CybserSecurity News

Tag: Microsoft

  • Microsoft’s market value surpasses Apple

    Microsoft recently regained the throne of the world’s most valuable company from Apple. The current market value of the two companies is about $5 trillion. As of the closing time of US stocks on Friday, Microsoft has a market value of $331.62 per share and a market value of $2.6 trillion, Apple has a stock market value of $139.81 and a market value of $2.49 trillion.

    Apple announced its financial report for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2021, with total revenue reaching $83.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 29%. Among them, the iPhone business has the highest revenue growth, with year-on-year revenue growth of 47%, to a total of $41.51 billion; iPad revenue also recorded a year-on-year increase of 21%, with revenue reaching $7.23 billion.
    Open Network Emulator
    Although a new revenue record was set, the stock price was also affected to a certain extent because the revenue was lower than market expectations. According to Apple’s financial report, due to supply chain issues and global chip shortages, Apple’s revenue has lost at least $6 billion. Apple also predicts that supply chain problems will continue into at least the December quarter.

    Apple is the world’s first company to achieve a market value of 1 trillion and 2 trillion US dollars, of which only 2 years have passed. Microsoft’s market value briefly surpassed Apple in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Later, Apple returned to its number one position in market value and set a number of revenue records. However, in June this year, Microsoft also reached a market value of 2 trillion US dollars, after which the stock price rose all the way, an increase of more than 34%.

    In fact, Apple and Microsoft have long ago started a battle for the throne of the world’s highest market capitalization company. As early as 2010, Apple surpassed Microsoft by $222 billion, and Microsoft surpassed Apple in 2018.

  • Microsoft may make its equipment easier for users to repair

    According to Grist, under multiple pressures from shareholders and environmental non-profit organizations, Microsoft agreed to start studying and promoting the feasibility of independent maintenance of their equipment.

    I believe that users who have Microsoft Surface series notebook computers and Xboxes should know that it is often troublesome if they need to install or remove components such as SSDs on these devices by themselves. Because these devices themselves are not designed to allow users to disassemble themselves, some users may damage the machine when disassembling and assembling and will invalidate the warranty.

    Microsoft Surface event

    However, in the future, this situation may decrease because Microsoft recently reached an agreement with a non-profit investor advocacy organization called As You Sow that focuses on advocating environmental protection. This organization will work with third-party organizations to study the design of equipment that is easy to maintain, develop easy-to-maintain designs, and disclose some of the documents and repair documents to consumers and users on the impact of these points on the environment and society. In a related statement, Microsoft stated that it will begin operations at the end of 2022.

    A Microsoft spokesperson told Tom’s Hardware that Microsoft has always focused on meeting consumer demand for high-end equipment, including the repairability of the equipment.

    It is worth mentioning that at present, more than half of the states in the United States are preparing related bills on user maintenance rights. Once approved, consumers and users will have greater autonomy in repairing their equipment, and manufacturers will also need to disclose many manuals, spare parts, or related tools to allow users to repair the equipment by themselves.

  • Microsoft released Surface Duo 2, starting at $1499

    In addition to launching the Surface laptops, Microsoft also released the second-generation Android dual-screen folding phone Surface Duo 2, continuing the book-like folding solution. The first-generation product, Surface Duo, was launched about two years ago, but it was delayed for nearly a year before it went on sale at a price of $1,399.

    This time Surface Duo 2 is equipped with two 5.8-inch AMOLED screens, each with a resolution of 1344 x 1892 (4:3) and a refresh rate of 90Hz, with a total size of 8.3 inches and a resolution of 2688 x 1892 (3:2), it is more suitable for multitasking than many 16:9 or even 21:9 mobile phone screens. In the folded state, the size is 145.2 x 92.1 x 11 mm, in the unfolded state, the size is 145.2 x 184.5 x 5.5 mm, and the weight is 284g. It is equipped with 8GB of memory, and 128GB or 256GB of storage space, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G platform. Compared with the first generation of Snapdragon 855, the performance is greatly improved.

    Surface Duo 2’s rear camera is a combination of a 16-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens, and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens, and has OIS optical image stabilization technology and TOF sensor to achieve fast focus. The battery capacity of the surface Duo 2 reached 4400mAh, and Microsoft said that the Surface Duo 2 has “all-day battery life”. Surface Duo 2 supports Microsoft’s Surface Pen series for stylus input. Surface Slim Pen 2 can be attached to the outside of Surface Duo 2 for easy carrying.

    The Surface Duo 2 is shipped with Android 11. The 128GB storage capacity is $1499 and the 256GB storage capacity is $1599.

  • Honor and Microsoft announced the expansion of the partnership

    Terminal equipment manufacturer Honor and Microsoft recently announced an expansion of their partnership. This strategic cooperation mainly involves cloud computing, personal and mobile terminal devices.

    For example, Honor will use the voice and translation services provided by Microsoft Cloud in its smartphone assistants, and Honor will release laptops equipped with Windows 11.

    In the future, Honor will cooperate with Microsoft to improve the experience on smartphones, laptops, tablets, smart screens, smartwatches, headsets, and other terminal devices.

    The Honor MagicBook V14 will also be one of the first laptops equipped with a Windows 11 system. Honor will hold a press conference at the end of this month to announce these new products.

    Honor Microsoft partnership
    Image credit: Honor

    Previously, due to US sanctions on Huawei, the Honor series of devices were subject to various restrictions. After being completely separated from Huawei, Honor can now cooperate with partners again.

    For example, Honor can now repurchase various chips and carry Microsoft’s operating system, and at the same time, Honor is currently seeking globalization to gain more markets.

    Based on this, Honor announced the expansion of its cooperative relationship with Microsoft. Honor will use Microsoft cloud computing services to enrich the terminal device experience and provide basic setting support.

    Chairman and CEO of Microsoft GCR Dr. Hou Yang said: “With the rise of hybrid work and ambient intelligence, customers expect more convenience, security, and better interaction from their mobile computing devices, systems, and applications, for both work and home. Microsoft hopes to accelerate the integrated development of software and hardware intelligence by continuously deepening and expanding our strategic cooperation with Honor, to bring richer experiences to end-users.”

    Honor and Microsoft continue to strengthen strategic cooperation to develop solutions that integrate different hardware technologies for different user scenarios to provide users with a better experience.

    Honor is confident that after working hand in hand with Microsoft, it can establish the interconnection of the terminal and the full-scene ecosystem, creating a new intelligent world for everyone.

    Via: techradar

  • AMD and Microsoft work together to promote TensorFlow-DirectML

    TensorFlow-DirectML is an accessible machine learning (ML) tool that has a wide range of applications in hardware design (especially GPU). Microsoft is working with AMD to combine AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture technology on the Windows platform. On the test platform using AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and RX 6600 XT graphics cards, the inference performance was increased to 3.7 times, and the overall AI Benchmark Alpha score was also increased by 4.4 times.
    Microsoft TensorFlow-DirectML

    Microsoft stated on the official blog that it is very happy to launch the first universal TensorFlow-DirectML toolkit, which can be used by both students and professional developers. In order to solve various problems in the world, powerful and easy-to-access machine learning tools are required, and suitable for all types of hardware. From scientists, researchers, professional designers to students who are interested in learning this knowledge, they all hope to have the right platform.

    According to Microsoft, by collecting customer feedback, Microsoft found that the users generally want a better Windows PC platform to run machine learning tool solutions. In order to make it easier for Windows users to use machine learning tools, Microsoft launched a preview version that supports GPU-accelerated training work last year and can use DirectML’s machine learning framework in Windows and Windows Linux Subsystem (WSL).

    Thanks to all the performance improvements implemented by Microsoft and AMD throughout the TensorFlow-DirectML development process, users can now take the machine learning workflow to a new level when using AMD graphics cards.

    This GPU accelerated training is applicable to any GPU that supports DirectX 12 and fully supports AMD’s Radeon/Radeon Pro graphics product line. Users who use the latest AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin driver can immediately use TensorFlow-DirectML.

  • Microsoft is focusing on bringing Xbox Game Pass to open platforms as web, PC, mobile

    There have been rumors a while ago that the Xbox Game Pass that Microsoft is pushing now may be on other game console platforms in the future, especially Nintendo Switch handheld. Some people expect Xbox Game Pass to be on the Switch in the form of xCloud.

    However, in an interview between GamesRadar and the boss of the Xbox department, Phil Spencer, Phil Spencer clarified this statement and said that he has no intention of letting Xbox Game Pass be on other “closed platforms.” In this interview, GamesRadar asked Phil Spencer several questions about the future development direction of the game industry and Xbox. Among them, in the end, GamesRadar mentioned those rumors that Microsoft wants to put Xbox Game Pass on Switch. Regarding this question, the Xbox boss made it clear:

    Windows 11 DirectStorage API

    “You know, it’s the right question because people usually ask me about releasing one individual game or another. And what I say is I want the full Xbox experience to be something that we deliver. We have no plans to bring it to any other kind of closed platforms right now, mainly because those closed platforms don’t want something like Game Pass. There’s a ton of open platforms out there for us to grow in:  the web, PC, and mobile. So all of our focus, frankly, is on those platforms.”

    Phil Spencer further explained that they are now focusing on bringing Xbox Game Pass to other open platforms such as web, PC, and mobile phones. As for other closed platforms, he believes that different companies have different strengths, and some companies will make things such as Xbox Game Pass that will change the game industry disruptive.

    In other words, Microsoft is actually open to bringing Xbox Game Pass to other platforms, but other host platforms don’t want it. This is no wonder, after all, Xbox Game Pass is an application that allows you to play more than 100 games, which will indeed have a lot of impact on the games of other consoles.

  • The eBPF Foundation was formally established, and Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Netflix, and Isovalent became founding members

    eBPF is a technology that can run sandbox programs in the operating system kernel. eBPF allows us to safely extend the functionality of the kernel without changing the kernel’s source code or loading kernel modules.
    eBPF has been designed for the Linux kernel since its birth in 2014, in May of this year, Microsoft announced a new project of eBPF for Windows, enabling eBPF to run on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 and later versions. This project allows developers to use the familiar eBPF toolchain and API on existing versions of Windows.
    eBPF Foundation
    Today, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Netflix, and Isovalent jointly announced the establishment of a new eBPF foundation under the Linux Foundation. These companies stated in the announcement of the establishment of the eBPF Foundation:

    Today, we are announcing the formation of a new eBPF Foundation under the overall umbrella of the Linux Foundation. eBPF, one of the most influential technologies in the infrastructure world, has seen explosive growth in the last few years. We are establishing a foundation around it to help support the growth of the technology and facilitate collaboration among the many eBPF-based open source projects that are evolving.

    eBPF has changed the way operating systems and infrastructure services are designed. It bridges the gap between the kernel and userspace. It encourages and accelerates innovation and is a major leap forward in open source technologies for network, security, application profiling/tracking, and system observability use cases. eBPF allows users to combine and apply logic even in multiple subsystems that are traditionally completely independent.

    If developers want to learn more about eBPF, they can view the official full announcement, or register now for the online eBPF summit that will be held from August 18th to 19th.

  • Microsoft protests the U.S. National Security Agency awards a $10 billion contract for AWS

    In the early years, the U.S. Department of Defense selected Microsoft as the exclusive partner for its cloud computing platform through a public tender, for which Microsoft won a $10 billion cloud computing contract.

    Subsequently, Amazon kept protesting that the bidding was unfair because then US President Trump hated Amazon founder Bezos.

    This kind of protest continued for a long time and caused the US Department of Defense’s cloud computing contract to fall into endless legal disputes. In the end, the US Department of Defense canceled the related contract last month.

    Unexpectedly, the National Security Agency had just canceled the US National Security Agency and announced that it would award a $10 billion contract to Amazon. Now Microsoft has also started the appeal process.

    AWS Database

    The data show that Microsoft has filed an administrative protest. Microsoft said that in accordance with the decision of the US National Security Agency, Microsoft decided to file a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

    Microsoft said the company is exercising its legitimate rights and interests and is cautiously responsible for this. But so far, it seems that the relevant bidding process has not been announced to the outside world.

    It is not clear whether the cloud computing contracts of the US Department of Defense and the US National Security Agency are the same, but these cloud computing contracts are all worth 10 billion U.S. dollars.

    Originally, Microsoft had already obtained the relevant contract results. Under Amazon’s persistent protests, the US Department of Defense had to cancel the contract already awarded to Microsoft.

    Now the US National Security Agency has awarded the cloud computing contract to Amazon. As a result, it is now Microsoft’s turn to protest, but I don’t know how long this tug-of-war will last.

    Via: The Washington Post

  • Microsoft announced the cost of Windows 365 subscription, $20 per month for a Cloud PC

    Microsoft recently announced Windows 365, which is a service that can run the cloud version of Windows 10 or Windows 11 directly in the web browser. In theory, all devices with Internet access can use this service to use Windows applications and functions. This is Microsoft’s Cloud PC plan. Now Microsoft has announced the subscription fee for Windows 365 services, starting at a minimum of $20 per month.

    Windows 11 cloud

    At present, Windows 365 services are mainly provided to business users. There are two packages, Business, and Enterprise, respectively corresponding to companies or enterprises with less than 300 employees and more than 300 employees. Mainly in some multi-user management and enterprise-level functions are different, but the preset subscription price of the two is the same, both are subdivided into three levels: basic, standard, and premium, starting at $31 per month. For a single user, the maximum is $66. The cloud PC can be configured with 2-4 vCPUs, the memory can be 4-16GB, and the maximum storage space is only 128GB.

    Of course, users can also customize the configuration according to their needs, and the minimum can only have a single vCPU, 2GB of memory, and 64GB of storage. It can handle lightweight office processing, and the monthly subscription price is only $20 for a single user, and the highest-end configuration can go to 8 vCPUs, 32GB of memory, and 512GB of storage. The maximum configuration is for high-load tasks such as software developers and content creation, and the price is as high as $158 per month.

    These subscription prices are naturally not cost-effective for individual users unless you really want to use Windows 10 on your mobile phone or tablet. Unless you really want to use Windows 10 on your mobile phone or tablet, you might as well buy a physical computer. Therefore, Microsoft’s service is still mainly oriented at this stage and needs to be provided in large quantities. For small and medium-sized companies where computers work for employees, as well as large enterprises, it is convenient for them to better manage the cost and operation of the company’s IT part.

  • Microsoft stops supporting Skype for Business Online

    Two years ago, Microsoft announced that it would stop supporting Skype for Business Online. On July 31, 2021, Skype for Business Online will reach the end of its life cycle. Microsoft said that Microsoft Teams is the successor to Skype for Business Online, so companies should migrate to the Teams platform as soon as possible to continue to receive support. Microsoft also said that the discontinuation of Skype for Business Online is also an expression of its confidence in Teams, which currently has 1 billion users.

    Windows 10 rounded corner design

    Recently, Microsoft is vigorously promoting the commercial and consumer use of Teams. For example, Teams has been integrated into Windows 11. Users only need to click the chat button on the taskbar to automatically download Teams and initiate a session. In terms of business, Microsoft has been preparing to migrate Skype for Business Online to the Teams platform since 2017 and has achieved functional equivalence in August 2018.

    Microsoft stated that since the company decided to retire Skype for Business Online, it has conducted hundreds of discussions with customers and millions of migrations. Companies that have not yet migrated will receive Microsoft’s auxiliary upgrade, which will start from August 2021. Before the upgrade is complete, businesses can still use Skype for Business Online, but after the upgrade is complete, they can only use Teams.

    In addition, Skype for Business Online cannot be accessed from now on, and the consumer version of Skype service and Skype for Business Server will not be affected.

    Via: Neowin