Netflix said on Wednesday that it has selected Microsoft as technology and sales partner for its planned ad-supported subscription offering, as the streaming giant looks to plug slowing subscriber growth by rolling out a cheaper plan.
Shares of Netflix rose 2 percent to $178.06 (nearly Rs. 14,100) on the news.
Netflix announced in April that it would introduce a new, lower-priced version of its service in a bid to attract more subscribers. The announcement came as the pioneering subscription service posted its first subscriber loss in more than a decade, and projected deeper losses to come.
Chief Operating Officer Greg Peters said in a blog post that Netflix chose Microsoft because of its ability to innovate over time, as well as its for its strong privacy protections.
“It’s very early days and we have much to work through. But our long-term goal is clear. More choice for consumers and a premium, better-than-linear TV brand experience for advertisers,” Peters said.
Microsoft President Brad Smith has served on Netflix’s board since 2015.
Microsoft also announced the news in a blog post stating that “at the launch, consumers will have more options to access Netflix’s award-winning content.”
It was reported earlier on Wednesday that Netflix is looking to tweak its programming deals with Hollywood studios to enable the streaming pioneer’s launch of an advertising-supported version of its service, as per a The Wall Street Journal report.
It will also need to renegotiate agreements for older television shows such as Breaking Bad from Sony and NCIS from Paramount Global, according to the report.
Netflix told Reuters it is still in the early days of deciding how to launch a lower priced, ad-supported option, and added that it is all just speculation at this point.
Warner Bros., Universal, and Sony did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Earlier in June, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said Netflix is in talks with several companies for advertising partnerships.
EU lawmakers gave the thumbs up on Tuesday to landmark rules to rein in the power of tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft, but enforcing them could be an issue due to regulators’ limited resources.
In addition to the rules known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), lawmakers also approved the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires online platforms to do more to police the internet for illegal content.
Companies face fines of up to 10 percent of annual global turnover for DMA violations and 6 percent for DSA breaches. Lawmakers and EU states had reached a political deal on both sets of rules earlier this year, leaving some details to be ironed out.
The two rule books for Big Tech built on EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager’s experiences with investigations into the companies. She has set up a DMA taskforce, with about 80 officials expected to join up, which critics say is inadequate.
Lawmaker Andreas Schwab, who steered the issue through the European Parliament, has called for a bigger task force to counter Big Tech’s deep pockets.
European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) echoed the same worries.
“We raised the alarm last week with other civil society groups that if the Commission does not hire the experts it needs to monitor Big Tech’s practices in the market, the legislation could be hamstrung by ineffective enforcement,” BEUC Deputy Director General Ursula Pachl said in a statement.
The DMA is set to force changes in companies’ businesses, requiring them to make their messaging services interoperable and provide business users access to their data.
Business users would be able to promote competing products and services on a platform and reach deals with customers off the platforms.
Companies will not be allowed to favour their own services over rivals’ or prevent users from removing pre-installed software or apps, two rules that will hit Google and Apple hard.
The DSA bans targeted advertising aimed at children or based on sensitive data such as religion, gender, race and political opinions. Dark patterns, which are tactics that mislead people into giving personal data to companies online, will also be prohibited.
Amazon wants to give customers the chance to make Alexa, the company’s voice assistant, sound just like their grandmother — or anyone else.
The online retailer is developing a system to let Alexa mimic any voice after hearing less than a minute of audio, said Rohit Prasad, an Amazon Senior Vice President, at a conference the company held in Las Vegas on Wednesday. The goal is to “make the memories last” after “so many of us have lost someone we love” during the pandemic, Prasad said.
Amazon declined to share when it would roll out such a feature.
The work wades into an area of technology that has garnered close scrutiny for potential benefits and abuses. For instance, Microsoft recently restricted which businesses could use its software to parrot voices. The goal is to help people with speech impairments or other problems but some worry it could also be used to propagate political deepfakes.
Amazon hopes the project will help Alexa become ubiquitous in shoppers’ lives. But public attention has already shifted elsewhere. At Alphabet‘s Google, an engineer made the highly contested claim that a company chat bot had advanced to sentience. Another Amazon executive said on Tuesday that Alexa had 100 million customers globally, in line with figures the company has provided for device sales since January 2019.
Prasad said Amazon’s aim for Alexa is “generalisable intelligence,” or the ability to adapt to user environments and learn new concepts with little external input. He said that goal is “not to be confused with the all-knowing, all-capable, uber artificial general intelligence,” or AGI, which Alphabet’s DeepMind unit and Elon Musk-co-founded OpenAI are seeking.
Amazon shared its vision for companionship with Alexa at the conference. In a video segment, it portrayed a child who asked, “Alexa, can grandma finish reading me the Wizard of Oz?”
A moment later, Alexa affirmed the command and changed her voice. She spoke soothingly, less robotically, ostensibly sounding like the individual’s grandmother in real life.
The Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022 is set to take place in an online event later on Sunday. As is the case with most events held during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase will be held virtually — on the Internet. Both Xbox and Bethesda, now owned by Microsoft, have been tight lipped on details of announcements that will be made this year at the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase event. But we expect details on Xbox’s upcoming gaming line-up, updates to existing titles, along with new releases coming to its game subscription offering Xbox Game Pass. You can also expect to hear more details about delayed Xbox games, including some from Bethesda.
These include Starfield, Redfall, Stalker 2, and other titles. Xbox could also announce additional updates and improvements to popular titles like Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite at the event. And as always, there’s likely to be a surprise or two. Microsoft has already announced an Xbox Games Showcase Extended — for Tuesday, June 14 — where it will broadcast new trailers, offer deeper looks at the news from the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, and feature conversations with game creators. But before that happens, here’s how you can tune into tonight’s Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase.
Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase time in India
The Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022 event will begin at 10:30pm IST/ 10am PDT/ 6pm BST on Sunday, June 12. You can use this handy converter tool to check when the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase livestream will begin in your region.
According to Xbox Games and Marketing GM Aaron Greenberg, the Xbox and Bethesda event is expected to run for around 90 minutes — that would make it five minutes longer than the 2021 Xbox and Bethesda event.
Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase live stream
You can watch the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase event live on Xbox’s official YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Twitch, TikTok accounts. The event will also be streamed live on the Xbox website and on Bethesda’s YouTube channel. You can also watch the event live from the Twitch player embedded below.
Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase event languages
While the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase event will be in English, you can also watch the stream with subtitle support or with dubbed translations in Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin America), Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukranian, and Vietnamese. According to Microsoft, some of these languages may be added a few days after the broadcast, depending on their translation status.
An accessible version of the live stream will also be available with Audio Descriptions (AD) in English on the Xbox YouTube channel. Viewers will also have access to an American Sign Language (ASL) live stream on Xbox’s YouTube channel and the new XboxASL Twitch channel.
Is there a 4K 60fps stream for the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase event?
Like previous Xbox events that have been streamed live, the upcoming Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase event will max out at 1080p 60fps. However, Microsoft says that the showcase will be re-broadcast in 4K at 60fps on the Xbox YouTube channel after the premiere — Xbox will announce the availability of the higher resolution stream via Twitter.
Microsoft has started rolling out the June update for its dual-screen Surface Duo 2 handset. This update is about 736MB in size and brings this foldable smartphone up to firmware version 2022.418.98. It adds third-party application support to the Glance Bar that allows users to check for notifications when the Surface Duo 2 is folded. This update also adds improved functionality for the Slim Pen 2. Apart from these improvements, the June update introduces a few other new features and general performance upgrades.
According to the information available on the Microsoft support page for the Surface Duo 2, the Glance Bar will now show notifications from third-party messaging apps. Prior to this update, the Glance Bar only showed SMS, voicemail, and Microsoft Teams alerts. With the June update, the Slim Pen 2 will receive an automatic firmware upgrade when paired to the handset over Bluetooth. It will enable the Slim Pen 2 to automatically pair with the Surface Duo 2 when being used on either screen. For the automatic pairing to work, users have to ensure that their Slim Pen 2 is updated to firmware version 5.133.139 or later and software version 5.148.139 or later.
Furthermore, the Camera app will now have the option to enable haptic feedback control in the settings. The Surface Duo 2 will now offer an improved camera experience in the dual-screen mode for applications with dynamic orientation. This update also optimises charging by allowing the battery to charge gradually overnight which is expected to prevent the battery from ageing quickly. Furthermore, Device Firmware Configuration Interface (DFCI) is now supported to control device usage. The update also brings general performance, stability, camera usability, and touch responsiveness improvements.
To recall, the Surface Duo 2 was launched in September last year. It features two 5.8-inch PixelSense displays that offer a combined viewing experience of 8.3-inch when unfolded. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC and packs a 4449mAh battery.
This week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, we discuss the Surface Pro 8, Go 3, Duo 2, and Laptop Studio — as Microsoft sets a vision for Windows 11 hardware. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
The European Union is working on a possible ban on the provision of cloud services to Russia as part of new sanctions against the Kremlin for the invasion of Ukraine, an EU official told Reuters on Wednesday, noting the measure was technically complex.
If introduced, it is unclear how the EU ban would affect Russia, because top cloud providers in Europe are US companies, including Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
The European Union last week adopted a new package of sanctions against Russia and Belarus which included an oil embargo, restrictive measures on Russian banks and a ban on the provision of consultancy services to Moscow.
An initial version of a press release on the sanctions package issued by the EU Council on June 3 also referred to a ban on the provision of cloud services, but was later amended to delete that reference. That sanction does not appear in the legal texts published in the official journal of the EU.
A press officer for the Council said the initial mention of the sanction on cloud services was “a material error”, and declined to say whether it may have been caused by a debate on the matter among EU states.
An EU official familiar with decisions on sanctions said the measure on cloud services was never proposed by the European Commission, but added that the EU was working on introducing the ban in possible future rounds of sanctions despite it being technically difficult.
In a tweet on Tuesday, the Ukrainian president’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said that the editing of the press release by the EU Council had been done without offering a clear explanation and that it suggested a possible watering down of sanctions.
“We must increase the sanctions pressure, not decrease,” he said.
Broadcom said on Thursday it will buy cloud service provider VMware in a $61 billion (roughly Rs. 4,73,223 crore) cash-and-stock deal to further diversify the chipmaker’s business into enterprise software.
Broadcom’s shares were up 1.6 percent, while those of VMWare were down nearly one percent in premarket trading.
The acquisition is the second biggest announced globally so far this year, after Microsoft’s $68.7 billion (roughly Rs. 5,32,955 crore) deal to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard in January.
Each VMware shareholder will get $142.50 (roughly Rs. 11,000) per share, resulting in a premium of over 48 percent to the stock’s close since the deal talks were first reported on May 22.
VMware shareholders will get $142.50 in cash or 0.2520 shares of a Broadcom common stock for each VMware share held.
Microsoft at the Build 2022 developer conference has announced a list of updates that are aimed to make Windows, Edge, and Teams better productivity solutions. The software giant announced a slew of Microsoft Store updates including the ability to serve ads and allowing users to restore apps when they switch to a new PC to give developers ways to make their apps more discoverable and retain their users. Additionally, Microsoft partnered with Qualcomm to introduce Project Volterra as a new mini-PC to help developers build cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.
Windows updates
Windows 11 has been one of the biggest focus areas for Microsoft since its launch in October last year. Although the new operating system has refreshed user experience with features including centre-aligned Start menu and widgets, the Redmond company is bringing improvements to those features to enhance user experience.
At this year’s Build virtual conference, Microsoft announced that it is soon introducing the ability to view apps available on the Microsoft Store directly using the Windows Search on Windows 11 PCs. The feature will initially be available to Windows Insiders and is aimed to allow developers to make their apps discoverable, without distracting users from their flow. Users will see a Get from Store button for each app listing they see on their search results to install apps of their choice, without requiring them to access the Microsoft Store.
Windows 11 is getting the ability to look for apps available on the Microsoft Store directly from search Photo Credit: Microsoft
Windows 11 users are also getting a feature to let users automatically restore their apps directly from the Microsoft Store. “This will also help developers retain their customers without having to remind customers to re-download their app,” the company said.
The feature to let users restore their apps will initially be available for testing in the Windows Insider channel in the coming future.
Microsoft is also expanding the Amazon Appstore preview to run Android apps on Windows 11. Currently live in the US, the preview is reaching five additional countries, namely France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The expansion will take place by the end of the year, the company said.
Additionally, the Windows maker has introduced Microsoft Store Ads to help developers run ad campaigns directly in the Store. It will help Microsoft to expand revenues coming from its Store and allow developers to improve discoverability of their apps.
Ads in the Microsoft Store will start appearing through a pilot based on Microsoft Advertising that will run soon, the company said.
Microsoft has also removed the waitlist programme for Win32 apps in the Microsoft Store and is opening it to all app developers. The update will particularly help increase the number of apps available on the Store for download on Windows 11 systems.
Alongside Microsoft Store-centric updates, Microsoft at Build 2022 announced support for third-party widgets on Windows 11. The company said that developers would be able to start building widgets as “companion experiences” for their Win32 and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) on Windows 11 beginning later this year. The new experience will be backed by Microsoft’s Adaptive Cards.
Windows 11 is enabling developers to create widgets of their native apps Photo Credit: Microsoft
OneNote is also getting an updated visual design that will look and feel and will have pen and voice functionalities inspired by Windows 11. There will be modern visuals to deliver a fresh user experience. The note-taking app will also get AI capabilities to recognise inputs from voice in the form of dictations, images using the inbuilt camera of the device, and via handwriting through a stylus pen.
Microsoft Edge updates
While saying goodbye to Internet Explorer next month, Microsoft is improving user experiences on the Edge to fill in the gap left by its legacy browser and make the new offering a competitive option against Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple’s Safari.
One of the biggest changes that Microsoft Edge has received among the Build announcements is the general availability of WebView2 for WinUI 2 and Universal Windows Platform (UWP). The new embedded Web control is built on top of the Microsoft Edge Chromium platform.
Citing performance insights from Cerner Corporation, Microsoft said WebView2 helped deliver improvements including 85 percent reduced render time, 33 percent lower CPU utilisation, and 32 percent less memory utilisation over the traditional solutions available on Internet Explorer.
Microsoft is also enhancing PWAs on the Edge browser by enabling new APIs and improving their notifications. The company said that the underlying improvements will enable notifications coming from PWAs to appear as coming from a native app. Users will also be able to access features including the native platform’s share UI to share files on a PWA.
Microsoft is enabling PWAs to have system’s native UI for sharing files Photo Credit: Microsoft
Additionally, Microsoft is adding the ability for users to find PWAs alongside native apps in the Microsoft Store.
The Apps page in Microsoft Edge has also been updated with an improved interface. Microsoft has additionally developed a new Apps Hub experience and enabled app sync across devices in the Edge browser to improve user experience.
Microsoft Edge is also receiving a simplified DevTools interface that brings a new compact and customisable Activity Bar. This will bring over 30 tools to help personalise workflows for developers.
Microsoft Teams updates
Microsoft Teams at this year’s Build conference has received a feature called Live Share that will allow users to share apps in their virtual meetings. It will help co-watch, co-edit, and co-create in Teams meetings, the company said.
Developers will get new preview extensions through the Teams SDK to let them create Live Share experiences for their apps. Initially, companies including Frame.io, Hexagon, Skillsoft, MakeCode, Accenture, Parabol, and Breakthru have built their experiences on the new feature.
In addition to Live Share, Microsoft has introduced the Azure Communication Services sample app builder to let developers create and deploy a sample application for virtual appointments. Users will be able to use the sample app to book appointments and join a Teams meeting.
Microsoft has announced the general availability of the new Teams SDK that will help developers build apps for Teams, Outlook, and Office using a single application and deployment model.
Developers offering apps for Microsoft Teams will also be able to start giving freemium versions of their offerings as Microsoft has introduced in-app purchasing within its video conferencing solution.
App development-focussed updates
At this year’s Build conference, Microsoft has announced Power Apps with the ability to generate a working low-code app from inputs such as Figma design files, PDFs, paper forms, and even a picture of a hand-drawn app. The company has used cognitive AI technology to enable Power Apps to scan the inputs and produce working app controls. The apps created by the new experience will also have data storage.
Microsoft also partnered with Qualcomm to introduce Project Volterra — a new developer kit based on the Snapdragon compute platform. It is aimed to help developers build new AI apps using the Qualcomm Neural Processing SDK for Windows toolkit. The mini-PC carries a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to process AI algorithms natively.
Microsoft has introduced Project Volterra for developers to create new AI apps Photo Credit: Microsoft
Exact details on the launch of Project Volterra are yet to be revealed. However, Microsoft said that the system will be coming later this year.
This week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, we discuss the Surface Pro 8, Go 3, Duo 2, and Laptop Studio — as Microsoft sets a vision for Windows 11 hardware. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Xbox Series X restock is happening today in India. In a rare move, Amazon has revealed that the Xbox Series X will be available for pre-order in the country today at 12pm (noon). The pre-orders of the Xbox Series X are notably going live at the time when Sony is once again making its PlayStation 5 consoles and bundles available in the country for pre-order. Xbox Series X was launched back in November 2020 globally, alongside Xbox Series S, as Microsoft’s latest gaming consoles. It comes in a svelte tower PC-like design and is based on the Xbox velocity architecture.
Xbox Series X pre-orders in India
Amazon has revealed on its video game home page and the dedicated Series S/X page that the Xbox Series X will be available for pre-orders in India from 12pm (noon) on Friday. It is unclear whether the console will also go on pre-orders through other channels. Gadgets 360 has reached out to Microsoft for clarity on that front and will update this article when the company responds.
Considering supply constraints, just a few Xbox Series X units are likely to be available for pre-orders. It is, therefore, recommended to log in on the e-commerce site on time to secure your order.
Since its debut in late 2020, Microsoft has rarely publicly revealed any details about Xbox Series X restocks in the country. The sales channels for the latest Xbox console have also remained silent about its availability most of the times. This is unlike the case of PlayStation 5 where we regularly get pre-order details through its sales channels, as well as Sony Centre’s official ShopAtSC website.
In October 2020, Xbox chief Phil Spencer said in an interview that the initial Xbox Series X/S pre-orders in India that took place in September of that year sold out instantly. He added: “We’ve hardly ever sold consoles in markets like that before,” without revealing the exact number of units sold.
Xbox Series X price in India
Xbox Series X price in India has been set at Rs. 49,990. In contrast, the Xbox Series S, which is available much easily, is priced at Rs. 34,990.
PS5 vs Xbox Series X: Which is the best “next-gen” console in India? We discussed this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Microsoft may launch an Xbox streaming device in the next 12 months, as per a report. The streaming device is said to enable users to access movies, TV services along with a library of games through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The report also says that Microsoft is also working with Samsung to develop an Xbox game-streaming app for the South Korean company’s televisions. The news comes a few days after Microsoft announced that Xbox Cloud Gaming users will now be able to play Fortnite for free on Android, iOS, and Windows devices.
Citing people familiar with the matter, VentureBeat (GamesBeat) reported that the device will likely look like an Amazon Fire TV Stick or a Roku-like puck. As far its functionality is concerned, the device will allow users to access movies and TV services — like we do with Amazon Fire TV Stick, for example — along with their library of games through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Furthermore, Microsoft is said to be working with Samsung to develop an app that’ll probably let Samsung smart TV users give the same access as the Xbox streaming device. Both these things are said to debut within the next 12 months.
The move is seen as a way to bring more users into the Xbox ecosystem. It is to be noted that Xbox consoles also allow users to download apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, among others and allow streaming. Microsoft is working hard to attract more casual gamers.
Recently, the company, along with Epic Games, announced that Xbox Cloud Gaming users will now be able to play Fortnite for free on Android, iOS, and Windows devices. The move will also allow users, including PC gamers, to stream Fortnite on internet browsers on their devices just like Netflix, irrespective of the hardware specifications.
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