Tag Archives: microsoft

Despite predating Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant, Microsoft hasn’t made as much of an impact with its Cortana voice assistant since its mid-2014 debut. Doubling down on its investments, the company has now absorbed conversational A.I. technology firm Semantic in hopes of playing catch-up and, preferably, make Cortana a little …

Fans of Microsoft’s Halo series have been waiting for news of a sequel since the release of 343 Industries’ Halo 5 in 2015. While it’s not quite the iteration many had hoped for, Microsoft has revealed a new game in the series titled Halo: Fireteam Raven, built for arcades. 343 …

While Microsoft is throwing a lot of attention towards its high-end business-based Surface Hub 2, it’s also looking to tackle tablets for the everyday user. Reports suggest that this will be a renewed effort to rival Apple’s iPad, meaning Microsoft will be entering the market with Surface tablets costing half …

Earlier this week, a brand new Xbox controller design hit the headlines with many suspecting it to be built around accessibility for the differently abled. Microsoft has now officially unveiled the gamepad, titled the Xbox Adaptive Controller, featuring modular inputs to ensure everyone can get the same immersive gaming experience …

Building upon its premium all-in-one Surface Hub, Microsoft is well under way developing the Surface Hub 2 despite production issues resulting in the original device selling to little more than 5,000 customers in total. While the workplace device might never make it onto television commercials due to its exorbitant pricing, …

It looks as though Microsoft has a new Xbox controller in the works with a radical new design. Supposedly built around accessibility, the leaked controller features oversized buttons and will debut in the run up to E3 2018. The distinctly flat promotional image was leaked by Twitter user h0x0d, emblazoned …

While a lot of Microsoft's Build conference announcements so far have related to cloud and AI services for Azure, Windows 10 has not been forgotten. Microsoft announced a new app for smartphones today, allowing users to mirror their mobile device to their PC, allowing you to access important notifications, send …

The Kinect has had a bad run in the video game world, with the original Xbox 360 sensor failing to catch on, and history repeating itself after the launch of the Xbox One. In October last year, Microsoft stopped manufacturing the Kinect 2.0, but it is making a surprise return …

Since PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite: Battle Royale graced the scene, it seems that every developer and his dog wants in on the genre. That is, every developer apart from Microsoft’s first-party studios, which will only take on the challenge if they have something new to offer the genre. It’s difficult …

While the Xbox One might not be the biggest console of the generation, it is still making plenty of money for Microsoft. Today, Microsoft revealed that its video-game division brought in $2.25 billion between January and the end of March. At $2.25 billion, Microsoft's video-game related revenue has risen by …

While the next feature update for Windows 10 was originally expected to arrive much earlier this month, some last minute bugs caused Microsoft to delay its roll out. The Windows 10 April update, formerly known as the ‘Spring Creators Update', will now be available to download on Monday, but it …

While we are still waiting on the overdue Windows 10 ‘April Update', Microsoft has already begun work on the next feature update, codenamed ‘Redstone 5'. Apparently, the next major update will include a ‘lean edition' of Windows 10, which will be designed for devices with less storage. The Windows 10 …

Over the last few years, some enthusiastic modders have been restoring Microsoft's cancelled Halo Online project, giving fans of the series a way to play Halo 3 multiplayer on the PC for the first time. For a while, it flew under Microsoft's radar, but last week a major update dropped …

Bloodrayne and Nocturne developer, Terminal Reality, has joined up with Infernal Technologies to launch a lawsuit against Microsoft. The two companies claim that the tech giant infringed on two of its patents, which relate to shadow and lighting techniques within video games. Terminal Reality and Infernal Technologies claim that Microsoft …

Microsoft has been on a roll recently, ensuring that the Xbox One supports as many different displays as possible. In March we received native 1440p and FreeSync support, and now in May the Xbox team will be adding support for 120Hz refresh rates. That might sound a bit redundant, particularly …

Microsoft has been tackling computer viruses with Windows Defender for quite some time, acting as a countermeasure once malicious software makes its way onto the system. Now, the company is taking a more proactive approach, implementing Windows Defender into browsers to stop it getting to that stage, starting with Google …

Over the past few years, Microsoft has been winning console gamers over with the addition of backwards compatibility. It started out with Xbox 360 games, and more recently, original Xbox games have been landing on Xbox One. This month, 19 more original Xbox titles will be playable on latest generation …

We've already heard that Microsoft is planning a big showcase for E3 this year, the company even went as far as to set up its own theater separate from the main convention center in order to have enough room. Now this week, we have an idea of what could be …

A few years ago when Satya Nadella first took over Microsoft, the company went through a major internal shakeup and formed the Windows and Devices Group, just ahead of the launch for Windows 10. Now this week, another major shift has occurred, reorganising Microsoft, diminishing the role of the Windows …

Back in January, Microsoft attempted to smooth over Intel’s buggy Meltdown fixes by issuing a patch of its own. Unfortunately, it seems that the Windows-maker has also dropped the ball on its patch, causing an even greater security hole in the process. It was obvious from the reveal of Spectre …

Microsoft was very proud of its recorded player numbers for the Sea of Thieves beta test in February, but it looks like the final release raised the bar even more. Sea of Thieves released last Tuesday and over the course of week one, two million people played the game. We …

Microsoft is overhauling its Code of Conduct across all of its platforms come the 1st of May, making it clearer that it reserves the right to rummage through your data and information if issues are to arise. One of the strangest and perhaps most ambiguous entries is that the company's …

The Game Developer Conference (GDC) kicked off this week and we've already had a couple of major announcements. It looks like this year, DirectX 12 is back in the spotlight, with the likes of Nvidia, AMD and Microsoft all working to support Ray Tracing technology. This is a technique commonly …

Two weeks ago, Microsoft stepped in to help distribute Intel’s Spectre and Meltdown fixes as individual vendors would have been too slow. It looks like the Redmond-based company isn’t done just yet, either, as now it’s offering a bug bounty program for anyone that identifies an attack based on the …

For years, ‘cloud gaming' has been touted as the future, removing the need for consumers to buy expensive hardware and run games locally. Instead, gamers can just plug in a lighter, smaller box and have servers across the world do the heavy lifting for them. The idea got off to …

Microsoft has had big showings for hardware at its last two E3 conferences, with the Xbox One S landing in 2016 and the Xbox One X being a big focus of the show last year. This year however, there are no new consoles to launch, with the focus being placed …

Back in June 2015, Microsoft launched one of its most ambitious Surface devices yet in the form of the Surface Hub. This particular Surface system was a huge 55-inch or 84-inch all-in-one PC, with prices of just over £5,700 and £16,200 respectively. The Surface Hub eventually arrived, but it was …

While not officially announced, it seems that Microsoft is planning to reuse its “Creators Update” moniker for a third Windows 10 build. The firm is currently working on an update codenamed Redstone 4, which is the most likely candidate for the leaked, and debatably catchier “Windows 10 Spring Creators Update” …

Back in May 2017, Microsoft announced that it would be launching another edition of Windows 10, known as ‘Windows 10 S'. This particular version was intended for cheaper laptops and ultrabooks, with a focus on getting a ‘safe' version of Windows 10 into schools and into the hands of students. …

Over the past couple of months, Intel has been churning out stable microcode fixes to help mitigate Spectre vulnerabilities across its line of processors. Microsoft has announced that it will begin lending a helping hand with distributing the firmware updates, provided that users are running Windows 10. As of yesterday, …