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Microsoft announces public preview of Windows 365 Switch

With this update, the company also provided inline setup of a PC from within the Cast flyout in Quick Settings, with step-by-step guidance for users to enable…reports Asian Lite News

Microsoft has announced that Windows 365 Switch is now available in public preview.

“Windows 365 Switch provides the ability to easily move between a Windows 365 Cloud PC and the local desktop using the same familiar keyboard commands, as well as a mouse-click or a swipe gesture,” the tech giant said in a blogpost.

It enables a seamless experience from within Windows 11 via the Task view feature.

“Windows 365 will be required on the endpoint, after which all relevant elements will show up automatically inside the Task view feature,” the company added.

Task view can be found on the Windows Taskbar next to the Search button.

Earlier this month, the tech giant had rolled out ‘Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23516’ to the Dev Channel, which included HDR background support and improvements to the screen casting experience.

With this update, the company also provided inline setup of a PC from within the Cast flyout in Quick Settings, with step-by-step guidance for users to enable.

Microsoft had also added support for voice access to work right when users start their PC.

Last month, the tech giant had released ‘Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23511’ to the Dev Channel, which included Taskbar’s notifications changes and improvements for Windows Spotlight.

Also, with this update, if a camera streaming issue is detected, such as a camera failing to start or a closed camera shutter, a pop-up dialogue will appear with the recommendation to launch the automated Get Help troubleshooter to resolve the issue.

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HCLSoftware, Microsoft team up to boost AI-fueled Offerings

The two companies aim to create a new generation of intelligent applications that can transform industries…reports Asian Lite News

HCLSoftware, a leading software provider, announced a collaboration with Microsoft to integrate Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service into its software products. By combining HCLSoftware’s expertise in software development and AI with Microsoft’s AI technologies, the two companies aim to create a new generation of intelligent applications that can transform industries.

“Working together, we will combine our AI expertise to create AI-fueled offerings that will enable businesses to further automate and scale their processes and make informed decisions based on data-driven insights,” said Kaylan Kumar, Chief Product Officer, HCLSoftware.

“The collaboration between HCLSoftware and Microsoft is a testament to how AI can be used to create innovative solutions that can help businesses become more productive,” said Ahmed Mazhari, President, Microsoft Asia. “HCLSoftware and Microsoft are paving the way for the next generation of intelligent applications that can transform the way businesses operate.”

HCLSoftware will infuse Microsoft’s AI technologies across HCLSoftware’s four clouds: Business Cloud, Hybrid Data Cloud, Create/Compose Cloud and Intelligent Automation Cloud, thus revolutionizing the way businesses create value for their customers. HCLSoftware also uses GitHub Copilot, an AI-powered coding tool that helps developers write high-quality code faster, reduce time spent on repetitive tasks and focus on more complex problem-solving challenges.

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Microsoft testing HDR background support on Windows 11

With the new build, the company also added support for voice access to work right when users start their PC…reports Asian Lite News

Microsoft has announced that it is rolling out ‘Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23516’ to the Dev Channel, which includes HDR background support, improvements to the screen casting experience and more.

“You can now set JXR files to be your desktop background and if you have an HDR display, they will render in full HDR,” the tech giant said in a Windows Insider blogpost.

First, users have to make sure that their device has an HDR display or is connected to a display that supports HDR. They can check this by going to Settings > System > Display and checking the HDR toggle.

“Next, download an HDR .JXR file to your device. Then right-click on your desktop, choose ‘Personalize’ and then ‘Background’, and under ‘Personalize your background’– go and select the .JXR file you downloaded to your device,” it added.

The company is also making improvements to the screen casting experience. When doing multitasking activities on the PC such as often switching between windows to complete a task or using Snap Assist to organise the screen space, the company will provide the suggestion to Cast via a notification toast.

Also, the tech giant will now provide inline setup of a PC from within the Cast flyout in Quick Settings, with step-by-step guidance for users to enable.

With the new build, the company also added support for voice access to work right when users start their PC.

Users will be able to use voice access to login to their PC and access other areas on the Lock screen. For PCs with presence sensors that support attention detection, the tech giant introduced “Adaptive Dimming.”

“Now your device can intelligently dim your screen when you look away and undim when you look back,” Microsoft said.

With Build 23516, the company also fixed multiple bugs.

ALSO READ-Microsoft cuts 1,000 jobs

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Microsoft cuts 1,000 jobs

Microsoft has reportedly shut its “Digital Sales and Success” group, a sales and customer service team….reports Asian Lite News

Microsoft has reportedly reduced its workforce further by 1,000 over the past week, mostly in sales and customer services teams.

According to a report in Insider, citing sources, the new layoffs are beyond the 10,000 jobs that the tech giant planned to eliminate earlier this year.

It’s, however, a regular exercise for Microsoft to make changes at the start of a new fiscal year, which began July 1, the report noted.

Microsoft has reportedly shut its “Digital Sales and Success” group, a sales and customer service team.

“The company also eliminated the customer solutions manager role, moving some, but not many, employees to another role called customer success account management,” according to the report.

The job cuts also affected engineering project managers and marketing department employees.

Last week, reports surfaced that Microsoft has laid off 276 employees, mostly in customer service, support and sales teams, in a new job cut round.

“Organisational and workforce adjustments are a necessary and regular part of managing our business,” a Microsoft spokesperson had said in a statement.

“We will continue to prioritise and invest in strategic growth areas for our future and in support of our customers and partners,” the spokesperson added.

Several posts on the leading professional networking platform LinkedIn revealed job cuts that targeted customer support and sales jobs across teams.

In May, Microsoft slashed 158 jobs in Washington State which were not part of the 10,000 announced earlier.

According to reports, more than 2,700 Seattle-area workers were affected by the layoffs announced earlier this year.

The tech giant had more than 220,000 employees (as reported earlier this year).

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Microsoft tops in global public cloud revenue

Software as a Service – applications (SaaS-applications) continued to be the largest source of public cloud services revenue, accounting for more than 45 per cent of the total in 2022…reports Asian Lite News

Led by Microsoft, global revenue for the public cloud services market reached $545.8 billion last year, an increase of 22.9 per cent over 2021, according to a new report.

Top 5 public cloud service providers – Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Salesforce, Google, and Oracle – captured more than 41 per cent of the worldwide total and growing 27.3 per cent year over year, according to the latest IDC data.

With offerings in all four deployment categories, Microsoft remained in the top position in the overall public cloud services market with 16.8 per cent share, followed by Amazon Web Services with 13.5 per cent share.

Software as a Service – applications (SaaS-applications) continued to be the largest source of public cloud services revenue, accounting for more than 45 per cent of the total in 2022.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) was the second largest revenue category with 21.2 per cent of the total while Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service – System Infrastructure Software (SaaS – SIS) delivered 17 per cent and 16.7 per cent of overall revenue, respectively.

“The assessment and use of AI, triggered by generative AI, is starting to dominate the planning and long term investment agendas of businesses and cloud providers will play a significant role in the evaluation and adoption of AI enablement services,” said Rick Villars, group vice president, Worldwide Research at IDC.

Meanwhile, the revenue for foundational cloud services that support digital-first strategies saw revenue growth of 28.8 per cent. 

“SaaS – Applications remain the largest segment of the more than $547 billion cloud software market forecast by the end of 2023,” said Frank Della Rosa, research vice president, SaaS, Business Platforms, and Industry Cloud at IDC.

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Microsoft to build quantum supercomputers

Microsoft to build quantum supercomputers that can solve impactful problems

To build the quantum supercomputer, Microsoft said that it “will follow a similar path as classical supercomputers did in the 20th century…reports Asian Lite News

Microsoft has announced its roadmap for building its own quantum supercomputer that can solve impactful problems that even the most powerful supercomputers cannot.

To build the quantum supercomputer, Microsoft said that it “will follow a similar path as classical supercomputers did in the 20th century. From vacuum tubes to transistors, to integrated circuits, advances in underlying technology will enable scale and impact”.

According to the company, quantum hardware will fall into one of the three categories of Quantum Computing Implementation Levels, which include Level 1 — Foundational (Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum); Level 2 — Resilient (reliable logical qubits); and Level 3 — Scale (Quantum supercomputers).

Presently, Microsoft has achieved the first milestone towards a quantum supercomputer.

“We can now create and control Majorana quasiparticles. With this achievement, we’re well on our way to engineering a new hardware-protected qubit. With it, we can then engineer reliable logical qubits to reach the Resilient Level and then progress to reach Scale,” Jason Zander, Executive Vice President, Strategic Missions and Technologies, Microsoft said in a blogpost.

Moreover, the tech giant said that a quantum supercomputer will be able to solve problems that are intractable on a classical computer and scale to solve the most complex problems facing our world. To do this, it must be both performant and reliable.

In addition, Microsoft announced Azure Quantum Elements, which combines high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and quantum technology to accelerate scientific discovery, as well as Copilot for Azure Quantum, an artificial intelligence model that can assist scientists (and students) in creating quantum simulations and calculations.

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Business

Microsoft to build quantum supercomputers

Microsoft to build quantum supercomputers that can solve impactful problems

Microsoft has achieved the first milestone towards a quantum supercomputer…reports Asian Lite News

Microsoft has announced its roadmap for building its own quantum supercomputer that can solve impactful problems that even the most powerful supercomputers cannot.

To build the quantum supercomputer, Microsoft said that it “will follow a similar path as classical supercomputers did in the 20th century. From vacuum tubes to transistors, to integrated circuits, advances in underlying technology will enable scale and impact”.

According to the company, quantum hardware will fall into one of the three categories of Quantum Computing Implementation Levels, which include Level 1 — Foundational (Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum); Level 2 — Resilient (reliable logical qubits); and Level 3 — Scale (Quantum supercomputers).

Presently, Microsoft has achieved the first milestone towards a quantum supercomputer.

“We can now create and control Majorana quasiparticles. With this achievement, we’re well on our way to engineering a new hardware-protected qubit. With it, we can then engineer reliable logical qubits to reach the Resilient Level and then progress to reach Scale,” Jason Zander, Executive Vice President, Strategic Missions and Technologies, Microsoft said in a blogpost.

Moreover, the tech giant said that a quantum supercomputer will be able to solve problems that are intractable on a classical computer and scale to solve the most complex problems facing our world. To do this, it must be both performant and reliable.

In addition, Microsoft announced Azure Quantum Elements, which combines high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and quantum technology to accelerate scientific discovery, as well as Copilot for Azure Quantum, an artificial intelligence model that can assist scientists (and students) in creating quantum simulations and calculations.

ALSO READ-Microsoft adds new phone photos feature in File Explorer

READ MORE-Microsoft adds new phone photos feature in File Explorer

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Business Technology

Microsoft’s new feature to let users react to comments in Word

The company is incorporating a Like button into Word, designed to make it easier for the users to respond to comments…reports Asian Lite News

Microsoft is introducing a new feature in Word that will let users react to comments like the reactions feature in Outlook.

The company is incorporating a Like button into Word, designed to make it easier for the users to respond to comments.

According to Windows Central, the feature is rolling out to Current Channel (Preview) users running Version 2305 or later, and is already available for the web users and Beta Channel users.

To react to a comment in Word, users will need to open a document and head to the comment section and then head to the comment section and click the ‘Like’ button in the top right corner.

It is likely that this document already has comments, and if not, users will need to create one. Moreover, the report mentioned that the tech giant has also indicated that the feature ships with two known issues.

First, iOS and Android users won’t be able to see comment reactions, and second, the feature might not be available when editing older documents.

However, users should be able to react to newer comments added to the document. Further, the tech giant added that the feature will be available to Word for Mac users in the next few weeks, the report said.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has released a new Windows 11 dev build that allows Insiders to view their phone’s camera roll in the File Explorer Gallery.

After installing the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build, users can add photos from their phone by clicking a new button added to the File Explorer’s command bar.

ALSO READ: Microsoft adds new phone photos feature in File Explorer

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Microsoft adds new phone photos feature in File Explorer

Microsoft.

Natural Narrator voices use modern, on-device text-to-speech and once downloaded are supported without an internet connection, the company said…reports Asian Lite News

Microsoft has released a new Windows 11 dev build that allows Insiders to view their phone’s camera roll in the File Explorer Gallery.

After installing the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build, users can add photos from their phone by clicking a new button added to the File Explorer’s command bar.

“There is a new button in the Command Bar titled ‘Add Phone Photos’ that will help with setting up your PC to be ready to show these photos in Gallery,” Microsoft said in a blogpost.

“Clicking this button today will open a URL with a QR code that you can scan with your phone to get started,” it added.

Microsoft adds new phone photos feature in File Explorer

Moreover, in the new preview build, the company has introduced new natural voices in Spanish (Spain and Mexico) that allow Narrator users to comfortably browse the web, read and write mail, and do more.

Natural Narrator voices use modern, on-device text-to-speech and once downloaded are supported without an internet connection, the company said.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced that it will no longer support its virtual assistant Cortana in Windows as a standalone app, starting in late 2023.

This change will only affect Cortana in Windows and will continue to be available in Outlook mobile, Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display, and Microsoft Teams rooms, the tech giant stated on a support page.

ALSO READ-Microsoft, Accenture to support 13 Indian startups

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Microsoft, Accenture to support 13 Indian startups

Microsoft, Accenture to empower 13 Indian social impact startups.

The programme will also support the startups with testing and validating proofs-of-concept…reports Asian Lite News

Microsoft and Accenture on Wednesday announced the third cohort of the Project Amplify programme, which will support 13 Indian startups with solutions focusing on clean tech, circularity, regenerative agriculture, education and skilling.

The programme will also support the startups with testing and validating proofs-of-concept, reimagining the impact of their solutions through design thinking sessions, access to the latest technologies and guidance from experts at Microsoft and Accenture.

“Through our continued collaboration with Microsoft, we are applying our joint expertise to support social impact startups and help bring their solutions to our enterprise clients across the globe, scaling their impact,” Sanjay Podder, managing director and Technology Sustainability Innovation lead at Accenture, said in a statement.

Moreover, the programme will offer startups access to Microsoft technologies, including up to $1,50,000 in Azure credits, M365 and D365, Visual Studio and GitHub Enterprise access, enterprise-grade Azure engineering support, networking opportunities with other global social entrepreneurs and an array of go-to-market resources.

“In collaboration with Accenture and as part of our Entrepreneurship for Positive Impact Initiative, we are humbled to support bold innovators in India, driving systemic change through their sustainable businesses,” Jean-Philippe Courtois, Executive Vice President and President, National Transformation Partnerships, Microsoft, said in a statement.

Launched in 2020, previous cohorts of the programme focused on addressing issues in food safety, livelihood, education, sustainability, and skilling.

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