OneDrive cribbed a lot from Google Photos for its new update
Competition is good for everyone. Case in point: Microsoft has added some features to the OneDrive platform that should be pretty familiar to anyone accustomed to Google Photos. First up are Automatic Albums, which, as the name implies, groups photos together based on metadata to give you a comprehensive view of a given time period’s events. In a neat twist, the folks in Redmond say that every Monday morning the service will automatically create albums of the pictures you took over the weekend. The platform will do a TimeHop-style “On this day” photo-resurfacing as well.
Additionally, you can use emoji (yep, really) to search your uploads, and the folder view page and Windows 10 Photos app have also gotten an overhaul. Microsoft’s love of Pokémon Go is on display here too: screenshots from the game will be grouped according to pocket monster, using machine learning to ID and group them. Now that shot of a Pidgey sitting on your BFF’s shoulder will only a couple of taps away.
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Office Blog
Microsoft’s free Windows 10 upgrade ends on July 29th
If Microsoft’s pushy upgrade notifications weren’t enough to compel you to install Windows 10, then maybe a looming deadline is. Windows 10 will no longer be a free upgrade after July 29th, a year after the OS was released and shortly before its anniversary update rolls out. The company revealed the features coming out with the anniversary refresh during Build 2016, and they include advanced gestures, new Cortana commands and the merged version of the Windows/Xbox One app stores.
From the very start, Redmond intended to make the OS available as a free update for only a year. Unless the company execs change their mind, a Windows 10 Home license will set you back $119 after July 29th, so you may want to stop procrastinating and install it if you always meant to do so. In case you’re still undecided, you can check out our review of the platform and read up on what other readers think about it.
‘Gears of War 4’ will have plenty of PC-specific features
The history of Microsoft-backed Xbox One games coming to the PC isn’t exactly stellar. When Remedy’s Quantum Break reached Windows, it was saddled with limitations that were partly dictated by the Universal Windows Platform’s own limits, such as frame rate issues and an overall lack of features. You shouldn’t run into those problems when Gears of War 4 rolls around, though. As part of a Eurogamer interview, The Coalition has revealed that the cover-based shooter will have ample PC-specific features. You’ll get much deeper video settings that include dynamic resolutions, so your ultra-wide display won’t go to waste. It’ll also take advantage of many-core PC processors, higher-resolution textures and UWP’s recently unlocked frame rates, offering a distinct visual advantage to playing on a brawny computer.
Other perks? There’s a benchmarking mode to make you feel good about your hardware upgrades, and you have full control over the keyboard and mouse input. In short, this should feel like a PC-native game even though it’s likely to be the definitive Xbox One title for 2016. That’s still not going to make everyone happy (developers have railed against UWP’s closed ecosystem for years), but it beats having to deal with console-like limitations just to play some big Xbox hits on your Windows gaming rig.
Source: Eurogamer (1), (2)
‘Project Sonic’ is coming to Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo NX
While Sonic fans will celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary with a 2D throwback game in Sonic Mania, the official Sonic Team is working on something new. Tonight Sega dropped this teaser trailer for “Project Sonic,” which is due for the 2017 holiday season on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo’s NX. Everything in the trailer is CG, but it does indicate that we can expect both a “Modern” and “Classic” Sonic to make an appearance.
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog (YouTube)
Survival in ‘We Happy Few’ starts next week
We Happy Few was one of my coworker Jess Conditt’s favorite games from E3 this year, and for good reason: its alt-history, drug-and-paranoia fueled take on a dystopia is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. But how did it all begin? With a question, according to an Xbox Wire post by developer Compulsion Games’ Sam Abbott. The team was trying to figure out how to make a bigger game than its first (Contrast, which made its debut with the PlayStation 4) but wanted to keep its staff size from ballooning. That’s why Compulsion turned to procedural generation — akin to No Man’s Sky — for its 1964 English city.
That single question led to more regarding what you’d actually do in We Happy Few. “What kind of gameplay made sense in a city? Certainly not survival — it should be easy to survive in a city. Except… what if it wasn’t? Wouldn’t that be interesting?” Abbott writes. We saw a little bit of that onstage during Microsoft’s E3 keynote this year. There was a lot of running from police just itching to bash you with their clubs because you didn’t take your soma Joy.
The game also employs something unique for an AI-assembled setting: a story. When We Happy Few hits Xbox Game Preview on July 26th as a work in progress, though, it won’t have a narrative — that’s something Compulsion is holding back until version 1.0. What sorts of things does the game have in store next Tuesday? You’ll have to download it to find out.
Source: Xbox Wire
Try passing ‘The Turing Test’ August 30th on Xbox One
Given video gaming’s reliance on artificial intelligence and penchant for sci-fi themes, it’s surprising that only now there’s a game named after Alan Turing’s famous A.I. test. Here we are though, with The Turing Test hitting Xbox One on August 30th. It’s also been promised for Steam next month. A post on Xbox Wire makes the game sound an awful lot like Portal, to be honest. It’s a first-person puzzler set in a sterile research facility on Jupiter’s moon Europa wherein you’ll use a gun of sorts to control A.I.-powered machines and “solve puzzles that only a human could solve.” That’s in addition to other tasks designed to bend your brain.
“All of this is woven into a multi-layered story based on the human struggle for power, which can only be experienced through the interactive medium of video games,” developer Bulkhead Interactive’s Howard Philpott writes. If you can’t wait until the end of next month to play but will be in Cologne, Germany for Gamescom, good news, because the game will be on the show floor.
Until then check out the trailer embedded just below. There’s an extremely hard wink at director Alex Garland’s Ex Machina at the very end — an incredible Oscar-winning movie about, you guessed it, an advanced Turing Test. Coincidence? I think not.
Source: Xbox Wire
‘Overwatch’ was June’s best-selling game, even with a handicap
In case you haven’t noticed, Overwatch is really, really popular. Popular enough to support millions of active players, host high-stakes professional competitive gaming drama and even inspire a graphic novel adaptation. All this, and the game’s barely three months old. Still not convinced? Okay, we’ve got one more thing: Overwatch sold better than any other game in June — and according to NPD Group, it won that top spot with a handicap.
Having a new game from a major publisher take the top spot in NPD Group’s sales report is nothing new — but this month’s sales data is sort of unique. June marks the first time the company has been able to include digital sales numbers. The twist? Overwatch’s digital PC sales aren’t part of the total.
Confused? Don’t be. Traditionally, NPD Goup only publishes numbers tracking physical game sales, but recently it struck a deal with a handful of publishers to self-report digital sales data. Unfortunately, this means the group can only publish digital sales numbers from companies that offer them willingly, and neither Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo are willing to share that data with the public. This means that titles like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Doom appear on NPD reports with an asterisk — “No digital sales included in ranking.”
Activision Blizzard, Overwatch’s publisher, actually does report console’s sales to NPD Group — but for some reason, its PC Battle.net sales weren’t included in this month’s report. It made the top spot anyway, beating out Grand Theft Auto V, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst and more. That’s impressive! Still, it would be more impressive if the chart reflected the full digital sales for every game on every platform. We won’t really know who’s winning the so-called “console wars” until the industry opens up and makes that data available.
France objects to Windows 10 user tracking
France’s privacy regulator has stared into Windows 10 and feels that the software’s doing a bit too much staring back. CNIL has issued a statement saying that the operating system collects too much data about its users. For instance, it explains that Microsoft tracks usage statistics to identify problems, including apps downloaded and time spent in each one. Which, sounds quite reasonable, since most of our days are spent working inside Chrome, Firefox or Edge. But since this information isn’t necessary for the day-to-day operation of Windows 10, it’s considered to be an infringement on people’s privacy.
Officials also feel that Microsoft’s security provision for Windows 10 is too lax, thanks to the unlimited times you can enter a PIN. That opens the door for any enterprising attacker to simply brute-force the combination, which CNIL feels makes the operating software “not secure or confidential.” Then there’s the fact that Windows 10 applies a unique identifier for the purposes of targeted advertising. No guesses for how French officials feel about that, given all you know about ’em.
The last major objection is that Microsoft is still pushing personal data around following the principles of Safe Harbor. These were the set of EU-US privacy protections that were declared invalid late in 2015, with a replacement, called Privacy Shield, only coming into force this month. Naturally, that’s the point that Microsoft is fastest to refute, with deputy general counsel David Heiner telling The Register that it will “adopt the Privacy Shield,” in the near future. In addition, Microsoft will work with CNIL to ensure that it doesn’t have to suffer the pain of penalties.
Via: The Register
Source: CNIL
SwiftKey’s first Microsoft-era keyboard predicts your emoji
Wondering what SwiftKey has been up to ever since Microsoft bought it early in the year? It’s not necessarily what you’d expect: meet Swiftmoji, a predictive emoji keyboard app for Android and iOS. The software uses both the context of what you’re typing and worldwide trends to suggest emoji when you’ve decided text just isn’t enough. They’re a bit like iOS 10’s suggestions, only with a culturally savvy bent. Swiftmoji will offer “queen” and “bee” if you’re raving over the latest Beyoncé single, for example. If you regularly venture beyond the basic emoji, this might save you some time digging through 1,800-plus emoji to find the perfect picture.
Swiftmoji is only available in English right now, and its functionality depends on the platform you’re using. It’s a full-on keyboard replacement on Android, while it’s strictly for inserting emoji on iOS devices. Whichever version you use, it’s safe to say that this is more of a specialized tool compared to SwiftKey’s standard keyboard — you’ll know right away whether or not it’s something you can use.
Source: App Store, Google Play
Skype no longer supporting Windows Phone or older Android versions
Microsoft is making some changes to its Skype app going forward, and it may end up making some Android and Windows Phone users frustrated. Today, Microsoft announced it would continue to support Skype across iOS 8, Android 4.03 and Windows 10 Mobile, but is ceasing support for those using Windows Phone 8 or older versions of Android.
Anyone still chugging along on these older versions will no longer receive the newest versions of Skype going forward. Unfortunately, this means that some users won’t be able to utilize the Skype app to the fullest as time goes by.
The changes were outlined by Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Skype and Skype for Business Gurdeep Pall, who was quick to admit that Skype has had its own issues in the past. He noted that “unforeseen issues” have indeed been a thorn in users’ sides for some time, such as “messages not syncing across devices or delayed notifications.”
Microsoft notes that the transition from P2P to cloud service of the last few years may be part of the problem, and with the transition still ongoing, Microsoft is hoping to wrap things up in the coming months.
Via: The Verge
Source: Skype Blog
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