Tech News

GitHub Coders to Microsoft: Cut Ties With ICE or We’ll ‘Take Our Projects Elsewhere’ 

More than five dozen Github contributors on Thursday signed a letter threatening to abandon the website unless Microsoft canceled its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contract. Microsoft, which acquired GitHub, the internet’s largest source code repository, for $7.5 billion earlier this month, is one of several tech companies facing heat for its work on behalf … Continued

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It Turns out All Kinds of Tech Companies Are Working With ICE

Days after Microsoft came under intense scrutiny for working with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a report from NBC News revealed that a number of major tech firms have been raking in millions of dollars from the government agency that has, under the advisement of the Trump administration, taken to stripping children from their … Continued

Tech NewsMicrosoft

Microsoft CEO Downplays ICE Contract in Email to Employees

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella downplayed his company’s work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a company-wide email sent this evening, saying that Microsoft’s contract with ICE deals only with email, calendar, and messaging—not with separating children from their parents. Tensions within the technology firm reached a boiling point on Tuesday amid national outrage over … Continued

Tech NewsMicrosoft

Microsoft Employees Pressure Leadership to Cancel ICE Contract

Microsoft employees are putting pressure on their management to cancel a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of a backlash against the agency’s policy of separating children from their families at the U.S. border. In an open letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sent today, employees demanded that the company cancel its $19.4 … Continued

Tech NewsMicrosoft

Microsoft Employees Up in Arms Over Cloud Contract With ICE

Tensions are high within Microsoft, as new scrutiny is given to a partnership between the company’s Azure Government cloud computing arm and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to several Microsoft employees who spoke to Gizmodo on the condition of anonymity. Two were considering leaving the company based on the response. The partnership was … Continued

io9Games

Fortnite Is Bad But Sony’s Refusal to Play Nice Is Worse

Earlier this week, Nintendo delighted Fortnite fans by announcing that the game, which might just be the most popular game being played right now, was coming to the Switch immediately. Even better, Switch players would be able to compete with PC and Xbox players, too—instant digital distribution and multiplayer open to all! Nintendo’s announcement felt … Continued

Tech NewsMicrosoft

Microsoft Reportedly in Talks With Walmart to Build Checkout-Free Stores Like Amazon Go

Even though there’s only one Amazon Go location so far, it seems the existence of Amazon’s cashier-less, checkout-free convenience store has left some of the company’s biggest competitors wondering how they, too, can get in on futuristic retail. According to Reuters, Microsoft is now working on tech that would allow retailers to build checkout-free stores. … Continued

Tech NewsGoogle

Google Is Maybe Kinda Trying to Get the Pixelbook Windows 10 Certified

Google’s laptop-tablet hybrid Pixelbook has been given high praise by critics and users for its functionality and design, but the device suffers from one critical flaw: It runs Chrome OS, Google’s own, underpowered operating system. New reports suggest that may change soon, as Google is supposedly exploring the possibility of getting the Pixelbook certified to … Continued

Tech NewsMicrosoft

More Surface Devices Are Reportedly Coming, and They’ve Got Cool Codenames

An update to Microsoft’s well-received line of Surface devices is no doubt already in the works, but news from Thurrott’s Brad Sams suggests we may see more than a few additions to the lineup as a whole. And if the showcase from Microsoft’s competition is any indication, one of them, a second attempt at a … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

Microsoft’s Super-Accessible Adaptive Controller Will Be Good For Cheaters, Too

The Microsoft Adaptive Controller might look like a drum machine, but it’s intended to be used by people with disabilities who cannot comfortably use the Xbox controllers currently available. However, the new controller could be a boon for cheaters, too. That’s because the enormous controller has 19 different 3.5mm ports on the back, each of … Continued

Tech NewsMicrosoft

Update Your PC Now to Fix This Pesky Cortana Security Flaw

Cortana, like all digital assistants, is supposed to make life easier by organizing your data and presenting you with helpful information when you need it. Unfortunately, that inclination to be useful can also pose a security risk, as McAfee found when it discovered a bug in Windows 10 that let hackers use Cortana to gain … Continued

io9Games

What We Learned About The Future of Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft’s Game Consoles From E3

E3 2018 is here, and companies have already announced more games than you can shake a Joy-Con at. But what about consoles? The last few years have seen E3 inundated with either rumors or news about new consoles from the big three. This year’s gaming expo has been a touch on the lighter side when … Continued

Tech NewsMicrosoft

Microsoft’s Newest Data Center Is a Giant Metal Can at the Bottom of the Sea

Most data centers are hidden away inside faceless warehouses and sport massive rows of computers and giant air conditioning units to keep things cool. But apparently that’s not good enough for Microsoft, so for its newest data center, the company crammed 12 racks of servers into a bus-sized metal cylinder, and then sank it off … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

One of the Coolest Gaming Monitor Features Is Finally Coming to TVs

Samsung TVs just got a little more admirable. AMD announced that its FreeSync technology, previously only available for gaming monitors, is coming to Samsung’s 2018 QLED televisions. This means all your games played on the latest-generation Xboxes, or on a PC with an AMD GPU, should look a whole heckuva lot smoother. FreeSync, like Nvidia’s … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

Qualcomm Teases Its First Chip Built Just for Laptops

In early 2018, the first Windows 10 laptops sporting Qualcomm CPUs hit the market, and with it, Qualcomm brought a more smartphone-like experience to the PC world. That was thanks to superior battery life and always-on LTE connectivity. Unfortunately, because these Windows on Snapdragon devices were stuck using the Snapdragon 835, an outdated processor from … Continued

Tech NewsMicrosoft

Your Xbox One May Soon Double as an Amazon Echo or Google Home

Microsoft is opening the door to more digital assistants you can chat with on your Xbox One, according to a report from Windows Central. That means the day may come when you can swap Cortana for Alexa, or tell Google to get your pad ready for game night through your console. The apparent evidence for … Continued

Tech NewsMicrosoft

Microsoft Buys GitHub, and Some People Are Pissed

Microsoft is officially buying Github, the internet’s largest source code repository, for a cool $7.5 billion in stock, with Microsoft VP Nat Friedman assuming the role of GitHub’s CEO. The acquisition isn’t without its detractors, who say they are already ditching GitHub and looking elsewhere. Concern over GitHub’s management in the future, along with Microsoft’s … Continued

Tech NewsMicrosoft

Microsoft Reportedly Set to Acquire GitHub, Deal Could Happen Monday

Microsoft has reportedly agreed to acquire code repository GitHub, according to Bloomberg. The apparent deal, which neither company has publicly confirmed, could happen as soon as Monday. Terms of the deal are still unknown. Microsoft’s apparent interest in GitHub was first raised Friday by Business Insider, and things appear to have escalated mighty quickly from … Continued

Tech NewsMicrosoft

Microsoft Bought an AI Startup to Help Cortana Sound Less Robotic

At Google I/O 2018, Google announced that its digital assistant was getting upgraded with more natural-sounding speech in addition to six new alternate voices. Then, Google promptly scared the hell out of everyone by using the Google Assistant’s new skills to mimic a real voice so well, people on the other end of a phone … Continued

io9Games

Microsoft’s Controller for Gamers With Limited Mobility Comes with 19 3.5mm Jacks 

Aside from whatever motion-control tech Nintendo has tried to push, game controllers haven’t actually changed much over the last 15 years. And for a lot of people, that’s been a good thing, as it makes transferring years of hand-eye coordination from one console to another pretty seamless. But for gamers with disabilities, the standard gamepad … Continued