Microsoft news – Page 222

Posted on January 29, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

New features in Microsoft 365 help prepare for the next wave of privacy regulations

Since the enactment of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we’re seeing two fundamental changes in the world that require organizations to think about privacy. First, GDPR started a global wave of countries and regions implementing their own privacy laws—starting with California, Brazil, and more to follow. Second, we’ve seen a shift in consumer attitude towards privacy and protecting personal data. For example, according to a recent survey published by Forrester, 43 percent of U.S. consumers are likely to cancel an online transaction if they read something in the privacy policy that they don’t like.

Today, we’re sharing details of several new Microsoft 365 features to help you get ahead of these trends and deliver on privacy and compliance commitments in a simple, integrated, and intelligent way.

Simplify compliance and privacy management with the new specialized workspace

For compliance professionals, who need to protect and manage their organization’s data privacy risk, we’re announcing a dedicated workspace called the Microsoft 365 compliance center.

In the Microsoft 365 compliance center, you can easily access solutions to help you assess your compliance risk through Compliance Manager, protect data through features like Data Governance, and respond to regulatory obligations like Data Subject Requests. Along with the new Microsoft 365 security center, these specialized workspaces are designed for security and compliance professionals to centrally manage Microsoft 365 services with a unified experience and insights powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

Microsoft 365 compliance center shows actionable insights to help improve your GDPR and ISO compliance.

We’ll gradually roll out the new experience starting today. Read the Tech Community blog to learn more.

Safeguard sensitive data consistently across Mac, iOS, and Android

To help protect sensitive data consistently across various platforms, we’re announcing new Microsoft Information Protection capabilities that enable users to classify content and apply labels to documents and emails directly from Office apps on Mac (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook) and Office mobile apps (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel on iOS and Android). For example, a user working on a Mac can assign a “Highly Confidential” label while working on an important Word document. This results in the application of the appropriate protection policy, such as adding encryption and access restrictions or adding visual markings. Learn more about new labeling capabilities in Office apps that help you protect sensitive information.

Classify content and apply labels to add encryption, access restrictions, or visual markings to documents and emails directly from Office apps on Mac, iOS, and Android.

Manage data governance processes with insights and granular controls

We’re also releasing expanded label analytics capabilities that enable customers to analyze and validate how sensitivity and retention labels are being used across both Office 365 data and non-Office 365 data. The new label analytics capabilities in the Microsoft 365 compliance center are currently in preview.

View Office 365 and non-Office 365 data classification and policies together from the new label analytics dashboard in the Microsoft 365 compliance center.

Other enhancements in Advanced Data Governance include the file plan manager, which helps customers migrate governance policy configurations. With the file plan manager, you can map complex retention schedules from your existing records management solution or on-premises repository into Office 365.

Read more about all these new updates in Advanced Data Governance.

Reduce risks with built-in eDiscovery capabilities

During litigation- and investigation-related tasks and workflows, keeping more content in place can help reduce costs and risks associated with handling sensitive data. New capabilities in Advanced eDiscovery can help you communicate with custodians (for example: employees related to a case or investigation), isolate case-related contents for processing within a static set, and use the new review and redact capability to modify sensitive portions of documents before exporting them as part of a legal matter. Watch our video and read more about these updates to Advanced eDiscovery.

Streamline compliance requirements for regulated customers in Microsoft Teams

Regulated industries, such as financial services, need the ability to monitor and audit communications for specific roles in their organization. Now, Supervision includes Microsoft Teams content and additional capabilities to flag sensitive data types and offensive language classifiers. Learn more about these updates in the Tech Community blog.

Monitor Teams content in the new integrated supervisory review experience.

To help regulated customers meet specific immutability and retention requirements, we’re also announcing the availability of a new SEC 17a-4 regulation compliance assessment completed by Cohasset for Exchange-based storage, including email, groups, chats, and other communication types. Learn more about updates to Advanced Data Governance in the Tech Community blog.

Learn more about the Microsoft cloud

Privacy and compliance are deeply ingrained in the culture at Microsoft and embedded in the practices that are at the core of how we build and deliver our products and services.

Watch Microsoft executive leadership and a leading privacy analyst from Forrester Research share their insights on how organizations are investing in privacy as a differentiator with their customers.
Read our online e-book on how Microsoft runs on trust.
Learn more about the new Information Protection and Compliance offering in Microsoft 365 today.

Posted on January 29, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Data loss prevention: Human error, insider threats and the in-between

Do you remember the first or last time you found a user had shared sensitive information with the wrong people?

Companies dedicate large amounts of resources and money towards establishing an air tight DLP policy to detect and protect company data and prevent it from getting into the wrong hands, whether deliberately or by mistake. But no matter how good the technology, or how vigilant the security team, there is always a wildcard – end users.

“A company can often detect or control when an outsider (non-employee) tries to access company data either physically or electronically, and can mitigate the threat of an outsider stealing company property. However, the thief who is harder to detect and who could cause the most damage is the insider—the employee with legitimate access. That insider may steal solely for personal gain, or that insider may be a “spy”—someone who is stealing company information or products in order to benefit another organization or country.”

–Introductory guide to identifying malicious insiders, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Figure 1: Statistics from the Insider Threat 2018 Report

From the above data we can see that insider threats are becoming a real concern for most organizations, and that active steps are taken to mitigate the risk inherent to these threats.

In this post we’ll discuss how regular users can expose sensitive data by wrongly classifying documents, how malicious users can take advantage of the encryption to exfiltrate data, and how Microsoft Cloud App Security’s new capability of scanning content in encrypted files, as well as the wider Microsoft Information Protection offering, can help organizations mitigate these risks.

The innocent mistake

While employees in the modern workplace are getting increasingly technologically savvy, and are finding new tools to improve their productivity, they aren’t always aware of the security implications of their actions.

Many of our customers are leveraging Microsoft Information Protection solutions to classify, label and protect their data. To minimize the impact on end users and their ability to be productive, these organizations often choose to empower their users to label documents themselves, by providing automatic suggestions but not auto-labeling or -protecting documents.

A user can inadvertently label a document containing highly confidential information with a low sensitivity label that applies minimal access restrictions. Since the file is already encrypted, it will not be scanned by the DLP solution, but might still be accessible to unauthorized people.

The malicious insider

A bigger threat with a much higher potential for damage, is the malicious insider. A malicious insider who is actively working on exfiltrating sensitive information from the organization, whether for personal gain, corporate espionage or other reasons.

This malicious user might exploit the ability to encrypt files to purposefully classify a file as low sensitivity while inserting highly sensitive data and then sharing it externally. As in the “mistake” scenario this will allow the file to pass the scanning of the DLP solution.

How does Microsoft Cloud App Security handle these risks?

Microsoft Cloud App Security has a wide set of tools targeted at handling insider threats. These include user behavior anomaly detections, cloud discovery anomaly detections, and the newly released ability to scan content of encrypted documents.

User anomaly detection

Microsoft Cloud App Security comes with a wide set of out-of-the-box anomaly detection policies that are activated by default as soon as the product is enabled. These detections look at the activities performed by users in sanctioned apps and define a usage baseline, leveraging UEBA capabilities to automatically identify any anomalous behaviors going forward.

An example of these types of detections, aimed at insider threats, is “Unusual file download activity by user”. This detection will create an alert whenever a user performs file downloads that differ from their usual pattern – a potential indicator of a data exfiltration attempt.

Cloud anomaly detection

In addition to the user anomaly detections for sanctioned apps, Cloud App Security also offers detections aimed at identifying suspicious behavior of users in unsanctioned applications. These detections are based on the data we get and analyze as part of our Cloud Discovery capabilities.

An example for such a detection is “Data exfiltration to unsanctioned apps”, which looks at the amount of data being uploaded by users to unsanctioned applications – one of the most common scenarios of insider threat data exfiltration.

Content inspection of encrypted files

We have recently released the ability for an admin to allow MCAS to scan the content of files that are protected by Azure Information Protection. After enabling this functionality, the admin can define MCAS file policies to inspect the content of encrypted files, and generate an alert, or take an action based on the match.

This functionality ensures that files are handled according to their actual content, even if they are labeled incorrectly; thus, preventing sensitive data from leaving the organization – both by mistake and by design.

Figure 2: Policy setting to allow Microsoft Cloud App Security to scan files protected with AIP

Human error and malicious intent will forever be a part of organizational lifecycles. While we cannot eliminate them completely, it’s our goal to enable IT and Security admins to minimize this risk. With our advanced capabilities and unique set of insights, Microsoft Cloud App Security and the wider Microsoft Information Protection offering help organizations to protect their sensitive information – wherever it lives or travels.

More info and feedback

Learn how to get started with Microsoft Cloud App Security with our detailed technical documentation. Don’t have Microsoft Cloud App Security? Start a free trial today!

As always, we want to hear from you! If you have any suggestions, questions, or comments, please visit us on our Tech Community page.

Learn more about Microsoft Information Protection.

Posted on January 28, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

See how our customers and partners spark innovation across every industry

Judson Althoff visits Kroger’s QFC store in Redmond, WA, one of two pilot locations featuring connected customer experiences powered by Microsoft Azure and AI. Also pictured, Wesley Rhodes, Vice President of Technology Transformation at Kroger.

Computing is embedded all around us. Devices are increasingly more connected, and the availability of data and information is greater now than it has ever been. To grow, compete and respond to customer demands, all companies are becoming digital. In this new reality, enterprise technology choices play an outsized role in how businesses operate, influencing how employees collaborate, how organizations ensure data security and privacy, and how they deliver compelling customer experiences.

This is what we mean when we talk about digital transformation. As our CEO Satya Nadella described it recently, it is how organizations with tech intensity adopt faster, best-in-class technology and simultaneously build their own unique digital capabilities. I see this trend in every industry where customers are choosing Microsoft’s intelligent cloud and intelligent edge to power their transformation.

Over just the past two months, customers as varied as Walmart, Gap Inc., Nielsen, Mastercard, BP, BlackRock, Fruit of the Loom and Brooks Running have shared how technology is reshaping all aspects of our lives — from the way we shop to how we manage money and save for retirement. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this month, Microsoft customers and partners highlighted how the Microsoft cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) play an ever-expanding role in driving consumer experiences, from LGE’s autonomous vehicle and infotainment systems, to Visteon’s use of Azure to develop autonomous driving development environments, to ZF’s fleet management and predictive maintenance solutions. More recently, at the National Retail Federation (NRF) conference, Microsoft teamed up with retail industry leaders like Starbucks that are reimagining customer and employee experiences with technology.

In fact, there is no shortage of customer examples of tech intensity. They span all industries, including retail, healthcare, automotive manufacturing, maritime research, education and government. Here are just a few of my favorite examples:

Together with Microsoft, Kroger – America’s biggest supermarket chain – opened two pilot stores offering new connected experiences with Microsoft Azure and AI and announced a Retail as a Service (RaaS) solution on Azure. This partnership with Kroger resonates strongly with me because I first met with the company’s CEO in 2013 soon after joining Microsoft. Since then, I have witnessed the Kroger-Microsoft relationship grow and mature beyond measure. The pilot stores feature “digital shelves” which can show ads and change prices on the fly, along with a network of sensors that keep track of products and help speed shoppers through the aisles. Kroger may eventually roll out the Microsoft cloud-powered system in all its 2,780 supermarkets.

In the healthcare industry, earlier this month, we announced a seven-year strategic cloud partnership with Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA). Through the partnership, WBA will harness the power of Microsoft Azure cloud and AI technology, Microsoft 365, health industry investments and new retail solutions with WBA’s customer reach, convenient locations, outpatient health care services and industry expertise to make health care delivery more personal, affordable and accessible for people around the world.

Walgreens Boots Alliance will harness the power of Microsoft Azure cloud and AI technology and Microsoft 365 to help improve health outcomes and lower overall costs.

Customers tell us that one of the biggest advantages of working with Microsoft is our partner ecosystem. That ecosystem has brought together BevMo!, a wine and liquor store, and Fellow Inc., a Microsoft partner. Today, BevMo! is using Fellow Robots to connect supply chain efficiency with customer delight. Power BI, Microsoft Azure and AI enable the Fellow Robots to provide perfect product location using image recognition to offer customers different types of products by integrating point of sale interactions. BevMo! is also using Microsoft’s intelligent cloud solutions to empower its store associates to deliver better customer service.

Fellow Robots from partner Fellow, Inc. are helping BevMo! connect supply chain efficiency and better customer service. The robots are powered by Microsoft Azure, AI and Machine Learning.

In automotive, companies like Toyota are breaking new ground in mixed reality. With its HoloLens solution, Toyota can now project existing 3D CAD data used in the vehicle design process directly onto the vehicle for measurements, optimizing existing processes and minimizing errors. In addition, Toyota is trialing Dynamics 365 Layout to improve machinery layout within its facilities and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist to provide workers with expert support from off-site designers and engineers. Also, Toyota has deployed Surface devices, enabling designers and engineers to fluidly connect in real time as part of a company-wide investment to accelerate innovation through collaboration.

A Toyota engineer uses Microsoft HoloLens to perform a process called “film coating thickness inspection” to manage the thickness of the paint for consistent coating quality on every vehicle.

Digital transformation is also changing the way we learn. For example, in the education space, Law School Admission Council (LSAC), a non-profit organization devoted to law and education worldwide, announced its selection of the Windows platform on Surface Go devices to digitize the Law School Admission test (LSAT) for more than 130,000 LSAT test takers each year. In addition to the Digital LSAT, Microsoft is working with LSAC on several initiatives to improve and expand access to legal education.

One of the thousands of Microsoft Surface Go devices running Windows 10 and proprietary software to facilitate a the modern and efficient Digital LSAT starting in July 2019.

Beyond manufacturing and retail, organizations are adopting the cloud and AI to reimagine environmental conservation. Fish may not be top of mind when thinking about innovation, but Australia’s Northern Territory is building its own technology to ensure the sustainable management of fisheries resources for future generations. For marine biologists, a seemingly straightforward task like counting fish becomes significantly more challenging or even dangerous when visibility in marine environments is low and when large predators (think: saltwater crocodiles) live in those environments. That is where AI comes in. Scientists use the technology to automatically identify and count fish photographed by underwater cameras. Over time, the AI solution becomes more accurate with each new fish analyzed. Greater availability of this technology may soon help other areas of the world improve their understanding of aquatic resources.

Shane Penny, Fisheries Research Scientist and his team using baited underwater cameras as part of Australia’s Northern Territory Fisheries artificial intelligence project with Microsoft to fuel insights in marine science.

With almost 13,000 post offices and more than 134,000 employees, Poste Italiane is Italy’s largest distribution network. The organization delivers traditional mail and parcels but also operates at the digital frontier through innovation in financial and insurance services as well as mobile and digital payments solutions. Poste Italiane selected Dynamics 365 for its CRM, creating the largest online deployment in Italy. The firm sees the deployment as a critical part of its strategy to support growth, contain costs and deliver a better, richer customer experience.

Poste Italiane’s selection of Microsoft is part of their digital transformation program that aims to reshape the retail sales approach and increase cross-selling revenues and profitability of its subsidiaries BancoPosta and PosteVita.

These examples only scratch the surface of how digital transformation and digital capabilities are bringing together people, data and processes in a way that generates value, competitive advantage and powers innovation across every industry. I am incredibly humbled that our customers and partners have chosen Microsoft to support their digital journey.

Posted on January 28, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Gaming fans: Gears Pro Circuit descends on Mexico City Feb. 1-3

Get ready for the Gears Pro Circuit Mexico City Open on February 1-3 at the World Trade Center in Mexico City, where top Gears Pro Circuit teams from around the world will compete for a $200,000 prize pool. Tickets are still available for fans to watch 70+ teams like OpTic Gaming, Denial and Ghost Gaming (the #1 LATAM team). There will also be a 2v2 Gnashers tournament on February 2 – registration begins on Saturday and is available to the first 100 spectators/pro players that sign-up.

Tune in to live.gearsofwar.com throughout the weekend to claim exclusive free in-game items including the new Glow and Mexico City weapons skins. If you want to fully immerse yourself in the Gears saga after the Gears Pro Circuit Mexico City Open, Xbox Game Pass members can now play every Gears of War game.

Have a great weekend Gears fans – we’ll see you from February 1-3 as teams battle it out in Mexico City! Be sure to visit www.gears.gg and follow @EsportsGears on Twitter to keep up-to-date with the latest information about Gears Esports.

Posted on January 25, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Fortune: Microsoft’s tech chief Kevin Scott talks artificial intelligence, mixed reality and sod farming

As Microsoft’s chief technology officer, Kevin Scott has the challenging job of keeping his company atop all of the tech trends.

Scott became Microsoft’s CTO two years ago after six years directing software engineering at LinkedIn, which Microsoft bought in 2016 for $26 billion. One of his first jobs at Microsoft was to identify all the technologies used by the company’s sprawling business units—to gauge their usefulness—and then make sure that the popular ones were available to every division.

The exercise reflects the philosophy of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Scott says. Nadella not only spends a lot of time thinking about what to do, but also “what are we not doing that we’re going to regret.”

Microsoft missed out on a few tech revolutions, in particular the rise of smartphones, which rivals Apple and Google ended up capitalizing on. Nadella wants Scott to make sure that nothing similar happens again.

In this edited interview with Fortune, Scott talks about artificial intelligence, Microsoft’s continued push into mixed reality [Microsoft lingo for both virtual and augmented reality tech], and the challenges of deep learning.

Fortune: How do you distinguish Microsoft’s AI from other companies?

Kevin Scott: We’re a platform company by DNA. If you listen to how Bill Gates has always defined what a platform company is, it’s one that builds technology that creates all of this opportunity in which you don’t have all of the economic value concentrated in one company. We’re increasing the overall size of the pie. The PC, for instance, created an enormous economic opportunity. We see AI as essentially the same thing.

When I think of platforms, I think of things like Windows, which other companies can build apps on top of. Is this how you see AI?

The thing that we’re pushing hard on is that a lot of AI right now is still unnecessarily difficult for many people to get up to speed on. There are maybe in the high tens of thousands of developers out there who are hardcore machine learning/data science folks. Almost every customer we interact with is thinking about using AI to help its business run better. And you can’t expect each and every one of them to hire a bunch of Ph.Ds and machine learning engineers. At the rate AI is unfolding, not enough of those people exist.

One of our challenges is to build technologies that lower the barriers to entry so a much larger pool of developers can use machine learning in their products and services. Microsoft itself is a microcosm for this because we have about 55,000 developers in the company and not all of them are machine learning/data science experts.

I imagine it’s a challenge for companies exploring the AI technique of deep learning to get used to the idea that a lot of their experiments will fail.

It’s incumbent upon us as platform providers to give people better tools—to guide you in better ways toward paths that get you to success.

I think you do have to expect some of this stuff not to work. You have to get into it with this experimental mindset. It’s not like you’re proving a theorem and you walk through the steps and it’s done and predictable. It’s more like lab science.

The most technologically-savvy companies are used to this trial-and-error process. We just know through our own efforts that the first thing is not going to work, and you have to push and push. When you get the win, it totally covers all of the costs of the experimentation.

What’s your background in AI?

I’m writing a book on AI right now. It’s about why we should be optimistic about a future that includes AI. The contrarian thing is that I think it’s net beneficial even to people in rural parts of the country.

I was a poor kid from rural central Virginia—Campbell County, a little town called Gladys. I went back there a year ago for the book. All the industry there evaporated years ago. Tobacco, textiles, furniture manufacturing all went poof. But some interesting things are emerging there now, some of which is powered by AI and advanced automation.

What’s going on in Gladys?

I went to school with people whose families’ have been tobacco farmers for five generations. Their business basically went sideways when the tobacco markets collapsed, and they had to figure out what to do. They were fairly entrepreneurial and they knew technology would play a role in what they were doing.

All the land that they used to plant tobacco on is sod now, and the unit economics is about as good as tobacco. Part of the reason is that they use a bunch of advanced automation—tractors, and fairly sophisticated technology to let them grow sod on these very large tracks of land. It’s more labor intensive than tobacco was, but with the technology they have about the same number of employees. So technology hasn’t reduced jobs.

On the horizon are things like drones that can fly over crops to do aerial inspections. It’s not that you don’t need a human being, but you can fly over it more frequently and get more data about what’s going on in your field so you can better adjust fertilizers and water.

Because of the technology, you don’t need a giant factory with thousands of people in order to just get your unit economics right. You can start a business and have 30 people working in this place and have that 30-person business in Campbell County, Va. be a global business. Some people believe you won’t have jobs coming back where there are 100 companies with 10,000 jobs a piece, but you’ll have 100,000 companies with 100 higher-skilled jobs each.

Will those jobs pay more?

Yeah. I know for sure.

Some people are concerned that while automation will make companies more efficient, only management will benefit and not the workers.

I think both can happen and I think we should be cautious. What I’ve seen working on this book and talking with customers the size of Walmart all the way down to small and medium sized businesses is that there’s lots of things to be hopeful about.

Virtual reality and augmented reality seemed really big three years ago, and now many venture capital investors aren’t as focused on it because they couldn’t get returns fast enough. How do you plan for and adjust when a technology hasn’t caught on as fast as hoped?

Part of my job is making sure that we maintain our focus and our commitment to some of these investments over long periods. The thing I can say is we have not reduced our investments in mixed reality [Microsoft makes the HoloLens augmented reality headset]. If anything, we increased things—not dramatically up, but it’s growing.

If you’re thinking of yourself as a platform company, you have to be thinking about what the future platforms are going to be. We have three things that we believe are going to be important platforms that are in different stages of development.

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One is quantum computing, which at some point is going to be very important. There’s mixed reality, which we think is probably in a shorter time horizon is going to be a very important platform. And on a shorter time horizon than that, this notion of an intelligent edge, which you can think of as a mashup of IOT [Internet-connected devices], sensors, and AI.

We believe all three of those will be extremely important platforms in the future. And to make a global scale platform work, you have to invest and believe it’s real. It’s a question of when and not if.

Posted on January 25, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

A faster and easier way to stay on top of your tasks – Cortana with Microsoft To-Do

Now, with Microsoft To-Do and Cortana integration, you can save time and stay organized — Cortana helps by adding your reminders and tasks to your lists in Microsoft To-Do, so you can stay on top of what matters most. With Cortana, you can use your voice on your PC or your phone — your choice.

Streamline your tasks — your lists and reminders from across Microsoft To-Do, Cortana and tasks in Outlook can now become one — centrally located in your Microsoft To-Do app. Use Microsoft To-Do anywhere: on your Android or iPhone, with Cortana, or on your Windows 10 PC. You can also access Microsoft To-Do from the web. It’s automatically synced so you never miss a beat. Get started using Microsoft To-Do with Cortana.

Check it out in action:

For more details, visit the Tech Community blog post.

Please note: The Cortana/To-Do integration is only available in English and in the following regions: Australia, India, U.S., and U.K. If you want to access from a different region, change your language and region settings.

Updated January 25, 2019 9:16 am

Posted on January 25, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

What’s new in EDU live: Bett conference Day 3

Introducing seven new affordable Windows 10 devices for education and new tools for simplifying device management to make the most of classroom time.

In our last Bett 2019 episode of What’s New in EDU, we recap the week’s exciting news with Anthony Salcito, VP of education, and share some exciting news around more affordable devices and how they work in partnership with tools that simplify device management for IT.

Jump to section:

Introducing seven new affordable Windows 10 devices for education

Earlier this week, together with our partners at Acer, Dell and Lenovo, we announced seven affordable new Windows 10 devices for the upcoming school year, adding to our expansive portfolio. These new devices include two new 2-in-1 devices from Acer and Lenovo that start under $300 USD and give students the versatility to convert from tablet to laptop mode.

One of the most unique devices being added to our portfolio is the Lenovo 300e. Not only is it a convertible 2-in-1, but it also includes a garaged stylus. And if the stylus gets lost, students can write on the screen with a regular No. 2 graphite pencil!

In today’s episode, you’ll get a closer look at our newest devices, including the latest refresh of the HP Stream 11 EE and HP ProBook x360 11 EE, which now boast faster processors and improved battery life.

Microsoft Classroom Pen, available exclusively to education institutions

Earlier this week we also introduced Microsoft Classroom Pen, an all-new pen designed specifically with K-8 students and schools in mind and optimized for use with Surface Go. A portable size and perfect fit for students at just over 4 inches long and weighing less than one pound, Microsoft Classroom Pen makes it easy to sketch, color and take notes in the classroom and at home. And, when you pair it with Surface Go’s tablet-to-laptop flexibility and fold the signature built-in Kickstand down to a full 165 degrees in Studio Mode, students can really immerse themselves in the writing and drawing experience.

We listened closely to feedback from our education customers and designed Microsoft Classroom Pen for students who put their learning tools through heavy wear and tear. It comes with a durable, hardened pen tip and a replacement tip for each pen included in the box. And, to prevent students from losing the pen, there is a built-in slot at the end that makes for easy tethering to students’ device cases.

We also incorporated education customer feedback by making Microsoft Classroom Pen affordable and easy to deploy with reduced unpacking time and waste. It will be available exclusively to education institutions and sold in bulk packs of 20 for $799.80 (approximately $39.99 per pen). It will ship in all 36 Surface Go markets around the world, with the first wave of availability beginning next month so schools may begin placing orders for the upcoming school year.

In addition to Microsoft Classroom Pen, eligible Microsoft 365 Education customers can now get up to $50 off Surface devices. Visit here for more information on how to qualify.

A new, more affordable wireless whiteboard that gives teachers more control

Bett attendees will get to test out a new Windows wireless whiteboard which allows the teacher to project what is being shown on his or her PC with compete control of usage rights. Teachers can also see a view of student PC screens on their device and select a student’s screen to project during a lesson, all without additional cables or log-in needed.

Streamlined device provisioning and management with Intune for Education updates

Windows Autopilot provides a zero touch for IT experience with auto device provisioning from Intune direct to the end user. With Windows Autopilot, device vendors can upload device information to the Autopilot service when an order is placed. When devices arrive at school, they automatically join the domain and start getting apps and settings as soon as users sign in. This makes device deployment at-scale easier than ever.

Now available, Windows Autopilot Reset will allow admins to easily reset and wipe existing devices, while maintaining MDM enrollment status. With just a few clicks in Intune for Education, admins can remotely reset devices and get them ready for the next school year. This capability alleviates the need for the user or admin to re-image and re-enroll devices every time they need to be prepared for the next year. The reset and wipe functionality can also be applied to groups of devices e.g. a whole classroom.

In preview today: Autopilot self-deploying mode means schools gain an easier setup process without the need to log into devices to complete enrollment. With Autopilot self-deploying mode, students and teachers simply connect their devices to the network when they open them for the first time. This kicks off provisioning and enrolling the device, saving time and effort.

Detailed device status

Admins can view detailed status of app and settings installation for your devices and users in Intune for Education. Added based on customer feedback, this capability gives admins a granular view into the apps and settings they have targeted to a given device or user. This gives admins insight into what is going on with individual devices and users while helping with troubleshooting issues.

Improvements to support for iOS device management

Building on the recently announced support for managing iOS devices within Intune for Education, we are extending these capabilities to include the configuration of Shared iPad. Configuring Shared iPad allows students and teachers to log in to iPads using their Managed Apple IDs. User data follows users as they log in to different iOS devices. This improvement ensures schools that want to utilize Shared iPad features have a quick and easy way to configure iOS devices up to take advantage of them.

Additionally, school IT admins will now be able to use Intune for Education to customize wallpaper images for iOS devices, creating a unique and look and feel specific to the school.

Based on customer feedback, we have made improvements to the manageability of Apple’s Device Enrolment Program (DEP) and Volume Purchase Program (VPP) from the Intune for Education console, including better access to VPP tokens. Location information is now displayed in Intune for Education for VPP tokens configured in Apple School Manager. You can also set your own nickname for tokens as an additional way of organizing them.

Enhanced administration settings

With the release of Windows 10, version 1809, new Intune for Education settings are available including new Edge browser settings and the ability to configure devices with domain hints for signing in. With this configured, students and teachers get a simpler login experience for young students where they only need to type their user name instead of their full domain email address.

When devices are re-provisioned, such as at the beginning of a school year, administrators will now be able to delete old device records from Intune for Education as required, cleaning up the management experience. Additionally, the admin will be able to rename the device or machine in the case it is reissued to a different student or classroom.

Free (and fun!) materials to help you plan a face-to-face training with other educators

Want to get started learning on your own? Check out our Microsoft Educator Community with over 70 courses and dozens of resources to help you get started on how to integrate tools into your teaching. Some great collections to get you started are:

Microsoft in Education – Get started using Microsoft Teams, OneNote, Forms and Sway
Office 365 Teacher Academy – Take a deep dive into using Office 365 to effectively manage your classroom, provide flipped lessons, and to build a blended learning environment that supports student success.
OneNote Teacher Academy –Learn to navigate within the OneNote Windows 10 app structure, use OneNote tools effectively, create lesson plans, assessments, and learning activities using various tools in OneNote, create notebooks for student and teacher collaboration using OneNote Class Notebook, create notebooks for collaboration between the staff members using OneNote Staff Notebook.

One you have earned 1,000 points, you will receive your certified Microsoft Innovative Educator badge!

Looking for ways to train your staff or fellow educators on Office 365 Education tools?

Look no further! We know that teachers crave collaborative training experiences, but don’t always have time to plan them. That’s why we worked with teachers and experienced teacher trainers to create modules covering multiple Office 365 apps and project-based learning scenarios. Courses range from 1-6 hours and each one comes wrapped up with everything you need, including a slide deck, checklists, and materials for teachers to use in their classrooms directly after the training. Plus, they’re free. 🙂 Browse the trainings to learn more: aka.ms/teachertrainingpacks

Catch up on every episode of What’s New in EDU for Bett 2019:

Posted on January 25, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

‘Resident Evil 2’ available now, enhanced for Xbox One X

Get ready, Xbox fans! The epic retelling of the survival horror classic has arrived today on Xbox One and is enhanced for Xbox One X. Resident Evil 2 has been rebuilt from the ground up, powered by the glorious RE Engine that brought Resident Evil 7 to life in 2017, featuring realistic visuals, frightening sound design, definitive over-the-should horror, and updated controls.

We’ve been eagerly awaiting this title since its announcement earlier this year, and now we’re formally accepting the invite back to Raccoon City to re-experience this immersive and terrifying survival horror game experience. Not only that, but we can also welcome back the return of two of the series’ most-beloved characters (in our opinion): Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield.

As these two iconic heroes, we’ll investigate a deadly virus outbreak that has engulfed the residents of Raccoon City in September of 1998, plunging the city into chaos as flesh eating zombies roam the streets for survivors. Now it’s up to us to uncover the sinister actions of the Umbrella Corporation and put a stop to them if the city has any hope of survival. To get a taste for what’s in store, why not take the 1-Shot Demo for a spin on Xbox One. See how far you can get in 30 minutes as you dust off your survival horror skills to get ready for the full RE2 experience before the demo ends January 31, 2019.

In addition to the standard edition that’s available today on the Microsoft Store, the Resident Evil 2 Deluxe Edition includes the full game plus the downloadable Extra DLC pack, which includes five character costumes (two for Leon and three for Claire), the Albert Model: Samurai Edge weapon, and the retro soundtrack players can choose to enable as an option during gameplay.

There’s also additional free content coming soon to Resident Evil 2. The Ghost Survivors will explore various “what if” scenarios centered around the victims of the outbreak.

So, load up on ammo and stockpile your herbal plants. It’s time to re-experience this classic all over again with Resident Evil 2 on Xbox One.

Resident Evil 2 is available now on the Microsoft Store for Xbox One and is an Xbox One X Enhanced title. Click here for purchase details.

Posted on January 25, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

AI & IoT Insider Labs: Helping transform smallholder farming in Kenya

This blog post was authored by Peter Cooper, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft IoT.

From smart factories and smart cities to virtual personal assistants and self-driving cars, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are transforming how people around the world live, work, and play.

But fundamentally changing the ways people, devices, and data interact is not simple or easy work. Microsoft’s AI & IoT Insider Labs was created to help all types of organizations accelerate their digital transformation. Member organizations around the world get access to support both technology development and product commercialization, for everything from hardware design to manufacturing to building applications and turning data into insights using machine learning.

Here’s how AI & IoT Insider Labs is helping one partner, SunCulture, leverage new technology to provide solar-powered water pumping and irrigation systems for smallholder farmers in Kenya.

Affordable irrigation for all

Kenyan smallholdings face some of the most challenging growing conditions in the world. 97 percent rely on natural rainfall to support their crops and livestock—and the families that depend on them. But just 17 percent of the country’s farmland is suitable for rainfed agriculture. Electricity is unavailable in most places and diesel power is often financially out of reach, so farmers spend hours every day pumping and transporting water. This limits them to low-value crops like maize and small yields, all because they lack the resources to irrigate their crops. Additionally, irrigation technologies have an important role to play in reducing the impact agriculture has on the earth’s freshwater resources, especially in Africa.

SunCulture, a 2017 Airband Grant Fund winner, believed sustainable technology could make irrigation affordable enough that even the poorest farmers could use it without further aggravating water shortages. The company set out to build an IoT platform to support a pay-as-you-grow payment model that would make solar-powered precision irrigation financially accessible for smallholders across Kenya.

How SunCulture’s solution works

SunCulture’s RainMaker2 pump combines the energy efficiency of solar power with the effectiveness of precision irrigation, making it cheaper and easier for farmers to grow high-quality fruits and vegetables. Using the energy of the sun, the SunCulture system pulls water from any source—lake, stream, well, etc.—and pumps it directly to the farm with sprinklers and drip irrigation.

This cutting-edge solution combines ClimateSmart™ solar and lithium-ion energy storage technology with cloud-based remote monitoring and optimization software developed with support from AI & IoT Insider Labs. It’s a powerful platform that makes it simple and cheap to deploy off-grid energy and connected solutions.

Farmers get the information they need to make good irrigation decisions at scale, without the costs involved in sending agronomy experts into the field. How? SunCulture processes a steady flow of sensor data, like soil moisture, pump efficiency, solar battery storage, and other factors, that is analyzed within Microsoft Azure’s cloud environment. This sensor data is combined with data from SunCulture’s network of 2,000 hyperlocal weather stations to leverage Azure machine learning tools and provide simple, real-time, precision irrigation recommendations directly to the farmer via text messaging (SMS).

The platform also enables real-time locking and unlocking of devices that makes the pay-as-you-grow model feasible. The platform is smart enough to shut off pumps automatically when power levels are getting low on a cloudy day, or when optimal irrigation thresholds are reached.

How farmers are benefiting from SunCulture

SunCulture’s pay-as-you-grow revenue model allows farmers to make small, monthly payments until they own their precision sensor-based irrigation system outright, empowering even the region’s poorest smallholder farmers to take control of their environment.

On average, SunCulture customers enjoy a 300 percent increase in crop yields and a 10x increase in annual income. Farmers with livestock double their milk yield, earning an extra $3.50/day in income from milk alone. The 17 hours per week they used to spend moving water manually is now directed to better tending their crops and livestock. At a price point of $1.25/day for the RainMaker2 with ClimateSmart™, a farmer’s investment is recouped quickly, and profit starts flowing from increased agricultural productivity.

Download SunCulture’s case study to learn more.

Posted on January 24, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Office 365 for Mac available now on the Mac App Store

Office empowers everyone to achieve more on any device. And Office loves Mac. We’re committed to delivering the power and simplicity of Office in an experience designed specifically for Mac, and we continue to make significant investments in the platform. Today, we’re excited to announce that Office 365 is now available on the newly redesigned Mac App Store. With one click, Mac users can download the cloud-connected, always-up-to-date version of the Office suite—including full installs of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive.

Office 365 provides experiences tailored to the Mac and macOS, like Dark Mode, Continuity Camera, OneDrive Files on Demand, and Touch Bar support on the MacBook Pro. And it’s connected to the cloud, so you can access your content from any device, coauthor with anyone around the world in real-time, and use the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to create more impactful content with less effort. The result is an experience that is unmistakably Office but designed for Mac.

“We are excited to welcome Microsoft Office 365 to the all new Mac App Store in macOS Mojave. Apple and Microsoft have worked together to bring great Office productivity to Mac users from the very beginning. Now, with Office 365 on the Mac App Store, it’s easier than ever to get the latest and best version of Office 365 for Mac, iPad, and iPhone.”
—Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing

You can view Apple’s announcement on today’s news in their Newsroom.

Download Office 365 from the Mac App Store.*

*It may take up to 24 hours for the app bundle to appear in all regions on the Mac App Store.