Configuration Manager: a progress update on the current branch and a new servicing branch

As written on blogs.technet.microsoft.com

Today, 101 years ago, the Ford Motor Company manufactured its 1 millionth Model T automobile. Thanks to our customers, we also have a reason to celebrate today as we are continuing to see an incredible adoption of our own model, the current branch of Configuration Manager. Our current branch model was designed to provide our customers with ongoing product improvements, faster updates, and timely support for new Windows releases.

Since the release of the current branch in December of 2015, over 21,000 organizations managing more than 43 million devices have transformed client management for their organizations by upgrading to Configuration Manager 1511 or later, allowing them to  keep their management tools up to date at an unprecedented rate and scale. With three current branch releases to date, the move to later versions is accelerating: more than half of these organizations have already updated to the latest version 1606. In the wake of this strong customer adoption, we are including the latest version of Configuration Manager in newly released System Center 2016 for server management, and at the same time we are introducing a new branch type.

In short, System Center Configuration Manager (version 1606) is now included with System Center 2016. Our customers can now upgrade Configuration Manager 2012/R2 directly to version 1606 of the current branch and start taking advantage of new management features, faster and easier updates, support for new Windows releases, and more. For the overwhelming majority of our customers, the current branch of Configuration Manager will be their preferred installation option, and we have seen this further validated by the upgrade momentum we noted above.

Today, we are also making available the Long-Term Servicing Branch (LTSB) of Configuration Manager. Up until this point, if Software Assurance or equivalent subscription rights (most normally from Intune or EMS) became expired, customers, per product terms, would have to move back to the most recent release they owned perpetual rights to, e.g., System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager. The LTSB of Configuration Manager now delivers an alternative option that will be supported on a fixed 10-year lifecycle, although it is important to understand the limitations inherent in a long-term serviced management product vs. the easily updatable current branch model our customers have been rapidly moving to.

While the LTSB is derived from the current branch of Configuration Manager (version 1606), it is scaled back and reduced in functionality to permit the extended support model. LTSB of Configuration Manager will not receive new functionality or support for new Windows 10 and Windows Server releases. It will continue to receive security updates only. By design, LTSB of Configuration Manager is intended to be fixed in functionality and very infrequently updated, so any features or components that require continuous updating or are tied to a cloud service have been removed. These removed features include:

• Support for Windows 10 Current Branch (CB) and Current Branch for Business (CBB)

• Support for the future releases of Windows 10 LTSB and Windows Server

• Windows 10 Servicing Dashboard and Servicing Plans

• The ability to add a Microsoft Intune Subscription, which prevents the use of Hybrid MDM and on-premises MDM

• Asset Intelligence

• Cloud-based Distribution Point

• Support for Exchange Online as an Exchange Connector

• Any pre-release features available in the current branch of Configuration Manager

Based on the strong adoption of the current branch of Configuration Manager, positive feedback from our customers, and the future of Windows and the industry in general shifting to more frequent and smaller updates, we highly recommend our customers continue upgrading to the current branch of Configuration Manager. We expect that for the overwhelming majority of you this is the best model and approach of delivering an up to date management offering.

Configuration Manager (version 1606) can be downloaded from Volume Licensing Service Center (search for “System Center Config”). It can also be downloaded from Microsoft Evaluation Center and MSDN. The setup process of Configuration Manager (version 1606) allows you to choose to install either the current branch or LTSB.

The fundamentals of Azure identity management

By Curtis Love as written on docs.microsoft.com

Managing identity is just as important in the public cloud as it is on premises. To help with this, Azure supports several different cloud identity technologies. They include these:

• You can run Windows Server Active Directory (commonly called just AD) in the cloud using virtual machines created with Azure Virtual machines. This approach makes sense when you're using Azure to extend your on-premises datacenter into the cloud.

• You can use Azure Active Directory to give your users single sign-on to Software as a Service (SaaS) applications. Microsoft's Office 365 uses this technology, for example, and applications running on Azure or other cloud platforms can also use it.

• Applications running in the cloud or on-premises can use Azure Active Directory Access Control to let users log in using identities from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and other identity providers.

Running Windows Server Active Directory in virtual machines

Running Windows Server AD in Azure virtual machines is much like running it on-premises. Figure 1 shows a typical example of how this looks.

Figure 1: Windows Server Active Directory can run in Azure virtual machines connected to an organization's on-premises datacenter using Azure Virtual Network.

In the example shown here, Windows Server AD is running in VMs created using Azure Virtual Machines, the platform's IaaS technology. These VMs and a few others are grouped into a virtual network connected to an on-premises datacenter using Azure Virtual Network. The virtual network carves out a group of cloud virtual machines that interact with the on-premises network via a virtual private network (VPN) connection. Doing this lets these Azure virtual machines look like just another subnet to the on-premises datacenter. As the figure shows, two of those VMs are running Windows Server AD domain controllers. The other virtual machines in the virtual network might be running applications, such as SharePoint, or being used in some other way, such as for development and testing. The on-premises datacenter is also running two Windows Server AD domain controllers.+

There are several options for connecting the domain controllers in the cloud with those running on premises:+

• • Make all of them part of a single Active Directory domain.

  • Create separate AD domains on-premises and in the cloud that are part of the same forest.

  • Create separate AD forests in the cloud and on-premises, then connect the forests using cross-forest trusts or Windows Server Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS), which can also run in virtual machines on Azure.

Whatever choice is made, an administrator should make sure that authentication requests from on-premises users go to cloud domain controllers only when necessary, since the link to the cloud is likely to be slower than on-premises networks. Another factor to consider in connecting cloud and on-premises domain controllers is the traffic generated by replication. Domain controllers in the cloud are typically in their own AD site, which allows an administrator to schedule how often replication is done. Azure charges for traffic sent out of an Azure datacenter, although not for bytes sent in, which might affect the administrator's replication choices. It's also worth pointing out that while Azure does provide its own Domain Name System (DNS) support, this service is missing features required by Active Directory (such as support for Dynamic DNS and SRV records). Because of this, running Windows Server AD on Azure requires setting up your own DNS servers in the cloud.+

Running Windows Server AD in Azure VMs can make sense in several different situations. Here are some examples:+

• • If you're using Azure Virtual Machines as an extension of your own datacenter, you might run applications in the cloud that need local domain controllers to handle things such as Windows Integrated Authentication requests or LDAP queries. SharePoint, for example, interacts frequently with Active Directory, and so while it's possible to run a SharePoint farm on Azure using an on-premises directory, setting up domain controllers in the cloud will significantly improve performance. (It's important to realize that this isn't necessarily required, however; plenty of applications can run successfully in the cloud using only on-premises domain controllers.)

  • Suppose a faraway branch office lacks the resources to run its own domain controllers. Today, its users must authenticate to domain controllers on the other side of the world - logins are slow. Running Active Directory on Azure in a closer Microsoft datacenter can speed this up without requiring more servers in the branch office.

  • An organization that uses Azure for disaster recovery might maintain a small set of active VMs in the cloud, including a domain controller. It can then be prepared to expand this site as needed to take over for failures elsewhere.

There are also other possibilities. For example, you're not required to connect Windows Server AD in the cloud to an on-premises datacenter. If you wanted to run a SharePoint farm that served a particular set of users, for instance, all of whom would log in solely with cloud-based identities, you might create a standalone forest on Azure. How you use this technology depends on what your goals are. (For more detailed guidance on using Windows Server AD with Azure, see here.)

Using Azure Active Directory

As SaaS applications become more and more common, they raise an obvious question: What kind of directory service should these cloud-based applications use? Microsoft's answer to that question is Azure Active Directory.+

There are two main options for using this directory service in the cloud:+

• • Individuals and organizations that use only SaaS applications can rely on Azure Active Directory as their sole directory service.

  • Organizations that run Windows Server Active Directory can connect their on-premises directory to Azure Active Directory, then use it to give their users single sign-on to SaaS applications.

Figure 2 illustrates the first of these two options, where Azure Active Directory is all that's required.

+

Figure 2: Azure Active Directory gives an organization's users single sign-on to SaaS applications, including Office 365.+

As the figure shows, Azure AD is a multi-tenant service. This means that it can simultaneously support many different organizations, storing directory information about users at each of them. In this example, a user at organization A is trying to access a SaaS application. This application might be part of Office 365, such as SharePoint Online, or it might be something else - non-Microsoft applications can also use this technology. Because Azure AD supports the SAML 2.0 protocol, all that's required from an application is the ability to interact using this industry standard. (In fact, applications that use Azure AD can run in any datacenter, not just an Azure datacenter.)+

The process begins when the user accesses a SaaS application (step 1). To use this application, the user must present a token issued by Azure AD.+

This token contains information that identifies the user, and it's digitally signed by Azure AD. To get the token, the user authenticates himself to Azure AD by providing a username and password (step 2). Azure AD then returns the token he needs (step 3).+

This token is then sent to the SaaS application (step 4), which validates the token's signature and uses its contents (step 5). Typically, the application will use the identity information the token contains to decide what information the user is allowed to access and perhaps in other ways.+

If the application needs more information about the user than what's contained in the token, it can request this directly from Azure AD using the Azure AD Graph API (step 6). In the initial version of Azure AD, the directory schema is quite simple: It contains just users and groups and relationships among them. Applications can use this information to learn about connections between users. For example, suppose an application needs to know who this user's manager is to decide whether he's allowed access to some chunk of data. It can learn this by querying Azure AD through the Graph API.+

The Graph API uses an ordinary RESTful protocol, which makes it straightforward to use from most clients, including mobile devices. The API also supports the extensions defined by OData, adding things such as a query language to let clients access data in more useful ways. (For more on OData, see Introducing OData.) Because the Graph API can be used to learn about relationships between users, it lets applications understand the social graph that's embedded in the Azure AD schema for a particular organization (which is why it's called the Graph API). And to authenticate itself to Azure AD for Graph API requests, an application uses OAuth 2.0.+

If an organization doesn't use Windows Server Active Directory - it has no on-premises servers or domains - and relies solely on cloud applications that use Azure AD, using just this cloud directory would give the firm's users single sign-on to all of them. Yet while this scenario gets more common every day, most organizations still use on-premises domains created with Windows Server Active Directory. Azure AD has a useful role to play here as well, as Figure 3 shows.

Figure 3: An organization can federate Windows Server Active Directory with Azure Active Directory to give its users single sign-on to SaaS applications.+

In this scenario, a user at organization B wishes to access a SaaS application. Before she does this, the organization's directory administrators must establish a federation relationship with Azure AD using AD FS, as the figure shows. Those admins must also configure data synchronization between the organization's on-premises Windows Server AD and Azure AD. This automatically copies user and group information from the on-premises directory to Azure AD. Notice what this allows: In effect, the organization is extending its on-premises directory into the cloud. Combining Windows Server AD and Azure AD in this way gives the organization a directory service that can be managed as a single entity, while still having a footprint both on-premises and in the cloud.+

To use Azure AD, the user first logs in to her on-premises Active Directory domain as usual (step 1). When she tries to access the SaaS application (step 2), the federation process results in Azure AD issuing her a token for this application (step 3). (For more on how federation works, see Claims-Based Identity for Windows: Technologies and Scenarios.) As before, this token contains information that identifies the user, and it's digitally signed by Azure AD. This token is then sent to the SaaS application (step 4), which validates the token's signature and uses its contents (step 5). And is in the previous scenario, the SaaS application can use the Graph API to learn more about this user if necessary (step 6).+

Today, Azure AD isn't a complete replacement for on-premises Windows Server AD. As already mentioned, the cloud directory has a much simpler schema, and it's also missing things such as group policy, the ability to store information about machines, and support for LDAP. (In fact, a Windows machine can't be configured to let users log in to it using nothing but Azure AD - this isn't a supported scenario.) Instead, the initial goals of Azure AD include letting enterprise users access applications in the cloud without maintaining a separate login and freeing on-premises directory administrators from manually synchronizing their on-premises directory with every SaaS application their organization uses. Over time, however, expect this cloud directory service to address a wider range of scenarios.

Using Azure Active Directory Access Control

Cloud-based identity technologies can be used to solve a variety of problems. Azure Active Directory can give an organization's users single sign-on to multiple SaaS applications, for example. But identity technologies in the cloud can also be used in other ways.+

Suppose, for instance, that an application wishes to let its users log in using tokens issued by multiple identity providers (IdPs). Lots of different identity providers exist today, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and others, and applications frequently let users sign in using one of these identities. Why should an application bother to maintain its own list of users and passwords when it can instead rely on identities that already exist? Accepting existing identities makes life simpler both for users, who have one less username and password to remember, and for the people who create the application, who no longer need to maintain their own lists of usernames and passwords.+

But while every identity provider issues some kind of token, those tokens aren't standard - each IdP has its own format. Furthermore, the information in those tokens also isn't standard. An application that wishes to accept tokens issued by, say, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft is faced with the challenge of writing unique code to handle each of these different formats.+

But why do this? Why not instead create an intermediary that can generate a single token format with a common representation of identity information? This approach would make life simpler for the developers who create applications, since they now need to handle only one kind of token. Azure Active Directory Access Control does exactly this, providing an intermediary in the cloud for working with diverse tokens. Figure 4 shows how it works+

Figure 4: Azure Active Directory Access Control makes it easier for applications to accept identity tokens issued by different identity providers.+

The process begins when a user attempts to access the application from a browser. The application redirects her to an IdP of her choice (and that the application also trusts). She authenticates herself to this IdP, such as by entering a username and password (step 1), and the IdP returns a token containing information about her (step 2).+

As the figure shows, Access Control supports a range of different cloud-based IdPs, including accounts created by Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft (formerly known as Windows Live ID), and any OpenID provider. It also supports identities created using Azure Active Directory and, through federation with AD FS, Windows Server Active Directory. The goal is to cover the most commonly used identities today, whether they're issued by IdPs in the cloud or on-premises.+

Once the user's browser has an IdP token from her chosen IdP, it sends this token to Access Control (step 3). Access Control validates the token, making sure that it really was issued by this IdP, then creates a new token according to the rules that have been defined for this application. Like Azure Active Directory, Access Control is a multi-tenant service, but the tenants are applications rather than customer organizations. Each application can get its own namespace, as the figure shows, and can define various rules about authorization and more.+

These rules let each application's administrator define how tokens from various IdPs should be transformed into an Access Control token. For example, if different IdPs use different types for representing usernames, Access Control rules can transform all of these into a common username type. Access Control then sends this new token back to the browser (step 4), which submits it to the application (step 5). Once it has the Access Control token, the application verifies that this token really was issued by Access Control, then uses the information it contains (step 6).+

While this process might seem a little complicated, it actually makes life significantly simpler for the creator of the application. Rather than handle diverse tokens containing different information, the application can accept identities issued by multiple identity providers while still receiving only a single token with familiar information. Also, rather than require each application to be configured to trust various IdPs, these trust relationships are instead maintained by Access Control - an application need only trust it.+

It's worth pointing out that nothing about Access Control is tied to Windows - it could just as well be used by a Linux application that accepted only Google and Facebook identities. And even though Access Control is part of the Azure Active Directory family, you can think of it as an entirely distinct service from what was described in the previous section. While both technologies work with identity, they address quite different problems (although Microsoft has said that it expects to integrate the two at some point).+

Working with identity is important in nearly every application. The goal of Access Control is to make it easier for developers to create applications that accept identities from diverse identity providers. By putting this service in the cloud, Microsoft has made it available to any application running on any platform.

 

Instagram will now let creators add URL links, tag friends, and create Boomerangs in Stories

By Fitz Tepper as written on techcrunch.com

Instagram is adding three new features to Stories in what they are calling the biggest update to Stories since its launch.

Starting today the company will let creators add URL links to their stories that viewers can navigate to without leaving Instagram, add the ability for users to be “@ mentioned” in someone’s story, and add the ability to add a Boomerang to your story without having to go create one in the separate Boomerang app.

Links

First and most importantly, Instagram will now let creators add navigable URL links to their stories – meaning viewers can tap a button and instantly be taken to whatever website the creator wants to send them to.

When tapped, this button will open up a browser within Instagram that automatically navigates to whatever website or page the creator has specified. 

Creators will add a link at the same time they are creating the Story – after capturing a video or picture there will be a button to add the link – just like there are already buttons to add text or a drawing to a Story.

But Instead of actually showing the URL (which could have created a cluttered experience), Instagram will add a “See More” button to the bottom of any story that has a link added to it. This will keep the photo itself free of ugly links, while still letting users navigate to the link with just one click.

While this does mean users won’t actually see the link they are going to before they click it, Instagram will be blocking inappropriate links, just like they already do with links in profiles.

At launch this feature will only be available to verified Instagram accounts. While there’s a chance it may eventually expand all users, Instagram currently won’t say if or when this will ever happen.

Expect to see this tool used by professional creators who want to direct users to consume content they have created on other platforms, like a video on YouTube or song on SoundCloud. Or celebrities and retailers using Links to direct users to purchase something on an e-commerce site. You’ll also probably see media properties use Links to direct users to read articles on their own website.

The addition of Links is sure to satisfy brands who want to promote products, and creators who need to promote their others social channels.

One of the biggest gripes with Snapchat is that creators can’t add links to their Snaps and Stories, meaning their viewers are stuck inside the Snapchat ecosystem. This makes it extremely hard for creators (and brands) to monetize. Creators may now be more inclined to start using Instagram Stories over Snapchat Stories, since they can link viewers out to their own sites.

Plus, it allows Instagram to sidestep the issue of not allowing links inside actual Instagram pictures in the feed, which is something brands and creators have long complained about. Currently only ads can contain links to websites in the Instagram feed.

Mentions

The second feature Instagram is adding to Stories today is Mentions. The feature will let creators use @ to “tag” any other Instagram user in their story.

Here’s how it works:

After taking a picture or video for a story users can tap to add text, and instead of typing a message they just type @, followed by someone’s Instagram username. And just like in comments and captions, Instagram will autocomplete their username.

Once “tagged”, the username will be underlined and tappable in the story. When tapped, the tag will take users to the profile of whoever is tagged in the picture. And also like comments and captions, users will receive a notification if they are tagged in the story of someone they follow. If they are tagged in a story by someone they don’t follow, it will show up in their “requests” folder.

You will able to tag up to 10 people in one Story. But remember that you’ll have to actually add everyone’s username in a text box, which could mean that lots of usernames will clutter up your picture or video.

Unlike Links, Mentions will be available to all users.

Boomerang

The last feature is that Instagram is adding Boomerang, its stand-alone app that creates one-second video loops, to Instagram Stories. So when you go to create a new story you can just swipe from “normal” (which lets you capture photos or videos) to Boomerang mode, and capture a Boomerang. Previously users had to leave Instagram Stories and navigate to Boomerang’s stand-alone app.

Interestingly, Instagram is only adding the ability to create Boomerangs to Stories, and not regular Instagram. This means if you want to add a Boomerang to your Instagram feed you’ll still need to use their separate app.

These features launch today, and besides Links (which is now only available to verified users) you can start playing with them today.

Microsoft looks sexy again, and, at the moment, a little more innovative than Apple

By Mark Sullivan as written on news.fastcompany.com

After seeing the lineup of products Microsoft just announced it's hard to deny that the company's hardware group has got its game on. Microsoft has brought the Surface design approach to the desktop with the new Studio all-in-one, which has a screen that kneels down into a "drawing board" mode on the desktop. The Studio can also be controlled with a new kind of rotary input device called the "Dial" that sits on the display calling up digital menus on the touch screen around its base.

Apple is at a very different place in its history than Microsoft and its Surface line. But, I think, Microsoft gets points for taking some shots at offering people—in this case designers and other creative types—some new ways of doing their daily work. Microsoft, starting with last year's Surface Book, has been wooing the creative community that has long been Apple's domain. A year from now we'll know a lot more about how Microsoft has fared at winning those hearts and minds.

In the meantime, the people in the Surface Group, led by Panos Panay, seem like they're having fun. They're taking risks, not just coldly calculating market wants and answering with incremental features that already exist in other products. Meanwhile, in Cupertino, Apple will hold a press event to announce some new Macs tomorrow. We're already fairly sure we'll be seeing cool new OLED touch bar that will digitize the line of function keys at the top of the keyboard. Apple is still a deeply innovative company. I'm just glad to see that Microsoft is making a game of it.

Get ready for the first truly Digital Decade

By John Biggs as written on techcrunch.com

No matter how this election ends one thing is clear: what happens online in the next decade will have an increasingly important effect on our daily lives. Until recently politics, warfare, commerce, and education has mostly been offline. That will change drastically in the next ten years.

But isn’t the world already digital? Most of it is but the places that it isn’t – parts of rural America, the third world, huge swathes of Asia and India – are getting more bandwidth than ever. Our devices are constantly online and listening and our homes are full of things that glow, beep, and buzz.

Look at the news. The FBI is using Malware “like a grenade.” Legal pot sellers are using Bitcoin to skirt banking regulations. The coffee shop has been replaced by the Facebook thread. The two biggest crises of this US election are based on the infallibility of network memory. In one corner Clinton was constantly attacked for an email server and on the other side Trump was attacked for things he said in passing that spread like kudzu through the Internet. Ultimately both sides used the Internet to magnify their message.

Social media is just the beginning. We are already offloading most of our petty tasks to computers and as they get smarter we’ll offload even more.

A plugged-in fried of mine expects commercial quantum computing to come online in five years. This means we’ll have more computing power available to us (and our cloud services) than ever. Our devices are constantly listening and at the ready and self-driving cars are coming faster than we expected. While many technologies, including blockchain, will take decades to mature we can expect parts of these technologies to embed themselves in our lives in the next few years.

We must react to these changes quickly or be quickly left behind. The digital-first government services cropping up in Estonia and the pro-startup movement in Poland are perfect examples of countries doing it mostly right. The bad news is that legislators are bailing water out of a sinking boat and not plugging existing holes. Banking regulation is woefully behind the times as is the slow crawl of drug legalization. There are no clear ways forward to catching and trying international cybercriminals and in an era when the next military attack could come from the Internet that’s pretty scary. 3D printing is a great hobby but it quickly get derailed by talk of 3D printed guns and drone bombs. We are at once ignorant of the extent and danger of our digital world and deathly afraid of it.

The next ten years will require us all to understand the vagaries of email servers, how to react when the credit card system is shut down by Anonymous, and how to avoid getting hit by ransomware. We’ll be plugging in more and more often and the world may look like an episode of Black Mirror if we don’t start actively separating the online and offline by putting our toys away and looking each other in the eye. And, in the end, the pace of change will keep rising, leaving the angry, the afraid, and the uneducated behind. I’d wager it’s our collective mission to make sure that doesn’t happen and, if it does, that the damage is limited and the lessons learned are the good ones.

Introducing the Windows Azure Pack connector: two clouds, one portal

As written on msdn.microsoft.com

Microsoft IT has created a more seamless way to manage hybrid clouds. Now available for download, the Windows Azure Pack connector lets administrators and tenants use one portal to manage infrastructure as a service (IaaS) virtual machines in both private clouds and public Azure subscriptions.

We’ve heard from our partners—they’ve bought into the vision of the hybrid cloud. Until now, hybrid cloud administration has always required multiple portals. Microsoft IT set out to create a more seamless connection between private and public cloud environments and their management systems. We are pleased to provide the result as an open-source solution for everyone.

Partners provided great feedback on the idea, and told us that they need a more streamlined way to manage IaaS VMs on both private and public clouds. At the same time, they wanted strong oversight and governance. We also heard that partners are sensitive to their tenants. Simply put, “Don’t make my customers leave my portal!”

Microsoft IT responded to a cloud management challenge that was first recognized internally, realized that the solution resonated with a broader partner base, and then quickly created and released an open-source solution that scaled and engaged the larger community.

You’ve probably used a Windows Azure Pack portal to manage IaaS VMs on your private clouds. With the Windows Azure Pack connector, the portal has now been extended to create and manage public Azure subscriptions and VMs. The connector, which supports the Azure Resource Manager fabric, provides a “single pane of glass” administration experience. You create and manage both private cloud VMs and public Azure subscriptions and VMs.

With the Windows Azure Pack connector, administrators and tenants onboard and customize Azure subscriptions with an end-to-end installer and an automated installation test suite. Customizations for administrators include a variety of operating system images and different VM sizes. Tenants use the same portal to provision and configure Azure VMs.

Microsoft IT originally created the connector for internal use. We are pleased to extend the open-source connector to our partner network.

Download it today at https://github.com/microsoft/phoenix.

© 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

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Whisker sensors could control the robots of the future

By John Biggs as written on techcrunch.com

Rats and other whiskered animals use senses that we don’t yet possess. In addition to being able to run mazes and lick our faces to confirm we aren’t covered in BBQ sauce, scientists have confirmed that some animals use their flowing front whiskers to sense wind position, a technique that could be used in future direction-sensing robots.

A team of students working at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering have found that rats “use their whiskers to help locate airflow sources.” While this seems like common sense, there has been no way to prove this until now.

To perform the experiment that led to this discovery, Yan Yu and Matthew Graff, co-first authors of the work, placed five, equally-spaced fans in a semicircle around the edge of a 6-foot circular table. In each trial, one of the five fans was randomly selected to blow air toward a “start-door” located on the opposite side of the table. A rat had to run from the door toward the fan blowing air, and go down a rat-sized hole directly in front of that fan. Each of the five holes (one in front of each fan) led to a tunnel beneath the table, where the rat was rewarded for choosing the correct fan. Cameras positioned above the table recorded the rats’ performance.

During the trials some of the rats were given a painless whisker haircut, a move that resulted in a 20 percent decrease in performance. The rats could have used any sense data to perform the task — from feeling the wind on their fur or sticking their little rat noses into the wind — but it was clear the whisker usage was far better at the task.

“The rat clearly uses more than one cue,” said study author Chris Bresee. “But rats still choose to rely heavily on their whiskers, which suggests that whiskers facilitate wind-sensing even when wild rats explore naturally.”

The team is working on artificial “flow sensors” that can be added to robots, creating bendable systems that vibrate in the wind. Receptors at the base of the whisker can then be read and translated into location data. This means future robots could use these sensors to read their positions, sense their speed or even move toward high or low pressure areas.

“Estimating the structure of airflow is particularly important when locating an odor source,” said Professor Mitra Hartmann. “And odor localization is important for finding explosives, chemical spills, and biological agents.”

Not bad for some foof.

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Microsoft tests Project Sonoma, a team chat app for managing shift workers’ schedules

By Sarah Perez as written on techcrunch.com

Microsoft has quietly released a new productivity application to both Google Play and the iTunes App Store called Project Sonoma. The app is aimed at those who work outside of a traditional office environment, like shift workers, waiters, and others who need to keep track of ever-changing schedules and who need to chat with co-workers at times.

The company hasn’t made any official announcement about the launch of Project Sonoma, nor is the app publicly available at this time. Instead, Microsoft says the app is in “Private Preview,” and there’s a waitlist businesses can join if they want to test.

Project Sonoma – if that is what the app will eventually be called (after all, it sounds more like a codename) – is a bit like a lightweight version of Slack, given its team chat emphasis. But it’s clearly aimed more at managing employees’ schedules, than collaboration.

In the app’s main screen, there are three sections: My Shifts, Requests, and Messages. The first allows the employee to track their schedules and see when they’re working next. Requests lets them ask for schedule changes or swap shifts with others. Meanwhile, the Messages section is a simple team chat where you could receive important updates from the management, ask questions of co-workers, and chat with your work colleagues.

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It appears that Project Sonoma is the result of a small acquisition or acqui-hire on Microsoft’s part. On Google Play, the app’s package name as seen in its URL includes the word “shiftr.” This happens to also be the name of a Sydney-based app called Shiftr, founded by Ludek Dolejsky and Adrian Dean, which focused on employee scheduling, too.

According to AngelList, the app had traction in the fast-food and retail industries, but it didn’t seem to have much pickup outside of Australia. Its website is no longer live, only leading to a blank page. Shiftr had some small seed investment – $50,000 according to CrunchBase – including from SenseDoc founder Steen Andersson, who previously sold his mobile marketing company 5th Finger AU to Microsoft.

We’ve asked Microsoft for more information on Project Sonoma and to confirm the acquisition, and will update with its response.

The app’s existence was first spotted by the blog Mspoweruser.com, which saw it was live on Google Play in preview mode. The app was updated on Google Play just a few days ago, but the iOS version has been live since June 10th.

Meanwhile, there’s a very basic Project Sonoma website that offers little information about the app in question, beyond offering a way for testers to sign up or join the waitlist.

Earlier today, Microsoft announced a related move to beef up its software’s ability to manage scheduling, this time to improve the scheduling capabilities in Office, through the acquisition of the chatbot Genee. Managing schedules is something that’s important for productivity, but there are a number of ways this can be handled outside of the calendaring interface.

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