It might not get the same kind of attention as Google and Apple, but Microsoft is still one of the biggest and most powerful tech companies operating today. It runs Azure, one of the biggest cloud computing services, and maintains Windows 11 and the whole Office suite of software. It also makes plenty of Surface hardware and has a whole slew of gaming products, including the Xbox Series X. But the company is ever expanding — building new hardware, acquiring new game studios, and making sure that even if Microsoft doesn’t run your phone, it can touch plenty of the apps on it.
Microsoft started previewing its MAI-Voice-1 model late last month, and now it’s updating its Copilot Audio Expressions feature with a new scripted mode that uses Microsoft’s in-house AI models. It reads your text input in a variety of styles, including a vampire style that you can sink your teeth into just in time for Halloween.
Microsoft has fired a fifth employee over the latest Palestine protests at the company’s headquarters. No Azure for Apartheid doesn’t name the Microsoft employee, but says they took part in the demonstrations that saw protesters set up encampments at Microsoft’s headquarters. Microsoft has also fired employees who occupied its president’s office, protesting against the company’s contracts with the Israeli government.
The GSA and Microsoft announced a discount deal on Microsoft 365, Copilot, Azure, and other services, promising “potential savings of $3.1 billion in the first year” with free access to Microsoft 365 Copilot for one year.
OpenAI and Anthropic already offered similar discounts for AI access, but what’s the price in year two?
Asobo Studios has updated Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 to include DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation support. RTX 50-series owners will be able to enable up to 4x Multi Frame Generation, while RTX 40-series GPUs can still enable the regular Frame Generation support with DLSS 4.
Rejoice, Windows and em dash fans! Microsoft is finally adding an improved Windows-wide keyboard shortcut for em dash and en dash. The change is part of the latest Windows 11 Dev channel builds, so it should arrive for all Windows 11 users later this year. Currently, you have to use Alt+0151 for an en dash (–) and Alt+0150 to get em dash (—), which is problematic on smaller keyboards.
Nvidia has released a new Game Ready driver (581.15) today that’s optimized for the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle update that will introduce RTX Hair. It’s the first game to use spheres to improve Harrison Ford’s virtual hair instead of triangles. RTX Hair is designed to improve lighting and shadows, all while maintaining performance in the game and not taking up too much extra memory.
