Microsoft on IT News

Microsoft is quietly replacing OpenAI with its own AI in Excel and Outlook

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Every week, tens of thousands of AI prompts inside Excel and Outlook are now handled by Microsoft’s in-house MAI model — not by OpenAI’s GPT or Anthropic’s Claude, according to Bloomberg.

That’s still a small fraction of Microsoft’s total AI usage across its products. But it signals a deliberate long-term shift. Over the past year, Microsoft has relied on its deep partnership with OpenAI to power most Copilot features at discounted rates. That arrangement is becoming less comfortable, and Mustafa Suleyman — the company’s AI chief — is building a Plan B.

How Attackers Turned Microsoft's Own Login Pages Into Phishing Bait

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0800

There’s a kind of phishing that’s nearly impossible to spot at first glance — because you’re logging into the real website. Kaspersky researchers have documented a campaign that weaponized Microsoft’s own identity platform, tricking victims into completing a legitimate OAuth authentication flow on microsoft.com while attackers pocketed the access tokens behind the scenes.

Microsoft cuts 3,200 Xbox jobs as Game Pass stalls at 30 million subscribers

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Microsoft is cutting roughly 3,200 jobs from its Xbox division — about one in five employees — as the gaming unit’s bet on Game Pass fails to deliver at the scale the company anticipated. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced the layoffs in an internal memo this week, with 1,600 employees being let go immediately and another 1,600 through the rest of the new fiscal year.

Microsoft Just Added AV1 GPU Encoding to Mesa via DX12 — and It's Built for WSL

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Microsoft has been steadily deepening its investment in the Mesa graphics driver stack, and the latest patch — merged into Mesa 26.2 overnight — is one of the most technically interesting yet.

Microsoft is Spending $2.5 Billion on a Company That Helps Businesses Make AI Actually Work

Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Microsoft announced Tuesday it’s spinning up a new operating unit called Microsoft Frontier Company, backed with an initial $2.5 billion investment. The goal: help enterprises like Unilever and Novo Nordisk figure out which AI tools actually work for their business — and then make them pay off.

Microsoft Teams is getting an AI that quietly answers your unanswered meeting questions

Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0800

IT-NEWS, July 2 — We have all been in that meeting. Someone asks a question. The presenter starts to answer, gets interrupted, and the thread is never picked up again. Microsoft’s answer to this is an AI called Facilitator, headed for Teams next month.

Facilitator listens to the conversation, flags questions that went unanswered or statements that sound uncertain, and surfaces relevant information in the meeting chat. It does not speak out loud, and it is disabled by default.

Microsoft kills Surface Go and Surface Laptop Go with no replacements planned

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Microsoft has stopped making its budget Surface devices — the Surface Go tablet and Surface Laptop Go — and there are no replacements in the pipeline, according to people familiar with the company’s hardware plans.

Microsoft pauses new third-party Game Pass deals amid Xbox restructuring

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Microsoft has stopped signing new third-party Game Pass deals. The move comes as Xbox undergoes a broader restructuring under recently-appointed leadership, and it’s unclear whether the company will reopen its budget for outside publishing partnerships.

Mac Users Rally to Defend Microsoft Edge: 'It's Actually Better Than Chrome'

Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

An X user posted a screenshot of Microsoft Edge’s Mac download page last week with a simple question: “What kind of weirdo would use Edge on a Mac?” The post racked up over 380,000 views. But instead of piling on with the usual Microsoft mockery, the replies took a sharp turn — Mac users started defending the browser.

NYT Lawsuit Takes Aim at Microsoft's Custom Supercomputer Built for OpenAI Training

Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

The New York Times has updated its copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, this time training its sights on a custom supercomputer that Microsoft allegedly built specifically to scrape web content for AI training.

The case, first filed in December 2023, made the Times the first major publisher to sue a generative AI company. The original complaint centered on OpenAI, accusing the company of using copyrighted Times articles to train ChatGPT without permission and reproducing protected content in the model’s output — undermining the value of a paid subscription.

Nearly 400 US Newspapers File Joint Lawsuit Against OpenAI and Microsoft Over AI Training Data Scraping

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:37:00 +0800

A coalition representing nearly 400 US newspapers has filed a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging the companies systematically scraped news content without authorization to train their artificial intelligence models.

Microsoft PowerToys to Add New AltWindowCycle Module for Switching Between Windows of the Same App

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 11:36:00 +0800

Microsoft plans to introduce a new AltWindowCycle module in PowerToys that will allow Windows 10 and Windows 11 users to quickly switch between multiple windows of the same application, similar to how Alt + Tab works but scoped to the current program only.

Microsoft Announces Global Xbox Series X|S Price Hike Starting August 1 — 512GB Up $100, 2TB Model Discontinued

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:55:00 +0800

Microsoft has officially announced a global price increase for the Xbox Series X|S lineup, effective August 1, 2026, alongside the discontinuation of the 2TB storage variant.

Microsoft Extends Windows 10 ESU to 2027, Giving Consumers an Extra Year of Security Updates

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:15:00 +0800

Microsoft has quietly extended its Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for personal users, pushing the cutoff date from October 13, 2026 to October 12, 2027 — a full year of additional security coverage for those still running the legacy operating system.

Qualcomm Predicts $150 Billion Data Center Chip Revenue by 2029, Secures Microsoft and Meta Orders

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 07:33:00 +0800

Qualcomm has announced that its data center business is on track to generate $150 billion in revenue by 2029, as the chipmaker aggressively expands beyond its core smartphone chip business. The news sent Qualcomm shares up more than 12% in after-hours trading.

Microsoft's 2011 Secure Boot Certificates Begin Expiring — What It Means for Windows Users

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 18:00:00 +0800

Microsoft’s three core certificates underpinning the Windows Secure Boot mechanism are entering their expiration phase, with the first certificate reaching end-of-life on June 24, 2026. These certificates, issued in 2011, have served as the trust anchors for verifying the digital signatures of every firmware and software component during the PC boot process. The transition requires migrating the trust chain in system firmware from the 2011-era certificates to a new set issued in 2023.

Windows 11 Build 29613 Overhauls Audio Settings with Live Volume Meters and Streamlined Device Switching

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 05:20:00 +0800

Microsoft is refining the audio experience in Windows 11 with a series of thoughtful improvements in Build 29613.1000, spotted by Windows Central. The update reworks the “All sound devices” settings panel to make everyday audio management faster and more intuitive.