Have you ever just wanted to stab someone without the hassle of falling through the floor? That’s pretty much how many players felt while playing the newly released Friday The 13th video game on Xbox One this last week.

The launch was a bit rough to begin with. starting on May 26, complaints immediately rose up about the game’s performance, bugs, and various issues that made Friday The 13th virtually unplayable. Some couldn’t even log in due to database errors, let alone the multiplayer matchmaking being completely down and the team relying on Xbox One’s LFG to make up for it. It took the entire launch weekend to bring back the server’s on May 29th, but even that didn’t fix all of the problems (via Games Radar.)

Within the week, the PC version on Steam was updated, even though it was rolled back due to errors. Ultimately though, both PC and consoles managed to get the updated patch fix. And just looking at the list, it’s easy to see that there’s very little that wasn’t broken.

-New intro cinematics for Tommy Jarvis spawn, Game Intro, and Game Outro.
-Fixed crash for VoIP that would during gameplay
-Fix for out of memory crash with a bug in the texture system bloating out textures after playing a couple of rounds.
-Fixed getting stuck when interactive with drawers.
-Fixed getting stuck when climbing through windows
-Fixed camera getting stuck when interactive with doors, windows and drawers.
-Fixed Jason getting stuck in a chop loop when breaking down doors.
-Fixed Jason getting off aligned when breaking down doors. He will no longer keep popping back in a new position.
-Fixed environment and grab kills being off.
-Fixed environment and grab kill jittering.
-Made knife pickup grab animations more accurate.
-Fixed some knife pickups from not working.
-Fixed the shotgun and flare gun sometimes not firing.
-Fixed weapon swapping from floating.
-Fixed firecrackers going through the world
-Fixed physics on car. No longer can a group of counselors push it around.
-Fixed getting in and out of a car where animations would get off sync.
-Fixed players standing up in the car.
-Fixed pocket knife not working when getting pulled out of the car.
-Fixed more than one player being able to get into the driver’s seat at the same time.
-Fixed physics on boat. No longer can a group of counselors push it around.
-Fixed getting in and out of a boat where animations would get off sync.
-Fixed players standing up in the boat.
-Fixed more than one player being able to get into the boat driver’s seat at the same time.
-Fixed HUD getting stuck when getting in and out of armoire.
-Fixed blood getting stuck on screen when dying.
-Fixed blood getting stuck on screen when coming back as Tommy Jarvis.
-Fixed repair mini game getting stuck on screen when getting hit with a weapon while doing the mini-game.
-Fixed exploit where users were able to go into combat stance and then sprint sliding around the character but not burning any stamina.
-Fixed Jason sliding around when getting stunned.
-Fixed counselors sliding around when playing the falling animation.
-Fixed Jason grabbing someone out of a car and them becoming a ghost.
-Fixed driving the car getting out of sync with the server / host then teleporting the player back to where they got into a car.
-Made session invitations a lot more reliable.
-Fixed crash where you would exit a match and then start a new Private Match.
-Added movable hair to the female characters.
-Optimized all maps to have a nice performance increase on Xbox One when action gets intense.
-Did a warmer lighting pass to increase visual quality.
-Fixed crash when getting grabbed by Jason.

While a lot has been fixed for Friday The 13th, there’s still the issue of matchmaking on Xbox One. With players at an unrest, the official response from the dev team states that “a lot of big news” about matchmaking is coming. Hopefully, this means another patch will be soon to kill the issues once and for all.

E3 2017, and the reveal of Project Scorpio is just a few days away, and Microsoft is sharpening the appetite of Xbox fans by giving them a tour of a different type of console. Indeed, the company is now showing off the Xbox Project Scorpio development kit which was previously unveiled and started shipping to developers about a month ago.

Seen above, Microsoft’s Kevin Gammill from the Xbox Engineering team recently joined Major Nelson to discuss the power and functionality of theXbox Project Scorpio development kit, and what it means for games and the average consumer. The discussion begins with the revelation that Microsoft choose to create a Project Scorpio dev kit so developers could be enabled to create the games they wanted, with the additional headroom to get games up and running as the retail console gets close to shipping.

Also discussed are the physical differences between the dev kit and retail console. The console has four more CU’s than the retail kit, 12 more GB of RAM, and a 1 TB SSD, so developers can quickly debug something, deploy it to the kit, test the kit, and repeat the process over and over again.

Of course, the extra buttons which are seen on the front of the dev kit are also covered in this discussion. It was revealed that the 5 programmable buttons and front panel display are designed for the development lab, and for scenarios where developers don’t want to have a monitor for each console, and instead use the mini display to change the gameplay.

Interestingly, Kevin Gammill pointed out that the Project Scorpio development kit also has an additional network port, so developers can monitor the debug network traffic, without colliding with the main network. And along with this is the Xbox Transfer device, which many have noticed stick out from the back of the console. It was explained that this transfer device supports the deployment of game builds from a PC to the console in less than 4 minutes.

With Microsoft giving such a powerful dev kit to the developers, there is no doubt going to be great games for Project Scorpio in the months ahead. Again, we invite you to check out the full video above and to let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Last Friday, Microsoft accidentally smacked the big red button and released something they weren’t intending. Across PC and mobile devices, Insiders began to see automatic updates for the release of an internal pre-release build. But what exactly was tucked away in these builds? Zac Bowden from Windows Central discovered a working version of the brand new Windows CShell.

In case you didn’t know, CShell (a.k.a. Composable Shell) is Microsoft’s attempt to make a single platform user experience across all devices. From PCs, to phones, to gaming consoles, and more, the Windows CShell is intended to pull everything together into a scalable UI that will seamlessly integrate together flexibly. As Bowden puts it, it is indeed ‘a big deal’.

So how does CShell look so far? It’s actually looking pretty good! For a pre-release software, CShell is already functioning as we’d expect it to. Most significantly, the Start Menu is the same experience as it is on the Windows 10 desktop including all the bells and whistles. Context menus, more live tile sizes, turning live tiles on/off for individual apps, and more are now on Windows 10 Mobile with CShell.

Even the Action Center with quick actions and interacting with notifications is now possible. The popularly requested landscape mode on mobile is even possible now in CShell, turning Start tiles on their side and even opening apps straight into landscape mode.

Not only that, but CShell reboots Windows Continuum with a simple but significant change. When hooking up your Windows 10 Phone to a monitor, you’ll be able to take full advantage of this Windows Phone only feature even more with CShell. Multiple apps can be opened in windowed mode on the desktop as if it were running Windows 10 for PC, only powered by your phone.

There’s still more to learn about Windows CShell, and given the pre-release mix-up, it’s fair to say that the update isn’t ready to go live. Speculations indicate that it could be on the back burner to simmer until the next Windows phone, assisting in Microsoft’s push back into the declining mobile market. We’d love to hear what you think so feel free to leave a comment in the section below.

As you may know, Microsoft is expected to officially unveil Project Scorpio, its new 4K-enabled gaming console during its E3 press briefing this Sunday, June 11. If many gamers are already familiar with the Scorpio name, the company previously said that this was just a codename for the much-anticipated new hardware. Moreover, it seems that Microsoft doesn’t have any trademarks filed for the “Scorpio” name as of today.

Even if Microsoft doesn’t stick with Scorpio for the branding of its new console, the company has recently filed a new trademark for a gaming-related logo at the European Union Intellectual Property Office. The S-shaped logo was discovered on NeoGAF (via Reddit) and the application is still under examination.

With no more information available about this new logo on the EUIPO’s website, it’s not clear if this related to Project Scorpio, or another gaming-related product that has yet to be announced. The “Nice Classification” for the trademark application does provide some clues, however:

We’ll likely get more details about it later this week, let us know your thoughts about this mysterious logo in the comments below!

Last week, Microsoft mistakenly released several internal builds for PC and Mobile to both Insiders and non-Insiders, but fortunately, the Windows Insider team was pretty quick to stop the deployment once it realized what was happening. According to the head of the Windows Insider Program Dona Sarkar, only a small portion of Windows 10 users received these internal builds, including the Windows 10 build 16212.

As we previously reported, this build ships with the new Control Center that the Windows Insider team accidentally revealed a few weeks ago, but it also includes some interesting information about several new Windows 10 SKUs that Microsoft is apparently working on.

By digging into the Windows 10 build 16212 pkeyconfig, Twitter user @AndItsTito discovered mentions of “Windows 10 Pro for Advanced PCs,” “Windows 10 Pro N for Advanced PCs” and “Windows Server 2016 ServerRdsh.”

@h0x0d @bdsams 3 new SKUs in the leaked 16212 pkeyconfig (ServerRdsh can be upgraded to Education!) ???? pic.twitter.com/UyBf58XINT

— Kingshuk 'Tito' De (@AndItsTito) June 4, 2017

According to leaked slides published by another Twitter user called @GrandMofongo, Microsoft has been using the “Windows 10 Pro for Workstations PCs” moniker for the Windows 10 Pro for Advanced PCs SKU (via The Verge).

Here is some more info: pic.twitter.com/hL46sQjKeg

— TheGrandMofongo (@GrandMofongo) June 5, 2017

The slides reveal that this new Windows 10 edition has been specifically created for advanced users of server grade hardware, with it including the following four key capabilities:

• Workstation mode: Microsoft plans to optimize the OS by identifying “typical compute and graphics intensive workloads” to provide peak performance and reliability when Workstation mode is enabled.
• Resilient file system: Microsoft’s file system successor to NTFS, dubbed ReFS, is enabled in this new version, with support for fault-tolerance, optimized for large data volumes, and auto-correcting.
• Faster file handling: As workstation machines are typically used for large data volumes across networks, Microsoft is including the SMBDirect protocol for file sharing and high throughput, low latency, and low CPU utilization when accessing network shares.
• Expanded hardware support: Microsoft is also planning to allow Windows 10 Pro for Workstation on machines with up to 4 CPUs and a memory limit of 6TB. Windows 10 Pro currently only supports 2 CPUs.

Microsoft also explained that “the above capabilities are just a starting point” and that it’s committed to supporting its advanced users with more features. The company has yet to officially announce this new Windows SKU, but it’s interesting to see that Microsoft is ready to make Windows 10 a better OS for workstation use cases.

Telegram is continuing to support its Windows 10 desktop app with fairly significant updates. The latest update for the private communication app has added support for Windows 10’s Picture-in-Picture (via Win Central), allowing you to view video while viewing other windows in Windows 10, as well as a few other changes and additions, as noted in the changelog for version 1.1.7:

• Improved video messages: radial playback progress, Picture-in-Picture support, duration countdown.
• Voice and video messages now automatically play one after another.

This update is available now in the Windows Store for Windows 10 PCs.

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Welcome back to our Windows 10 news recap. We are continuing the trend of our weekly “Windows 10 news recap” series where we go over the top stories of the past week in the world of Microsoft’s flagship operating system.

Microsoft explains the reason for unintentional Windows 10 builds, gives advice for those who installed

This week saw a flurry of builds from various branches being released to Insiders, non-Insiders and on incorrect devices. It all boiled down to an issue with the deployment process, with Dona Sarkar sayingsaying it was an “inadvertent deployment to the engineering system that controls which builds/which rings to push out to insiders.”

#WindowsInsiders, thank you for your patience as wen debugged our #flight problem today and reached a resolution: https://t.co/VkLWLIWEST.

— Dona Sarkar at #MBAS #a11y (@donasarkar) June 2, 2017

Microsoft appears to be planning to remove File History in Windows 10 this year

As incorrect builds were being released, some people managed to dig through them for information on Microsoft’s future plans. One person discovered references to File History being removed in a future version of Windows 10, likely this year.

https://twitter.com/h0x0d/status/870796940056838144

Windows 10 Mobile’s keyboard is coming to Windows 10 PCs with swipe and pen functionality

Adding on to information being discovered from incorrect builds; it would appear that Windows 10 Mobile’s keyboard, or a version very similar to its current state, will be coming to Windows 10 PCs in the future. Information suggests it will incorporate Swiftkey’s technology, a popular third-party Android keyboard that Microsoft acquired last year, as well as support for swiping and pen input.

https://twitter.com/h0x0d/status/870783819862786049

Both Windows 10, Windows 7 gain shares as Windows XP hits its lowest, says NetMarketShare data

As we reached June this week, NetMarketShare have released their latest stats for operating system market share. The stats show that Windows 10’s share has grown slightly, while XP’s has finally hit below 7%, now sitting at around 5.66% share.

That’s all the top Windows 10 news for this week – we’ll be back next week with more!

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 expresses disappointment at the US withdrawal from Paris Agreement on climate change

This week saw President Donald Trump pull the US out of the Paris Agreement, which aimed to set targets for many countries around the world to meet in terms of emissions, in order to help the environment. Microsoft has expressed disappointment at Trump’s decision to pull out.

Microsoft runs an Outlook.com Spam Fighters program, random users asked to grade email

Email spam plagues email users on a daily basis – constantly – but Microsoft has a program that little know about, called the Spam Fighters program, it aims to help develop its Smartscreen system on Outlook.com to detect if an email is spam or not, by asking recipients to vote on whether they perceive it to be spam.

Microsoft rolling out curated Bing Video Feed, currently in beta

To help users of Bing discover videos that they may be interested in, Microsoft is opening up a beta of a new Bing Video Feed, which is a curated feed of videos from around the internet, from sites such as YouTube, Dailymotion and others.

Microsoft Rewards comes to UK, coming soon to France, Germany, Canada

Microsoft has officially confirmed that Microsoft Rewards is now available in the UK and, has also said that it is coming to other European countries, including France and Germany but, also Canada.

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

In a build that accidentally escaped outside of Microsoft earlier this week, we’ve been able to discover new information, such as Windows 10 Mobile’s keyboard coming to Windows 10 PCs but, now we’re finding out that Microsoft looks to be planning to remove its built-in backup solution, File History, from Windows 10.

WalkingCat, well-known for digging out information from builds, has discovered references in build 16212 to dialogs that state “File History is no longer supported”:

https://twitter.com/h0x0d/status/870796940056838144

With no official announcement from Microsoft, it is unclear what the company’s plans will be, as File History is commonly used for backups, negating the need to rely on potentially confusing and costly third-party alternatives.

Yesterday, President Donald Trump announced that the United States intends to withdraw from the Paris Agreement for climate change. And Microsoft couldn’t be more disappointed.

“We all live on a small planet and every nation needs to work with others to protect it,” Brad Smith explained in the company’s official address to the current events. According to the statement via LinkedIn, Microsoft has been a headstrong supporter to the Paris Agreement since its initiation in 2015. Of course, when the newly appointed Trump Administration declared their interest in withdrawing ‘for economic growth in America’, the tech giant attempted to sway the decision.

In the last few months, Microsoft admits that it has worked in tandem with other American business leaders to plead the case of retaining a position in Paris Agreement. Even so much as to use full-page ads in New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and New York Post.

We believe that continued U.S. participation benefits U.S. businesses and the economy in important and multiple ways. A global framework strengthens competitiveness for American businesses. It creates new markets for innovative clean technologies, from green power to smart grids to cloud-enabled solutions. And by strengthening global action over time, the Agreement reduces future climate damage to people and organizations around the world.

It’s been no secret that Microsoft has been advocating for cleaner carbon emissions and overall global health. The tech company has its hands in various declarations and initiatives that help worldwide environmental organizations.

Whether it’s a stance for business innovation or a sincerely a concern for the health of people everywhere, more than likely both, Microsoft wants the public to know their stance is in favor of tackling climate change. And that they, once again, oppose President Trump’s actions.

Microsoft just introduced Xbox Game Pass, a $9.99/month subscription service that gives you access to around 100 Xbox One and Xbox 360 games to download and play, all for one low monthly price. If you’re new to Xbox gaming, or don’t have a catalog of titles built up, it’s a pretty good deal, although the list doesn’t include the latest titles or even all of the most popular ones.

You can give Xbox Game Pass a try with its 14 day free trial, but if you want a way to get the games for nearly free, Microsoft has just added Xbox Game Pass as an option at Microsoft Rewards.

For 7000 points (less if you have levelled up in Rewards), it’s an achievable monthly goal if you use Edge, Bing, and don’t mind clicking through a quiz or two to build up points. The Xbox Game Pass on Microsoft Rewards is a pretty good deal in its own right, as a good rule of thumb is 5,000 Microsoft Rewards points equals about $5 in rewards.

Of course, you can use Microsoft Rewards points for other items and services, too, including gift cards, subscriptions to Xbox Live and Groove Music, sweepstakes entries, and a lot more. Microsoft Rewards has been US only, but just this week has expanded to Canada, France, the UK, and Germany, so Microsoft fans from all over can win cool stuff by amassing points.

You can learn more about Microsoft Rewards and Xbox Game Pass from these links.

(via Reddit)

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2017 is just around the corner, and Microsoft today is reminding fans how they can watch the upcoming Xbox E3 Briefing on June 11th. Our own Kip Kniskern will be on the ground in Los Angeles at E3, and we’re going to be bringing you live coverage here too, so here are all the ways how you can watch!

The briefing is scheduled to begin on Sunday, June 11th at 2:00 PM PDT. It will be live-casted on Xbox One, and various platforms, including Microsoft’s own Mixer. Other platforms (and the links) can be seen below.

• YouTube
• Twitch
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Xbox.com

As you recall, last year’s E3 was quite exciting for Microsoft, as the company announced announcement of Forza Horizon 3, teased the upcoming next generation Project Scorpio Xbox console, and announced Xbox Play Anywhere.

Xbox chief Phil Spencer is impressed with the lineup of games set to be announced a week from Sunday:

For me this is one of our most interesting shows in a long time. I'm impressed with breadth and quality that will be shown.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) June 1, 2017

We’re expecting another big show this year, including the full unveil of Project Scorpio, so be sure to keep it tuned to OnMSFT for all your Xbox news and information!

Tekken 7 is now available to play on Microsoft’s Xbox One console. The game is the first in the franchise to launch on the Xbox One with the previous entry, Tekken 6, having come out on the Xbox 360. Here’s the official game description:

Discover the epic conclusion of the Mishima clan and unravel the reasons behind each step of their ceaseless fight. Powered by Unreal Engine 4, TEKKEN 7 features stunning story-driven cinematic battles and intense duels that can be enjoyed with friends and rivals alike through innovative fight mechanics. Love, Revenge, Pride. Everyone has a reason to fight. Values are what define us and make us human, regardless of our strengths and weaknesses. There are no wrong motivations, just the path we choose to take. Expand your fighter’s journey by purchasing the Tekken 7 Season Pass separately and gain access to stunning additional content.

Buy Tekken 7 on Xbox One

As a special offer, those who purchase the digital version of Tekken 7 will also be sent a code to unlock the full version of Tekken 6 which is playable on the Xbox One via backwards compatibility.

Have you played Tekken 7 yet? Let us know if it’s worth the purchase in the comments below.

Today, Microsoft has announced that it will be sunsetting its Content Network and Content Ads (powered by Bing Ads) in the United States, having already ended it in other non-US markets. The Content Network allowed advertisers to display ads on Windows Media and Windows Apps,  somewhat similar to Google AdWords’ Display campaigns, albeit with much less reach.

The Content Network is being sunset due to “low traffic” and Microsoft wants to “deliver great ROI” for their Bing Ads advertisers.

In the announcement post, the Bing Ads team outlines the timeline for closing out the Content Network and associated Content Ads:

Through July 30^th:

• Bing Ads UI: Content ads creation as an option in the Bing Ads UI. After July 30th, we will stop the ability to create ad groups with a content distribution or update ad groups’ content distribution based information. In addition, customers will not see the content distribution option when creating or editing ad groups.
• Bing Ads Editor: When syncing account changes, customers can try to create a search + content ad group, but it will be saved as a search ad group. If customers try to create a content only ad group or update content ads distribution information, an error will be shown. In later BAE versions, the option to make these changes will be removed completely.
• API: When trying to add a new search + content ad group, it will save it as a search ad group. If you try to add a content ad group an error will be shown. If you try to update content ads based information an error will be shown.
• Google Import: If you import a Search and Display campaign from AdWords, the ad group distribution will be changed to Search in Bing Ads. If you try to import a Display campaign from Adwords, it will not be imported, since Bing Ads does not have Display Advertising.

After July 30^th:

• Current search + content ad groups will automatically become search ad groups in the next few months. For the few customers who have content only ad groups, those will automatically become paused search ad groups.

Bing Ads’ search ads will continue to work as normal.

Xbox One Insiders in the Beta ring are finally about to get their hands on the build we told them about a couple days ago. Users in the Alpha ring of Xbox Insiders already received this build earlier in the week, but the first build of 1706 will be coming out very soon – and in full – to Beta ring users who want to get their hands on it.

Xbox One Insiders-Preview BETA Ring the first 1706 build @ 6.00pm today. New features incl Mixer Co-streaming,controller signin & bug fixes

— Brad Rossetti (@WorkWombatman) June 1, 2017

You can check out our post earlier this week for the full patch note rundown, but the highlights are definitely the addition of Mixer co-streaming and controller sign-in – two things that fans have been wanting for a while now.

It’s also worth mentioning that Xbox’s Brad Rossetti tweeted that they’ll be enabling Mixer Twist for Preview Ring 3 & 4 members along with the Beta ring update, so get ready for that.

Xbox One Insiders – Preview Ring 3 & 4 users we are enabling the Mixer Twist now on your consoles – Reboot or wait and hour to see it!

— Brad Rossetti (@WorkWombatman) June 1, 2017

The Alcatel Idol 4s came out almost a year ago and provided a relatively well-received Windows 10 Mobile experience for the people who still wanted to jump on Microsoft’s mobile train. Strangely enough, it seems like the device is about to be released in Germany, under the name “Idol 4 Pro.”

Alcatel Idol 4 Pro mit Windows 10 Mobile ab 1. Juli in Deutschland https://t.co/4z0MlZzvXa pic.twitter.com/s56CEGFPcW

— WindowsUnited (@WindowsUtd) June 1, 2017

The news was discovered by German website Windows United, which also tapped into some rumors about pricing. If Windows United is right, the Alcatel Idol 4 Pro will be launching in Germany on July 1st and will run for €599 – which seems strange, considering the phone has dropped below $300 in most places.

We don’t know anything about whether or not the Idol 4 Pro will be releasing with a VR kit like it did elsewhere, but it would be surprising if it didn’t, considering the hefty price point that’s rumored. You can keep an eye out for more solid news soon since the phone’s release date is well on its way.

Bing is improving their images search with a new feature that sets it apart, for now. The Bing Visual Search makes it possible for users to not only search for related images or products but to crop out a selection of image results to better fine tune what they are looking for.

As of today, images on Bing’s search engine have a small magnifying glass to the top left. This is called the ‘visual search’ button. Clicking on it results in a box that you can adjust (or redraw) on the image to select an area of the image. The Bing team expects that the tool will be most useful when shopping. By default, the visual image search will result in related products but will also have a related images based on the selection.

So how effective is it? Taking one of the first images from searching ‘Overwatch’ I decided to pick out Blizzard’s favorite character: Tracer. Because who doesn’t love Tracer? This is the hero that is the poster child of Overwatch. She’s on all of the box art and promotional images, as well as considered a community favorite. Immediately I noticed the magnifying glass that lets me use the visual search for related images. Sure enough, there were Tracer images, but not immediately. First I had to finagle the size and shape, which can have different results depending on the smallest of changes. For the most part, Tracer was recognizable half of the time only after tweaking.

It’s worth noting that the image quality does play a major part in the Visual Search experience. Also, any crowded images will affect the results, so it’s better to find objects that are separate in images rather than close to others. But as the Bing development team explained, the feature is in its infancy.

A couple of weeks after Custom Gamerpics started to roll out to Xbox Insiders on the Preview Alpha Ring, Preview Ring 3 & 4 participants can now upload their own profile image on Xbox Live. According to Xbox’s Brad Rossetti, the new feature should automatically appear in the profile section of the Xbox One dashboard, but Xbox Insiders who don’t see the option yet can reboot their console to enable it.

Xbox One Insiders – Preview Ring 3 & 4 we just enabled Custom Gamerpics on your console. It can take an hour to appear or reboot to see it!

— Brad Rossetti (@WorkWombatman) May 31, 2017

According to the Xbox team, Custom Gamerpics were a top fan-requested feature on Xbox Live, and the new customization option previously rolled out to the Windows 10 Xbox app as well as the Xbox beta app on Android. As a reminder, you’ll need to choose a .png or .jpg image which is at least 1080×1080 pixels, and the easiest way to import it is to save it first on an a USB flash drive that you’ll plug into the gaming console.

Looking for some new shooters to pad your library out? Or do you just want some add-ons for the ones you already have? Either way, from now until June 5, you’ve got a huge array of deals to choose from when it comes to Tom Clancy games. From Ghost Recon to The Division, just about everything with “Tom Clancy” in the name is going on sale in the Xbox Store.

Now through June 5, all things Tom Clancy [T-M] are on sale on #XboxOne. Take a look: https://t.co/gfvsrFlpRN pic.twitter.com/tX01CpFfLT

— Xbox (@Xbox) May 31, 2017

The list of content on sale is absolutely massive, so it’s unlikely that there’s a Tom Clancy title or add-on that you can’t get a hefty deal on. If you’re interested, you can check out the blog post for the full library of games going on sale, along with links to the Xbox Store where you can pick them up.

It is worth noting that, if you want to buy The Division (the base game, that is) you’ll have to get it bundled with Rainbow Six Siege. If this list is to be believed, The Division isn’t on sale this week, individually. If you want to pick up the bundle, it’s going to run you about $46 – netting you a $100 value, if you take each product at the full retail price. Not too shabby.

When the Windows 10 Creators Update began rolling out earlier this Spring, Microsoft warned that the update would reach some devices later than others. The Surface Hub, the popular team collaboration device for Fortune 500 companies, was low on the totem pole having just started receiving the spring update as of today.

But that might be for good reason. The Surface Hub is a different beast altogether with an intense focus on meetings and sharing information rather than a personal device. In its own right, the Surface Hub has received its own brand of features with the Windows 10 Creators Update.

Collaboration with the Surface Hub has gotten easier through the update. It’s been enhanced with better sign-on capabilities to maneuver easily between Office 365 accounts and navigate quickly to meeting essentials. Furthermore, audio and performance tweaks have been improved overall, particularly for conference calls. Skype itself was updated with easier controls and a meeting carousel, making interactive work on the Surface Hub easier in or out of a location.

Of course, with the new update came plenty of security features for the Surface Hub including:

• The ability to set Surface Hub to wipe all data at the end of each session by default;
• The option to require BitLocker encryption for USB ports to prevent malware and other security threats;
• Support for additional Mobile Device Management (MDM) features, so IT administrators can change settings remotely; and
• Support for two-factor authentication, to enable users to approve an authentication request easily on their companion device.

To top it all off, Microsoft Whiteboard is officially on Surface Hub devices as a private preview. This lets multiple users ink across other devices to seamlessly share their thoughts, ideas, and notes without the need for rendering. Microsoft Whiteboard is planned for a big app update release for Surface Hub in mid-June. Features include digital inking, geometry recognition, table conversion, and more to come, all to other Surface devices later in the year.

Todoist on Windows 10 is a quick and easy way to organize projects for you or your team. In an effort to simplify the process, the developers at Doist over the last year have released updates to improve the app’s user experience overall with easier navigation.

Since its initial release last April, Todoist has added a number of ways to get projects started and moving faster. Minute details such as adding easier project creation, importing/exporting projects with others, and archiving projects all attribute to the ease that ToDoist wants to embrace. Further UI design implementations included vamping the quick add that recognizes details and making the task scheduler simpler to use also attributed.

However, it’s what’s coming up for Todoist that the developers seem most excited for. Their recent blog post reviewing the features added in the last year also came with a glimpse into the future: including taking advantage of Windows 10 picture-in-picture mode.

This feature probably one of the most underused additions to applications from the Windows 10 Creators Update so far. The capability makes it so apps can pop out and sit on top of others without being too intrusive. Which seems to be a perfect idea, according to the Todoist announcement, to bring out your list of tasks while you work.

Other additions include the seamless offline syncing and ability to hide the left panel of the app. But needless to say, it’s the picture-in-picture mode that’s caught the most attention. Still, there isn’t an estimated time for the upcoming updates as of yet.

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“People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware,” said American computer scientist Alan Kay in the eighties, and this quote still sounds very much relevant as of today. When you look at Microsoft, which remains one of the biggest software companies in the world today, it’s clear that the launch of the first Surface devices in 2012 had a significant impact on both the PC market as whole and the way that the company was perceived.

No, Microsoft didn’t immediately became “cool” following the launch of the Surface Pro and Surface RT hybrid PCs, but the company showed everyone that it had real design chops and a clear vision for the future of computing devices. More importantly, creating its own hardware certainly helped Microsoft to develop Windows 10, which is a much more versatile and “touch-friendly” OS than Windows 8 was.

The Surface line was created when Steve Ballmer was still CEO of Microsoft, and the former exec was also the man behind the acquisition of Nokia’s phone business (something that the board disagreed with at first). At the time, Ballmer wanted to transform Microsoft into a “devices and services” company, but the Nokia deal happened too late and clearly didn’t pay off for the company.

In a recent interview during Recode’s CodeConference, Ballmer shared some of his regrets as the former CEO of Microsoft, and as you can guess hardware is a big part of it. “I think I was too slow in cases to recognize the need for new capability, particularly in hardware,” explained Ballmer, without specifically mentioning Surface or Lumia devices. “I wish we’d built the capability to be a world-class hardware company, because one of the new expressions of software is essentially the hardware,” he added. “The company under my leadership should have built that capability earlier than we did.”

It’s not the first time that the former CEO looks back at his past decisions, as he previously discussed with Bloomberg how he would have done Windows Phone differently. Speaking about the acquisition of Nokia’s phone business, he explained that “if executed in the certain way, I think it made a lot of sense. The company chose to go in another direction and that’s the decision the company made.”

With Satya Nadella as its new CEO, Microsoft inaugurated a “mobile-first, cloud-first” strategy, with increased support for the most popular mobile platforms out there. In the same time, Microsoft clearly doubled down on its Surface hardware while neglecting Lumia phones and other devices categories.

The Surface line shows that Microsoft has become a great PC maker, but the company may have not learned all lessons from the past. Indeed, the Redmond giant is already late on some exciting new markets such as connected speakers or wearables, allowing Amazon, Google and Apple to become early leaders (Cortana-powered speakers are coming though). Microsoft seems to bet on mixed reality becoming the next big platform, but it’s still not clear if many consumers are excited about Windows Mixed Reality devices.

We’re not forgetting about the ultimate mobile device that Microsoft is reportedly working on, but the company will probably need more than great design and a more versatile OS to attract Android and iOS users. Yes, being a world-class hardware company is important to succeed in highly competitive markets, but timing may be even more important than that.

Microsoft will host another technology conference in Seattle next month. The Microsoft Data Insights Summit 2017 will be held on June 12-13 and will be aimed to help you create a data culture at your organization, and change the way you work.

The event will feature keynotes from James Phillips, special guest Alberto Cairo, and authors of the bestselling Freakonomics series – Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt. James is the Corporate Vice President at Microsoft for the Business Intelligence Products Group and known for his award-winning achievements in infographics and multimedia, Alberto serves as the Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the University of Miami (UM).

The summit will aim to help organizations learn trends, tips and BI best practices, and how to transform data to insights and actions. Attendees will be able to take a deep-dive into the latest innovations, covering a range of topics across Microsoft Power BI, SQL Server BI, Excel, PowerApps, and Flow.

While the three keynotes and nine of the most popular sessions will be streamed live, I’ll be there at the summit to bring you more information from the ground. So, stay tuned!

Earlier today, Microsoft and Qualcomm announced at Computex that ASUS, HP and Lenovo will be the first manufacturers to bring Windows 10 on ARM devices to the market. By leveraging Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 835 SoC which already powers some premium Android smartphones, these OEMs will be able to create thin and light PCs with always-on LTE connectivity and great battery life.

However, Microsoft doesn’t want all “connected PCs” to be Windows 10 on ARM devices: that’s why the company is also partnering with Intel (which also has mobile modem solutions) as well as various PC OEMs and operators to make PCs more connected. As Microsoft explained in a blog post today, all these devices will use embedded SIM cards (eSIM):

We are collaborating with our ecosystem on a shared vision. This starts with a close partnership at the silicon layer, with Intel and Qualcomm and with our mobile operator partners to provide seamless eSIM connectivity. Microsoft device partners ASUS, HP, Huawei, Lenovo, VAIO, and Xiaomi, are committed to this new category of Always Connected PCs using eSIM technology.

The first mobie operators that are committed to support these upcoming always connected PCs with eSIM technology are AT&T, DTAG/T Mobile, BT/EE, Vodafone, Orange, Tele2, Swisscom, 3, China Mobile, KDDI, Gemalto, Oberthur, Gigsky and Transatel (via ZDNet). As LTE networks are probably faster than most WiFi networks you can find these days, bringing integrated LTE connectivity to mobile PCs is probably going to change how we use our devices in the future. Microsoft didn’t reveal today when these first connected PCs will come to the market, but it’s good to see that Microsoft and its partners have a forward-looking approach towards mobile connectivity.

Last year at WinHEC 2016 in China, Microsoft announced that it was working on a new version of Windows 10 running on ARM processors, more specifically Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 SoC which already powers some high-end phones such as the Galaxy S8. The purpose of Windows 10 ARM is to allow manufacturers to build “connected PCs” with always-on capabilities, and the more power-efficient ARM chip from Qualcomm also makes it possible for OEMs to build thinner and lighter devices with better battery life.

Unlike the now deprecated Windows RT, Windows 10 on ARM will also support all legacy Win32 apps through emulation: for consumers, this means that this new Windows 10 SKU will behave just like any Windows 10 PC, with full support for both Windows Store apps and Win32 apps such as Adobe Photoshop or other popular productivity apps.

Nearly six months after this initial announcement, Microsoft and Qualcomm announced today at Computex that ASUS, HP and Lenovo will be the first manufacturers to create Windows 10 on ARM PCs. “Each company is set to produce sleek, thin and fanless PCs running a Windows 10 experience with unparalleled LTE connectivity for an always connected, on the go experience,” said Qualcomm in a press release. “Coupled with the incredible 10nm leading node efficiency of the Snapdragon 835 Mobile PC Platform, these devices will feature beyond all-day battery life.” .

Matt Barlow, Microsoft’s corporate vice president, Windows marketing added that “this collaboration offers consumers something new and that they have been craving – the best of a mobile computing experience with the best of Windows 10, all in one thin, light, connected device.” Back in December at WinHEC, Microsoft said that the first Windows 10 on ARM PCs would come to market “as early as next year,” but today both companies shared no additional details expect that they’re coming “soon.” Windows 10 on ARM could very well change the PC market as we know it, and we’re looking forward to learn more about it in the coming months.

Sonic Mania is now available to pre-order on Xbox One ahead of its August 16th 2017 release date. The game is a return to the old school graphics of the original Sonic video games and features a variety of playable characters and game modes. Here’s the official description:

Experience the ultimate celebration of past and future in Sonic Mania, an all-new 2D Sonic adventure running at a crisp 60FPS with stunning HD retro-style graphics. Multiple playable characters give you the ability to go explosively fast as Sonic, soar as Tails, or power through tough obstacles with Knuckles’ brute strength. You can re-live the Sonic of the past with an exciting new twist on classic zones while fighting against new bosses and Dr. Eggman’s evil robot army. Go head to-head with players in Competition Mode or play in Co-Op Mode with a friend. Sonic Mania was developed by Christian Whitehead, Headcannon, and PagodaWest Games in collaboration with Sonic Team. Welcome to Sonic Mania!

Pre-order Sonic Mania on Xbox One

Are you a Sonic fan and will you be buying this game? Let us know in the comments below.