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Recapping Microsoft's 2021 Ignite announcements.

Microsoft Ignite 2021

Paul Thurrott's Short Takes: Microsoft Ignite 2021 Special Edition
Microsoft shows off its Mesh mixed-reality collaboration platform
Microsoft Announces its Mesh MR Platform - Thurrott.com
Envisioning the Future with Windows Mixed Reality
Panay Touts "the Next Generation of Windows"
Guide to Microsoft Ignite 2021 for the Windows Enthusiast
Microsoft shares more on what's coming in Windows Server 2022
Power Automate Desktop App for Windows 10 is Now Available
Microsoft Ignite 2021 Book of News


Windows 10

Windows 10 Version 20H2 Pushes Past 20 Percent Usage Share


Hardware

Qualcomm Launches the Snapdragon Insider Program
HP's PC Business Surged in the Most Recent Quarter


Xbox

Halo Infinite a "Spiritual Reboot" of the Series, Microsoft Says
Xbox Suffered a Big Outage Last Night
Here Are the First Titles Coming to Xbox Game Pass in March


Tips and picks

Tip of the week: When it comes to content, where is as important as what
App pick of the week: Flutter 2
Enterprise pick of the week: Azure Deprecations: How to keep up
Codename pick of the week: The Walking Cat's collection of Mesh-related codenames
Beer pick of the week: Foam Brewers Zero Day

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Updating Windows, Microsoft Ignite, and Power Fx

Microsoft Office

Microsoft announces two new Office updates for 2021:
Office LTSC
Office 2021 for commercial and consumer customers


Windows 10

Microsoft is cutting Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC support from ten years to five
Microsoft Brings Another FEP to the Windows Insider Beta Channel
Microsoft to talk about the future of mixed reality' at Ignite conference next week


Power Platform

Microsoft readies Power Fx, a new Power Platform low-code language
Too late; P# already exists


Surface

Microsoft is Selling Replacement SSDs for Surface Pro 7+


Microsoft

Microsoft Concludes Its SolarWinds Investigation
Microsoft Calls for Australian-Style Media Arbitration in EU
Microsoft unveils three more 'industry clouds' for financial, manufacturing and nonprofit


Xbox

Microsoft Announces Games for Gold for March
Fall Guys Lands on Xbox This Summer
Sony is Bringing VR to PlayStation 5
Sony is Bringing PlayStation Games to the PC


Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Buy cereal, get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
App pick of the week: Tiles 2.0
Developer pick of the week: .NET Conf Focus on Windows
Enterprise pick of the week: Automatically translate Word docs into PowerPoints
Beer pick of the week: Delirium Black Barrel Aged

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

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Windows 10 21H1, Intel vs. Apple, Microsoft may buy Pinterest

Windows 10

Microsoft finally confirms Windows 10 version 21H1, stating that it will be a minor cumulative update like 2004 and 20H2.
Yes, 21H1 is a Thing!
New Windows Insider Build Adds a Few Minor Improvements
Intel Takes on Apple M1 with New Series of "Go PC" Ads


Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge Now Uses Adaptive Notifications
Microsoft to add 'Kids Mode' to Chromium-based Edge browser


Microsoft 365

Microsoft's unified Office app is now available for iPad
Why did it take a year for Microsoft to bring Office app to iPad?


Surface

Surface Duo Drops to $999, Heads to the UK


More Microsoft

Why does Microsoft keep trying to buy its way into the consumer market?
Microsoft Collaborates with VW on Automated Driving Platform


Xbox

Microsoft Announces the Xbox Wireless Headset
Microsoft Brings FPS Boost to Backward Compatible Games
Xbox Cloud Gaming for the PC Moves Closer Towards Release
Here are the Next Titles Coming to Game Pass This Month
Flight Simulator Update Brings Enhanced Visuals for the UK and Ireland


Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Pay for what matters
App pick of the week: LastPass
Dev pick of the week: Dapr 1.0
Codename pick of the week: Atlas
Beer pick of the week: Maine Second Dinner

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsors:
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Windows 10

Microsoft details its legacy Edge browser phase-out strategy
Windows 10 Version 2004 is Finally Reliable Enough for Everyone


Microsoft 365

Microsoft outlines plans for Viva, an employee-experience platform anchored in Teams
Microsoft Adds Two New Power Apps to Teams
Microsoft to add new webinar and 'meeting intelligence' capabilities to Teams via Teams Pro
Microsoft is Testing a New Dark Mode for Word


More Microsoft

Intel Sues Engineer Who Left for Microsoft


Xbox

Minecraft Dungeons Now Reaches 10 Million Players
Forza Horizon 4 is Coming to Steam on March 9


Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Use your Xbox Wireless Controller with two devices
Learning pick of the week: Learn iOS development from Stanford
Dev pick of the week: Updated WinUI roadmap on GitHub
Codename pick of the week: SurfaceFleet
Valentine's Day cocktail: Sparkling Sangria

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsors:
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Comparing Microsoft earnings to other big tech companies

Windows 10

Microsoft Edge picks up a better roadmap for future features
Windows 10 "in cloud" configurations are now available
Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365/Teams saw big education success but struggle against Chromebooks
Related: It's not just PCs, 2020 Was the Best Year Ever for Chromebook
Microsoft to highlight improvements to the 'employee experience' in Feb. 4 event
Microsoft to add new voice command, video, and other features to Office mobile apps
Microsoft Announces a Slew of Mobile App Updates
Office Lens is Renamed to Microsoft Lens
Xbox

Game Pass titles for the first half of February
Now Xbox Series X|S supplies will be constrained through mid-2021
Sony shipped 4.5 million PS5 units in Q4, less than the 6 million expected, but Sony's best quarter ever
Nintendo has now shipped 80 million Switches
Google kills internal games dev at Stadia
More earnings

Microsoft - $43.1 billion in revenues
Amazon - $126 billion
Apple - $111.4 billion
Google - $56.9 billion
Samsung - $55.3 billion
Microsoft underperformed all of those companies last quarter
Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Use some common sense when it comes to game streaming services
App pick of the week: iCloud Passwords
Also: Vivaldi adds a second tab row for tab groups.
Enterprise pick of the week: Roadmapwatch.com
Codename pick of the week: JET Blue
Beer pick of the week: The Bruery: Bakery: Coconut Macaroons

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsor:
barracuda.com/windows

Microsoft Q2 Earnings Report

Microsoft reported a net income of $15.5 billion on revenues of $43.1 billion for the quarter ending December 31, 2020.
Pre-COVID spending levels are coming back, leading to Azure, Windows growth
Xbox had a huge quarter
Surface was pretty flat, Windows was mixed
Related: New Surface ad is a bit disingenuous
Related: Intel had a huge quarter


It happens in threes

Kurt DelBene is retiring from Microsoft.
Plus: Rich Turner is joining Project Reunion.


Windows

Windows Insider Program shows off a second Feature Experience Pack.
You can install that leaked Windows 10X build on a Surface Pro 7 if you're daring and technical enough
Another new Dev Channel build today with not much in it (besides some touch keyboard tweaks)


Web browsers

Edge 88: This is the big one, 'Lizabeth. One year later, Edge is finally "complete" and mature.
Chrome 88 is out with password improvements, and Chrome OS 88 is out with sign-in, lock screen improvements
Microsoft Edge now supports profiles in PWAs
And Google Calendar gets basic offline support (again)
YouTube is now a PWA
Mozilla is killing the Firefox PWA feature


Xbox

Microsoft Backtracks, Xbox Live Gold Pricing Won't Change
5 more titles are coming to Xbox Game Pass this month


Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Get your free audiobooks on Spotify
App pick of the week: Microsoft Edge & Brave Browser
Enterprise pick of the week: New Dynamics 365 and Power Platform feature plans are available now
Enterprise pick of the week: IT Ops: All Things Hybrid
Beer pick of the week: S'mores Bourbon Barrel-Aged Framinghammer

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsors:
udacity.com/twit coupon code TWiT
business.eset.com/twit
WWT.COM/TWIT