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In a brief press note, Microsoft says its quarterly dividend is $0.46 per share. This is a 4 cent (9.5 percent) growth compared to the last quarterly dividend. The company will pay the dividend by December 13, 2018, although to shareholders the payment will come on November 15, 2018. Along with the quarterly dividend, Microsoft confirmed the date of its 2018 Annual Shareholders Meeting. The board of directors say the meeting will be held on November 28....

Nadella was speaking today at the Future Decoded conference in Mumbai. By creating a version of Skype catered to Indian customers, the company is furthering its push in the country. With over one billion people and an underdeveloped tech sector, India is a frontier for companies. Microsoft has targeted expansion in the country over several years. Skype Lite will be launching solely on Android now. This makes sense as Google’s mobile OS is the runaway market leader in India....

Also, Microsoft said it will launch a new 85-inch version of the existing Surface Hub 2. No price tag has been placed on this larger model, although the company says it will be released in 2020. In terms of the Surface Hub 2S, it is another large screen touch-enable TV with a full Windows 10 PC inside. Because of this, users can access Microsoft’s full suite of Windows apps and services and any other third-party program supported on the platform....

This is a new product that comes as a complete surprise. There has been no buzz or information about this product… making it a rare drop the mic moment. Sure, it would be more seismic if its was a smartphone or other “cooler” product, but still. As the name suggests, the Surface Laptop Go is a combination between the Surface Laptop 3 and the Surface Go 2. One of those is Microsoft’s only bona fide laptop and a premium device....

Microsoft Studios – which makes Xbox and PC exclusive games through Microsoft-owned developers – already tap into Azure cloud services. Microsoft says it has experience leveraging the cloud to deliver better quality game experiences: “The magic of 3D interactive experiences born in games is quickly moving to non-gaming worlds. Unity is building a platform-agnostic, cloud-native solution that meets the wide-ranging needs of all developers from enterprise through citizen creators,” says Microsoft CVP of Game Creator Experiences and Ecosystem Sarah Bond....

In the post, Microsoft explains the changes will center on adding new certification exams. Across Microsoft Azure solutions named above, the company will add new exams. However, the company says the new exams will sit alongside the old exams for a transition period. Despite the exams changing, the certifications themselves will remain the same. “We are currently finalizing the updates related to Azure Administrator, Developer, Architect, and AI Engineer. We will be publishing the updated exams in the next few months, but we will leave the old exam in market for 90 days after the new version becomes available....

Some adopters of Windows 10 version 1809 are experiencing audio loss through HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB-C connected monitors. This seems to have been caused by the October 2018 Update. Microsoft says the issue is caused by Intel’s new Display Driver. This was released in September but is not compatible with Windows 10 version 1809. Redmond confirms that the problem is due to “OEMs that accidentally turned on unsupported features in Windows....

The new scenario-based rewards have been created to entice researchers to put more effort into finding “vulnerabilities that have the highest potential impact on customer privacy and security”. Microsoft Bounty Program places the new awards on top of the current general awards given for security bugs. In total, the new scenario-based awards provide up to $26,000 in bounty awards. Scenario-Based Rewards In a blog post to announce the new conditions, Microsoft provides the following breakdown of rewards: “Dynamics 365 and Power Platform Bounty Program M365 Bounty Program Eligible submissions may qualify for 15-30% bonuses on top of the general M365 bounty awards and will be awarded the single highest qualifying award....

Media Feature Pack has been updated to support Windows 10 May 2019 Update. Microsoft says the pack is for users running Windows 10 N, which is a specific Win10 version that comes without media tools. In other words, the Media Feature Pack provides media controls to Windows 10 N. Among the tools missing in Windows 10 N are Cortana, Windows Mixed Reality, and Windows Hello. Media Feature Pack adds these services and has been supported in Windows 10 version 1903 (May 2019 Update)....

The Mail application on Windows 10 now supports stylus use. Microsoft has updated the app on the Insider, so Windows Insiders can now test the changes. The draw tab from Windows Ink is now available in Mail. Of course, the main positive of this support is Windows 10 users can now write emails with a stylus. Whatever you write will be translated to the screen for sending. Microsoft says an array of pen options are available and a full color selection too....

Though it’s almost 10-years old, Minecraft’s Bedrock Edition allows cross-play on Switch, Xbox One, PC, Gear VR, Fire TV, and Mobile. The company has called on Sony to enable PS4 several times and is doing so again in light of recent news. “We believe in giving gamers the opportunity to play the games they want with the people they want,” said a spokesperson to Windows Central. “Whether that means working with our partners to deliver cross-network play with games like ‘Rocket League’ and ‘Fortnite’ or enabling cross-device play with the likes of Minecraft, we are supportive of new scenarios that enable more people to play and have fun together while gaming....

The first video is accompanied by an announcement by Senior Technical Evangelist Seth Juarez. He will also be the host of the show as he meets with MVPs from around the world. In the first episode, Juarez speaks to Shih-Ming Tung, a Windows Development MVP. Tung is also a software engineer at Yahoo. In the video, he discusses his career as a C#, Xamarin and iOS development expert. Interestingly, Tung also explains how he used Microsoft seminars and learning materials to build his own bot....

In a new email circulated internally throughout Microsoft, Satya Nadella has focused directly on racial discrimination. He discusses several steps Microsoft is taking to push for change. Nadella says Microsoft is seeking to improve the “lived experience”. In the email, the CEO points to Microsoft’s plan to tackle inequality and injustice in African American communities. Satya Nadella says the company is embarking on a five-year plan across three different focuses:...

Described as “world class”, the data centers will be the greenest ever, not just in Sweden and not just from Microsoft. The company says the locations will be powered entirely from renewable energy sources and it plans no waste will be generated from operations. Gävle and Sandviken, two towns north of the capital Stockholm, have been chosen as the bases for the data centers. Microsoft has partnered with sustainable energy provider Vattenfall AB to deliver the required power....

Many have thought it unlikely that developers of existing titles will update their games with 4K or HDR support, which would make it unwise to buy the console at launch. Microsoft previously announced a list of 162 ‘Xbox One X Enhanced’ titles, but it wasn’t clear how many would be available immediately. A week away from release, we have an answer, and it’s quite reasonable. — Albert Penello (@albertpenello) October 30, 2017...

In a statement, Microsoft said hackers obtained subject lines of emails and the names of people within conversations. While this Outlook.com breach was problematic, the company played down the severity. “Our notification to the majority of those impacted noted that bad actors would not have had unauthorized access to the content of e-mails or attachments,” said a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “A small group (~6 percent of the original, already limited subset of consumers) was notified that the bad actors could have had unauthorized access to the content of their email accounts, and was provided with additional guidance and support....

According to a post on its partner.microsoft.com website, the company did not explain why the change was being made. Partner resellers of Microsoft products has typically been able to use those service internally at no cost. “Effective July 1, 2020, we will retire the internal use rights (IUR) association with the product licenses partners receive in the Microsoft Action Pack and included with a competency. Product license use rights will be updated to be used for business development scenarios such as demonstration purposes, solution/services development purposes, and internal training,” Microsoft said Furthermore, is doing more to reduce the number of on-premises perks partners receive, including easing back on support for Microsoft Action Pack (MAP)....

As the name suggests, Spatial Anchor is not a persistent marker, but instead works when spatial awareness is needed. Microsoft says the apparatus will work alongside rival AR solutions like ARKit and ARCore, which are also supported on HoloLens 2. In related documentation, Microsoft says, “a spatial anchor represents an important point in the world that the system should keep track of over time.” Each anchor has a coordinate system that adjusts as needed, relative to other anchors or frames of reference, in order to ensure that anchored holograms stay precisely in place....

As we have discussed before, Visual Studio 2017 installs faster than previous versions. Users can customize elements they want to use and leave others. This means installs come with less components. By employing this method, users can start up the suite three times faster than Visual Studio 2015. With version 15.4, productivity improvements have been added to make the suite more efficient. C#, VB, and Python developers can now navigate through projects more easily with Ctrl+Click to reach Go To Definition....

Two years after the Xbox One S arrived and nearly a year after the debut of the Xbox One X, Microsoft says it is readying Dolby Vision support. The consoles have supported HDR10 Color, a 4K standard used by many display manufacturers. However, 4K screens using the Dolby Vision standard have not been supported. Microsoft is now changing this and will be important. Indeed, the Xbox One will join Apple TV 4K and Google Chromecast Ultra as the only streaming-capable devices supporting Dolby Vision....