Back in June of this year, Microsoft sent emails out to app developers to assure them of making sure the age rating on their apps had been set. It appears now that the Redmond giant is continuing this push of the age rating, and is warning that it will unpublish noncompliant apps soon (via Neowin.)

According to an email obtained by Neowin, non-compliant apps will be unpublished and removed from with Windows Store on September 30, 2016, due to failure to comply with policy 11.11, Age Ratings. The email also requests that the developer “remedy the failure” and resubmit the app for approval. Additionally, in another email also obtained by Neowin, Microsoft also highlights the fact that beta (both private and internal) apps will also be required to conform to the age ratings.

The age ratings are reportedly set based on the answers to a five-minute questionnaire available in the Dev Center. Regardless, this does draw into question what will happen to the multiple apps which have not been updated or just all out neglected on the Windows Store.

While Microsoft ended its free upgrade offer to Windows 10 on July 29, the new operating system has continued to grow its desktop OS share over the last month. According to the latest data from NetMarketShare, Windows 10 claimed a 22.99% desktop OS share in August 2016, which is 1.86 points of percentage higher than its 21.13% score in July (via Windows Central).

Of course, Windows 7 is still far ahead with a 47.25% desktop OS share in August, which is actually up from 47.01% in July. Windows XP still closes the podium with a 9.36% OS share (down from 10.34% in July) while Windows 8.1 went from 7.8% in July to 7.92 last month.

Windows 10 managed to maintain a steady growth since its release in July 2015 and the upcoming months promised to be very interesting. As IFA 2016 is officially underway, many OEMs are currently introducing their latest portfolios of Windows 10 PCs and 2-in-1s though consumers who don’t want to buy a new PC can still purchase a Windows 10 license to upgrade their current machine. Let us know in the comments if you expect Windows 10 to maintain its current growth in the coming months.

Earlier this year, we reported that Ubisoft won’t release a new Assassin’s Creed game this year amid a 30% decline in revenue. However, it seems that a compilation of previous titles from the action-adventure video games franchise is reportedly coming on both the Xbox One and Playstation 4 in the coming months.

French website Gameblog has published promotional material about Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection, a compilation of previous Assassin’s Creed titles featuring Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (with all their respective DLCs) plus animated movies Assassin’s Creed: Lineage and Assassin’s Creed: Embers (via Gamespot).

While Ubisoft has yet to officially announce the bundle, Gameblog also reports that the collection should launch at a €70 (about $78 US) retail price and all games are expected to run at a 1080p resolution and 30 FPS. Assassin’s Creed II, the most critically-acclaimed among these three games is already backward compatible on the Xbox One just like the first opus of the franchise.

HP have just revealed two new, rather cool-looking, PCs, the HP Pavilion Wave and HP Elite Slice. Both computers are complete, fully functional PCs, designed for Windows 10 and will be available for purchase this month.

The HP Pavilion Wave features two built-in dual microphones, which enable voice integration with Windows 10’s Cortana, and a 360 degree speaker on its top. According to Microsoft, it’s “built around a fully integrated, advanced audio system to play music, listen to movies and web chats” and can power up to two 4K displays.

Here are the HP Pavilion Wave’s features:

• Powered by Windows 10
• Fully integrated, advanced audio capabilities
• Up to two 4K displays are supported out-of-the-box to power entertainment and productivity
• Peripheral support with three USB 3.0 ports, one USB 3.1 Type-C port for data transfer, one HDMI port, one DisplayPort, Gigabit Ethernet and a microphone/headphone jack.
• Cortana support with two dual microphones for customers to talk to their PC for a hands-free experience
• High-performing power house with up to 6th  Generation Intel Core i7 quad-core desktop processors, ample storage up to 2 TB HDD, an optional dual drive with 128 GB SSD5 and up to 16GB of DDR4 system memory
• Optional AMD Radeon R9 M470 discrete graphics for photo and video editing or light gaming

The HP Elite Slice is “the first modular commercial desktop with cable-less connectivity” and boasts a simplified design that allows for convenient customization of its hardware specs and features. Two of the modules that can be implemented are the Audio Module (which features the same dual microphones and speaker as the HP Pavilion Wave) and the ODD (Optical Disk Drive) Module.

Two covers are also available, the HP Collaboration Cover and the HP Wireless Charging Cover. The former essentially transforms the PC into a Microsoft Skype for Business phone while the latter turns the device into a wireless charging base for supported mobile phones. The HP Wireless Charging Cover won’t be available until 2017 however.

Here are the HP Elite Slice’s features:

• An optional touch fingerprint sensor for improved security and easy authentication.
• HP Sure Start with Dynamic Protection, the industry’s first self-healing BIOS-level protection.
• Up to 6th Generation Intel Core i7 35-watt processors for the performance to easily handle productivity and collaboration needs.
• Unique 360-degree dual fan pipe ring keeps the powerful device running cool.
• Peripheral support for enhanced productivity including one Ethernet port, built-in Wi-Fi module and antennas, one HDMI and one DisplayPort to power multiple displays.

HP is also offering a specially designed combination of HP Elite Slice modules called, HP Elite Slice for Meeting Rooms. This package contains the HP Elite Slice, the HP Collaboration Cover, HP Audio Module and the Intel Unite software. It is being specially marketed towards professionals searching for a convenient, yet high quality conference solution.

More information, along with specific release dates for each product, is expected to be released soon. For now though, let us know what you think of the HP Pavilion Wave and HP Elite Slice. Are you impressed by their form factors and functionality? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below.

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One of the more important pieces of software on any gaming machine is the GPU driver, which can impact both gaming performance and overall stability. For anyone running an NVIDIA GeForce GPU, the release of new Game Ready Drivers is always a big deal, and for those folks today is a good day.

NVIDIA released WHQL Game Ready Driver version 372.70 this morning, and here’s the complete changelog:

Game Ready Drivers provide the best possible gaming experience for all major new
releases, including Virtual Reality games. Prior to a new title launching, our driver team
works up until the last minute to ensure every performance tweak and bug fix is
included for the best gameplay on day one.

Game Ready
Provides the optimal experience for World of Warcraft: Legion, Battlefield 1: Open Beta,
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Quantum Break on STEAM.

New Features
– Enabled Fast Sync for Maxwell GPUs and the Extended, Clone, and Surround multimonitor
configurations.

Application SLI Profiles
No SLI profiles were added with this version.

3D Vision Profiles
Added or updated the following 3DV profiles:

• Battlefield 1 – not recommended
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – upgraded to excellent

3D Compatibility Mode Profiles
No compatibility mode profiles were added with this version.

• Software Module Versions
• NView – 148.03
• HD Audio Driver – 1.3.34.15
• NVIDIA PhysX System Software – 9.16.0318
• GeForce Experience – 2.11.4.0
• CUDA – 8.0

You can view all of the details about today’s update in the 372.70 release notes, and as always you can download the drivers here. Let us know if the update has improved your gaming or general PC experience.

Just two days before the beginning of PAX West 2016 on September 2 in Seattle, WA, the Xbox team has announced today the PAX West Custom Console Sweepstakes to give you a chance to win one of eight customized Xbox One consoles. If you’re in Seattle, you can check them out at the Xbox booth inside of PAX West event. This Sweepstakes will begin tomorrow September 1, 2016 at 11:am PST and will be open to all US residents above 18 years of age, and you don’t even need to attend the gaming show or pay anything to participate.

Here’s how to enter and get a chance to win one of the custom Xbox One S consoles featuring designs inspired by Gears of War 4, Halo Wars 2, Forza Horizon 3, Dead Rising 4, ReCore, Sea of Thieves,Battlefield 1, and Final Fantasy XV:

On site

• Take one photograph of a custom-branded Xbox One S console located at the Xbox booth and share it via Twitter or Instagram using the promotional hashtag “#XboxPAXSweepstakes” during the event hours (make sure you are following @Xbox on Twitter and Instagram).

From your home:

• Create and share a post on Instagram tagged with “#XboxPAXSweepstakes” and “@Xbox” during the Sweepstakes Period (make sure you are following @Xbox on Instagram).
• Retweet one of the Sponsor’s designated promotional Tweets containing “#XboxPAXSweepstakes” during the Sweepstakes Period. Retweets must be in the exact form as the original tweet to be eligible to receive an entry in the applicable random drawing (make sure you are following @Xbox on Twitter).
• Send an e-mail to [email protected] during the Sweepstakes Period with the subject line “Microsoft PAX West Custom Console Sweepstakes” and include in the body of the e-mail you first name, last name, address, city, state, zip code, daytime phone number, and e-mail address.
• On your Xbox One console, you will automatically receive one Sweepstakes entry when you log into the Xbox Live service. Once you’re in, go to the “PAX West Custom Console Sweepstakes” landing page on the dashboard and click the designated area during the Sweepstakes Period as instructed.

Each Xbox One console will be a 2TB model ($399 value) though it seems the Gears of War 4 Xbox One S is the only one model to be truly customized. Sound off in the comments to tell us which custom Xbox One S model you would like to win!

Microsoft has just announced that the Microsoft Solitaire Collection (the version of Solitare included in Windows 10 and 8) has reached more than 100 million unique users.

As part of the announcement, the Redmond giant also unleashed some new statistics for the card game. Leading off is that in the 26 years since it was introduced, Solitaire still remains one of the most played games of all time on any Windows OS. Secondly, on average, 55 million Microsoft Solitaire Collection games are played per day. Additionally, since the newer Solitare Collection is a Xbox Live game, Microsoft highlights the fact that game has awarded more than 1.3 billion Gamerscore to players to date.

A new game mode named “Events” will also be heading to Microsoft Solitaire Collection on Windows 10 this fall. The new mode will let you win awards and stack you up against your friends and those in the community.

Microsoft is introducing a new Azure Virtual Machine specifically tailored for data scientists. The Microsoft Data Science Virtual Machines are Azure virtual machines that come preloaded with popular data science tools. And it comes in both Linux and a Windows flavors

What’s included in the Data Science Virtual Machine image

The VMs do not carry any software charges for using them. So Azure customers are only paying for the runtime of the VM and any storage needs. Microsoft Data Science Virtual Machines come loaded with the following tools:

• Microsoft R Server Developer Edition
• Anaconda Python distribution
• Jupyter Notebooks
• IDLE
• Azure Machine Learning
• Cortana Sample Gallery
• Microsoft Azure Poweshell
• Git Bash
• SQL Management
• Visual Studio Community Edition,
• Power BI desktop
• SQL Server Express edition
• Azure SDK

With these tools, data scientists will be able to code in R, Python, SQL, and C# the minute their VM instance is up and running. Microsoft list a few ideal usage scenarios for when an analytics team might want to use a data science VM, such as “onpremise Analytics desktop replacement in the cloud, data Science Training and education, dedicated on-demand elastic capacity for large workloads, and short Experiments & Evaluation.”

This isn’t the first time Microsoft has created special preconfigured Azure Virtual Machines. Currently, there are 1056 virtual machine images available to choose from. These include everything from SQL Servers to SAP HANA Developer Edition to Windows Developer Virtual Machines. There is even an image to set up your own Minecraft server through Azure Virtual Machine.

How to setup a Data Science Virtual Machine in Azure

To use Microsoft’s new Data Science Virtual Machine image you will need both an Azure subscription and an Azure storage account. And if you are new to Azure be sure to take advantages of their free trial with a $200 credit. Once your account is setup, go to Virtual Machine in the Azure Portal and search the list of VM images for Data Science Virtual Machine. Then choose either Windows or Linux.

You’ll then have to enter some information for the VM and choose the size and disk type. After you click buy, Azure will provision the computing space in a data center for your VM in about 10-20 minutes. You can then pull up your VM using the Remote Desktop app.

Battlefield 1 Open Beta on Xbox One and Xbox One S is rounding out to be one of the best Battlefield games yet. I signed up for the Battlefield Insider program, so I enjoyed a couple of days of Battlefield 1 Open Beta early access. I was able to download the Open Beta on Sunday, August 28, 2016, and play the game on Monday and Tuesday with little issues. There are some bugs in the Battlefield 1 menus and other connection issues, but overall it has been a fantastic experience.

In a post on Xbow Wire, Microsoft announced that Xbox Live Rewards members will now be able to get exclusive Battlefield 1 Rewards. At this time, these rewards are only available to Xbox Live Rewards members in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Mexico. Xbox Live Rewards members will also get a chance to enter to win prizes in the new Battlefield 1 Sweepstakes.

The grand prize is an all-expenses-paid trip to tour the EA DICE Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. Other available prizes include Logitech G633 headsets, Battlefield 1 Early Enlister Deluxe Edition and Battlefield 1 Standard Edition digital download codes, Xbox Live Gold Subscriptions, and Xbox Gift Cards.

Additionally, anyone (in the US and Canada) that plays the Open Beta and streams their gameplay via the Twitch app on Xbox One will be automatically entered to win a trip for two to TwitchCon 2016. The winner will receive two general admission tickets to TwitchCon, roundtrip airfare to San Diego, a four nights hotel stay, and $1,000 cash.

The Open Beta features two gameplay modes, Conquest and Rush, playable in the Sinai Desert map. Battlefield 1 has a different feel than previous Battlefield games. Personally, I think Call of Duty has gone overboard with their future warfare games of late. It is nice to a chance of pace with EA taking Battlefield to the early days of warfare seen in World War I.

Acer has introduced several Windows 10 PCs at IFA 2016 today including the Swift 7 and Spin 7 new ultrabooks, refreshed Predator 15 and 17 gaming laptops as well as a brand new Predator 21” curved-Screen model. Acer’s new ultrabooks feature an impressive thin and light design in well-designed enclosures while the Predator X21 gaming laptop is powered by top of the line specs including dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs. Let’s dive into the details below:

The Acer Swift 7 ultrabook

the Acer Swift 7 looks to be one of the thinnest and lightest ultrabook ever with its all-aluminum dual tone body measuring .39 inches thin and weighing in just 2.48 pounds. The notebook also features a 13.3-inch FULL HD IPS 2 display which is not touch enabled, an HD webcam with HDR imaging support and two USB 3.1 Type-C ports. On the inside, you’ll find a 7th Generation Intel Core i5 processor, a 256GB SSD and up to 8GB of memory and the notebook should deliver up to 8 hours of battery life.

The Acer Spin 7 convertible notebook

The Acer Spin 7 convertible notebook is slightly bigger than its Swift 7 little brother as it features a 14-inch FHD IPS touchscreen display with Gorilla Glass in a 0.43 inches thin and 2.6 pounds package. Unlike the Swift 7, the Spin 7 has a mate black chassis with polished silver hinges and diamond-cut edges around its wide-glass touchpad, and hardware specs are also slightly better with a 7th gen Intel Core i7 processor though battery life should be around 8 hours.

The updated Acer Predator 15 and 17 gaming laptops

There is not much to say about the refreshed Predator 15 and 17 gaming notebooks except that they now come with the latest NVIDIA GPUs with the all-new Pascal architecture. The gaming laptops can be configured with NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1070 graphics to make them pretty future-proof and VR-ready.

The Acer Predator 21 X gaming laptop

The Predator 21 X is the first gaming laptop to feature a 21” curved-screen as well as eye-tracking technology that provides Windows Hello support as well as “new interactions in gaming like aiming, identifying enemies and taking cover simply by gazing at objects on the screen.” Additionally, the gaming notebook features beastly hardware specs under the hood:

• The latest 7th Generation Intel Core processors
• 5 cooling fans and dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs in SLI for unmatched graphics performance
• Full-sized mechanical keyboard featuring CherryMX switches, with customizable RGB backlight settings for each individual key.
• SoundPound2+ (4 speakers and 2 subwoofers), 3-way audio and Dolby audio
• Advanced cooling architecture with 5 system fans, 3 of which are ultra-thinAeroBlade metal fans, to extract excess heat for uninterrupted performance during intense sessions
• ThePredator 21 X’s numeric keypad also touts a unique design as it can be flipped over and turned into a Precision

Pricing and Availability

• The Acer Swift 7 and Spin 7 ultrabooks will be both available in North America in October with prices starting at $999 and $1,199, respectively. Both models will also be available in EMEA in October with prices starting at €1,299.
• The refreshed Predator 15 and 17 gaming laptops will be available in North America in September with prices starting at $1,699; and in EMEA in October with prices starting at €1,799.
• Acer has yet to announce a release date for its Predator 21 X gaming laptop

You can learn more about Acer’s latest Windows 10 laptops by heading over to Acer.com, let us know in the comments what do you think of these new additions to the Windows 10 ecosystem.

Video game developer Matt Thorson announced on Twitter that he has been working diligently for the last few months on Towerfall. The game originally released on the unpopular Ouya console in 2013. However, was re-released later as Towerfall Ascension for PlayStation 4 and PC. Now he admits to working on an Xbox One version as well.

The local multiplayer battle arena lets up to four players fight it out with archery and head stomps. The official description on the itch.io page reads:

Inspired by classics from the golden age of couch multiplayer, TowerFall Ascension is a 4-player local party game centering around hilarious, intense versus matches. The core mechanics are simple and accessible, but hard to master and combat is fierce. Loot treasure chests for game-changing power-ups, master the art of catching arrows out of the air, or descend on your foes and stomp them into submission. TowerFall is best played competitively with friends, cross-legged on the floor within punching distance of each other.

A tweet from Matt Thorson states that Towerfall Ascension and its Dark World DLC will both be available on the console and it is ‘awesome’. Currently the game sells for $14.99 so we’ll likely see a similar price tag with the console’s release.

TowerFall news 3/3: TowerFall Ascension and Dark World are coming to XBox One! No release date yet, but I'm playing it and it's awesome ?

— Maddy Thorson (@MaddyThorson) August 26, 2016

In addition, Matt recently pushed the limits of the 4-player multiplayer. He released the 8-player modded version of Towerfall Ascension. The $8.88 price tag for the new version doesn’t include the single player campaign, only the local multiplayer battle arena that has been tweaked significantly for larger fights.

Even though the two announcements so close together got fans excited, Thorson rained on the parade. He confirmed via Twitter that the 8-player mod wouldn’t be available on Xbox Store or anywhere else for that matter.

I should clarify that TowerFall 8-Player is only on itch.io and I have no plans to sell it anywhere else

— Maddy Thorson (@MaddyThorson) August 31, 2016

It is unfortunate that we don’t have a release date yet. Given that Towerfall sold well with its exclusive Ouya release, fans will likely expect the same reaction to the popular party game.

The Windows 10 app, Get Started, updated today and has added a fair bit of new content. Users should now be able to find more information on newer Windows 10 devices and the content for mobile devices, desktop PCs, and the Surface Hub has been expanded. Several bugs have also been squashed and a new feature which allows users to search the app by topics has been added.

Get Started is an official Microsoft app that comes pre-installed on all Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile devices. The app contains a variety of introduction and training videos on the new operating system’s features and updates often with news on any major changes that have been made. A significant amount of information was added relating to the recent Anniversary Update for example.

Unfortunately, the Get Started app is only really discoverable through random searching of the app list from the Windows 10 Start Menu on Windows 10 devices or the app list to the right of the Start Screen on Windows 10 Mobile phones so it’s unclear how many users use it, let alone know of its existence. Even searching for help in Windows 10 via the built-in search function or Cortana rarely brings up content from the app, instead preferring to direct users to a Bing search result instead.

Here’s the official app description: Master Windows basics and learn some new tricks with the official Get Started app! If you’re new to Windows, this app will get you up and running like a pro in no time. And even if you’ve been using Windows forever, the app will guide you to new and updated features. We’ll update the app as Windows 10 changes, so check back to see what’s new.

Do you use the Get Started app on your Windows 10 or Windows 10 Mobile device? Do you find it useful? Let us know in the comments below.

Download
QR-Code

Microsoft Tips

Developer:
Microsoft Windows

Price:
Free

Oceanhorn: Monster Of Uncharted Seas is now available to pre-order on the Xbox One ahead of its September 7^th release date. The game is a 3D puzzle adventure title that should appeal to fans of Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda franchise.

Here’s the official game description: SET SAIL AND EMBARK ON AN EPIC JOURNEY Grow from a boy to a legend.  You wake up and find a letter from your father. He is gone… The only lead is his old notebook and a mysterious necklace. What happened?  Explore the islands of Uncharted Seas, a world filled with many dangers, puzzles and secrets. Fight monsters, learn to use magic and discover ancient treasures which will help you on your quest. Use all your wits and skill to unravel the mysteries of ancient kingdom Arcadia and sea monster Oceanhorn.  Oceanhorn combines captivating storytelling, breathtaking 3D visuals and exciting gameplay into one massive action adventure experience you will never forget.   Enjoy an incredible soundtrack from the best video game composers in the world: Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy) and Kenji Ito (Seiken Densetsu)

Pre-order Oceanhorn: Monster Of Uncharted Seas on Xbox One

Have you pre-ordered any Xbox One games recently? Let us know which ones in the comments below.

Office 365 has been undergoing a ton of improvements and changes recently, not the least of which is the introduction of the Office Insider program that went live last November. A bunch of new features are coming to supplement it now, with a refreshed focus on inking, a smarter way to keep track of people, a better way to maintain the security of sensitive files, and a brand new Insider program. You can check all of these out in detail with the Office blog post, but here’s the gist.

The changes to inking are fairly novel and extremely interesting, and many people should get use out of them. The change is, without a doubt, the introduction of equations. All you need to do is write down an equation, circle it with the lasso tool, and indicate to Office that you want to have that equation solved. The process is quick, easy, and its use of the ink tool over just your keyboard makes it a lot closer to the classic note-taking experience that many people are now so used to.

Also new to inking is the introduction of rewind, which lets you record and replay notes in the order that they were taken. This should be an especially strong tool for professors who want to show off certain processes to their students, and opens up a few new avenues of teaching things like math via Office.

The addition of WIP (Windows Information Protection) to Office Mobile for Windows 10 is going to be an invaluable asset for companies trying to make sure their information stays secure. Described as an “enterprise-ready solution,” WIP is a fairly simple solution to a series of big security problems. The feature lets you change files to be either “personal” or “work” so that your IT department can handle them accordingly.

The new “people experience” is something that many professionals are going to enjoy, as it makes it much easier to keep track of other people in your company. The feature lets you click on a person and find out what your mutual emails are, what files you both have access to, what meetings you’re both going to, and more. It seems like it’s going to be an excellent tool for people who are trying to reach out in their company a bit more.

Visio is also receiving some additions, with two new apps coming out. They’re described in the blog post:

• The new Visio Online Preview lets you view and share Visio diagrams with just a browser. Drill deeper into sub-processes or link out to web pages. Zoom into detailed views in high fidelity. Open a diagram in Visio Pro for Office 365 to edit.

• With the new Visio for iPad, access your Visio diagrams from virtually anywhere using your iPad. Search for content, filter different visualizations of the same diagrams, and use the intuitive pan and zoom window to easily navigate or view your diagram in full fidelity. Send feedback and vote on your favorite features on UserVoice.

For those who run into any issues in Office, in-app assistance has been included into Office 365 apps, letting users open up a chat with an IT professional at Microsoft without having to open up a browser. This change makes it so a whole lot more people are going to be able to get help with whatever problems they’re facing in Office, as a pretty big portion of people probably didn’t know they could do anything like that beforehand.

If you’re familiar with the Office extension that launched on chrome not long ago, you’ll be happy to know that an extension is coming to Edge as well. Now directly from Microsoft Edge, you can open up documents in OneDrive, create new Word files, and more. The extension has been extremely successful on Chrome with over 3 million downloads, so putting the extension on Edge is a solid move on Microsoft’s part.

Finally, some news that regular Windows Insiders are going to be happy about. The Office Insider program is getting a brand new ring to enter: The Fast Level. For those who aren’t familiar, the Fast Level is something that lets Insiders get the very latest builds – the ones being used internally at Microsoft – at the risk of sacrificing the support and stability that most mobile phone users are used to. If you’re feeling adventurous, this is definitely for you.

That’s about it for August’s big updates. Office has gotten a serious new suite of features this month, with a little something thrown in there to make everybody happy. With the addition of the Fast Level, Office insiders are surely going to be introduced to a whole new set of interesting features in the very near future. We’ll have to wait and see what else Microsoft has up its sleeve for us.

Two more Xbox 360 games have joined the roster on the Xbox One Backward Compatibility feature. In addition to working on the older consoles and new, the games are now updated in the Xbox Store for purchase through your Xbox One. Saves, achievements, and other progress can be transferred over via the cloud with relative ease so you can pick up and play where you left off.

Forza Horizon (SEP #GamesWithGold) & Castle of Illusion are coming to Xbox Back Compat today https://t.co/qPMRNrLoTQ pic.twitter.com/l4sfn2IjQp

— Larry Hryb ????????☁ (@majornelson) August 30, 2016

Forza fans are excited to be racing off with the game once more. The racing game Forza Horizon was originally released on Xbox 360 in February 2013.

Forza Horizon’s description reads:

Where cars belong! Celebrate speed, music, and style at the Horizon Festival. From the makers of the highest-rated racing franchise of this generation, Forza Horizon combines legendary Forza authenticity with the freedom of the open road.

Disney’s Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse is also now Backward Compatible. It was originally released as a Sega Genesis game in 1990 and then re-mastered for the Xbox 360 in 2013.

The title’s description reads:

With all-new HD graphics and gameplay, Castle of Illusion brings Mickey and his world to life in this magical Disney adventure! When the evil witch Mizrabel kidnaps Minnie, it’s up to Mickey to brave the dangers of the Castle of Illusion to rescue Minnie. Gather your courage and traverse enchanted forests, take on hordes of rebellious toys and navigate mazes of living books. Play as Mickey and save Minnie from Mizrabel’s evil clutches!

As of late, fans of Disney have been clamouring to buy the Castle of Illusion from a variety of sources. The game was confirmed to Game Informer by Sega to be officially delisting as of September 2, 2016. Buyers of the original Xbox 360 fans might find themselves nostalgic for the game and thankful for the addition to the Backward Compatibility list.

As he always does, Larry Hryb from the Xbox Team has updated the Backward Compatible list on his site to reflect the new additions. Check out the rest of the Xbox 360 games that you can play on your Xbox One by visiting his Xbox One Backwards Compatibility List.

Earlier today, Microsoft published a lengthy blog post to reveal how several developer interns managed to turn their software projects into real products thanks to Microsoft’s Garage Internship Program in Cambridge. Five of these projects are now available to try on the Microsoft Garage website and some of them may well help you change your computing habits and increase your productivity. However, be aware that these latest projects are not currently available on all platforms: one of them is a Windows app, two other projects are iPhone apps and two other ones are browser add-ins. More details below.

Project Santorini (Windows app)

Project Santorini a Windows app that provides a fresh take on revisiting your old photos using metadata. The app allows you to browse your photos store on OneDrive by either using location or time, and here is the official description:

Santorini guides you through a fun and serendipitous photo exploration journey by using your hidden photo metadata. Enter the experience by choosing a starting photo from your OneDrive collection. Our novel dual-axis interface then allows you to fluidly navigate between photos taken in the same place and other locations. Enjoy your journey as memories flood back from your sister’s wedding, your son’s first day of school, or your unforgettable vacation. To re-enter from another starting point, simply return to the collage view and choose another photo. Have photos without an associated time or location? Santorini also makes it fun and easy to add that information as well.

Write Ideas (iPhone app)

Write ideas eases students through their writing assignments using structured prompts and questions. Using Write ideas, students are able to express their creativity in a variety of ways such as voice, doodles and text. Students can then export their work to email or OneNote and use it as a foundation for their writing assignments.

Hearing AI (iPhone app)

Hearing AI aims to connect people to the world of sound. The interface allows people to visualize the intensity of environmental sounds in order to gauge the ambience of a physical space. Hearing AI distinguishes between four different types of sound environments and notifies people if there are sudden changes or if sounds are damaging to their ears.

Project Copenhagen (browser add-in)

Project Copenhagen is the simplest way to view, attach, and share your OneDrive files to anyone with Gmail.

Simplify your sharing – Attach multiple files to your emails with a few clicks of a button all within Gmail.

Store files with ease – Download attachments directly to your OneDrive, right in your inbox.

Project Oceana (browser add-in)

Project Oceana is the quickest way to access, and keep tabs on, your Outlook inbox right from within your Chrome browser.

Stay in touch – Quick glance into your Outlook inbox and preview messages with a single click of a button.

Stay informed – View unread mail and receive optional push notifications whenever you receive a new e-mail.

Organize effectively – Delete and flag e-mails directly from the extension.

All these new Microsoft Garage projects are currently in private beta in the US (and Canada for some of them) but you can sign up today to receive an invitation to try them by using the above links. Let us know what you think of these latest Microsoft Garage apps and services by dropping us a comment below.

The highly anticipated off road racing game Forza Horizon 3 is making its final preparations to speed onto your television. With the release only a month away, the game has finally ‘gone gold’ meaning that it is completely finished with the coding and ready to play.

Halo fans and Forza racers alike have been requesting the popular transport vehicle from the Halo franchise and now’s their chance to get behind the wheel in a completely new game. The Warthog will be available for individuals that have played either Halo 5: Guardians or Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One. Codes will be available as early as September 5th.

The official description reads:

The 2554 AMG Transport Dynamics M12S Warthog CST is a civilian transport alternative to its militaristic cousin, the M12 Force Application Vehicle. What it may lack in brute force – you won’t find a turret on this version – it more than makes up for with its 720 bhp twin turbo V8, making it significantly faster than its FAV counterpart. The Warthog CST in Forza Horizon 3 is also ideally suited for the rough and tumble landscape of Australia. With the most advanced suspension in Forza Horizon 3 (with more than 70 cm of suspension travel), plus advanced dampening, you won’t find the combination of power and stability like this anywhere else in the Horizon Festival.

Another addition that was finalized in the latter days of development was the Xbox Live Achievements list. For a full list of over 60 achievements, be sure to check out the latest blog post on Forza Motorsport.

True to the Xbox Play Anywhere edict, Forza Horizon 3 will have compatibility with the same achievements, saves, and friends between Xbox One and Windows 10. Along with Direct X 12, Windows recommended PC specs are as follows:

Race through the Australian outback on September 27. Or if you’d like to cross the line early, you can pre-order the Forza Horizon 3 Ultimate Edition for early access on September 23.

If you ever wondered what it was like interning for Microsoft, then you should look no further. The Redmond giant has just posted a story to the Firehose blog which describes how Microsoft Garage interns spend their summer as “doers, not talkers,” and how they make an impact through their projects.

Overall, the Microsoft post highlights the story of Maddy Leger, who completed a 12-week winter internship at Microsoft as a software developer. After initial success, the Northeastern University junior was invited to stay longer and take on a program manager role. She learned about the importance of beta programs, time management and much more. While at the Microsoft internship, Leger also learned about the legal, privacy, security, accessibility review processes, and will even have the chance to watch the products she helped create ship at the end of her internship. She says,

Coming out of this internship, I have a really solid understanding of the entire product lifecycle, from the perspective of all three roles…  In 16 weeks. Beyond the software skills, I learned a lot about how to pitch/demo a product, how to use customer research to make informed decisions about features and a whole lot of other soft skills.”

Microsoft highlights that at end of their internships, most interns will see the projects they’ve worked on get released to the public through the Microsoft Garage.  Close relationships between the students and their mentors, teamwork, and a close relationship between the students and sponsoring business groups also highlight the internship at Microsoft Garage.

Microsoft Garage internships are also heavily involved, for example, software engineers are involved in the design decisions, user research and sprint planning. Designers even lead a lot of the user research and work on multiple projects, and some of them write code for the projects. Ben Fersenheim, who runs The Garage Internship Program in Cambridge, put the Microsoft internship program best, and said,

For students, I think the program demonstrates in a very tangible way that Microsoft is a place where they can have true impact on people’s lives. We have a motto in the Garage: ‘Doers, not talkers,’ and I think we live that motto – students get a chance to deliver working code to real people.

The Microsoft Garage internship program pulls undergraduate and graduate students from 20 different universities in the US and Canada. Candidates come from various majors, including computer science, engineering, design, and even fine arts.  In Canada, 50 interns a year are hired from universities and help source out projects from Microsoft’s internal business groups.

Users of Outlook.com might have been a bit confused lately about the recent updates concerning the migration towards the new experience. Microsoft had been teasing its users for a while now about migrating the old Outlook.com infrastructure to a newer one. Originally announced in spring of last year, the ‘new Outlook.com experience’ will be on par with the features and accessibility that Office 365 offers.

We know that accounts have been upgraded since February this year with rollouts occurring each week. A Twitter statement even confirmed that users could be looking out for the upgrade towards the end of the summer this year.

But a Microsoft message popped up a few days ago gave some startling news. “We expect the upgrade to be finished in the first half of 2017,” it read in the statement adding that shared calendars were having difficulty during the transition. Nearly half a year was a big difference, so ZDNet reached out to the company for an official statement. What they got was a complete debunk of that earlier message.

Here’s the official statement, from that spokesperson:

“The error message incorrectly stated the date as the first half of 2017; we’re updating this message to reflect the latest migration schedule. We are in the final stages of the Outlook.com migration, with nearly 90% of our active users already migrated. A small percentage of our active users will take additional time to migrate based on certain features they are using like shared calendars.”

It seems the Outlook.com migration will in fact be rolling out in the year, but what is more interesting is that the reply didn’t give any clearer explanation on when it can be expected.

At E3 2016 this year, Microsoft confirmed 2 new successors to the original Xbox One, namely Project Scorpio and Xbox One S. The Xbox One S will be the immediate successor, plugging the gap whilst the company works on its next-generation of console, known only as Project Scorpio. The improved Xbox One brings a smaller overall body, an internal power supply, IR blaster and 4K video output.

On top of all these improvements, we also reported that the Xbox One S will upscale games to 4K, however, it won’t support native 4K gaming. That role is left to Project Scorpio, arriving in 2017.

Last week, reports began to surface from several different media outlets that claimed the Xbox One S would not support 4K pass-through. 4K pass-through allows a connected device, such as Amazon Fire TV stick, to push 4K content through the console and display it in native 4K on the display. These reports were unconfirmed and unverified, until now.

Today, Microsoft reached out to us with a statement that confirms the Xbox One S does not support 4K pass-through for the time being, however, they aren’t ruling out adding support for it in the future:

Xbox One S does not currently support 4K pass-through via HDMI-in. We will continue to explore making the changes needed for the hardware to support pass-through as 4K broadcasts become more widespread.

Through the statement given by the spokeswoman, we can see that Microsoft is not completely ruling out adding 4K pass-through to the Xbox One S, however, it believes that the content available for the technology is not widespread enough to warrant implementing it just yet, although, they do state that they’re exploring options for the future, for if or when the technology is more widespread.

What do you think of the lack of 4K pass-through support? Let us know in the comments!

A Reddit user by the username fmarx1 spotted a new feature in the non-beta MyTube Universal Windows App allowing you to continue watching your current video on other Windows 10 devices with the app installed. The feature is using the new “continue app experiences” API that allows developers of apps like Readit to let you continue doing whatever you were doing on one device and transfer it to other devices by simply pressing a button.

A screenshot of the feature, provided by the abovementioned user, can be seen below:

All you have to do to get the feature up and running is to download MyTube on both (or more) devices you are planning to use it on, press share, then select devices, and you’re almost done. Now select the device you want to watch the video on and viola.

You can go ahead and download the YouTube client below. Let us know in the comments what you think about this new functionality.

Download
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myTube!

Developer:
Ryken Studio

Price:
Free

Back on August 17th, Microsoft announced that it would be changing Bing Rewards to Microsoft Rewards. At the time the Redmond giant was relatively vague as to when the switch over to the new rewards program would begin happening, but it appears now that steps are in place and the changeover has begun (via WinSuperSite):

WinSuperSite, running a Windows 10 machine with Build 14393.82, received Microsoft Rewards notifications in the Action Center under the title “From Microsoft.” While “notifications From Microsoft” is not necessarily new, the Rewards notifications are new. They also apparently showed up after a Windows Store purchase, and when clicked, linked to the Microsoft Account homepage and a new tab called Rewards.

So, have you noticed any notifications from Microsoft Rewards in your system’s Action Center? As always, please let us know what you think by dropping us a comment below.

Sleep Number, the manufacturer of smart and adjustable beds, has released a new update to its SleepIQ app for iOS and Android devices, according to WinSuperSite. If you’re not familiar with it, the company’s SleepIQ technology tracks your sleep patterns to “empower you to make changes for your best possible sleep.” With this new update, the app now integrates with several health and wellness apps such as Microsoft Health, Fitbit, Withings and more. Here is the full changelog:

– Connect SleepIQ® to the following health & wellness apps: Fitbit, MapMyRun, Withings, Microsoft Health, Nest
– Track your Sleep Number® bed order delivery (for new accounts)
– WiFi control available for Sleep Number setting
– General bug fixes

According to the new app description, the app is now able to “learn how life affects your sleep, and sleep affects your life.”

What should you change to sleep better? Over time, SleepIQ® will help you know. Whether you’re tracking steps, indoor temperature, hours of activity or more, SleepIQ will pair the data from these apps to your personalized sleep data and help you understand how what you do during the day affects how you sleep at night. By simply doing what you already do – and sleeping on your SLEEP NUMBER® bed with SleepIQ® technology – you’ll be on your way to optimizing your sleep for the best days possible.

If you own a Sleep Number bed, you can download the SleepIQ app from the download links below. Let us know in the comments if you will use these new integrations with popular quantified health apps to learn more about what’s impacting your sleep.

Download
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‎Sleep Number

Developer:
Select Comfort Corporation

Price:
Free

Download
QR-Code

Sleep Number

Developer:
Sleep Number Corporation

Price:
Free