A small flurry of activity soon saw Microsoft release an update to the Photos app on Windows 10 Mobile. It appeared with a 'fast ring' of beta updates and test builds for Windows 10 Mobile users happy to live on the scientifically established. It's not a significant update, even so it could be the last tangible switch to Windows 10 Mobile.

Jez Corden reported along the update:

It doesn't call in any of Windows 10 PC's more interesting features such as video editing, it does will allow you to ink more than photos, select filters, and also. The version brings it to 18011.13438.0. The Photos app across the Fast Ring additionally become rather slow for a few, particularly on devices which aren't officially "supported" by Windows 10 Mobile.

Precisely why the update toward the app was notable was rrt had been updated rrn any respect. Apart from security updates and bug fixes to core features which would be needed to maintain support levels sure manufacturing partners, Microsoft termed as halt to new builds of Windows 10 Mobile, with confirmation starting from Brandon Le Blanc, Senior Program Manager @Microsoft on a Windows Insider Program Team, reported by Zac Bowden:

Whatever plans changed, it appears Microsoft is no longer focused on releasing new Insider builds for Windows 10 Mobile. Microsoft continues to service Windows 10 Mobile with monthly security updates, but beyond the borders of that the platform isn't going to be receiving to any extent further love. The result, this means Windows 10 Mobile Insider Program has less or more come to an end, avoid a bang but a whimper.

Work desk every hour keeping track, however Windows 10 Mobile has ground towards a halt with the Redstone 2 iteration together with the Feature2 branch.

Applications for Windows 10 Mobile could be updated, your ones apps with the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) standard are certainly more than supposed to remain updated for some time to come, but this could well be small comfort since the main software support is currently definitely on minimal maintenance levels. Nevertheless, there was optimism new Windows 10 Mobile hardware in 2018 through British-based manufacturer WileyFox, that company has placed its European operations into administration.

The software is winding down, there is simply a distinct loss in hardware champions, as well as sheer dominance of Android within the mobile space signifies that Microsoft's ambitions are advised served in pushing its cloud services into Android and iOS than keeping Windows 10 Mobile alive on life support.

Google's new feature in Drive allows users to help with making comments for Microsoft Office files without requiring Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat Reader local applications or end-use licenses.

Organizations using Google Drive to hold and share files for the cloud surely have an easier ways to interact with Microsoft Office files, PDFs and image files.

Google offers a new feature in Drive that lets users make comments appropriate Microsoft Office files, and additional files without requiring Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat Reader local applications or end use licenses.

Staring now, Google Drive users could easily use the preview pane to individuals almost any file in Drive regardless of format. They're now able to receive replies in order to those comments from even a person who are not using G Suite, said Google Drive software engineer Eric Zhang, and product manager Birkan Icacan inside a blog Feb.7.

Comments manufactured in Drive Preview are currently exported onto the underlying file once users accessible the file they're now able to see the comments created Drive Preview, using the company. "Let's say your coworker opens information on her Windows laptop using MS Word, she will see your comment while in the file and are able to reply starting from there," Zhang and Icacan said.

Aside from making file-level comments in preview pane, users could also make inline or anchored comments considering the new feature. One example is, a user can highlight a sentence in a very Office Word document and attach a comment for it or the actual same with any cell in a Excel spreadsheet.

The commenting feature eliminates the requirement for users to unwrap up other tools in order to complete tasks. Instead, it can now open Word, Excel, PowerPoint and additional Microsoft Office files online Drive preview and also make comments, give feedback, assign tasks and collaborate in various ways.

The improved interoperability with Microsoft or other environments is very important in situations where project teams have got to work with heterogeneous files and tools to be work done, the 2 main Google engineers noted. Like, a project team that has to collaborate with a external agency, or simply trying to negotiate legal contract with a client or preparing specifications will demand the ability to face multiple file formats with minimal disruption.

Your new ability to comment in Drive's preview pane is simply one example of the growing interoperability between Google's G Suite lineup of office productivity tools and Microsoft's Office application suite, Icacan and Zhang said.

To add, Google has a Drive plug-in looking for easier for users to avoid an attachment in a Outlook email to generate or insert files from Drive for Outlook email. Similarly, users also have also the ability to convert a Microsoft Office file into a Google Docs, Slides, or Sheets file. Moreover a previously available Office Compatibility Mode feature lets users edit Office files and not having to fully convert the theifs to a Google format, they added.

The fresh new feature can be contacted on all G Suite editions.

With Windows 10 Redstone 4 nearly finalized, Microsoft is now preparing to begin develop the very next Windows 10 release, which are internally codenamed Redstone 5.

Hence, the very first build is already spotted online, with Microsoft proclaiming that the Redstone 5 preview program will start off very soon, simply not this week.

Windows 10 Redstone 4, which doesn't yet receive an official name but that will be called by Microsoft "Windows 10 Spring Creators Update," is predicted to be finalized in March, over public launch in April.

Meanwhile, Redstone 5 arrives in the fall, with a October target date in your production ring, while insiders is deserving of the final build 1 month earlier.
"Skip Ahead insiders to purchase RS5 builds"

The first builds rrs going to be shipped to insiders that will be enrolled in the Skip Ahead ring and won't are preloaded with any breaking changes. Skip Ahead was the special ring released by Microsoft before launch of Windows 10 Redstone 4 so when the company was giving the finishing touches to Redstone 3, as well as software giant put on the extender as a way to let insiders consider the next-next update early.

Throughout its launch, Skip Ahead sported limited seats, and whoever isn't already some of it won't be able to register while in the coming days and weeks. Which means that the first Windows 10 Redstone 5 builds are only shipped up to a limited audience, although goes without saying so it shouldn't take long in the event the release of Redstone 4 in the spring until other people gets it.

Also, it's important to note that the first Windows 10 Redstone 5 build won't bring several changes and extra features are very unlikely, so considering you're not gonna miss anything if you're not decided upon Skip Ahead.

Depending on BuildFeed, the first Windows 10 Redstone 5 build published by Microsoft is 17600, so develop this has started internally and also such builds has to be spotted online any longer.

The software might only come along with extended support until 14th October 2025

Microsoft has confirmed what a lot of us predicted - Office 2019 is only available on Windows 10 devices, leaving those using older iterations of your platform outside in the cold.

The productivity suite is required to launch through the second half in this year, this company revealed, with previews available in the second 50 percent of the year. Alongside the shipping and preview information, the company said Microsoft Office 2019 is only available for Windows 10 SAC release, Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2018 and subsequently LTSC release of Windows Server.

"Modern software doesn't just provides additional features to help people do their most favorite work, along with new, better manageability solutions plus more ! comprehensive solutions for security," Bernardo Caldas, gm for Windows, and Jared Spataro, general manager for Office said for a joint blog post.

"Software that is greater decade old, and hasn't benefited from this innovation, is actually to secure and inherently less productive. Due to the fact pace of change accelerates, wonderful . imperative to move our software to a more modern cadence."

Microsoft also said it will not be offering a 'Microsoft Installer' (MSI) currently being a deployment method - users will only be able to install the necessary paperwork as a "click-to-run" product.

Additionally, Office 2019 will ship which has a reduced extended support period. Although it'll offer a few years of mainstream support, it is come with "approximately 2 decades of extended support," having the period ending definitively on 14th October 2025. Microsoft said that is to align with the support for Office 2016.

"At Microsoft, we're convinced of helping our commercial customers generate a secure and productive modern workplace - and this means helping them get current you can also be current on Office and Windows," Caldas and Spataro said. "Many people are already while planning their upgrades, and today's announcements address feedback we've have been told by them over the last few months."

Microsoft began rolling out Office productivity suite improvements on Tuesday, as well as announced that it has unified its Office codebase across Windows, Android, iOS and Mac.

The unified codebase was announced amid various Mac and iOS Office and OneDrive storage improvements. Microsoft is bringing support for features including co-authoring and AutoSave for users of Office for Mac version 16.9.0, although those features only work when files are saved to OneDrive or SharePoint sites. Among the new features require having Office 365 subscriptions, like for example the new AutoSave feature.

"With our newest version of Office for Mac, version 16.9.0, we've extended these capabilities to Apple users; believe it or not, this release marks the main time in 20 years that Office shares the identical codebase across Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android for core functionalities," explained Derek Snook, a principal program manager for Office for Mac, iPhone and iPad.

The new unified codebase means that Microsoft can roll out Office features across operating system platforms in a faster rate, Snook explained, although Microsoft still needs to design the features reported by each particular platform's user interface.

Office for Mac 2016 Features

At the Mac platform, new Office for Mac 2016 features are available, nevertheless the following features require utilising an Office 365 subscription:

AutoSave, which saves files "every few seconds."
New Excel Worksheet functions, including IFS formula for nesting "If" statements in formulas, and SWITCH formula, "which evaluates an expression to return one matching value at the list."
New PowerPoint Trim tool for editing the length of embedded video or audio (only works with locally stored audio or video files -- it doesn't work with with media "from the web").
PowerPoint QuickStarter, which builds a presentation outline as reported by the subject and user research.
PowerPoint "highlighted changes," which shows the changes made by co-authors generally if the user has been away.

Other Office for Mac features being added don't require an Office 365 subscription. They include:

Co-authoring for Excel, PowerPoint and Word (although it only works for files stored on OneDrive or SharePoint).
Table slicers, which lets users grab the particular they want.
Excel multithreaded calculations, where Excel tries to speed up calculation performances by using different threads.
PowerPoint laser pointer, which turns the mouse cursor inside a pointer.
Excel getting more chart types.
Word for Mac now has Immersive Reader capabilities, including a Read Aloud function.

iOS Office Additions
Microsoft also described some coming Office improvements for users of Apple iOS devices, which includes iPads and iPhones, in another announcement.

It's now possible to drag and drop files (like for example documents, spreadsheets and presentations) from Office apps or from OneDrive storage on iOS devices. Users can also "move files to and from OneDrive besides other sources -- such as SharePoint or iMessage," Microsoft's announcement explained.

OneDrive for iOS now supports the iOS 11 Files app. "This means iPhone and iPad users can upload, access, edit, and save content to OneDrive or SharePoint from any iOS app that supports File app integration -- a top requested feature," the announcement explained.

Plus, the OneDrive for iOS app supports previews for more file types. It now supports "over 130 file types, including Adobe Photoshop and 3D objects," Microsoft indicated.

Lastly, Outlook for iOS now has improved search across organizations. The search is regarding the Microsoft Graph technology that underlies Office 365 products, working to surface organizational info.

Microsoft has been working toward unifying its Windows operating system for some time now. At this point, "Windows" is running on desktops, laptops, 2-in-1s, the Xbox, tablets, and smartphones (technically), among other devices. I put Windows in quotes there, however, because while UWP, or Universal Windows Platform, apps will run across these versions of Windows, the underlying OS isn't always dependent upon the same core. The Windows 10 that was installed on ill-fated Windows Phones, including, wasn't the same OS that's installed even on a Windows 10 laptop. The kernel was similar, nonetheless the shell and other components were not.

In keeping with new reports, Microsoft plans to jettison little-used legacy code and revamp and unify Windows across all devices utilizing a streamlined version based on the Windows Core OS. Specifically, the latest news to come out of Windows Central covers a future desktop version using the Windows Core OS, reportedly codenamed Polaris.

The goal with future version of Windows usually is to modernize, modularize, and unify the operating system so only the components necessary to have a particular device are used. The underlying core of your operating system can be the same across all devices, and will be stripped of legacy code and modules, that might slim-down Windows and reduce its memory, storage, and processing requirements significantly. That means there's do not just potential for performance improvements - especially on low-power devices - but increased battery life on mobile devices. Developers should benefit in the process, because they can create applications once, that'll run across every Windows-based device.

Native Win32 support, and it's also required to run legacy (i.e. non-UWP) applications, will never be part of Polaris, however. Support for legacy applications will likely come through some sort of emulation layer, similar to what Microsoft has done for upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon-based Windows devices, nonetheless final solution for handling Win32 support will be reportedly up throughout the air.

Microsoft and its hardware partners have revealed lots of new low-cost Windows 10 laptops likely to compete with Chromebooks contained in the education market.

The new devices, announced to coincide with all the Bett show this week, include notebooks for under $200 and 2-in-1 laptop/tablet PCs for under $300.

Lenovo is announcing the 100e, a new Intel Celeron Apollo Lake powered PC, starting at $189, and in addition the Lenovo 300e, a 2-in-1 PC that comes with pen, starting at $299. For emerging markets, JP will sell the Classmate Leap T303 notebook, starting at $199, as well Trigono V401 2-in-1, starting at $299.

Each of these new devices are spill resistant and ruggedized, and have been meant to have have long battery life and 2x2 Wi-Fi for faster connectivity.

Among the many slew of other education-related news, Microsoft also said it is usually building support for voice dictation directly into Microsoft Office from February. While dictation has been supported in Office, previously it required users to install Microsoft's Dictate add-on, which supported dictation in 20 languages and real-time translation of upto 60 languages. Office's Immersive Reader text-to-speech functionality will also be made available on Microsoft Word for Mac, iPhone, Outlook Desktop, Onenote iPad, and Onenote Mac, with support to have a variety of new languages.

Microsoft Onenote Class Notebook, a collection of handouts and shared work for classes, has been updated to include assignment and grade integration along with the most widely used School Information Systems from the UK, SIMS Capita, and U.S., PowerSchool. Teachers will now also be effective at lock pages as read only. The easy-to-use graphing program Desmos will also be enabled within Onenote.

Presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint can now be recorded-including slides, video and narrations-and published to the Microsoft Teams communication platform, a change Microsoft says will help give students easier access to teaching materials and lessons.

Microsoft is pushing augmented and virtual reality headsets as being a key tool for education, dropping the price for its Hololens headsets for academic institutions prior to the end of May this year. It also revealed that, from March this year, Pearson will begin rolling out six new educational HoloLens and Windows Mixed Reality applications. Microsoft is additionally partnering with PBS and NASA to expand its Mixed Reality curriculum from the Bringing the Universe to America's Classrooms initiative.

Microsoft and LEGO Education will also be offering a new free online Hacking STEM lesson plan, containing students use the Pythagorean Theorem to explore and measure topography in 2D/3D space. Rrt is going to also partner with BBC Earth to bring Oceans: Our Blue Planet themed content to classrooms and museums worldwide. Minecraft: Education Edition is in addition being upgraded by using a free Chemistry Update.

Finally, Microsoft also announced that organizations that buy Microsoft 365 Education licenses between February and December this year will likely to be eligible for free training on easy methods to use the service.

Jumping from version 15.41 (released in mid-December, 2017), Microsoft has released version 16.9 of your company's Office 2016 application suite with the addition of real-time collaborative editing. For Word and PowerPoint, you'll require to save your documents to OneDrive or SharePoint Online following send an invite to collaborators (Microsoft notes that Windows users need to be running PowerPoint 2010 or later). You'll need an Office 365 subscription for Excel, and in many cases upload to or have a new workbook on OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or perhaps a SharePoint Online library.

Office 2016 also adds AutoSave capabilities to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, allowing Office 365 subscribers to enable this for files stored on OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online. The three apps also improve discovery of documents stored inside of your frequently used sites and groups within a Open menu, while Excel adds new charts (like the funnel, sunburst, and histogram) and improves support for filters in some PivotTable.

PowerPoint enables you to trim content coming from a beginning or end associated with an audio or video clip, and adds support for formula mouse as a laser pointer for improved focus during presentations. Outlook adds gestures for archiving (swiping left with two fingers) or deleting (swiping right) email from a Inbox. ($149.99 for one-time purchase, $99.99/$69.99 annual subscription options, free update through Microsoft AutoUpdate, release notes, 10.10+)