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Microsoft News
Insider
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Xbox Game Pass: Price, plans, games, and how to sign up
- Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service that lets players download or stream more than 450 games across Xbox consoles and Windows PCs.
- Separate Xbox console and PC plans start at $10 a month, while Xbox Game Pass Ultimate costs $20 a month with cloud streaming support and same-day releases for new Xbox Studios games.
- Game Pass Ultimate lets you stream games to your phone, select Samsung displays, and Fire TV 4K sticks, which eliminates the need for an expensive gaming PC or Xbox console.
- The rotating library of over 450 games includes classic titles dating back to the original Xbox, indie titles, and online multiplayer games.
- Game Pass Ultimate members can access games from the EA Play library, along with discounts and perks from Microsoft partners, Disney Plus, and Marvel Unlimited.
- Xbox Game Pass Standard costs $15 a month with access to over 100 games for Xbox consoles, but no day one releases, cloud streaming, or PC game support.
- Xbox Game Pass Core is the entry-level Game Pass tier for consoles that costs $10 a month with a limited collection of games, online multiplayer support, and member discounts.
- Game Pass for PC is a PC-only tier that costs $12 a month and offers similar benefits to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate without access to games on Xbox consoles or cloud streaming.
- Games are available for at least a year, and Microsoft Studios titles like Halo and Forza are permanent fixtures in the Game Pass library.
- Not every game on Xbox Game Pass supports cloud streaming, and members need to check the official Xbox site for supported titles and full lineups of games.
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VentureBeat
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The 4 biggest AI stories from 2024 and one key prediction for 2025
- 2024 was a huge year for the commercialization of artificial intelligence with new firms and large models being introduced.
- OpenAI released o1 and o3 large general-purpose models which provide better accuracy in coding and science tasks.
- Google's Gemini series, once mocked for their image generations, came back roaring with more powerful versions that are increasingly appealing to businesses.
- In 2025, AI-generated content will proliferate across business and consumer domains, enhancing personalization and driving efficiency.
- Large language models and generative AI-powered robotics will revolutionize automation and human-robot interactions in commercial and consumer settings.
- Salesforce unveiled Agentforce 2.0 and Google launched Project Astra, a real-time AI assistant designed to enhance user productivity.
- Open-sourcing AI and expanding its offerings, SAP converted its Joule chatbot into an AI agent powered by large language models.
- Firms began developing specific AI-powered bots, applications, and workflows that can work independently on specific problems.
- New AI technologies such as Liquid AI's Liquid Foundation Models beyond the Transformer architecture began to surface.
- 2025 will see the debut of large-scale deployments of large language models and generative AI-powered robotics.
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Digitaltrends
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At the end of 2024, Xbox finds itself as a crossroads
- At the end of 2024, Xbox is at a crossroads that would have been unexpected a year ago.
- Xbox's acquisition of Activision Blizzard bore fruit, with its consistent game output via Game Pass
- Xbox's messaging lacked cohesion, after laying off developers, shutting down studios, and making Game Pass more expensive
- Xbox seems to be moving towards a multiplatform approach rather than exclusives, even for the PlayStation 5
- Xbox needs to commit to a plan in 2025 to avoid the same unclear vision issues faced by Sony in 2024
- Xbox had a tumultuous year involving controversies, rumors, and closures, affecting its plans on multiplatforming and exclusives
- Xbox's upcoming game lineup includes Avowed, Doom: The Dark Ages, Fable, The Outer Worlds 2, and South of Midnight
- Xbox needs to publicly commit to being a multiplatform company that supports Game Pass
- Xbox can transform into a service, like Microsoft Office or ChatGPT, and Microsoft can profit from it on every available platform
- There is a dissonance between what Microsoft, the corporation, wants and what Xbox players feel or understand
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Insider
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Steve Ballmer is richer than Warren Buffett. But his portfolio depends mostly on one stock.
- Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has an unorthodox investment portfolio.
- Over 80% of Ballmer's portfolio is held in Microsoft stock.
- Ballmer's strategy goes against conventional diversification wisdom.
- Ballmer attributes his success to luck and loyalty to Microsoft.
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Pymnts
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OpenAI’s GPT-5 Model Reportedly Behind Schedule With Uncertain Future
- OpenAI's GPT-5 model, known as Orion, is reportedly over budget, behind schedule, and uncertain to work.
- There may not be enough data in the world to make GPT-5 smart enough.
- Multiple training sessions have resulted in new problems and falling short of expected results.
- The cost of running the new model and its progress does not justify the massive expenses.
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Dev
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How Microsoft for Startups Boosts Entrepreneurial Success
- Microsoft for Startups is a program designed to support startups at the early stages as well as growth stages.
- The program offers free Azure credits, go-to-market resources, technical support from experts, and global network and enterprise connections.
- B2B startups with a working product can apply for Microsoft for Startups to access these benefits.
- The program provides startups with the infrastructure, expertise, and support needed to accelerate their growth.
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Siliconangle
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The yellow brick road to agentic AI
- Agentic AI requires a strong data foundation built upon cloud-like scalability, a unified metadata model, and harmonized data and business process logic.
- Agentic automation is expected to become a reality within the next decade and will require a reinvention of the software stack.
- The enterprise software stack is changing, and there is a shift from control at the database layer toward the governance catalog using operational metadata.
- To achieve true automation in agentic AI, it's crucial to have harmonized process logic that enables agents to communicate across the entire customer journey.
- The future of agentic AI will involve harmonizing end-to-end business processes to ensure that agents and humans collaborate effectively and share a common understanding.
- Data platforms such as Snowflake and Databricks, organizations such as Palantir and Salesforce, and vendors like Google, Microsoft, and UiPath Inc. are leading the way to agentic automation.
- The process of achieving agentic automation involves creating new infrastructure layers, incorporating genuine harmonization, and avoiding the trap of superficial bolt-ons.
- Achieving the vision of agentic automation will take time, persistence, and focusing on the pieces that do not yet exist in the enterprise software stack.
- The opportunity is to reinvent the application stack and not perpetuate the status quo by bolting agents onto existing legacy architectures.
- The agentic future that delivers a 10x productivity gain hinges on harmonizing end-to-end business processes and ensuring that agents and humans collaborate effectively and share a common understanding.
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Medium
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How to crack a Microsoft interview
- After applying, he got an online coding test Codility.
- The test had 2 coding questions, and had 90 minutes to solve them.
- Interview Round 1 (Technical Interview): Topics discussed were data structures and algorithms.
- The interviewer asked questions related to connecting the 'previous' pointer of a binary tree and spiral order printing of a matrix.
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Dev
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🚀 Unlock Free AI and Cloud Skills with Microsoft’s Free Courses
- Microsoft has released a treasure trove of free courses that cater to beginners and professionals in AI, cybersecurity, and cloud computing.
- The courses include topics such as Azure AI Fundamentals, Designing and Implementing a Microsoft Azure AI Solution, and Microsoft Security Operations Analyst.
- These courses provide industry-relevant skills, offer flexibility for self-paced learning, and prepare students for Microsoft certifications.
- To get started, visit the Microsoft Learn portal, choose a course, and sign up today.
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Moneyweb
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Big Tech’s $62bn AI spending fuels pick-and-shovel bets
- Artificial intelligence has been dominating investor consciousness more than any other technology breakthrough in the past 20 years, with tech giants spending tens of billions of dollars per quarter. Only 4% of US workers use AI every day, however, and more than two-thirds say they never do. Some investors are feeling vibes that are reminiscent of the 1990s, when the nascent internet was generating a similar euphoria. AI-related stocks have been responsible for much of the bull market that began in October 2022.
- The tech giants responsible for the massive spending are also the ones that are vastly profitable, and responsible for the bulk of the AI-related revenue at present. In the third quarter of 2024, Alphabet, Amazon.com, Apple, Meta Platforms and Microsoft spent a combined $62bn on capital expenditures. Pick-and-shovel trade investments such as Nvidia Corp are seen as less risky than direct AI investments. With tech giants pledging to continue spending, even bears such as Jim Covello see no reason to abandon the pick-and-shovel trade while the money is still flowing.
- AI payoffs will likely take more than a year or two, as technology adoption requires workflow changes and organisational structures. That means businesses won't fully reap the benefits of even today's generative AI for some time yet.
- The AI boom is not only benefiting tech giants like Nvidia, Meta and Amazon, that are pouring a lot of money into AI infrastructure and global operations, but also tangential sectors such as utilities that are benefiting from AI's electricity-thirsty data centres.
- While AI bears and bulls exchange their bets and weigh up opportunities and risk, some investors are making some kind of bet on AI without even knowing it. If you own an S&P 500 index fund, a third of your money is in eight companies, including Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple, that have parked some of their future funds on AI.
- The models that we have right now for AI systems are still not usable broadly, said Nobel Prize-winning economist and MIT professor Daron Acemoglu. Although some investors are beginning to view the buzz around AI as being similar to the euphoria generated by the nascent internet in the 1990s, the disconnect between stock prices and fundamentals could repeat past mistakes. The pick-and-shovel trade is becoming increasingly attractive than directly betting on AI, and is seen as being less risky than direct AI investments.
- Megacap tech stocks such as the FAANGS are responsible for much of the AI-related revenue and continuing spending. These companies can clearly afford the expenditure, having still generated $76bn in free cash flow. Investors have generally supported Big Tech capital spending because the sector has succeeded in the past.
- Investors should understand the difference between companies creating AI services, such as Microsoft and Alphabet, and the ones providing the infrastructure, such as chips, servers and power, that makes computing possible. Arvind Narayanan, co-author of "AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference," says big AI payoffs will take more than a year or two.
- The usually staid stocks of power producers are also on the rise. Vistra Corp and Constellation Energy Corp are among the best performers in the S&P 500 in 2024, helping put an index of utility stocks on track for their best year since 2019. The late ’90s was early in the internet, and that wasn’t the right time to buy, said Michael O'Rourke at Jonestrading. Picking this round's long-term winners might be a fool's errand.
- Some investors may lose their patience with AI investments, if the promises of quick spending returns are unmet. Dave Mazza, CEO of Roundhill Financial in NY, believes AI will still generate enough revenue, but thinks investors may start to reconsider the investment if there is no quick return on the spending, stating, "Investors are probably going to start voting with their feet."
- According to Bloomberg, while a special focus is on the bullish and bearish sentiments about AI investments, both sides should closely watch out for the differences between companies creating AI services and those offering the infrastructure that manages it. Investors should be careful not to blindly follow the bullish sentiments associated with companies investing in AI technologies.
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VentureBeat
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Perplexity’s Carbon integration will make it easier for enterprises to connect their data to AI search
- AI search startup, Perplexity has acquired a startup, Carbon, specialising in data retrieval framework to smoothen knowledge discovery process in enterprise workflows.
- Carbon offers a universal API or SDKs to sync data sources and retrieve data for use with LLMs, supporting over 20 file formats, including text, audio and video files.
- Perplexity plans to integrate Carbon's retrieval engine and connectors into its tech stack to plug-in diverse sources of data, expanding the AI search engine knowledge pool to give a more comprehensive and personalised search experience.
- Sanjeev Mohan, former Gartner Research VP for data and analytics, told venturebeat that one of the biggest AI trends for 2025 will be ETL for unstructured data, allowing entities to generate relevant and accurate responses.
- Through the acquisition, prospect for enterprise teams using the AI search engine is streamlined workflows, using the platform to extract insights from diverse sources including customer conversation insight.
- The real test of execution for the two startups will be on the safety of the startup's much more secure company data to ensure companies can keep their data privately.
- Carbon's managed API ends on March 31, 2025. Existing customers using the API have already been informed of the decision, with the Carbon team assisting users in the transition.
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Tech Story
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Microsoft Pushes for a Passwordless Future: The End of Passwords is Near
- Passwords are no longer considered sufficient to protect users, prompting Microsoft to push for a passwordless future.
- Microsoft is advocating for the use of passkeys, a more secure authentication method that encrypts and stores data locally on a user's device.
- Passkeys utilize biometrics such as facial recognition or fingerprints, making the login process faster and more secure.
- Microsoft has been gradually implementing passkey support across its platforms, witnessing higher success rates, faster adoption, and increased user engagement.
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Digitaltrends
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We might get a new Steam Deck next month — and Valve isn’t making it
- Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais and Microsoft's Jason Ronald will attend an event hosted by AMD and Lenovo during the week of CES.
- Valve's presence at the event is significant as the company makes the Linux-based Steam Deck.
- Valve recently updated its branding guidelines with logos indicating devices powered by SteamOS, hinting at a new handheld device.
- While not confirmed, it is speculated that a more powerful Lenovo handheld, potentially surpassing the Steam Deck, will be revealed at the event.
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Playstationlifestyle
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PS6/Next-Gen Xbox Will Struggle and Only One Will Be Successful, Analyst Says
- A new report by market research firm DFC Intelligence claims that PS6 and next-gen Xbox will “mightily struggle for a distant third place,
- DFC Intelligence claims that although the video game market is expected to grow and flourish beyond 2025, either Sony or Microsoft will fail to gain significant market share.
- Nintendo is expected to be the “clear winner” because of lack of competition as well as early availability of the Switch successor.
- DFC Intelligence points out that Microsoft may choose to focus on software and distribution rather than hardware in the next generation.
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Dev
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Gemini vs. Copilot: A Tale of Two AIs – Where Gemini Falls Short
- Gemini, a multimodal AI by Google, lags behind Microsoft's Copilot in practical application and seamless integration.
- Gemini's potential remains largely untapped, with limited practical benefits and integration.
- Copilot outperforms Gemini in code generation and offers deep integration with Microsoft products.
- Copilot delivers tangible benefits, enhances productivity, and has a superior performance compared to Gemini.
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