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.
If you have a Copilot Plus PC, Microsoft is adding summarize, write, and rewrite AI-powered features to Notepad soon. Windows Insiders are testing the changes, which don’t require a Microsoft 365 subscription. Microsoft is using the local models on Copilot Plus PCs to power this Notepad feature.
If you’ve ever wanted to check a Wi-Fi network speed, Microsoft is making it easier to do it straight from the Windows 11 taskbar.
Good: quick access to a speed test from the Windows 11 taskbar.
Bad: it opens Bing to do the speed test.
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.
