The past weeks have been eventful for Microsoft, from its AI efforts to its ongoing battle for its proposed Activision megadeal. It also recently released different Windows 11 features, giving Insiders new things to try within the OS, including new widgets for Messenger and Spotify. Here’s a quick summary of these stories along with other recent news.
EU Objections Details and Activision Merger Update
a recent report from political man It is learned that the European Union has finally issued its warning to Microsoft regarding the Activision deal. it was before informed of Last year. And now that the list has been handed over to the company, it should finally have a better idea of the specific measure points it will offer to appease the watchdog. While it seems the EU is open to concessions, the future of the merger is still hazy FTC and Sony Still doing our best to stop the deal. Sources in January Bloomberg It was learned that the US Antitrust Agency and the European Union had a call, with the latter expressing its intention to accept the concessions. The report suggested that the FTC filed its lawsuit hours after the call to express its disapproval of the said decision and prevent it from accepting the measures.
Meanwhile, Jim Ryan, chairman and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, reportedly met with EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager to discuss the merger. No details were given, but a few days later, Frank X Shaw, head of communications for Microsoft, addressed heard that Sony is telling Brussels officials that “Microsoft is unwilling to give them parity for Call of Duty if we get Activision.”
Currently, Microsoft reportedly Hope The Competition and Markets Authority is expected to oppose the deal though both UK and European regulators will accept the concessions.
ChatGPT powers Bing and other Microsoft products
OpenAI’s creations are now the biggest thing for Microsoft. Recently the company has launched it team premium The offering, which is said to be powered by ChatGPT, provides it with intelligent features. These AI Capabilities Extend to Microsoft as Well Viva Sales, which can now generate intelligent email responses covering different scenarios such as inquiry and proposal creation. This intelligent update is expected soon for Bing, which will reportedly use OpenAI’s GPT-4, Over the weekend, some users reported experiencing the new Bing version, which promptly disappeared. According to a Medium blog post by a user named owen yin, the aforementioned version of Bing he was able to access for a while, featured a chat box-looking search bar that encouraged users to “ask questions in a natural way.” The result will be in the form of chatbot conversational results and will cite sources at the bottom of the answer.
On the other hand, AI integration will not be unique to Bing in the future. China’s Baidu, Inc., a company specializing and investing heavily in AI and Internet services, is reportedly Plan To release your AI Chatbot service. The construction will be similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It will be as a standalone application and is expected to be gradually integrated into Baidu’s search engine.
This week, Google is also expected to add some new AI capabilities to its search engine. will organize an event on Wednesday in Paris, and it is speculated that it will unveil new AI features for Google. This is yet to be confirmed, but considering the existence of ChatGPT as a threat to Google, it is not impossible. And if this is true, it could have an adverse effect on ChatGPT’s attractiveness on Bing. However, will this technology from Google be enough to challenge the current power of the famous ChatGPT?
More Microsoft ads in the future
you may encounter more ads future within the Microsoft ecosystem. Other than this features It’s now testing with Insiders that will suggest actions to Windows users, with the company rolling out its Microsoft Store ads to developers who want to promote their ads. Various Windows 10 users too informed of Recently receiving tempting ads for Microsoft 365 trial and Windows 11 upgrade.
The company is also encouraging users to get KB5021751 Update, that will count the number of older Office version users. Although the company promises that the update will not change or install, this action hints at the possibility that the company is assessing the size of the population it needs to promote the latest version of Office or Microsoft 365 products.
price hike
increase The price of Xbox products has now been confirmed in Japan. The Xbox Series X will go up in price from $422 to $460, while the Xbox Series S will go from $248 to $292. These changes will go into effect on February 17 and could be the start of other Xbox price hikes in other regions, including Western markets.
Microsoft 365 and OneDrive integration on ChromeOS
Google announced It will introduce a new Microsoft 365 and OneDrive integration on ChromeOS “later this year.” It will remove friction in accessing Microsoft 365 and OneDrive using a Chromebook by providing users with more convenient app installation and access to their Chromebook files while using OneDrive.
New Age and Windows 11 Features
Microsoft has recently been testing some new Windows 11 features across different channels. One of the most prominent features that Insiders can now try out is towing capacity File Explorer tabs to open a new window and drag them between windows. In the past weeks, Microsoft also introduced new widgets for Spotify, phone linkAnd messenger,
For Edge, there’s Microsoft working On a new feature that will help users determine the strength of their passwords as they type on Edge. on that dev 111.0.1660.0 releaseThe company also introduced a new capability that allows users to move all tabs to a new workspace.