Visualistan: Microsoft -->

    Social Items



Microsoft is working on bringing ‘Windows Volumetric Apps’ to Meta Quest headsets – in other words, extending Windows apps into 3D space.

 


The company revealed the news at its developer conference, the 2024 Build Event. At Build, Microsoft offers comprehensive sessions for developers as well as professionals that help them build awareness about the company’s tools that support new Windows 11 and Microsoft 365 features. 

 

The new Meta x Windows collaboration implies that, soon, owners of the Meta Quest headsets could view 3D apps and digital objects via their wearable gadgets and physically interact with these apps and objects using their hands.

 

A New Windows and Meta Collab is Bringing Windows Volumetric Apps to Meta Quest Headsets



For the past couple of years, Microsoft has been considering launching an Xbox mobile gaming store, and the company’s plans are finally turning into reality. Microsoft first hinted at a “next-generation store” back in 2022. It was now revealed at the Bloomberg Technology Summit today that the Xbox mobile gaming store is set to be launched in July of this year.

 

Microsoft’s main intent behind creating the Xbox mobile store was to provide a combined gaming and store experience that is independent of a single ecosystem. The company argues that no other gaming platform and store experience has yet been able to achieve that.

 

Speaking about the launch, Xbox president Sarah Bond mentioned that Microsoft is going to begin by bringing its own first-party portfolio to the Xbox mobile store. To offer a more accessible experience beyond the policies of “closed ecosystem stores”, Bond added, the company will begin by offering the experience on web.

 

Microsoft is Launching an Xbox Mobile Gaming Store in July



Microsoft is officially rolling out Passkeys to users of Windows, Android, and iOS. The functionality, a replacement of traditional password, was first launched by Microsoft for Windows last year.

 

Passkeys have been readily adopted by companies like Apple, Google, and others with the purpose of making it easy to sign into Gmail, iCloud, and other services. With Microsoft’s Passkeys, you can sign into a Microsoft account on an app or website, without having to type out a password.

 

To sign in with a Microsoft Passkey using a device, you can choose your personal authentication method like your face, fingerprint, PIN, or a security key. When you create your Passkey, two different keys are generated: one that is stored by the Microsoft website / app, and another being a private key that is stored on your device used for the authentication.

Microsoft is Bringing Passkeys to All Consumer Accounts



Microsoft is releasing Copilot for OneDrive in April and has recently revealed in a new blog post how the AI integration will work for its file hosting platform. From finding information to summarizing and extracting it from an extensive range of files, Copilot will basically function as your research assistant bot in OneDrive.

 

The files that Copilot can work with include text documents, presentations, spreadsheets, HTML pages, PDFs, and more. In addition to generating summaries, the bot can also customize them as per the user’s command, such as only adding key points or highlights from a select part.

Copilot for OneDrive can Extract and Summarize Data from a Wide Range of Files



Microsoft has a new AI venture in development – this time in partnership with French AI startup Mistral. It’s a multiyear partnership worth almost $2.1 billion, where Microsoft is reported to be owning a minor stake in the company.

 

As a result of the collaborative efforts between both the companies, Mistral will be offering development and deployment of its open and commercial language models to users of Microsoft’s AI platform Azure.

Microsoft Discloses News of Investing in a French AI Startup Following its Deal with OpenAI



Microsoft’s AI ventures, that started with Bing, are only getting bigger and better with time. From AI in Office apps, to a dedicated AI key for laptops, Microsoft has integrated the technology in just about everything that it owns.

 

In the AI domain, Microsoft has now shifted its focus off of Bing after being met with a lack of success that it had been anticipating for the platform. In place of Bing, the company has been giving the limelight to Copilot for some time now - the AI assistant that is now a part of Microsoft’s almost every key software and service.

 


In one of its latest efforts to make Copilot stand out, Microsoft has launched a new Super Bowl commercial for Copilot that is set to air on Sunday. The meaning incorporated into the commercial revolves around what makes Copilot special, AI’s creative solutions, and the stories of gamers with disabilities.

Microsoft Launches Superbowl Ad for Copilot and Several New AI Features



According to reports, Microsoft’s employees were surprised by a newly added custom emoji feature on Teams after they spotted an emoji of Pepe the Frog in reactions and messages in the primitive internal versions of Teams.

 

Pepe the Frog has been a trademark in itself for a very long time and emojis of the character have been integrated in Discord servers and on Twitch, representing cheerful responses.

 

Currently, Teams only supports a Unicode emoji panel for videos and messages, along with a Giphy service. Although the custom emoji feature is expected to roll out, that doesn’t mean that the functionality will appear to users in the form of Pepe the Frog memes. Ultimately, the IT admins will control how custom emojis will be accessed and used in Teams.

Microsoft Employees Discover A New Custom Emoji Feature in Teams



Microsoft’s new OneDrive cloud storage service design that made its first appearance last year, will be available to consumers at the end of February.


The new OneDrive UI not just enhances the visual experience of the cloud service but also makes things easier to organize and access. It ‘ll make the content stand out more and look neater by reducing clutter and distractions, Microsoft’s product manager explains.

 

The visual element of the new OneDrive interface is more in alignment with those of Windows 11, while the overall interface appears more modernized and streamlined.

Microsoft Plans to Roll out the New OneDrive Design at the End of February



Microsoft is expanding Copilot Pro to consumers, after keeping it exclusively available for businesses since its launch. Copilot Pro contains a range of AI-powered Office features that work on Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. Additionally, it offers priority access to the latest OpenAI models as well as the ability to build one’s own Copilot GPT.

 

Available for $20 a month, the subscription will open up Copilot in Office apps on Mac, Windows, and iPad. Using the Copilot Pro options, consumers can type in prompts that will produce entire PowerPoint slide decks, rephrase paragraphs, generate and summarize text in Word, and draft and reply to emails in Outlook. Copilot features for Excel are currently available as a preview version that can be used to analyze data, generate graphs, and more.

Microsoft is Launching a Consumer Version of the Copilot Pro Subscription



Microsoft has launched its AI assistant Copilot as a standalone app on Android, following the rebrand of Bing Chat to Copilot. The Copilot app is capable of functioning without the Bing mobile app and has reportedly been available on the Google Play Store for a week now.

 

The Android version of Copilot works pretty much like ChatGPT; users can ask the bot questions, as well as use it to generate images and produce content. The image generation in Copilot is powered by DALL-E 3, while its content generation function can be used to draft long texts such as emails and documents.


Microsoft’s AI Assistant Copilot Makes it to Android as an App



Microsoft has launched a test of its AI-powered feature Copilot on Windows 10. The feature was previously available on Windows 11 only.

 

Windows 10 users can activate Copilot from their PC’s Settings, within the ‘Update & Security’ section. From there, they can enable the “Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available” option to check for updates. “Windows Insiders on eligible devices in the Release Preview Channel who already did this with last week’s update should see Copilot in Windows shortly,” says Microsoft. The company further adds that it could take some time for a user’s device to be confirmed as eligible for Copilot.

 

Apparently, Copilot works on Windows 10 in a similar fashion as it does on Windows 11. The differences that exist only do due to the absence of certain actions in Windows 10.

Microsoft’s AI-Powered Copilot Features Makes its Way to Windows 10



Microsoft has revamped the web version of its app store for Windows, which includes new UI and an improved, easier process of app discovery.

 


The previous version of the web version of the Microsoft Store was formed on Microsoft’s old React codebase built on an “obsoleted UI framework,” according to Microsoft engineer Judah Gabriel. The current version, on the other hand, has replaced React codebase with Shoelace, Lit, Vite, and a C# ASPNET backend. These have accounted for a more efficient interface, easier ways to discover apps, and modern web tech stack.

Microsoft Releases a Redesigned Version of its Web-Based Windows Store

Subscribe Our Newsletter