Microsoft has recently had another round of its planned staff layoffs in their still ongoing process of reorganizing the company. These changes involve some of the still employed people moving to other positions in the company. As of February 1, 2017, Microsoft seems to have given new titles to two of the most important people in the Xbox division, Mike Ybarra and Kareem Choudhry.
Author: Roman Linev
Long time news writer, Microsoft ecosystem fan, Android user. Loves Japanese culture, photography and his cats. You can also follow Roman on Twitter.
Microsoft Photosynth service is no longer available
Back in 2015, Microsoft halted the support and development of some of its photo apps, including Lumia photo apps and mobile clients for the Photosynth service, allowing users to create interactive panoramas and upload them to the web. By the time of that announcement, the service itself was still accessible via a web interface, but in late 2016 Microsoft decided to shut it down too. And as of February 7, 2017, Microsoft Photosynth is no longer available.
Build 15023 is out to Xbox One Insider Preview members in the Alpha ring
Microsoft has recently revamped the Xbox One Insider Program, introducing new flighting rings and making it available only to invited or select Xbox One users. There's a new build rolling out in the Alpha ring that introduces more bug fixes to the issues present in previous builds. So if you have enrolled your console into the Insider Program and you are a member of the Alpha ring, build 15023.1002 should now be available for you to try out.
Microsoft Outlook now supports add-ins on mobile devices
Microsoft announced yesterday that it is bringing add-in functionality in Outlook on its mobile versions, starting with iOS. The first batch of add-ins includes Dynamics 365, Nimble, Evernote, Smartsheet and GIPHY. Developers will also be able to add mobile support to their add-ins built with HTML and JavaScript: using the same code as a base and making some minor tweaks which will allow them to run on phones, tablets, desktops and the web.
Visual Studio Code 1.9 released, introduces a new home page and more
Microsoft has released another major update for its lightweight IDE, Visual Studio Code. This update brings a set of new features, previously available only in the Insiders version, including a new welcome page to help you get started with working in VS Code and find all the information you may need. The update also has lots of bug fixes and performance improvements as well as some new formatting options. The update is available as an offline downloadable installer and also via the built-in auto update feature.
HP Elite x3 gets another firmware update, improves stability and performance
HP in collaboration with Microsoft has started to roll out another firmware update for HP Elite x3. The new update, version 0002.0000.0023.0113, brings minor improvements to device stability and performance. There are some other changes inside the new firmware.
Windows 10 Mobile build 15025 is released for Fast Ring Insiders
Despite our previous reports, Microsoft has managed to release a new Windows 10 Mobile build this week. Build 15025 is now rolling out in the Fast ring and should be already available for all Windows Insider Program members enrolled in it. The company has managed to fix the previously mentioned blocking bug that was preventing people from downloading and installing new OS builds properly which could potentially have caused some damage to the software running on these mobile devices. The change log is almost identical to what was introduced with the desktop version of this build and there are still known issues present.
January Insider Slow update for Office 2016 on desktop is now available
Microsoft has pushed out the January 2017 update for Office 2016 on desktop (version 7766.2039) for Office Insiders on the Slow ring. New builds bring some interesting features, including real-time email collaboration for Office 365 users. You'll also be able to use your pen to manipulate objects in documents, which is an additional improvement to the list of what you can do with your pen in Office applications.
Official Instagram app update for Windows 10 Mobile now lets you save photos for later
Instagram seems to be trying to appeal to Windows 10 Mobile users by releasing updates more frequently compared to the old Windows Phone 8.1 version. Not so long ago, Instagram introduced a Save for Later feature in its apps for Android and iOS and now this feature is available to Windows 10 Mobile users too. This feature allows you to bookmark interesting photos and have access to them later without having to Like them first. These photos will have a special bookmark icon on them and you'll be able to open them any time.
New Windows 10 Mobile builds for insiders are delayed due to blocking bug
Windows Insider program members haven't seen new Windows 10 Mobile builds for quite some time. Despite desktop builds for the Fast ring being released every week, Microsoft has some issues with getting newer Mobile builds to run good enough on Insider devices. Earlier this week, Windows Insider Program lead Dona Sarkar announced on her Twitter that Mobile builds are being delayed due to a blocking bug the team has hit during development.
