New Windows 10 devices at CES, Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform, summiting the highest peaks in 50 states (in under 50 days) – Weekend Reading: Jan. 6 edition
Happy New Year, and welcome to the first Weekend Reading of 2017. We know many of you are still climbing your mountain of post-vacation emails or getting re-acquainted with commuting schedules, but please allow us to distract you with our top news from an exciting first week back in the office.
VR-ready gaming PCs, increased power and performance, lighter hardware with longer battery life, OLED and 4K screens, infrared cameras and fingerprint readers that unlock Windows Hello all featured heavily in this CES lineup.
Microsoft made some of it’s own announcements at CES this week including the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform that will help automakers build the future of intelligent vehicles.
The set of services is built on the Microsoft Azure cloud and will enable auto manufacturers to create custom connected driving experiences that are in-line with their brand. The living, agile platform aims to address predictive maintenance, improved in-car productivity, advanced navigation, customer insights and autonomous driving capabilities.
The certification distinguishes Azure as an organization that patients and health providers can count on to store their private information. The accreditation incorporates industry-specific security, privacy and regulatory requirements. It also provides a single framework for health organizations to evaluate the Azure environment.
While we enjoy dependable health services as much as anyone, we also enjoy really fast cars (at least on Xbox) and “Forza Horizon 3” Rockstar Car Pack just delivered seven new high-speed vehicle options.
This pack features everything from classic Japanese power to a Ford trophy truck to the hybrid styling of the 2015 BMW i8. The Rockstar Car Pack is included in the “Forza Horizon 3” Car Pass, which is available for separate purchase or as part of the Ultimate Edition of “Forza Horizon 3.” Players can also get the car pack standalone for $6.99 in the Xbox Store.
In the spirit of New Year’s Resolutions, we featured experienced mountain climbers Melissa and Maddie on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. The two achieved their goal of summiting the highest peak in all 50 states in less than 50 days, using Microsoft technology to help along the way.
Thanks for joining us for another Weekend Reading. We hope to see you again next Friday as we pick up even more steam into 2017.
In the August update of Power BI Desktop, we released the general availability of inline hierarchies. Inline hierarchies let you explore your data as you drill down in the context of your hierarchies. As an example, imagine you were looking at your Sales Amount by Order Date.
You start out looking at each year, and now you want to see quarters as well. When you expand down using inline hierarchies, we will carry the parent category down so you can differentiate the sales in each quarter for each year.
The previous behavior for drill wouldn’t split out individual quarters by year. It would show sales in each quarter across all years.
In the August release of the Desktop, we took inline hierarchies out of preview, and replaced this previous drill experience with the inline hierarchy experience. Since that update, we have heard feedback from you that while this new experience is very useful, you still have a need for the older experience, especially when using drill with unrelated categories in the hierarchy.
We listened to your feedback, and today we are releasing an update to the August Power BI Desktop release that gives you the ability to use both of these experience in one chart. Once you install this update, you will see two buttons on a visual that has a hierarchy in the axis. The double down arrow icon () will do the previous experience of showing the next level of the hierarchy, and the split arrow icon () will perform the new inline hierarchy experience explained above. You will see this update in the Power BI web service as well.
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Back-to-school updates for the OneNote Class Notebook app, and the add-in is now generally available
As many teachers and schools prepare for the 2016/2017 school year, it is a great time reflect on the excitement that many teachers and schools have shared with us over the past year as they began using OneNote Class Notebooks the first time.
We heard from teachers all around the world about the enthusiasm that has been bubbling around this new way of working. We heard from a teacher in Florida who told us how class notebooks have changed her life, a teacher from Wales who describes his school’s journey finding OneNote Class Notebooks and a Lithuanian teacher who uses class notebooks as an ePortfolio. In the UK, we heard from a school that declared OneNote has revolutionized the way they work. We had the chance to meet many of you in June at ISTE, including a teacher who told us the story of how class notebooks and her excitement for them inspired her to reconsider retirement and keep teaching this year. We have also continued listening and working with teachers, who have been the inspiration for the next set of improvements that we are rolling out today.
Improvements to the Class Notebook app based on teacher feedback
Today, we are rolling out new features and improvements across 44 languages and 63 markets. These 2016 back-to-school improvements will help save teachers valuable time in the classroom as well as allow OneNote Class Notebooks to be even more organized.
On the homepage of the Office 365 Class Notebook app, we updated the old Get Notebook Links button to include the new Manage notebooks button, and all of the improvements can be found under this button.
By clicking the Manage notebooks button, a teacher can see all of his/her class notebooks on one page with an expanded set of capabilities, including:
•Rename student sections—If you want to rename any student sections, click the pencil icon and type the new name of the section. Be sure to press Save after adding the student sections.
•Add section—To distribute a new section to all students, simply click the Add section button. Be sure to press Save after adding the student sections.
•Enable Teacher-Only section group—The Teacher-Only section group is a private space where only the teacher can see what is inside—students cannot see anything. To add a Teacher-Only section group to your class notebook, click the Enable Teacher-Only section group link. Co-teachers also have access into the Teacher-Only section group.
•Lock Collaboration Space—Enabling this feature makes the Collaboration Space read-only (or locked down) to disallow any students from editing. You can move the switch between a locked and unlocked state.
•Open—Clicking this link opens the class notebook.
•Link to the class notebook—Provides easy way to copy the class notebook link to share with others.
Class Notebook add-in is moving from preview to general availability
The Class Notebook Add-in Preview is the result of feedback and collaboration from teachers and school staff, whose input helped build these new tools. We’ve seen an amazing response to the add-in for our OneNote 2013 and 2016 teachers. In June, we also added many of the capabilities to our OneNote Mac app. Today, we are moving the OneNote Class Notebook add-in from preview to generally availability (GA). This means that IT admins and school staff should feel confident deploying the Class Notebook add-in broadly across a district, and it is officially now “Version 1.” In addition to announcing general availability, we all have some new updates detailed below:
•GA in 44 languages and 63 markets.
•Edmodo assignment and grade support.
•Firefly Learning assignment and grade support.
•Improved help and feedback options.
•For IT admins—Group Policy support for prepopulating LMS and SIS information. •New group policy deployment page: Class Notebook add-in group policy.
•General Download Center information.
To manually update your add-on just click the Update button that should appear if you have an older version of the add-in. This will download the latest version and also install the GA version.
We hope you are excited to try out the 2016 back-to-school improvements! The OneNote Class Notebook team will continue listening to teacher and school staff feedback. As usual, please reach out to us on Twitter @OneNoteEDU or drop us a line at OneNoteEDU@microsoft.com.
And don’t forget: Office 365 Education is free for students and teachers! Get yours at Office.com/education.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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New Video Series This Week on Windows Highlights Windows 10 Anniversary Update
The Windows 10 Anniversary Update begins rolling out today for customers around the world. The Anniversary Update is full of features and innovations that will bring new experiences with Windows Ink*, Cortana**, gaming and more. To give you an overview of new features that are rolling out in the update, check out the video below. It’s a part of a new weekly series we are piloting called This Week on Windows, where we’ll bring you the latest in Windows news, apps, and tips from experts here at Microsoft.
Feature highlights in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update
Windows Ink brings the power of Windows to the tip of your pen
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Available for the first time in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Windows Ink lets you quickly and easily take notes, sketch on a screenshot or draw out an idea. Smart sticky notes can help you remember common tasks like reminding you of flight times or offering you directions using Maps. You can learn more about Windows Ink in this blog post here.
Improvements to security with Windows Defender and Windows Hello for apps and websites
The Anniversary Update brings new improvements to Windows Defender, our free anti-malware service that includes an option to automatically schedule periodic quick scans of your PC to help make sure your PC is safe and update to date. New Windows Hello* features make it easy for you to use the same easy, yet strong, security of Windows Hello with Windows apps and Microsoft Edge. To learn more about the security improvements coming in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update visit this blog post.
Increased power efficiency with Microsoft Edge and the arrival of extensions
The Anniversary Update includes even more power saving improvements to Microsoft Edge to give you the most out of your PCs battery life. Also available with the Anniversary Update Microsoft Edge Extensions are coming to the Windows Store, such as Pinterest Pin It Button, Amazon Assistant, AdBlock, Adblock Plus and LastPass. These extensions will help you personalize your browsing experience even further.
Cortana helps you be more productive
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With the Anniversary Update Cortana will be available above your lock screen so you can do things like ask questions, play music from your PC or set a reminder without unlocking your device. Cortana can save and recall key information across your devices, like your frequent flier number or where you parked at the airport. You can also add photos to make your reminders visual, like a photo of a bottle of wine you enjoyed at a restaurant. To learn more about Cortana in the Anniversary Update visit this blog post.
Gamers stay connected and enjoy more games
With the Anniversary Update, Cortana is now available on Xbox One in the U.S. and U.K. With Cortana, gamers can expect more from voice commands on Xbox. In addition to more commands and greater accuracy with natural language and text dictation, Cortana provides the ability to use a headset or Kinect. You’ll be able to use Cortana to find great new games, see what your friends are up to, start a party, accomplish common tasks, turn on your Xbox One if you’re using Kinect, and more. We’ll continue to build more Cortana features over time as part of our vision to have Cortana be your personal digital assistant for gaming. Gamers can also enjoy the Anniversary Update on the new Xbox One S that is available starting today. To learn more about what the Windows 10 Anniversary Update means for Xbox visit Xbox Wire.
Windows Store is a one-stop shop for play and work
With the Anniversary Update, we’re bringing together the best of Windows and Xbox. You can access your favorite apps, games, movies, music and more in the Windows Store including games only for Windows 10 and Xbox. The new store simplifies the shopping experience and will feature a new look, higher quality content, subscription offerings, bundles and pre-orders. With Xbox Play Anywhere, shoppers can pre-order their favorite games before launch, then play on either their Windows 10 PC or Xbox One the day of availability. This gives gamers more options of where to play their favorite games.
New innovations for the modern classroom
Customers can enjoy a range of new education features in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, including faster, simpler set up with all new tools to help educators get up and running quickly and the “Take a Test” app that creates a browser-based, locked down environment for more secure online assessments. To learn more about what education features customers can enjoy in the Anniversary Update, visit this blog post.
Try the new Skype Preview with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update
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Skype Preview for Windows 10 PCs has been redesigned for Windows 10 and will come installed automatically with the Anniversary Update. You’ll be able to use all your favorite Skype features: talk over 1:1 and group video calls, say hello with 1:1 and group chats, call mobiles and landlines at low rates, share photos, share files, use emoticons, and add Mojis. To get started, once you have the Windows 10 Anniversary Update on your PC, open the Start menu and you’ll see “Skype Preview” in your list of apps. Click to launch or pin it to your taskbar or start for even faster access. To learn more about the great new features you can enjoy with Skype Preview in the Anniversary Update head over to the Skype Blog.
Finally, the Windows 10 Anniversary Update is our most reliable update yet, and since the November update last year we’ve made significant improvements to help your PC work better and last longer. For example, through our Windows Insider Program, we are seeing an average 20% improved boot speed. And your battery will last even longer as we’ve made more than 150 improvements in battery life functionality.
The Windows 10 Anniversary Update begins rolling out today, if you don’t want to wait for the update to roll out to you automatically and would like to manually get the update, check out this blog post.
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OneNote July Roundup
This month the OneNote team is pleased to release new capabilities to enhance inking, clipping content from the web and working with others. We have a lot of great things to share with you, so let’s dive right in.
Inking with OneNote
Ink effects—Sometimes a simple color isn’t enough to get your idea across. Now you can jazz up your notes and drawings with new ink effects like rainbow, galaxy, gold and silver to make anything you write more unique and even more fun. We were inspired to create these new ink effects in response to requests we heard from students when we visited their classrooms. During beta testing, we were pleased to see the smiles brought to everyone’s faces—young and old alike. Ink effects are now available for Office 365 subscribers in OneNote on Windows 10.
Inking in OneNote for Mac—Today, we’re launching ink in OneNote for Mac for the first time, bringing to life one of our top user requests. Now you can write, draw and highlight with tools on the new Draw tab using your mouse or trackpad. You can also use your third-party drawing tablet or display that uses a pen or stylus to write, draw and erase –just like pen and paper. And we’ve added lined pages and grids as a background option to help keep your new handwriting and drawings neat and tidy. If you’re a big fan of drawing and writing with ink, OneNote works great with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil as well. These new tools for Mac let you express yourself in a whole new way, as you think with ink. Get OneNote for Mac in the Mac app store today.
OneNote Web Clipper
Our OneNote Web Clipper is better than ever. We have a number of new features on our Web Clipper for Chrome, Safari, and IE to give you more control over your screen clippings before you send it into OneNote.
Preview—Ever wonder exactly what was about to show up in OneNote once you clipped? Problem solved! Now all clipping modes—full page, region, article, recipe and product—provide a preview so what you see is what you get.
YouTube and Vimeo support—You can now clip videos from YouTube and Vimeo pages into OneNote.
Highlight text—When you clip an article, product or recipe you can highlight sections of text, and those highlights will be saved to OneNote.
Clip multiple regions in one go—Clip multiple regions of a webpage and save them all in a single OneNote page.
Use your own title—Change the title of your page in the preview window before sending it to OneNote.
Articles your way—Change the font size and type in your article to improve readability before you even clip it to OneNote.
Update to the latest version to see all the new features or download the extension at www.onenote.com/clipper.
Sharing Notifications Email service
Never miss an important notebook edit again. For consumers using a Microsoft account, our newly improved sharing notifications means you’ll receive an email letting you know that someone has made a change to your shared OneNote notebook—helping you stay on the same page.
Users now will receive a maximum of five emails a day from the Sharing Notification Email service. Each email includes changes from all of your notebooks. The cadence of emails may change as we continue to improve our services. To manage your notification settings, visit www.onenote.com/sharenotificationsettings.
It’s been a big month here at OneNote, thanks for taking the time to read up on everything new you can do. One last thing, in the next few weeks, we’ll launch our new OneNote importer tool for Mac to help even more people import with confidence.
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3 new Sway capabilities for Office 365 subscribers
In the 10 months since Sway’s general availability, we’ve seen great interest in our digital storytelling app, with millions of Sways created to date! We’ve seen music companies, design firms and small businesses use Sway for company presentations, client pitches and employee newsletters. We’ve watched teachers use Sway to advance student learning in dynamic and engaging ways in their classrooms. And Sway has become an easy and enjoyable way to share travel, dining and personal experiences with others.
We make sure to listen to the Sway community and continually add relevant and enjoyable experiences for you. As we work toward this goal, we are excited to release three new features for Office 365 consumer, work and education subscribers based on feedback we’ve heard from you. These features are now available in Sway on the web, and they will roll out to the Sway app for Windows 10 in the coming months.
Add passwords to Sways
Previously, Office 365 work and education customers have been able to limit sharing of Sways at the organizational level, so that only people in your company or school can view your creations. Starting today, all Office 365 subscribers can add an extra layer of privacy by setting passwords for your Sways. This ensures that only people with the password can view your work presentations, school reports or travel journals.
Enjoy enhanced content limits
We received numerous requests to be able to put more text, photos and other content in your Sways. And our own data shows us that our Office 365 subscribers typically create longer and more robust Sways with higher amounts of videos, tweets and other embedded content. So we’ve worked to increase the content limits for Office 365 subscribers so you can create longer-form works with more multimedia to convey a richer story in the boardroom, the classroom or your home.
Remove the informational footer in Sway
Finally, we’re enabling all Office 365 subscribers to remove the informational footer at the end of your Sway to help you achieve a more polished look. You can now tap the Share icon and uncheck the Show Sway branding in this Sway checkbox to create a more professional look for your creations.
The Sway team is excited to provide ongoing value to our Office 365 subscribers and will continue adding new, exclusive Sway features over time. To learn more about monthly updates released across the Office apps for Office 365 subscribers, check out the New to Office 365 in June blog post.
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New to Office 365 in June: Microsoft Planner general availability, inking on Android devices, security features for Office 365 and more
June has been another busy month of updates across our Office apps on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. We reached new milestones for Microsoft Planner and GigJam. We are also introducing Office 365 Advanced Security Management, new datacenter regions and the next cumulative feature update to Office 2016.
Office inking works on more devices and apps
In January, we added new inking capabilities to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote on Windows desktops and iPad. This was another step forward in making writing and drawing with your finger, pen or stylus more intuitive and powerful as a primary input in Office apps. This month we expanded inking on Android devices beyond OneNote to Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Office Insiders. Inking is also now available in Word, Excel and PowerPoint on Windows Phones and is coming to iPhone next month.
Inking is now available in Office on Android tablets and phones.
We’re expanding Shape Recognition to Excel on Windows PCs and Excel for iPad, and it will arrive in Excel for iPhone with next month’s inking release. Shape Recognition transforms rough hand-drawn shapes to perfect looking shapes, which in Excel can be used to easily build attractive dashboards, create custom button links and more. Shape Recognition in PowerPoint will expand beyond PCs and iPad to also be available on iPhone next month. Shape Recognition for Word is coming soon.
For the desktop, we brought the Draw tab and instant inking to Visio for subscribers on Windows PCs. You can now easily annotate and draw your feedback on complex diagrams and process flows. We’re also addressing a top OneNote for Mac user request with a phased rollout of trackpad-based inking, plus support for third-party stylus- and pen-enabled drawing tablets and displays.
New Sway capabilities for Office 365 subscribers
Sway is a digital storytelling app that makes it easy and enjoyable to create and share visually striking presentations, newsletters, personal blogs and more. Sway became generally available last August, and since then we’ve been excited to see the creativity expressed in the millions of Sways made by professionals, students, personal bloggers and more. Now, beyond the free version of Sway, Office 365 consumer, work and education subscribers can create more robust, professional Sways and control sharing more granularly with these three new features:
•Password-protect your Sways—Control who can view your Sways by adding password protection. On top of organizational-level sharing for Office 365 work and school users, anyone with an Office 365 account can add password protection for extra security and peace of mind.
•Higher content limits—Create longer, more robust Sways containing more images, videos, graphics and more. This is great for longer-form content such as company trainings, student projects and travel reports.
•Remove end-of-Sway footer—To customize the appearance of your content even more, you can now remove the informational footer at the end of your Sways.
Office 365 subscribers can now create more robust Sways and add password protection.
Stay on top of your travel and deliveries with Outlook
We’re adding new experiences in Outlook to help you stay on top of your travel plans and package deliveries. Outlook already automatically adds events from your email to your calendar. Soon you’ll see simplified summary cards for those events in your inbox and calendar, highlighting the most important details. You’ll be able to take quick action to check in for flights, change hotel reservations and track packages. And you’ll get dependable and actionable reminders to stay on top of flight check-ins. These experiences have started rolling out to Outlook for Mac and Outlook on the web. They will be coming soon to Windows, iOS and Android, as well as the Windows 10 Mail and Calendar apps. Learn more about these new travel and delivery experiences.
Microsoft Planner is generally available
Microsoft Planner has started rolling out to all eligible Office 365 commercial customers worldwide. Planner introduces a new and improved way for businesses, schools and organizations to structure teamwork and get more done. Teams can create new plans; organize, assign and collaborate on tasks; set due dates; update statuses and share files—all while visual dashboards and email notifications help with progress tracking. Read more about Planner, including customer stories. Get started with Planner in a few easy steps.
GigJam Preview is now open to all
Earlier this month, we announced the broad availability of the GigJam Preview to everyone on Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad. GigJam is for people with a co-working mindset. It empowers you to spontaneously and ephemerally involve others in your work. Summon all the live information you need from across apps, then divvy it up by circling what you want to share and crossing out what you don’t. Control what others—inside or outside your organization—can see or even co-work on with you in real-time. Visit aka.ms/gigjam and the App Store to get started, and share feedback in UserVoice. We’ll continue to update GigJam based on your input. We’re targeting general availability as part of Office 365 for later this year.
New Deferred Channel build, Office 365 regions and security capabilities for commercial customers
This month we have a number of updates for our commercial subscribers that provide more flexibility, manageability and control for their organizations:
•New Deferred Channel build—The second Office 365 Deferred Channel build is now available. This build effectively combines the February Office 2016 release with the last four months of security updates. The Deferred Channel option reduces the frequency of feature changes to the Windows desktop apps and provides IT with extra time to validate add-ins, macros, custom line-of-business applications, etc. Learn more about what’s included in this month’s release in the Office 365 Client Release Notes.
•Office 365 datacenters in Canada and South Korea—Embrace a cloud-first world on your terms. A new Office 365 datacenter region is now generally available in Canada, offering in-country data residency, failover and disaster recovery for core data at rest to customers in Canada. We will also expand the Microsoft Cloud to include a datacenter region in South Korea. These new datacenter regions join a growing list that includes Japan, Australia and India, as well as recent announcements of expansions in the UK and Germany.
•Office 365 Advanced Security Management—Earlier this month, we introduced Advanced Security Management, a new set of capabilities powered by Microsoft Cloud App Security, to provide enhanced visibility and control over your Office 365 environment. Monitor security incidents and identify high-risk and abnormal usage with threat detection. Tailor Office 365 with granular controls and security policies. Gain visibility into Office 365 and other productivity cloud service usage with an app discovery dashboard.
Watch this episode of “From Inside the Cloud” for more details:
Learn more about what’s new for Office 365 subscribers this month at: Office 2016 | Office for Mac | Office Mobile for Windows | Office for iPhone and iPad | Office on Android. If you’re an Office 365 Home or Personal customer, be sure to sign up for Office Insider to be the first to use the latest in Office productivity. Commercial customers on both Current Channel and Deferred Channel can also get early access to a fully supported build through First Release. Thanks for your continued feedback and support!
The Skype team has been hard at work recently delivering new features to make sharing and collaborating across apps easier than ever. We’ve been working with them to bring Skype to OneDrive, and you can now log in to Skype directly at OneDrive.com. This will make it easier for you to stay connected by sending an instant message or having a video call while sharing a new photo album that you just created or while working together on a document. Your chat history will even stay connected to your document, so you always have what you need to stay productive. Learn more about all of the recent updates from the Skype Blog and head over to your OneDrive to check it out for yourself.
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) will do the previous experience of showing the next level of the hierarchy, and the split arrow icon (
) will perform the new inline hierarchy experience explained above. You will see this update in the Power BI web service as well.
