Items tagged with NASDAQ:MSFT
Were you worried that Microsoft would ruin Discord if a deal went through? If so, you can rest easy—Discord is no longer for sale, apparently, having ended discussions with Microsoft about a massive buyout offer. It's not just Microsoft, either. It seems Discord is no longer interested in being acquired, after seeing a big uptick in users during the pandemic. Microsoft tried to make it happen, according to previous reports. The company was said to have offered at least $10 billion in a bid to buy Discord, which would have been the latest in a growing line of massive acquisitions. Last month, for example, Microsoft received regulatory approval to move forward with a $7.5 billion buyout of...
Read more...
Today's dedicated game consoles share a whole bunch of DNA with their PC brethren, such as Zen 2 CPU cores and RDNA 2 graphics hardware, with support for real-time ray tracing. In addition to sharing hardware characteristics, AMD today announced it is making available its FidelityFX family of effects to the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. AMD's announcement is great for a couple of reasons. One of them is easier cross-platform coding, with FidelityFX now being injected into AMD's Game Developer Kit (GDK) for the Xbox Series X/S. It should also be noted that these are highly optimized, open source tools that developers are free to modify, and now available across PC and console. "This news makes...
Read more...
Earlier today, we reported on DNS issues with the latest Patch Tuesday update (KB5001330 and 1337), and the Windows 10 pain train does not seem to be slowing down. Users are now reporting a variety of gaming-related issues such as unstable frame rates and game stutters. Earlier this week, Reddit user /u/m4dden posted to the Windows 10 subreddit that he was facing numerous issues while trying to play games. These included stuttering, unstable FPS, broken VSync, and FPS drops when sharing games in Discord calls with screen share. After he uninstalled the new patch, the issues seemed to all disappear, making Windows 10 the culprit. There are 72 comments on the post at the time of writing,...
Read more...
Last month, several issues with printers appeared when Microsoft released its regularly scheduled Windows 10 update. Another Patch Tuesday has come and gone, but not without additional concerns from from users. Some Windows 10 corporate users are reporting DNS and shared folder issues, with the current fix being to simply roll back the update. After installing the new updates, which brought security vulnerability and bug fixes to users, some people reported having DNS resolution issues that could stop access to shared folders on servers when they attempted to identify them by name. If a user used the IP address for the server instead, they would have no issues. However, that is rather inconvenient....
Read more...
There was a time when a surefire way to get us to roll our eyeballs all the way to the back of our heads was for Microsoft to tout the sheer performance of its Internet Explorer browser, and then later its Edge browser. Not anymore. Microsoft's retooled Edge browser is the real deal. it's also a work in progress, with Microsoft testing a new Performance mode on a pre-release build. As it does with Windows 10, Microsoft maintains Insider channels for its Edge browser, including Beta (the most stable of the test builds, with major updates rolling out every six weeks), Dev (updated on a weekly basis with new features and improvements), and Canary (nightly releases infused with the latest things...
Read more...
Issues within Chromium, the engine behind Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, have been popping up left and right lately. That trend is not set to end any time soon, it seems, as a new zero-day Chromium vulnerability has been found with a working proof of concept posted to GitHub. Yesterday, Twitter user Frust posted that they were “Just here to drop a chrome 0day,” along with a link to the GitHub hosting the information. The GitHub repository currently contains a proof-of-concept webpage that will exploit the flaw within Chromium. This flaw was demonstrated in a YouTube video that we posted below, showing proof-of-concept working in the latest version of Chrome. The only major catch...
Read more...
At some point in the not-too-distant future, Microsoft will roll out an updated version of Windows 10 with its Sun Valley UI overhaul, consisting of a refreshed Start menu and other visual enhancements. It is also working on tweaking File Explorer with its Fluent Design language. Ahead of these changes, however, a teenager posted a nifty File Explorer concept that is garnering lots of praise. File Explorer concepts are not exactly rare—people are always messing with Microsoft's design and sharing their vision of what it should look like. But we have to admit, this is one of the better visions we have seen, and that seems to be the general consensus. What exactly is Microsoft's Fluent Design?...
Read more...
The Microsoft Exchange zero-day vulnerabilities seemed to cause quite a bit of havoc across several industries and organizations. Since it was first discovered, however, patches have been rolling out from Microsoft and frantic orders to patch servers have been trickling down. Clearly, that was not enough, as web shells remained on many systems, thus allowing access to the vulnerable systems. Subsequently, the U.S Department of Justice authorized the FBI to disable these web shells and notify the organizations who were breached in a “successful” operation announced yesterday. In January through March, malicious actors and hacking groups used the Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities...
Read more...
Late last week, specs for the Surface Laptop 4 leaked along with a presumed launch date of April 27th. While the specs revealed matched with the leaks, Microsoft officially launched the Surface Laptop 4 today, two weeks earlier than earlier rumored. As we previously discussed, this is primarily an internal hardware refresh, meaning that the basic design of the Surface Laptop 3 carries over to its successor. Like before, the Surface Laptop 3 is available with a 13.5- or 15-inch display with resolutions of 2256x1504 and 2496x1664, respectively. Microsoft has gone with 11th generation Core i5-1135G7 and Core i7-1185G7 Tiger Lake processors on the Intel front with this refresh. If you prefer "Team...
Read more...
Nuance Communications is a company everyone has heard from but not many have heard of. The company’s technology powers Apple’s Siri voice assistant alongside various communications for healthcare and enterprise organizations. In 2014, it was rumored that Samsung might be interested in purchasing Nuance, but that deal never came to fruition. Now, tech-giant Microsoft has announced a plan to purchase Nuance for a hefty $19.7 billion, including debts, to focus on the healthcare industry. For quite some time, Microsoft has been working on improving global healthcare with technology and artificial intelligence (AI). In 2020, the company announced the AI for Health initiative to accelerate...
Read more...
Earlier this week, Microsoft updated its support pages to confirm both AMD and Intel SKUs for its upcoming Surface 4 Laptop family. This revelation wasn't exactly earth-shattering, as the current Surface Laptop 3 also offers Intel and AMD options depending on which screen size you select. Today, however, frequent leaker WinFuture has all the goods for the Surface Laptop 4, including specs, alleged pricing, and release date. There are two options for each processor manufacturers: those opting for an Intel rig can choose from a Core i5-1145G7 or a Core i7-1185G7 11th gen Tiger Lake-U processor. On the other hand, opting for AMD will get you a Ryzen 5 4680U Surface Edition or a Ryzen 7 4980U Surface...
Read more...
It looks as though Facebook isn't the only online platform dealing with the fallout from a massive user data breach. Following reports of a data breach that includes information from 500 million LinkedIn users, officials for the company today confirmed those findings. According to a new report, hackers scraped the site's user data and are currently offering the ill-gotten goods up for sale. According to the report, 2 million records have been provided as a proof-of-concept, while the remaining profiles have a comparatively low [and undisclosed] four-digit price tag. Data obtained from this most recent scraping campaign include users' full names, email addresses, phone numbers, workplace information,...
Read more...
For long-time fans of the Halo franchise, we have some excellent news for those that own Halo: The Master Chief Collection (MCC). For those not in the know, The MCC includes Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo 4. The April 2021 update for The MCC (version 1.2241.0.0) just dropped, and it brings a wealth of changes for gamers on both Windows and Xbox platforms. However, one of the most significant changes comes for Xbox consoles, which now get full mouse and keyboard support. 343 Industries now allows you to bind controls across multiple inputs. There is also support for field-of-view (FOV) and crosshair positioning for Xbox One and Xbox Series...
Read more...
It sure looks like Microsoft is getting ready to unveil a Surface Laptop 4 in the near future, and as it prepares for the upcoming launch, the Redmond giant may have inadvertently leaked plans to incorporate both AMD and Intel processor options. What exactly the CPU options end up being are still a mystery, though past leaks might shed some light on the situation. Nothing is official at the moment, though Microsoft did recently publish a pair of support pages for the unreleased laptop. Have a look... One of them is labeled "Surface Laptop 4 with Intel Processor Drivers and Firmware," and the other one is labeled "Surface Laptop 4 with AMD Processor Drivers and Firmware." Both are basically just...
Read more...
Typically, pouring liquid all over computer components is not the greatest of ideas considering the whole electricity thing. However, Microsoft employees are doing just that to cool down servers in its data centers. This two-phased immersion cooling system is rather impressive and could be the future of data centers everywhere. As computer hardware improves, air cooling is no longer the most efficient or best option for the data center. This is where Microsoft turns to liquid cooling with an interesting twist. While pouring water on computer hardware may be bad, Microsoft uses a specially engineered fluid from 3M, which is harmless to electronics and is "engineered to boil at 122 degrees...
Read more...
Microsoft launched a new ad series in January that talked up the benefits of adopting its versatile Surface Pro 7 Windows 10 convertible. In the first commercial, Microsoft painted a big red target on the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which it criticized for lacking a touch screen, its finicky Touch Bar, and its lack of gaming credentials. Well, Microsoft is back at it again with a new ad pitting the Surface Pro 7 against its more natural competitor: the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Microsoft starts right out of the gate by pointing out that the Surface Pro 7 comes with a built-in kickstand, which is a handy feature that doesn't require you to buy an additional accessory to prop it up. Next, the actor on-screen...
Read more...
Late last month, we reported on a trend of rising cybersecurity incidents worldwide that could lead to the end of some businesses. Now, the latest cyberattack victim is Microsoft-owned GitHub, with reports of cybercriminals leveraging GitHub cloud infrastructure to mine cryptocurrency. Since at least the Fall of 2020, attackers have been abusing a feature called GitHub Actions, which lets users automate tasks and workflows once an event happens within a repository. Once triggered, GitHub Actions can spool up a VM or a container to typically test out code in a live environment. In a phone call to The Record, Dutch security engineer Justin Perdok explained that “at least one threat actor...
Read more...
The Microsoft Store Spring Sale is on, and it's running through April 15. Just about everything is on sale, from PC and Xbox Series X (and One) games to Surface PCs. Microsoft even has some really nice prices on other manufacturers' PCs with discounts on gaming notebooks Acer, Asus, and others. If all that isn't quite enough to entice you, however, how does an extra $10 coupon in the old Xbox app's inbox sound? Many gamers have reported receiving just that. To find out whether you've received a code, log into an Xbox and hit the Messages app, or look on the Social tab inside the Xbox app for Windows 10. As documented by Wario64 on Twitter, many users have received a code for $10 in...
Read more...
Though Microsoft Exchange servers are quickly being patched, hackers have been ramping up their efforts to take advantage of the situation while they still can. As such, the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a division of Homeland Security, has hardened its requirements for government agencies in hopes of thwarting future attacks. "Given the powerful privileges that Exchange manages by default and the amount of potentially sensitive information that is stored in Exchange servers operated and hosted by (or on behalf of) federal agencies, Exchange servers are a primary target for adversary activity," CISA says. CISA notes its partners have observed active exploitation...
Read more...
Situational awareness in war can be an incredibly difficult task; even when combatants aren't shooting at you. Moreover, managing GPS, radios, and target acquisition on top of situational awareness can be problematic as well. To assist with this, Microsoft has developed the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), which can help boots on ground be more effective and safer; but this has raised some concerns from people, including Microsoft's employees. Since 2019, Microsoft has been testing IVAS kits with service members to figure out how to make a solid military product. The Capability Set 2 (CS2), which was tested in October 2019, includes two low-light cameras, thermal sensor, tactical...
Read more...
How low can they go? Microsoft's original Surface Headphones are back on sale again, this time at their lowest price ever. Woot is currently selling the headphones for just $105.99, which is $5 less than its previous baseline price. In case you didn't already know this, Amazon owns Woot, so there is a lot of synergy between the two companies. In this case, if you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, you will get free shipping with the order. And as a bonus, today only, if you checkout using the Woot app for iOS or Android, you will get an additional 10 percent off the price. We confirmed that this isn't an April Fool's prank on Woot's part, as a $10.60 discount showed up in-cart along with the free...
Read more...
Earlier this week, we reported on a rising trend of cybersecurity incidents worldwide, leading to the end of many businesses. Now, Microsoft is reporting that firmware attacks are also on the rise. Thus, Microsoft is working to help quell the problem in the future with new comprehensive investments into security. As Microsoft explains, “cybersecurity threats are always evolving,” in response to cybersecurity professionals evolving, which proves to be a vicious cycle. However, it appears that firmware attacks are “outpacing investments targeted at stopping them.” This is partly due to misdirected investments and is “exacerbated by a lack of awareness and a lack of...
Read more...
