The giant MICROSOFT has avoided billions in taxes in Britain, Australia and New Zealand, all countries where it has lucrative public sector contracts, because of its complex corporate structure which uses Irish subsidiaries, a study published today claimed.

Microsoft's SwiftKey keyboard for iOS has been sitting without updates for more than a year, stirring conspiracy theories about the app turning into abandonware. These theories are now official: Microsoft will remove SwiftKey for iOS from the App Store as soon as October 5.

A new survey from the tech giant suggests workers and bosses disagree about productivity.

Windows 11 was released last year, and now Microsoft has pushed out the first somewhat sizable update for the desktop operating system. The upgrades are helpful yet relatively small compared to some of the big OS changes Microsoft has made in the past. It seems Microsoft didn’t feel like it had all that much to improve on, considering that chief product officer Panos Panay called Windows 11 "the most used and most loved version of Windows ever” in this week’s announcement.

Microsoft has registered a new Gears of War trademark related to video games. This could suggest they plan on a new game in the series. Gears of War title was changed to Gears beginning with the 5th entry in the series. It was named Gears 5 marking a name change for the series. However, based on the new trademark, Microsoft might go back to using Gears of War as the game name going forward.

Mozilla has implied that tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple use their dominant position in the market to limit, steer, and influence consumer choice, especially regarding web browsers.

“It’s taken a long time for us to learn from our mistakes," said Sarah Bond, Xbox corporate vice president of game creator experience and ecosystem.

Microsoft has made some major changes to the way Xbox DRM operates allowing users without any internet to play their games offline. Previously, it was simply not possible to play games like the one that came with Smart Delivery without having the Xbox connected online. In the case of discs, they were required to be checked online for verification before they could be booted, while the ones with Smart Delivery would require the user to download the Xbox Series X version by inserting the disc into their consoles.

Microsoft is present at the Tokyo Game Show 2022 including the head of Xbox Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond, VP of gaming at Microsoft. Since this year appears to be focused on Xbox’s presence at the Tokyo Game Show 2022, Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond were interviewed by several Japanese outlets including IGN Japan. During a live stream Q/A session by IGN Japan, Sarah Bond was asked to reveal if there is an exclusive game from a Japanese studio in development for Xbox.

Microsoft Teams stores authentication tokens in unencrypted plaintext mode, allowing attackers to potentially control communications within an organization, according to the security firm Vectra. The flaw affects the desktop app for Windows, Mac and Linux built using Microsoft's Electron framework. Microsoft is aware of the issue but said it has no plans for a fix anytime soon, since an exploit would also require network access.

After years of controversy, Microsoft’s HoloLens project just got a first order from the U.S. military. Bloomberg reported Thursday that Microsoft would deliver the initial units of its Integrated Visual Augmentation System (or IVAS) goggles to the military after “encouraging results” from field testing. The goggles, which provide a heads-up display and night vision capabilities for soldiers in the field, are based on modifications to Microsoft’s existing HoloLens augmented reality technology.

Logitech’s new cloud gaming handheld has leaked weeks after the company teased it was working on the new device. Logitech G and Tencent Games confirmed their plans for a dedicated handheld earlier this month, and now Evan Blass has tweeted pictures of the handheld which reveal access to the Google Play store, alongside support for Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia’s GeForce Now service.

Microsoft’s emoji are now available free on GitHub and Figma.

In the ’90s, Microsoft created a cartoon paperclip that it quickly retired. Its developers never imagined the virtual assistant would become a cultural icon.

Update: Sony had “no involvement” with Death Stranding’s release on PC Game Pass, despite the platform holder owning the intellectual property and funding the development of the title. “Matters relating to the PC release of Death Stranding are managed by Kojima Productions and 505 Games,” a spokesperson told us. “SIE has no involvement in this promotion.”

Microsoft officially responded to Sony’s opposition to its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, arguing that only Sony has concerns in this area. The Xbox maker said Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) asked Amazon, Apple, Google, Ubisoft, Riot Games and Sony about the acquisition, and only Sony raised concerns.

A new Xbox Game Pass plan goes into testing today.

Some Xbox Series S games will get a performance boost.

Microsoft is defending its $68 billion bid to buy Activision Blizzard by arguing that the studio doesn't make any "must have" games. In a response(opens in new tab) to the New Zealand Commerce Commission (thanks, RPS(opens in new tab)), Microsoft brushed off anti-competition concerns by saying, essentially, that Activision Blizzard doesn't have any killer apps that might prevent competition from the company's rivals.

Discord and Microsoft are bringing Discord voice calls to the Xbox. The feature, available now to Xbox Insiders and coming soon to the rest of us, will allow users to connect to Discord voice chats from their Xbox, facilitating all kinds of cross-platform play shenanigans.