There is no question that Windows laptops have come a long way since the days of weighing four plus pounds, tethering users to power outlets, and delivering regularly faulty trackpad, glitchy screens, and poor keyboard experiences.

Credit Apple’s MacBook line, the MacBook Air in particular, if you’d like but the net results of design focus choices, changes to the way Windows operates and years of refinement have brought Windows PC buyers a plethora of impressive options in the recent years.

Perhaps, the only downside to today’s PC buying experience has been the stark distinction laptop manufacturers are placing on premium experiences. Even relatively new laptop manufacturer Microsoft is participating in the price wars with its Surface line. While the overall PC design has gone through a renaissance of industrial artistry, company’s have been quick to segregate their lineup by price tags.

Fortunately, the rate at which design is evolving, companies such as Lenovo are superseding long-held but seemingly arbitrary cost barriers associated with premium experiences.

Enter the Lenovo Flex 6 (14″).

Processor

• 8th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-8250U Processor (1.60GHz, up to 3.40GHz with Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)
• 7th Generation Intel® Core™ i3-7130U Processor (2.70GHz, 3MB Cache)
• Intel® Pentium® 4415U Processor (2.30GHz, 2MB Cache)

Operating System

• Windows 10 Home

Display

• 14″ HD (1366 x 768) Anti-Glare Multi-touch
• 14″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS Anti-Glare Multi-touch

Graphics

• Up to Integrated Intel® HD Graphics 620

Camera

• 720p HD

Memory

• Up to 8 GB DDR4 2400 MHz

Storage

• Up to 256 GB PCIe SSD

Battery

• Up to 10 hours
• *Features Lenovo Swift Charge

Audio

• Harman speakers with Dolby® Audio™ Premium
• 720p HD with dual array microphone

Ports

• 1 x USB 3.0 Type-C
• 2 x USB 3.0 (one always on)
• HDMI
• 4-in-1 card reader
• Audio combo jack

Connectivity

• 802.11 AC (1 x 1) + Bluetooth® 4.1

Dimensions (W x D x H)

• 12.9″ x 9.01″ x .69″ / 328 x 229 x 17.6 (mm)

Weight

• Starting at 2.2 lbs (1.6 kg)

Prices starts at $849.99

The Bad

As with all my reviews, I like to get the negativity out of the way first. I didn’t find very many downsides to the Lenovo 6 (14″) but there were a handful of things that raised my eyebrow during the review.

Battery

As great as newer PCs have gotten, there is just something about the combination of Windows and Intel that continue to hold laptops back from their full battery potential. The Flex 14 does a decent job of mantaining a healthy 5-6 solid hours of performance on a charge, which falls short of its 10 hour claims. Now, it should be stated that when I say 5-6 hours, that’s of constant on-screen use under a mix of Edge, Chrome, Office, Showtime Anytime (through the browser), Twitter PWA, Instagram (UWP) and Spotify, so I’m not sure which culprit specifically was the battery hog, but regardless, I felt the battery performance could have been better.

Weight

Consider me spoiled but in the age of ultra light laptops, the Flex’s 2.2lbs (1.6 kg) feels every bit as dense as the device looks. There is no sugar coating the weight of the Flex 6, it’s heavy and not very ergonomic when in tablet mode. Perhaps, it’s the matrerials used in the construction of the Flex 6 that lends it to a premium but heafty experience, but whatever the case, most users will know it’s in their backpacks, sacheals, or oversized purses.

Slow Biometrics

Lenovo continues to use fingerprint reading as its go-to Windows Hello bioauthentication choice, which would be fine with me, if it worked faster. I’m not saying it doesn’t work, but at the pace it takes to read a fingerprint correctly, I would rather just enter a pin, or leave the entire device unlocked (in secure locations like work or home). During my testing it took a full 30-45 seconds to read a finger, which, relatively speaking isn’t that long, but multiplying that by how many times in a day a laptop needs authentication, it becomes burdensome.

Necessary attachments

Interestingly enough, Lenovo appeared to have figured out how to incorporate a housing for its pen accessory with the X1 Thinkpad line but for what might be business reasons, has omitted it for the Flex 6. While the X1’s represent a hyper line of productivity machines, I see Flex users getting more use out of the Lenovo pen technology and thus, requiring a better solution than a pen loop attachment that hangs off a USB port.

While clever, I think the more Samsung Note approach to housing the pen accessory on the Thinkpad line should have been applied here. For me, it required too much thought to have always be congniscent of where the pen was when retreving the laptop from or putting it back into my backpack, because heaven help me if that attachment broke and left a chunk of plastic in my USB port.

The Good

The Screen

While only a FHD in a valley of QHD displays, the Flex 6 offers amazing viewing angles and crisp color reproduction. With the Flex 6, Lenovo is also moving toward sliming its bezel profile on its devices while staying sensable with its design. There are no hidden cameras in the Flex 6’s keyboard or placed at weird viewing angles to compensate for the slimmer bezels, it’s just a nice and welcomed thinning of the black area around the sides of the top and sides of the screen owners will appreciate when viewing everything from PDF’s to Netflix or YouTube.

Port Selection

Leovo remains steadfast in being one of the few manufacturers intent on offering bridging port selections for owners. The Flex 6 runs the gamuet of port selections including the coveted USB-C 3.0 port as well as a full HDMI port and a USB 3.0 plus full SD card slot for those external hard drives or camera attachments.

While the dongle-life never really bothered in theory, its was in the practice of need specialized attachments to get even the most basic functionality out of my devices that I took umbridge with. The idea of another piece of equipment taking up space in my bag, the potential for losing it skyrocketing expodentially, and the eventual lack of use of the hardware due to the complexity of set up is something I’m having to deal with more often as I test out newer hardware, and I’m not a fan.

Thankfully, Lenovo is keeping a majority of its port selections and thus making the Flex 6 the perfect transition PC for anyone looking to continue using their older attachements while they invest in newer technologies.

Lenovo Bloatware

That’s right, I’m saying that the Lenovo Vantage app is actually a plus for me. Other reviewers believe a pure Microsoft Signature experience is the only way to go, but with the Lenovo Vantage app, I’m able to maintain driver optimizations right along side my Windows 10 updates. The app takes a quick minute to load, but once I’m utilizing it , I can get lost in there, tweaking color calibraration, audio profiles, hardware scanning and adjust VOIP setups.

Design

The Flex 6 is an understated beauty. It’s brushed Onyx aluminum is solid from top to bottom with only a few accents of black for the screen and darker grey for the keyboard. Lenovo has arguably mastered the 360 hinge and while the watchband is used by the company to indicate a premium experience, I personally think the dual offset rotators are steardy and elegant. Perhaps, I’m a bit lame in what I should want from the design of my laptop, but this Lenovo Flex 6 is the perfect blend of Thinkpad utilitarianism and design flare of a Surface Laptop for me.

Summary

The Flex 6, is premium looking and feeling laptop that won’t break the bank. I would presonally recommend this laptop as a the transitional workhorse for anyone either sending their child off to college or for someone who does creative work in and outside of an office.

For under $1,000, buyers get a 14.0″ screen, the latest Intel processor, 256GB SSD, Fingerprint reader, USB-C 3.0, Harmon Speakers optiimized for Dolby Audio, Active Pen technology, and a touchscreen device that can double as a drawing board or notepad either in a crunch or for more creative pursuits.

The Flex 6 is like a human character in a D&D campaign; it solid across the board with the basics but has the ability (port selection, screen resolution, audio technology, maintenance software, and updated Intel processors and graphics) to be an extrodinary hero for most players.

Microsoft recently announced that it’s making Azure SQL Data Sync Generally available (GA).

For anyone looking for a solid SQL deployment hybrid that will enable them to deploy data-based applications globally by utilizing the local copy of data in each region while keeping all data sychromized in all locations, Microsoft has answered your prayers.

Microsoft’s annoucement should come with its own tiny parade as users will now get their hands on:

What’s new in Azure SQL Data Sync

With the GA announcement, Azure SQL Data Sync supports some new capabilities:

• Better configuration experience – More reliable configuration workflow and more intuitive user experience.
• More reliable and faster database schema refresh – Load database schema more efficiently using new SMO library.
• More secured data synchronization – We reviewed the end-to-end sync workflow and ensured user data are always encrypted at rest and in transit. Data Sync service now meets GDPR compliance requirement.

Interested parties can try out Azure SQL Data Sync here.

Microsoft yesterday announced plans two new data centers in Norway. One of the centers will be in the Stavanger area, another in Oslo, but both mark the first time that Microsoft will have data centers in the region.

The new data centers are expected to go online by late 2019 and will start with the availability of Azure, and then Office 365 and Dynamics 365 later in the year. According to Microsoft, both data centers demonstrate “ambitions to meet increasing customer demand for cloud.”

In the words of  Jason Zander, Executive Vice President, Microsoft Azure.

Over a billion customers around the world trust the intelligent Microsoft Cloud to provide a platform to help transform their businesses… By delivering the Microsoft Cloud from new datacentre regions in Norway, organisations will be empowered through cloud-scale innovation while meeting their data residency, security and compliance needs

Microsoft has had a presence in Norway since 1990, with 600 people working in offices in Lysaker, Oslo, Trondheim, and Tromsø. The new data centers build on this and should also bring innovation across the oil, gas, and other industries in the public sector.

The announcement of these new data centers happened on the same day that Microsoft Azure Europe went down for over five hours. Britain’s The Register reports that the outage was caused by underlying temperature issues in storage and networking systems.

The v4.4 Content Update is now live in Fortnite on all platforms including Microsoft’s Xbox One. This latest update adds a new stink bomb weapon and the new 8-Bit Demo hero skin who seems heavily inspired by Wreck-it-Ralph (see above image).

This latest Fortnite update also adds a new mode called Final Fight in Battle Royale that limits teams to 20 players and stops the storm shrinkage after the third circle. Here’s the full release notes.

Battle Royale

General

Limited Time Mode: Final Fight: Teams of 20: Survive the countdown! The Storm Circles give players more room to hunt down opponents. The final circle triggers a countdown timer; when the time is up, the team with the most players remaining wins. In this LTM, teams can tie for the Victory Royale!

Final Fight plays similar to standard Battle Royale, but instead of the Storm circles closing all the way, the Storm stops after the 3rd circle. When the circles have finished closing in, the final countdown timer will begin. The remaining teams will battle it out until the timer expires. The team with the most players remaining at the end of the timer wins! In the event of a tie, the two (or more) teams tied for the lead win the match.

Weapons + Items

Stink Bomb added. Creates a stinky cloud that deals 5 damage every half-second within the cloud. 9-second duration. Epic rarity. Can be found from floor loot, chests, and Vending Machines. Loot in stacks of 3 with a maximum stack of 5.

Increased the reload time of the Rocket Launcher based on rarity. Rare from 2.3 seconds to 2.8. Epic from 2.185 seconds to 2.66. Legendary from 2.07 to 2.52.

The maximum number of unloaded Rocket Ammo that can be held has been changed to 12.

Bug Fixes

• Enemy built structures are no longer lit up by the thermal scope.
• Cozy Campfires are now lit by the thermal scope.

Gameplay

Bug Fixes

• Back Bling no longer appears detached from players at a distance.
• Fixed the two intersecting busses on the starting island.

Performance

• Fixed performance issues on Switch related to frequently called time functions during gameplay (especially when skydiving).
• Level streaming optimization to smooth out some hitches during skydiving on Switch.

Audio

Bug Fixes

• The music for the Fresh emote has been re-added.
• Fixed attenuation of Supply Drop opening sound so it doesn’t sound like it’s right next to players even if it’s opened far away.
• The Clinger explosion sound now plays properly if detonated directly next to you on iOS/Switch platforms.

UI

Added the “Net Debug Stats” HUD UI option for Xbox.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a crash that could happen after buying items in the Item Shop.
• When using styleable outfits, your last saved version will always appear in the locker preview.

Save The World

Missions + Systems: Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue which could block progression where the Chrome Husky would no longer spawn if the Magnets! quest was completed. Players who were blocked will now be unblocked with this fix.
• Heroes: New Constructor Demolitionist: 8-Bit Demo added to the Event Store.

Do your play Fortnite on your Xbox One? Let us know what level you’re currently at in the comments below and then make sure to follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox news.

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Fortnite

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Microsoft has just released 17692 preview builds for Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server version 1809, the upcoming Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) and Semi-Annual Channel releases of its server OS. These new builds include the first preview of Hyper-V 2019, as well as a new System Insights feature that brings predictive analytics capabilities to the OS without any cloud connectivity.

Among the additional downloads available with these builds, Microsoft mentioned the release of Windows Admin Center Preview 1806, though we’re still waiting for more details about this announcement (a separate blog post mentioned in the release notes has yet to go live). We invite you to check out the full blog post for more details about the other Features on demand and known issues with these builds.

As usual, Windows Insiders can download these latest preview builds from the Windows Server Insider Preview download page. Let us know in the comments if you like the new features introduced with these 17692 preview builds.

Cortana has long been the only digital assistant available on Windows 10, but some of this year’s PCs from Lenovo, Acer, and HP also now come with Amazon Alexa installed on board. Yesterday, our colleagues over at Windows Central published a download link for the Alexa app on Windows, so after trying it today here’s a hands-on look at the experience.

Installing

Alexa is officially only supported on the previously mentioned PCs, but it can still run on any Windows 10 PC with the right .exe install files. Indeed, after clicking and running the .exe file, the Alexa setup will install Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 as part of the prerequisites. It will then install the Amazon Alexa App itself, and let you know when it is finished. Once done you can open the Alexa app from the start menu and sign in with your Amazon Password. You can also tweak the settings on this first boot and enable Alexa to launch when you boot up your computer.

Functions

Even though Alexa’s wake word doesn’t work on my PC, the Alexa app on Windows 10 functions just as it would on an Echo device. Once pinned to the taskbar, you can manually summon Alexa and easily ask the assistant all kinds of general trivia or questions about weather, reminders, jokes, and the news. Of course, Cortana already can do most this stuff, but Alexa does have some extra third-party skills and knowledge which Cortana currently lacks. Please be aware, though, that Alexa on PC can’t make phone calls or send messages, as this is an exclusive feature for Echo devices.

Alexa also integrates nicely with Amazon’s own services, including Amazon Music. Amazon shopping is included too, and you can ask Alexa to add certain items to your shopping cart. Answers will be provided in a card-style interface, similar to the Android version of the app. You can see all this in the video below, where I asked Alexa about NASCAR, have it play Jeopardy with me, and asked it to play me a song. It’s nice to have this stuff available from another service, even though Cortana already does most of it.

Keeping Alexa on the taskbar

Cortana has a dedicated area on the taskbar in Windows 10, and you can do something similar for Alexa if you feel the need. To do this, you can head to the start menu and find Amazon Alexa in the list. After that, you can right-click on it, select “more.” and then click on “Pin to Taskbar.” This will eliminate the need to constantly open the Start Menu and click on the app to interact with Cortana.

What’s broken and doesn’t work

Alexa on Windows 10 can connect with your Microsoft Account so the assistant can read your Outlook calendar or make appointments, but that’s just about all the Microsoft data you’ll get from it. There is no support for voice volume controls with Alexa on Windows 10, and the assistant can’t send emails on Windows or read your contacts.

It’s likely a limit set by Microsoft, but with Alexa and Cortana partnership still on the way, more might be heading to the dedicated Windows 10 app soon. This also could be why the Alexa wake word also won’t work on certain PCs, as I described above.

Final thoughts

At the end of the day, Alexa on Windows 10 doesn’t really live up to the hype that I thought it would. The app does some extra things and has more third-party connections, but it’s not really as productive and integrated with Windows as Cortana is. As a Windows user, I feel as though Alexa is not nicely designed and clean, and just a wrap of an Android application. There’s more time on the road ahead for this Amazon Alexa app to evolve, and I’ll be sticking to Cortana for now.

Today is a great day for Call of Duty fans as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the last installment in the Modern Warfare saga is joining the Xbox One Backward Compatibility list. Modern Warfare 3 was one of the top requested Xbox 360 games from Xbox One gamers, and it’s also 50% off as part of this week’s Deals with Gold.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is coming to Xbox One Backward Compatibility today (and it is currently on sale in this week's Deals With Gold) https://t.co/qPMRNs2ZLo pic.twitter.com/MouA9LYTwW

— Larry Hryb ????????☁ (@majornelson) June 19, 2018

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was released back in 2011 on the Xbox 360, and while it didn’t get as much critical acclaim as the first and second games in the series, it remains a beloved games that brought a couple of innovations: there was a new cooperative mode called Survival, a revamped Killstreak reward system as well as a couple of new multiplayer modes.

Now that both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 3 are backward compatible, you may be wondering if MW2 may be coming soon. It may not be the case as according to a recent leak, a remastered version of the game could be released on the Xbox later this Fall along with the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. We’ll see what happens, but for now it’s nice to see Activision bringing back old-school Call of Duty games on the Xbox One.

Adobe announced today a new integration of its PDF technologies across Office 365, with the company’s PDF services now being available in the online versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Office 365 subscribers with a subscription to Adobe Acrobat DC for teams or enterprise will be able to create PDFs from Office files right from the ribbon, but Adobe PDF services are also available in SharePoint and OneDrive.

In addition to these new PDF services integrations, Adobe also announced today new advancements in Adobe Sign, Microsoft’s preferred e-signature solution for Office 365. Adobe Sign is now more deeply integrated with Dynamics 365, with a redesigned UI providing quick access to data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Lastly, e’ve more deeply embedded Sign with Microsoft Dynamics CRMAdobe plans to host Adobe Sign on Microsoft Azure in the US in the next few weeks.

“Microsoft and Adobe share a common vision of the workplace of the future—one that is centered on teamwork and collaboration,” said Ron Markezich, corporate vice president, Microsoft Office 365 at Microsoft Corp. “Building on the initial success of our partnership focused on Adobe Sign, we’re thrilled that Microsoft Office 365 customers now have access to the expansive PDF services from Adobe, right within the tools they use every day.”

Until June 25th, anyone who gifts the new Unravel 2 video game to someone else on Xbox One will get to enjoy one month of EA Access for free. To gift the game to a friend, all gamers need to do is visit the game’s product page either in a web browser or on an Xbox One console and choose the Buy as a gift option.

EA Access is a video game subscription service that’s not unlike Microsoft’s own Xbox Game Pass. Members typically pay a monthly fee and in exchange are given access to a select library of full video game titles. EA Access features a large selection of major video games that were published by EA such as Titanfall 2, Need For Speed Payback, and Battlefield Hardline so the service has become pretty popular with gamers who want to play popular titles but can’t afford to buy them outright.

Unravel 2 is a very new video game that was announced and launched during last week’s E3. It’s a sequel to the original Unravel, which was also released on the Xbox One, and improves on the original with a strong focus on local co-op and 4K resolution when played on an Xbox One X console.

Have you played Unravel 2 yet and are you thinking of gifting it to a friend to get that free month of EA Access? Let us know in the comments below and make sure to follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox content.

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Unravel Two

Developer:
Electronic Arts

Price:
Free

The Windows 10 Microsoft To-Do app has updated today with some new options and bug fixes. Of particular note is the new customization options for the My Day section which now allows users to add a background image and hide completed tasks.

Here’s the full official release notes for all of the details.

• Have you tried out List Sharing yet? Just tap the sharing icon, create a list share link and send it to collaborators using the app of your choice.
• We’ve added list options to My Day, so you can now select your background, sort your to-dos and choose to hide your completed to-dos there.
• Speaking of My Day, you may have noticed that we weren’t always showing the recurring to-dos you’d added there. We’ve fixed that glitch, so we’ll no longer remove to-dos you add to My Day.
• Our bulk editing has been improved, making it easier to update due dates for multiple to-dos. With this update, you can now bulk edit the due dates of groups of to-dos that currently have different due dates.

Microsoft To-Do is a basic Windows 10 task management app and is also available for free on iOS and Android devices. Users can sync data between the different To-Do apps by signing in with the same Microsoft account.

Do you use To-Do? Let us know what devices you use it on in the comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for more Windows 10 app news.

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Microsoft To Do: Lists, Tasks & Reminders

Developer:
Microsoft Corporation

Price:
Free

After a full year of delay, countless rumors, leaks, and some hush-hush from Microsoft execs, the new Xbox Avatars are finally ready for testing. Indeed, Xbox Insider Team Lead, Bradley Rossetti, unexpectedly revealed tonight that Alpha and Alpha – Skip Ahead Xbox Insiders will finally get the new Avatar Editor app tomorrow (June 19 in the US) by noon PDT.

As teased at E3 2017, Microsoft’s new Xbox avatars will reflect new categories and come with custom color combinations. Xbox Insiders lucky enough to test can expect to see a new range of body types, gender neutral clothes, and new items and accessories on Xbox avatars. These also include the ability to change fingernails, makeup, limbs, nose rings, and moods.

Bradley Rossetti added that only the Avatar Editor will be available for testing, with Xbox dashboard integration coming soon. New content (accessories, props, moods, clothing, and appearance categories) will also regularly be unlocked and added after launch, as Rossetti explained:

First unveiled last year, a major update to Avatars is arriving today for Xbox Insiders. Avatars will be a unique representation of your desired style, personality, creativity, and mood as you play on Xbox One. As an Xbox Insider, you’re among the first to get your hands on the new Avatars. With this release, you can get a head start on creating a new Xbox Avatar within the beta Xbox Avatar Editor app.

Rosetti remarked that you’ll be able to change the skin tone, wearables, and props on an Xbox avatar in up to 16 million color options. Closet items will also support custom colors, and he claims that the color combos for any single item can go up to “from trillions all the way up to almost eighty octillion.”

In addition to the new categories and the custom color combinations, there will also be a new Photobooth feature in the Avatar Editor. From here, there will be new options for posting an Avatar in new emotes and advancing poses frame-by-frame or changing backgrounds. You also can expect the new Xbox avatars to reflect gamers with disabilities, including wheelchairs and prosthetics.

As is usual, the new Xbox Avatar Editor will likely roll out to the other rings in the Xbox Insider program in a few weeks, followed by a wider rollout to the general public. No word yet on if these avatars will also come to Windows 10, but things look pretty promising, so feel free to let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Fallout 76 was one of the most hotly anticipated games coming out of E3 2018 and perhaps among the top three well-received unveilings during the convention.

Hot off a successful fan tease at E3, developer studio Bethesda will be giving some eager fans a hands-on of things to come in Fallout 76 with its Break-it-Early test platform, aptly called B.E.T.A.

While it will offer some limited gameplay for fans the B.E.T.A is primarily designed for Bethesda to test server capacity issues that may arise as the game takes on a more open multiplayer format for this installment.

ICYMI: Fallout 76 (@Fallout) is available for Digital Pre-order and Pre-download on Xbox One and has a standard and Tricentennial Edition to choose from https://t.co/uQOusRikmA pic.twitter.com/yHlxZnCQrG

— Larry Hryb ????????☁ (@majornelson) June 18, 2018

According to a report from ScreenRant, “considering Fallout has never been an MMO before, and the maps are promised to be four times bigger than Fallout 4, there’ss a lot that could go wrong in the early days of Fallout 76.”

Furthermore, Bethesda is granting Xbox One users who pre-ordered Fallout 76 early access to the B.E.T.A, ahead of its PS4 and PC counterpoints. The B.E.T.A exclusive grab is a big one for the Xbox division and with the Xbox One X and One S on steep discounts right now, it help the company rack up a handful of console sales prior to the holiday rush.

Unfortunately, there is no concrete timeframe for the B.E.T.A release on Xbox One, but fans who pre-order the game will be among the first to know exactly when they’ll be let into a part of the game prior to its release later this fall.

Twitter has steadily updated their Progressive Web app on Windows 10 over the past few months, and it is now picking up yet another feature. With the latest update, the app now supports the native share dialog in Windows 10 (via MSPoweruser.)

Seen in the featured image above, you can now summon the Windows 10 share dialog from the Twitter PWA and share links in more ways than one. You can choose to share to one of your contacts specifically, nearby devices, or just opt to share with other apps in the Store. Though a small touch, it is still a nice little feature that makes it easier for when you want to share that viral tweet with your family and friends.

This is just the latest addition to the Twitter PWA, which has gotten more updates in the last few months than the Twitter UWP ever received. Updates for all PWAs are automatic and previous Twitter PWA features include support for Live Tiles, Jump lists, and share dialog targeting.

You can head to the link below to download the Twitter PWA. Once you’ve downloaded, feel free to try out the share feature now and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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Twitter

Developer:
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Microsoft announced this morning the acquisition of Flipgrid, a video-based social learning platform already used by more than 20 million students and educators worldwide, for an undisclosed amount. This is the company’s latest move to remain one of the top players in the education market, where it has been facing increased competition from Google and Apple in recent years

Flipgrid was created back in 2015 as video discussion platform for students, family and educators, and it currently has iOS and Android mobile apps, integrations with OneNote, Microsoft Teams and many other platforms. Now that Flipgrid is now part of Microsoft, the service has become free for all educators and students and Redmond will provide a prorated refund to every educator who upgraded in the past year.

“Equipping students with the skills they need to thrive in this future will require an engaged community made up of dedicated administrators, great teachers, motivated students and involved parents,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “Technology is merely a tool to enable their creativity and ingenuity. Together with Flipgrid, we aim to democratise these tools to empower every indicators and student to create the world of tomorrow,” he added.

Last week Microsoft released Windows 10 build 17692, and it came with new enhancements for the Game Bar and some other new features. As usual, these changes were documented the minute the build dropped, but Microsoft has since updated the build announcement post with two new features that were initially missed. Indeed, also new in Windows 10 build 17692 is Fluent Design in system flyout menus and some OneDrive Files On-Demand improvements.

Heads up #WindowsInsiders – we've updated the blog post for Build 17692 to include some items we missed initially including acrylic in menus and a Storage Sense improvement: https://t.co/rrL8UUtuoX

— Brandon LeBlanc (@brandonleblanc) June 15, 2018

Windows Insiders should now notice that light dismiss XAML controls and transient XAML services in this build now features Fluent Design’s Acrylic material. This is best seen in system context menus, flyouts, auto suggest box dropdowns, combo box dropdowns, date and time picker flyouts, and media transport control flyouts. Other apps which are using the SDK for this build or higher will also see this change by default.

Additionally, with the improvements to FIles on Demand, Microsoft is looking to help clean storage on your system when space is running low. With build 17692, users can now make any downloaded Files-On Demand from OneDrive online-only if they weren’t used in a certain period of time. The setting can be found in Settings > System > Storage > Storage Sense.

It’s nice to see that Microsoft is improving on Fluent Design and also helping users save space on their PCs. We’re looking forward to another new build this week and hope it comes with even more cool features and even the autoplay feature for Edge which was initially teased last week.

Microsoft has released the latest major Microsoft Launcher update for Android users. Having been in beta testing for a few weeks, version 4.10 of Microsoft’s Android launcher bring a number of features out of beta and into the public release.

Here is the changelog for the update:

• Stay up to date on your kids’ whereabouts and their app activities with the family card in the feed**
• Search the web with a picture, snap a new pic from the search bar to visually search (US only)
• Earn Microsoft Rewards points for using Bing Search (US only)
• Wallpaper UX improvements

Users of the Microsoft Launcher can now keep a better eye on their kids’ whereabouts, thanks to the new family card that will show up in the feed. Additionally, Microsoft Rewards points can now be earned via the built-in Bing search.

The update is available now via the Google Play Store.

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Microsoft Launcher

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Microsoft Corporation

Price:
Free