Microsoft news – Page 245

Posted on October 17, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft Store releases top cybersecurity tips for small business owners

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, and Microsoft Store is committed to helping small business owners understand the dangers of cyberattacks and the actionable steps they can take to mitigate cyber threats.

Getting hacked is a scary threat, yet most small business owners don’t think they’re at risk.

Nearly 82 percent[1] of small business owners think their business does not have data that hackers would be interested in stealing, yet 61 percent[2] have suffered a cyberattack and over half[3] have had a data breach.

What’s even scarier than not knowing your business is vulnerable to a cyberattack is finding out your business has been hacked.

Identifying Vulnerabilities

Small business owners may not know the appropriate steps to protect themselves, and others may find the topic can be daunting.

This was the case for Quants Bakery, a six-employee catering and subscription-based vegan bakery in Glendora, California. Sean Etesham, CEO, started the online-based business in September 2017 after he saw a need for more vegan options at his local coffee shops. Like so many first-time small business owners who are strapped for resources, he launched the business and operated it without a dedicated IT person or cybersecurity software.

“Our worst nightmare would be if someone broke into the back end …and took all of the customer credit card information…and posted it online,” shared Sean.

Microsoft Store recently teamed up with a Microsoft cybersecurity expert to take Sean and his now CIO, Richard Idigo, through a lifelike simulation of a common phishing scam, giving them a firsthand look at the damage that can be done in mere minutes. Sean and Richard were shocked at how easily a hacker can create a false site to access passwords and compromise their data.

“I’ve made a lot of sacrifices in terms of my time and energy that could’ve been spent elsewhere,” explained Sean about starting his business. “I cashed out my retirement accounts, and my investment accounts, and put all that money towards the business.”

Any small business owner can attest that success and health of their business is of utmost importance, so addressing cybersecurity vulnerabilities should be a top concern.

The simulation helped Sean to understand the type of security protections and other actions he needed to have in place to safeguard his business and avoid phishing attacks. He worked with a business solutions specialist at Microsoft Store to decide on Microsoft 365 Business as the right solution for their productivity, collaboration, and security needs.

By understanding cybersecurity risk factors, every small business owner can put an affordable, actionable plan in place to mitigate risk and save time and money it takes to recover from a breach.

Addressing Vulnerabilities

Many small business owners do not have IT departments to turn to in the case of a cybersecurity emergency. During National Cyber Security Awareness Month, Microsoft Store is offering small business owners the opportunity to understand the risks of cyberattacks and will be the go-to destination for personalized guidance from in-store business solutions specialists.

If you’re a small business owner, visit Microsoft Store and online to discover cybersecurity solutions like Microsoft 365 Business that are customized for the needs of small businesses to more effectively navigate the cybersecurity landscape and mitigate cyber risks.

[1] SMEs and Cyber Attacks, by Towergate Insurance

[2] 2017 State of Cybersecurity In Small & Medium Sized Businesses, 2017 by The Ponemon Institue

[3] SMBs Are Vulnerable To Cyber Attacks, 2016 by The Ponemon Institute

[4] HACKED: Just Because It’s in the Cloud, Doesn’t Mean Bad Guys Can’t Reach It, 2017 by UPS Capital

Posted on October 17, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Xbox partners with Taco Bell: Buy a $5 Double Chalupa Box for a chance to win a limited-edition console

When combined, few things are better than tacos and Xbox. Calling all Taco Bell fans – here’s one you won’t want to miss. That’s right, in the United States, Taco Bell is partnering with Xbox again to give fans the chance to win limited-edition Xbox One X consoles each time they buy a $5 Double Chalupa Box starting October 18 through November 21, 2018.

The exclusive platinum-colored console comes packaged with Taco Bell’s famous “ring” when powered on (exclusive to these limited-edition consoles), a new White Special Edition, Xbox Elite Wireless Controller and three months of Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold.

Think it’s too good to be true? It gets better! An Xbox One X will be rewarded every 10 minutes throughout the promotion and it will be delivered to fans 72 hours after being declared a winner (learn more here). Did we already mention it has Taco Bell’s iconic ring when powered on?

Games play best on Xbox One, and it’s the only console system that plays the best games of the past, present, and future with more than 3,000 games available today with over 220 exclusives and over 400 Xbox classics. If you’re on Xbox One S or Xbox One X, you can also enjoy the ultimate 4K entertainment experience with a built-in 4K UHD Blu-ray player, premium audio with Dolby Atmos support and the fastest, most reliable gaming network with Xbox Live.

Stay tuned to Xbox Wire for the latest gaming news and promotions for your favorite console.

Posted on October 17, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft 365 helps pharma giant Eli Lilly deliver on promise to make life better for patients everywhere

Today’s post was written by Mike Meadows, vice president and chief technology officer at Eli Lilly and Company.

We have an expression at Lilly that inspires our workforce every day: the patient is waiting. This mindset informs our culture, encourages us to work faster, and helps us deliver on the promise to make life better for patients everywhere. It’s behind everything we do at Lilly—from chasing a molecule in a lab to developing new ways to engage with patients, and even troubleshooting a server or network issue.

Our challenge continues to be the discovery of new therapies and accelerating their time-to-market. The process is too slow—and while clearly difficult and complex, our ability to get faster is key. We need to forge new partnerships, comply with a complex regulatory environment, keep quality and safety at the forefront, and reduce costs. All of these seemingly conflicting elements put significant pressure on how we fulfill our promise.

Lilly is responding to these challenges with new thinking across our business process cycle. Through discovery research, product development, manufacturing, and customer engagement, we are working on next-generation capabilities to improve our speed and productivity.

[embedded content]

Our workplace environment, and how we interact with one another, is certainly not exempt from such transformation, and in part will be supported by Microsoft 365 cloud technologies. We could see that Microsoft has made great strides in its own transformation to better meet customer needs, and that certainly played a role in our interest in Microsoft technologies for our own workplace transformation goals.

Fostering seamless collaboration and creative teamwork globally is key as we need different ideas to come together to generate new capabilities and products. That’s basically the definition of innovation, and innovation is our lifeblood. With facilities around the world in research and development (R&D), manufacturing, and administrative services, our ability to collaborate across diverse cultures, ways of thinking, and languages has a huge impact on accelerating our product innovation workstreams and our promise to patients.

We’ve been using Microsoft Exchange Online and Office apps for years, but the enhanced interoperation between tools like Microsoft Teams and innovative devices such as Surface Hub and HoloLens has the potential to take collaboration to the next level.

In discovery research today, we have two primary working environments: the laboratory, where scientists in lab coats conduct their experiments in isolation from their colleagues; and the traditional office space occupied by administration and leadership. Not much collaboration happens in real time between these environments. If a scientist has a brilliant idea in the lab, to act on it or share it with colleagues requires them to stop what they’re doing, take off their gear, and return to the office to phone or email someone.

We envision dissolving these physical barriers through something we call “in-lab collaboration”—putting communication and collaboration tools inside our labs that empower scientists to share a creative spark with other scientists across the globe, or with the clinical development manager just upstairs. Using Surface Hubs to whiteboard ideas, making Office 365 video calls, and chatting in real-time through Teams foster innovation at scale and can help ensure that great ideas don’t get lost.

In today’s healthcare environment, we’re working more and more with innovators outside the company itself. We’re looking at new scenarios where Lilly might run experiments in a cost-effective arrangement called “lab-as-a-service,” where we can quickly and seamlessly leverage specialty labs in a lease-like manner from partners as needed, thus expediting R&D. Increasingly, as we follow the science to new experimental designs and new therapeutic technologies (CAR T-cell therapy, cancer vaccines, digital therapeutics, etc.), we are less focused on building durable, static labs. Instead, dynamically accessing elastic lab capabilities will empower our evolving R&D strategy. Our new cloud-based collaboration solutions will go a long way toward supporting virtual teamwork with providers outside our walls.

When we collaborate efficiently, it drives productivity by helping us to work faster. One of the most significant benefits of working faster at Lilly will revolve around effectively changing our workplace processes to use Teams day to day throughout the enterprise. We are conducting approximately 300 Teams pilot projects around the world within IT, research, and marketing departments. When communication channels are oriented to particular project workflows, documents are all in one place. We can add creative flows with team members around the world, opening up collaborative possibilities at Lilly. Teams also facilitates coauthoring—a significant benefit given the abundance of documentation this industry requires. Whenever we can spend less time redlining and passing around versions among people, there will be an efficiency gain in running the business.

As a technologist, I’m always seeking these opportunities for positive change in our work habits. Looking back to when we deployed Exchange Online, we migrated over 70,000 mailboxes for our employees and collaborators in less than nine months with a seamless transition—which also provided them with nearly unlimited storage to improve their work lives. I think we can generate more successes like that with Microsoft 365. We expect that Windows 10, with its ongoing updates and new capabilities, will be a case in point. Additionally, the AI capabilities that are built into Office 365, even for something as routine as automating how we schedule meetings, could be a boon to our culture.

And when it comes to regulatory compliance and security, I have believed for years that we have the opportunity to be more compliant and secure in the cloud, rather than less. The capabilities we see in the Microsoft Cloud environment are the latest confirmation of these instincts. Complying with the regulatory requirements in the life science industry is always a given at Lilly, but Microsoft 365 security features help improve how we meet data privacy and quality requirements. “Security and quality by design” is one of our IT strategy principles, and the Microsoft Cloud is clearly aligned.

A few years ago, Lilly went through a significant period of patent expiration that challenged our business like never before. Our CEO at the time inspired us to double down on innovation, and today we have a strong pipeline of new molecules to help deliver on our purpose. Our current CEO is inspiring an increased sense of teamwork, speed, and productivity. Using services within Microsoft 365 is one component of that drive and will help put us in an even better position to continue the innovation required to deliver on our promise to patients everywhere.

—Mike Meadows

Posted on October 16, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Buying renewable energy should be easy — here’s one way to make it less complex

By Brian Janous, Microsoft General Manager of Energy and Sustainability; Kenneth Davies, Microsoft Director of Innovation for Energy Strategy & Research; and Lee Taylor, cofounder and CEO, REsurety

It would be difficult to overestimate the impact that corporate procurement of renewable energy, primarily through power purchase agreements (PPAs), has had on the overall renewable market. In less than a decade, renewable energy created from corporate PPAs went from zero to more than 13 gigawatts in the U.S. alone. Microsoft is one of the largest players in this market, beginning with a 110-megawatt wind project in Texas in 2013 to a portfolio of more than 1.2 gigawatts in six states and three continents.

This rapid growth, both within our portfolio and beyond, is because these deals are good for business. Renewable energy agreements help companies meet sustainability commitments customers increasingly expect and – if structured properly – do so in a way that provides a hedge against the risk of rising electricity costs on the open market. The fuel for renewable energy projects – the wind and the sun – are free, enabling a fixed price over the length of the agreement. However, as the market has matured, it’s become clear that other risks and complexities exist within the PPA structure that may inhibit their effectiveness as risk management tools. The failure to simplify this complex process and mitigate the risk assumed by the buyer could endanger the corporate procurement market, causing it to slow or stall out completely.

We want to see continued growth of renewables. That is why today, Microsoft and REsurety, along with their partners at Nephila Climate (“Nephila”) and Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, Inc.’s Alternative Risk Transfer unit (Allianz) announced a new solution that mitigates those risks. We’re calling it a volume firming agreement (VFA), and Microsoft, in addition to co-developing it, will become the first adopter.

The concept of a VFA has its roots in late 2010, when Nephila Capital approached several of the first corporate renewable energy buyers with the idea of helping them manage the risks inherent in PPAs. At the time, however, the idea was just that. Unable to find a corporate buyer willing to put in the effort to help co-develop what would become the VFA, Nephila elected instead to sponsor an MBA project at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, led by Lee Taylor. Upon graduation, Taylor turned that concept into a company, REsurety. In 2016, Nephila and REsurety finally found that corporate partner in Microsoft, when we signed a PPA with Allianz for the output of the 178-megawatt Bloom wind project in Kansas. This was the first Proxy Generation PPA, winning honors as North American Wind Project of the Year, and laying the groundwork for today’s VFA.

VFAs are intended to be a simple fix to a big challenge with renewable energy PPAs, namely that these deals expose the buyer to all the weather-related risks of power production, and the inherent intermittent nature of wind and solar means there are hourly issues to be addressed. Put simply, the power needs of buyers are static but the power from the project varies on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour basis.

While it’s true that the fixed-price nature of PPAs provide the buyer some protection against a long-term increase in price, the hourly variability of wind and solar creates near-term complexity and risk. In periods when the wind or solar project is producing more than average, the market value of this energy is often lower due to the impact of additional supply in the market. Conversely, in periods when it is producing less than average, the market price is often high. In other words, volume and price move inversely. This variability and the financial impact are difficult for even the savviest energy buyers and a substantial deterrent to smaller companies, as well as retailers, looking to engage in the renewables market.

But what is undesirable to buyers is very attractive to others, namely insurance companies whose core business revolves around taking weather-related risks, including temperature, rain, snow, wind and so on. VFAs effectively remove the risk related to how future weather conditions will impact the financial value of a PPA from buyers and reallocates it to people who want that risk.

As the market for VFAs and similar products grow, we believe it will create new incentives for those who now bear these risks to procure storage resources and other assets capable of physically balancing the intermittency of renewables. Through the aggregation of risk, these insurers will be able to procure resources at economies of scale that even Microsoft is unable to achieve. In that way, today’s financial firming solution is tomorrow’s physical firming solution, accelerating the adoption of storage and other resources required to eventually transition to a 100 percent carbon-free power generation system.

VFAs are not a replacement for PPAs, nor are they a product Microsoft is selling. They are contracts that simply sit atop new PPAs, or existing PPAs, mitigating the risk to the buyer. Microsoft has signed three of these contracts with Allianz, in conjunction with their partners at Nephila, covering three wind projects in the U.S. in Texas, Illinois and Kansas, totaling almost 500 megawatts. As Microsoft continues to purchase renewable energy to power our operations, we anticipate utilizing VFAs to firm the energy and match our consumption on an hourly basis.

At Microsoft, we are committed to driving a more sustainable future beyond our own four walls. That is why our corporate energy commitments are far broader than just megawatts. We intend to support and enable the transformation of the energy sector using our buying power and innovations so everyone can benefit. REsurety is also focused on enabling the growth of renewable energy by providing tools to understand and manage risks.

The partnership between our two organizations leverages deep expertise in markets, risk and the challenges buyers face in these markets. That is why we’re confident that innovations like the VFA will make it cheaper and easier to procure renewable energy, enabling corporate buyers of all sizes, as well as retailers, to play a role in enabling the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.

We invite other corporate buyers to take a more in-depth look at our white paper expounding on the role of Proxy Generation PPAs in the implementation of VFAs, co-authored by Microsoft, REsurety and Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe LLP, available today here, or contact us. We’re looking forward to a future where even more corporations can participate in the renewable energy market, which would be a big step toward a low-carbon future for the planet.

Posted on October 16, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2 available today

Today, we’re excited to launch the all new Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2 in markets around the world. We’ve seen great momentum already for these products and I can’t wait for our fans to experience them.

When we started on this journey with Surface, we gave people the ability to choose a device that would adapt to their lives and help them accomplish more. As the way we work and live has changed around the world Surface and Microsoft have also evolved. We’ve grown to deliver a full, integrated portfolio of products to help you do more, dream more and achieve more.

We’re a team of passionate product makers, putting our hearts into creating devices, software, apps and features to push you forward. Helping to maximize the ingenuity of our customers, so they can do and create amazing things.

We’re inspired by the artists, scientists, engineers and poets that help to shape our future. Their passion drives us and ultimately leads us to craft the next generation of devices.

Our products, a symphony of technology between Windows, Surface, Office and AI, are designed to amplify your ideas, get you into your flow and let you build what’s in your mind and heart. Like an instrument, our products, our technology fades to the background so you can focus on your craft.

But what does that mean and how does it help you?

When someone asks me that, asks why we would want beautiful devices to fade into the background, I tell them about my daughter Sophia and her piano. How when she plays there is a moment – a moment when she forgets the piano, the pedals under her feet, the bench she sits on, the sheets in front of her – and in this moment of inspiration, of greatness, she’s in her flow. It’s just her and the music. In order for that moment to happen, for her to forget about everything else, the piano must be perfectly tuned, the bench the right height, the music sheets at eye level.

For our customers, Surface, Windows, Office, and the experience they create together is the instrument. An instrument we’ve tuned perfectly to fade to the background, so you don’t have to think about all the little things, you can just get in your flow and capture those moments of greatness, of focus, of inspiration, to make the most of your time.

Get in your flow anytime, anywhere with Surface Pro 6

The first Quad-Core Processor in a Surface Pro comes to life on Surface Pro 6 – an instrument of versatility, portability and power, coming in a gorgeous, all new matte black finish.

We wanted this product to be the device you can bring with you anywhere since you never know when or where your moments of inspiration will strike.

While the refined exterior may look familiar, this is a new generation of Surface Pro, we’ve redesigned the architecture inside the device to deliver astounding power with the 8^th Generation Quad-Core Intel Processor, all while still offering up to 13.5 hours of battery life.

Providing what you need to transition between work life, home life and everything in between no matter where you are. Built with Windows and Office it can handle the powerful desktop apps you need, without compromising the thin and light form factor you love.

Surface Laptop 2 – beauty and power to make the most of your ideas

The blend of beauty and incredible performance on Surface Laptop 2 keeps everything you love about the first-generation form factor with so much more built in to keep you productive and inspired.

With an all new 8th generation Quad-Core processor, Surface Laptop 2 is 85 percent more powerful than Surface Laptop.

Even with all that power Surface Laptop 2 has an incredible 14.5 hours of all-day battery life, incredible display quality, beautiful design and easy portability. The Alcantara® material covering the keyboard draws you in, a perfect tone-on-tone balance with the gorgeous colors. Every detail on this product has been thought through, from the depth of the new matte black finish to the redesign of the thermal system to keep the quiet elegance of the device.

Matte black isn’t the only new finish highlighting the incredible design of Surface Laptop 2. On Monday in Beijing, we also introduced an all new blush finish as an exclusive for the Chinese market.

You bring our products to life

Nothing inspires the team more than seeing the amazing things our customers do with our products. Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2 are available in markets around the world today, and I truly believe that when you have your hands on them, when you experience them for yourself, you will understand what it means to have technology fade to the background, so you can focus on what’s important to you and save time for what really matters.

Availability details:

Available today in Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Germany, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States.

Updated October 16, 2018 6:36 am

Posted on October 16, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft mourns the passing of co-founder Paul Allen

Microsoft is mourning the passing of Paul Allen, a renowned philanthropist and business leader who co-founded the company more than four decades ago. He was 65.

Allen died Monday from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to a statement from Vulcan Inc. on behalf of the Allen family, Vulcan Inc. and the Paul G. Allen Network.

In a written statement, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella noted Allen’s huge impact on technology and much more:

“Paul Allen’s contributions to our company, our industry and to our community are indispensable. As co-founder of Microsoft, in his own quiet and persistent way, he created magical products, experiences and institutions, and in doing so, he changed the world. I have learned so much from him – his inquisitiveness, curiosity and push for high standards are something that will continue to inspire me and all of us at Microsoft.

“Our hearts are with Paul’s family and loved ones. Rest in peace.”

An archival photo of Allen can be downloaded here.

Posted on October 15, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

What’s next for Surface Hub 2

Surface Hub 2’s light, sleek and intelligent design starts to ship in Q2 2019

Surface Hub 2 enables the power of collaborative work, allowing businesses to unlock the full potential of their greatest resource – people. As work changes – thanks to the ongoing digital revolution and a shift to non-traditional work spaces – fostering a team-based collaborative culture and spaces designed to enhance productivity and creativity are critical to businesses’ success. 48% of executives recognize the importance of collaboration and are modernizing their workplaces and systems to attract and retain the next generation of talent.

Surface Hub 2 represents the culmination of years of listening to our customers to better understand their needs. Often to better compete, these businesses must modernize their workplaces and systems to attract the best of the next generation.

People loved the original Surface Hub because it brought people together to work and create, but they also asked us for a more beautiful screen, something easier to install and transport, and more seamless integration of software and apps. We’ve taken that feedback to heart and used it to work across Microsoft to transform the creation process for Surface Hub 2 and our two new offerings in the Surface Hub family – Surface Hub 2S and Surface Hub 2X. Today we’re pumped to share more about these incredible collaboration devices.

Lighter, sleeker, and easier to use

We’ve learned a lot from our Surface fans who have been vocal in their appreciation for our meticulously designed products, attention to detail, brilliant touch displays, and cohesive experiences across not only modes of input like Surface Pen, but also across hardware and software. Surface Hub 2 is gorgeous – lighter, sleeker, and more intuitive than its predecessor, all while being as easy to install as putting a TV on a wall. Paired with elegant mobile stands from our partner Steelcase, Surface Hub 2 can be moved around the room with ease and anchored to a spot with a simple tap of your foot, providing the kind of freedom that’s never been seen in collaborative workspaces before. Now you can have a meeting wherever you choose, helping shift meetings from being passive to active, helping people better engage, create better ideas and drive better business outcomes.

We all remember how we felt when we received our first laptop. For the first time we weren’t tethered to our offices or the computer in our parent’s kitchen. We were free to go where we wanted, write our ideas down whenever and wherever inspiration struck, go write a paper in a coffee shop or create a presentation from the couch while watching our favorite show. Surface Hub 2 brings freedom not just to large screen devices, but also the collaborative process.

Collaborate across the world

In addition to having the convenience of being able to create an anytime, anywhere collaboration space with the transportable Surface Hub 2 stand you can effectively meet with teams from all over the world. If your colleague is hundreds or even thousands of miles away from you, they will feel like they’re in the same room with Surface Hub 2. Meetings sound and look crystal clear in Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business with our improved microphones, speakers, 4K camera, and true to scale video calling.

Intuitive experiences to make your team more productive

Surface Hub 2 seamlessly integrates intuitive hardware, software, and modes of interaction to help people get in and stay in their flow. With the new Microsoft Whiteboard app, amazing features designed for large touch screens make you feel like you’re at a real whiteboard, but with the added benefit of intelligent ink, the ability to find people, Bing search built in, image stacks, and more. Surface Hub 2 provides a robust whiteboard experience, but your whiteboard can be shared across Windows 10, iOS, and Android devices, so you can jump back into the same brainstorm session anytime, anywhere, from any device.

Surface Hub 2S

Since we previewed Surface Hub 2 in May, we’ve been humbled by the positive feedback we’ve received from the ecosystem. Current and future Surface Hub customers see the promise of Surface Hub 2 and demand for the device is real, which is why we’re so excited to share that we will begin to ship Surface Hub 2S in Q2 2019!

Surface Hub 2S was built for customers who have told us they still want the original Surface Hub experience that they know and have built for, but in a lighter, thinner, more vibrant design. With Surface Hub 2S customers will be able to deploy either an on-premise or hybrid environment and keep the software experiences that they have standardized on with the original Surface Hub. Businesses can also now continue to use Skype for Business on their Surface Hub 2S or deploy the latest version of Microsoft Teams.

Thoughtfully Composed

Looking forward to 2020, we will release updates to the Surface Hub family to enable customers to update to Surface Hub 2X. This includes the ability to tile, rotate, and enable multi user log in. This simple update is enabled by our design of removable processor cartridges, in an easily accessible hardware chassis on the back of the Surface Hub 2. This processor cartridge can be removed, upgraded and serviced over time. The cartridge is what will enable customers to make the switch to the Microsoft 365 powered Surface Hub 2X in 2020.

We are kicking off conversations with our customers about deploying Surface Hub 2 now. For more information on Surface Hub 2, visit www.microsoft.com/surface/business/surface-hub-2.

As with all our devices, Surface Hub 2 was designed to give people a product that will help them create more, do more, and achieve more. With Surface Hub 2 we believe we have created an experience that not only people, but teams will love. Surface Hub 2 breaks down barriers between teammates and will help organizations around the world to elevate themselves with a more modern and collaborative culture. We can’t wait to see how and where our customers use Surface Hub 2 and look forward to sharing more news in the coming months.

Updated October 3, 2018 11:32 am

Posted on October 15, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft + Made by Dyslexia: Helping dyslexic students thrive with technology

It is estimated that one in five students has dyslexia, yet there are likely far more who have not yet been diagnosed in today’s classrooms. These students, who see the written word differently, are often mistakenly labeled as having a learning disability and, as such, make up approximately 70 to 85 percent of today’s special education classes. Their teachers and parents don’t often have the resources or training to help, however passionate they may be. Without the proper support in formative years, a struggling student’s confidence and love of learning can fade. History has shown these great young minds can bring tremendous gifts to the world – like the many great dyslexic innovators, artists and leaders before them – if they feel empowered and learn to see dyslexia differently.

That is why today, we are honored to be the first company to sign the Made by Dyslexia pledge: to give the 700 million people with dyslexia around the world access to technology that empowers them to excel in their academic journey, and in life. The pledge calls on partners to build a better future for those with dyslexia and, together with Made by Dyslexia, we aim to democratize dyslexia support, so that every dyslexic child is understood and given the right support to realize their brilliant potential.

To achieve this goal, we are expanding our Microsoft Education training materials, research and products that support dyslexic students. Products like Learning Tools are free to educators and students and are already helping more than 14 million people improve their reading and writing comprehension. Starting today, we pledge to expand access and improve ease of implementation of these tools.

Click below to jump to details on our commitments and new updates:

1. Developing materials and training for educators supporting dyslexic learners

Research shows 90 percent of children with dyslexia can be educated inside an inclusive classroom when teachers are trained in early dyslexia identification and intervention. To make this possible, we will be partnering with Made by Dyslexia to build free teacher and parent training materials on our Microsoft Educator Community in late January, 2019. The training will consist of short, informative and inspirational film modules that introduce educators and parents to dyslexia, as well as specific materials that focus on reading instruction. There will also be specific instruction around reading and dyslexia.

2. Helping students to write with their voice using the Dictation Tool in Learning Tools

Dictation (speech to text) is an important technology that allows people to easily type with their voice. It is especially helpful for those with dyslexia, dysgraphia or mobility impairments. We launched Dictation for Office 365 Desktop Apps earlier this year. In the coming weeks, Dictation will expand so that it’s freely available for Word and OneNote Online in any browser.

*Word Online dictation, available in any browser*

3. Inviting all learners into the conversation with Immersive Reader in Flipgrid

In Flipgrid, educators can create social learning communities based on topic stimuli. Learners of all ages can share their ideas, stories, beliefs, perspectives, and cultural backgrounds through short recorded videos. But when a learner struggles to read and understand the foundational discussion topics, it proves difficult to share their voice and participate comfortable in these discussions. By bringing Immersive Reader into Flipgrid, we’re making this powerful social learning tool more accessible to all learners, giving them the option to use Immersive Reader to access topic text. Starting today, Immersive Reader will work with any accounts being used with Flipgrid, whether connected to Microsoft or Google.

4. Helping students read math problems with Immersive Reader

Some dyslexic students struggle with math – not because they aren’t good at math, but often because they have difficulty reading math problems. Other students experience focus issues, or have dyscalculia, a specific learning disability in math. Later this week, Immersive Reader will begin rolling out support for math, which includes read aloud, line focus and page theme colors. When using OneNote for Windows 10 and OneNote Online, students will be able to use any of the Immersive Reader capabilities. We will continue to focus on growing math capabilities in Immersive Reader in the coming year, including making it possible to easily take content from the Math Pane – typically a mix of text and math – and use it in Immersive Reader later this fall.

*Example of math in Immersive Reader using OneNote for Windows 10*

5. Supporting students in their native language with real-time translation in Immersive Reader

The ability to access text in any language is an important area of inclusion. An example might be an English-language learner who is also dyslexic, trying to access content in another language. Using Microsoft Translator, we are adding the ability for anyone to translate a page, word, or sentence into another language, in real-time and inside of the Immersive Reader. This new capability will support Read Aloud, Syllables, Parts of Speech and Picture Dictionary.

We will begin rolling out later in fall with support for full page and word translations, with sentence translation to follow. Real-time translation will be available in Word Online, OneNote Online, OneNote for Windows 10, OneNote iPad, OneNote Mac, Outlook Online, Teams and Flipgrid. You’ll find the list of supported languages here.

*Example of real-time translation in Immersive Reader*

6. Helping students sound out words, in partnership with the University of Washington

The English language is notoriously tricky with its use of more than 19 sounds represented by 5 vowels (and sometimes “y”). Together with The University of Washington’s Brain Development & Education Lab, we will begin to develop and test new tools designed to help struggling young readers sound out words that would otherwise be difficult. This project is part of a larger partnership effort with the University of Washington to understand the different factors that contribute to reading difficulties, and to design technology that accommodates the individual.

7. Making the web more friendly to all learners with Microsoft Edge browser updates

As part of the October 2018 Windows Update, the Microsoft Edge browser will have a number of big improvements that will support students of all abilities. The new capabilities include:

Built-in Dictionary for ePub, PDF, or Reading View in the Microsoft Edge browser
Expanded page colors for Reading View and ePub files
Line Focus feature for Reading View

*Dictionary built-in to the Microsoft Edge browser on right click, Windows 10 October 2018 update*

*Expanded Page theme colors in the Microsoft Edge browser, Windows 10 October 2018 update*

8. Capturing text from anywhere to read in Immersive Reader with Office Lens in Android

In addition to iOS Office Lens Immersive Reader, Immersive Reader is coming to Office Lens on Android starting today. Once students and teachers take a photo of a book page, or worksheet, they can send it to Immersive Reader, which uses optical character recognition (OCR) on the image. This allows the user to turn the image into accessible text content and use Read Aloud, Voice Speed, Text Spacing, Font Size, and Forward/Backwards. Now, students can gain independence with Android phones, tablets and access text from anywhere.

*Immersive Reader now available for Android Office Lens*

With these new materials and technology, we’re excited to help the people at Made by Dyslexia take their important awareness and advocacy work to a new level of action and impact in today’s schools.

To get started with these tools, visit our Inclusive Classroom Guide for free.

New to Learning Tools? No worries, you can learn how to use Learning Tools in 90 seconds here:

[embedded content]

Posted on October 15, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Sam George: What to expect from Microsoft at this week’s IoT Solutions World Congress

It’s amazing to see how IoT is transforming our customers’ businesses—from optimizing operations and reducing unplanned downtime with companies like Chevron, to powering new connected vehicle experiences as we recently announced with Volkswagen.

Beyond business transformation, IoT has the potential to create more efficient and vibrant cities and communities by providing new insights and approaches to transportation and traffic, energy reduction, construction, utilities, parking, and so much more.

We are continuing to simplify the customer journey for secure, scalable IoT solutions for the cloud and the edge with a large set of announcements last month, including the general availability of Azure IoT Central at our Ignite 2018 conference, and more just last week about bringing intelligence to the edge in Windows IoT.

This week at IoT Solutions World Congress, we look forward to connecting with companies across industries and inspiring them with new possibilities for IoT, from creating Digital Twins of physical environments to taking advantage of Vision and AI on edge devices. We’ll also be talking about how we’re breaking down common barriers to entry in IoT by addressing security from the start with solutions like Azure Sphere and Azure Security Center for IoT, and empowering organizations to provision and customize fully managed IoT solutions in minutes with Azure IoT Central. And that’s just the start.

Vision and AI at the edge power breakthrough applications

Vision and AI capabilities on edge devices are the ultimate sensor and will help companies create breakthrough applications. From automatically detecting manufacturing defects, to detecting any object, to detecting unsafe conditions in the enterprise or industry—the possibilities are endless.

Today we are announcing the public preview of a Vision AI developer kit, the newest addition in the Microsoft Azure IoT starter kit family, for IoT solution makers to easily deploy AI models built using Azure Machine Learning and Azure IoT Edge. The kit includes a device using Qualcomm Visual Intelligence Platform for hardware acceleration of the AI model to deliver superior inferencing performance. To get started, visit www.visionaidevkit.com.

Model the physical world with Azure Digital Twins

At Ignite, we introduced Azure Digital Twins, a breakthrough new offering in our IoT platform that represents the evolution of IoT. Azure Digital Twins enables customers and partners to create a digital model of any physical environment, connect it to IoT devices using Azure IoT Hub to make the model live, and then respond to changes in it to create serverless business logic. Customers and partners can now query Azure Digital Twins in the context of a space—rather than from separate sensors—empowering them to build repeatable, scalable experiences that correlate data from digital sources and the physical world.

Today we are announcing that Azure Digital Twins is available in public preview. Several of our early partners are at IoT Solutions World Congress showcasing their solutions that span a wide range of applications that represents the broad applicability of Azure Digital Twins, including:

Applied innovation for smarter cities

Today, as cities and communities embrace digital transformation, technology like Digital Twins and easy-to-use machine learning is helping ideas become real, actionable solutions. Environments and infrastructure of all types—offices, schools, hospitals, banks, stadiums, warehouses, factories, parking lots, streets, intersections, parks, plazas, electrical grids, and more—can become smarter to help the people who use them live better lives. We’ll have more to share on this topic at Smart City Expo World Congress in November.

Connect with us at IoT Solutions World Congress

If you’re in Barcelona this week, connect with us at the Microsoft IoT booth (# C321) and hear from us in the following sessions:

Posted on October 15, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Online scammers cost time and money. Here’s how to fight back

Microsoft has partnered with AARP since 2015 to build awareness around tech support scams and has developed a joint booklet encouraging AARP members to report these incidents.

“One of the reasons we’re thrilled to be working with Microsoft is that it’s one thing for law enforcement to give advice for crime prevention, but when Microsoft says they don’t initiate these calls, it’s very powerful,” Shadel says.

But anyone can fall prey to these schemes.

Similar to the 2016 results, Generation Z and Millennials fall prey to tech support scams more often, and also men. They may be more likely to engage in riskier online behavior, such as visiting torrent sites and giving up their email in exchange for downloading videos or images. But because they can be more familiar with technology companies than older generations, it may lead to overconfidence in their web and device expertise.

Each month, Microsoft receives about 11,000 complaints from people across the globe who have been the victim of a tech support scam with fraudsters pretending to be from reputable tech companies, including Microsoft, Dell and Apple.

To help protect consumers from online scams, Windows includes security features and updates with free real-time protection, and the SmartScreen filter built into Microsoft Edge helps protect against malicious pop-ups. In addition, the Bing Ads team took action to block 25 million ads in the tech scam category in 2017 as part of its ad quality work.

Microsoft also fights back through advanced analytics and investigations of thousands of customer complaints received annually, thanks to its Digital Crimes Unit, which identifies key players perpetrating these scams. Collaborating with enforcement agencies globally, they take action to disrupt these fraudulent enterprises and hold them accountable under the law.

For example, Microsoft provided critical information for the May 2017 sweeping enforcement action “Operation Tech Trap” in which the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and law enforcement partners announced 16 new actions against tech support fraudsters. While the UK National Fraud Investigative Bureau reports the number of instances of consumers reporting tech support scams using the Microsoft brand has dropped from 76 percent to 17 percent after a string of successful joint Microsoft and law enforcement operations.