient, but they come from the bottom of my heart.
For the past nearly 11 years, it has been an absolute pleasure being your partner.
Your partnership, hard work and ability to be a team have built out a world-class Sales, Services, Operations, Field Marketing, and Support organization, and together we have consistently delivered incredible results.
I am confident you will continue to transform Microsoft, our Customers and our Partners and lead them to the digital world with the strong foundation we have built.
As I reflect over the past 11 years, leading our revenue growth from $37 billion to over $93 billon has been an incredibly rewarding thrill.
Even more than that, seeing our Customer and Partner Satisfaction levels go to all-time highs, watching our retail stores come on and thrive, seeing us move our selling from licenses to solutions and seeing our Cloud transformation explode have been some of the proudest accomplishments that I have ever been a part of in my professional career!
You all have had a positive and profound impact on my life, both as a person and as a leader.
The past decade was a pivotal and foundational time for my family and me, as my children have effectively grown up here in the Northwest, and as a result, they have been blessed with so many opportunities to learn and grow as they become adults.
For my next chapter, I will be joining Citadel and working with another incredible founder, Ken Griffin – something I have some experience with.
For the third time in my career, I will be learning an entirely new industry and a new set of businesses as the Vice Chairman of Citadel and the CEO of Citadel Securities. Citadel is one of the world’s most successful and admired hedge funds as well as the leading equity trading firm in the United States and a leading market maker.
I will remain your biggest fan and will once again be an important Microsoft customer!
With my deepest sincerity, admiration and gratitude, thank you again for everything. I have had an absolute blast and loved every minute of my time at Microsoft!
While this decision is incredibly emotional for me, it reminds me of one of my favorite euphemisms (you know how I like those)-“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened!” Please know that I am smiling with pride and joy in my heart!
Keep driving hard and know that I will be proudly cheering you on!
Virtual Reality is quite expensive, as most virtual reality headsets cost more than $400, and you need to own a pretty powerful PC. One of the most components of a powerful PC that is capable of supporting Virtual Reality is the GPU. These GPUs are pretty expensive, too — AMD’s Radeon RX 480 is one of the best affordable GPUs which supports VR. Now, NVIDIA is taking on AMD’s Radeon RX 480 with its new GeForce GTX 1060 GPU. The GeForce GTX 1060 costs only $249, and it comes with 6GB of RAM.
The GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card is loaded with innovative new gaming technologies that make it the perfect choice for the latest high-definition games. Powered byNVIDIA Pascal™—the most advanced GPU architecture ever created—the GeForce GTX 1060 delivers brilliant performance that opens the door to virtual reality and beyond. #GameReady.
The GeForce GTX 1060 is slightly more expensive than the Radeon RX 480 — but according to NVIDIA, the GeForce GTX 1060 offers better performance for the extra price. NVIDIA announced that the GeForce GTX 1060 will launch on July 16, and the company will also be selling a Founders edition which will cost $299.
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfCZ5 0 http://ift.tt/29oymvk http://ift.tt/29kBwKs Thu, 07 Jul 2016 12:57:50 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfDfVBack in April, we reported that Microsoft has agreed to purchase ten million long oligonucleotides (DNA) from Twist Bioscience to encode digital data. Microsoft and University of Washington researchers are collaborating to use DNA as a high density, durable and easy-to-manipulate storage medium. Using DNA to archive data is an attractive possibility because it is extremely dense (up to about 1 exabyte per cubic millimeter) and durable (half-life of over 500 years).
Today Microsoft announced that they have reached an early but important milestone in DNA storage by storing a record 200 megabytes of data on the molecular strands. Once encoded, the data occupied a spot in a test tube “much smaller than the tip of a pencil which is impressive.
Think of the amount of data in a big data center compressed into a few sugar cubes. Or all the publicly accessible data on the Internet slipped into a shoebox. That is the promise of DNA storage – once scientists are able to scale the technology and overcome a series of technical hurdles.
The Microsoft-UW team stored digital versions of works of art including a high-definition video by the band OK Go!, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in more than 100 languages, the top 100 books of Project Guttenberg and the nonprofit Crop Trust’s seed database on DNA strands.
Read more about it from Microsoft here.
]]> http://ift.tt/29kC03v 0 http://ift.tt/29ALJoZ http://ift.tt/29tgywy Thu, 07 Jul 2016 12:36:17 +0000 http://ift.tt/29kBXo9Microsoft today announced changes to its senior leadership. Microsoft COO Kevin Turner is leaving the company for Citadel Securities to become CEO. Microsoft is also assigning some additional responsibilties for Chris Capossela, Kurt DelBene and Amy Hood. Read Satya’s mail below in which he explains the leadership changes.
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfB7t 0 http://ift.tt/29mZEgs http://ift.tt/29kBRg9 Thu, 07 Jul 2016 12:30:10 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfLfbFrom: Satya Nadella
To: Microsoft All Employees
Date: Thursday, July 7, 5:00 a.m. PT
Subject: Senior Leadership Team UpdateI want to share with you that Kevin Turner has been offered the opportunity to become chief executive officer at Citadel Securities and as a result will leave Microsoft. Kevin has made a tremendous impact at Microsoft over the past 11 years. He built the sales force into the strategic asset it is today with incredible talent while at the same time more than doubling our revenue and driving customer satisfaction scores to the highest in company history. I have learned a lot from Kevin over these past few years and wish him all the best as he takes on this broader CEO role.
For the past year, Kevin and I have spoken a great deal about the transformation we are enabling our customers to drive. We have come a great distance, and we need to continue to reach for the next level of customer centricity and obsession in everything we do — sales, marketing, services and product development. It’s very important to have “one feedback loop” across all parts of the company with customer value and satisfaction at the center. This means we must operate, learn and continuously improve collectively. To this end, with Kevin’s departure, I have made the decision to more deeply integrate the current SMSG organization into the rest of Microsoft and form one unified senior leadership team. As a result, I am pleased to announce the following changes are effective immediately, and I appreciate that Kevin will stay with Microsoft through the end of July to help with the transition.
- Judson Althoff will lead the Worldwide Commercial Business, which will focus on the commercial segments, inclusive of EPG, Public Sector, SMS&P, DX and Services.
- Jean-Philippe Courtois will lead Global Sales, Marketing and Operations, which span all of Microsoft’s 13 areas across our North America and international businesses as well as the global Marketing and Operations organization.
- Chris Capossela will lead the Worldwide Marketing and Consumer Business, which includes CCG, MSA and PSM, OEM, and Microsoft Retail Stores, in addition to his current worldwide marketing team.
- Kurt DelBene will now also lead IT and Operations, in addition to Corporate Strategy.
- Amy Hood will now also lead the current SMSG finance team and WWLP, in addition to the central finance team.
Jean-Philippe and Judson will report directly to me and join the senior leadership team starting today. Jean-Philippe will take full accountability for the Microsoft North America business also starting today, and Judson will remain as acting lead for day-to-day operations until a replacement for him is announced. Together they are working on a plan for the functions comprised in today’s Worldwide Marketing and Operations team, given it will span both of their organizations in the future.
This year, I had the opportunity to visit more than 20 subsidiaries across five continents where I saw firsthand how each subsidiary team drives business in the context of Microsoft’s mission, ambitions and culture as well as our core ethos of adding economic value and opportunity in every country and society we operate in. These teams are doing great work, and I think we can position them even better for the future.
There is no doubt the world is changing — and Microsoft must evolve with it and ahead of it. Microsoft’s mission is universal, and I believe our values and high ethical standards are timeless. But we must apply them in a world that demands more solutions that are local in nature. Growing globally requires local capability to leverage all of Microsoft’s innovation, marketing and operations in the context of local opportunities and partnerships while overcoming constraints. This means we must do better at surfacing and trusting the insight from local teams on what it takes to drive our customers’ success. At the same time, we must empower the local teams with world-class global support.
When it comes to our Worldwide Commercial Business we have an unparalleled opportunity to translate our products into customer solutions, drive new partner momentum and help businesses of all sizes in every country not just use digital technologies but become digital companies themselves.
The senior leadership team and I all agree that each subsidiary needs to maintain the financial accountability to deliver on today’s commitments while gaining new capability and flexibility for local innovation and optimization to drive long-term growth. I’m thrilled to have two talented leaders, promoted from our field organization, step forward to join the senior leadership team with their depth of experience in our current business and shared passion to drive transformation.
Please join me and the senior leadership team for a special All Employee Q&A today at 8:30 a.m. PT. We look forward to sharing more and taking all of your questions.
Satya
Line today released a minor update for its Windows 10 app. The company today released version 5.2.1 for its app, which possibly brings some bug fixes and performance improvements for the previous update which added several new features. With the previous update (version 5.2.0), Line added inline emoji suggestions for chat, and much more:
At the moment of writing this article, the app doesn’t seem to have a changelog for the latest update – however, we’ll update the article when the changelog is available. As usual, if you notice any new features, please make sure to let us know in the comment section below. In the meantime, you can download Line for Windows 10 from the link below.
WP-Appbox: LINE (Free, Windows Store) →
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfGbl 0 http://ift.tt/29BBao7 http://ift.tt/29kCjej Thu, 07 Jul 2016 12:18:28 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfVmYMicrosoft’s Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Turner is leaving the company. He will be joining Citadel Securities as the CEO. Kevin Turner worked at Microsoft for 11 years, handling the sales and marketing efforts of Office 365, and much more. Turner led a team of more than 51,000 Microsoft employees in 191 countries. Before joining Microsoft, Turner worked at Walmart as a cashier, where he was apparently named the youngest corporate officer in the company’s history.
Microsoft is has announced some leadership changes, which you can know more about here. Citadel Securities announced that Turner will be joining the company “after a transition period from Microsoft.”
]]> http://ift.tt/29kBWk9 0 http://ift.tt/29q3K8B http://ift.tt/29tfvgj Thu, 07 Jul 2016 11:47:18 +0000 http://ift.tt/29kBxy0Microsoft has updated Windows Device Recovery Tool with support for new devices today. The company today added support for the NuAns Neo, and the Vaio Phone Biz devices to the Windows Recovery Tool. In addition to the NuAns Neo and Vaio Phone Biz, the update also brings support for Unistrong T536, and the Yezz Billy 4.7. If you happen to own these devices, you’ll now be able to reset your device with the Windows Recovery Tool.
The latest update for Windows Device Recovery Tool is version 3.7.18601 and you can download it from here.
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfDfJ 0 http://ift.tt/29oeEzK http://ift.tt/29kBD8Y Thu, 07 Jul 2016 10:00:52 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfqcxWith the retirement of the Here Maps app for Windows Phone Microsoft’s own Windows Maps app has become more important. The app has just been updated to version 5.1607.1831. This minor update does not appear add any new features and comes without a new changelog.
App Features:
The last major update added:
Have our readers noticed any new features?
Download the update from Windows Store using the below link.
WP-Appbox: Windows Maps (Free, Windows Store) →
]]> http://ift.tt/29tflW6 0 http://ift.tt/29wilBs http://ift.tt/29kBRwF Thu, 07 Jul 2016 08:17:39 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfY20Acer today unveiled its new TaravelMate X3 series for Windows 10. The first device from the series, the TravelMate X349 comes with an all-aluminium chassis, which weighs just around 1.53kg (3.3 pounds), and has a thickness of only 18mm. The device comes with a fingerprint scanner, which will allow users to unlock their PC very easily. The device comes with Intel’s 6th generation processors and has a battery life of up to 10 hours. The device sports as 14-inch Full HD display, up to 8GB DD4 RAM, up to 512GB SSDs and ships with Windows 10 Pro. Acer has also included a USB Type-C port that you can use with the company’s USB Type-C Dock.
Acer says the company’s TravelMate X349 will be available in North America in October, starting at $649.99. The company will launch the device in Europe and the Middle East in September, where prices will start from €480. Lastly, the device will also be available in China where prices start at ¥5,999.
]]> http://ift.tt/29kBIth 0 http://ift.tt/29yp3sx http://ift.tt/29tfHwb Thu, 07 Jul 2016 07:32:44 +0000 http://ift.tt/29kC5nIMicrosoft has released the first UWP app for the Xbox One to Xbox One Preview members. The company released the updated Blu-Ray Player as a Universal Windows App, which is now available on the Xbox Universal Store. If you are one of the top 20,000 Preview members, you will be able to download the new update for the Blu-Ray player. Apparently, the update does not introduce any notable changes to the app itself, other than the fact that it’s now a Universal Windows App. In a forum thread, Microsoft stated:
Hey everyone,
You’ve likely heard about the new universal apps platform for Windows 10, which also includes Xbox, and the Xbox Universal Store introduced in the latest Xbox One update.
Tonight, we’re excited to launch the first universal app on Xbox One to a subset of Preview users: Blu-Ray Player.
Beginning tonight, the top 20,000 Preview participants (based on total Preview award points) will see a new app update become available for the Blu-Ray Player. The app update will not be available to all 20,000 top Preview participants immediately, but should become available over the next 24 hours for those selected. There will be few if any noticeable differences between the old Blu-Ray Player app and the new Blu-Ray Player universal app. Primarily, we’re looking for feedback on problems or any unexpected behavior.
If you do encounter any problems or unexpected behavior with the new Blu-Ray Player universal app, please use Report a problem (hold down the Xbox button on the controller and select Report a problem) and let us know.
Thanks so much for being part of Preview and helping us test our first universal app!
In the coming months, we’ll see a tonne of new apps coming to the Xbox One thanks to the Universal Windows Platform — for example, Hulu and Dailymotion are already working on their UWP app for the Xbox One and we’ll probably see an app from companies like Netflix, Periscope, etc. This is because Microsoft is merging the Windows Store and the Xbox Store with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update — which means, if a developer decides to support the Xbox One, their Universal Windows App will be on the Xbox Universal Store very easily.
Microsoft is planning to release the Windows 10 Anniversary Update as a free update for PCs on August 2, and it’ll be available for other devices such as the Xbox One at a later date.
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfVDy 0 http://ift.tt/29jxeIj http://ift.tt/29kCsyv Thu, 07 Jul 2016 07:25:36 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfFnJNetflix today released a minor update for their Windows 10 app. The update comes without an official change log in the Store listing, and apart from the updated logo, we could not notice any significant changes. We guess its a bug fix update improving the overall app experience.
How does Netflix work?
– Netflix membership gives you access to unlimited TV shows and movies for one low monthly price.
– With the Netflix app you can instantly watch as many TV episodes & movies as you want, as often as you want, anytime you want.
– You can Browse a growing selection of thousands of titles, and new episodes that are added regularly.
– Search for titles and watch immediately on your phone or on an ever expanding list of supported devices.
– Rate your favorite shows and movies and tell us what you like so Netflix can help suggest the best titles for you.
– Start watching on one device, and resume watching on another. Check out netflix.com for all the TVs, game consoles, tablets, phones, Blu-ray players and set top boxes on which you can watch Netflix.
If you notice any changes, let us know in the comments section below.
Find the updated app from Windows Store at the link here.
WP-Appbox: Netflix (Free, Windows Store) →
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfKrB 0 http://ift.tt/29w5YW5 http://ift.tt/29kCbMa Thu, 07 Jul 2016 06:46:36 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfUzjWindows 10 Mobile Build 14383 Emulator has been leaked online. If you are already on Build 14379, you probably won’t see anything new or exciting in this build as we nearing the release of the Anniversary Update. As this is an emulator, you won’t be able to run it on your actual Mobile device — instead, you’ll have to install it on your PC. However, it is worth noting that you should probably wait until later today as Microsoft is expected to release build 14383 to Insiders later today.
Microsoft will “officially” release Windows 10 Mobile Build 14383 Emulator, as well the Windows 10 Build 14383 SDK soon after releasing the build to Windows Insiders. The final release of the Anniversary Update won’t differ much from build 14383 or any of the recent builds of Windows 10, which isn’t really surprising. Once again, Microsoft is going to release Anniversary Update for Windows 10 PCs and Mobile on August 2.
If you still want to try out build 14383’s emulator, you can download it from here.
]]> http://ift.tt/29kBWAF 0 http://ift.tt/29jsHWo http://ift.tt/29tfzN4 Thu, 07 Jul 2016 06:30:59 +0000 http://ift.tt/29kC5nsSamsung today announced the world’s first removable memory cards based on the JEDEC Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 1.0 Card Extension Standard. These new cards comes in a wide range of storage capacities including 256, 128, 64 and 32 gigabyte (GB).
Samsung’s new 256GB UFS removable memory card provides more than five times faster sequential read performance compared to that of a typical microSD card, reading sequentially at 530 megabytes per second (MB/s) which is similar to the sequential read speed of the most widely used SATA SSDs. When it comes to writing, the new 256GB UFS card processes 35,000 random IOPS, which is 350 times higher than the 100 IOPS of a typical microSD card, and attains a 170MB/s sequential write speed, almost doubling the top-end microSD card speed.
To achieve the highest performance and most power-efficient data transport, the UFS card supports multiple commands with command queuing features and enables simultaneous reading and writing through the use of separately dedicated paths, doubling throughput.
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfzNc 0 http://ift.tt/29mdTSA http://ift.tt/29kByCj Thu, 07 Jul 2016 05:37:48 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfmcCWhatsApp today released an update for its app for Windows Phone devices. This updated app v2.6.114 includes few UX tweaks and performance improvements which were under testing in the beta app over the past few weeks. In this update, image gallery has become significantly faster. When you go to Gallery for image selection, instead of All Images section, it will now go to Folders page.
You can download the latest update on your Windows Phone from the Store link below.
WP-Appbox: WhatsApp (Free, Windows Store) →
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfTLW 0 http://ift.tt/29m6Id0 http://ift.tt/29kBy52 Thu, 07 Jul 2016 05:33:36 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfOb9IObit Uninstaller, a program uninstaller for Windows devices that scans for and removes leftovers after the removal process, has released a beta version with features such as removing browser add-ons, toolbars and plugins from major web browsers using the application. The software initially supported Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera browsers, but with me iteration, the software has finally added support for Microsoft’s Edge browser.
Those running a recent Insider Build of Windows 10 and have installed extensions in Edge already should see them listed there. IOBit will allow you to uninstall extensions, and though you can do this without the program, you can also remove malicious or problematic extensions this way. You can also remove multiple extensions at once which may speed up the process.
Other than that, other options include resetting the browser defaults, and the listing of injected programs under Toolbars & Plug-ins. Other under the hood changes include a larger database for malicious and ad-based browser plugins; additional support for removing stubborn programs and browser plugins, and improved scan functionality to be faster and more thorough.
You can find more information about the update at the source link below.
]]> http://ift.tt/29kBDpu 0 http://ift.tt/29tNqUO http://ift.tt/29tfQiV Thu, 07 Jul 2016 04:00:16 +0000 http://ift.tt/29kBWABBeFriend is an open-source, distress signal sending application which has the ability to notify your friends and family about your location anytime you are in danger using SMS and twitter.
Some of the features are:
Gallery : Befriend screen shots
You can contribute to the app here.
Download the app now using MS Store link or below.
WP-Appbox: BeFriend (Free, Windows Store) →
]]> http://ift.tt/29kBHpd 0 http://ift.tt/29Q5bx5 http://ift.tt/29tfx81 Thu, 07 Jul 2016 03:12:13 +0000 http://ift.tt/29kBC4XFor those who may be concerned about the future of Insider builds after the upcoming Anniversary Update, Microsoft’s Dona Sarkar has confirmed on twitter that the Windows Insider program will continue well after the Anniversary Update.
@Yogesh_Rya we will definitely keep pushing builds post-anniversary update. This system seems to work pretty well.
— Dona Sarkar (@donasarkar) July 5, 2016
The insider gas been pretty successful, allowing testers/users to try new Windows builds while providing feedback on the direction on the future of the service. And with Redstone 2 expected to be released sometime in the first half of next year, those in the program should be expecting to keep receiving these builds before hand, just as theyve been receiving current Redstone builds since earlier this year.
“I want people in the Insiders program to feel like a part of our family,” she said. “I want them to feel like they have a seat at the table to help make this product better. And not just hardcore technical people.”
And with the new Xbox One Preview program, it only goes to show that Microsoft is really standing behind these early preview programs that allows it’s fan base to continue shaping the future of the company.
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfOrn 0 http://ift.tt/29j3Stx http://ift.tt/29kC0At Thu, 07 Jul 2016 01:00:46 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfLMdHello MSPowerUser readers!
GDrive.NET – client for Google Drive on Windows ecosystem – gets updated again! In this app you can manage your Google Drive on Windows 10 and Windows Phone 8.1 and it’s getting better and better with each update
In newest version you can find:
It’s most full featured Google Drive manager on Windows!
App is free to download with optional purchase of full version – to remove ads and unlock advanced functionality. By buying you support developer and future updates
You’re all welcome to check it out and tell what you think in comments!
WP-Appbox: GDrive.NET (Free*, Windows Store) →
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfsRA 0 http://ift.tt/29n9zb2 http://ift.tt/29kBAdp Wed, 06 Jul 2016 22:57:46 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfUPPCNN today announced that the company will be retiring its Windows Phone app later this month. Windows Phone users will no longer be able to use the company’s app from July 18. When you open the app, it displays the following message:
This application will be retired on Monday, July 18.
Thank you for being a loyal CNN user. Please visit our mobile web site to continue to get the latest domestic and international news: www.cnn.com
The CNN app was already quite old, and it probably didn’t have a lot of users. CNN may be planning to release a Windows 10 app in the future, but we’ll let you know when and if that happens. In the meantime, you can just use the built-in News app in Windows 10 to stay up-to-date with the latest news.
WP-Appbox: CNN (Free, Windows Store) →
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfoBr 0 http://ift.tt/29uTr5y http://ift.tt/29kBRNu Wed, 06 Jul 2016 19:51:31 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfF7t Some things are just better off not said.Recently, a user on Twitter, Patrick Burtchaell, found a new email that had been sent to his roommate from a Microsoft recruiter. The message started off by inviting its “bae interns” to attend Internapalooza, held in San Francisco, and to “get lit,” hang out, and party at the event. The event is to be held on July 11, where other partners like Google and Snapchat will be attending.
Following this interesting attempt from Microsoft to communicate a hip message, a spokesperson from the company issued a response, stating:
The email was poorly worded and not in keeping with our values as a company. We are looking into how this occurred and will take appropriate steps to address it.
Well, then.
How would you have reacted to this email? Hit us up in the comments.
]]> http://ift.tt/29kC4jo 0 http://ift.tt/29oy7MI http://ift.tt/29tfFV5 Wed, 06 Jul 2016 19:30:44 +0000 http://ift.tt/29kByC4While other vendors are raising prices Microsoft is dropping the prices of their Windows 10 phones in UK and Ireland.
At the Microsoft UK store Microsoft dropped the Lumia 550 price by £10 to £79.99 and at Microsoft Ireland the price has dropped by €30 to €99.99.
The affordable Windows 10 Mobile handset features a Quad Core Snapdragon 210 processor, an 8 megapixel camera and a 4.7 inch 720 p screen. It does not support Windows Hello or Continuum, but it does have Glance, Bluetooth 4.1 and other small niceties included.
Pick up the Lumia 550 in UK here and in Ireland here.
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfU2s 0 http://ift.tt/29irGsY http://ift.tt/29kC0QK Wed, 06 Jul 2016 18:30:11 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfDMDEA today announced that will be adding several great titles like Need for Speed, EA SPORTS Madden 17, Unravel to The Vault and Play First Trials. Also, this fall, EA Access members on Xbox One and Origin Access members on PC can experience the dawn of all-out war first with Battlefield 1 Play First Trials on October 13, ahead of its October 21 worldwide launch.
The following titles are coming in the next few months:
EA Access members are already have access to 20+ titles in The Vault, trying new EA games first with Play First Trials, and saving 10% on EA digital purchases on Xbox One. If you want buy EA Access subscription on Xbox One, visit the link here.
]]> http://ift.tt/29kC6rM 0 http://ift.tt/29i1wpN http://ift.tt/29tfY28 Wed, 06 Jul 2016 18:13:59 +0000 http://ift.tt/29kC1o1Microsoft today released a major update for Outlook Groups iOS app in App Store. This update includes huge improvements to user experience across the app. Also, you can now view your group events, add them to your calendar and create new events for your groups. Find the change log below.
What’s New in Version 1.10.8:
-View your group events, add them to your calendar and create new events for your groups.
-A huge uplift of experiences across the app.
-Swipe on a group to add them to favorites or mute notifications from them.
Outlook Groups enables you to engage with your team on the go with an Office 365 work or school account. Take part in the latest discussions, share photos and notes and collaborate on files.
You can get Outlook Groups for iOS from here.
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfmt8 0 http://ift.tt/29jjv0d http://ift.tt/29kBJ0j Wed, 06 Jul 2016 18:00:56 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfvgpAfter ongoing currency melt-down due to Brexit in UK Dell has told channel partners that they have raised their prices by 10%, an increase which will soon be passed on to customers.
“We carefully consider price moves for our customers and partners, and have worked diligently over the past several months to postpone any increases pending the outcome of the EU referendum,” a Dell spokesperson told The Register.
“Our component costs are priced in US dollars,” she added, “and unfortunately, the recent strengthening of the US dollar versus sterling and other currencies in the EMEA region, following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, will have a direct impact on the price we sell to our UK customers and partners.”
The UK Pound is currently down 12.4% vs the US Dollar, a 31 year low.
Other PC companies are also likely to follow suite, with HP saying:
“HP is carefully assessing the Brexit situation to better understand its business and economic impact. In the meantime, we continue to actively move forward with day-to-day operations supporting employees, customers and partners. HPE, like any other international company, adjusts prices based on exchanges rates and currency fluctuations. Adjustments in pricing are always communicated to our partners and customers through existing communication channels.”
Is now the time to buy that PC and TV you have been ogling before prices go up even further? Let us know below.
]]> http://ift.tt/29kBAtV 0 http://ift.tt/29rHN9G http://ift.tt/29tfI3d Wed, 06 Jul 2016 17:05:17 +0000 http://ift.tt/29kBUbPAsus’ latest 2-in-1 device Zenbook Flip UX360CA is now available for order in the US starting at $699. It comes with a precision-engineered multi-gear metal mechanism 360° hinge that allows a silky-smooth, stepless action and holds the display securely at any angle. Just like other high-end Asus Ultrabooks, this model’s chassis is forged from a single block of metal with spun-metal finish and it comes in two colors: Icicle Gold or Mineral Grey.
This device features touchscreen display up to QHD+ 3200 x 1800 resolution and 72% NTSC color gamut, a high-capacity lithium-polymer battery that can last for up to 12 hours between charges, up to 8GB RAM, a super-fast 512GB SSD and the latest 6th-generation Intel Core M processor.
It also comes with USB Type-C port for fast data transfers, two USB 3.0 Types-A ports, a micro HDMI port and an SD Card slot.
You can order it here from Amazon and here from Asus.
Find more images below.
Full Specs:
Intel® Core™ M 6Y30 Processor,
Windows 10 Home
8 GB SDRAM
13.3″ (16:9) LED backlit FHD (1920×1080) Glare Touchscreen with 72% NTSC
Integrated Intel HD Graphics 515
Solid State Drives:
256GB/512GB SATA3 M.2 SSD
Chicklet keyboard
Multi-format card reader
HD Web Camera
HD 720p CMOS module
Wi-Fi
Integrated 802.11a/b/g/n/ac(2×2) (WIDI Support)
Bluetooth
Built-in Bluetooth V4.1
1 x Microphone-in/Headphone-out jack
2 x USB 3.0 port(s)
1 x USB-C Gen 1 (up to 5 Gbps)
1 x micro HDMI
1 x SD card reader
1X AC adapter plug
1 x Volume up/down
Built-in Stereo 1.6 W Speakers And Digital Array Microphone
ASUS SonicMaster Technology
3 Cells 54 Whrs Polymer Battery
Output :
19 V DC, 2.37 A, 45 W
Input :
100 -240 V AC, 50/60 Hz universal
323 x 220 x 13.9 mm (WxDxH) (w/ 3cell battery)
1.3 kg with Battery
BIOS Booting User Password Protection
HDD User Password Protection and Security
While Groove Music is supported by Sonos, you can still not control the high end audio system from your Windows Phone or PC.
Zonos is a 3rd party app for the service which lets you control your system from your Windows device. The app has just been updated to version 2.0 which brought new features such as Cortana support and support for more languages.
The app now features:
The update also brought
See screen shots of the app below:
Gallery : Zonos screen shots
Find the app in the Windows Store here.
WP-Appbox: Zonos (Free*, Windows Store) →
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfFo6 0 http://ift.tt/29o8Jql http://ift.tt/29kBYZf Wed, 06 Jul 2016 16:08:24 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfQzrRockstar games yesterday announced that Red Dead Redemption will be released for Xbox One as part of Xbox One Backward Compatibility program this coming Friday, July 8th. Following this announcement, Red Dead Redemption: Game of the Year Edition sales rank is now up 7,095% on Amazon. It has moved up to 22nd position from 1,583 in a day! Red Dead Redemption sales rank is now up 1,250% on Amazon. It has moved up to 53rd position from 716 in a day! Red Dead Redemption was one of the most-demanded titles since Xbox One backward compatibility program was announced at E3 2015 and this increase in sales on Amazon is an another proof for the high interest on this title among gamers.
If you already own Red Dead Redemption game on Xbox 360, you can now play it on Xbox One regardless of which version of the game you own (Red Dead Redemption, Undead Nightmare and Red Dead Redemption: Game of the Year Edition). If you are interested in buying this game now on Xbox One, the game will be available to purchase on Friday from the Games Store on Xbox One. You can order it from Amazon using the below links,
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfE3h 0 http://ift.tt/29nPxvs http://ift.tt/29kCuGD Wed, 06 Jul 2016 15:55:37 +0000 http://ift.tt/29tfyc2It seems like Fallout 4’s DLC is coming to an end. Pete Hines, Bethesda’s VP of marketing, took to Twitter to confirm that Nuka World is the last piece of DLC the game will receive.
Nuka World was originally announced at E3 last month, along with two other pieces of DLC. These were Contraptions Workshop and Vault-Tec Workshop, which allowed players to build more things in their settlements. They definitely aren’t the same kind of DLC that Fallout 3 and New Vegas received, with Far Harbor being the exception.
The price of the Fallout 4 season pass was raised to $50 because Bethesda had planned to include more content after Far Habor, and some people are – understandably – angry about this.
@DCDeacon @AndesDylan After raising the price of the Season Pass to $50, only $10 less than the full game, we're only getting 3 expansions??
— MinZ & Ridley (@MinZMaille) July 5, 2016
@DCDeacon @AndesDylan What a load of crap. Two DLC's and a load of powderpuff items. Nice to see Bethesda/Zenimax is adopting EA's model…
— Clayton Johnson (@cbjohnson82) July 5, 2016
@DCDeacon that is really disappointing. I expected more when I paid for that pass.
— Randall Pedersen (@Randy_hates_you) July 6, 2016
This definitely isn’t the best note for the DLC to end on. There’s always a chance Bethesda could change their minds, but this isn’t too likely.
Nuka World will release some time later this year, and you can purchase Fallout 4 on the Xbox One here.
What do you think of this? Are you angry about the price:content ratio of the season pass, or do you think it’s best that Bethesda moves on to working on their next project? Let us know in the comments below!
]]> http://ift.tt/29kBYsd 0 http://ift.tt/29mTyio http://ift.tt/29tfVmR Wed, 06 Jul 2016 14:57:58 +0000 http://ift.tt/29kBBhtMicrosoft yesterday announced that the Power BI service has added support for reports and dashboards with R visuals. This expands Power BI service visuals with endless flexibility, and adds advanced analytics depth. Also, the R visuals are fully integrated into Power BI service reports, and can be filtered, cross filtered, and pinned to dashboards. Also they behave in the service like any other visual in Power BI which means users can interact, filter, slice, and pin them to a dashboard, or share them with others. R visuals in Power BI service are enabled only for domain verified Pro users and it supports hundreds of the mostly used R packages.
For more information on R visuals in the service, see Use R scripts in Power BI to create advanced analytics and visualizations.
]]> http://ift.tt/29tfYiE 0 http://ift.tt/29wANf8 http://ift.tt/29tfIjJ Wed, 06 Jul 2016 14:37:41 +0000 http://ift.tt/29kC17vMicrosoft today announced Dynamics 365 bringing their CRM and ERP cloud offerings into one cloud service with specific, purpose built, apps for each key business processes – like Finance, Sales, Customer Service, etc. Dynamics 365 apps will also provide you with a modern and familiar experience with built in insights, intelligence and workflow. To ensure interoperability and extensibility they also use a common data model and consistent application platform.
Microsoft is encouraging their partners to use Power BI, PowerApps, Microsoft Flow and Microsoft Azure to create composite business applications spanning Dynamics 365, Office 365 and, via a large and growing family of connectors, third-party databases and applications. To extend the functionality of individual Dynamics 365 apps, partners may continue to use native application extensibility frameworks built-in to the CRM and the AX platforms.
Learn more about Dynamics 365 here.
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