According to fresh reports, Microsoft is working on a model that will allow it to build and sell a low-cost PC that customers pay for through ads and subscriptions. It seems this project is the real deal because Microsoft has a job listing that discusses it. The position is for a Principal Software Engineering Manager that will help to build a Windows 11 PC that is affordable. It seems that the whole concept will be underpinned by Windows 365....

While Nadella’s base salary is still $25 million, his stock awards have increased from $33 million to $42.2 million. Other areas of Nadella’s earnings have also been declared in Microsoft’s latest Proxy 2022 Statement. It shows the CEO’s Non-equity incentive plan compensation fells from $14.2 million last year to $10.6 million this year. In total, Nadella is getting a $55 million package, which the company says is 96% performance-based (up from 71% the year previous)....

The so-called “sneak and peek” warrant would result in Microsoft giving the government customer data. However, the high-profile organizational customer would not be given notice of its data being shared. “We have challenged that order in the lower court, and we will pursue an appeal in the appellate court if necessary,” said Dev Stahlkopf, Microsoft’s general counsel in a blogpost. According to Stahlkopf, Microsoft did not have full information on this case....

And the cost for tapping into Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services? Well, a cool $20,000 each month for each tenant. For that kind of outlay, it is essential that the cloud solution offers a lot to organizations. Microsoft points out the vertical cloud platform provide financial insights, data management tools, and actionable insights into how to use data to build solutions. Furthermore, the offering also helps to increase productivity and help organizations better understand customers....

If you are unfamiliar with CloudKnox Security, it develops Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) services. As a leader in the space, the company allows organizations to manage permissions and privilege access. Using analytics, the platform protects against security breaches. Microsoft previously discussed how it will use the platform in Azure. It seems those plans are coming to users in the form of CloudKnox Permissions Management. This is a unified CIEM that allows Azure customers to manage permissions across their cloud infrastructure....

At the end of June, Microsoft will mark the end of its fiscal 2018. Ahead of the new corporate year, the company has announced more changes to its executive team. Now, its engineering divisions are being shuffled to put even more focus on intelligent cloud/intelligent edge. Among the changes saw Microsoft Corporate Vice President Kudo Tsunoda leaving his position. He was part of the Mixed Reality, Story Remix, and HoloLens departments....

Well, besting it in one key area at least. Loup Ventures, the investment firm run by known analyst Gene Munster conducted a virtual assistant IQ test amongst the leading industry candidates. Involved in the test were Alexa, Cortana, Siri, and Google Assistant. Google Assistant was victorious, answering 86% of the 800 questions correctly. Maybe that’s not a surprise considering Assistant is widely regarded. However, Siri’s performance is perhaps more of note....

However, just as Nadella was building bridges, Microsoft’s marketing team was performing an own goal. It seems the company has been trying to get some cheap PR goodwill from the racial tension that has flared up in numerous countries, but especially in the United States. Microsoft tapped a New York City ad agency to create a mural to show the company’s solidarity with minorities. For a start, the mural itself was to cover the company’s boarded up 5th Avenue store, probably in an effort to protect it from looters and rioters....

In collaboration with Huawei, the company has achieved a translation breakthrough. Thanks to the Chinese phone giants’ new NPU (Neural Processing Unit), you can now use Microsoft Translator offline. Admittedly, it’s a feature that was available before, but now there’s a twist. The Mate 10’s Neural Processing Unit allows for “dramatically better and faster offline translations as compared to existing offline packs.” The BLEU Test When Microsoft says dramatically, it’s not lying, either....

WebRTC is a Real-Time Communications platform created by Google. It is free and open source, allowing developers to place RTC capabilities into their browser and mobile apps. This is achieved through simple APIs. Microsoft says it has seen WebRTC growth over the last half decade. The APIs have been particularly popular for creating native video chat apps. With support for WebRTC on Microsoft Edge, developers can build apps in HTML/JS for browsers through the Web App Template through Edge....

1 Eye Control Improvements2 Other updates for Insiders3 General changes & improvements4 Fixes5 Known issues While Microsoft has stopped adding new features for the soon to launch Windows 10 Version 2004 (20H1) update, this latest Insider release is a post 20H1 update. Yes, that means Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19582.1001 is for Windows 10 20H2 (Version 2010). Although, it is worth noting the update is on the Active Development Branch....

False positives are when an anti-virus tool flags a legitimate tool as being infected and warns users about using its. Product misidentification does not happen often, but it is a problem Microsoft has seen sometimes on Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. This week’s Office false positive was just a high profile incident. System admins reached out to Microsoft to complain about the issue. Steve Scholz, Microsoft Principal Technical Specialist for Security & Compliance confirmed this was a false positive....

According to Microsoft, they still want to work on several areas such as the single-player campaign, the multiplayer balance and the in-game lobby. Microsoft has not said exactly when the market launch is to be made up for and a related blog entry only states “at the beginning of 2018”. Between anger and appreciation The developers now want to collect feedback from players participating in the closed beta version of Age of Empires: Final Edition....

It seems like the Designer app will allow Windows 11 users to build slick LinkedIn and Instagram posts and stories, invitations, brochures, Facebook ads, and other forms of visual content. Designer starts as an empty space that users can fill with their custom ideas using a Microsoft template. The company accidentally rolled out a preview of the app for education users via designer.microsoft.com but has since removed the tool. Although, the page remains live with the new Designer logo visible but is otherwise blank....

Servicing updates are the rollouts Microsoft does that focus on keeping Windows stable, secure, and functional. For example, its monthly Patch Tuesday cumulative updates. The concept sometimes seems ironic considering patches often cause as many problems as they solve. Still, it is a servicing schedule Microsoft says will continue moving forward. So, Patch Tuesday updates will continue on Windows 11 as Microsoft continues to push its “Windows as a service” idea....

New reports suggest Microsoft is now looking to follow Apple’s path and develop its own ARM CPUs. In doing so, the company will create new Surface products and use the architecture on the server side. Microsoft’s Windows 10 on ARM project has been a mixed success. Devices have failed to fulfil the promise of ARM computing. That promise is excellent performance built on market-busting battery life. Apple’s M1 has seemingly lived up to the hype of ARM computing and taken an instant lead over Microsoft....

This is the second time Forspoken has been delayed, so users will be waiting longer to see the benefits of DirectStorage in action. While it is possible another game launches with the software available, none have been announced so it seems unlikely. Forspoken was initially pegged for a May 25 launch, with Microsoft highlighting DirectStorage during a demo in March. However, it was then rescheduled to October 11 but is now looking for a January release....

People accessing the virtual assistant has been used to saying “Hey Cortana” to get the assistant to listen. Under the new system, users will need to simply say “Cortana” to start the service. Microsoft confirmed it first made the change for the Invoke smart speaker last week. Users on Windows 10, iOS, and Android will receive the update soon, but until then are still on the “Hey Cortana” greeting. Indeed, the company says the old greeting will still work even after the change....

Currently, users can only link to full webpages, like this link here to a Microsoft Edge article. While this serves a purpose, adding specific linking to Chromium browsers will expand text anchoring. ChromeStory discovered a commit that points to a feature called Scroll to Text. Available as a GitHub project, not much information is known about what the feature will deliver. The developers point out how they plan to implement Scroll to Text on Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome....

In terms of Microsoft Edge, the company is adding a new security feature with the release of Edge 94, which is moving into preview now. Known as Control-Flow Enforcement Technology (CET). With this feature, Microsoft Edge can offer protection from threat actors who use Edge’s code against users. These hackers will alter processes on the browser to disguise their attacks. With CET, Edge can now block attacks that alter operations at a code level....