“Microsoft Monday” takes a look back at the past week of news related to Microsoft. This week, “Microsoft Monday” includes details about Windows 10 hitting 400 million active machines, the Nokia 216, the first wet laboratory for cancer research, a $40 billion stock repurchase program, a renewable energy initiative, LinkedIn Learning and more!
Windows 10 Hits 400 Million Active Machines
Windows 10 / Image Credit: Microsoft
Microsoft has announced that it has hit 400 million active Windows 10 machines. That means that 50 million more Windows 10 devices were activated in the last three months. And Microsoft said that the adoption of Windows 10 is 115% faster than Windows 7. Microsoft has a goal of hitting 1 billion active machines by 2018.
Last week, Microsoft updated the OneDrive app for iOS with a new user interface and the ability to share links using work accounts. You will notice that the user interface is much more intuitive and there is more of a focus on files management. And OneDrive for iOS now allows users to share links to folders from work and school accounts. The app update also includes bug fixes and minor improvements.
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Microsoft Nokia 216 Feature Phone Is Headed To India
Nokia 216 / Photo Credit: Microsoft
Microsoft unveiled the Nokia 216 feature phone last week, which could potentially be the last Nokia phone brand released under the Redmond giant. According to USA Today, the Nokia 216 specifications includes two SIM cards, two cameras with an LED flash, Bluetooth and an FM radio. The Nokia 216 is expected to launch in India on October 24th.
Earlier this year, Microsoft said its feature phone division would be sold to a Foxconn subsidiary. After the deal is completed, Nokia would be able to build and sell more phones independently from Microsoft. This deal is expected to be closed by the second half of the year.
Microsoft Opens First Wet Laboratory For Cancer Research
Microsoft wants to help “solve” cancer within the next decade by potentially learning how to reprogram diseased cells back to a healthy state, according to Telegraph UK. Earlier this summer, Microsoft opened its first wet laboratory — which includes engineers and biologists that are working on attacking cancer cells similar to the way viruses infect computers.
“I think it’s a very natural thing for Microsoft to be looking at because we have tremendous expertise in computer science and what is going on in cancer is a computational problem,” said Microsoft Research laboratory director Chris Bishop via Telegraph. “It’s not just an analogy, it’s a deep mathematical insight. Biology and computing are disciplines which seem like chalk and cheese but which have very deep connections on the most fundamental level.”
Microsoft researchers are also working on a computer made from DNA that could live inside cells to detect any irregularities in the system. This computer would even be able to reboot the system and clear the diseased cells.
Research head Andrew Philips told The Telegraph that the plans are long term, but it may be “technically possible” to put a smart molecular system that can detect diseases in five to ten years. Software that mimics the healthy behavior of cells has already been developed so it can be compared to diseased cells to determine how the problem occurred and how it can be fixed.
Gears of War 4 Trailer Has Been Released
Last week, Microsoft has released a full length trailer for Gears of War 4. The trailer is narrated John DiMaggio (voice of Marcus Fenix in the game). Gears of War 4 will be released on October 11th, but the price is unknown.
Gears of War 4 is also an Xbox Play Anywhere game so you can play it on the Xbox One and on Windows 10 PCs. And your game progress, Gamerscore and Achievements will be synced across both platforms.
Microsoft Board Authorizes $40 Billion Of Stock Repurchase
According to Bloomberg, Microsoft’s board of directors approved a $40 billion stock buyback program in addition to an already existing $40 billion stock repurchase program — which was announced in 2013. The existing $40 billion stock repurchase program is expected to conclude by the end of the year. Microsoft also increased its quarterly dividend by 8.3% to 39 cents a share. As of June 30th, Microsoft had $113.2 billion in cash and short-term investments.
Meet The Microsoft Xbox One S Minecraft Favorites Bundle
Xbox One S Minecraft Favorites Bundle / Photo Credit: Microsoft
Last week, Microsoft launched the Xbox One S Minecraft Favorites bundle. The cost of this bundle is $300 and it includes a 500GB Xbox One S, the new wireless controller, download codes for Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta and a 14-day Xbox Live Gold trial membership.
According to PCMag, the download codes for the Favorites Pack and Builder’s Pack are also included in the bundle. The Favorites Pack includes the Festive Mash-up Pack, Halo Mash-up, Fantasy Texture Pack, Natural Texture Pack, City Texture Pack, Battle & Beasts Skin Pack, and Battle & Beasts 2 Skin Pack. And the Builder’s Pack includes Biome Settlers Skin Pack, Cartoon Texture Pack, Candy Texture Pack, Plastic Texture Pack, Pattern Texture Pack, and the Greek Mythology Mash-up. The bundle has over 230 character skins, 3 texture packs and 7 mash-up packs.
Your Minecraft worlds can be transferred from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One Edition. And those worlds can be made up to 16 times bigger. You can order the bundle from Amazon.comAMZN +0.48% and the Microsoft Store now. It is currently available in the U.S. and Canada. Microsoft will be rolling out the bundle to the U.K. and Europe on October 11th. And then it will be rolled out to Australia and New Zealand on November 1st. The rollout for Asia and Latin America is not yet known.
Microsoft Exec Says PS4 Pro 4.2 Teraflops Is Not Enough To Do True 4K
Microsoft’s senior director of product management and planning Albert Penello recently conducted an interview with Eurogamer where he said the 4.2 teraflops in the PS4 Pro is not enough to do true 4K.
“I think there are a lot of caveats they’re giving customers right now around 4K,” said Penello via Eurogamer. “They’re talking about checkerboard rendering and up-scaling and things like that. There are just a lot of asterisks in their marketing around 4K, which is interesting because when we thought about what spec we wanted for Scorpio, we were very clear we wanted developers to take their Xbox One engines and render them in native, true 4K. That was why we picked the number, that’s why we have the memory bandwidth we have, that’s why we have the teraflops we have, because it’s what we heard from game developers was required to achieve native 4K.”
Now Xbox Scorpio games will be rendered at native 4K. And the “majority” of PS4 Pro games will be upscaled to 4K. The PS4 Pro will be available for purchase in November for $400. And the Xbox Scorpio is launching during the holiday season next year for an unknown price.
Xbox Live Games With Gold For October
Last week, Microsoft announced the four Games with Gold for the month of October: two dedicated Xbox One titles and two through the Xbox One Backward Compatibility program.
“For Xbox One, October brings two exciting ID@Xbox titles to Games with Gold with the hit (literally) title Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings and the insanely popular release from Team17, The Escapists. On the Xbox 360 (and Xbox One through Backward Compatibility), Xbox Live Gold members start the month with the post-apocalyptic thriller I Am Alive, and then follow that with some hardcore racing in MX vs ATV Reflex,” said Microsoft in a news post.
Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings will be available between October 1-October 31 (Xbox One)
The Escapists will be available from October 16-November 15 (Xbox One)
MX vs ATV Reflex will be available from October 1-October 15th (Xbox 360 and Xbox One) and
I Am Alive will be available from October 16-October 31 (Xbox 360 and Xbox One)
Microsoft And Adobe Form Cloud Partnership
Microsoft and Adobe have formed a partnership where the two companies will sell each others’ cloud products to mutual customers, according to Business Insider. Adobe will be integrating its products like Adobe Marketing Cloud, Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Document Cloud to Microsoft Azure. And Microsoft is making the Adobe Marketing Cloud the preferred marketing service for Dynamics 365. Essentially this partnership would make Microsoft and Adobe more competitive against companies like Oracle and Salesforce.com.
Microsoft Edge To Become More Secure
Today at the Ignite conference, Microsoft said that the Edge browser will become more secure. Specifically, the Windows Defender Application Guard protects Windows 10 from risky browser sessions. Microsoft said that containers used within other browsers leaves enterprises vulnerable to 90% of prevalent attacks because of the lack of hardware-based protection, reported TechCrunch.
So Windows Defender Application Guard prevents malware from affecting the rest of the network. And the malware code will run within a container. Unfortunately, Windows Defender Application Guard will not be available for enterprises until early 2017. And that will be followed by a broader rollout in late 2017.
This is not the only container initiative Microsoft is focused on. According to Business Insider, Microsoft has partnered with a container startup called Docker. Microsoft will bring Docker’s CS Docker Engine to Windows Server 2016. So Microsoft is able to provide additional services to its customers and Docker is able to reach more customers.
U.K. Watchdog Wants Microsoft To Pay For Windows 10 Machine Issues
Which, a U.K. based consumer watchdog company, is asking Microsoft to pay for damages caused by the Windows 10 upgrades. Which received “well over” 1,000 complaints in regards to the Windows 10 upgrade.
When users upgraded from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10, many people encountered hardware issues due to driver conflicts. And that caused printers, speakers and Wi-Fi malfunctions. Which pointed out that many of those users ended up having to pay for technical support to third party companies to fix their PCs. And Microsoft did not make this issue any easier when it aggressively forced the Windows 10 upgrade.
Which said that many people complained that when they contacted Microsoft, the Redmond giant offered poor customer service. That is why Which is asking Microsoft to “honor the rights of consumers adversely affected by the Windows 10 update.” TechnoBuffalo said that Which is asking Microsoft to pay compensation to people eligible for it under the U.K. Consumer Rights Act of 2015.
Microsoft Is Going Green In A Big Way
Microsoft has big plans to make its data centers more sustainable. At a green technology event, Microsoft’s chief environmentalist Rob Bernard said that the software giant is planning to expand the use of renewable energy and its accountability in regards to carbon footprints.
“Tremendous amounts of energy will be required to power this data-driven revolution. The leading cloud companies have a responsibility to address this energy usage. And Microsoft believes that, as large energy consumers, we have the opportunity to drive change that will benefit not only our company but the world,” said Bernard via The Register UK.
Microsoft will become more transparent about its energy consumption across regions. And Microsoft will be investing in research and development to improve IT efficiencies. Microsoft also has a goal of achieving 50% renewable energy in the next two years. The company is currently operating with about 44% renewable energy.
Here is what Microsoft said in a statement:
“We also committed to improving our energy mix, setting a goal to grow the percent of wind, solar and hydropower energy we purchase directly and through the grid to 50 percent by 2018, 60 percent early in the next decade and to an ongoing and higher percentage in years beyond that. Already, we are at 44 percent and signed a new deal to bring 20 megawatts of new solar energy onto the grid in Virginia earlier this year.”
Microsoft Reportedly Gives An Offer To Buy Twitter
According to TechCrunch, Microsoft has made an offer to acquire Twitter. That means Microsoft is one out of several potential buyers including Disney, Google, Verizon and Salesforce.com. TechCrunch suggested that Microsoft may simply be driving up the price by making a bid to keep Twitter away from Salesforce.com. It’s worth mentioning that when Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $26 billion, the software giant reportedly outbid Salesforce.com.
LinkedIn Launches Learning Training Class Service
LinkedIn Learning / Photo Credit: LinkedIn
Last week, LinkedIn launched a new service called LinkedIn Learning. LinkedIn Learning is based off of Lynda.com, an online training platform that LinkedIn acquired for $1.5 billion last year.
“LinkedIn Learning combines the industry-leading content from Lynda.com with LinkedIn’s professional data and network. With more than 450 million member profiles and billions of engagements, we have a unique view of how jobs, industries, organizations and skills evolve over time. From this, we can identify the skills you need and deliver expert-led courses to help you obtain those skills. We’re taking the guesswork out of learning,” said LinkedIn in a blog post. “The pressure on individuals and organizations to adapt to change has never been greater. The skills that got you to where you are today are not the skills to prepare you for tomorrow. In fact, the shelf-life of skills is less than five years, and many of today’s fastest growing job categories didn’t even exist five years ago.”
In other LinkedIn news, the professional social network also launched a new LinkedIn Messages chatbot feature. What does the LinkedIn chatbot do? The LinkedIn chatbot makes it easier to schedule meetings.
Developers Mojang and 4J Studios are rolling out a new content update for Minecraft on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. It includes a number of new blocks, along with additions like polar bears and igloos.
It’s here! Rolling out across consoles today and tomorrow: an update that brings polar bears young and old, customisable banners, beetroots and related restorative soups, new blocks, buildings and more. You’ll be able to take shelter from the harsh weather of Arctic Biomes in new igloos, and delve beneath the earth for primordial treasures in the shape of giant fossils made of Bone Blocks. Other new blocks include: End Bricks, Grass Path, Frosted Ice, Magma, Nether Wart Block and Red Nether Brick
Minecraft Xbox owners can also purchase and download the Chinese Mythology Mash-Up DLC pack, which includes a pre-made world, along with 41 new skins and 13 musical themes for $4.99. Read original article here:
Video game development is a tough business. A game can come out and be hailed as revolutionary for something that was done in an older game that didn’t hit it big, or in some cases, didn’t come out at all. One such case is that of “Game Zero,” a Nintendo GameCube exclusive that was in development from 2000 to 2002. The project was never officially announced or shown to the press or the public before being quietly swept under the rug after three years of development. Why bring up “Game Zero” in 2016? Well, it turns out that if the project had come to fruition, it might have beaten the most popular game in the world to the punch by several years. “Game Zero” could have been “Minecraft” well before “Minecraft” existed. A screenshot of the hero of “Game Zero” piloting a vehicle around some environmental blocks.Unseen64 The story of its development is a rocky one, as documented by the unfinished games database Unseen64 last year. Basically, one of the developers of the massively popular “Goldeneye: 007” left that studio to form his own game development oufit called Zoonami, out of a desire to make something new and fresh. Zoonami signed a deal to develop an exclusive game for the then-new GameCube console, and “Game Zero” was born. “Game Zero,” according to Unseen64, would have been a “sandbox platformer” where players could “mine rocks and terrains, gaining items and resources to build new structures.” Sound familiar? Unseen64 The destructible environments would have been made out of voxels, which in layman’s terms is fairly similar to how “Minecraft” builds its worlds. The game’s levels would have been closer in scale to “Super Mario 64” than the endless environments of “Minecraft,” though. Sadly, the GameCube supposedly couldn’t handle what was being asked of it. Market realities also contributed to the game’s death, as the most popular GameCube games were much more traditional. Since “Game Zero” was never shown to anyone outside of Zoonami until late 2015, its lead developer Martin Hollis insists nobody involved with the creation of “Minecraft” could have seen it and been inspired by its ideas. Instead, it was simply a case of multiple people coming up with the same idea at different times. Sometimes, that’s just how video games work. It’s worth noting that “Minecraft” has been accused of lifting its ideas from a lesser-known game called “Infiniminer” in the past. It can be difficult to pin down just who originally came up with what ideas at times. If things had worked out just a bit differently, we might all be talking about “Game Zero” today. Maybe it would have been a huge hit, maybe it would have come and gone with little fanfare. As it stands, a handful of screenshots and some developer quotes are all we’ll likely ever have from it.
Welcome to the Kingdom of Galekin, one of the most impressive Minecraft creations I’ve seen in a long time.
The work of one guy, Linard, it’s a sprawling fantasy world of hiw own creation, complete with multiple cities/settlements.
I like that rather than being a recreation of an existing place from a TV show or movie, he’s gone to the trouble of building original places that look relatively functional, with loads of housing and streets and docks, etc.
If you wanna try it out for yourself, you can find the relevant download links here.
Virtual reality is still far from being a certified household name, but its continuous leaps mean it’s headed there eventually, and it’s headed there even faster once October rolls around, with Google, Sony, Microsoft and Oculus all revving up VR-related announcements next month.
For most, the concept of virtual reality is still a daunting sideways glance, going largely undiscussed but marveled at upon direct contact, like touchscreens back in the day, which were revolutionary the first couple of years, until they were just obviously and unthinkingly the right input mechanism for phones.
Come October, with these huge companies slapping their brands as prefixes or suffixes to their individual VR ventures, expect VR to filter through more channels of murmurs in and out of circles, expanding VR dialogue by leaps and bounds.
But enough about forecasting. Here are some of the biggest announcements in VR on October:
Google Daydream
Coming out of its beta stage, Google’s own VR effort, dubbed the Daydream VR, had recently opened its doors for developers. Daydream is much more sophisticated than the Google’s makeshift Cardboard peripheral, allowing users to port their favorite Android apps onto Daydream as VR experiences.
Google announced its Daydream platform back in May during its Google I/O conference, but details about it are scant to this day. Google is expected to provide more details about its direction for the Daydream platform on its upcoming Oct. 4 event.
Google is credited for largely letting casual users understand VR technology in a way that’s sufficient enough to make them care about it. It’s Google Cardboard peripheral is raw and not very high-tech, sporting a toolshed, shop-class aesthetic, but it gets its message about VR clear: It’s the next big thing in a lot of ways you don’t need expensive and fancy gear to experience it, and most importantly, it’s not about to go away anytime soon.
PlayStation VR
Sony will release its own PlayStation VR headset a week after the Oculus conference at $399. It will be the first mainstream VR gear able to integrate natively with a gaming console, specifically Sony’s own PS4. The PlayStation VR had a huge presence back in the E3 bubble but has since remained laconic despite excellent preorder figures, outselling at a rate much faster than any product at GameStop.
Consumer adoption for the PlayStation VR headset will possibly be much easier than some VR gear because of the PS4 units already sitting in millions of households. It’s also priced much lower than the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift, but the main drawback is that it offers a lower-resolution experience compared to other PC-based VR setups.
Sony promised that the PlayStation VR will come with eight demo titles upon its launch on Oct. 13, with a stellar list of titles still in the pipeline, not to mention Sony is also bringing Vive and Rift games available to play.
Minecraft: Gear VR Edition
Starting October, Xbox Wireless Controllers will be compatible with Samsung Gear VR headsets, Tech Times previously reported. The first game to take advantage of the Gear VR and Xbox One controller pairing is Minecraft: Gear VR Edition, and if you have Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition, you can go ahead and download the Oculus store version.
Oculus Touch
Following a store display spotting in London, the Oculus Touch is rumored to be released on winter, with the exact release date still vague. As per the store displays, the Oculus touch will cost £190 ($246) in the UK, with the US price is still obscure for the time being.
Once released,the Touch controllers will offer more sophisticated and complex motion control mechanisms and options for Oculus Rift headset owners who have been waiting since its unveiling. More details about the Touch controllers are expected to make the rounds once the Oculus Connect conference begins on Oct. 5.
Fans and enthusiasts closely following developments in the VR realm should have plenty of material to chew on this October, and who knows, there may even be surprise announcements none of us saw coming, so expect due coverage as we reach the dates. Meanwhile, October isn’t the end for VR announcements and news. On November, the Virtual Reality Developers Conference will be held in San Francisco, with developers expected to showcase new VR apps before the holiday season.
As I sat down to speak with Rog Carpenter, Executive Producer for Minecraft’s console branch, I wanted to know one thing immediately — now that they’re under Microsoft’s umbrella, how open is the team to working with other publishers? Pretty open, as it turns out.
In addition to a massive amount of support from Nintendo directly for the Mario Mash-Up pack for the Wii U version of Minecraft, the team is in “constant” communication with just about everyone. “We talk to all the major players, and we have a back and forth with them, so there’s no real barriers in place. In fact, we’d love to tackle a property like Uncharted for Sony next, or even Gears for Microsoft…we’ve looked at doing both of those things as Mash-Ups.
So the Minecraft team is seemingly the hope diamond in the rough of the console wars, but what about cross-platform play on consoles? Carpenter was a little less enthusiastic about that, but according to him, they’re always looking at it: “We go with what our fans want, and obviously, that’s been asked many times. So we know there’s limitations there on a technical level and on a publisher level, and other developers we’ve talked to have said the same thing. Our mission is to make Minecraft as open as possible, which is what the Windows 10 and mobile editions are doing, so we’ll continue to monitor the situation as it unfolds. For now, nothing is definite.”
While he wouldn’t comment on the situation directly, the ball really is in Sony’s court. Microsoft, the IP holder in this case, is willing to have cross-platform console play. It took them forever to decide this and many eager Japanese developers have been spurned in the process, but it’s something that can happen now. “Maybe Mojang and 4J will be the ones to finally break down that wall?” I asked. “Maybe, maybe,” is all I got with a laugh.
