Yesterday, Microsoft announced an emulator for the Surface Duo. In a blog post, the company described how developers can use it to their advantage to create apps for the upcoming dual-screen device that can “delight people in a new and innovative way.” Since then, many publications have gone hands-on with it, from Rich Woods at Neowin to Windows Central’s Zac Bowden.

After watching demo videos of the emulator, and a video where it was superimposed over an actual Surface Duo, I can’t but help to agree with Microsoft. The Surface Duo emulator definitely is delightful and is providing a hopeful peek at the future of Android on the Surface Duo. Here’s why.

Microsoft Launcher looks beautiful and works more fluently in a dual-screen situation.

We already know that Microsoft Launcher will be powering Surface Duo. An early preview version for standard Android phones provided a look at what things could shape up to be. However, this new emulator is the first time that we’ve seen Microsoft Launcher and the overall user interface of Surface Duo in action on a simulated dual-screen setup. Compared to what Samsung has done with its One UI on the Galaxy Fold, it’s downright fluent and beautiful.

In the demo videos, we can see the redesigned Microsoft Launcher Activity screen on the left, and the standard home screen on the right screen. It’s clean, and the card interface makes much sense and can help increase your productivity on a large dual-screen device. The Activity feed provides information at a quick glance, and you can still see and access your home Android screen on the right. Android’s task manager also only appears on just one display and allows you to choose more apps as you need them — and drag across the screen as needed.

The animation to dismiss the Activity Feed itself is also clean, and the full Android home screen “slides” in a bit, in an efficient way. You even have access to up to 6 apps on the “dock.” (That’s three on each screen when extended to dual-screen and all six on one screen when multitasking) I’ve never quite seen anything this seamless and beautiful before, and I believe there’s a lot of hope here for Surface Duo being used as a productivity device or tablet.

Even more so, Microsoft Launcher on this emulator is consistent with what we’ve seen on Android 10. Android’s card-style app switcher never made more sense. It gives you a “live” look at the app as it was last paused, regardless of which of the two screens its open on. This, too, has the potential for helping boost your productivity, as you can see an all apps how you last left it while switching.

Stock Android apps on Surface Duo look to be clean and efficient

Another point to note with this emulator is the way how Stock Android apps themselves would work on the Surface Duo. While the Google Play Store doesn’t appear (and isn’t compatible) this emulator, we know that Microsoft is urging developers to code apps for the dual-screen format. Apps can span into an  “extended canvas,” “two page,” “dual,” and “companion pane.” mode. Though, as we see, the single-screen view is the default.

In context – this feels even more magical. pic.twitter.com/8yLLoioE1K

— Jonas Daehnert (@PhoneDesigner) January 22, 2020

Microsoft has obviously put a lot of thought into this, and it’s downright beautiful. For instance, at the 1-minute mark in the video above, we see for the first time outside a promotional video how a Stock Android app can be spanned across the two-screens. It’s held in the middle seam of the device, and then “opens” up like a book, giving you access to it on both the left and right screens. There’s even a neat animation for that, too.

In Neowin’s video, we even see how apps can be “stacked” side by side It’s a small touch, but it’s really delightful, to say the least. The design of Android apps have been known to suck on big-screen tablets, and even on Chrome OS, but Microsoft is changing that. The company is showing developers how their standard apps can be useful for multi-tasking on a dual-screen and even the larger tablet screen.

This is all why Surface Duo (hopefully) won’t end up like Windows Phone

As these videos just show an SDK and emulator, there are many things that could change. Some apps in the SDK and emulator don’t launch side by side and there are limits. However, Microsoft appears to have learned its lesson from Windows Phone. Microsoft is pushing out an Android phone, which has support for millions of apps. It’s also pushing developers to support  SS primitives for dual-screen layouts, the JavaScript Window Segments Enumeration API, and even is helping make PWAs compatible with dual-screen devices. The company means business and it wants to work with developers and help get them on board the dual-screen party, and it’s great.

The core of Microsoft’s fiscal portfolio still centers around a company that can effectively license software and services but over the past few years, the business has been navigating its way to revenue ambitions as broad as the clouds in the sky.

For anyone who may not have been paying attention to one of the largest players in the tech industry over the past five or so years, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella succinctly puts in to view the company’s recent half-decade strategy to service 46 billion endpoints (devices including IoT sensors), at a media event earlier this week.

The Verge’s Tom Warren recounts the event and Nadella’s words as an opportunity for Microsoft to make a case for its place among, what the company believes, is the next big wave of intermingled users’ experiences powered by the rapid growth of IoT sensors and “simple” devices.

The way I look at it is Windows is the billion user install base of ours. We continue to add a couple of hundred million PCs every year, and we want to serve that in a super good way,” explained Nadella. “The thing that we also want to think about is the broader context. We don’t want to be defined by just what we achieved. We look at if there’s going to be 50 billion endpoints. Windows with its billion is good, Android with its 2 billion is good, iOS with its billion is good — but there is 46 billion more. So let’s go and look at what that 46 billion-plus 4 [billion] looks like, and define a strategy for that, and then have everything have a place under the sun.

While Nadella’s ambitions seem grandiose at the moment, considering the company has a relatively apathetic appetite for consumer-facing endeavors, market analysts tangentially support the CEO’s numeric claims.

Research and analytics firm Strategy Analytics already states that there are over 22 billion connected devices in use, and that claim was published March of 2019. However, the focus of the Strategy Analytics report was only partly the number of devices while the crux of the research focused on revenue, something Nadella and company will have to contend with as Microsoft continues to shift its business model and clashes with several industry heavyweights for market and mindshare.

Service providers may look at the vast scale of the internet of things and assume that revenues will automatically flow in their direction. But it remains to be seen precisely which applications and services will drive revenue growth, and how much. Furthermore, more research is needed to understand how this ecosystem will evolve to meet the needs of tomorrow’s consumers.

While Strategy Analytics is waiting to see which handful of ecosystems will clearly emerge to power the onslaught of IoT devices, Microsoft has been steadily building a cloud infrastructure to support not only itself in the marketplace, but its partners as well as competitors.

What do you think is the biggest hardware business at Microsoft? “Xbox,” answered a reporter who had been quizzing Nadella on how the company’s hardware products like Surface and Xbox fit into the broader ambitions of Microsoft. “No, it’s our cloud,” fired back Nadella, explaining how Microsoft is building everything from the data centers to the servers and network stack that fit inside.

Over its lifespan, Microsoft has made a business model out of acqui-hires and partnerships. But over the past five or six years and under Nadella’s tutelage, the company has been a bit more strategic with its purse strings and contracts, oftentimes making deals that on the surface, seem to go against the company’s own invested interest.

However, Microsoft has proven over time that it’s often looking beyond the minutia of in-the-moment device, service or software competition. As it turns out, the company would rather set its eyes on a sea of exponential business opportunities powered by oceans of sensory collected cloud data, and partner with friends as well as foes.

Microsoft’s next decade may be less flashy than its go-to-war years of competing directly with companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google with items like Windows Phone, Bing Search, Zune, Microsoft Band, So.cl, Cortana, Windows 10S and more. However, it’s in a much better position to capitalize on the “next big thing.”

“We are absolutely, no question, allocating a lot to what is that next big thing,” explained Nadella last week. “But at the same time, we’re also not saying that’s our way back to saying all of iOS, all of Android, and all of Windows will suddenly be subsumed by this one thing. If anything, what people have come to realize is that Windows is there with a billion users, iOS is there with a billion users, and Android is there with 2 billion users. It’s not like one killed the other.”

Judging from Nadella’s words, Microsoft’s sweet spot and ultimate end goal resides in a business model analogous to transportation, where the company becomes the purveyor of transportation infrastructure (roads, tunnels, bridges, airports) rather than the peddler to the relatively disposable means by which people (data) travels (cars, trains, boats, airplanes).

Microsoft first started talking about the Surface Neo and Duo developer story back in November, and the company is following up today by announcing dual-screen preview SDKs for Surface Neo and Windows 10. Developers can download the preview version of the Surface Duo SDK today, while the Windows 10 version will be available in the coming weeks.

“The preview SDK gives developers a first look at how you can take advantage of dual-screen experiences,” explained Kevin Gallo, CVP of Windows Developer Platform. Starting today, developers who download the SDK will have access to an Android Emulator with a preview Surface Duo image for Android Studio, as well as native Java APIs to create dual-screen experiences for Surface Duo. Microsoft has more documentation on how to create apps for dual-screen devices on this page.

While today’s announcements are software-related, Windows Central’s Zac Bowden did spot in the documents mention the dimensions of the Surface Duo displays, and the two separate screens will have a 1350×1800 resolution.

Surface Duo display dimensions. 1350×1800 for each display. pic.twitter.com/h7IPWhK5hM

— Zac Bowden (@zacbowden) January 22, 2020

If Microsoft will be pushing app developers to optimize their Android and Windows 10 apps for dual-screen devices, the software giant isn’t forgetting about web apps. Indeed, the company also announced new web standards for dual-screen layouts that web developers could implement for websites and PWAs running on both Android and Windows 10X devices. Microsoft’s Edge browser on Android, which is based on Chromium, is ready for dual-screen experiences on the web, Gallo explained today.

Microsoft will share more details about dual-screen experiences with developers during its Microsoft 365 Developer Day on February 11 at 8:30 AM PDT. This will be an online event that will be streamed on this page.

Microsoft is continuing to expand its Azure datacenter footprint, this time with its first datacenter region in Israel. The new “Israel Central” location is expected to open in 2021, and will bring the total footprint of datacenter to 56 regions among 21 countries.

In addition to offering Azure cloud infrastructure in the region, the company also plans to offer Office 365 further down the road. According to Michel van der Bel, President of Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa:

“When I speak to customers across EMEA, it is clear that the power of the cloud is essential for their competitiveness. We have made significant infrastructure investments in the region and with this announcement, our planned region in Israel will join a growing number of EMEA markets recently made available including Germany, Norway, South Africa and Switzerland. Offering Microsoft Azure and Office 365 from a datacenter region in Israel forms a key part of our investment and involvement in the startup nation, as infrastructure is an essential building block for the tech intensity that public sector entities and businesses need to embrace.”

In addition to giving many businesses and organizations data residency within their own country, Microsoft also highlights GDPR compliance as a way to give piece of mind about privacy and security.

As highlighted in the Azure blog post, the company’s investments in Israel began in 1989 with the opening of a local branch, and has also established its first R&D center outside of the U.S. in the country in 1991. The company also plans to open a Microsoft Israel campus later this year.

Microsoft also plans to open a datacenter next year in Qatar, and has also opened detacenters in Norway, Germany, and Switzerland, among others in the last year alone. The company’s continued investments in Azure are likely part of the reason why tech companies have voted more favorably for Azure as opposed to its number one rival, Amazon AWS.

Microsoft will set its Bing search engine as the default search tool in Chrome for some Office 365 ProPlus customers. Beginning in Office 365 ProPlus version 2002, the Microsoft Search in Bing will be enabled thanks to the automatic installation of the Chrome extension in beginning in February in the U.S., Canada, Australia, U.K., France, German, India, and others to follow.

Microsoft wants to give business customers easier access to Microsoft Search, a tool that allows users to find workplace documents, files, sites, tools, people, and other information along with the regular web results all in the Bing search engine. Of course, Microsoft says that employees can still choose to set another search engine as their default, should they prefer.

Of course, users who already have Bing as their default search engine won’t receive the Chrome extension installed automatically, according to Microsoft’s support page.

Multiple users on both Reddit and GitHub (via ZDNet) are rather displeased with the decision, with one users of the Microsoft-owned software hosting service calling its decision “totally unacceptable in a business environment”.

Office 365 ProPlus to change Chrome’s default search engine to Bing in upcoming update from sysadmin

Luckily, further down the document shows users how to keep the extension from being installed, by using either the Office Development tool or using a Group Policy. Users can also choose to remove the extension by entering a single command as an administrator, thereby removing Bing as the default search engine.

What do you think about Microsoft’s decision? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments area below.

The Xbox team has just announced the second wave of games coming to Xbox Game Pass for Console in January. A Plague Tale: Innocence, which was previously announced for Xbox Game Pass for PC, will be available on both PC and console tomorrow, January 23. Since the PC game has yet to make its way to the Windows 10 Microsoft Store, it’s not clear yet if the PC and Xbox One versions will share cloud saves and achievements.

For those unfamiliar, A Plague Tale: Innocence is an action horror stealth game developed by Asobo Studio, a French developer currently working on Microsoft’s next Flight Simulator Game. A Plague Tale: Innocence ended up in several “Game of the year” lists last year, and it’s definitely one of the most exciting additions to the Xbox Game Pass catalog following other recent games like Devil May Cry 5 or The Outer Worlds.

The other game coming to Xbox Game Pass for console tomorrow is Indivisible, an action RPG title released back in October 2019. Two other games will follow on January 30 with Fishing Sim World: Pro Tour and the action strategy game Sea Salt.

Overall, it’s been an exciting past couple of weeks for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. AAA games like The Witcher 3 and GTA V recently joined the catalog, along with smaller jewels such as Overcooked 2 or Untitled Goose Game. If you have yet to subscribe, we remind that you can get your first month of Xbox Game Ultimate (which also includes Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass for PC) for just $1 instead of $14.99.

After Microsoft unveiled its next-gen Xbox Series X console last month, there has been some speculation about what ports would be included on the new hardware, especially after AMD admitted to showing an unofficial render of the console back at CES. Well, two pictures of an Xbox Series X prototype have been shared on Twitter a couple of hours ago, and Brad Sams from Thurrott.com has since confirmed their authenticity.

@IdleSloth1984 @blueisviolet @XcloudTimdog pic.twitter.com/qmVlhTTaqi

— Doug – XBOX SERIES X (@Doug_DragoX) January 22, 2020

As we can see from these leaked pictures, the back panel of the console features a power input, an HDMI out port, an Ethernet port, two USB-A port, as well as an optical audio port. According to Sams, “the holes on the side of the ports are for venting and that large rectangle port in the middle is for diagnostic reporting. I don’t expect that port to be on the final hardware and as always, these ports could change.”

You’ll notice that the HDMI In port that has been included on all Xbox One consoles since launch is gone on this prototype. Microsoft made quite a big deal of this HDMI passthrough feature at the beginning of the 8th gen, but it’s apparently the latest port to get scrapped after Microsoft removed the dedicated Kinect port on the Xbox One S and Xbox One X.

The Xbox Series X will also have a USB-A port in the front, but this prototype doesn’t have any USB-C ports. That’s a bit surprising considering the new Xbox Elite Series 2 controller is the first to use a USB-C port for charging, but the lack of USB-C ports on the console shouldn’t be an issue for most consumers.

As this is a prototype, things could still change before the console launches in holiday 2020, but it will be interesting to see if Sony has a more forward-thinking approach for its PlayStation 5.

The iconic original three Mortal Kombat video games may be getting a re-release on modern consoles such as the Xbox One according to a new PEGI rating (via IGN) which was filed recently.

According to the filing, the three games will be updated with improved graphics and gameplay and will also be given some form of online functionality. Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Mortal Kombat 3 will be bundled together as the Mortal Kombat Kollection Online and it’s currently set for release on Xbox One, PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch on January 21st 2020.

Clearly that release date is just a placeholder as it’s now January 22nd and Mortal Kombat Kollection Online has yet to appear anywhere and no official announcements have yet to be made.

Would you like to see the original MK games on Xbox One? Let us know why or why not in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook for more Xbox gaming news.

Microsoft ceased regular support for Windows 7 a week ago but usage by large businesses remains “nearly universal,” according to a study by security firm BitSight. After Windows 7’s end-of-life on January 14, the BitSight Data Science Team looked at operating system adoption among 60,000 organisations.

The report confirms what many will have long suspected: most large enterprises have not yet entirely migrated to Windows 10. Almost 90% of organisations with over 10,000 employees are still using Windows 7 on at least one machine. The figure falls to 61% for companies with less than 1,000 employees.

Larger enterprises tend to find it more difficult to move to new computing platforms. Their operating scale and reliance on legacy processes make overnight migrations impossible. The statistics indicate that the majority of the world’s largest businesses have delayed migration away from Windows 7, although it’s likely that individual reasons will vary significantly.

Some organisations may rely on Windows 7 from a technical perspective. Legacy apps and devices might be incompatible with newer operating systems, leaving businesses stranded on older platforms. For other companies, more fundamental issues such as poor planning or concerns over costs may be responsible for the delay.

BitSight studied Windows 7 usage in different industries and found it has the greatest dominance in the education and government sectors. 84% of organisations in the education industry have a machine running Windows 7; the figure is 82% for government bodies.

The report also looks at “dependence” on Windows 7, evaluating its usage relative to an organisation’s total fleet size. BitSight found the finance and healthcare sectors are most reliant on the platform. 45% of healthcare organisations with more than 10,000 employees run Windows 7 on more than 25% of their total device count. The figure rises to 46% for businesses in the financial sector.

Although the report can be interpreted as evidence that Windows 7 will persist for a lot longer, it also indicates that organisations are aware of the need to migrate away. Although most enterprises still use Windows 7 in some capacity, the dependency figures reveal that few businesses are wholly reliant on it. It appears Windows 7 usage is becoming restricted to just business-critical workloads which have no direct migration pathway onto Windows 10.

Microsoft has faced criticism in the past for the “ads” scatted throughout some of the apps Windows 10, but a much-loved free component of Windows might soon be part of the story now too. According to a tweet from Microsoft MVP Rafael Rivera, Microsoft might be considering adding ads for the Office web apps to WordPad in Windows 10.

As seen in the featured image above, Microsoft appears to be working on six different variants of these “ads.” They all will show up under the ribbon of WordPad and in a yellow shade with an actionable clickable text box, which presumably will take the user to the Office web apps.

Three variations are themed towards Word, and suggest to “Try Word online for free,” “Try Word for free online,” and “Use Word for free online.”  Another three variations also suggest the other Office online apps. These mention to “Try Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for free online,” “Use Word, Excel and PowerPoint for free online,” and “Try Office for free online.”

To be fair, these “ads” are relatively harmless suggestions. They are not in the way of the user, nor do they tell you to buy a product. Instead, Microsoft is suggesting for you to use what many might see as a more “complete” text-editor, which more features.

It’s also worth mentioning that these “ads” are not in the current version of WordPad, and might not even ship at all. As Rafael points out, it could rather be designed to increase monthly user engagement.

If the next massive Xbox Store sale has yet to be announced this year, Microsoft is currently discounting more than 300 Xbox games for a limited time. In addition to the weekly Deals with Gold and Spotlight Sale, you may want to check out this week’s Artistic Adventure Sale featuring games like Outer Wilds, What Remains of Edith Finch, Oxenfree, or Thief of Thieves. Many games in this list are available with Xbox Game Pass or were previously offered with the Games with Gold program, but you can now purchase them without breaking the bank.

The separate Lunar New Year Sale is much more interesting, as it includes many titles from the Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Dark Souls franchises, as well as recent games such as Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, Destiny 2: Shadowkeep (33% off), Jump Force, Life is Strange 2, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (25% off), NBA 2K20, and Red Dead Redemption 2 (50% off).

This week’s Deals with Gold are slightly less interesting this week, except for the discounts on Forza Motorsport 7, Need for Speed Heat, Overcooked 2, and Star Wars: Battlefront II.  All discounts will be available through Monday, January 27, and you can check the full list of deals on Major Nelson’s website.

The first Microsoft Reactor has been announced for the Abu Dhabi region which will be used to help foster tech startups and developers both from the area and those that have moved to Abu Dhabi from abroad.

“Built to support the Gulf’s unprecedented rate of digital transformation, we are thrilled to open a Microsoft Reactor within Hub71,”Microsoft’s general manager of cloud and AI division, Jeana Jorgensen, said in a statement. “The concentration of globally minded startups, investors and industry, represents an enormous opportunity. We believe bringing these elements together with Mubadala and Hub71 will be a catalyst for the region.”

Microsoft Reactors are a combination of spaces and programs to assist tech communities by offering the increased opportunity for hosting events, hackathons, and accelerator projects for those either preparing to launch products or who need assistance or encouragement during the final phases.
Microsoft Reactors have already launched in Philadelphia, London, and New York.

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The Disney streaming platform, Disney+ (or Disney Plus), was expected to rollout to the UK, Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland on March 31st but it’s been officially announced today via a press release from Disney that it will launch a week earlier in these regions on March 24th instead.

The rollout of Disney+ has been a gradual one with North America getting it first in early-November of last year, followed by Australia, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico a couple of weeks later.

This strategy has been rather frustrating for a lot of Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars loyalists mostly due to the hit Disney+ exclusive TV series, The Mandalorian, which has already finished its first season and has left many in regions without the streaming service having to resort to piracy to view it.

With more Disney+ exclusive shows on the way, many of which feature Star Wars and Marvel characters, it’s good that the service is being made available as quickly as possible, however, Latin American and Asian regions are still going to have to go without until October 2020 and 2021 or 2022 respectively.

Disney+ is viewable on Xbox One consoles with the official Xbox One Disney+ app and on Windows 10 devices via a web browser. Tech savvy individuals can also try their hands at making a Disney+ UWP app if they so choose.

Do you use Disney+? Let us know which region you’re in and how you watch it in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest and YouTube for more tech news.

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Dying Light 2, the sequel to the hit Dying Light video game, was originally set to launch this spring but has been delayed until an unspecified time in the future.

The announcement came via a post on the official Dying Light Twitter account which stated that the developers needed more time to fully deliver on their vision for the title.

You can read the full announcement here:

Hey Survivors!
Here's the Dying Light 2 Development Update. pic.twitter.com/CKMkAe2eD7

— Dying Light (@DyingLightGame) January 20, 2020

Dying Light 2 joins Marvel’s The Avengers and Cyberpunk 2077 in the growing list of major video games set for launch on Microsoft’s family of Xbox One consoles in 2020 that have had their debuts pushed back.

While this could potentially be cause for concern, this also means that those involved behind the scenes are unwilling to launch a poor user experience and likely have faith that the titles will still sell well regardless of when they hit store shelves and digital storefronts.

Are you disappointed by these delays or are you willing to wait for a better product? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube for more Xbox gaming content.