Microsoft news recap is a weekly feature highlighting the top Microsoft news stories of the past week. Sit back, grab some coffee, and enjoy the read!
Microsoft to ship new first-party game on Xbox Game Pass every quarter as momentum grows
In an effort to continue the growth of its game subscription service, Xbox Game Pass is set to gain a new first-party game every quarter, helping continually increase the number of first-party games on the service.
Microsoft reveals big Xbox Cloud Gaming expansion with new devices, platforms, and server upgrades
Microsoft looks to be all-in on its game streaming platform, with some large announcements being made for Xbox Cloud Gaming this week. For starters, Microsoft has provided an update on its backend upgrade to Xbox Cloud Gaming, saying that its upgrade to Xbox Series X hardware is nearly complete. Aside from upgrades, Microsoft is also set to launch new devices for Xbox Cloud Gaming, including a TV stick, as well as partnering with smart TV manufacturers to bring Xbox Cloud Gaming and Game Pass to smart TVs.
OneDrive for Mac to add support for M1-based Macs later this year
Microsoft has announced that, later this year, OneDrive for Mac will run natively on M1-based Macs. Alongside this update, OneDrive for Mac will also gain performance improvements on both Intel and M1-based Macs.
Microsoft’s three ‘Experience Centers’ reopen July 1st for in-store experiences
Microsoft is aiming to reopen its Experience Centers from July 1st, aiming to provide a more interactive experience for customers, as the company pulls away from its more traditional retail stores.
This week in Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams meetings to roll out Live Transcription with speaker attribution to more customers
Microsoft’s AI-powered live transcription with speaker attribution feature is currently available to select enterprise subscribers, however, it is due to be expanded to reach a wider number of subscribers later this month.
Microsoft Teams adds option to create Planner and To Do tasks from chats or channel posts
It is now possible to create Planner and To Do tasks from within chats and channel posts. This removes the need for copying and pasting to manually create a task, creating a more unified workflow.
Microsoft Teams phones get Live Captions support and more usability improvements
In their June 2021 update, Microsoft Teams phones have gained a couple of new features, as well as general usability improvements. Firstly, Teams phones now have support for Live Captions, whilst they have also gained the background replacement feature, for video-enabled phones.
Microsoft Teams rolls out new reporting dashboard for meetings and webinars
A new reporting dashboard for meetings and webinars is rolling out. The new dashboard provides insights and data in a dedicated tab, removing the need for downloading of CSV files.
Microsoft Teams for iOS adds webinars support and simplifies meetings invites
The iOS app for Microsoft Teams has added support for webinars, whilst also making it so that all meetings are online by default.
That’s it for this week. We will be back next week with more Microsoft news.
