Recent News – Page 160

Posted on July 11, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft’s new London flagship store opens to the public

Microsoft’s new flagship store in London has opened its doors to the public for the first time, with people waiting hours to be among the first to set foot inside.

The first physical retail store for Microsoft in the UK, which is located on Oxford Circus and covers 22,000 square feet over three floors, was officially unveiled to the crowd at 11am.

Chris Capossela, Microsoft’s Chief Marketing Officer, Cindy Rose, UK Chief Executive, and Senior Store Manager John Carter welcomed the public by giving speeches in front of the doors on Regent Street.

Rose said the store was a “symbol of Microsoft’s enduring commitment to the UK”, which allows people to “experience the best the company has to offer”. “Thank you for helping us make history today,” she added.

People had started queuing along Regent Street from 7am to see Microsoft’s Surface devices, HoloLens, Xbox Gaming Lounge and sit in the McLaren Senna on the ground floor.

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Excited fans queue for the official opening of Flagship Microsoft Store on Oxford Circus

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Store associates welcome customers to the store

One customer, Blair, had started queuing at 7:30am after travelling from Wiltshire by bus. “I’m a Microsoft fan but I especially love Xbox. I heard there would be a few games from [videogame event] E3 here,” he said. “I really want to have a go in the McLaren Senna.”

Denise, from Sutton, was interested in seeing the Surface devices. “I want to see the latest technology and products that Microsoft has in there. I might buy a new laptop today.”

Callum, from London, also wanted to sit in the McLaren Senna. “I play a lot of Forza, so I want to experience the car and the Xbox Gaming Lounge,” he said.

James, from Reading, wanted to see how the store could help businesses. “I’m excited to see what it’s like,” he said. “I want to see what they can offer businesses. The outside of the store looks incredible; it’s a masterpiece of architecture.”

Microsoft handed out free T-shirts and Xbox Game Pass codes to people in the queue, while the first 100 visitors to buy a Surface Pro 6 were also given a free limited edition Liberty Surface Type Cover.

<img data-attachment-id="75169" data-permalink="https://news.microsoft.com/en-gb/2019/07/11/thank-you-for-helping-us-make-history-microsofts-new-london-store-opens-to-the-public/jmp_microsoft_store_001/" data-orig-file="http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/microsofts-new-london-flagship-store-opens-to-the-public-1.jpg" data-orig-size="5208,3472" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"5","credit":"jeff moore","camera":"ILCE-7M3","caption":"THIS PICTURE IS FREE FOR EDITORIAL USE \rExcited fans queue for the official opening of Flagship Microsoft Store on Oxford Circus","created_timestamp":"1562834893","copyright":"Jeff Moore","focal_length":"24","iso":"1250","shutter_speed":"0.004","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title data-image-description="

Staff clap as customers enter the store

” data-medium-file=”http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/microsofts-new-london-flagship-store-opens-to-the-public-5.jpg” data-large-file=”http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/microsofts-new-london-flagship-store-opens-to-the-public-1.jpg” class=”size-full wp-image-75169″ src=”http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/microsofts-new-london-flagship-store-opens-to-the-public-1.jpg” alt=”Staff clap as customers enter the store” width=”5208″ height=”3472″ srcset=”http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/microsofts-new-london-flagship-store-opens-to-the-public-1.jpg 5208w, http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/microsofts-new-london-flagship-store-opens-to-the-public-5.jpg 300w, http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/microsofts-new-london-flagship-store-opens-to-the-public-6.jpg 768w, http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/microsofts-new-london-flagship-store-opens-to-the-public-7.jpg 960w” sizes=”(max-width: 5208px) 100vw, 5208px”>

Staff clap as customers enter the store

At 11am, the curtains in the store windows dropped to reveal excited store staff, dressed in red, green, yellow and blue shirts – the colours of Microsoft’s logo – jumping up and down and cheering.

The customers walked into a store with a modern feel, with lots of space and wood and glass surfaces. They were greeted by staff standing in front of a large video wall and Surface devices on tables, with the McLaren on their right and the HoloLens mixed-reality headset to their left. A wooden spiral staircase or lifts took them to the first floor, where they could play the latest Xbox and PC titles in high-quality gaming chairs and professional pods in the Gaming Lounge, purchase third-party laptops and accessories and get tech support, trainings, repairs and advice from the Answer Desk, or go to the Community Theatre where coding workshops were taking place. Visitors could create their own personalised Surface Type Cover with Surface Design Lab, featuring a range of designs that can be etched directly onto the cover. They also took photos in the Selfie Area.

The enterprise area on the second floor is a place to support, train and grow businesses no matter where they are on their digital transformation journey. From small companies and educational institutions to enterprise customers, the Product Advisors and Cloud Technical Experts will help customers discover, deploy and use Microsoft 365 and other resources to solve business challenges such as AI, data security, collaboration and workplace efficiencies. This floor also contains an area for hosting events, as well as meeting rooms and a Showcase space for demonstrating how customers, including Carlsberg and Toyota, are digitally transforming.

It is also the most accessible store Microsoft has ever opened, with store associates collectively speaking 45 languages, buttons to open doors, lower desks to help those in wheelchairs and Xbox Adaptive Controllers available for gamers with restricted movement.

Posted on July 10, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

We’re opening a flagship store in the UK because London is hard to beat, says Microsoft executive Chris Capossela

Microsoft chose to open its first European flagship store in London because the city is “hard to beat,” one of the company’s top executives has revealed.

Chris Capossela, Chief Marketing Officer, visited the store with UK CEO Cindy Rose ahead of its launch on July 11, and he said there were “very few locations in the world” that are as appealing as the UK capital.

The first physical retail store for Microsoft in the UK is located on Oxford Circus and covers 22,000 square feet over three floors.

Capossela (above) said it contains many one-of-a-kind features, including a full-sized McLaren Senna sports car that doubles as a Forza Motorsport 7 experience, a Gaming Lounge, a Community Theatre featuring free workshops all-year-round and an entire floor dedicated to helping businesses and organisations use technology.

“Around 86 million people pass through Oxford Circus every year,” he said. “That’s hard to beat. London is also an incredibly diverse city, so we can serve lots of different customers here; it’s a very pan-European city.

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A girl uses a Microsoft Surface device in the Flagship London Store

” data-medium-file=”http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela-3.jpg” data-large-file=”http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela.jpg” class=”size-full wp-image-75143″ src=”http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela.jpg” alt=”A girl uses a Microsoft Surface device in the Flagship London Store” width=”5578″ height=”3719″ srcset=”http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela.jpg 5578w, http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela-3.jpg 300w, http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela-4.jpg 768w, http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela-5.jpg 960w” sizes=”(max-width: 5578px) 100vw, 5578px”>

A girl uses a Microsoft Surface device in the Flagship London Store

“There are very few locations in the world that feature all the different parts that make up what Microsoft is. The early adoption of technology in the UK has been very impressive. That’s important when the company is thinking about what investments to make and where to make them. This flagship would not be in London if we didn’t have a very strong commercial business in this country. We thought very deeply about this.”

The central London flagship store has a modern feel, with lots of space and wood and glass surfaces. Visitors will be greeted on the ground floor by a large video wall and Surface devices on tables, with the McLaren on their right and the HoloLens mixed-reality headset to their left. A wooden spiral staircase or lifts will take them to the Gaming Lounge on the first floor, where they can play the latest Xbox and PC titles in high-quality gaming chairs and professional pods, purchase third-party laptops and accessories and get tech support, trainings, repairs and advice from the Answer Desk. All visitors can create their own personalised Surface Type Cover with Surface Design Lab, featuring a range of designs that can be etched directly onto the cover. They can also take photos in the Selfie Area.

<img data-attachment-id="75146" data-permalink="https://news.microsoft.com/en-gb/2019/07/10/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-top-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela/photo-tom-pilston-2/" data-orig-file="http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela-1.jpg" data-orig-size="5682,3646" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"Tom Pilston","camera":"Canon EOS 5D Mark III","caption":"Photo Tom Pilston.","created_timestamp":"1562575866","copyright":"Tom Pilston ,tompilston.com ,00447802 572 609 tompilston.com","focal_length":"34","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.005","title":"Photo Tom Pilston.","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title data-image-description="

Surface devices in Microsoft’s London Store

” data-medium-file=”http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela-6.jpg” data-large-file=”http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela-1.jpg” class=”size-full wp-image-75146″ src=”http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela-1.jpg” alt=”Surface devices in Microsoft’s London Store” width=”5682″ height=”3646″ srcset=”http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela-1.jpg 5682w, http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela-6.jpg 300w, http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/were-opening-a-flagship-store-in-the-uk-because-london-is-hard-to-beat-says-microsoft-executive-chris-capossela-7.jpg 768w” sizes=”(max-width: 5682px) 100vw, 5682px”>

Anyone buying a Surface at the Store can get a designed etched onto the cover

It is also the most accessible store Microsoft has ever opened, with buttons to open doors, lower desks to help those in wheelchairs and Xbox Adaptive Controllers available for gamers with restricted movement.

The 150 Store Associates welcoming visitors speak a total of 45 languages, and selected members of the team can also communicate in British Sign Language. John Carter, Senior Store Manager at the store, said the staff are a mix of ages, genders, ethnicities and abilities, and had all gone through six weeks of training to “deliver our customer-obsessed culture” from when the doors open at 11am on July 11.

Rose also announced that Microsoft is donating £1 million to three charities – UK Youth, Raspberry Pi Foundation and The London Community Foundation – to help them continue to teach digital skills to disadvantaged young people and to support grass-roots community groups in Westminster with digital and employability skills.

“I’m excited about this donation because it’s going to give these charities the opportunity to have even more of an impact across the UK. We are also auctioning 10 limited edition Surface devices designed by British retailer Liberty London, with all proceeds going to gaming charity SpecialEffect, which helped develop the Xbox Adaptive Controller.”

Cindy Rose, Microsoft UK CEO, with gamer Vivek Gohil

Talking about the journey to this week’s opening, she added: This has been a three-year labour of love for me. During my Microsoft job interview [in 2016] I remember discussing the need for a Microsoft retail store in London. That’s how long I’ve been thinking about this and planning it. I feel like that part of the jigsaw is now complete.

“What I love most about this flagship is that it’s so much more than just a shopping experience. It is a destination where we can engage with local community to bring our mission to life. Whether it’s teaching kids to code, training educators on how to use tech in the classroom, or showing small businesses and large enterprises how we can help digitally transform their organisation, this store will be the best place to experience all that’s possible with Microsoft.”

Capossela, who said it is “really important for us to have a place that people can walk into and experience Microsoft,” agreed that the store will appeal to every type of customer.

“I want all our stores to have a Microsoft vibe, be very colourful, human and approachable,” he said. “These are the things we want our brand to stand for. The London flagship has some special experiences. I feel very lucky that we have found a space as good as Oxford Circus in London.”

Posted on July 10, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Announcing the public preview of Azure AD support for FIDO2-based passwordless sign-in

Howdy folks,

I’m thrilled to let you know that you can now go passwordless with the public preview of FIDO2 security keys support in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD)! Many teams across Microsoft have been involved in this effort, and we’re proud to deliver on our vision of making FIDO2 technologies a reality to provide you with seamless, secure, and passwordless access to all your Azure AD-connected apps and services.

In addition, we turned on a new set of admin capabilities in the Azure AD portal that enable you to manage authentication factors for users and groups in your organization. In this first release, you can use them to manage a staged rollout of passwordless authentication using FIDO2 security keys and/or the Microsoft Authenticator application. Going forward you’ll see us add the ability to manage all our traditional authentication factors (Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), OATH Tokens, phone number sign in, etc.). Our goal is to enable you to use this one tool to manage all your authentication factors.

Why do we feel so strongly about passwordless?

Every day, more and more of our customers move to cloud services and applications. They need to know that the data and services stored in these services are secure. Unfortunately, passwords are no longer an effective security mechanism. We know from industry analysts that 81 percent of successful cyberattacks begin with a compromised username and password. Additionally, traditional MFA, while very effective, can be hard to use and has a very low adoption rate.

It’s clear we need to provide our customers with authentication options that are secure and easy to use, so they can confidently access information without having to worry about hackers taking over their accounts.

This is where passwordless authentication comes in. We believe it will help to significantly and permanently reduce the risk of account compromise.

Now, all Azure AD users can sign in password-free using a FIDO2 security key, the Microsoft Authenticator app, or Windows Hello. These strong authentication factors are based off the same world class, public key/private key encryption standards and protocols, which are protected by a biometric factor (fingerprint or facial recognition) or a PIN. Users apply the biometric factor or PIN to unlock the private key stored securely on the device. The key is then used to prove who the user and the device are to the service.

Check out this video where Joy Chik, corporate vice president of Identity, and I talk more about this new standard for signing in. To learn more about why this should be a priority for you and your organization, read our whitepaper.

Let’s get you started!

To help you get started on your own passwordless journey, this week we’re rolling out a bonanza of public preview capabilities. These new features include:

A new Authentication methods blade in your Azure AD admin portal that allows you to assign passwordless credentials using FIDO2 security keys and passwordless sign-in with Microsoft Authenticator to users and groups.

FIDO2 hardware

Microsoft has teamed up with leading hardware partners, Feitian Technologies, HID Global, and Yubico, to make sure we have a range of FIDO2 form factors available at launch, including keys connecting via USB and NFC protocols. Sue Bohn has more details on those partnerships.

Please be sure to verify that any FIDO2 security keys you’re considering for your organization meet the additional options required to be compatible with Microsoft’s implementation.

Our passwordless strategy

Our passwordless strategy is a four-step approach where we deploy replacement offerings, reduce the password surface area, transition to password deployment, and finally eliminate passwords:

Today’s product launches are an important milestone for getting to passwordless. In addition, the engineering work we did to provide authentication methods management for administrators and user registration and management, will allow us to move even faster to improve credentials management experiences, as well as bring new capabilities and credentials online more simply. We’re working with our Windows security engineering team to make FIDO2 authentication work for hybrid-joined devices.

Of course, we look forward to feedback from you across all of these features, to help us improve before we make them generally available.

Regards,

Alex (Twitter: @Alex_A_Simons)

Corporate VP of Program Management

Microsoft Identity Division

Additional links

Posted on July 8, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

July 2019 Xbox Update delivers new features for Xbox Game Pass, plus Xbox Skill for Alexa

Summer is here which means sunshine, cookouts and of course, gaming with friends after a long day outside. Team Xbox has been busy cooking up new features for the July 2019 Xbox Update, which begins rolling out today. This update includes a new way to interact with Xbox Game Pass, additional countries for the Xbox Skill for Alexa, and new Xbox Skill for Alexa voice commands. Here’s a rundown of what’s new:

New features for Xbox Game Pass

Xbox Game Pass offers a curated library of over 100 high-quality games on PC and console, available to download and play at full fidelity for one low-monthly price. Today, we’re rolling a new way to manage your Xbox Game Pass collection.

Play later – Play later enables you to make a list of games from the Xbox Game Pass catalog for you to come back to on your time, making it even easier to find your next game. Manage your collection from your Xbox console or the Game Pass mobile app and download your games when you’re ready.

Xbox Skill for Alexa – More countries and new voice commands

Last fall, we expanded voice control support by introducing the Xbox Skill for Alexa, which enables you to navigate and interact with Xbox One using voice commands through your Alexa-enabled devices. Today we are adding more supported countries and new Alexa voice commands to see what’s happening on Xbox Game Pass and check in with your Xbox Live friends.

More countries – We heard our fans around the world loud and clear that they wanted Xbox Skill for Alexa support in their country. Today, we are excited to be adding support for customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and Spain. Click here to learn how to set up the Xbox Skill for Alexa.
New Alexa voice commands for Xbox Game Pass and more – Have you always wanted to be able to use your voice to find out the latest games in Xbox Game Pass? Good news, so have we! The July 2019 Xbox Update introduces the ability to find out what’s new to Xbox Game Pass, what the popular games are, what’s leaving the catalog, and more; simply by asking Alexa. Try saying, “Alexa, ask Xbox what’s new on Game Pass?”Want to stay up-to-date with what your friends are doing on Xbox? You can ask Alexa who’s online, what your friends are playing, and more. Try saying, “Alexa, ask Xbox what are my friends playing?”
Finally, you are now able to start pairing your controller with your Xbox from the convenience of your couch. Just say, “Alexa, ask Xbox to pair my controller.” to put your console into pairing mode!

For a full list of what you can say, check out this link.

These updates are based on feedback from our Xbox Insiders who have helped to shape these features. A huge thank you to all our Xbox Insiders for your valuable input and continued participation. If you’d like to help define the future of Xbox and get access to early features, download the Xbox Insider Hub app on your Xbox One or Windows 10 PC today and share your ideas at the Xbox Ideas Hub. You can also visit the Xbox Insider Blog here for the latest release notes and to learn more. Enjoy the July Update and happy gaming!

Posted on July 8, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Azure Data Box Heavy now generally available

Our customers continue to use the Azure Data Box family to move massive amounts of data into Azure. One of the regular requests that we receive is for a larger capacity option that retains the simplicity, security, and speed of the original Data Box. Last year at Ignite, we announced a new addition to the Data Box family that did just that – a preview of the petabyte-scale Data Box Heavy

With thanks to those customers who provided feedback during the preview phase, I’m excited to announce that Azure Data Box Heavy has reached general availability in the US and EU!

How Data Box Heavy works

In many ways, Data Box Heavy is just like the original Data Box. You can order Data Box Heavy directly from the Azure portal, and copy data to Data Box Heavy using standard files or object protocols. Data is automatically secured on the appliance using AES 256-bit encryption. After your data is transferred to Azure, the appliance is wiped clean according to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards.

But Data Box Heavy is also designed for a much larger scale than the original Data Box. Data Box Heavy’s one petabyte of raw capacity and multiple 40 Gbps connectors mean that a datacenter’s worth of data can be moved into Azure in just a few weeks.

Data Box Heavy

1 PB per order
770 TB usable capacity per order
Supports Block Blobs, Page Blobs, Azure Files, and Managed Disk
Copy to 10 storage accounts
4 x RJ45 10/1 Gbps, 4 x QSFP 10/40 Gbps Ethernet
Copy data using standard NAS protocols (SMB/CIFS, NFS, Azure Blob Storage)

Data Box

100 TB per order
80 TB usable capacity per order
Supports Block Blobs, Page Blobs, Azure Files, and Managed Disk
Copy to 10 storage accounts
2 x RJ45 10/1 Gbps, 2 x SFP+ 10 Gbps Ethernet
Copy data using standard NAS protocols (SMB/CIFS, NFS, Azure Blob Storage)

Data Box Disk

40 TB per order/8 TB per disk
35 TB usable capacity per order
Supports Block Blobs, Page Blobs, Azure Files, and Managed Disk
Copy to 10 storage accounts
USB 3.1, SATA II or III
Copy data using standard NAS protocols (SMB/CIFS, NFS, Azure Blob Storage)

Expanded regional availability

We’re also expanding regional availability for Data Box and Data Box Disk.

Data Box Heavy	US, EU
Data Box	US, EU, Japan, Canada, and Australia
Data Box Disk	US, EU, Japan, Canada, Australia, Korea, Southeast Asia, and US Government

Sign up today

Here’s how you can get started with Data Box Heavy:

We’ll be at Microsoft Inspire again this year, so stop by our booth to say hello to the team!

Posted on July 8, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

All the details for ‘Gears of War’ at this week’s San Diego Comic-Con

With Gears Pop! and Gears 5 releasing this year, join the developers and minds behind the Gears of War Universe as they discuss the past, present, and future of this storied franchise at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, July 18^th from 1:00 p.m. PST – 2:00 p.m. PST in Room 5AB. Studio Head Rod Fergusson (The Coalition) along with editor Steve Saffel (Gears of War: Ascendance, Titan Books), author Jason M. Hough (Gears of War: Ascendance, Titan Books), editor Chase Marotz (Gears of War: Hivebusters, IDW Publishing), and author Arthur Gies (Gears of War: Retrospective, Udon Entertainment) share their views on the Gears Franchise. The panelists will discuss their approach to storytelling and go in-depth on the characters and stories behind IDW’s brand-new Hivebusters comic book series and Titan’s upcoming Ascendance novel. Moderated by Gears’ Franchise Narrative Lead Bonnie Jean Mah (The Coalition), this panel will give fans new insight into what’s to come from one of the biggest sagas in gaming. Join the Q&A for a chance to win special giveaway items during the panel!

Then join select panelists in the exhibit hall for signings and purchase a limited advance copy of Gears of War: Ascendance, the newly released Gears of War: Retrospective,and Hivebusters Issue #1.

Gears of War Signing Schedule:

Gears of War: Retrospective at Udon Booth 4529 @ 2:30-3:30 PM
- Author Arthur Gies, Rod Fergusson

Gears of War: Ascendance book signing with at Titan Booth 5537 @ 4:00-5:00 PM
- Author Jason Hough, Rod Fergusson, and Bonnie Jean Mah

Gears of War: Hivebusters at IDW Booth 2729 @ #2729 6-7 PM
- Rod Fergusson and Bonnie Jean Mah

Collect all Gears of War published works on Gearsofwar.com

Posted on July 8, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

New Desktop Analytics feature helps organizations keep PCs up to date

Based on our work with consumers and organizations of all sizes, across more than 800 million Windows devices, we’ve learned that it’s easier to deploy Windows 10 when using the powerful intelligence of the cloud and machine learning. Since the Windows 10 April 2018 Update release, we’ve leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) at scale to improve the quality and reliability of our release rollouts. And along the way, we’ve learned the best ways to help ensure devices have a positive update experience.

Today, we’re making these same learnings available to organizations through the public preview of Desktop Analytics, which is available now. Desktop Analytics provides the insight and automation you need to efficiently get current and stay current. Desktop Analytics is a cloud-connected service that integrates with System Center Configuration Manager and will integrate with Microsoft Intune in the near future. With Desktop Analytics, it’s easier to deploy with confidence and keep your PCs up to date with the latest Windows 10 capabilities your employees need.

“With Desktop Analytics, we’re able to automate our pilot plans to ensure all application and hardware scenarios can be tested and validated prior to upgrading to the latest release of Windows 10.”
—Jason Myers, End User Senior Lead, Mars

This service provides intelligence that helps you make more informed decisions about the update readiness of your Windows clients. In combination with Configuration Manager, Desktop Analytics is designed to create an inventory of the Windows apps running in your organization and then assess app compatibility with the latest feature updates of Windows 10. By combining data from your own organization with data aggregated from millions of devices connected to our cloud services, you can take the guess work out of testing these apps and instead focus your attention on key blockers. Historically, getting a view of the compatibility of your apps with new Windows releases was a time-consuming and tedious process of human testing—but now this can be automated through the intelligence of what we learn at cloud scale.

Desktop Analytics brings you data-driven recommendations that allow you to quickly and easily run successful pilots that represent your entire application and driver estate. You can then use the health signals of your pilots to evaluate the readiness of your assets and implement an optimized production deployment plan with Configuration Manager.

As Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, explained last September, Desktop Analytics is the evolution of Windows Analytics, adding deeper integration with Configuration Manager and providing a ring-based approach to deployment using health signals.

To learn more and get started with the public preview, read our Desktop Analytics article. For additional resources, check out the new Desktop Analytics community and read more details on Tech Community.

Posted on July 5, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

GeekWire: Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott sees ‘mind-blowing’ potential for AI, the cloud, 5G and devices

Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott at the GeekWire Cloud Summit in Bellevue, Wash. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)

Kevin Scott is the chief technology officer for Microsoft, a company that built its business on software, but he also appreciates hardware and devices. In fact, he has been building his own machine shop and hardware lab as a personal hobby in his spare time, looking to demonstrate the potential of combining hardware with the latest software and cloud technologies.

One of his upcoming projects, for example, is a vacuum-siphon coffee machine with a vision and speech interface.

“No buttons,” he said. “The user interface will be all AI.”

Sorry, coffee lovers, but it’s not an upcoming Microsoft product.

“For the love of God, don’t tell Satya I’m doing this,” Scott joked, referring to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

However, the project does reflect a broader trend that Scott, Nadella and Microsoft believe will drive new waves of innovation in the years ahead: the confluence of machine learning, artificial intelligence, 5G mobile broadband, cloud technologies and a growing number of sensors and IoT devices around the world.

“You’ve got all of this opportunity for places where you can interface with the physical world,” Scott said. “It’s just where business opportunity is going to live.”

That was one of the takeaways from Scott’s talk at the GeekWire Cloud Summit. The Microsoft CTO was previously vice president of engineering and operations at LinkedIn, led engineering and operations at mobile advertising company AdMob, and worked two stints at Google, starting as a senior engineering manager in 2005. He’s also the host of the podcast Behind the Tech and is involved in diversity initiatives both inside and outside the company.

Listen to our conversation with Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott in the podcast above, watch the video below, or subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Continue reading for edited highlights.

The confluence of trends that he’s watching closely today: There are a bunch of things that are really important right now where you have a convergence of a bunch of technological trends. We have the end of Moore’s Law rapidly approaching. The important thing that’s already gone is Dennard scaling, which says that you can put more transistors onto a chip and actually power them without burning your dyes up. We’re already at the point where the density improvements we get in silicon aren’t as usable as they were when Dennard scaling was actually working.

That’s coming at the same time that we have these AI workloads — even what’s happened over the past six to nine months has just been mind-boggling. We’re in this mode where the quality of the results that you can compute with the most ambitious flavors of these machine learning systems, whether it’s simulation-based reinforcement learning or pure unsupervised learning, is entirely a proportion of how much compute you can throw at them. You have this new workload that is hungry for compute in ways that nothing ever has been before. That is a really interesting set of factors. It has implications for how we build next generation compute and networks and software stacks. What you’re going to be able to do with all of this AI is just mind-blowing in ways that are hard to predict.

Then you also have this other really interesting thing where IoT and sensing are accelerating because actually Moore’s Law is still working there. Most of these low cost micro-controllers and microprocessors are still on older process technologies. We’ve got another couple or three doublings of price-performance coming, and so more and more of the world is going to get instrumented and you’re going to be able to take these data-enriched AI powered feedback loops that have built the consumer internet, for instance, and that’s going to migrate into all sorts of things like industrial controls and home automation.

Unsupervised learning and reinforcement learning probably sounds far off in the distance and some of the stuff about IoT probably sounds like it’s far off in the distance. The insight that I have is, don’t think of it as far off in the distance. Especially on the machine learning front, that needs to be a part of every company and every developer’s toolkit. Progress is happening so quickly that if you wait too long, you’re going to be in this position where you’re scrambling to catch up.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLV28km6L58?feature=oembed&w=630&h=354]

The state of machine learning and artificial intelligence: The thing that’s really changed across the entire AI community over the past six months is there have been a couple of astounding breakthroughs in unsupervised learning for natural language processing, natural language understanding. We have figured out a new way to build models that build some sort of conceptual notion of what natural language looks like, and from that, you can build a bunch of very specific applications that are higher performing and it’s much lower cost to adapt the general model to a use case and the use cases are all over the place, from question answering to document summarization, to search, to literally there are a dozen or more things that folks are looking at right now and so we are just starting to see these things sort of trickle out into the product portfolio.

Practical applications of artificial intelligence: AI is not a product. It is a technology that you use to build products. We have a different and better way now to build the features of a whole bunch of products and so the way it will show up is not in some sort of Big Bang thing. It’s going to be that a bunch of the features of a whole lot of products are going to get better in material ways and some of it is, you’re just not going to be aware what’s going on. Content moderation on the Xbox platform, for instance, has got a whole bunch of this tech in it and it’s being used to try to prevent bullying and bad behavior on the platform and to protect kids, for instance. It’s just much easier to scale those systems when they’re powered by AI and enhanced by human beings.

The intersection of software and hardware: The interface between software and the physical world is extremely interesting. The real world is not governed by rules that are as logical and straightforward as the rules that we have for software systems. That’s not to diminish how complex software actually is, but machine learning gives us a bunch of powerful new tools and techniques to deal with that complicated, messy, interface. You can’t expect an average tinkerer to sit around and understand these nonlinear partial differential equations that characterize a physical system, whereas you may be able to give them a set of tools like a machine learning system that can give them enough control over that physical thing that they can do something interesting with it. You’ve got all of this opportunity for places where you can interface with the physical world. I think it’s just where business opportunity is going to live.

A visualization of Kevin Scott’s GeekWire Cloud Summit talk by Guillaume Wiatr of MetaHelm.

The potential of mobile broadband: What 5G does is it makes the edge platforms even more interesting. You get lower latency and higher throughput. You still will have to have different solutions for rural areas because the 5G technologies require higher densities of towers than we even have right now with 4G, but there are solutions. 5G presents this opportunity for us to really think about the architecture of these edge applications in different ways. For instance, one of the things that we see already emerging is these computer vision models. On a constrained compute edge device, you’ll be able to run one level of inference. You can do generic event detection, for instance, on the edge and then refer those interesting events back up to the cloud to do a heavyweight inference to actually classify an object or whatnot. 5G just lets you draw those lines differently, and you can build much more interesting applications.

The state of privacy in tech: I was lucky enough to be an engineer and I think many engineers are very aware of what’s going on inside of all of these systems and have very strong opinions about privacy and security in the first place. I’ve always thought that it’s extraordinarily important at AdMob and I was an early Google employee. We took all of these things deadly, deadly seriously, just in terms of access controls and whatnot. But if anything, it gets more and more important every day. AdMob was 2007-2010. Nine years later, the world of data that is residing in clouds is many orders of magnitude larger, and presents this very interesting challenge for folks. The digital world has become more complex. The footprint you’re leaving as you use digital services has grown much larger as we spend more time online, and so I think the onus is on all technology companies, large and small, that are handling people’s data. You’ve got some regulatory things that you have to comply with, like GDPR. I think more of those regulations are coming and I think that’s a good thing for consumers.We as an industry need to go above and beyond because we have early line of sight on what the trends are with privacy and security as well.

Posted on July 5, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Tune in July 5 at 8 p.m. PT for Episode 4 of ELEAGUE Gears Summer Series: The Bonds and Betrayals of Brotherhood

Stemming from Xbox’s partnership with ELEAGUE, the six-part docu series focused on the stories and players behind the world of Gears Esports on TBS aired its third episode last week. In Episode 3 of The Bonds & Betrayals of Brotherhood, the series dove into what it takes to be the most successful team in esports history. The episode focused on Gilbert “Xplosive” Rojo’s, the in-game leader of Optic Gaming’s Gears of War team, who has over 17 trophies to his name and a nearly undefeated record of success in the Gears Esports scene. The episode proved the value of strong leadership and consistency, as the rest of the series’ primary professional Gears of War players (Yadiel “Sleepytime” Hildago, Victor “Powerz” Mateo, Justin “Kenny” Kenny, Kyle “Kyle” Mason, and Danny “Identivez” Santillana) revealed what they have learned going up against Gilbert time and time again and what they think makes him so unbeatable.

To continue the Gears Esports journey, be sure to tune-in to the fourth episode airing on TBS today, Friday, July 5, at 8 pm PT/11 pm ET. The docu series will continue to explore each player’s intense connection to the game and each other as they navigate to become the best players in the world on Gears 5 Esports.

In Episode 4 of The Bonds & Betrayals of Brotherhood, fans will get their first taste of the Gears 5 multiplayer mode Escalation 2.0. Through the lens of professional players Justin “Kenny” Kenny and Victor “Powerz” Mateo, Gears 5 multiplayer developers will reveal never before seen Gears 5 gameplay features- setting an exciting stage for the upcoming ELEAGUE Gears 5 Invitational event July 13-14.

In addition to the TBS episodes, ELEAGUE will host Gears 5’s first-ever esports tournament, with new Versus gameplay, from July 13-14 (Saturday to Sunday), live on Twitch and the premium live sports streaming service B/R Live. The ELEAGUE Gears Summer Series tournament will feature eight of the world’s top teams – many of which will star in the TBS series – competing live within The ELEAGUE Arena at Turner Studios in Atlanta. The final two episodes of the TBS programming will showcase the most exciting moments from the live tournament.

To stay updated, follow @EsportsGears on Twitter and visit Gears.gg. Be sure to also check out ELEAGUE’s channels; @ELEAGUETV and www.ELEAGUE.com.

Posted on July 5, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

‘Gears 5’ Versus Multiplayer Tech Test kicks off July 17

At E3, we unveiled a brand new way to fight the Swarm in Gears 5: Escape. We wanted to show how we’re pushing the envelope by doing new things never seen in a Gears game before, and that throughout the summer, we’ll reveal more about Gears 5 ahead of its September 10 release. We said that we’d talk more about the Versus Multiplayer Technical Test in July, and today we’re happy to provide more details on how you can be among the first to play Gears 5 and help create the future of Versus multiplayer.

Multiplayer fans of all types can enjoy these weekend test sessions, as you’ll get to play Escalation (our updated competitive gametype) along with Arcade (a new and approachable multiplayer gametype) and a longtime fan favorite: King of the Hill. For players new to Gears or those that want to practice their skills and learn new mechanics we’ve added our new training mode – Bootcamp. The Tech Test also features a short Tour of Duty, which is a series of challenges for players to earn content – completing all of these challenges unlocks an exclusive Tech Test Banner. Players can also unlock three Versus Weapon Skins by completing some additional challenges. For a closer look at Escalation, be sure to check out the ELEAGUE Invitational next weekend (July 13-14) and stay tuned for additional details about Arcade next week.

Included with your Xbox Game Pass membership or as part of your Gears 5 pre-order (whether as a separate 5×5 code from a participating retailer or bundled in your digital pre-order), the Tech Test will be available to download starting July 17 with online play being active from July 19 (starting at 10 a.m. PDT) through July 21, and then active again on July 26 (at 10 a.m. PDT) through July 29.

As mentioned earlier, starting on July 17 at 10 p.m. PDT, you can search for “Gears 5” to pull up the Technical Test on your Xbox One console or Windows 10 PC. If you’re an Xbox Game Pass member, you will see the Tech Test available to download in your library – same as any of the 100+ great games in the catalog. Note that between the weekend test periods, the Tech Test itself will be available for download, but servers will be offline. We also wanted to remind you that online multiplayer will require Xbox Live Gold on console, and that because this Tech Test is to help test our servers, you might encounter some queueing as you start to play. We hope to make Gears 5 a great online experience for all players and Xbox Game Pass members on launch, and this Tech Test will help.

For players on Windows 10 PC, we have the below chart that outlines minimum and recommended specs for the Tech Test:

Thanks for your support and we look forward to seeing you online starting July 19 ahead of sharing more about Horde and Campaign in the months to come!

Visit www.gears5.com and follow @GearsofWar on Twitter to keep up-to-date with the latest information about Gears of War.

Gears 5 will release on September 10 for Xbox One, Windows 10, and with Xbox Game Pass. Pre-order details here on the Microsoft Store.