The announcement follows Microsoft’s wide announcements for HoloLens made this month. In an effort to increase business-use for the headset and Windows Mixed Reality, Microsoft will look to work with more companies. Abcomrents operates in North America and is a specialist in renting LCD video walls, touch screen displays, kiosks, and other display-centered products. Microsoft says customers in North American will be able to rent HoloLens from Abcomrents, with other markets to launch in coming months....

1 New York Expansion2 TV White Spaces This partnership further expands Microsoft’s TV White Spaces project, which was trademarked as Airband earlier this year. With 19.4 million rurally located people in the United States without broadband, there is a need to connect more residents. RTO Wireless says it will leverage its technology to brings fixed and mobile wireless internet to these areas. The company will use its own TV white spaces and Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) to deliver the connectivity....

Importantly, this release is also the first to support WinUI 3. However, as that 0.5 version number suggests, Project Reunion remains in preview. Still, developers can now use the platform for their production application. Project Reunion integrates Microsoft’s current Win32 and Universal Windows Platform (UWP) APIs. Win32 apps are legacy applications, while UWP is Microsoft’s modern app API. Under Project Reunion, the tool will also be available independently from Windows, allowing dev’s to use tools like Budget....

Azure Machine Learning is a platform that allows users to create analytic solutions in a cloud-based environment. The service offers a simple UI and is noted for being a powerful tool for customers. The machine learning platform merges Microsoft’s cloud technology through Azure with its analytic tools such as Cortana Intelligence. Using Azure Machine Learning, developers create, trains, and roll out artificial intelligence (AI) models. Microsoft also announced upgrades to Azure Stream Analytics on Azure IoT Edge....

The arrival of Skype Preview on Xbox One means that users of the console now have two ways to make Skype calls on their Xbox. Microsoft’s console already comes with a native app for the service, called Skype on Xbox One, which contains Xbox One-only elements. Xbox One Skype Preview still without CompactOverlay Just two days ago, Microsoft rolled out a new update for the Skype Preview app on Windows 10....

1 Windows 10 Build 161882 Windows 10 Mobile Build 15210 Changelog Windows 10 Build 16188 Of course, there’s a lot more depth than it appears on the surface, and Microsoft has made tons of minor tweaks that improve the quality of life. Here’s the full changelog for PC: “Awesome new features in Microsoft Edge’s PDF Reader: PDF Form filling: Now you can fill in PDF based forms within Microsoft Edge, save them and print them!...

This was a surprise as Microsoft has largely steered away from filling its apps and services with ads. Mail and Calendar users were unhappy about the change and Redmond faced a backlash. Microsoft quickly confirmed on Twitter it had turned off the feature. This week, the company says it has not removed the ad code entirely from Mail and Calendar. This means the feature is not even inactive on the app and has been removed entirely....

In its announcement, Microsoft revealed several new improvements for Framework. Version 4.7.1 brings accessibility improvements in narration and focus control areas. SHA-2 support in ASP.NET is now more secure, while .NET Standard 2.0 now gets support from .NET Framework. As usual, .NET Framework 4.7.1 is available across a wide range of Windows versions. Customers running the platform on Windows 10 (Anniversary Update and above), Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 SP1 can download this update....

“All your files—even online files—can be seen in File Explorer and work just like every other file on your device,” explains Windows Insider head Donar Sarkar. “You’ll be able to open online files from within desktop or Windows Store apps using the Windows file picker. And you’re covered in both your home and professional life since it works with your personal and work OneDrive, as well as your SharePoint Online team sites....

This has led to Microsoft issuing public pleas to the CMA, asking the authority to allow the merger to go ahead. However, the CMA admits it has issues with the acquisition and will conduct a thorough review. According to the watchdog, there are concerns “Microsoft’s anticipated purchase of Activision Blizzard could substantially lessen competition in gaming consoles, multi-game subscription services, and cloud gaming services.” Sony has been a vocal leader in the backlash against the deal....

1 WikiLeaks2 Digital Geneva Convention The interview comes during the same week where data privacy for users is once again in the headlines. Smith was talking after the Westminster terror attack in London, for which Microsoft provided information to UK law enforcement. Earlier today, we reported that the company acted within 30 minutes to give UK authorities information related to the recent terror attack in London. Smith says the information was given after the company assessed that the request was legal and valid....

The Game Stack Live team has posted the full schedule on its blog, with sessions about Xbox Series X and xCloud, how The Coalition built Gears 5, and how to be inclusive in game design. Essentially, it’s mostly the social and networking aspect of GDC 2020 that developers will be missing on the Microsoft side of things. That will still be a major disappointment for some, but it’s probably better than catching coronavirus....

Blazor WebAssembley is new framework for creating interactive web applications. It provides a platform for developers to build web applications that behave like a Progressive Web App (PWA). Daniel Roth, a principal program manager with Microsoft’s ASP.NET team, said Blazor WebAssembly is a “fully featured and supported release … that is ready for production use”. “Blazor WebAssembly includes a proper .NET runtime implemented in WebAssembly, a standardized bytecode for the web....

The reason I put the word fix in quotation marks above is because the patch does not stop all attacks. That’s according to Will Dormann, a CERT/CC analyst who originally discovered the Outlook flaw in November 2016. Outlook’s way of handling RTF email with Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) objects on a remote SMB (Server Message Block) is the root of the problem. The SMB network file-sharing protocol uses Microsoft’s NT LAN Manage (NTLM) authentication for creating a connection between the SMB and Windows....

In its release notes, Microsoft says it once again on user feedback from the SQL community to deliver changes customers want. Centered on improving performance and diagnostics, SQL Server 2016 Service Pack 2 (SP2) comes with several changes. In terms of performance and scalability, Microsoft cleaned up the DB cleanup process. The company found large distribution databases were causing blocks. Service Pack 2 improves the process to ensure many blockage situations are resolved....

We’ve yet to find out the details of the headphones’ delay, but reports at least indicate that the devices will be in consumers’ hands (or ears) soon. According to WinFuture, who cites information from “European retailers”, the Surface Earbuds will debut on May 6, less than two weeks from now. It also says they’ll launch at €199 in the continent, which would be a very reasonable exchange rate from the $250 listed on the U....

If you’re unfamiliar with Microsoft Search, it leverages the power of Microsoft Graph, the new search experience is like a universal search across Microsoft services. It provides the search for all core apps, including Bing, Office, Windows 10, and Microsoft Edge, Yammer, and SharePoint. Microsoft Search finally made its debut on Windows 10 late last year following a significant delay. The new experience was initially announced in 2017 and scheduled to launch in 2019....

If this news had arrived this time last year, few would have been shocked. Mixer was seemingly stagnating following its rebranding from Beam, and Microsoft was thought to be considering killing it. However, the company decided to have another go at a game streaming service. The company tapped several major streamers to exclusive contracts. Most notably, Ninja, the world’s most popular streamer, became exclusive to Mixer. Furthermore, Microsoft introduced numerous new features and tools to the platform....

According to the company, it is killing off the online version of Visual Studio before it has even left preview. With Visual Studio Online (Codespaces), users have a web-based companion to the full VS experience. They can access code and edit it from any device, including smartphones. With Codespaces, Microsoft added the ability to work with extensions, access a command line, edit, run, and debug apps, and see Git repos....

Xbox Game Pass has enjoyed solid growth since its launch in May 2017. The service was announced in February of the same year as a subscription-based service. It gives gamers unlimited access to over 100 games for $9.99 per month. There are now 200 titles available for members, and Microsoft says the service is progressing as planned. In fact, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood called Xbox Game Pass an “early success”....