Author: Microsoft Stories

Xbox boss Phil Spencer isn’t discounting the fact that the company has things to say before the year. Spencer told a fan on Twitter that, “I’ll miss Gamescom but @aarongreenberg will be there. We will have things to say this fall, we’ll find the right times.” This seems to indicate a fan event of sorts, perhaps like Sony’s PlayStation Experience. Spencer also said that, “I want to visit some fans I haven’t visited before and we have some things to say before end of 2016 so we’ll find the times.”

Recent surveys of IT administrators, managers and professionals displayed the broadest trends that first, corporate IT likes Windows 10 a lot more than it did Windows 8, and second, Windows 10 will replace Windows 7 as the go-to operating system. Windows 10’s adoption in the enterprise will be critical to the OS’s success, especially from this point forward: The consumer-centric free upgrade offer has expired and the historic slump in PC shipments, mostly blamed on consumers’ refusal to buy new systems to replace aged ones, continues unabated.

After announcing Windows 10 Anniversary update for PCs, the Redmond-based software company is now rolling a new version for Raspberry Pi 3 under the IoT Core program. Windows 10 IoT Core anniversary update brings performance and application-support improvements and an easier setup experience. The Anniversary for Raspberry Pi 3 also brings functional parity with Raspberry Pi 2. With Windows 10 IoT Core Anniversary Update, Raspberry Pi 3 users can remote into their IoT device and remotely control what’s displayed on their IoT device from any desktop or phone.

Microsoft has released .Net Framework 4.6.2, tightening security in multiple areas, including the BCL (Base Class Library). The new version also makes improvements to the SQL client, Windows Communication Foundation, the CLR (Common Language Runtime), and the ASP.Net web framework. The security focus in the BCL impacts PKI capabilities, and X.509 certificates now support the FIPS 186-3 digital signature algorithm. Microsoft’s Stacey Haffner said, “This support enables X.509 certificates with keys that exceed 1024-bit. It also enables computing signatures with the SHA-2 family of hash algorithms (SHA256, SHA384, and SHA512).”

Microsoft rolled out its Windows 10 Anniversary Update recently bring refinements to Cortana, the company’s new Edge browser, and more. The Anniversary update is Windows 10’s first major update since its launch last year. The Edge browser replaced the Internet Explorer; in an HTML5Accessibility browser benchmark, Edge became the first browser to get a 100 percent rating. The website tests which new HTML5 features are accessibly supported by browsers. Google Chrome was rated at 81 percent, Mozilla Firefox was rated at 89 percent and Safari trailed behind at 73 percent.

Microsoft has stated before that it has big plans for chatbots, in the form of convenience as a digital assistant, as well as on the product end for customer service. This week, Microsoft rolled out a few new chatbots for Skype, including a very familiar alien face. Among the five new additions is a chatbot that lets you “learn the ways of Vulcan logic” through a conversation with the venerable Mr Spock. Spock bot and the others are all now part of the Skype Bot Directory on Windows, Android, iOS, Mac, and web apps.

Apple and Microsoft appeared to be aiming in opposite directions with freshly released gun emojis. New emojis teased by Apple in a blog post included women athletes, single parents, a rainbow flag, and a green water pistol. Meanwhile, a Windows operating system update rolled out this week by Microsoft came with a pistol emoji changed from a cartoonish ray gun to a revolver.

Microsoft has announced that it would roll out two major updates for Windows 10 next year after releasing a third and final update for 2016. “Windows 10, version 1607 is our third Windows 10 feature update released. Based on feedback from organizations moving to Windows 10, this will be our last feature update for 2016, with two additional feature updates expected in 2017,” the company wrote in a blog.

Publisher 2K Games and Developer Hangar 13 are all set for their third installment in the Mafia series and are hyping things up by releasing six trailers featuring new characters. After their feature on Lincoln Clay, the protagonist, and Cassandra, the voodoo queen, the third trailer introduces the leader of the Irish Syndicate, Thomas Burke. Mafia III is set to release on October 7, 2016 and on PS4, Xbox One, PC and Mac OS.