Microsoft (MSFT) 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’s Edge dev team releases new cross-platform version of its Node-ChakraCore engine

2 years ago, Microsoft open sourced its Edge ChakraCore engine. Now, after announcing last year that it wants to bring the engine to macOS and Linux, the company has released a cross-platform version of its Node-ChakraCore engine.

Microsoft’s cloud first strategy has it focusing on usage as InTune adds 2 million users in June

As Microsoft’s strategy continues to be ever-more reinforced with the cloud, the company has begun to focus on usage as a measurement of success, rather than revenue. A recent example is InTune adding 2 million users in June, showing strong usage, leading it to be a successful product.

Microsoft makes cloud moves: joins Cloud Native Group, previews Azure Container Instances service

Microsoft is joining the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) as a platinum member as part of its open source strategy. Additionally, the company is aiming to compete with Amazon Web Services offering a public preview of Azure Container Services, a single container that is billed by the second.

Microsoft Teams iOS apps updated with HD audio and video, new meetings tab and more

Microsoft business communication tool, Microsoft Teams, has received a significant update on iOS, bringing HD audio and video, a new meetings tab and more. With this update, the app on both iOS and Android are nearly identical in terms of features.

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

Tripwire Interactive, the development studio behind Killing Floor 2, announced that the game is coming to Xbox One on August 29th. The same press release also stated that the studio has been working on bringing enhancements for the game on Xbox One X, namely 4K resolutions.

While the game took “maybe 4 hours of programming effort,” according to the Senior Graphics Programmer, Dave Elder, the game will not be able to run at 4K on Xbox One X, due to the frame rate drop being too significant. Instead, the game will run at a fixed resolution of 1800p (via Wccftech) with no checker boarding. Comparatively, the PlayStation 4 Pro version of the game also runs at 1800p, but with checker boarding, rather than native resolution.

Additionally, there are no plans for HDR support at this time.

The game is coming to Xbox One on August 29th, priced at $39.99 and £29.99 respectively.

In Windows 10 build 16251 Microsoft added a new feature dubbed “Continue on PC”. It’s a continuity feature, in which a task on a mobile device, such as Android or iOS, can be carried over and continued on to a Windows 10 PC.

Take a look at the feature in action as our very own Cody Carson explains it:

Now, the “Continue on PC” app for iOS is available from the App Store. Upon installation, opening the app shows a selection of slides on how the process works, and from then on you won’t need to open the app. Just leave it silently installed, and then use the “Share” menu within apps you use to bring the task to your PC.

Here is a look at how the process works:

Download
QR-Code

‎Continue on PC

Developer:
Microsoft Corporation

Price:
Free

In the past, tech companies such as Microsoft often relied on how much revenue a product made to determine its success. With numbers large or small, products pushed out would be judged for continuance based on a simple consumer figure that could be misleading, particularly for products that rely on continuous usage. But for Microsoft, revenue isn’t everything anymore according to Brad Anderson’s recent blog post.

With the focus now on usage, Microsoft can gain insights on how consumers interact with a product. Furthermore, it allows the tech giant to collect feedback, improve, and change a product depending on the amount of usage that it provides. Anderson shared that with the recent fiscal year earnings reports, usage for Azure AD, System Center ConfigMgr, and Intune all saw more growth than expected. Intune itself had 2 million new subscriptions activated in June 2017 alone.

Since the architectures of Intune and Azure AD have been deeply aligned together, both services can update their facets independently and maintain compatibility. Sometimes as quickly as ten times a day, according to Anderson’s post. All of these improvements are based on analyzing the usage and feedback data provided to Microsoft via the cloud.

As technology moves forward, it can advance based on how consumers interact with products and create a cultural change. Read more about Anderson’s thoughts on the Technet blog post.

As promised from Dona Sarkar and the team a few weeks ago, the Windows Insider website had a major overhaul launched today with tons more information about the program. While it looks similar to the previous pages, it now includes details about how builds are released and what to expect in each specific release ring.

Another noticeable feature on the site is the addition of preview build highlights. This page gives prospective new Windows Insiders a glimpse at what they can toy with in the latest releases. Which in this case includes items like Story Remix, My People, and more for the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

Beginners should find the redesigned Windows Insider site easier to navigate and learn from. If mistakes were made, it’s even easier to leave the program with a conveniently easy to find button on the site. Furthermore, a ‘Recover your device‘ section has been added where Insiders can learn how to roll back previous builds including links to recovery images for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

Since Microsoft launched its new Edge browser with Windows 10 two years ago, the company made it clear that it wants to expand its Chakracore Javascript engine beyond Windows 10 devices. Perhaps, that’s why Redmond open sourced the engine two years ago, before announcing efforts to bring it to macOS and Linux last year

Yesterday, the company announced the release of a new preview of Node-ChakraCore, its engine based on Node.js 8 that now runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. The engine now supports the next-generation Node.js API (N-API), which aims to provide a stable Node API for native module developers. “This allows N-API-enabled native modules to just work across different versions and flavors of Node.js, without recompilations,” emphasized the Edge team.

In addition, support for Node.js API, Microsoft also announced that Node-ChakraCore has also been used to make the Node.js Javascript runtime environment run on iOS. “This takes Node.js to iOS for the first time, expanding the reach of the Node.js ecosystem to an entirely new category of devices,” explained the team.

As Microsoft is now done with making Node-Chakracore fully cross-platform, the Edge team will now focus on other priorities such as performance and module compatibility. “These are our primary focus for the immediate future, and we look forward to sharing progress with the community as it happens,” the blog post reads. You can download the latest versions of Node-Chakracore on the dedicated GitHub.

Since the Windows Insider team announced last month that Fast Ring would no longer get app updates for Windows 10 native apps, it has become a bit difficult to keep track of what’s happening with all of Microsoft’s Windows 10 apps. Over the past few weeks, it seems that all the good stuff went first to Insiders on the Release Preview Ring, including a very interesting update for the Photos app that is apparently rolling out to some of them.

However, Fast Ring Insiders who recently chose to “Skip Ahead” to pre-release Redstone 4 builds can once again receive app updates for Windows 10 stock apps. If you’re a member of that cool crowd, you should receive today a new update for the Groove Music app which brings more Fluent Design touches to the already good-looking music player.

As you can see in the GIF below (the new version of the app is on the right), there is a new lighting effect when you hover your mouse above albums and playlists, and the size of the slightly transparent buttons has also been increased.

Additionally, a new “Visualizers” feature has reportedly popped up in the settings, but you can’t use it yet. It’s still unclear if Microsoft is planning to bring back the old Windows Media Player visualizers, or if this is something completely new. We’ll have to wait for future updates to see what Microsoft has in the pipeline. As you may know, there is no “Skip Ahead” option on Windows 10 Mobile for now, so this update is only available on Windows 10 PCs. Let us know in the comments what do you think of this latest update.

Thanks for the tip, Leo!

We’re just a couple of days away from the beginning of the IAAF World Championships in London, and Microsoft is ready to help fans of track and field athletics to follow the competition and all their favourite athletes. To do that, the team is launching today the SPIKES bot, which is the official bot for the competition starting August 4th.

After adding the SPIKES Bot to your contacts, you can start asking it questions about every attending athetes, competitions, schedules, official results and more. “Updates from Skype will include videos and images of the most breathtaking moments, all served directly, as well as “Live View,” a one-click way to get updated with live reports from the Olympic Stadium in London,” added the Skype team.

You can add the bot to your contact list today by searching for “SPIKES Bot” in the app’s bot directory, but you can also add it from the web by clicking here.

Over the past couple of years, it seems Apple and Google have been leading the charge on injecting artificial intelligence and machine learning into their respective photo imaging software.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has been arguably sitting on the sideline with no real solution for Window 10 users on either the desktop or on mobile, but it looks like that is about to change.

As Windows Central is reporting, Microsoft is in the midst of a soft roll out of its ‘intelligent’ image search in its Photos app.

During the reveal of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Microsoft briefly touched on the fact that new features were coming to the Photos app and among them was the addition of a more robust search options for users.

The app update adds a standard-looking search bar to the upper right corner. Clicking it begins the indexing process on OneDrive which can take some time depending on how many photos you have (we’re past 6,000, and the indexing takes about a second per image, so at least 90 minutes for our collection).

Some other features of the new ‘intelligent’ addition are:

• Suggested Albums
• Suggested Tags
• Indexing of Cloud stored images
• Photo grouping
• Enhanced settings controls

Intelligent search also brings some new UI elements to the Photos app that includes a new search area, mini slide show and a breakout of the refresh button from the ellipsis menu.

Unfortunately, all of this photo goodness isn’t being rolled out to every Windows user evenly. According to Windows Central, Fast Ring or Production Preview Insiders have yet to see the update meaning it’s only being seen by Release Preview Ring users for some odd reason.

With the core of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update being feature set, Insiders on all rings should soon begin to see the apps start to take advantage of the new set of APIs and OS tie ins.

A Windows 10 app originally designed for Windows Phone has updated with support for Microsoft”s Xbox One console. Named, My Piano Phone, the app is a basic touchscreen piano imitator but uses the Xbox One controller to function on the console. It’s not the best music creation app out there but it is free and could provide some nice entertainment for younger gamers. Here’s the app feature list:

• Acoustic Piano, Electric Piano, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Trumpet and Violin
• Lot of songs to play and learn
• Full Keyboards of Piano
• Chords
• Multi Touch
• One, two or mirror keyboards at a time
• Drumkit
• And more…

Have you tried this app yet? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Download
QR-Code

My Piano Phone

Developer:
Son Lam

Price:
Free

The Windows 10 Fitbit app updated on PC and Mobile today with some improvements to GPS accuracy and stability, design improvements, as well as the usual bug and stability fixes.

While the stability fixes have been long overdue (the menu items and tab thankfully no longer get mixed up) the most notable aspect of this update is the “design improvements” which actually add a splash of Microsoft’s new Fluent Design aesthetic to the app.

This new design is pretty subtle but can be seen on the PC app when pressing the Fitbit device icon in the top-right corner of the app (which places a frosted glass filter over the majority of the app) and on Mobile when clicking on friends in the Friends tab (which triggers a similar effect but as a transition). This frosted glass effect has appeared on other recently updated apps with Fluent Design such as Groove Music and Xbox. It’s unclear if this is official Fluent Design but it’s at least inspired by it.

Fitbit has always been a strong support for Microsoft platforms and that doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. Just earlier today, Fitbit announced new integration with Microsoft’s Cortana virtual assistant with more updates apparently planned for the new future.

Do you like today’s app update and have you noticed any other changes? Let us know in the comments below.

Download
QR-Code

Fitbit

Developer:
Fitbit

Price:
Free

Microsoft today is releasing the ISO files for Windows 10 S to developers who have an MSDN subscription. The release enables these developers to download the new Windows operating system to their machines and test out the applications which they have planned to release to the Windows Store (via The Verge.)

The news comes more than a few months after Microsoft initially unveiled Windows 10 S during an education focused event in New York City. Although the Surface Laptop ships with Windows 10 S pre-installed, Microsoft is reportedly releasing the ISO files today so developers with a specialty in education can see if Windows 10 S is ready for the classroom.

Of course, not everyone is an MSDN subscriber, and entry into the program costs anywhere from $45 to $2,999. With this so, Microsoft is obviously not yet making it easy for the average consumer to switch and just download Windows 10 S. Reports, though, do show that the company does have plans to update the Upgrade Assistant Tool, which means Windows 10 S could possibly be included for a wider audience to test out in the future.

On Twitter today Major Nelson announced that Tomb Raider: Underworld is heading to the Xbox One via Backward Compatibility. The news comes as the Xbox One Backward Compatibility list topped 400 titles with the addition of Raiden IV, Red Faction: Armageddon, and Gyruss. As always, you can read up on Tomb Raider: Underworld, and check out the game trailer, prices below.

Tomb Raider Underworld is coming to Xbox One Backward Compatibility today https://t.co/qPMRNs2ZLo pic.twitter.com/SKClshDgo0

— Larry Hryb ????????☁ (@majornelson) July 27, 2017

Tomb Raider Underworld: $19.99

Designed specifically to take advantage of the latest technologies Tomb Raider Underworld represents a new advancement in exploration-based gameplay. As fearless adventurer Lara Croft explore exotic locations around the world, each designed with an incredible attention to detail resulting in breathtaking high-definition visual fidelity that creates a truly believable world and delivers a new level of challenge and choice.

As an extra bonus, several Tomb Raider: Underworld DLC have now gone free in the Xbox Store, including the Tomb Raider: Underworld Designer Costume Pack, Tomb Raider: Underworld Wetsuit Costume Pack, and Tomb Raider: Underworld Classic Costumes.

If you already own the digital version of this game,  it will automatically show up in the “Ready to Install” section on your Xbox One. And, if you own a disc version, you can insert the disc into your console, and your Xbox will begin downloading the game to your hard drive, though you will still need the disc to play.

Two weeks ago, Microsoft released the Windows 10 SDK Preview Build 16232 for app developers, bringing some bug fixes as well as some API additions and removals. The Redmond giant still has some time to release new preview versions of the Fall Creators Update SDK before rolling out the next major Windows 10 update, but future versions will mostly be about bug fixes and minor improvements.

Indeed, Microsoft’s Kevin Gallo shared yesterday during a Channel 9 live video that the Fall Creators Update SDK is now “platform complete” (via Neowin). In other words, the build 16232 of the SDK already includes all the latest developer features necessary to make the best use of Fluent Design, Project Centennial, Project Rome and more. You can watch the full webcast below if you want to learn more about the Fall Creators Update SDK:

If you have yet to download the build 16232 of the SDK, you can do so on the developer section of Microsoft’s Windows Insider website. Be aware that the latest version is only supported by Visual Studio 2017, and it also has some known issues that you can check here.

Staying fit just got a whole lot easier, at least in the United States. Microsoft today announced the availability of the Fitbit skill for Cortana in the US, making it simpler for you to monitor your health and fitness goals using Cortana on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and soon the Harman Kardon Invoke speaker.

To get started and ask the digital assistant about your fitness routine, you must first connect your Fitbit account to Cortana by saying “Hey Cortana, Open Fitbit.” After doing so, you will no longer need to visit the Fitbit app or Fitbit website to keep track of activities such as your steps, or water consumption.

When promoted, Cortana will instead read aloud your progress and even give you words of inspiration to help you meet your goals. Here is a short description of how it works. Here is a short description of how it works.

You can say, “Hey Cortana, Ask Fitbit how am I doing today,” along with several other supported health and fitness prompts to learn about your daily progress. Cortana will not only read out your progress – like active minutes you’ve logged, how you slept last night, or the number of calories you’ve burned for any day within the previous week – but may also show you a short summary with all the handy information.

Interestingly, Cortana is able to provide responses based on the time of day, and will even update Fitbit about your food and beverage intake with the voice prompt “Hey, Cortana, tell Fitbit to log….”  Examples of other Fitbit Cortana prompts can be seen below.

• “Hey Cortana, ask Fitbit how much water I’ve had today”
• “Hey Cortana, ask Fitbit how many calories do I have left to eat”
• “Hey Cortana, ask Fitbit how many steps do I have left”
• “Hey Cortana, ask Fitbit how many workouts I need to do this week”
• “Hey Cortana, Ask Fitbit how am I doing today”
• “Hey Cortana, show me my leaderboard”

At the moment, the Cortana Fitbit skill is only available in the United States, and Microsoft is saying that other markets will be added over time. The Fitbit skill is all part of the Cortana Skill Kit, which was announced as a public preview back at Build 2017.

Once again former head of Windows Phone development Joe Belfiore has managed to stoke the flames. Aangry and jilted fans and phone owners of Microsoft’s failed mobile platform fired back as he explained a new feature found in the latest Windows 10 Insider preview 16251.

We have no hate for WP! In fact, we're trying to bring some of it's benefits (Cortana, PC connection) to our tons of iOS/Android users.

— Joe Belfiore (@joebelfiore) July 26, 2017

While his intentions may have been to clear up some misunderstanding between the direction the Windows development team was taking and the disheartened assumptions of a lingering tribe of Windows phone fans, his explanation was met with clear upset and disappointed fervor.

Ok, again, how exactly does this (or anything else) benefit WP or its users? An answer of some sort, for once, would be nice.

— Not_That_Dude (@Not_That_Dude) July 26, 2017

We don't feel the love though. We usually feel more like 2nd class citizens when it comes to MS products and services. Just sayin'.

— Dan Roth (@Dan12R) July 26, 2017

Not that you know, the fans just wanted some concrete evidence that wp is not dead like a new device.

— ????Johnathan Dalipsingh???? (@JohnathanDavidD) July 26, 2017

This latest muddled communication effort isn’t the first time Joe B has been on the receiving end of a bunch of angry and disappointed Windows phone fans as it would seem he has a history of delivering bad news under the guise of transparency for the platform.

Back in 2011, Joe B was under fire from fans and users as the pledge to get the platform on track with regular and transparent updates, to rectify the platform’s omission of very basic features such as copy/paste. Then a year later he was once again being raked over the coals about how Windows Phone 7.5 devices could not be upgraded to Windows Phone 8 due to a structural engineering hurdle.

Perhaps, Windows phone fans and user base are a bit more temperamental than others when it comes to showing love for their chosen platform, but after years of empty promises, failed marketing, and the gradual degradation of the operating system, Joe B’s attempt at explaining the broadening of the Windows 10 ecosystem at the expenses of Windows 10 Mobile probably feels like trolling at this point.

The closed beta for Path of Exile is now running and gamers interested in checking out the game (and testing it) before it publically launches later this year can sign up for it here. Space is limited in this closed beta and users will be invited manually after their applications are processed.

The Xbox One version of Path of Exile contains all of the content currently released on PC and it will also gain Xbox One X support with full 4K resolution later in the year. A brief description of the game was provided:

Earn devastating skills and valuable items as you fight your way through the dark continent of Wraeclast. With unrivaled character customization, Path of Exile is an award-winning online Action RPG created by hardcore gamers, for hardcore gamers. We’re proud to bring Path of Exile (including its latest expansion, The Fall of Oriath) to the Xbox One.

Are you excited for Path of Exile and have you applied to partake in the closed beta? Let us know in the comments!

Microsoft has just announced that Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Ultimate Evil Edition will be free to download and play this weekend on the Xbox One for Xbox Live Gold members. Due to the time differences and different zones involved, the free play window has been given a bit of a buffer and will begin at 12:01 am PST on Thursday, July 27th and will run until 11:59 pm PST on Monday, July 31st.

“Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Ultimate Evil Edition contains both Diablo III and the Reaper of Souls expansion set, together in one definitive volume,” the announcement reads. “Rise as one of humanity’s last defenders – Crusader, Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, Monk, or Wizard – and collect legendary loot while mastering devastating new powers and abilities. Play solo or form a party of up to four other heroes through local split-screen multiplayer or with your friends online. Lay waste to hordes of evil throughout all five acts of the Diablo III storyline, or explore the open world in Adventure Mode to hunt bounties on the elder evils that lurk throughout the mortal realms.”

As with other free play days, all game progress will be saved in the cloud so should the gamer buy they full game in the future, they can pick up where they left off. All Xbox Achievements unlocked will also remain unlocked. To encourage gamers to buy the game, Diablo III: Eternal Collection, which contains the Ultimate Evil Edition, will have its price reduced by 35% for the trial period.

Are you a Diablo III fan and are you going to play it this weekend? Let us know in the comments below.

In a time where ransomware and cyber attacks are ever so more common, technology giants need to take additional steps to help secure their software and products. Indeed, in the spirit of helping “maintain a high-security bar in Windows,” Microsoft today announced the launch of the Windows Bounty Program.

The program covers four different categories and gives good acting hackers, and researchers monetary payouts ranging from $500 to up to $250,000 for successfully reporting exploits found in various Windows features. More specifically, the program covers all features of the Windows Insider Preview, focus areas in Hyper-V, Mitigation bypass, Windows Defender Application Guard, and Microsoft Edge.  You can learn more about the program by reading below:

• Any critical or important class remote code execution, elevation of privilege, or design flaws that compromises a customer’s privacy and security will receive a bounty
• The bounty program is sustained and will continue indefinitely at Microsoft’s discretion
  Bounty payouts will range from $500 USD to $250,000 USD
• If a researcher reports a qualifying vulnerability already found internally by Microsoft, a payment will be made to the first finder at a maximum of 10% of the highest amount they could’ve received (example: $1,500 for a RCE in Edge, $25,000 for RCE in Hyper-V)
• All security bugs are important to us and we request you report all security bugs to [email protected] via Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure (CVD) policy

Microsoft already has bounty programs in place for Office Insider builds on Windows 10, and Microsoft Edge. The company believes firmly in these types of programs and with security always changing, is saying “we trust that it serves to enhance our security capabilities.” You can learn more Microsoft’s Bounty Programs by clicking here.

If you haven’t heard yet, there’s a new Windows 10 Preview build on the Fast ring, and it’s got some Insiders all worked up. In build 16251 released moments ago, the Windows 10 boot up experience was improved to use any sign-in info to apply settings after restarting or updating via the power options.

Essentially, Windows will automatically setup your account after it’s been rebooted instead of having to start over, sign in, and open your applications once more.

The news has been such a major addition for the upcoming Fall Creators Update that Jen Gentleman from the Windows Insider team has been shouting it on high about how cool this feature is. “Why is this change cool?” Gentleman prompted on Twitter. “Basically w/ the setting enabled, if you reboot all apps registered to reopen will do just that.”

Any application that has the RegisterApplicationRestart function (a default in many Microsoft apps) will be available for restart through the improved boot up experience.

I already tried it on my PC (turned it on, opened a bunch of O2016 emails, then Start>Power>Reboot) and it worked like a charm <3

— Jen Gentleman ???? (@JenMsft) July 26, 2017

Not just Gentleman seems to be excited about it. Other users are expressing how quick it is to reboot now, improving login times, reducing waiting periods, and essentially making Windows 10 even more productive. Of course, if the feature doesn’t appeal to you, you can opt out in the settings.

Let us know what you think about the new reboot experience in the comments below.

In an effort to compete with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft created a new Azure service, Azure Container Instances services. According to a story on GeekWire, Microsoft’s Azure Container Instances service is currently available as a public preview for Linux containers, and allows developers to start containers on Azure and have the container “billed by the second.”

Microsoft details Azure Container Instances in more technical depth on the Azure blog. Microsoft gives us a better idea of what Azure Container Instance service is and what it can do.

“An Azure Container Instance is a single container that starts in seconds and is billed by the second. ACI offer highly versatile sizing, allowing you to select the exact amount of memory separate from the exact count of vCPUs, so your application perfectly fits on the infrastructure. Your containers won’t be billed for a second longer than is required and won’t use a GB more than is needed. With ACI, containers are a first-class object of the Azure platform, offering Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) on the instance and billing tags to track usage at the individual container level. As the service directly exposes containers, there is no VM management you need to think about or higher-level cluster orchestration concepts to learn. It is simply your code, in a container, running in the cloud.”

In another development, Microsoft is joining the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) as a platinum member. Corey Sanders, Partner Director for Microsoft, notes what Microsoft’s CNCF platinum membership means.

“Microsoft is committed to helping organizations of all sizes achieve more, and we see cloud native technologies and open development as a way to enable this. We have contributed across many cloud native projects, including Kubernetes, Helm, containerd, and gRPC, and plan to expand our involvement in the future. Joining the Cloud Native Computing Foundation is another natural step on our open source journey, and we look forward to learning and engaging with the community on a deeper level as a CNCF member.”

Microsoft has noticed that containers are changing the way that companies are building and deploying their enterprise applications. Microsoft’s growing support of Kubernetes shows that CNCF membership is necessary to be a part of this growing trend.

Groove Music was recently rejuvenated on Xbox One with a touch of Fluent Design, and standard PC users are also now seeing an update for the stock Windows 10 application. Delivered via a version 10.17062.14111 update, it is now easier to find music videos from the artist page in the Groove Music on Windows 10 (via Windows Central.)

The update is rolling out now to PC users in Production ring, and it is presumed that Windows Insiders in the Fast Ring can also receive the update by using Microsoft’s new “Skip ahead” feature. Overall, though, it’s a fairly minor update that just touches up the UI to make it easier to find music videos for a specific artist.

After updating, you will notice a specific section for music videos when searching for Artists using the search box. The music video section appears under the Top songs section, and right above the Related artists section.  Unfortunately, the new ability to find music videos via the artist page is currently only available on desktop PCs, but there is hope that it will also roll out to mobile soon. For now, you can grab up this update via the download link below.

Download
QR-Code

Windows Media Player

Developer:
Microsoft Corporation

Price:
Free

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, the oddly-named online battle royale game from developer Bluehole, is one of the most anticipated games to be released on Windows and Xbox One this year. Last month, the developer shared that the Steam early access version already sold 4 million copies three months after launch, and we don’t often see unfinished games get that kind of massive support.

Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds will be a timed exclusive on the Xbox One, definitely one of the highlights of Microsoft’s E3 press briefing last month. But while the Steam Early Access version continues to get regular updates, the developer announced earlier this month that the game’s final release has been delayed to Q4 2017, without sharing more information about the Xbox One version.

We finally have more details about the upcoming Xbox One release from an interview of the game’s creative director Brendan Greene that Eurogamer published today. First of all, the game studio won’t announce the release date until the Xbox One version is ready, but you should know that work on the console port is going very well. “Using Unreal first, it’s a fantastic engine, it makes moving to different platforms relatively easy,” explained Greene, adding that the Xbox One version is being developed in partnership with Spanish game studio Anticto.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will also be optimized for the Xbox One X, and the console version should support 100 man servers just fine. “We have a version running on the Xbox One X prototype in the office which can plug into the online servers. We were playing on live servers on the console at about 30 or 40 FPS. So it works on 100 man servers,” shared Greene. Console play won’t be cross platform, at least to start, however.

Be warned, you’re probably going to hear a lot more about the battle royale game in the coming months. As of today, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is regularly the most streamed game on Microsoft’s own Mixer live streaming platform, and Greene said in the interview that the game studio is currently exploring the organisation of live events. “We’re going to run events and invitationals until it’s a true esport, I guess,” he added.

Aspects of Microsoft’s new Fluent Design aesthetic have been spotted in the Xbox One version of the Groove Music app shown to some Xbox Insiders. The app hasn’t appeared to have been given a full revamp but the menu has been given a transparent effect (called Acrylic) and menu press animation has apparently been refined. Here’s an image of the new look:

Microsoft has been adding aspects of its new Fluent Design to several apps with their Office apps on mobile being one recent example. The majority of their apps across Windows 10, mobile, and Xbox One will likely be fully converted to the new look before the end of 2017 around the time the Autumn Creators Update rolls out on Windows 10.

Do you like the look of Fluent Design? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Over the last year, Microsoft has been pitching its cross platform feature Xbox Play Anywhere which allows gamers to purchase a game once but play it on a Windows 10 device or Xbox console at their leisure.

While Xbox Play Anywhere seems like futuristic omnipresent gaming approach, it seems only really effective when there is a game users want to play.

Fortunately, a crowd favorite property is landing on the platform in Fable Fortune. A game preview is now available for Xbox One and Windows 10 gamers. While it is not the entire game, eager fans can grab a copy of the preview for free for a limited time.

Play as one of six unique Heroes in a collectible card game that combines the iconic world and characters of Albion with fast-paced and thrilling tactical gameplay. In Fable Fortune, your destiny is on the cards!
Purchase the Founders Pack to preview and support the development of this title – we would love to get your input and feedback to help us shape the best experience possible! Contains EXCLUSIVE Content for Founders: 20 Card Packs, Chicken Vengeant, Unique Founders Card, Bonus Fabled Card, Giant Egg.

For those interested, head over to your nearest Windows 10 PC or Xbox One console and web link to snag the free preview today!

The heart of the Windows Insider program is the participation of its users. Without the continual feedback given by users, the Windows team is left with an operating system devoid of real world direction, for better or for worse.

In a new YouTube video released by the Windows team, engineers are looking to keep up the level of activity currently being displayed with each build preview by praising and highlighting the most potent feedback outlets used by Windows engineers.

Each director or exec behind Bug Bash events, Feedback Hub or Windows Insider program in general, walk through the how and why’s of their programs.

We are excited to announce Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Bug Bash. Thank you for your help in shaping Windows. Your feedback goes a long way and our developers are actively working on fixing issues based on what we hear from you. We want to welcome both new and returning users in joining us for the Bug Bash just like all previous Bug Bashes.

While the Windows Insider program has always been under attack for its approach to testing methods and how it chooses to address issues, suggestions and feature releases, it’s hopefully, this little video will help offer critics some guidance on how their feedback is being digested by the Windows team.

Bottom line, leave more feedback, get more results.