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343 Industries is getting the holiday celebrations off to an early start – Monitor’s Bounty is out now for Halo 5: Guardians! The latest content release marks the tenth update for Halo 5: Guardians, and includes new weapons, armor and skins, brand new ways to play and seek out custom games and the largest Forge update we’ve ever released. Halo 5 players on Xbox One and Windows 10 will now have a new way to find matches and teammates with the addition of the join-in-progress Custom Games Browser. This new browser enables players to search for in-progress games from the main menu and utilizes the content browser to filter for any map or mode your heart desires. http…
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Artificial intelligence (AI) made incredible strides in 2016, and the growth appears set to accelerate as we enter the New Year. A team of Microsoft researchers has released a dataset of 100,000 questions and answers that other AI researchers can use – for free – in their quest to create systems that can read and answer questions as well as a human. The MS MARCO dataset is based on anonymized real-world data from Bing and Cortana queries and is part of an attempt to spur the breakthroughs in machine reading that are already happening in image and speech recognition. The move is also aimed at facilitating advances toward “artificial general intelligence,” or machines…
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Ready for a frozen adventure? Well, the wait is over because the Blizzard Mountain Expansion for Forza Horizon 3 is here! Available today in the Microsoft Store either as a standalone purchase or as part of the Forza Horizon 3 Expansion Pass, Blizzard Mountain invites players to the snowy elevations of a brand-new playable area of Forza Horizon 3’s Australia. A big part of the fun with Blizzard Mountain is the amazing roster of new cars and trucks coming to the game, each of which have been hand-picked to provide maximum fun in the extreme elevations and challenging weather conditions that can only be found on the mountain. Heading off the list is the brand new 2016 …
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https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/07bb3ed04fb0bd7476a6ce2aa47d36d2.jpg Harry Shum, executive vice president, Microsoft AI and Research Group This week delivered plenty of powerful news from Microsoft, from game-changing announcements about artificial intelligence to new avenues for business transformation demonstrated at Microsoft Ignite 2016 in Atlanta. Here’s the highlights. Microsoft announced on Thursday that it’s forming a new group to expand its artificial intelligence efforts by bringing together the company’s world-class research organization with more than 5,000 computer scientists and engineers. Harry Shum, a computer vision luminary a…
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Today, the HP Elite x3 goes on sale in Microsoft Stores. We’re taking a closer look and giving you an overview of some of the benefits the HP Elite x3 offers. Announced at Mobile World Congress, the HP Elite x3 is HP’s premium new mobile device powered by Windows 10. It’s lightweight, sports Gorilla Glass 4, is water resistant and is equipped with a battery that packs a major punch. With great built-in features like Cortana*, Continuum** and Microsoft Edge, the HP Elite x3 also features a camera sensor and fingerprint reader that allow you to login securely to the device with Windows Hello***. Features include: Expandable 2TB of storage via SIM card 8 MP fron…
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Rapid advancements in cloud computing are creating new capabilities, insights and efficiencies, allowing businesses big and small to transform the way they deliver products and services. As this transformation accelerates, virtually every company in every sector of the economy is becoming in part a digital business. And as a digital business, it must master the new legal challenges that come with participation in the booming digital economy. One challenge that technology leaders such as Microsoft have long addressed is the risk of patent infringement. We have over two decades of experience and a broad legal infrastructure designed to manage these risks. We’ve thought a…
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We believe that everyone deserves a personal assistant, and a great personal assistant should be available to help on-the-go, on whatever device you carry. We’re excited to bring Cortana*, your truly personal digital assistant, to Android and iOS in the UK, and a fresh new look for the apps. Coming to the UK: The Cortana Android and iOS apps are coming to the UK, extending the functionality of your Cortana on Windows 10 to whatever smartphone you carry, always in perfect sync, always helping you stay on top of things. Reminders that Travel with You: Cortana has your back, seamlessly keeping track of the things you need to remember across all the platforms you …
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We admire the future – from 3D operating rooms to a young athlete’s rise to a universe five centuries ahead – in the latest Weekend Reading. Let’s begin at the most distant milepost, the year 2559, when the UNSC warship Spirit of Fire has embarked on a new journey. Awaiting its human crew are a savage mob known as the Banished. If those sentences hit home, you’re undoubtedly immersed in “Halo Wars 2,” following its recent worldwide launch on “Xbox One and Windows 10 PC. The new version dropped eight years after “Halo Wars,” which prompted Dan Ayoub, studio head of Strategy Games at 343 Industries, to thank fans for their patience, as so many waited so long “to get…
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Focusing on the Creators in all of Us Since I was a kid, I have been drawn to computers because of what they enable each of us to make, to create. Recently Microsoft announced new hardware such as the Surface Studio and Dial, the Windows 10 Creators update, and new software such as Paint 3D, all focused on creators. Creation is a theme that extends across our suite of experiences, including the Photos app that comes with Windows 10. We have now made available the next step in this creator’s journey with an update to Microsoft Photos. We’re making it fun to view all your digital memories in photo or video form, with a refreshed user experience that makes it plea…
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Hello Windows Insiders! Today we are releasing Windows Server Insider Preview Build 17074 to Windows Insiders. This build is a preview build of the next Semi-Annual Channel release of Windows Server. For more information on the Semi-Annual channel, please see the Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel overview Available Content Server Insiders have the choice of Server Core Edition in ISO or VHDX format. The images are pre-keyed – no need to enter a key during setup. Symbols are available on the public symbol server – see Update on Microsoft’s Symbol Server blog post and Using the Microsoft Symbol Server. As before, matching Windows Server container images will …
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Today’s Windows 10 tip is all about enabling the dark theme in Microsoft Edge. Earlier we shared how you can personalize your PC by enabling the dark theme, but did you know you can enable that theme in Microsoft Edge, too? You can switch Microsoft Edge from its default light theme to the dark theme – perfect for low-light conditions such as working at night. Here’s how to enable the dark theme in Microsoft Edge: https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/fde2ec60cda2b80124f569c4c9bdc438.gif To enable the dark theme in Microsoft Edge only, simply open Microsoft Edge, then go to the top right corner and click on the three dots. Scroll down to setting…
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After the Thanksgiving holiday, we came back to work to discover news about Microsoft’s participation in a $3 million fundraising effort to shelter homeless families, how quantum computing can help end world hunger and how one couple has figured out how to convert used cooking oil into soap. Microsoft joined The Starbucks Foundation, the Schultz Family Foundation and many other businesses to support the annual No Child Sleeps Outside campaign by Mary’s Place. They’re part of an unprecedented effort to mobilize the King County, Washington community, contributing more than $3 million to provide safe emergency shelter for the estimated 500 unsheltered families in King Cou…
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In this edition of Weekend Reading, we have stories on a historic milestone in speech recognition, an AI supercomputer in the cloud and significant advancements for the Government Cloud. Microsoft has made a major breakthrough in speech recognition, creating a technology that understands a conversation as well as a person does. In a paper published Monday, a team of researchers and engineers in Microsoft Artificial Intelligence and Research reported a speech recognition system that makes the same or fewer errors than professional transcriptionists. The researchers reported a word error rate (WER) of 5.9 percent, down from the 6.3 percent WER the team reported just last…
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This week at Microsoft Ignite, we showed how we are infusing artificial intelligence (AI) broadly across Microsoft to help our customers. Our approach to this fundamental shift is to democratize AI and to make it accessible and valuable to everyone. We’re focused on building an AI stack spanning infrastructure, services, apps and agents and reaching key customer audiences — consumers, enterprises, developers. We are creating tools to make it easier for busy professionals to remember their commitments, family members from other countries to talk to each other in spite of language barriers, and multitasking smartphone users to send texts more quickly. And at the sam…
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Windows 10 can help you make the most of your holidays in ways like creating to-do lists with Cortana* and making holiday shopping a little easier with Cortana and Microsoft Edge. Together with the latest Windows 10 devices, you can make the most out of the holidays in style. The latest Windows 10 devices from our partners are thinner, lighter and more beautiful than ever, with long battery life to power through your holidays on-the-go. New, higher-resolution screens and small-bezel OLED displays offer vibrant color, and 2-in-1 PCs add the flexibility to work on a laptop, draw on a tablet with Windows Ink or flip to the perfect angle to watch holiday movies – all with the…
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Our team at Rockfish Games has been working together on space shooters for over ten years now, on everything from smartphones, tablets, PC and, most recently, consoles. Which is why we couldn’t be more excited about the launch of Everspace on Xbox One, our very first console game that supports Xbox Play Anywhere featuring cross-saves and the ability to buy once and play anywhere with Windows 10! https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/9289bd3e2d3e235e57456908e528b3e1.jpg Everspace is a Six Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) shooter featuring fast-paced space dogfights within dense level design at its core. You’ll have to survive in a hostile environment filled wi…
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Happy New Year! And thank you for making 2016 an amazing year for Windows 10 across PCs, tablets, all-in-1’s, 2-in-1’s, mixed reality, and Xbox One. As we move toward the release of the Windows 10 Creators Update, I’ve spent the week at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, seeing all kinds of innovation firsthand. It’s incredible to see the creativity of our partners and so many teams around the world who are building devices for each of us. Empowering you to create and play continues to be at the core of how we build Windows, whether you’re a student, educator, gamer, creative or mobile professional. This week our partners announced some fantast…
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In this latest edition of Weekend Reading we have a lot to report, including news on the RSA Conference, an open source set of tools to help researchers and developers train and test drones and other gadgets, and how technology is transforming golf. https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/a8697f8cfb1b4153e5cba405dea5142a.jpegThis year’s RSA Conference in San Francisco brought the world’s security professionals together to discuss cybersecurity at a critical time, writes Microsoft President Brad Smith. Just as the world’s governments came together in 1949 to adopt the Fourth Geneva Convention to protect civilians in times of war, “we now need a Digital Genev…
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Did you know that with the Game Bar on your Windows 10 PC and tablet, you can capture screenshots and record game clips? You can even record with your microphone while capturing video, and share all of it through the Xbox app to your Xbox Live activity feed, messages, showcase and even Twitter. Here’s how to record and capture screenshots with the Game Bar: Simply tap the Xbox button if you’re using an Xbox controller – or press Windows Key + G on your keyboard – to bring up the Game Bar. You can easily find and share all your recordings and screenshots in the Xbox app under the GameDVR tab on the left navigation, or in the Video folder on your PC under “Captures.…
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Hello Windows Insiders! Today we are excited to be releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14977 for Mobile to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. We will not be releasing a PC build this week due to a blocking bug that could result in broken apps after updating to a new build. What’s new in Build 14977 Read EPUB books in Microsoft Edge on your phone: In addition to being able to read any unprotected e-book in the EPUB file format on your PC with Microsoft Edge – you can also read unprotected e-book in the EPUB file format with Microsoft Edge on your phone! When you open an unprotected e-book in Microsoft Edge, you will be taken into a customizable reading…
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At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We care deeply about how we achieve that mission and our lasting impact on the world. Across the company, we are working to apply the power of technology to ensure corporate responsibility, safeguard human rights and protect our planet. This commitment is central to why many of our employees come to work every day, and it impacts the type of products and services we develop. In our 2016 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report, which we published today, you will find information about our policies and business practices which reflect our commitment to maki…
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We hope you enjoyed this week’s episode of This Week on Windows! Read more about what’s new in the Windows Maps app and the new ways Cortana can help you with your to-do lists, or head over here to read our Windows 10 Tip on four ways to use Windows Ink in the Windows Maps app. Here’s what’s new in the Windows Store this week: 14-day free trial of Sling TV https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/acdd4cd0b2f65552802af8c8f26d2357.jpg Your Sling TV exclusive is here! Get an extended 14-day free trial of Sling TV and start watching the best of live TV straight from Windows 10. Stream your favorite live shows and on-demand entertainment, including li…
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We hope you enjoyed this week’s episode of This Week on Windows! Read more about the HP Elite x3, now available in Microsoft Stores and this week’s milestone for Microsoft HoloLens, or head over here to learn how to get started with the Windows Ink Workspace. Here’s what’s new in the Windows Store this week: Gears of War 4 now available on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/7d50506e8fd4d687f414342b0b0499e4.jpg We’re thrilled to announce the official release of Gears of War 4 ($59.99 Standard Edition, $99 Ultimate Edition) with fans around the world. Available exclusively on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC, Gears of War …
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Hello Windows Insiders! It smells like snow up in Redmond-town and you know what that means? A big ole pile o’ features to keep us company during SNOWpocalyse! Today we are excited to be releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14986 for PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. What’s new in Build 14986 Making Cortana awesomer: Turn off your computer, change volume with voice commands: Being able to control your computer with just your voice is one of the top requests we get with Cortana, so we’re excited to say that we’ve added several new features to Cortana that let you do just that. Now you can shut down your PC just by asking Cortana. You can also re…
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Save big on hit apps, games, movies & more with deals in the Windows Store Today, we’re excited to share all the awesome deals the Windows Store has for Black Friday! Available until Nov. 28, this collection* includes great deals on apps, games, music, movies and more for your Windows 10 PC or Xbox console. Keep reading for some of the top titles, check out the full collection, or head over here to learn more about all the great deals on Windows 10 devices and all things Xbox we mentioned in this week’s latest episode. GAMES Gears of War 4 – 40% off https://extremetechsupport.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/d47feefb098fa8c9e2e17743229a4b63.png Beginning…
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