Microsoft news – Page 149

Posted on November 18, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Introducing more privacy transparency for our commercial cloud customers

At Microsoft, we listen to our customers and strive to address their questions and feedback, because one of our foundational principles is to help our customers succeed. Today Microsoft is announcing an update to the privacy provisions in the Microsoft Online Services Terms (OST) in our commercial cloud contracts that stems from additional feedback we’ve heard from our customers.

Our updated OST will reflect contractual changes we have developed with one of our public sector customers, the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security (Dutch MoJ). The changes we are making will provide more transparency for our customers over data processing in the Microsoft cloud.

Microsoft is currently the only major cloud provider to offer such terms in the European Economic Area (EEA) and beyond.

We are also announcing that we will offer the new contractual terms to all our commercial customers – public sector and private sector, large enterprises and small and medium businesses – globally. At Microsoft we consider privacy a fundamental right, and we believe stronger privacy protections through greater transparency and accountability should benefit our customers everywhere.

Clarifying Microsoft’s responsibilities for cloud services under the OST update

In anticipation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Microsoft designed most of its enterprise services as services where we are a data processor for our customers, taking the necessary steps to comply with the new data protection laws in Europe. At a basic level, this means Microsoft collects and uses personal data from its enterprise services to provide the online services requested by our customers and for the purposes instructed by our customers. As a processor, Microsoft ensures the integrity and safety of customer data, but that data itself is owned, managed and controlled by the customer.

Through the OST update we are announcing today we will increase our data protection responsibilities for a subset of processing that Microsoft engages in when we provide enterprise services. In the OST update, we will clarify that Microsoft assumes the role of data controller when we process data for specified administrative and operational purposes incident to providing the cloud services covered by this contractual framework, such as Azure, Office 365, Dynamics and Intune. This subset of data processing serves administrative or operational purposes such as account management; financial reporting; combatting cyberattacks on any Microsoft product or service; and complying with our legal obligations.

The change to assert Microsoft as the controller for this specific set of data uses will serve our customers by providing further clarity about how we use data, and about our commitment to be accountable under GDPR to ensure that the data is handled in a compliant way.

Meanwhile, Microsoft will remain the data processor for providing the services, improving and addressing bugs or other issues related to the service, ensuring security of the services, and keeping the services up to date.

As noted above, the updated OST reflects the contractual changes we developed with the Dutch MOJ. The only substantive differences in the updated terms relate to customer-specific changes requested by the Dutch MOJ, which had to be adapted for the broader global customer base.

The work to provide our updated OST has already begun. We anticipate being able to offer the new contract provisions to all public sector and enterprise customers globally at the beginning of 2020.

Working with our customers to strengthen privacy

Before and after GDPR became law in the EU, Microsoft has taken steps to ensure that we protect the privacy of all who use our products and services. We continue to work on behalf of customers to remain aligned with the evolving legal interpretations of GDPR. For example, customer feedback from the Dutch MoJ and others has led to the global roll out of a number of new privacy tools across our major services, specific changes to Office 365 ProPlus as well as increased transparency regarding use of diagnostic data.

We remain committed to listening closely to our customers’ needs and concerns regarding privacy. Whenever customer questions arise, we stand ready to focus our engineering, legal and business resources on implementing measures that our customers require. At Microsoft, this is part of our mission to empower every individual and organization on the planet to achieve more.

Posted on November 18, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

New Microsoft open source software connector accelerates Internet of Medical Things on FHIR

Microsoft is expanding the ecosystem of FHIR® for developers with a new tool to securely ingest, normalize, and persist Protected Health Information (PHI) from IoMT devices in the cloud.

Continuing our commitment to remove the barriers of interoperability in healthcare, we are excited to expand our portfolio of Open Source Software (OSS) to support the HL7 FHIR Standard (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource). The release of the new IoMT FHIR Connector for Azure is available today in GitHub.

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is the subset of IoT devices that capture and transmit patient health data. It represents one of the largest technology revolutions changing the way we deliver healthcare, but IoMT also presents a big challenge for data management.

Data from IoMT devices is often high frequency, high volume, and requires sub-second measurements. Developers have to deal with a range of devices and schemas, from sensors worn on the body, ambient data capture devices, applications that document patient reported outcomes, and even devices that only require the patient to be within a few meters of a sensor.

Traditional healthcare providers, innovators, and even pharma and life sciences researchers are ushering in a new era of healthcare that leverages machine learning and analytics from IoMT devices. Most see a future where devices monitoring patients in their daily lives will be used as a standard approach to deliver cost savings, improve patient visibility outside of the physician’s office, and to create new insights for patient care. Yet as new IoMT apps and solutions are developed, two consistent barriers are preventing broad scalability of these solutions: interoperability of IoMT device data with the rest of the healthcare data, such as clinical or pharmaceutical records, and the security and private exchange of protected health information (PHI) from these devices in the cloud.

In the last several years, the provider ecosystem began to embrace the open source standard of FHIR as a solution for interoperability. FHIR is rapidly becoming the preferred standard for exchanging and managing healthcare information in electronic format and has been most successful in the exchange of clinical health records. We wanted to expand the ecosystem and help developers working with IoMT devices to normalize their data output in FHIR. The robust, extensible data model of FHIR standardizes the semantics of healthcare data and defines standards for exchange, so it fuels interoperability across data systems. We imagined a world where data from multiple device inputs and clinical health data sets could be quickly normalized around FHIR and work together in just minutes, without the added cost and engineering work to manage custom configurations and integration with each and every device and app interface. We wanted to deliver foundational technology that developers could trust so they could focus on innovation. And today, we’re releasing the IoMT FHIR Connector for Azure.

This OSS release opens an exciting new horizon for healthcare data management. It provides a simple tool that can empower application developers and technical professionals working with data from devices to quickly ingest and transform that data into FHIR. By connecting to the Azure API for FHIR, developers can set up a robust and secure pipeline to manage data from IoMT devices in the cloud.

The IoMT FHIR Connector for Azure enables easy deployment in minutes, so developers can begin managing IoMT data in a FHIR Server that supports the latest R4 version of FHIR:

Rapid provisioning for ingestion of IoMT data and connectivity to a designated FHIR Server for secure, private, and compliant persistence of PHI data in the cloud
Normalization and integrated mapping to transform data to the HL7 FHIR R4 Standard
Seamless connectivity with Azure Stream Analytics to query and refine IoMT data in real-time
Simplified IoMT device management and the ability to scale through Azure IoT services (including Azure IoT Hub or Azure IoT Central)
Secure management for PHI data in the cloud, the IoMT FHIR Connector for Azure has been developed for HIPAA, HITRUST, and GDPR compliance and in full support of requirements for protected health information (PHI)

To enhance scale and connectivity with common patient-facing platforms that collect device data, we’ve also created a FHIR HealthKit framework that works with the IoMT FHIR Connector. If patients are managing data from multiple devices through the Apple Health application, a developer can use the IoMT FHIR Connector to quickly ingest data from all of the devices through the HealthKit API and export it to their FHIR server.

Playing with FHIR
The Microsoft Health engineering team is fully backing this open source project, but like all open source, we are excited to see it grow and improve based on the community’s feedback and contributions. Next week we’ll be joining developers around the world for FHIR Dev Days in Amsterdam to play with the new IoMT FHIR Connector for Azure. Learn more about the architecture of the IoMT FHIR Connector and how to contribute to the project on our GitHub page.

FHIR® is the registered trademark of HL7 and is used with the permission of HL7

Posted on November 15, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Story of ADLaM – ‘the alphabet that will prevent a people from being lost’ – now a limited-run hardcover book from Story Labs

The African language Fulfulde is spoken by more than 50 million people worldwide. But until recently this centuries-old language lacked an alphabet of its own.

Abdoulaye and Ibrahima Barry were just young boys when they set out to change that. While other children were out playing, the Barry brothers would hole up in their family’s house in Nzérékoré, Guinea, carefully drawing shapes on paper that would eventually become ADLaM – an acronym for “the alphabet that will prevent a people from being lost.”

In the decades since, ADLaM has sparked a revolution in literacy, community and cultural preservation among Fulani people across the world. Abdoulaye and Ibrahima have dedicated their lives to sustaining these efforts, including expanding ADLaM’s reach through Unicode adoption. And thanks to support from a dedicated cross-company team at Microsoft, ADLaM is now available in Windows and Office.

My team at Microsoft Story Labs recently had the privilege of working with Abdoulaye and Ibrahima on a longform feature story about ADLaM. Today I’m happy to announce that we’ve printed a limited-run book version of that story that contains both the original English and an ADLaM translation, so the community of millions now using ADLaM can enjoy it in print. A few copies of the book will be available in a contest giveaway by Microsoft Design on Twitter. The rest will go directly into the hands of the amazing people behind the unique achievement that is ADLaM.

When you’ve been working in the digital realm for most of your career like I have, it’s kind of a treat to make something you can hold in your own two hands! But the biggest reward here was the opportunity to shine a light on remarkable people like Abdoulaye and Ibrahima who have achieved so much, and the team at Microsoft who lent a hand.

Steve Wiens

Microsoft Story Labs

Story by Deborah Bach & Sara Lerner. Design by Daniel Victor.

Posted on November 15, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft scientist Dr. Matthias Troyer accepts Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics for quantum contributions

This week, Dr. Matthias Troyer, a Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft, accepted the 2019 Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics – one of the most valuable German prizes in the field – for his groundbreaking contributions to the development of quantum Monte Carlo algorithms.

Presentation of the Hamberg Prize — *Dr. Matthias Troyer receives the 2019 Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics*

“In Professor Troyer, we are honoring a scientist whose work connects myriad areas of physics and computer science. On account of his current research in the field of quantum computing, he partners with universities and companies in the US and around the world. He has also set up an open-source platform in order to share his knowledge. By awarding the prize to Professor Troyer, we also wish to recognize this contribution to collaborative research,” explained Dr. Nina Lemmens, Member of the Executive Board of the Joachim Herz Stiftung.

Dr. Troyer works at the interface between computer science and theoretical physics and is one of just a handful of leading international researchers in this field. Monte Carlo algorithms can predict how tiny particles will interact within quantum mechanical many-body systems such as atoms and molecules, and Dr. Troyer’s work in this area is playing a key role in the research and ongoing development of quantum computers and superconducting materials.

When asked about what this honor means to him, Dr. Troyer said, “One reason I came to Microsoft and why I want to build a quantum computer is that when inventing these Monte Carlo methods, we made big breakthroughs, but we also encountered a fundamental problem of Monte Carlo simulations of quantum systems, the so-called ‘sign problem.’ The workaround becomes exponentially difficult; a quantum computer will help us move past these barriers.”

With the recent Microsoft announcement of Azure Quantum, teams will soon be able to experiment running algorithms like Monte Carlo against both classical hardware in Azure and quantum hardware from partners, knowing these solutions will scale to future quantum systems as well.

The prize not only comes with a grant, but also entails research visits to Hamburg that will see Dr. Troyer give talks and work closely with doctoral candidates, postdocs, and other colleagues.

Dr. Troyer continued, “I’m looking forward to engaging the academic community in discussing and further advancing what we can do with quantum computing. As we think of quantum algorithms for material science, what problems can we solve now with quantum simulations? And how do we develop quantum algorithms to run once we have a fully scalable quantum computer?”

“The connection to Hamburg means that we can engage with the academic and scientific communities, and with that, I look forward to talking to the people in Hamburg – and around the world – about applying quantum systems and quantum computing to make an impact on material science problems.”

Microsoft and the Azure Quantum team congratulate Dr. Troyer on this significant recognition, and we look forward to supporting his important work in making an impact in solving some of the world’s toughest challenges with quantum computing.

Posted on November 15, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

November 2019 Xbox One Update: Xbox Action for Google Assistant, gamertag updates, text filters and more

November is here and that means friends, family, food and plenty of gaming in between. Thanks to your feedback, we’ve got a number of exciting new updates and features to share with you. The November 2019 Xbox Update begins rolling out today and delivers the Xbox Action for Google Assistant, new improvements for gamertags on console and mobile devices, text filters and even more to help you get the most out of your next gaming session.

Xbox Action for the Google Assistant

We’re excited to announce the Xbox Action for the Google Assistant is now publicly available to Xbox One customers in all countries where the Google Assistant is supported. English language is available today, with additional language support coming soon.

With the launch of the Xbox Action for the Google Assistant,
you can now interact with your Xbox One in even more ways using just your
voice, including the ability to turn your console on and off, launch games and
apps, play and pause videos, and more, from any Google Assistant and
Home-enabled smart speaker or devices, as well as the Google Assistant apps
on iOS and Android.

For more information on the Xbox Action for the Google
Assistant, including setup instructions and example commands, please visit the Google Assistant support page on
Xbox.com.

The Xbox Action for the Google Assistant joins the Xbox
Skill for Alexa as another great
option for controlling your console with just your voice, giving you more
choice than ever before in how you interact with Xbox. A huge thank you
to everyone that participated in the beta and helped provide feedback.

A screenshot of a cell phone Description automatically generated — “*Hey Google, play Gears 5 on Xbox*.”

Gamertag Improvements
on Console

At E3 this past summer, we introduced our plan to revamp gamertags across PC, mobile devices and Xbox One consoles in order to give players around the world more choice in how they represent themselves including 13 additional worldwide alphabets and a new display option. With the November 2019 Xbox Update, these gamertag options are now supported on console, including profiles, friend lists, messages, Clubs, LFG and more. Everyone will be able to see updated gamertags and users creating new Xbox accounts or changing their existing one will have the option to use the new supported characters or add a numbered suffix to a gamertag that has already been claimed. To learn more about these changes click here.

Current Xbox players can keep their existing gamertags
without any further action required on their part and no change in experience
from the way that it looks today. There will be no difference in how your
gamertag is presented unless you wish to create a new account or change your existing gamertag.

A screenshot of a video game Description automatically generated — *Example of a gamertag utilizing newly supported characters*

With all these new gamertags, we wanted to make searching
for your friends or new teammates easier than ever. In addition to the updated
features for gamertags, we are launching the all-new “People Search” feature
which allows you to find others using partial or non-exact search terms.

Xbox text filters

Last month, we detailed our
vision for Xbox Live content filtration as part of our commitment to
responsible gaming on Xbox. In the November 2019 Xbox Update, you can set your
own specific level of automated filtration so you can decide what’s acceptable
and what isn’t in the text-based messages you receive across Xbox Live. Filter
levels can be customized based on four tiers of filtration – Friendly, Medium,
Mature and Unfiltered. And as always, if you receive a message that violates
our Community Standards for Xbox, even with filters in place, you can still
report this conduct to Xbox Enforcement for follow up.

On your console, you can configure your message safety by
going to Settings > General > Online safety & family > Privacy
& online safety > Message safety. Whenever you receive a message that’s
beyond your safety setting, it’ll be replaced with a [Potentially offensive
message hidden] placeholder. You can click on that placeholder to learn more
about the settings, and there’s a handy shortcut to go change those settings.
Adult accounts will have the ability to choose whether to see what content has
been filtered based on the filter they choose. To learn more about how to setup
this feature, check out our video walkthrough.

*Set your desired level of message filtration*

More Mixer viewing
improvements

Building upon the improvements introduced in the October
2019 Xbox Update, this month we’re making a couple more great enhancements
for Mixer viewers. Thanks to your feedback, you now have the option to move the
Mixer chat on the left or right side of your screen or hide it altogether.

Additionally, we’re updating the Subscribe button with a
reminder to renew when one of your channel subscriptions is within a week of expiration,
making it easier to stay subscribed to your favorite Mixer Partners.

Voice-to-Text Dictation

Dictation expands further in the November 2019
Xbox Update with support for more languages! With either a headset or Kinect,
you can press the View button whenever the keyboard is on screen to start
converting speech to text. To change your preferences from your regional
default, head to Settings > System > Language & location to select
your keyboard & dictation language.

Supported languages and regions include English
(US & Canada), English (India), English (UK), Spanish (Mexico), Spanish
(Spain), French (Canada), French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese,
Japanese, and Simplified Chinese, with more to come in future updates.

Simplified Settings

This month, we’re introducing a new look for the console
Settings menu aimed to provide simplicity and greater ease of use. The menu has
been condensed and reorganized, with commonly used settings elevated to the top
to improve navigation and discoverability for everyone.

Console setup
improvements

Beginning this fall, customers unboxing their new Xbox One consoles will be able to get to the action quicker thanks to improvements we are making to the console setup process. Gamers who buy a brand new Xbox One will have the option to customize their Xbox One’s language, time zone, power settings, and more through the Xbox app for iOS or Android while the Xbox console is installing the latest system update.

As always,
these updates are possible because of the Xbox Insiders who have helped shape these
features, so huge thanks to all participants for their valuable input. If
you’d like to help create the future of Xbox and provide feedback on early
features, download the Xbox Insider Hub app on your Xbox One or Windows 10
PC today. You can also visit the Xbox Insider Blog here for the latest release notes, or join the Xbox
Insiders subreddit to submit feedback and join the discussion.

We’re always working to improve your gaming experience on Xbox One and
will have more announcements in the coming months. In the meantime, stay tuned
for more information and happy gaming!

Posted on November 14, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Everything the Xbox team announced at X019

X019 kicked off with the biggest episode of Inside Xbox
ever, celebrating all things Xbox with an incredible slate of news, including
over ten Xbox Game Studios games on stage, three brand new games revealed from
Xbox Game Studios, and four more world premiere titles from developers around
the world.

Inside Xbox was also home to big news from Xbox Game Pass (with 21 titles from developers in the ID@Xbox program coming day one with Xbox Game Pass) and Project xCloud, as well as for revealing great new Black Friday deals for the holiday season. Read on for the full recap news from the show.

Obsidian Tackles the Survival Genre with Grounded

During the show, Obsidian debuted a trailer introducing Grounded – a brand-new Xbox Game Preview title launching in Spring 2020 with Xbox Game Pass. Studio Design Director Josh Sawyer and Senior Programmer Roby Atadero joined us to share the inspiration behind Grounded’s development before Obsidian became part of Xbox Game Studios. We also received insight into how Obsidian is injecting narrative and RPG elements into the survival genre with this title. Obsidian closed by highlighting the importance of community involvement for the on-going development of Grounded. Grounded launches on Xbox One digitally through Xbox Game Preview and with Xbox Game Pass, the Microsoft Store, and on Steam this upcoming spring. For full details, check out our Grounded announcement post.

Project xCloud Coming to Windows 10 PCs and New Markets

We announced that more than 50 new titles from over 25 of our valued partners will join the Project xCloud public preview, such as Madden NFL 20, Devil May Cry 5, and Tekken 7. In 2020, we’ll bring Project xCloud to Windows 10 PCs, and we’re collaborating with a broad set of partners to make game streaming available on other devices as well. We’re also expanding support to more Bluetooth controllers, including the DualShock 4 wireless controller and game pads from Razer. Moreover, in 2020, we are expanding the Project xCloud preview to new markets, will enable gamers to stream Xbox games that they already own or will purchase, and will add game streaming from the cloud to Xbox Game Pass. For all of our Project xCloud announcements, take a look at our X019 Project xCloud post.

Rare announces its next New
IP Everwild

Executive producer, Louise O’Connor, appeared on Inside Xbox and shared a glimpse of Everwild, the next new IP from Rare. The team are passionate about creating something special and this first reveal is just a taste of the magical, natural world the team at Rare are bringing to life. There will be more to share at a later date, for now to watch the trailer again, head over to www.xbox.com/games/everwild or take a look at our full Everwil d announcement.

The Seabound Soul and Fire comes to Sea of Thieves

On Inside Xbox, Sea of Thieves debuted details for the game’s latest FREE monthly update arriving on Nov. 20 “The Seabound Soul,” This update features an all-new, lore-focused Tall Tale quest for players looking to play their part in a thrilling story. Join Captain Pendragon to uncover the mystery of the feared ship, the Ashen Dragon, and reveal the secrets of a sinister new threat. This update also brings the heat to Sea of Thieves with the introduction of firebombs! This explosive ammo can be thrown or loaded into cannons to put a fiery panic in the hearts of opposing crews in both Adventure and in The Arena. To find out more go to www.seaofthieves.com.

Save Big on Xbox Consoles, Games, and More this Black
Friday

The stage is set for big savings this holiday season. From the hallowed halls of X019 came the reveal of Black Friday deals on Xbox hardware: the Xbox One X, Xbox One S, and Xbox One S All Digital Edition consoles are all up to $150 off! You can also get three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for just $1 and get Xbox Game Studios titles for up to 50% off. Finally, select Xbox Wireless Controllers are up to $20 off and we’re offering $10 off Xbox Design Lab Controllers. For complete details, head on over to our Black Friday announcement post.

Xbox Game Pass at X019: Announcing New Games and the
Ultimate Holiday Offer

On today’s Inside Xbox, we unveiled over 50 games coming to Xbox Game Pass. Read more here for complete details on these titles and their availability with Xbox Game Pass. We also revealed the Xbox Game Pass holiday offer: starting November 14, get 3 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for just $1. And for the first time, eligible Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members in select markets will also get 1 month of EA Access, 3 months of Discord Nitro, and 6 months of Spotify Premium as part of their member benefits. For all of our Xbox Game Pass news, take a look at our X019 Xbox Game Pass post.

Peeling Back the Layers of Bleeding Edge

On Inside Xbox, a new trailer for Bleeding Edge was revealed by Creative Director Rahni Tucker, along with the March 24, 2020 launch date and pre-order. Pre-order incentives include Closed Beta access on February 14, 2020 and Punk Pack bonus in-game cosmetics. Bleeding Edge will be available with Xbox Game Pass. For complete details, check out our X019 Bleeding Edge blog post.

DONTNOD Narrative in Tell Me Why

On Inside Xbox, Xbox Game Studios revealed Tell Me Why, an exclusive new narrative adventure from DONTNOD Entertainment, the studio behind the beloved Life is Strange franchise. All of Tell Me Why’s gripping chapters will release Summer, 2020. For more information please visit www.tellmewhygame.com and take a look at our Tell Me Why announcement post.

Halo: Reach
Coming to Halo: The Master Chief Collection on December 3

On Inside Xbox, 343 Industries Community Director Brian Jarrard appeared onstage to announce that Halo: Reach lands in Halo: The Master Chief Collection on December 3. Along with sharing a stunning, all-new new launch trailer, Brian announced that all six titles in Halo: The Master Chief Collection can be purchased up-front on PC for $39.99 with Halo: Reach available for individual purchase for $9.99. Halo: The Master Chief Collection isavailable with Xbox Game Pass. On console, players can get the updated Halo: The Master Chief Collection bundle, which includes the Halo 3: ODST campaign and Halo: Reach, for the same price. What’s more, Brian announced that players can get started today by pre-installing on Xbox Game Pass or pre-ordering on either the Microsoft Store or Steam. To find out more, go to xbox.com/halo.

The Sky’s the Limit in New Footage from Microsoft Flight
Simulator

Today, we shared an all-new trailer for the upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator with new footage of the realistic world, authentic aircraft and real-time dynamic weather in this next generation simulator being developed in partnership with Asobo Studios. We’ve also just announced our first wave of aircraft manufacturing partners! For more details and to keep up with all the latest news on Microsoft Flight Simulator, visit https://www.flightsimulator.com or head on over to our Flight Simulator partnership announcement post.

The Future of Strategy is Revealed in the First Gameplay
Trailer for Age of Empires IV

Today, the newly named studio World’s Edge revealed the first ever gameplay trailer for their highly anticipated upcoming game, Age of Empires IV, which included a special visit from studio head Shannon Loftis for an in-depth discussion about the future of the dedicated franchise. Shannon also introduced a brand-new launch trailer to celebrate the release of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, which includes remastered 4K graphics and a new expansion, The Last Khans. You can play Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition starting today on Xbox Game Pass, Windows 10, and Steam. Want to learn more? Take a look at our X019 Age of Empires update post.

Taking a Deeper Look at Minecraft Dungeons

Minecraft players were pumped to see Minecraft Dungeons
Executive Producer David Nisshagen live on our stage to show us the all-new
game. He talked through some key facets of never-before-seen gameplay as Game
Director Måns Olson and Senior Producer Nathan Rose did a live demo of this new
and exciting experience!

Minecraft Earth Celebrates Early Access with Pop Up
Events

In
celebration of the game’s continued early access rollout, we unveiled “Mobs at
the Park” at X019 – the one-of-a-kind, life-sized statues of interactive
mobs popping up in New York City, London and Sydney starting on Saturday,
November 16. The statues are life-sized creations of the Muddy Pig,
Moobloom and the all-new, amazingly-festive Jolly Llama which will feature a
scannable QR code to play an exclusive new adventure built by the Minecraft
Earth development team and allow players to receive exclusive access
to the Jolly Llama in-game before it’s globally available in December. The
pop-ups will be live in three locations around the world – Hudson Yards in New
York City, the Queens Walk in London and Campbell’s Cove in Sydney
– during the weekends of November 16-17, November 23-24 and November
30-December 1, from 10am-7pm local time. Everyone can stay tuned to Minecraft.net or @MinecraftEarth for more
information.

Explore Wasteland 3’s Post-Apocalyptic World in
May 2020

inXile Studio Head Brian Fargo appeared on Inside Xbox to
debut an all-new trailer for Wasteland 3, showing us some incredible new
gameplay footage and unveiling the release date of May 19, 2020. On stage,
Fargo explained the origins of this 80s-inspired post-apocalyptic world, as
well as the brand-new story that will take place in the frozen wastes of
Colorado. He also shared how the partnership with Xbox has helped to allow the
team to make Wasteland 3 the biggest and best game of the franchise,
demonstrated by their recent award of best RPG at Gamescom. You can pre-order Wasteland 3
today on Xbox One or Windows 10. Wasteland 3 will also be available
on console and PC on day one with Xbox Game Pass.

Get Blown Away by the First Glimpse of CrossfireX
Gameplay

Inside Xbox host @BennyCentral took us on a global journey from Seoul to Finland to Seattle to meet the teams working on CrossfireX, followed by the debut of a gameplay teaser trailer that gives fans just a taste of this massive FPS coming exclusively to Xbox in 2020. Stay tuned to xbox.com/CrossfireX for all the latest game news.

Catch the Drift in KartRider: Drift on Xbox One

If you’re looking for the ultimate challenge, DS Choi from the KartRider: Drift team unveiled what you’re looking for with their latestgame. Pro racers and league champions Hojun Moon and Insoo Park demonstrated this racing experience by taking us through outrageous conditions at breakneck speeds with customizations to boot, proving this game will challenge even the most road tested when it comes to Xbox One.

Final Fantasy Series
Joins Xbox Game Pass and Kingdom Hearts Classics Coming to Xbox One

Square Enix Developers Shinji Hashimoto and Ichiro Hazama appeared on Inside Xbox to announce that the Final Fantasy series on Xbox including Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster, Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, and Final Fantasy XV will be coming to Xbox Game Pass on Console and PC starting in 2020. Also, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 Remix and Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue will come to Xbox One in 2020. Finally, a new Kingdom Hearts 3 demo is available starting today, November 14 on Xbox One – click here to download it now.

We Feel the Force with an Exclusive Look at Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Earlier today,
Electronic Arts and Xbox debuted the co-created Become a Jedi video to kick off
the X019 broadcast of Inside Xbox, as an invitation for all gamers to Jump In
and indulge your ultimate Jedi fantasy. Following, Respawn Game Director Stig
Asmussen provided an exclusive look at new gameplay leading into the game’s
launch on November 15.

Enter the
Criminal Underworld of the Critically Acclaimed Yakuza Series on Xbox One

Today on Inside Xbox, Sega announced that Yakuza is coming soon to Xbox Game Pass. In a new trailer debuted today on the show, Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s cult classics Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami 1, and Yakuza Kiwami 2 were revealed to be coming to Xbox for the first time. If you want to learn more, head over to our X019 Yakuza announcement post.

Strap in for a
New Look at Planet Coaster on Xbox One

Thrills, chills, and
popcorn spills! Planet Coaster showcased its latest gameplay trailer for
the fans at X019.

Play Around in
Purgatory in West of Dead

Developer Raw Fury announced West of Dead, which
lets you step into the boots of the dead man William Mason (voiced by Ron
Perlman) and descend into the grim and gritty world of Purgatory in this
fast-paced twin-stick shooter that’ll put your skills to test. Dodge behind
cover as you try to outgun your enemies in the unknown procedurally generated
hunting grounds. The Wild West has never been this dark. Sign up for the Open
Beta today at westofdead.com.

Build a Village in a Twisted Mirrored Universe in Drake
Hollow

The
Molasses Flood announced their next game, Drake Hollow, a cooperative
action village building game set in the Hollow – a blighted mirror of our world
– in which you build and defend villages of Drakes, the local vegetable folk.
Either solo or with friends, you explore a procedurally generated world of
islands trapped in poisonous aether. You gather supplies, build networks to
bring them back to your camp, find and rescue Drakes in the wilderness, raise
them, and defend them from attacks by a menagerie of feral beasts. You need to
balance your time carefully: what supplies are most crucial at any given
moment, what does your village need: more resources to keep the Drakes thriving
or more defenses to help protect them while you explore.

Experience a Supernatural Crisis in the
Upcoming Anthology Series Last Stop

Last Stop is
the new game from Variable State, creators of the award-winning Virginia,
and will be published by Annapurna Interactive. The game is a single-player
third-person adventure set in present-day London, where you play as three
separate characters whose worlds collide during a supernatural crisis. Last
Stop is an anthology connecting three stories in one, centered on secret
lives, the ties that bind, and how magic can be found in the mundane.

Embark on a Multidimensional Journey in The
Artful Escape

A fresh, new peek of The Artful Escape was also unveiled during Inside Xbox. Developed by Beethoven & Dinosaur and published by Annapurna Interactive, The Artful Escape tells the story of Francis Vendetti as he embarks on a multidimensional journey to create his stage persona. The Artful Escape is an action-adventure, narrative driven, musical-laser-light-battle kind of videogame with dazzling visuals, killer music, and a soulful message about what it means to find your true self.

We hope you enjoyed the show, and we’ll see you next time!

Posted on November 14, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft and Salesforce expand strategic partnership to accelerate customer success

Salesforce names Microsoft Azure as its public cloud provider for Salesforce Marketing Cloud to help customers scale and grow; new integration between Salesforce Sales and Service Clouds with Microsoft Teams will boost productivity

REDMOND, Wash., and SAN FRANCISCO — Nov. 14, 2019 — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) on Thursday announced plans to expand their strategic partnership to help customers meet the evolving needs of their businesses and boost team productivity. Salesforce has named Microsoft Azure as its public cloud provider for Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Salesforce will also build a new integration that connects Salesforce’s Sales Cloud and Service Cloud with Microsoft Teams.

“At Salesforce, we’re relentlessly focused on driving trust and success for our customers,” said Marc Benioff and Keith Block, co-CEOs, Salesforce. “We’re excited to expand our partnership with Microsoft and bring together the leading CRM with Azure and Teams to deliver incredible customer experiences.”

“In a world where every company is becoming a digital company, we want to enable every customer and partner to build experiences on our leading platforms,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “By bringing together the power of Azure and Microsoft Teams with Salesforce, our aim is to help businesses harness the power of the Microsoft Cloud to better serve customers.”

Comments on the news

“Marriott has more than 7,200 properties spanning 134 countries and territories, so driving efficiency and collaboration is critical,” said Brian King, global officer, Digital, Distribution, Revenue Strategy, and Global Sales, Marriott International. “The combination of Salesforce and Microsoft enables our teams to work better together to enhance the guest experience at every touchpoint.”

“With 400 brands and teams in 190 countries, we are always looking for ways to scale more efficiently and strengthen collaboration,” said Jane Moran, chief technology advisor, Unilever. “The powerful combination of Salesforce and Microsoft enables us to be more productive and connect with each other and our customers like never before.”

Salesforce names Microsoft Azure as its public cloud provider for marketing cloud

With Salesforce Marketing Cloud, marketers are empowered to know their customers, personalize marketing with Einstein, engage with them across any channel, and analyze the impact to improve campaign performance. Bringing its Marketing Cloud workload to Azure, Salesforce joins the over 95% of Fortune 500 companies benefitting from an Azure infrastructure offering the most global regions of any cloud provider.

Through this partnership, Salesforce will move its Marketing Cloud to Azure — unlocking new growth opportunities for customers. By moving to Azure, Salesforce will be able to optimize Marketing Cloud’s performance as customer demand scales. This will reduce customer onboarding times and enable customers to expand globally more quickly with Azure’s global footprint and help address local data security, privacy and compliance requirements.

Salesforce and Microsoft Teams integration will boost productivity

As teamwork becomes a driving force in the workplace, people want to bring workflows and frequently used apps into their collaboration workspace environments. Sales and customer service are highly collaborative, team-centric functions, and many companies actively use both Salesforce CRM and Microsoft Teams. As part of this agreement, Salesforce will build a new integration that give sales and service users the ability to search, view, and share Salesforce records directly within Teams. The new Teams integration for Salesforce Sales and Service Clouds will be made available in late 2020.

Building on a commitment to customer success

These new integrations will build on existing solutions that enable mutual customers to be more productive, including the hundreds of thousands of monthly active users using Salesforce’s Microsoft Outlook integration to create, communicate and collaborate.

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the global leader in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), bringing companies closer to their customers in the digital age. Founded in 1999, Salesforce enables companies of every size and industry to take advantage of powerful technologies—cloud, mobile, social, internet of things, artificial intelligence, voice and blockchain—to create a 360° view of their customers. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, rrt@we-worldwide.com

Stephanie Barnes, Salesforce PR, (415) 722-0883, stephanie.barnes@salesforce.com

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.

Posted on November 14, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Allianz partners with Microsoft to digitally transform the insurance industry

Allianz and Microsoft to reimagine the insurance industry experience with Azure to streamline insurance processes; Microsoft will partner with Syncier, the B2B2X insurtech founded by Allianz, to offer customized insurance platform solutions and related services

Jean-Philippe Courtois, EVP and president, Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing & Operations and Christof Mascher, COO and member of the Board of Management of Allianz SE — Jean-Philippe Courtois, EVP and president, Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing & Operations (left) and Christof Mascher, COO and member of the Board of Management of Allianz SE (right). Source: allianz.com

MUNICH, Germany, and REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 14, 2019 — On Thursday, Allianz SE and Microsoft Corp. announced a strategic partnership focused on digitally transforming the insurance industry, making the insurance process easier while creating a better experience for insurance companies and their customers. Through the strategic partnership, Allianz will move core pieces of its global insurance platform, Allianz Business System (ABS), to Microsoft’s Azure cloud and will open-source parts of the solution’s core to improve and expand capabilities.

Syncier will offer a configurable version of the solution called ABS Enterprise Edition to insurance providers as a service, allowing them to benefit from one of the most advanced and comprehensive insurance platforms in the industry, reducing costs and centralizing their insurance portfolio management. This will increase efficiencies across all lines of insurance business, resulting in better experiences through tailored customer service and simplified product offerings.

“Teaming up with Microsoft and leveraging Azure’s secure and trusted cloud platform will support us in digitalizing the insurance industry,” said Christof Mascher, COO and member of the Board of Management of Allianz SE. “Through this partnership, Allianz and Syncier strive to offer the most advanced Insurance as a Service solutions on Microsoft Azure. The ABS Enterprise Edition is an exciting opportunity, both for larger insurers needing to replace their legacy IT, and smaller players — such as insurtechs — looking for a scalable insurance platform.”

“Allianz is setting the standard for insurance solutions globally,” said Jean-Philippe Courtois, EVP and president, Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing & Operations. “Together, Microsoft and Allianz are offering a solution that combines Allianz’s deep knowledge of the insurance sector with Microsoft’s trusted Azure cloud platform. By delivering an open-source, cloud-based insurance platform and software application marketplace, we will support innovation and transformation across this sector.”

Syncier’s ABS Enterprise Edition can handle insurance processes across all lines of business: property and casualty, life, health, and assistance. It can be customized for any insurance company, country and regulatory requirements. Insurers, brokers and agents adopting the platform can service clients and manage entire portfolios end to end in one system, gaining a unique 360-degree view of each client and the business.

To accelerate industry innovation, Syncier will also offer an Azure cloud-based marketplace for ready-made software applications and services tailored to the insurance sector. Such solutions could include, for example, customer service chatbots or AI-based fraud detection. The marketplace enables insurance providers to easily and quickly implement the available solutions in a plug-and-play manner.

Allianz uses ABS globally as a platform for all lines of business and along with Microsoft is committed to supporting the ABS Enterprise Edition long term as an industry solution. Today, ABS handles around 60 million insurance policies in 19 countries and is being rolled out to all Allianz entities.

About Allianz

The Allianz Group is one of the world’s leading insurers and asset managers with more than 92 million retail and corporate customers. Allianz customers benefit from a broad range of personal and corporate insurance services, ranging from property, life and health insurance to assistance services to credit insurance and global business insurance. Allianz is one of the world’s largest investors, managing around 729 billion euros on behalf of its insurance customers. Furthermore, our asset managers PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors manage more than 1.5 trillion euros of third-party assets. Thanks to our systematic integration of ecological and social criteria in our business processes and investment decisions, we hold the leading position for insurers in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2018, over 142,000 employees in more than 70 countries achieved total revenues of 132 billion euros and an operating profit of 11.5 billion euros for the group. For more information on Syncier, visit www.syncier.com.

About Microsoft

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, rrt@we-worldwide.com

Gregor Wills, Allianz, +49 89 3800 61313, gregor.wills@allianz.com

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.

Posted on November 13, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Paris Call: growing consensus on cyberspace

Today, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, France’s Minister of State attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, announced remarkable progress toward securing cyberspace. The community of Paris Call signatories is growing and taking new initiative to thwart attacks that threaten our democracies, economies and public services. The number of signatories of the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, announced a year ago, has nearly tripled to more than 1,000 and now includes 74 nations; more than 350 international, civil society and public sector organizations; and more than 600 private sector entities. These commitments to the Paris Call from around the world demonstrate a widespread, global, multi-stakeholder consensus about acceptable behavior in cyberspace.

The principles in the Paris Call address real-world challenges we’re facing today, like preventing foreign interference in elections, protecting availability of the internet, and curbing attacks on critical infrastructure. Importantly, supporters are committed to working together in a multi-stakeholder model, with governments, industry, academia and civil society collaborating to protect our cyberspace from nation-state threats, including attacks on our democratic processes.

Nations now supporting the Paris Call reflect the broadening mandate for international action to address cyberthreats with 10 Latin American nations, 13 Asian and Pacific signatories and eight African nations joining with 42 European states and Canada. In total, Paris Call signatories represent almost 40 percent of United Nations member states.

Enterprises in more than 60 countries and civil society groups in more than 65 countries have now joined, with respected retailers like Migros of Switzerland and Rakuten of Japan; financial services and insurance companies like CIMB Group in Malaysia and AXA Group in France; the global logistics leader Deutsche Post DHL Group; media and telecommunications providers like Sky and Telefonica; as well as civil society organizations like the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life. More than 60 enterprises and civil society groups in India have joined, although the Indian Government has not yet made its commitment.

One interesting trend, following a series of ransomware attacks targeting municipalities in the U.S., is that local and state governments in the U.S. have signed onto the Paris Call. New joiners include the cities of San Jose and Louisville and the states of Colorado, Virginia and Washington, bringing the number of U.S. signatories to more than 130. We believe this strengthens the case for the U.S. government to sign onto the Paris Call. The Paris Call builds on international norms that the U.S. has endorsed previously, with the addition of one new commitment that the U.S. should find easy to support: the protection of elections.

The tech sector has the primary responsibility to protect the internet and the people who rely upon it, but ultimately security and stability in cyberspace will require that governments, companies and civil society come together to find joint solutions to the challenges we are facing. With nation-state cyberattacks on the rise, the growing consensus emerging from all these groups makes it clear that cyberspace should not be exploited to inflict harm on the citizens of this world.

The promise of the Paris Call is the commitment of signatories to collaborate and build solutions across the full range of cyber challenges. In recent months, we have participated in roundtable discussions in cities around the world on how we engage in even more concrete follow-up action not just to abide by the principles in the Paris Call but to proactively advance them around the world. We at Microsoft strongly support the concept of a “Paris Call Community,” also announced today, centered around the nine principles of the Call. For example, Microsoft and the Alliance for Securing Democracy have created the “Paris Call Community on Countering Election Interference” – a multi-stakeholder project focused on implementing principle no. 3, working to identify best practices and build capacity to defend against foreign interference in democratic processes. We are also partnering with the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, the Internet Society, Global Cyber Alliance and CyberGreen to strengthen solutions that improve cyber hygiene, or basic security practices, among signatories in accordance with principle no. 7. We are committed to expanding these projects and encouraging contributions of talent and energy from everyone who wants to help realize the potential of the Paris Call Community.

If you are a government, a business in any industry, or a non-governmental organization, adding your voice to the Paris Call is a powerful way to advocate for principles and engage to help build solutions that will make your organization and ultimately the world a safer place. Head to this website to learn more and add your name and your efforts to the growing community of Paris Call participants.

Posted on November 13, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft study: Teens are better than adults at finding help with online issues

It’s World Kindness Day – and we’re calling on teens across the globe to assist adults with online issues. That’s because, according to our latest research conducted in 25 countries, teens are considerably better than adults at tracking down useful resources to help resolve digital difficulties.

Both demographic groups say risk is a significant problem when it comes to life online. Both also admit that finding help can be hard. Some 74% of teens and 73% of adults say online risks are a “big problem,” while 65% of teens say they know where to find useful resources, compared to just 39% of adults. Both percentages are up from last year when 60% of teens and 37% of adults said they knew where to turn for assistance. In addition, 41% of teenagers and 44% of grown-ups said tracking down resources to assist with online risks can be “somewhat to extremely” difficult.

The findings are from Microsoft’s latest research into aspects of digital civility – encouraging safer, healthier and more respectful online interactions among all people. The study, “Civility, Safety and Interaction Online – 2019,” polled teens aged 13-17 and adults aged 18-74 about their exposure to 21[1] different online risks. This latest research builds on similar studies we’ve undertaken each year for the last three years. Previous projects polled the same demographic groups in 14, 22 and 23 countries, respectively. A total of 12,520 individuals participated in this year’s study, and we’ve surveyed more than 44,000 people on these topics since 2016. Full results of this latest poll will be released in conjunction with international Safer Internet Day 2020 on February 11.

Confidence in facing online risks

While two-thirds of teens say they know where to find help with online risks, their self-assuredness in managing online risk exposure is slightly lower than that of adults. Just under half of the teens surveyed (48%) said they were confident in handling online risks versus just over half of the adults (52%). To help build those confidence levels, check out our resources guide, which offers primary and secondary sources for all 21 risks covered in our survey. Additional information about a wide range of online activities and potential risks and harm can be found on the resources page of our website.

A lack of confidence in knowing where to find help can contribute to concerns about online risks in general. Additionally, as survey results have shown for the past few years, consequences and pain from online risk exposure are real. According to our latest findings, 71% of teens and 65% of adults are “somewhat to extremely” worried about encountering online risks, while even higher percentages of both groups have faced consequences from digital risk exposure: three quarters of teens (75%) and 77% of adults. Consequences range from declining to participate in social media and heightened stress levels, to losing trust in others online or offline, losing sleep and even contemplating suicide. This year, 14% of respondents said they had thoughts of suicide following an online issue, double the percentage from two years ago.

Microsoft’s Digital Civility Challenge

We’re making this preliminary research available on World Kindness Day to again call attention to Microsoft’s Digital Civility Challenge – four basic tenets for life online to encourage kinder, more empathetic and more respectful interactions. We’d never want to thwart debate, discussion or the free flow of ideas; it’s just important that those interactions take place free of name-calling and abuse. Specifically, we’re encouraging people to:

Live the “Golden Rule” and treat others as you would like to be treated by leading with empathy, compassion and kindness, and affording everyone respect and dignity both online and off.
Respect differences by honoring diverse opinions and perspectives and, when disagreements surface, engage thoughtfully by avoiding name-calling and abuse.
Pause before replying to comments or posts you disagree with and refrain from posting or sending anything that could hurt someone, damage a reputation or threaten someone’s safety.
Stand up for yourself and others if it’s safe and prudent to do so; report illegal and abusive content and behavior, and preserve evidence.

As we approach the close of 2019 and prepare for Safer Internet Day 2020, we’ll be ushering in not only a new year, but a new decade. We’ll kick off 2020 with a series of predictions from teens and adults about various aspects of online life over the next ten years. By embracing the Digital Civility Challenge and other common-sense habits and practices, we can help make the 2020s the safest and most respectful decade yet.

To learn more about digital civility and how you can help advance these practical ideals for online interaction, visit www.microsoft.com/digitalcivility. For more on digital safety generally, visit our website, “like” us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

[1] The 21 risks span four broad categories: behavioral, sexual, reputational and personal/intrusive.