Every so often Microsoft releases a highly conceptualized video of what the software firm envisions the world of technology to be in the coming years. Until recently, many of Microsoft’s envision videos were CGI love notes to technology that rarely saw the light of day. However, in the last few years, Microsoft’s visions are being met with leaps in technology and providing a relatively realistic view of the world of technology coming to businesses and consumers alike.

With that being said, the men and women that make up Microsoft are switching gears this holiday season and offering a new vision of how it sees its technology enriching the lives of people over the next few months.

Unlike its futuristic visions, this new Spirit of the Season appears to be grounded in the very real and very current use of technology of the Surface Studio to help mend the potential divide millions of people experience every day. As Microsoft puts it at the end of the video, “When the world seems divided, coming together can be a beautiful thing.”

Let us know if you prefer Microsoft’s more grounded envisionings or the far-out CGI fantasies of old, in the comments below.

Thanks to the new Data Storage and Data Science workloads becoming generally available for Visual Studio 2017 RC, the Visual Studio Engineering team has announced that Azure Notebooks are now able to support the F# language.

For those that may not know, Azure Notebooks is a free web application hat lets the user create and share documents with live code, equations, visualizations, and explanatory text. Needless to say, it is ideal for instructors and students in fields of machine learning and data transformation.

Previously, users could write in R, Python 2, and Python 3 coding but now they can add F# to the growing list of over forty available languages. The preview is live on Azure Notebooks and anyone can use the service. If you’d like to try it out, head on over to Jupyter and log in with your Microsoft account.

‘Talk Microsoft’ is live at 1pm PST and we’ll be discussing the latest Microsoft news. We’ll also be chatting about if most people care about features such as the reported ‘Home Hub.’

Make sure to join us live on our YouTube channel so you can comment during the show.

If you’re a fan of Groove Music, then there will be some exciting times ahead for you. According to Windows Central, the music videos feature has finally been re-introduced to the Groove Music UWP app on the Xbox One.

As seen in the video above, Jez Corden from Windows Central demonstrates that Microsoft has finally lived up to their promise of returning  the music videos feature to Groove on the Xbox One. Described in the video, the Groove Music app will not list the songs or albums which have available music videos, so you might have to search through your collection and find music video enabled songs on your own. The feature will turn on automatically, but also disables background music and audio, so you also might want to keep this in might before you turn music videos on or off from the menu.

What do you think of the return of the music video feature to Groove on Xbox One? do you own any songs which are compatible with the music video feature? As always, do let us know what you think by dropping us a comment below!

In honor of Computer Science week, Microsoft is highlighting users and organizations that make the best work out of their products. In this case, the UWashington Formula Motorsports Team was put in the forefront of a new promotional video campaigning for the Surface Book.

This team is a group of engineering students that design and build their own Formula 1 style race car with the help of a Surface Book and Surface Pen. The UWashington Formula Motorsports Team is only one of nearly 500 that compete internationally in the student-led program called Society of Automative Engineers (SAE).

In these competitions, the teams need to build a well designed, efficient, and fast formula-style race car that is also easy and cheap to maintain. On average, the cars weigh from 300 to 500 pounds and can speed up to 60mph within three to four seconds.

Bringing concept to completion isn’t an easy feat by any means for these university students. According to the video, the engineering team finds it essential to use the Surface Book for the professional-grade 3D design software and data analysis. It even goes so far as to say that Mac is just not compatible, paling in comparison with the Surface Book’s power under the hood.

The promotional video is the latest addition to Microsoft’s “Created on Surface” webpage where you can find similar stories about other exceptional users that use the product line.

While Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner will finally get a sequel to be released in cinemas in late 2017, a fan has found a fun way to pay an homage to the movie he loves using Microsoft Paint (via Open Culture) . For the past six months, David MacGowan has been using the decades old graphic editor (it was released initially with Windows 1.0 in 1985, three years after Blade Runner) to create “a shot by shot re-enactment of Blade Runner through the magic of Microsoft Paint.” While MacGowan is not a professionnal drawer, it’s still fascinating to see his passion and attention to detail being expressed through the legacy software.

MacGowan is publishing is work on a Tumblr blog called MSP Blade Runner, which was first discovered by Vice’s Motherboard website. Vice also interviewed MacGowan, who shared that he’s a long time MS Paint user. “Years ago I used to draw really crappy basic MS Paint pics for a favourite pop group’s fan site, and they always seemed to raise a smile. The idea of doing something else with MS Paint, a kind of celebration of my not being deterred by lack of artistic talent, never really went away,” he explained.

In the interview, MacGowan also reveals that some of his drawings can take him as little as five minutes, depending on the amount of details in the shots he has to reproduce with Paint. A new drawing is published every day on his blog, but MacGowan is still far to recreate the whole movie. “I don’t really think about giving up. The idea of actually completing something I start out to do for once in my life is very appealing. And it’s fun, it’s not a chore,” he added.

The new year is looming closer, so Microsoft Research is putting in their predictions for the next one to ten years, specifically in the case of their women researchers in computer science.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be a surplus of 1 million computing jobs without the educated manpower to run them in 2020. Furthermore, only 12% of computer science degrees are awarded to women that finish university. Seventeen women of Microsoft Research predict that the future is only going to get more interesting.

In 2017, these women expect the path of technology to continue slowly on. While some fields working on increasing speech and language technology to translate in real time, others find the understanding of deep learning and enhanced algorithms to pave the way to improved artificial intelligence. This is the same AI that they are working to develop in Project Malmo in Minecraft, a game that is nearly a blank canvas when it comes to AI experimentation.

Other predictions for 2017 are:

• A focus of assistive technologies for people with visual disabilities
• Advanced medical protection and new homomorphic encryption schemes applied to banking.
• A decline in hardware prices that wish usher in more augmented and virtual reality development
• Better understanding of biological science towards modifying, designing, and reprogramming cellular behavior
• Internet of Things being focused on agriculture to help farmers monitor, analyze, and diagnose farm health.

So what could be coming in ten years according to these women of computer science? By 2027, many of these women expect major advancements in the area of machine learning and artificial intelligence that will build a better society. In fact, Mary L. Gray estimates that 30% of adults will use an “AI powered labor force” to deliver AI driven goods or services whether consumers know it or not.

Furthermore, other things we might see in 2027 include:

• The replacement of the search box with spoken queries, sounds, images, or videos based on current content, location, or activities.
• Entirely new industries and applications from agriculture and medicine, materials and computing working towards “the era of living software”.
• Quantum computer breaking through low-strength traditional cryptographic systems
• Children with disabilities will learn how to code and eventually apply their experiences to technology.
• With the help of IoT, farmers will see healthy yields regardless of climate, drought, and disaster.
• More intelligent devices, higher quality VR and AR.

The problem with predictions is that we have to wait and see if they come to pass. Until then, we’d like to hear your predictions for the next year of technology. Let us know in the comments below.

Earlier this year, Microsoft leveraged its artificial intelligence magic to release Tay, a cross-platform chatbot aimed at 18-24 years old but the experiment didn’t go very well, to say the least. Just one day after its introduction, Microsoft had to turn off the AI chatbot and apologize after discovering that some users had tricked Tay to produce offensive and racist tweets.

This PR failure didn’t really discouraged Microsoft, as CEO Satya Nadella reportedly emailed the Tay team to encourage them to “keep pushing” after the chat bot was taken down. But while Tay has now been put to rest, a new Microsoft chatbot called Zo has just been discovered on Twitter, though details about it remain scarce for now (via Windows Central)

https://twitter.com/tomhounsell/status/805333208917307392

Interestingly, Microsoft chose to quietly release this new chat bot on Kik Messenger, avoiding Twitter as well as its own platforms such as Skype and GroupMe. In our limited testing, Tay seems to be another conversational bot targeted at young people and it seems pretty fun, though it remains to be seen if Microsoft did everything necessary to avoid another emergency takedown.

You can try chatting with Zo by looking into Kik Messenger’s bot directory, but Microsoft has also set up a dedicated page to let users request an invite to get early access to Zo (the form mentions Twitter, Facebook Messenger and Snapchat). We’ll see if Microsoft officially announces its new chatbot in the coming days.

If you’re a Windows 10 Mobile Insider in the Fast Ring, then you might want to head over to the Windows Store and check for a new app update. According to Windows Central, Microsoft has released a minor update for Windows Camera for Fast Ring Insiders, delivering HDR improvements for the experience.

Overall, the update pushes the latest version to 2016.1101.11.0., and repordley also breaks the HDR feature on the HP Elite x3. For the complete details please check the change log below:

• Now you can take 3 HDR photos consecutively before saving shots.
• Bug fixes for reliability and performance
• User experience improvements

If you’re not already using the app, we have done you a favor and have included a download link for you below. As always, do let us know how this latest update is working for you by dropping us a comment in the Disqus section below!

Download
QR-Code

Windows Camera

Developer:
Microsoft Corporation

Price:
Free

KPMG and Microsoft India have announced that they have set up a strategic IoT advisory partnership. As part of the partnership, the two will combine their technologies and enable  a digital transformation for enterprises in the Indian market (via ETCIO.com.)

KPMG has already been known for giving companies the combined business and technological strengths they need to be successful, and under the strategic IoT advisory partnership, The IoT Advisory will help Indian enterprises deploy solutions that can drive cloud-based automation. In a statement, Peter Gartenberg, the General Manager, Enterprise, and Partner Group, Microsoft India reflected on the IoT advisory board.

“Microsoft and KPMG have been long standing partners and we are happy to open another chapter of this relationship in India. The partnership brings together KPMG’s consulting expertise on digital transformation with Microsoft’s proven experience in spearheading large IoT implementations. The IoT Advisory will help define IoT usage scenarios for customers and then implement them for desired business impact.”

Rachna Nath, Partner and Head, Digital Consulting, KPMG in India, meanwhile, had the following comments:

“Our alliance in India is a strategic step towards helping our customers achieve valuable business insights to make smart decisions faster while managing risk, compliance and security. This collaboration will help customers drive productivity and better performance, and help transform their business. KPMG in India will also extend its services to the entire spectrum of Microsoft Productivity Tools, Intelligent Cloud, Blockchain technology and Cyber security amongst others”

To learn more about KPMG India, you can head over to their official website. Once you’ve checked it out, let us know what you think by dropping us a comment below.

From the good moments, the bad moments and the ugly moments, 2016 has been one interesting, and at times, tense year. It is fitting then that Microsoft has just released a new holiday ad which promotes positivity, harmony, diversity, and inspiration (via AdAge.)

Developed by M:United/McCann New York, the 1 minute and 43-second ad lifts people up and reminds them that ordinary people can make a difference. Seven people are featured in the ad, and they all are seen using Microsoft products to make a collaborative drawing which ultimately shows their vision of hope, peace, and beauty. The ad also sends a positive message and focuses on the spirit of the holidays, which is people coming together and celebrating what is good and right with the world.

The seven people seen in the ad should be familiar to the public, as they have been in the news throughout the year for their causes which have made a difference in the world. Florida police officer Bobby White, who was seen on video playing basketball with local youth, poet and activist Mona Haydar, and 9 -year-old Zianna Oliphant (famous for her speech to the Charlotte City Council after protests in the area) are just a few of the figures who play key roles in the video’s message.

In a statement published by AdAge, Kathleen Hall, corporate VP of brand advertising and research at Microsoft, reflected on the ad:

We knew it’s been a rough year and people have been exposed to a lot of challenging issues…We hope this gives people some positivity and hope in the season which is what it should be about.”

The advertisement ends with the group all standing together with their final product on display beneath the NYC skyline at the  Jane’s Carousel in Dumbo, Brooklyn. A 60-second version of the Microsoft ad will air on national networks such as NBC, ABC, and FOX, with the full version airing online on Facebook and YouTube.

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.

Movies and TV app for Windows 10 updated with ability to play video folders

The Movies & TV app has been updated recently, featuring a new option for playing videos organised in folders, like a season of a show or anime or maybe multiple parts of a movie. With back and forward buttons now added to the app, it should be much easier to navigate between different files instead of having to exit and manually navigate to the next video.

There were some Xbox and renting system improvements too, enhancing your experience while using the console or renting movies and shows, as well as the usual bug fixing and general improvements.

Microsoft pauses all Windows 10 Preview builds for PC in preparation for Unified Update Platform

No Windows 10 Insider PC builds this week. The Unified Update Platform, that Microsoft introduced a few weeks ago, is now getting implemented into the PC version of Windows 10 and should be available for Fast Ring Insiders with the next build that will get released.

Windows 10 Insider build 14977 released for Mobile only, due to blocking bug on PC

Sorry Windows Insiders, we aren’t done with the semi-bad news yet. No new PC build this week because of the UUP transition and also because of a breaking bug in the PC version of the build labelled as 14977. 

If there wasn’t a breaking bug, Insiders may have been able to install this build before the UUP transition began but for now, they are stuck with an older build released last week and will have to wait another week before another may get released.

Windows 10 edges closer to 50% share of Steam gamers

With every month that passes, Windows 10 seems to be gaining more and more traction in the gaming world. The latest results revealed by Valve show that almost half of all PC’s actively using Steam run on Windows 10 which is pretty incredible, and has outperformed all other Windows versions and platforms shown in the market share report.

It’s just a matter of time before Windows 10 goes above the 50% milestone as more and more gamers upgrade their PC’s which often include Windows 10.

Twitter update for Windows 10 brings native GIF support

Twitter finally brings native GIF support for Windows 10, which obviously includes mobile too, allowing users to easily search for GIFs right from the Twitter app and adding them to their tweets.

Before this update, users had to manually search for GIFs on the web, save them, find them in the gallery and finally tweet them out. This should speed up your workflow if you happen to use Twitter a lot.

This is it for the news this week, but we will have more so make sure to check back here in seven days.

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!

New information surfaces about Microsoft’s Home Hub, the software rival to Amazon’s Echo and Google Home

Microsoft is working on a software-based rival to Amazon’s Echo and Google Home. What makes Home Hub interesting is that it isn’t a device. It will be able to do everything that both Echo and Google Home can do, but via software, that other, third-party devices, can hook into. It will be a feature of Windows 10 and as the Redstone builds keep coming through, we’ll see more of it.

Former Microsoft exec Kevin Johnson is now CEO of Starbucks

Kevin Johnson, who worked at Microsoft for 16 years and became president of Windows and Online Services, has moved to Starbucks. Johnson will replace Howard Schultz, current CEO, on April 3, 2017.

Microsoft Edge isn’t holding up browser market share, Windows Phone continues its decline and Windows overall sees a decline in desktop share

Last months NetMarketShare numbers are out and it doesn’t paint the prettiest picture. Overall, Microsoft’s browser share, that counts both Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge, is down from 28.39% to 26.87%. This shows that not even Microsoft Edge is helping Microsoft gain traction in the web browser market. For desktop, Microsoft’s overall share for Windows declined from 91.39% to 90.95%. Similarly, Windows Phone, as expected, also declined from 1.95% to 1.75%.

Microsoft has been trying to buy LinkedIn since 2006

LinkedIn’s former co-founder and Vice President of Marketing revealed that Microsoft has been attempting to purchase LinkedIn since 2006, despite only finally doing so in 2016 – 10 years later.

Microsoft, Starbucks and others pledge $3 million to help homeless families in Seattle

Microsoft, along with numerous other companies based out of Seattle, has pledged $3 million to help homeless families in their hometown, Seattle. The money will be donated to the Mary’s Place initiative to tackle homelessness.

Accessibility has been an increasing highlight for software and hardware companies recently as tech businesses such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft continue to pour resources into normalizing customers who require these features.

Microsoft’s Office 365 has been one of the company’s hotbed for accessibility features, and it seems the Office team is no hurry to end that streak. Not only is Microsoft’s Office team building more accessibility features into its software suite, but they’re asking developers to help out in areas they may have missed.

In a new post on the Office 365 blog, the Office team is offering information on how to add their own particular accessibility features to the productivity suite.

Noteworthy new capabilities built into Office 365 to help you with this include:

• Accessible templates—When you create content starting with an online template in Word, Excel or PowerPoint for PC or Mac, you can now find templates tagged as “accessible.” These are structured to ensure ease of navigation with a screen reader and keyboard and use fonts and colors that are easy to read with low vision or color blindness. In the coming months, we will add more accessible templates not only for Office for PC and Mac, but also for Office Online and Office Mobile applications.

• Image description controls—When you use visual objects to communicate information, you need to add alternative text descriptions (alt-text) to ensure this content can be understood by people with visual impairments. To make this process easier, we now offer you controls to add alt-text not only in Office for PC, Mac and Office Online, but also in several Office mobile applications. Furthermore, we are designing ways to make alt-text easier to discover and use. In the coming months, starting with Word and PowerPoint for PCs, we will merge the title and description fields in the alt-text control into a single field so you have no confusion about where to enter alt-text. Also, we will make this control discoverable via the right click menu and ribbon. Lastly, using the Microsoft Computer Vision Cognitive Service, we will offer you automatic suggestions for alt-text when you insert a photographic image that can be recognized with high confidence. Through machine learning, this service will keep improving as more people use it, saving you significant time to make media-rich presentations accessible.

• Link display name controls—When you include links to webpages or documents, you need to add meaningful display names to ensure screen reader users find it easy to understand the purpose of the links. To make this process easier, we now offer you controls to add display names for links not only in Office for PC, Mac and Office Online, but also in several Office mobile applications. In the coming months, we are introducing a new control called Link Gallery in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook for PCs, as well as in several Office Mobile applications. This gallery will show you your most recently used files from SharePoint and OneDrive, as well as any webpage from your clipboard. When you insert a link by selecting it from this gallery, the file or webpage name will automatically be added as the display text, and you can build on this to make it more meaningful.

• Accessibility checker—Before sharing content, you can run the accessibility checker to find and fix any issues that might make your content difficult for people with disabilities to use. The accessibility checker is now easily discoverable in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for PC applications via the Check Accessibility button under the Review tab. It is also available in Visio for PCs and several Office for Mac and Office Online applications. It not only finds accessibility errors and tells you how and why to fix them, but also links to detailed support articles on creating accessible documents, accessible spreadsheets, accessible presentations and accessible emails.

Readers are also given a breakdown of other key updates released during this fourth quarter which includes screen readers, access keys to navigate the ribbon in Office and image capture via voice controls in Office Lens for iOS among other items.

As Microsoft continues to build out Office 365 as its own sprawling platform similar to Windows, developers should expect to see more blog post, tutorials, videos and walkthroughs regarding adding even more accessibility features.

Once Microsoft and Apple introduced their vision for the future of computing with the release of the Surface Studio and the MacBook Pro, journalist, industry pundits and YouTube reviewers were quick to make comparisons and point out the similarities between the two approaches.

While it’s relatively unfair to compare a portable notebook to an all-in-one desktop machine, both the Surface Studio and the MacBook Pro are attempting to augment a user’s workflow with new techniques. Apple introduced the touch bar as a way to add more functionality to the traditional functions key row, and Microsoft launched its Surface Dial which combines the use of a mouse and tabbed menu experience in Windows 10.

Both approaches are relatively new and dependent on developer support, and for Microsoft’s part, the company is attempting to educate developers on how best to incorporate the Surface Dial into their app, program and service utility.

The first and simplest way to add value with Surface Dial is to use Windows inbox components that come with the Surface Dial integration built-in. For developers who leverage the Windows Ink platform to give their users the power to write, draw, and create with their pen, the InkCanvas and InkToolbar XAML controls populate the Surface Dial’s menu with new tools, allowing users to quickly modify the attributes of their ink, change the thickness of their ink as they write and control the on-screen ruler. This gives you the same great Surface Dial integration available in the Sketchpad and Screen Sketch apps in the Windows Ink Workspace.

Numerically speaking, small businesses make up the vast majority of all businesses in the U.S., coming in at a whopping 99.9%. It’s no surprise, then, that ABC’s Good Morning America show decided to create a segment, called “Boosting Your Business,” around how small business can be more successful.

Given that Microsoft is the show’s sponsor, it should also be no surprise that the segment’s inaugural episode just happened to cover a new Microsoft productivity offering. On tap was Microsoft Bookings, the companies tool that enables businesses to let customers make their own appointments and add them to a centralized calendar.

Here’s Microsoft’s take:

In this first segment, Good Morning America brought in Carol Roth, a small business expert and host of Microsoft’s Office Small Business Academy, to visit a popular Chicago salon. Living out the American dream, Goran Cobanovski opened his own hair salon after arriving in the U.S. from Macedonia, where his flagship location now employs a team of 18 people and serves up to 50 clients a day.

Carol gives Goran advice on employee engagement, delegating responsibilities and scheduling appointments. She shows him how Microsoft Bookings can make front-desk scheduling run more efficiently—creating happier customers. Microsoft Bookings is a new service as part of Office 365 that allows customers to book appointments online directly through your website or Facebook page.

Check out the segment to some mainstream (albeit sponsored) coverage of Microsoft productivity:

It’s good to see Microsoft getting the word out on their products beyond just the technology sites that focus on the company. Let us know in the comments if you’re a fan of the new segment and/or Microsoft Bookings.

Yesterday, Microsoft and its shareholders did a pat on the back of sorts during the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Bellvue, Washington.

Aside from the congratulatory rhetoric surrounding Microsoft’s stock price which as reached a decade-long high, several company executives discussed key points of opportunity for future success as well as addressing concerns from holders regarding how Microsoft is handling current markets.

In a post-shareholder meeting wrap up, John Seethoff, Microsoft’s vice president, deputy general counsel and corporate secretary provides a bullet point list of the sessions activities.

• Re-elected all 11 directors to serve until the next annual meeting of shareholders. All director nominees received a vote of 99 percent of votes cast.
• Approved, on a nonbinding advisory basis, the fiscal year 2016 compensation of the company’s named executive officers. The advisory measure received 96 percent of votes cast.
• Ratified the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company’s independent auditor for fiscal year 2017, with a vote of almost 99 percent of votes cast.
• Approved an amendment to Microsoft’s Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation lowering the threshold for shareholders calling a special meeting from 25 to 15 percent of shares, with a vote of 99 percent of votes cast.
• Approved a French Sub Plan under the 2001 Stock Plan, with a vote of 97 percent of votes cast.
• Rejected a shareholder proposal to make amendments to the current Proxy Access for Director Nominations bylaw; the proposal received approximately 26 percent of votes cast.

Other highlights from Microsoft’s annual shareholder meeting include company CEO Satya Nadella speaking about continued efforts to empower users while Anne Taylor, senior supportability program manager demonstrated new assistive technologies being built into Windows 10.

Microsoft’s 2016 was a relatively successful one as the company rounds the bend on its heavily crafted transition. Microsoft also managed to make positive headlines with its hardware and software solutions and based on its schedules and plans for the future, it looks like 2017 could be just as fulfilling for Microsoft as well.

Earlier this week, we reported that the US Microsoft Store was still offering interesting deals on Surface hardware, PCs this week after a record-breaking holiday weekend. But if you’re still not done with your holiday purchases yet, Microsoft has just announced that it is bringing back its annual series of 12 Days of deals in the US starting December 5 through December 16.

Once again, you will be able to enjoy one-day-only savings on select items on MicrosoftStore.com as well as at local Microsoft Stores which will also offer in-store doorbuster deals each day. Each deal will be available for 24 hours while supplies last, and you can find the full list below:

• Day 1 (Dec. 5): Intel Day – Save Up to $1,000 on select Intel PCs starting at $199. In-Store Doorbuster Deal: Save $50 on a JBL Flip 2, now only $19.99.
• Day 2 (Dec. 6): Save $100 on Lenovo Ideapad 110, now only $199. In-Store Doorbuster Deal: Biggest savings of the year on the FitBit Blaze.
• Day 3 (Dec. 7): Save 50 percent on Select Xbox One games, now $19.99. In-Store Doorbuster Deal: Get a $50 Microsoft Store gift card with purchase of a 12-month subscription with Groove Music.
• Day 4 (Dec. 8): Save $250 on Surface Core M Devices, now $649. In-Store Doorbuster Deal: Get a $25 Microsoft Store gift card with the purchase of a 12-month subscription with Xbox Live Gold.
• Day 5 (Dec. 9): Save up to 70 percent on select Windows tablets, starting at $49. In-Store Doorbuster Deal: Save $120 on a Lumia 650, now only $79.
• Day 6 (Dec. 10): Save up to $250 on the Windows Premium Collection, starting at $499. In-Store Doorbuster Deal: Biggest savings of the year on Office 365 Home.
• Day 7 (Dec. 11): Get a $25 Microsoft Store gift card/code with purchase of select Xbox Wireless Controllers. In-Store Doorbuster Deal: Save $120 on select Xbox One consoles (500 GB consoles), now $179.
• Day 8 (Dec. 12): Save $50 and get two free select games with select Xbox One consoles. In-Store Doorbuster Deal: Be one of the first customers in line to get a $25 Microsoft Store gift card.
• Day 9 (Dec. 13): Get a $100 Microsoft Store gift card/code with purchase of HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. In-Store Doorbuster Deal: Biggest savings of the year on FitBit Charge HR.
• Day 10 (Dec. 14): Save up to $1,000 on select Intel powered gaming PCs, starting at $799. In-Store Doorbuster Deal: Get Quantum Break, Halo 5 and Forza Motorsport 6 for $19.99.
• Day 11 (Dec. 15): Save up to 40 percent on select Dell PCs, starting at $199. In-Store Doorbuster Deal: Save $150 on an Acer Jade Primo, now $299.
• Day 12 (Dec. 16): Get a type cover with any Surface Pro 4 for up to $159.99 in savings. In-Store Doorbuster Deal: Be one of the first customers in line to get a $50 Microsoft Store gift card.

During that period, all shoppers on MicrosoftStore.com will enjoy free standard shipping on all orders while Microsoft added that orders purchased by December 14 with standard ground service will have guaranteed delivery by December 24.

EA has released more information on the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story downloadable content (DLC) for the Xbox One video game, Star Wars Battlefront named, Rogue One: Scarif.

The DLC is set on the new planet, Scarif, and features two new playable heroes, Jyn Erso and Orsson Krennic. Players will also gain access to the U-Wing ship, Jyn’s A180 Blaster Pistol, Orsson’s DT-29, as well as Sonic Imploder Star Cards, and the Tie Striker and U-Wing power-ups.

A new trailer for Rogue One: Scarif was also released and you can watch it right here.

The Rogue One: Scarif DLC is now available for Season Pass owners who are given two-weeks early access. Are you excited for this DLC? Are you looking forward to the Rogue One movie? Let us know in the comments below.

A new paid update for the Xbox One’s Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 video game has just appeared in the Xbox Store. Named the, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2: Festive Edition Upgrade, once it’s purchased and installed, this new upgrade will add 2 new characters and a special customization pack that adds a variety of visual changes inspired by the holiday season.

To coincide with this upgrade release, the full Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 game has been re-packaged and re-released as Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2: Festive Edition. Owners of the regular Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 have no need to buy this re-release (they can grab the upgrade pack for the new content) but this is a way for those who haven’t purchased the game yet to do so and enjoy the extra content. Here’s the official description:

Festive Edition Additional Content: 2 new legendary characters. 1 Festive customization packs. 200,000 PvZ CoinsThe battle for suburbia grows to crazy new heights in Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2! In this hilarious, action-packed shooter, zombie leader Dr. Zomboss has strengthened his horde and rebuilt suburbia as a zombie utopia. Play as both the plants and zombies in new 24 player multiplayer and 4-player co-op modes, or go at it solo or in split-screen across all game modes. Garden Warfare 2 also introduces the Backyard Battleground, your very own interactive hub where you and up to 3 friends can take on daily quests, challenges, and interact with your favorite PvZ characters.*Now featuring online and local split-screen.

Buy the Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2: Festive Edition Upgrade

Buy Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2: Festive Edition

Are you a fan of the Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 game? Would you recommend it to other gamers? Let us know in the comments below.

Haunted House, Injustice: Gods Among Us, and the disc-only Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition are coming to the Xbox One console via the Xbox 360 backwards compatibility feature today. Haunted House is a classic Atari game while Injustice: Gods Among Us is a fighting game feature alternate versions of popular DC Comics characters such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

Here are the official game descriptions for each game along with their links to the Xbox Store.

Haunted House

Enter the Haunted House, if you dare. Atari’s classic groundbreaking game is back with more chills, cool new unlockables and plenty of spooky new enemies. Discover hidden secrets, mystical tombs, and new towers and catacombs, as you follow your grandfather’s footsteps on an epic adventure, searching for the magical urn that will lead you to his whereabouts. But beware – danger lurks behind every corner! Are you brave enough for the task, or are you afraid of the dark depths of The Haunted House?

Buy Haunted House on Xbox 360/One

Injustice: Gods Among Us

What if our greatest heroes became our greatest threat? Injustice: Gods Among Us introduces a bold new franchise to the fighting game genre from NetherRealm Studios, creators of Mortal Kombat. Featuring DC Comics icons such as Batman, The Joker, Green Lantern, The Flash, Superman and Wonder Woman, the latest title from the award-winning studio presents a deep original story. Heroes and villains will engage in epic battles on a massive scale in a world where the line between good and evil has been blurred.

Buy Injustice: Gods Among Us on Xbox 360/One

Whether planned or a coincidence, Injustice’s arrival on the Xbox One this week is perfectly timed to coincide with the massive four-part DC Comics TV show crossover on the CW Network featuring Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. While Supergirl isn’t in Gods Among Us, Superman is as are a variety of characters from the other CW shows. A sequel to Injustice, Injustice 2, has already been announced and is expected to release on the Xbox One sometime in 2017.

Do you enjoy playing Injustice? Let us know who your favorite characters are in the comments below.

Just when Windows 10 users thought development on the Twitter had ceased, a new update hits the Windows Store bringing with it, native gif support.

While the old Twitter app for Windows 10 allowed for GIF’s to be embedded into tweets, the process was a bit cumbersome as GIF’s had to originate from the user’s device and then applied like an image attachment.

With today’s update, users can now use the handy GIF option when drafting a tweet and search a GIF library directly from within the app.ead over to the Windows Store to snag the update.

Head over to the Windows Store to snag the update and let us know what you think of the new app addition.

Download
QR-Code

Twitter

Developer:
Twitter Inc.

Price:
Free

The Office 365 team announced ten new features for Microsoft Excel 2016 today. The additions are focused on providing faster and easier data gathering and utilizing Excel for better insights of large amounts of information. The team said in their blog post that a lot of these were popular requests from users for data preparation.

The new features for Excel 2016 include:

• Web Connector—UX support for specifying HTTP Request Headers.
• OData Connector—support for “Select Related Tables” option.
• Oracle Connector—improved Navigator preview performance.
• SAP HANA Connector—enhancements to parameter input UX.
• Query Dependencies view from Query Editor.
• Query Editor ribbon support for scalar values.
• Add custom column based on function invocation.
• Expand & Aggregate columns provide support for “Load More” values.
• Convert table column to a list—new transformation.
• Select as you type in drop-down menus.

Many of the new features can be accessed through the Get & Transform section. Office 365 subscriptions should download automatically. If you’re running Excel 2010 or Excel 2013, you’ll be able to download the Power Query add-in from the Microsoft Download Center.