Microsoft has made two important announcements on its Education blog this morning. First of all, Immersive Reader, the company’s tool to improve reading and writing comprehension in apps like OneNote is now available as an Azure Cognitive Service . This means that third-party developers can integrate Immersive Reader in their apps, and Microsoft shared a list of 15 new parters today.

NEW! We are launching the public preview of Immersive Reader as an Azure Cognitive Service ????, which means any #EdTech app or publisher can integrate Immersive Reader! Early partners ???? #edchat #accessibility #MIEExpert #MicrosoftEDU

Details: https://t.co/rPp0oLwIXS pic.twitter.com/kkKZtaGTP9

— Mike Tholfsen (@mtholfsen) June 20, 2019

Immersive is also coming to several Microsoft apps including Forms, Whiteboard, and even Minecraft: Education Edition. “We want to allow all students to engage in Minecraft: EE, and this includes reading signs, boards, in any form or any language,” explained Mike Tholfsen, Product Manager on the Microsoft Education team.

In addition to expanding Immersive Reader to many more apps, Microsoft also announced major news for students and teachers with Google EDU accounts. Starting in the US, Microsoft will allow G Suite for Education users to sign in to Office 365 for free with their Google accounts, and access apps and experiences such as OneNote, Immersive Reader, and Microsoft Teams.

NEW! Teachers & Students will be able to login & use free @Office365 apps with their Google EDU account ????

Use G-Suite & Google Classroom along with apps like #OneNote ????, Immersive Reader, and @MicrosoftTeams #edtech #edchat #ISTE19 #MicrosoftEDU

???? https://t.co/b0J9eSSxit pic.twitter.com/9goH3ugjPr

— Mike Tholfsen (@mtholfsen) June 20, 2019

The Customer preview of what Microsoft calls “simpler sign-on” will work with Chromebooks that have already been set up by IT admins, qs the solution will require a new version of Microsoft’s Office Online extension for Google Chrome. “With simpler sign-on, once you sign in to your school’s Chromebook, you can be automatically signed in to Office 365 in just two clicks, without retyping a username or password,” the blog post reads.

Microsoft is acknowledging that Google Education tools are already popular in US classrooms, but the software will make it easy for teachers and students to transition to Microsoft apps. As an example, Microsoft has built a tool to import content from Google Classroom to a OneNote Class Notebook. “You’ll be able to create and distribute assignments in OneNote and push the grades back to Classroom, so you can view all your assignments and grades in one place,” the company explained.

To join the Customer Preview of Office 365 for Google Education customers, Microsoft is inviting school districts and their IT admins to sign up on this page. Microsoft will provide free guidance to school districts and even help IT admins do all the configuration for free.

Following the release of Microsoft Edge Insider on macOS, Microsoft has made its new Chromium-based web browser officially available on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 today. For now, only the Canary channel is available on these older versions of Windows, though Microsoft said today that the Dev channel which gets less frequent updates will be available “soon.”

“Delivering the next version of Microsoft Edge to all supported versions of Windows is part of our goal to improve the web browsing experience for our customers on every device, and to empower developers to build great experiences with less fragmentation,” Microsoft explained today. “Microsoft Edge will have the same always up-to-date platform and the same developer tools on all supported versions of Windows and macOS. This will reduce developer pain on the web, while ensuring all Windows customers have the latest browsing options,” the company commented.

Microsoft also highlighted today that the first Edge Insider Canary builds on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 have a couple of known issues: Among highlights, dark theme and signing with an Azure AD accounts are currently not supported. The software giant is committed to improve its Edge Insider browser by listening to user feedback, and you can share your thoughts about the new Chromium-based Edge by clicking the smiley face next to the Menu button.

You can download Microsoft Edge preview builds from the new Edge Insider website, where Microsoft also publishes a detailed roadmap with upcoming new features.

Microsoft has just released another minor update for Windows Insiders on the Fast Ring. The 20H1 preview build 18922 brings a revamped Language Settings page that should be easier to navigate, and Microsoft has also reorganized the language installation page to add some useful descriptions.

Starting with this build, Microsoft is also rolling out a new Find Similar Feedback feature in Feedback Hub: After logging any new feedback, Windows Insiders will be able to browse similar items and even link their feedback to existing contributions from other Insiders.

This new 20H1 build also brings several bug fixes, and it addresses two specific Windows Update issues preventing some Insiders to install recent builds. You can check out everything that’s fixed and still broken in this build below:

General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

• We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders getting Windows Update error 0x80010105 when updating to recent builds.
• We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders getting Windows Update error 0xc0000005 when updating to recent builds.
• We fixed an issue where the Action Center background was unexpectedly opaque in the quick action section.
• We fixed an issue where if you used the spacebar to switch to a different Focus assist state in Settings, keyboard focus would unexpectedly jump to the Have a Question? Section.
• We fixed an issue with the Bopomofo IME where the character width would suddenly change to Full width from Half width.
• We’ve added a tip to the Bopomofo IME settings that Ctrl + Space can be used for toggling conversation mode.
• We fixed an issue where, when using the Japanese IME with Excel, if you’d turned off Japanese input-mode by clicking the input-mode indicator, the input-mode would revert back to “Hiragana” every time focus moved to another cell.
• Based on feedback, we’ve updated the Chinese Pinyin IME settings to now refer to Default mode, rather than Input mode.
• We fixed an issue for some of the Insiders with the updated File Explorer search experience, resulting in suggested results in the search dropdown not responding when clicked. Thanks for reporting this!
• We’ve made a few small design tweaks to the updated Windows Ink Workspace, including changing the overflow menu button to new use an ellipsis icon. Note – this feature update is still in the process of rolling out.
• We’re now starting to roll out the updated Settings header again after addressing an issue with the OneDrive entry – appreciate your patience!

Known Issues

• This update might fail the first time you try to download it with a 0xc0000409 error code.
• For Home editions, some devices might not be able to see the “download progress %” change on the Windows Update page.
• There has been an issue with older versions of anti-cheat software used with games where after updating to the latest 19H1 Insider Preview builds may cause PCs to experience crashes. We are working with partners on getting their software updated with a fix, and most games have released patches to prevent PCs from experiencing this issue. To minimize the chance of running into this issue, please make sure you are running the latest version of your games before attempting to update the operating system. We are also working with anti-cheat and game developers to resolve similar issues that may arise with the 20H1 Insider Preview builds and will work to minimize the likelihood of these issues in the future.
• Some Realtek SD card readers are not functioning properly. We are investigating the issue.
• Tamper Protection may be turned off in Windows Security after updating to this build. You can turn it back on. In August, Tamper Protection will return to being on by default for all Insiders.
• We’re investigating an issue where some users are reporting that File Explorer search is rendering in an unexpectedly small area and clicking it results in a crash.

Known issues for Developers

• If you install builds from the Fast ring and switch to either the Slow ring or the Release Preview ring, optional content such as enabling developer mode will fail. You will have to remain in the Fast ring to add/install/enable optional content. This is because optional content will only install on builds approved for specific rings.

As a little sidenote, the Windows Insider team previously said in February that it would release the first 19H2 to Windows Insiders “later this Spring,” but it looks like this won’t be happening after all. Spring is ending in just two days, and Brandon Leblanc from the Windows Insider team shared on Twitter that there won’t be any news about 19H2 builds this week.

Nothing new to share this week sorry!

— Brandon LeBlanc (@brandonleblanc) June 18, 2019

19H2 is expected to be a minor Windows 10 update ahead of the release of 20H1 in the first half of 2020, but 19H2 may well have a much shorter testing process compared to previous releases. We hope the Windows Insider team will soon share more details, but for now you probably shouldn’t get too excited about the upcoming 19H2 update.

Microsoft remains committed to make Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) first-class citizens on Windows 10 PCs, and the recent switch to a Chromium base for Microsoft Edge already appears to help a lot in that area. Indeed, the new Edge Insider browser makes it possible to “install” PWAs and have them showing up at the top level of the Windows 10 Start Menu.

The point of “installing” PWAs is to have a web app that can be pinned to your taskbar, and this app will open in its own windows without all the “chrome,” by removing all unnecessary UI elements from your web browser. As a result, these PWAs just look like regular apps, as seen below with OnMSFT PWA created with Microsoft’s Edge Insider browser.

You can create a PWA with Edge Insider just by clicking on the ellipsis at the top right of the browser, and then select Apps>Install this site as an app:

As spotted by Windows Latest, PWAs installed via Microsoft Edge now show up in the Apps section of the Windows 10 Settings, right alongside regular UWP and Win32 apps. Edge PWAs also appear in the legacy Control Panel, and they can be uninstalled from both locations. Again, these PWAs behave just like regular apps, and it’s pretty handy to be able to remove them from these familiar places.

PWAs installed via Google Chrome currently don’t have the same hooks to the Windows 10 Settings app and Control Panel, and they currently have to be uninstalled from the PWA’s ellipsis menu. This is something that Microsoft is wanting to change for all PWAs installed via a Chromium browser, as the company explained in a recent Chromium commit discovered by Windows Latest. The bug report is currently labeled as “active,” which means that the changes Microsoft suggested could soon end up in the Chromium open source project and eventually other Chromium-based browsers.

With Cyberpunk 2077 due for release during the same calendar year as the next Xbox console (which is currently going by the temporary codename of Xbox Project Scarlett), some had been wondering if the game would also be getting a release on Microsoft’s new console in addition to the current gen Xbox One.

With Project Scarlett apparently being capable of playing games in 8K resolution, it would make sense that the devs behind a title as visually impressive as Cyberpunk 2077 would want it to release on such a device so that their creation could look its absolute best.

Unfortunately, according to an interview with the game’s quest director, Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, over on GamingBolt, it seems that Cyberpunk 2077 is only currently being developed for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

While disappointing, it is important to note that Project Scarlet will be able to play a large number of video games from the Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One libraries which will likely include Cyberpunk 2077. There’s always the possibility too that an enhanced version of the game could get a next-gen release further down the line.

Tomb Raider, for example, launched on the Xbox 360 but was given a major re-release on the Xbox One in a Definitive Edition that included significant graphical upgrades and all of the previously released DLC. The same could happen with Cyberpunk 2077 though probably not in time with the console launch in 2020.

Would you buy Cyberpunk 2077 on the next-gen Xbox console or are you happy to play it on your Xbox One? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

Download
QR-Code

Cyberpunk 2077

Developer:
CD PROJEKT RED

Price:
$29.99

Microsoft has just announced the release of Windows Server vNext Preview Build 18917, along with Windows Admin Center Preview 1906. The release notes for the new Windows Server build only mention four minor fixes and a couple of known issues, and we invite you to check the Windows Insider blog for more details.

The wording on the official blog post is actually a bit confusing, as the “Windows Server vNext Semi-Annual Preview” that Microsoft refers to should be the 19H2 release of the server OS coming later this year. However, if you’ve been following Windows Insider news recently, you should probably now that 18917 is the build number for the latest Windows 10 Insider build from the 20H1 development branch. Microsoft has yet to release a first 19H2 build for Windows 10, and this new Windows Server build is apparently from the 20H1 branch, not 19H2.

As for Windows Admin Center Preview 1906, this new build brings Import/Export buttons to the Virtual Machines tool, the ability to tag VMs on a Hyper-V server, and improvements to Azure integration functionality. IT admins can also select individual Windows updates to install, which was a top user request. You can download Windows Server vNext Preview Build 18917 and Windows Admin Center Preview 1906 from the Windows Server Insider Preview download page.

Microsoft Research has published four games to the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 devices, each of which aim to introduce eye control to those with speech or mobility disabilities thanks to the use of the Windows 10 Eye Control assistive technology. The four games—Tile Slide, Match Two, Double Up, and Maze, all can be played with either an eye tracker device or with a traditional mouse and keyboard, and additionally exercises areas such as memory, math, and strategic thinking that they can apply to other eye gaze assistive technologies. According to the Microsoft Accessibility Blog:

Challenge yourself to complete the Tile Slide puzzle in the fewest number of moves; exercise your memory playing Match Two; sharpen your math and strategic thinking playing Double Up; and see how fast you can get your lost puppy home, without getting lost yourself, in the Maze. Compete with friends and family for high score honors. And the twist? Play by using your eyes!

If you’re interested in giving the games a try, or know a friend who could benefit from them, they are available for free from the Microsoft Store. If you want to take advantage of the eye tracker technology, you’ll also need a PC that is updated to the Windows 10 April 2018 Update or newer.

These games are just an example of Microsoft’s focus on providing games and other services to those with mobility impairments. The company also has the Xbox Adaptive Controller, which takes advantage of custom setups with external buttons, switches, and joysticks to allow those with disabilities, including injured veterans seeking reliability, to play their favorite games to nearly the same level (pun intended) as everyone else.

Microsoft also has an entire document online about using eye control, in case you or someone else could find them useful. You can download the games using the links below, and feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.

Download
QR-Code

Eyes First – Tile Slide

Developer:
Microsoft Research

Price:
Free

Download
QR-Code

Eyes First – Match Two

Developer:
Microsoft Research

Price:
Free

Download
QR-Code

Eyes First – Double Up

Developer:
Microsoft Research

Price:
Free

Download
QR-Code

Eyes First – Maze

Developer:
Microsoft Research

Price:
Free

Microsoft has just announced some big updates for PowerPoint Designer, the AI-powered feature that can suggest you design ideas for your slides. More than one billion slides have been created with PowerPoint Designer since launch, the company revealed today, adding that Designer is getting three new features to ease the process of creating compelling slides.

The first addition is Designer for branded templates, which make the AI-powered recommendations much more relevant when using an organization’s template. For PowerPoint users who won’t start with a branded template, the new theme ideas in Designer will also make it easier to kick things off. Lastly, PowerPoint will be leveraging Microsoft Research’s Perspective Engine to add some context to numerical slides. “For example: The size of Afghanistan, which is 652,232 km², is hard to interpret, but adding that it’s “about equal to the size of Texas” makes it easily understandable,” the company explained.

In addition to these Designer updates, the most interesting announcement Microsoft made today is Presenter Coach, a new rehearsing tool that’s coming first to the PowerPoint web app. “This feature allows you to enter rehearsal mode and while speaking you receive on-screen guidance about pacing, inclusive language, use of filler words, and culturally insensitive phrases. It even lets you know when you’re just reading off the slide,” the company explained. This sounds like a great feature to improve your presentation skills, and you can see how it works in the video below.

Presenter Coach will go live in the PowerPoint web app later this summer, and Microsoft didn’t say today if it would also be coming to the desktop apps on Windows and Mac.

Microsoft could be adding a dedicated Office key to future Windows keyboards, as spotted by WalkingCat on Twitter. The company is offering a survey which presumably targets users who have tried one of the concept devices.

https://twitter.com/h0x0d/status/1140784669962584066?s=20

Brad Sams from Petri noted that at least two different keyboards, codenamed Holgate Low and Holgate Mid, are in development to take advantage of the new feature according to his sources that are familiar with Microsoft’s plans. These devices would be able to take advantage of certain Office key-related shortcuts, such as Office Key + S to share a document with other users.

The key would be located between the right Alt and Control keys, replacing the dedicated menu and/or the right Windows key on some keyboards. It’s not certain how Microsoft will push it onto future devices, however the familiar Windows Key is required on all keyboards to be certified by the company—something that, as noted by The Verge, has existed for 25 years (longer than the author of this post).

While this feature could certainly serve useful to those who use Office apps on a frequent basis, it’s doubtful that it will reach the masses anytime soon. It’s exclusive to users on the Windows 10 May 2019 Update, which accounts for only 1.4 percent of all Windows 10 devices worldwide due to its gradual rollout as seen in the most recent report from AdDuplex.

In any case, what is clear is that with productivity being a core focus of Microsoft’s business strategy, the company wants to promote its premium services—especially Office which targets both consumers and businesses—as much as possible. Is the Office key something that you would use, or would it be just one of those things that you would keep unintentionally hitting? Let us know in the comments.

As is typical for Xbox video games, a variety of titles are now discounted as part of Deals With Gold and other new weekly promotional campaigns.

With the Deals With Gold sale, which requires an active Xbox Live Gold subscription to receive the discounts, Anthem (60% off), Battlefield V (60%), Cartoon Network: Battle Crashers (60%), and FIFA 19 (60%) are some of the biggest games worth checking out.

Also on this week is an Explore and Discover sale and the usual Publisher Spotlight Sale. Among these discounted titles, Fallout 76 Standard Edition (50% off), Nevermind (75%), Samsara (50%), Soul Axiom (70%), and The Witness (pictured above, 50%) are worth keeping an eye on. A large number of Sonic video games are also heavily discounted on Xbox One and the Xbox 360.

All of these discounts are listed within the Gold section on the Xbox One Dashboard and in the Store tab.

Did you buy any discounted video games this week for your Xbox console? Let us know which ones you picked up in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

Xbox gamer, Stallion83, who was the first person to ever reach the 1 and 2 million Gamerscore milestones has made the leap from the popular Twitch video game streaming service to Microsoft’s rival, Mixer.

While Stallion83 had actually had his Mixer account since 2016, he had also been a Twitch Partner, a role that prevents streamers from broadcasting on rival platforms.

Today's live stream on Twitch will be my last.

So many great memories to share of almost 6 awesome years of streaming on Twitch & that's all because of my amazing viewers. You guys are the only reason I love doing it. It begins and ends with you. Thank you all so much <3

— Stallion (@Stallion83) June 6, 2019

Stallion83 streamed on Twitch for the last time two weeks ago and began streaming on Mixer almost immediately. The transition was promoted on the official Mixer Twitter account earlier today. It’s unclear why Stallion83 decided to change platforms.

https://twitter.com/WatchMixer/status/1140741022986702848

Mixer is Microsoft’s direct competitor to Amazon’s Twitch. It’s a streaming video platform that’s primarily designed to broadcast video game gameplay but is also used for streaming the occasional special event or esports competition.

Do you prefer Twitch or Mixer? Let us know in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter for more video game and streaming news.

Last year, Microsoft acquired GitHub in a $7.5 billion acquisition, aiming to continue its long tradition of supporting developers, and perhaps steer them towards Microsoft Azure services in the process. Today Microsoft added to its GitHub stable, acquiring Pull Panda for an undisclosed sum and making the tools free. Users of the premium version of the service will retain full support, but the company plans to eventually integrate the tools into GitHub.

PullPanda helps “teams create more efficient and effective code review workflows on GitHub,” according to a post on the GitHub blog (via Mary Jo Foley). For teams, large or small, using GitHub, pull requests (actions to work on, manage, or deploy code), can “pile up and fall through the cracks.” PullPanda helps teams manage these requests in three ways:

• Pull Reminders: Get a nudge in Slack when a collaborator needs your review. Automatic reminders ensure that pull requests never slip through the cracks.
• Pull Analytics: From wait times to top contributors, get real-time insight into the effectiveness of your team’s process. Then make data-driven improvements that create a more transparent and accountable culture.
• Pull Assigner: Automatically distribute code across your team, so no one gets overloaded and knowledge gets spread around.

All of the tools are available now on GitHub for free, included in the Pull Panda app. Are you a GitHub user? Will PullPanda help your workflow? Let us know in the comments below.

It’s now been almost five years since Microsoft released Windows 10, but the almost 10-years-old Windows 7 is still alive and kicking. According to Statcounter, more than 33% of Windows PCs were still running Windows 7 last month, with 56.48% of users having already updated to Windows 10.

With Microsoft ending support for Windows 7 in January 2020, the company would really like these users to upgrade to Windows 10 to keep their PCs secure. However, that’s not so such an easing thing to do, especially since Windows 7 is probably still considered the best version of Windows by common agreement.

The Redmond giant is well aware that convincing Windows 7 die-hards to update isn’t an easy task. Today, Jen Gentleman from the Windows Insider team asked her Twitter followers what are the new features they would recommend to users in the process of updating to Windows 10, and that’s actually a really good question. The answers, as expected, were equally interesting.

If someone you knew was transitioning from W7 to W10, what features and or improvements would you tell them about? pic.twitter.com/TogbkDdmp2

— Jen Gentleman ???? (@JenMsft) June 17, 2019

Many replies from power users mentioned Windows Ink, dark theme, the improved snipping tool, the new Action Center, the cloud clipboard, Timeline, Your Phone, as well as OneDrive Files-on-demand. Some new capabilities such as Cortana or My People didn’t get a lot of love, and that’s not really surprising as these features didn’t really resonate with consumers.

Interestingly, one person highlighted Windows Update, which probably isn’t exactly what you would call a fan-favorite feature. However, Windows 10 updates are now cumulative, which means that new patches include all previously released updates. This is a pretty good way to avoid “update fatigue” and situations where users decide to block all updates to avoid any interruptions in their workflow.

the best thing I like about Windows 10 is Windows Update. I remember the days when re-installing Windows 7 and you get endless update loops (300+ never-ending individual updates) I'm sure there are a zillion more improvements but I haven't touched Windows 7 for so many years.

— James Portelli ☕ (@jamesport079) June 17, 2019

Last year, Microsoft said that it was finally fixing Windows Update so that your PC would no longer reboot while you’re busy. More recently, the Windows 10 May 2019 Update also allowed all Windows 10 users to pause updates for up to 35 days (Home users were previously limited to 7 days).

These Windows Update improvements are nice, but Windows 10’s real killer feature may well soon be the Your Phone app. Mac and iPhone users have been able to enjoy “continuity” features for years, with Text Message Forwarding between iPhone, iPad and Mac, seamless photo transfer between devices, and much more. Some of these things are now possible using Your Phone and an Android smartphone, but the app still remains a work in progress. However, it’s now clear that Android now has more synergies with Windows 10 that Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile never had, and it’s really great to access your phone’s text messages, recent pictures, and notifications right from your Windows 10 PC. A recent Your Phone update also brought a new screen mirroring feature, though it only works with select Android headsets for now.

Do you still know people who are not ready yet to update to Windows 10? If so, how would you convince them to finally make the jump? Let us know in the comments below.

Since its launch on July 27, Epic Games’ Fortnite has become the most popular video game worldwide and a true pop culture phenomenon. Having crossed more than 250 million players earlier this year, the game also had a profound impact on the video game industry, pushing Microsoft, Nintendo, and a reluctant Sony to embrace crossplay multiplayer.

But Fortnite almost never came to be. Rod Fergusson, head of the Microsoft-owned game studio The Coalition, revealed that he wanted to cancel Fortnite when he was still Director of Production at Epic Games in the early 2010’s. In an interview with Game Informer (via Business Insider), the man now responsible for the Gears of War franchise explained that early concepts of Fortnite and its “Save the World” survival mode didn’t really meet his expectations.

“If I stayed at Epic, I would have cancelled Fortnite,” Fergusson said to Game Informer. “Before I left, I tried to cancel Fortnite. Fortnite, when it was Save the World… that was a project that had some challenges. As a director of production at that time, that game wasn’t something that would’ve passed my bar to keep going.”

Fergusson did leave Epic Games in 2012, five years before the release of Fortnite. In retrospect, Fergusson did correctly predict that Fortnite’s “Save the world” didn’t really set the world on fire, but the game really took off when it offered a free battle royale mode when PUBG, the game that reinvented the genre was still in early access on PC. Fortnite Battle Royale was poised to take the lead as it was free-to-play, available on more platforms, and much more optimized than PUBG (which also uses Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4).

Flash forward to 2019, Fergusson is now well aware that him leaving Epic Games in 2012 was ultimately a blessing in disguise. “So when people look at me and say ‘Don’t you feel bad?’ I say ‘No, you should feel really good, because that game you love, that worldwide sensation, would not exist had I stayed at Epic,” the video games veteran commented.

We may well have reached peak Fortnite in recent months, and the game was barely a part of the video games conversation during E3 2019 last week. Still, Fortnite remains a forced to be reckoned with, as you can tell by the brand new Xbox One S Fortnite Special Edition bundle that Microsoft launched earlier this month. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal (via Gameindustry.biz), Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney also emphasized that Sony enabling crossplay on Fortnite between PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch was “one of the greatest moment in Epic’s history.”

In an interview with GamesIndustry, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer confirmed that the company’s next generation Xbox console, currently going by the temporary codename, Project Scarlett, will indeed have a physical disc drive.

“Yeah [physical discs are part of our future],” Spencer says in the interview. “We know, because we see it, that more and more players are buying digital. We think the experience in certain instances, specifically if I am away from my console and everything is on my hard-drive with the entitlements are all there, there are some scenarios that are easy. But we know that people still have discs.”

Given Microsoft’s recent investment in digital services such as Xbox Game Pass and xCloud plus the relatively recent release of a discless Xbox One S console, many had speculated that the next gen Xbox could very well launch with a strong focus on digital and do away with physical discs altogether.

The reality is, though, that many users simply aren’t ready for a purely digital gaming experience due to outdated and/or expensive internet infrastructure in various regions. A lot of gamers basically wouldn’t be able to use an Xbox console if it didn’t have a disc drive.

Of course, this isn’t to say that Microsoft won’t release a discless Project Scarlett in addition to the disc version. Clearly, with the release of the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition, there’s already a growing market for such a device.

Project Scarlett is confirmed to launch in late-2020. Interestingly, Microsoft has already started work on the post-Scarlett Xbox console as well.

Do you want a disc drive in your Xbox console? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

Microsoft news recap is a weekly feature highlighting the top Microsoft news stories of the past week. Sit back, grab some coffee, and enjoy the read!

Microsoft, the trillion dollar company, gives back to investors with $.46 per share dividend

With Microsoft remaining as a trillion dollar company since last Friday, investors have received good news with an announcement of the quarterly dividend being $0.46 per share.

Microsoft Teams users can now react to messages with 6 different emojis

Following in the footsteps of LinkedIn which recently added reactions to posts, Microsoft Teams now allows you to react to messages with 6 different emojis, instead of just ‘like’.

Microsoft has teams around the world working on some 150 Android apps, for hundreds of millions of users

A Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft, Cesar Valiente, has spoken of Microsoft’s work with Android, following the failure of its own mobile operating system. In all, Microsoft has teams across the world that work on 150 Android apps, with large numbers of users using them.

Hello, world! we are very happy to publish the first "real" article coming from our @AndroidAtMsft publication! ????
Check it out! https://t.co/qK8UwbewPv
Feedback, topic suggestions, questions, etc. more than welcome!????#android #microsoft
Please RT ????

— Cesar Valiente (@CesarValiente) June 12, 2019

E3 2019: Microsoft shares first details about its next-gen “Scarlett” Xbox console

At E3, Microsoft shared the first details of its next-gen Xbox console, Scarlett. Details about the power of the console were unveiled, including 8K resolutions and a higher framerate.

That’s it for this week. We’ll be back next week with more Microsoft news.