Microsoft finally revealed the list of improvements coming in next Xbox One system update yesterday, but a new 1905 preview build shipping to Preview Alpha Insiders later today will introduce two unannounced new features.

First of all, Microsoft is continuing to improve sorting options in the My Games & Apps section. In previous 1905 builds, articles such as “a,” “an” and “the” were no longer being used to sort titles when using the “Sort A-Z” and “Group by letter” views. In the new 1905 build shipping today, Microsoft is adding more options to sort games and apps by date, with more date categories for sorting by last update or last used.

The other new feature shipping in this build is Voice channels in Xbox Live Messaging. “This feature is only available in Alpha and can only be used between Alpha users,” the Xbox team explained. Lastly, the Xbox Live Friends List will now show where your contacts are playing by showing new console, PC and mobile icons next to their names.

There are other improvements coming in the Xbox One 1905 Update, including a new Message Requests feature in messaging as well as the ability to add Xbox Game Pass titles to a “Play Later” list. These features are not live yet in this build, but you can expect them to appear in a future flight.  

Microsoft is still sorting out its Insider releases, re-releases and spot fixes to enable releases and while doing so, the Windows team managed to squeak out a Friday build for testers.

Windows 10 Insider preview build 18885 is being issued to Fast Ring Insiders with a delineating note that includes:

NOTE: Windows Insiders on Build 18362.53 who were unable to update to Build 18875 will need to install Build 18362.86 (KB4497093) *FIRST* before being able to receive today’s build. Build 18362.86 includes the fix needed to update to the latest 20H1 builds from Build 18362.53. If you’re already on Build 18875, this build should come through normally.

Once you’ve got that sorted out, here are the list of fixes and known issues in the build, that Insiders should also be on the lookout for before downloading this latest preview.

General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

• We fixed an issue that could result in USBs and SD cards being unexpectedly assigned a different drive letter after upgrading.
• We fixed an issue that could result in the post install setup message unexpectedly appearing while you were actively using your PC sometime after login.
• We’ve improved the layout of the App Volume and Device Preferences page in Sound settings and tweaked the page view for better usability.
• We’ve updated the text of the Storage Sense group policies to make them a bit more clear.
• We fixed an issue that could result in the “Make Windows better” page appearing after login showing “please wait”, with a progress wheel, for a long period of time. We also fixed an issue that could result in this page unexpectedly appearing while you were interacting with the device sometime after login.
• We fixed an issue that could sometimes result in Windows Hello looking for the user and immediately signing them back in right after locking the PC, rather than first prompting with “Welcome back, dismiss the lock screen to sign back in”.
• We fixed an issue that could result in some Insiders seeing only a flat blue screen when connecting to a recent build over remote desktop.

Known Issues

• 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.
• If you use remote desktop to connect to an enhanced session VM, taskbar search results will not be visible (just a dark area) until you restart explorer.exe.
• We’re investigating reports that on certain devices if fast startup is enabled night light doesn’t turn on until after a restart. (Note: The problem will occur on a “cold” reboot or power off / power on. To work around if night light doesn’t turn on, use Start > Power > Restart.)
• There’s a noticeable lag when dragging the emoji and dictation panels.
• Tamper Protection may be turned off in Windows Security after updating to this build. You can turn it back on.
• Some features on Start Menu and in All apps are not localized in languages such as FR-FR, RU-RU, and ZH-CN.

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.

For those still up to the challenge of installing and testing this latest preview, head over to the Settings menu and make sure your Fast Ring preview is enabled. The update is currently rolling out to devices.

Gears of War 4 and The Crew 2 Standard Edition will be free to play on Xbox One consoles for all Xbox Live Gold subscribers this weekend.

From 12:01 a.m. PT on April 25th through to 11:59 p.m. PT on April 28th, Xbox Live Gold subscribers can download and play both video games in full as if they owned them outright. As with previous free play weekends, all progress will save to the cloud and be available in the future should players choose to buy them.

Note that The Crew 2 is currently selling with a 70% discount for the next four days.

Here’s the official descriptions, trailers, and download links for each game.

Gears of War 4

A new saga begins for one of the most acclaimed video game franchises in history. After narrowly escaping an attack on their village, JD Fenix and his friends, Kait and Del, must rescue the ones they love and discover the source of a monstrous new enemy. Never Fight Alone: Enjoy two-player co-op campaign with friends locally via split-screen or over Xbox Live. Player 2 can select either Kait or Del. Horde 3.0: Team up with four others and battle wave after wave of increasingly difficult enemies by choosing your combat class, leveling up your skills and deploying fortifications anywhere on the map. Explosive Versus Multiplayer: Compete online in new and favorite game types, all at 60fps on dedicated servers. A new visible ranking system means fairer matchmaking for social, competitive and professional players alike.

The Crew 2

In The Crew® 2, take on the American motorsports scene as you explore and dominate the land, air, and sea of the United States in one of the most exhilarating open worlds ever created. With a wide variety of exotic cars, bikes, boats, and planes to choose from, experience the unbridled thrill and adrenaline-pumping excitement of competing across the entire USA as you test your skills in a wide range of driving disciplines. Record every heart-pounding, asphalt-melting moment and share them with the simple push of a button – fame is yours to take! Play with up to7 other friends online.

Are you going to play Gears of War 4, The Crew 2, or maybe both? Let us know in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter for more Xbox gaming news.

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The app was not found in the store. ?

Go to store
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A few years ago, drone talk could have been considered a bit taboo as people and communities struggled to come to terms with the how’s and why’s of unmanned air flight within city ordinances.

Fast forward five or so years and the discussion surrounding drones and its $1 billion commercial industry has shifted from outright banishment to terms of regulation and the beneficial aspects of rural and industrial applications.

Lending a voice to the evolving discussion of drone technology and its growing presence in modern communities of agriculture, mapping, weather prediction, infrastructure development, and maintenance is Microsoft with its TechSpark initiative.

Microsoft recently announced plans to invest with the University of North Dakota (UND) Aerospace Foundation, $100,000 worth of project funding to boost innovation in drone technology coming out of the region.

“TechSpark saw the drone innovation in North Dakota’s Red River Valley that is driving exciting advances for the U.S. drone industry and wanted to be a part of it,” said Kate Behncken, general manager of Global Community Engagement at Microsoft. “This cutting-edge project has the potential to increase crop yields and boost the production of renewable energy through safe drone advancements created locally, leading to greater economic opportunities for North Dakotans.”

With Microsoft’s jumpstart investment of $100,000, successful projections see over half a million dollars of “additional investment” in Airtonomy as well as boosting of other economic opportunities throughout the state.

Microsoft’s involvement has already begun to pay dividends as an uncalculated multiplier which helped Airtonomy unlock close to $570,000 in additional funding from local investors confident in Microsoft’s involvement.

Microsoft’s North Dakota partnership comes as one of six other TechSpark related initiatives which began in 2017 as a way to imbue rural and smaller communities with new economic opportunities and potential.

As with the other TechSpark projects, the UND partnership will produce a proof of concept utilizing Microsoft services that include IoT, cloud computing and AI technologies this time around.

One of the good things that the internet can do, despite all of its failings, is to help to shine a light on injustice, and a new initiative launching today aims to do just that. Human rights attorney Amal Clooney and her actor husband George Clooney, with help from Microsoft, have created an app called TrialWatch, based on Azure and Microsoft speech-to-text and machine translation tools. The app allows volunteers to collect and report data on trial proceedings, tracking cases that “involve vulnerable populations, like minorities, LGBTQ individuals, human rights activists, and journalists,” according to a report on GeekWire.

The app, which will be available on iOS, Android, and Windows, has been piloted in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America, and The Clooney Foundation will coordinate and assign volunteers to monitor important trials around the world, with a team of trained experts to review the data, and will issue reports on how fair or unfair these trials prove to be.

The TrialWatch app and initiative is expected to be unveiled at an event in New York City today.

Yesterday, Microsoft released Fiscal Year 2019 3rd quarter earnings, and with all aspects of the company seemingly raking in the cash, the market is understandably excited. For a short time in after hours trading last night, the company’s “market cap,” or market capitilazation, that is the total shares of a company (for Microsoft, that’s 767 billion at last count) multiplied by its share price. To hit $1 trillion, the share price needs to hit $130.038, which it flirted with last night and has already hit a couple of times this morning, although currently it’s trading at $130.18.

Microsoft’s stock jumped almost 5% overnight on the earnings news, and there’s no reason to think that the company won’t continue its upward trend, at least in the short term. Build is coming up in just a couple of weeks, a good chance for the company to show off what it’s doing, and plans to do, with Azure, Windows, and Office. As the Verge’s Tom Warren pointed out yesterday on Twitter, Microsoft is now composed of three main pillars, all contributing equally:

Microsoft splits its businesses up into three main buckets, and they’re all roughly contributing the same amount of revenue (~30%)
Office + LinkedIn + Dynamics = $10.2B
Azure cloud + server + enterprise services = $9.7B
Windows + Xbox + Surface = $10.7B

Both Amazon and Apple have recently hit the trillion dollar market cap mark, but both have fallen back, with AMZN trading today at about $942B market cap, and AAPL at $975B. Of course you don’t get any special prizes for going over the trillion dollar mark, but it is remarkable how values of tech companies in general, and Microsoft in particular, have gone up. For comparison, in February 2014, when Satya Nadella took over from Steve Ballmer as CEO, stocks were trading at 37.92, and the market cap was about $315B.

Microsoft is still flirting at just under that trillion dollar mark as we bring this post to a close, but there’s no denying that this company is firing on all cylinders right now, with a bright future ahead.

The Windows 10 May 2019 Update is just around the corner but select Windows Insiders are already being given the opportunity to upgrade their systems to it if they so choose.

Unfortunately, there appears to be a rather odd issue that’s preventing some users from upgrading. Essentially, those that attempt to download and install the Windows 10 May 2019 Update with a USB drive or SD card installed, will be presented with an error message that says, “This PC can’t be upgraded to Windows 10.”

Basically, Microsoft has detected that if an external drive is connected while the update is installed, the various drive letters, both internal and external, can become jumbled. To prevent this from happening to user’s devices, Microsoft has simply made it so that the update won’t complete with any external drive connected.

The official workaround? Simply unplug all external drives when performing the update and then reconnect them once the update is complete.

A post on ArsT claims that this glitch only affects those upgrading from versions 1803 and 1809 of the operating system while the official status on this issue from Microsoft states that, “This issue will be resolved in a future servicing update for Windows 10. For Windows Insiders, this issue is resolved in build 18877 and later builds.”

Have you been affected by this problem? Share your experience with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter for more Windows news.

Yesterday, April 23, 2019, Lenovo unleashed a torrent of news regarding its Legion gaming line of laptops that involve processor updates, new GPU’s and the addition of two more models to its line up of mobile gaming offerings.

Starting with the new additions, gamers that may not have had their interest piqued by the design or price of the previous Y730 or the Y530 can now be on the lookout for the Y7000 and new Idepad L340 devices.

The Y7000 comes in a 15-inch wrapper with a crimson red “Y” backlit keyboard and thin bezels surrounding a full HD display sporting up to 144Hz refresh rates and offering 300 nits of brightness on an IPS anti-glare screen. The Y7000 carries a similar design to other Legion hardware with its slate gray color scheme and angular edges and signature “Y” light up the lid and comes with all the latest Intel and NVIDIA updates as the rest.

Y7000: pricing will be shared later

However, the new Ideapad L340 is where Lenovo is beginning to meld its more traditional consumer aesthetic with its gaming specs and produces a more mainstream looking device that just happens to be able to run a few games at higher fidelity. The L340 comes in both 15 and 17-inch options sporting Doly Audio support, something called Intel Opten for increasing game speeds all in a case that could easily be mistaken for an elegant mainstream direct MacBook competitor.

Ideapad L340: starting at $869.99 15″ & $919.99 17″ in May 2019

Now for the meat and potatoes. Lenovo’s Flagship Legion Y700 line is getting bumped to Y740 and getting refreshed with the latest Intel 9th generation Intel Core i7 processor and a lineup that includes NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q GPU and GeForce GTX 1660 Ti options. In addition to the beefed up specs gamers will gain access to FHD display with 144Hz refresh rate, NVIDIA G-SYNC, Dolby Vision and a screen as bright as 500 nits. Matching the impressive display output is the Y740’s Dolby Atmos Speaker System with Dolby Sound Radar for crisper sound quality. The aesthetic remains roughly the same with RGB backlit keyboard and system lighting with over 16 million color customization options to choose from. Gamers will also be able to beef up their system with an option 32GB DDR4 2666Mhz RAM.

Lenovo Legion Y740: starting at $1,699 17″ & $1,609.99 15″ in May 2019

Lenovo’s Y500 series gets its yearly bump to the Y540 and comes with similar accouterments such as the 9th gen Intel i7 and GeForce TRX 2060 GPU as well as some nifty new features such as the ColdFron dual fan thermal layout for cooling systems during intense gameplay and Harman Kardon speakers with Dolby Atmos support.

Lenono Legion Y540: Starting at $1209.99 for GeForce 1660 Ti 15″ & $1269.99 GeForce 1660 Ti 17″ in May 2019 and June 2019

Last but not least is the Lenovo Legion Y7000p which is also known as the less cool brother of the Y7000 comes as the affordable gaming hog donning the same Intel 9th gen i7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, GTX 1660, and 1650 GPUs and subtle white backlit keyboard. The Y7000p comes in a one size fits all 15″ design.

Lenovo Legion Y7000: Starting at $1199.99 in May 2019

Next month is shaping up to be a good month to start looking at PCs for gamers to purchase ahead of some interesting E3 2019 announcements a month later. With the continued merging of Xbox console and PC gaming platforms by Microsoft, finding a PC that is both a mainstream machine and a gaming rig in after-hours could become a shopping segment Lenovo could corner with its Legion line of devices.

Today on the Microsoft Security Guidance blog, the company has published an explanation of its draft release of its security configuration baseline settings for Windows 10 1903 and Windows Server 1903. This document sets guidelines for Group Policy baseline settings, and with this latest draft there are some significant changes. Among the most noteworthy is a change to no longer set password expiration policies that require “periodic password changes,” a long standing baseline that Microsoft says has become “an ancient and obsolete mitigation of very low value.”

The blog post goes on to explain why Microsoft is dropping the password expiration policy, noting first that “we are not proposing changing requirements for minimum password length, history, or complexity:”

Periodic password expiration is a defense only against the probability that a password (or hash) will be stolen during its validity interval and will be used by an unauthorized entity. If a password is never stolen, there’s no need to expire it. And if you have evidence that a password has been stolen, you would presumably act immediately rather than wait for expiration to fix the problem.

While the baseline guidelines are dropping the outdated expiration policy, the blog post also notes that “we must reiterate that we strongly recommend additional protections even though they cannot be expressed in our baselines,” and notes that Azure AD password protection and multi-factor authenitcaion are much better alternatives.

In addition to the news about password expiration, default disabling of built in Guest and Administrator accounts are also being proposed for elimination.

Note that removing these settings from the baseline would not mean that we recommend that these accounts be enabled, nor would removing these settings mean that the accounts will be enabled. Removing the settings from the baselines would simply mean that administrators could now choose to enable these accounts as needed.

The proposed guidelines are just that, proposed, and interested parties can download the draft and comment via the blog post.

I recently reviewed the Lenovo Smart Tab P10 and came away thinking it was a device on a trajectory similar to Microsoft’s Surface Pro. In what I considered the early awkward phases of its future proposition, I saw the P10 and its less-premium M10 version as a tablet and separate connected speaker experience attempting to leapfrog the current model of ambient computing known to buyers today and similar to the Surface Pro, I overlooked perhaps one of its biggest selling points, choice.

While the Surface Pro was clunky in its early execution, one of its biggest selling points and what is proving to be its greatest staying power is that it’s a consolidation of financial resources that I often feel tech reviewers take for granted when reviewing expensive and even seemingly inexpensive tech; these devices come with shelf lives much longer than the 30-60 day window we as reviewers become accustomed to. Much like the Surface Pro, the Lenovo Smart Tab P10 and M10 empower their buyers to choose how they use the device.

Where the Surface Pro can make for an awkward dedicated tablet at times, a buyer is also free to use it in tablet mode for as long or as little as they may actually use a dedicated tablet and the same goes for its productivity experience. The Smart Tab P10 and M10 allow buyers the freedom to use it as a tablet or docked Smart Display in a myriad of configurations that more traditional Smart displays are limited by their dedicated construction.

With that being said, much of my earlier review that still holds, however, I took some extra time to play around with the P10 before sending it back to Lenovo and now feel compelled to amend my initial review. The P10, for some, will still be a tablet posing as Smart Speaker/Home Hub-like device, but others might just see what I saw in my late-phase testing of the device, a Smart Speaker/Home-hub-like device that can also offer all the productivity and consumption benefits of a tablet, for roughly the same price as a traditional smart speaker.

Off the top, Lenovo already offers a more traditional smart display experience in its Smart Display powered by Google. The Lenovo Smart Display was first unveiled at CES 2018 and it comes with all the accouterment customary for this type of device, including 10W full range speakers, 8 or 10-inch FHD display and voice assistant for hands-free operations all for the starting price of $199. Other Smart Speakers/Display in this category range from Google’s Home Hub at $149 to Amazon’s pricier Echo Show at $229 and this is where I had to reevaluate the way I reviewed the P10 in that it’s a device that offers all of the features of Smart Display experience while also offering customary benefits of a tablet for a $199.99 starting price.

Being able to dock and undock the display from the premium speaker portion of the P10 and M10 enables a wider range of use cases that move beyond the single room uses often showcased during demos of other Smart Displays. The P10 and M10 can definitely hold their own in a kitchen, living room, bedside table, but they can also do all three at once without having to be moved or the addition of extra hardware.

Once I was able to figure out the Bluetooth issues I was initially having with the dock, I unlocked a whole new world of Alexa Assistant commands and skills used when the tablet was in my bedroom but was gonna later be used in the kitchen or began playing music and video content from different rooms. The P10 and M10 aren’t the only devices that can utilize this sort of Bluetooth magic, but a Sonos set up is arguably more expensive, Chromecast requires the purchase of several pieces of hardware and other Smart Displays are fundamentally limited by their single-use design.

Beyond the Smart Display of the P10 and M10, using the tablet for my more consumption-oriented task led to a better free-flowing of data transfer in the entire experience. When I couldn’t shout out queries for recipes from other rooms due to sleeping children, I was able to un-dock the tablet and take my time to curate a recipe book for lunches and dinners for the week, peacefully and quietly on my couch, that I could later have read to me when cooking.

I also took the time to review the unit as a true Amazon stand, by linking my Amazon Prime music collection the device which made jumping in and out of lists much easier than what I had originally tried doing, which consisted of starting a song in Spotify and having it amplified when docked, thus bypassing the selling points of the Alexa mode.

When initially reviewing the P10 there were two sticking points that I kept running into when using the device, and I was reminded that one of them can be resolved by simply buying the M10. Perhaps, in an attempt to offer a familiar premium smartphone experience in a home hub device, Lenovo opted for glass on glass design for the P10, which for anyone who uses a glass on glass phone without a case knows how unsettling it can be to hold anywhere that isn’t a cushioned couch flanked by tons of soft pillows. However, the M10 offers the same functional experience of the P10 for around $30 less and with a soft-touch back for better grip when the device is being used undocked. The other sticking point was the processing power of the tablet, to which I am still hung up on, but have come to live with. The processing power of the tablet only becomes apparent when compared to my use-case on my Galaxy Note 8 which seems to be quicker at completing tasks.

I use my Note 8 for everything from revising PowerPoint presentations to catching up on Game of Thrones via the Showtime app, but when using any dedicated tablet, I tend to limit my use case scenarios thanks to the proximity of either my smartphone or computer, and I would venture to say a lot of people are in the same boat. While I would like to see the P10 and M10 at least make use of a more powerful Snapdragon processor, I’ve come to acknowledge my actual uses of the tablet were already limited before reviewing the device.

In the end, the M10/P10 are still two devices attempting to offer an experience that’s some might find best served by dedicated hardware, but the reality of spending $199 to $249 to get everything from a tablet, smart assistant, home and kitchen display, Bluetooth speaker and potential home hub is something that more industry manufacturers should look to embrace in the near future.

The second episode of Life is Strange 2 is now available to play for free for all Xbox Game Pass subscribers on Xbox One.
This latest episode follows the events of the first one and also features a tie-in with the Captain Spirit spin-off.

Here’s the official description and trailer:

The two brothers continue their journey on the road into the winter months & struggle against the cold. As Daniel gradually falls ill, Sean’s concern for his younger brother increases and decides the pair of them must make their way to their distant grandparent’s house to recover and seek shelter. During their stay, they encounter next-door neighbour Chris, a young boy the same age as Daniel who believes he is a super-hero by the name of Captain Spirit. As Daniel and Chris begin to form a friendship, Sean insists on Daniel following a set of rules around his power. Will Daniel keep his power concealed or break the rules in a time of need?

Xbox Game Pass is a Netflix-like subscription service for Xbox video games. Every month new game content is added while older games are removed. Subscribers can play the current games in the Xbox Game Pass library in full as if they owned them outright.

Are you an Xbox Game Pass subscriber and are you playing Life is Strange 2? Let us know if you’re enjoying it in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

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