It’s an incredibly scary world as we store more of our personal information on the cloud each day. While there’s nothing wrong with trusting the cloud with your important data, it’s important to be diligent and know when you need to take steps to protect your accounts. It’s in the interest of that security that Windows developer Lance McCarthy has developed his new app, which goes by the name of “Hacked?”

Hacked? is simple – enter your email addresses and let the app do the rest. Hacked? will notify you the second that one of your email addresses has been listed on haveibeenpwned, a website that tracks security breaches and can give you an idea on whether or not you’ve been compromised. Unlike haveibeenpwned, which needs you to go to the website and enter your email address when you need to check the status of your email address, Hacked? will shoot you a notification immediately if it becomes an issue.

With the help of Hacked? you can be more diligent about your cyber security and change your passwords the second that you need to. While there will never truly be a perfect defense against hackers, this is a fairly solid start. Hopefully, the forewarning capabilities of this app will help users take the preventative measures necessary to keep themselves safe from the people that would do them harm. Grab the app from the download link below.

Plex, the media streaming service that allows you to play movies, TV, and music to any device, is launching a new Universal Windows 10 app soon, and the open beta is available right now. While the service already has a Universal Windows 10 app that’s up on PC, Mobile, and Xbox One, this will be an app that is “specifically built for Windows 10,” ideally sporting a much better client that can better get the job done for Windows 10 users.

You can sign up for the beta right here using your Plex email address and your Windows Store account without much fuss, and once you’re set up you can log into the client on PC to start reporting bugs. Unfortunately, the UWP beta is only available for Windows 10 PCs right now – we don’t know anything about the status of the Plex beta coming to Xbox One, but a mobile version is supposedly coming “soon.”

Just a few days ago we reported that Xbox One would be the first console to allow Fallout 4 users to mod their game, and we now finally know when precisely that’s going to happen. The news about Xbox One’s ability to mod Fallout 4 was initially announced along with the game’s release in E3 2015, and while it took quite a few months to roll out, the feature will be live on May 31st.

#Fallout4 [M] mods are coming to #XboxOne. Get them free on May 31 and learn more at https://t.co/fRtqesfdny. pic.twitter.com/tGMHmECFOv

— Xbox (@Xbox) May 27, 2016

The full list of mods that are going to be available at launch is here, but there are a few that were listed a couple of days ago that you might be interested in as well. Of course, those are only the initial mods – the community will continue to develop content for Fallout 4 ad infinitum, so you’ll never really run out of content.

If you’ve never played a Bethesda game – or any other moddable game – on PC and aren’t yet familiar with why modding is so significant, you’re in for an extremely pleasant surprise. Basically, mods are sets of custom content or graphical tweaks made by members of the community that have a burning passion for the game and the talent to turn that passion into reality. Mods can go anywhere from creative re-skins of characters and objects to entirely new questlines, complete with original characters, brand new weapons and armor, unique scenery, and more.

Mods can do more than just alter specific parts of your gameplay experience – they can make the game feel completely new again. If you’re like this writer and millions of other people who have played Fallout 4 since its November release, you may have poured well over 100 hours into this massive title. If you’re about to dive into your first time using mods, you’re going to discover that your first playthrough was really only the beginning of your Fallout experience.

Unlike official DLC, all modded content is a labor of love by the person or people that developed it. That means that all of your mods are absolutely free – no strings attached, nothing to sign, no money necessary. Just browse the mod library come May 31st and enjoy the products of a fellow fan’s hard work.

Back in April 2016, Microsoft provided an update roadmap for real-time communication (RTC) in Windows 10’s Edge browser. In particular, the company made note of upcoming support for the H.264/AVC codec, which is the standard in the RTC community. Now, Microsoft is announcing support for H.264/AVC in Edge as of Windows 10 Insider Preview build 14352.

The company outlined what’s new in a post on the Edge Dev blog:

Today we’re excited to announce preliminary support for H.264/AVC support in the real-time communications (RTC) stack in Microsoft Edge, as initially promised in our April roadmap update. You can preview this feature in Windows Insider Preview builds starting with EdgeHTML 14.14352 by navigating to about:flags and checking “Enable experimental H.264/AVC support.” This change helps enable interoperable video communications solutions across browsers for basic 1:1 calling scenarios.

This preview release adds the following for H.264/AVC support in our RTC stack:

• Support for packetization-mode 1, per RFC 7742
• Support for Constrained Baseline Profile with levels up to 4.2 (i.e. with profile-level-id=42c02a)
• Support for the absolute send time header extension (abs-send-time)
• Support for Picture Loss Indication (PLI), per RFC 4585

More work remains to be done to enable full support for H.264/AVC in Edge, and Microsoft won’t be stopping development with the upcoming Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Check out the blog post for a bit more information and, if you’re a developer, you can grab some particularly technical details as well.

Back at Build 2016, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 passed the 300 million active user threshold, indicating solid progress toward the goal of a billion installed devices. Since then, there’s been a general uncertainty around just how quickly Microsoft’s newest operating system was taking over the world, along with a fair amount of controversy around Microsoft’s increasingly aggressive upgrade tactics.

However, whether it’s those aforementioned tactics or the impending end of the free Windows 10 upgrade, something seems to be prompting people to upgrade. Computerworld reports that their analysis of StatCounter data indicates a sudden rise in the number of upgraders:

Windows 10 in the last two weeks has posted its largest growth spurt since August 2015, according to data from an Irish analytics vendor.

StatCounter, which measures usage share — a proxy for activity, but not necessarily representative of the number of devices running Windows 10 — portrayed a large and extended string of week-over-week increases, starting around May 13 and continuing through Thursday. In the last three days — starting Tuesday — those gains were in excess of a percentage point, a rarity in StatCounter’s Windows 10 data.

According to Computerworld, data shows that Windows 10 is showing more growth activity right now than during the last holiday season at the end of 2016 and beginning of 2016. If attributable to Microsoft’s aggressive upgrade practices, then at least in the short term that seems to have been an efficient effort.

We’ll be keeping our eye on this sort of data as July 29, 2016 approaches and the free upgrade offer goes away. Theoretically, at least, it’s a trend that should only increase as people start pondering the cost of failing to do so–in spite of Microsoft’s scaling back on the aggressiveness of their upgrade push. Once the company starts charging for the upgrade, we imagine that the trend will revert to something of a slowdown.

Let us know in the comments if you think Windows 10 will continue to grow at a fast clip. If you haven’t upgraded yourself, we’d love to know why.

While Windows 10 has yet to get development support for an official Reddit client, the handful of third party options available have arguably been more than enough for most users. Among the most-used 3^rd party Reddit apps in the Windows Store is Readit, now entering its version 5.1.1.0 with its latest update.

Jumping a couple of points in the upgrade process, Readit is now sporting a massive list of fixes, upgrades, UI enhancements, and optimizations. Via their Reddit page, Readit developers detail the update as followed:

General Additions

Subreddit/post tagging

• Tag subreddits like in RES
• Adds a tag to a post if it doesn’t contain the specified text (only on front page/all and multireddits)
• The tag text is inserted at the beginning of the title just like RES

User tagging

• Tag users/ignore users like in RES
• Use the ellipsis menu for posts on desktop or right click a post in the post list
• Use the app bar for mobile or press + hold on a post in the post list
• Use the more menu for comments to tag users from a comment
• Add a tag via the advanced settings page
• Adds a tag to the user right next to the username of posts/comments so that you can tag/ignore trolls, friends, known users, etc.
• Keeps track of total vote count – how many up/downvotes you have applied to that user since tagging them
• Keeps count for any user you have voted on ever

How the tagging “ignore” feature works

• Self text for comments, messages and posts are replaced with a message stating that the user is ignored
• If you really want to see the self text of it, the ignored message contains a link that you can click to load the original content

Advanced Settings page added to the settings menu

• Manage user tags and subreddit tags
• RES Settings Import
• Import settings directly from a backup of your RES settings – imports user/subreddit tags and associated data such as vote tracking numbers for users

Cloud Sync has been enabled

• Syncs data using the roaming storage of your MS account (< 100 kb of data)
• Will sync between all devices (desktop/tablet/mobile) as long as you are logged into the same MS account
• Only syncs when an account is added/removed or on app launch
• To force a sync, lock your device that is syncing the data to the cloud and wait 3-5 minutes. MS controls this. After the waiting period, check your other device and it should have the data.
• A sync to the cloud occurs if the local file timestamp is newer than the server version
• A sync from the cloud only occurs if the server file timestamp is newer than the local version
• Will sync the following:
• /r/all filter
• Read posts (gold not required)
• User accounts (no passwords stored ever, not even in local storage) •Only syncs users down to device if there aren’t any logged in
• Subreddit tags
• User tags
• New comment count since last visit of posts
• Settings are not synced due to device differences

Bug Fixes

• Fixed all filter in certain languages
• Fixed title bar disappearing on navigation for the desktop UI

The update was posted late last night, US time zone, so the new features may still be rolling out to some users. Head over to the Windows Store to see if the update has populated. Also, take some time to comment and add a review of the app to help the developers with their next wave of updates.

It’s always one economy of the world or another that suffers when a multi-national corporation fires a large number of its employees; in the case of Microsoft’s latest downscaling of its phone business, the heaviest weight again fell on Finland, whose government has, as expected, publicly voiced its displeasure with the Redmond company on Thursday, reports Reuters.

To be fair, it’s not the first time there was bad blood between Microsoft and Finland, nor that one of its moves has shaken the Northern European country’s economy. In 2014, Microsoft acquired most of Nokia – the former pride of Finland – for $7.2 billion. In the same year, in the biggest restructuring in the history of the company, right after CEO Satya Nadella came into power, 18,000 jobs were cut, most of which came from the just-acquired Nokia phone business in Finland.

“I am disappointed because of the (initial) promises made by Microsoft,” “One example is that the data center did not materialize despite the company’s promise.”

– Alexander Stub, Finance Minister, Finland

The move has been credited with contributing to the country’s ongoing economic stagnation. For its part, Microsoft has reportedly promised to invest more heavily into Finland to make up for the job cuts, a promise it apparently had not been able to keep, two years down the road.

“The company must bear as big a responsibility as possible over what they have done by laying off people,”

– Jari Lindstrom, Employment Minister, Finland

It is understandable, then, that the new round of layoffs, which again largely targets the phone business in Finland, resulting in 1,350 more unemployed Finnish citizen out of 1850 worldwide, has evoked a strong response the country’s government, who promises “serious talks” with Microsoft about its responsibility in helping the affected. We can only hope that as Microsoft continues its transformation according to Nadella’s vision, the company will not have to do something similar again for a long while yet.

Mods will be coming soon to Fallout 4 on Microsoft’s Xbox One video game console. The game will update in the near future and once the new data has been downloaded and installed, users will be able to access and enable game mods from a new menu option in the main menu.

To create mods for the Xbox One version of Fallout 4, gamers will have to download Bethesda’s Creation Kit to their PC. Once the mods are finalized though, they will be available through the cloud on the Xbox One. Mods will be coming to the PlayStation 4 version of Fallout 4 as well but Microsoft’s Xbox One will be getting the feature first.

Mods are essentially new features added to a game by fans. Examples of mods are new weapons of characters, new environments, and even new music and graphics. A video was released today which showcased some of the Fallout 4 mods that have already been approved. You can watch it above.

Fallout 4 launched on the Xbox One in November 2015 and was one of the most popular video games for several months after it launched. Here’s the official description for Fallout 4 on Xbox One: Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of Fallout 3 and Skyrim, welcomes you to the world of Fallout 4 . Winner of more than 50 Game of the Year awards, including top honors at the 2016 D.I.C.E. Awards. Fallout 4 is the studio’s most ambitious game ever and the next generation of open-world gaming. As the sole survivor of Vault 111, you enter a world destroyed by nuclear war. Only you can rebuild and determine the fate of the Wasteland. Welcome home.

Do you enjoy mods in your video games or do you like everything 100% official? Let us know in the comments below.

If you’re involved with providing technical support or just like to make use of remote machines, then you’re likely familiar with remote control apps like Microsoft’s own Remote Desktop App. This particular iteration of Microsoft’s remote control technology has been around for some time now, with the current production version in the Windows Store being a Windows 8.X app.

On the other hand, adventurous souls might be using the Remote Desktop Preview App, which has been the only way to access Microsoft’ Universal Windows Platform version of the app. All of that’s changing, however, as Microsoft will now start rolling out the Universal Windows 10 App as the official version for all Windows 10 versions, including PCs, notebooks, tablets, and smartphones.

There are some transition issues to keep in mind as you make the switch:

• Desktop connections are preserved
• User names are preserved
• Passwords need to be re-entered
• Gateways are preserved
• Remote resources URLs are preserved from Windows Phone 8.1 but require new sign in
• Remote resources are not preserved from Windows 8.1 and need to be re-added
• Some general settings are preserved

Also, the official Windows 10 version will not support everything that was in the Windows 8.X version, such as:

• Multiple simultaneous connections
• Dynamic resolution and rotation
• Printer redirection
• Smartcard redirection
• Microphone support
• Localized app (currently English only)

If you want to remain on the cutting edge, then you can keep running the Remote Desktop Preview App. That too will transition to the Windows 10 version while continuing to receive new testing bits. If you want to remain on the production version, then install or retain the Remote Desktop app and you’ll eventually be upgraded to the Windows 10 version.

So, hang tight and hit that update button periodically. Let us know in the comments if and when you receive the new version and what you think of it.

Yesterday, Windows 10 Mobile Insiders on the Fast Ring release cycle got what amounted to a cumulative update with build 14342.1004.

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14352 now available to #WindowsInsiders in the Fast ring! https://t.co/AUO3qefI6P

— Gabriel Aul (@GabeAul) May 26, 2016

Today, however, PC Insiders are receiving a build with much more involved, as the Windows team rolls up its sleeves to crank out a polished release of the Windows operating system for its July deadline. Windows 10 Insider preview build 14352 is bringing another laundry list of neat refinement features to the operating system, just months before its final release.

Cortana Improvements

Cortana, Your Personal DJ: In addition to playing songs via your local files and OneDrive, you also now have the ability to play any song from the entire Groove Music Catalog using Cortana. If you have a Groove Music Pass, just ask Cortana to play your favorite artist, genre, playlist or song. This also works with Cortana on your Lock screen.

• “Hey Cortana, play <song name>”
• “Hey Cortana, play <artist>”
• “Hey Cortana, play my <Groove playlist name>”
• “Hey Cortana, pause”

NOTE: Groove Catalog support currently for U.S. English only – other regions to come in the future.

Set a timer: You can now set a timer using Cortana to remind you to go get a snack, take a break, or while cooking. You can set a timer, query how long is left and cancel using natural language. On your PC, this works logged in or above the Lock screen. On your phone, you can use speech or text. Examples below. We are continuing to improve the overall user experience including conversation mode (“set a timer”, then specify the time), and enable turning off a ringing timer using speech. Try out:

• “Hey Cortana, set a timer for 10 minutes”
• “Hey Cortana, how much time is left?”
• “Hey Cortana, cancel my timer”

Windows Ink

Updated Sticky Notes: With the latest update, Sticky Notes are now better than ever* with the ability to create Cortana reminders from your notes that will flow with you across your Cortana enabled devices. You can also ink or type a phone number and it readies itself for calling; write an email address and launch directly to email, write a URL and launch into Microsoft Edge right from the Note. A few jotted-down bulleted items become an easy-to-manage checklist. Don’t forget that Sticky Notes is also a standalone app, just launch it from Start if you’d like to use it outside of Windows Ink Workspace.

 *Certain features are currently limited to EN-US, with more market and language support coming in future updates.

Compass on the ruler: We’ve updated the Windows Ink ruler to include a compass. If the ruler is oriented in the direction of any of the cardinal points or midpoints, the compass indicator will become bold.

General improvements to the Windows Ink experience: We have made performance and reliability improvements based on feedback including:

• Sketchpad will now dismiss if you tap Esc or Windows key combinations (for example, Win + S or Win + D).
• We’ve updated the export icon to be the more familiar floppy disk icon for saving your sketch.
• We’ve polished the experience of opening Sketchpad when many ink strokes are present on the canvas.
• We fixed an issue that resulted in Sketchpad sometimes needing to be tapped twice before it would launch from the Windows Ink Workspace flyout.
• Sketchpad and Screen Sketch will now default to touch inking ON for non-pen devices. They will also remember the state of the button when you relaunch Windows Ink Workspace.
• Going forward from Build 14252, the Windows Ink Workspace icon state (on or off) on the taskbar will be preserved after upgrading.
• We have updated Sticky Notes to show a small sticky note icon next to the app name when hovering over the app in the taskbar or in Task View.

Other items of note

Windows Game bar improved with full-screen support: One of the most common requests we see for the Windows 10 Game DVR feature is the ability to use the Windows Game bar with more games running in full-screen.  With this flight, we’ve added support for six additional games in full-screen mode with Windows game bar: League of Legends, World of Warcraft, DOTA 2, Battlefield 4, Counterstrike: Global Offensive, and Diablo III. With those games, you can now use Windows key + G to bring up the Windows Game bar when the game is running full-screen.

Tip: You can control this feature through the Windows Game bar settings. In the settings dialog, look for the “Show Game bar when I play full-screen games” checkbox.

Feedback Hub will now show Microsoft responses: You’ll now see short status tags on feedback to let you know what we’re doing with it. The tags are a short-form way to give status on feedback we’re actively working on or have made changes for. The tags will often be published along with a “Microsoft response” comment that gives more context on what the team is doing. This change also replaces the “Received” tag that you’ve been seeing on all feedback with something much more useful and informative!

Status tags for feedback

Updated File Explorer icon: Based on Insider feedback, we have updated the File Explorer icon with more color.

Deploying Windows Enterprise edition gets easier: Prior to Windows 10, the upgrade from the Pro to Enterprise edition required a complete wipe and reinstallation of the OS. In Windows 10, we enabled bit-less edition upgrade from Pro to Enterprise. This means all the features are on the device already and the upgrade to Enterprise edition can be performed by changing the product key rather than having to download and deploy a new image. However, doing this required a reboot to complete. We heard a lot of feedback about having to reboot to complete the upgrade so starting with this build a reboot is no longer required when upgrading from the Pro to Enterprise edition. You can try out this out by going to “Settings -> Update & Security -> Activation” in the settings app and click the “Change product key” button and enter a valid Enterprise product key. If you find any issues, please send us feedback via the Feedback Hub!

Limited Period Scanning: Limited Periodic Scanning is a new security setting you can choose to turn on if you use an antivirus program other than Windows Defender. This setting can provide an additional line of defense in scanning and detecting malware on your device. To enable this – go to Settings > Update & security > Windows Defender and turn “Limited Periodic Scanning” on. Each month Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool detects malware on 1 to 2 million devices, even those running other antivirus software. This setting can be turned on for unmanaged devices. You can read more about Limited Period Scanning here.

And with that, this round of new updates comes to a close. Fast Ring Insiders can head over to their Update Settings menu and grab the new build today.

Happy downloading, Insiders!

We’ve all been frequenting the Windows Store since it came out last year, and we’ve had a great time grabbing all of the apps coming out on Windows 10. It’s likely that Microsoft fans have made the Windows Store their home, but you can’t help but wonder if the general public has decided to follow suit. Thankfully, Tony Bradley from Forbes got a chance to uncover some clues from Lisa Gurry, Senior Director of Windows at Microsoft.

According to Bradley, Gurry claims that the Windows store has been visited 6.5 billion times in its very first year. That’s is a solid figure, and probably exceeds what many people thought the Windows store was going to be able to achieve right off the bat. If accurate, the number proves that the Windows store has been a successful experiment that will continue to grow and prosper as time goes on. Hopefully, Microsoft will release more detailed statistics for us to pick apart when Windows 10 reaches its first anniversary on July 29th.

As the Forbes article points out, the Windows Store has a number of benefits for developers who choose to engage with Microsoft’s ecosystem: Cortana integration, leveraging cross-play with the Xbox One, Live Tiles and Windows Hello, and over 300 million Windows 10 customers and counting. Hopefully, Microsoft will release more detailed statistics for us to pick apart when Windows 10 reaches its first anniversary on July 29th, and all of these factors will have contributed continued growth for the Windows Store.

Security and passwords. Passwords and security. As large enterprises, educational institutes, small businesses, and everyday consumers are exposed to increasing nefarious online activity, the need for stronger passwords and better security measures are becoming a feature necessity from software and content providers.

In the wake of software provider LinkedIn’s 117 million usernames and passwords leak, the Azure Directory Team is aiding security with measures IT admins can use to better secure their user’s passwords, privacy, and sensitive information.

Reaching out to Robyn Hicock and Alex Weinert of the Azure Identity Protection division, the Azure Directory team can now offer IT admins a walkthrough of the best practices regarding password security. According to Hicock and Weinert the following:

• Password length requirements
• Password “complexity” requirements
• Regular, periodic password expiration

These may seem like no-brainers in the war against password hacking, but in fact have offered an easier way for hackers to obtain sensitive information. In separate whitepaper write ups title Robyn’s paper, Hicock explains the predictability of users when encountered with aforementioned security requirements and how hackers prey on those tendencies.

To counter those measures, the Azure Directory team uses a combined practice of dynamically banning common passwords and smart password lockout.

The details of dynamically banning common passwords include:

When it comes to big breach lists, cybercriminals and the Azure AD Identity Protection team have something in common – we both analyze the passwords that are being used most commonly. Bad guys use this data to inform their attacks – whether building a rainbow table or trying to brute force accounts by trying popular passwords against them. What *we* do with the data is prevent you from having a password anywhere near the current attack list, so those attacks won’t work.

As I mentioned in my last blog and the latest Microsoft Security Incident Report, we see more than 10M accounts attacked daily, so we have a lot of data about which passwords are in play in those attacks. We use this data to maintain a dynamically updated banned password list.

We then use that list to prevent you from selecting a commonly used password or one that is similar. This service is already live in the Microsoft Account Service and in private preview in Azure AD. Over the next few months, we will roll it out across all 10m+ Azure AD tenants.

As for smart password lockout, many online consumers may have already been exposed to the practice in some form or another by companies utilizing two-factor authentication.

Of course, you already know that when our security system detects a bad guy trying to guess your password online, we will lock out the account. What you probably don’t know is that we do lots of work to make sure that they only lock themselves out!

Our systems are designed for determining the risk associated with a specific login session. Using this, we can apply lockout semantics only to the folks who aren’t you. The only way *you* get locked out is if someone is guessing your passwords on your own machine or network.

The Azure Directory method of using and smart password lockout has statistically lead to over 50% of hackers being kept away from business or user information.

Obviously, more methods can be implemented on top of or in connection with dynamically banning passwords or smart password lockout, but using the two practices should help any company get a good footing against online password hacks. Let us know in the comments how you think companies like Microsoft can enhance security, and what steps you’re taking yourself to make your information and systems more secure.

Back in April, we reported on the fact that Microsoft teamed up with Seattle Indie Radio station KEXP to present “Inside the Music of KEXP” at the Seattle Center. Today there is some newer information on the KEXP front, as Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has given half a million dollars to the Seattle radio station.

As reported by GeekWire, the donation helped KEXP surpass a $15 million fundraising goal for a capital campaign that was set to close June 30. It’s not the first time that Paul Allen has contributed, though, as GeekWire also reports that Allen’s Paul G. Allen Family Foundation supports the station through competitive grant proposals.

The donation should come as no surprise since GeekWire notes that Allen has been passionate about music since he received his first guitar when he was 16 years old. Allen’s donation is still very positive for the Seattle community, and it shows that his involvement has transformed the station since its days at the University of Washington back in 2001.

The Microsoft Research Latin America Faculty Summit has just celebrated its 10^th year and Microsoft Research Latin America and the Caribbean’s director, Jamie Puente, has reflected on his experience and the conference as a whole in a recent blog post.

In it, he talks about how seeing the recent summit in Rio de Janiero a week ago reminded him of the original excitement he felt when planning the creation of the event over a decade ago and also on his appreciation of the more recent announcements he had just heard.

Among his personal highlights were Project Premonition, which can use cloud computing and AI to prevent the spread of diseases such as Ebola and Zika. Another favorite of his was Ability Eye Gaze whose technology can be used to improve the lives of individuals with severe motor impairment.

Something Puente was particularly proud of was Microsoft’s numerous collaborations with Latin American universities, research organizations, and other institutions. “One of the collaborations that has yielded some profound results in Brazil is the one we have with the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP),” he explains. “Since 2006 our joint venture, the Microsoft Research—FAPESP Virtual Institute for IT Research, has supported research that includes efforts between researchers in ICT fields and their colleagues from others areas of knowledge, such as biodiversity, energy, environment, healthcare, education.  With FAPESP, we’ve invested in 22 research studies and supported 63 student fellowships. These projects and fellowships share an important distinction: Every one of them is geared toward addressing social and economic developmental needs of the region. The notion that—in addition to our commitment to science, we have an obligation to support the application of science to improve lives—that is significant.”

The 2016 Microsoft Research Latin America Faculty Support ran from the 18^th to the 20^th of May and is likely to continue next year. For breaking news on Microsoft from all around the world, make sure to check WinBeta.

The Microsoft 3D Builder app on Windows 10 has updated today and has fixed a variety of bugs relating to the previous update which added support for the 3D Scan app and the ability to import images via a webcam or other device.

The 3D Builder app is primarily used to edit files associated with 3D printing. It allows for the creation of new 3D models and for editing of current ones. Here’s the official app description: View, capture, personalise and print 3D models using 3D Builder. Download many kinds of 3D files and edit them using the 3D modelling space. Take a picture with your webcam and make it 3D. Personalise 3D files by embossing your name, or combine models and pieces to make something new. Don’t have a 3D printer? That’s okay – you can order a professional-quality print of your model from inside the app and it’ll be sent to you by the 3D Systems Cubify service.

The app itself is rather comprehensive, despite its basic description, and it can open a range of file types, such as 3MF, STL, OBJ, PLY, FBX, WRL (VRML), DAE, 3DS and DXF files, and can save or export data as 3MF, STL, PLY or OBJ files. It can also automatically correct 3D models to make them compatible for 3D printing and text can be added to any number of shapes from within the workspace.

One of the cooler features of the app is its support for Microsoft’s Kinect sensor which makes the entire process of 3D scanning much more affordable for many people who are interested in jumping on the 3D printing craze. The above video shows one such example of the Kinect being used where it’s shown scanning a couple to create miniature figures of them for their wedding cake.

Do you use this app? Let us know about your impressions in the comments below.

After the Hewlett-Packard  Co. split last fall, HP Inc. has tackled PC sales in a declining market. Earlier today, Chief Executive Dion Weisler told the Wall Street Journal that the company is taking a significant hit in revenue for both PCs and printers. But that isn’t where he wants he company to compete for sales. Instead, he says that the company is focusing on target niches that have shown a profit and continue to grow HP Inc.

“We are taking share where we choose to play. We are also being careful about what not to do,” Weisler told the WSJ about the switch of sales areas. One such area is the 2-in-1 market with products like the detachable Pavilion x2. This shift doesn’t catch anyone by surprise. According to the analytics over at Canalys, many consumers have driven revenue from the once booming PC and Tablet market straight into the 2-in-1 hybrid laptops.

The most recent reports showed that HP Inc. had a profit of nearly half of last year’s earnings, going from $1.01 billion to $626 million. According to WSJ, total revenue slid down 11% with the decrease in sales across the board of personal systems, consumer sales, commercial revenue, and printers. In particular, the company’s personal systems sales fell 10% year-over-year, with consumer revenues down 16% along with a 7% decline in commercial sales. Share costs have slipped from 55 cents down to only 36 cents per share.

But HP Inc. doesn’t expect for the slide to continue going forward. In fact, they’ve stated that they expect approximately 37-40 cents per share towards the end of this quarter. In a news release reported by CNBC, Weisler’s press release stated:

This quarter we delivered strong results and solid progress towards our long-term strategy. We achieved our operational objectives, unleashed truly amazing innovations, and grew in strategic areas of our business, despite tough market conditions. I’m confident in our ability to execute and remain committed to our plan for growth.

Given the revenue decrease, it’s hard not to compare HP Inc. profit to that of their former partners, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. HPE has reported a stock that climbed nearly 17%, overshadowing HP Inc.’s stock with an increase of only 3%. The pressure is on for HP Inc. to pull out the big guns and push forward with whatever “truly amazing innovations” they have in the closet.

Once again, Microsoft’s flirtation with the open source community is bearing fruit for both the company and its traditionally non-Windows based consumers. Specifically, the world’s foremost open source provider Red Hat Inc. just announced the general availability of Ansible 2.1 with support for network automation and an expansion of capabilities, thanks in part to its new support for Microsoft Windows environments.

Ansible stood as Red Hat’s premier agentless open sourced IT automation framework that enabled the easy configuring and managing of computers. By combining multi-node software deployment, ad-hoc task execution, and management configuration, Ansible has become the default solution for businesses seeking open-sourced options.

With Ansible 2.1 bringing support for Microsoft Windows and Azure technologies, users can look forward to the following extensibility features:

Ansible 2.1 now includes support for Microsoft Windows environments, enabling users to use a single automation platform for complete cross-platform automation. New features include:

• Broader support for Microsoft Azure, expanding Ansible’s support for hybrid cloud deployments, including the ability to take advantage of Azure’s Resource Manager functionality.
• New Windows modules, enabling the management of Windows file sharing and the Windows firewall, further increasing Windows’ automatable surface area within Ansible.
• Easier management of domain-joined machines with NT LAN Manager (NTLM), enabling more secure authentication of domain users with just a username and password – reducing the need to configure and manage Kerberos on the Ansible control machine.
• Kerberos delegation expanded for multi-hop scenarios, enabling better credential flow for legacy scripts and installations that need transparent access to domain file shares, Microsoft SQL Server, and more.
• Simple reboots with new win_reboot action, helping to solve the challenge of automating software installations on Windows platforms that also require a system restart as part of a workflow.

Also, Ansible 2.1 brings expanded support for Containers that includes a new module, docker service, and a rewrite of existing Docker modules. Ansible 2.1 is now available on GitHub, PyPi and package manager for most supported Linux distributions.

For more info on Ansible 2.1, visit redhat.com.