Monthly Archives: May 2020

Consumer Reports has analyzed the privacy policies of Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and WebEx and discovered that they may be collecting more data than many people realize.

To be clear: Consumer Reports isnt saying that these apps are unsafe to use. (Indeed, a separate Mozilla report found that nearly every major videoconferencing app meets basic security standards.) But by agreeing to the privacy policies of these services, you are giving companies like Google and Microsoft access to plenty of personal data. According to the report, all three companies reserve the right to collect information from your calls, including how long a call lasts, whos participating in the call, and the IP addresses of everyone taking part.

As the world has become more reliant on videoconferencing tools, people have also started to scrutinize the security measures and privacy policies of these services. And while not as alarming as the security holes in Zoom that came to light in April, leading to a host of Zoombombing and other concerns, its still worth being aware of the data that Microsoft, Google, and Cisco can collect.

None of the companies mentioned go into specific details on what kind of data is actually being collected or how its being used. Consumer Reports does note that the data collected here could be combined with information from other sources to create personal profiles on users and their use habits, or even potentially use videos for things like training facial recognition systems.

All three companies told Consumer Reports that they only create video recordings or transcripts when participants request them by recording the meetings and promised that the recordings arent directly used for advertising.

Continued here:

Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and WebEx are collecting more customer data than they appear to be - The Verge

Instead of being in Las Vegas on April 23 for the 2020 NFL Draft, Commissioner Roger Goodell read the picks from a studio in his home basement. (Microsoft Photo)

Its one thing to hope that your video chat for a virtual work happy hour connects seamlessly. Its quite another for a professional football team to rely on the technology to select what it hopes will be its next franchise-defining player.

But thats what 32 teams did last week when they used Microsoft Teams, the tech giants collaboration platform, as part of the first-ever virtual NFL Draft.

It was a high-stakes moment for Microsoft. The company is going up against Cisco Webex, Zoom, Google Meet, Slack (whose CEO disputes any talk of competition) and others in the fiercely competitive market for communication and collaboration technology one of the fastest-growing technology product categories due to the sudden rise of remote work. A headline-making glitch could have given many IT decision-makers second thoughts.

An early run-through of the draft, a mock exercise designed to test the technology, was reportedly plagued by bandwidth problems, but those tests must have served their purpose. CNBC reported after the first night that there were no discernible glitches or delays in the draft process. Reuters concurred that the draft went off without any major hitches, but also pointed out a shortcoming of technology observing that social distancing gave the entire evening a detached sterile feel in contrast with the NFL Drafts customary glitz and glamour.

Microsoft has supplied Surface tablets as sideline technology since 2013 under a deal with the NFL. The company and league said they would do more to integrate Teams as part of an extension of the alliance earlier this year.

Over the course of the three-day draft a highly anticipated event for sports-starved fans during the COVID-19 pandemic Microsoft Teams was used to enable communication between the NFL and its clubs looking to make player selections.

Microsoft was just one company whose technology was used to pull off the event. Amazon Web Services provided hosting and video feed management; Verizon provided phones and connectivity for remote locations; and Bose provided headphones to all participants.

Yusuf Mehdi is a big NFL fan who happens to be a corporate vice president for Modern Life, Search and Devices at Microsoft. In a Teams call this week, he sported a Seattle Seahawks shirt as he switched his background to an image of the teams home, CenturyLink Field.

Mehdi watched the draft with his two sons and said he enjoyed the escape from the heaviness of the ongoing health crisis. He wasnt alone. The NFL established new viewership records for the event, with an average audience of over 8.4 million viewers watching all three days.

Without naming Zoom, he alluded to the rivals recent security challenges as he described one of Microsofts big selling points.

With a lot of these video conferencing solutions, youve heard critiques and cases where people drop in accidentally to other peoples calls, he said, noting that Microsoft has an edge on the security front because of the fact that we run it for so many enterprise accounts.

Other keys for the NFL Draft were ease of use and a broad feature set that includes video calls and text chat in channels. Mehdi said each NFL team was able to have a private channel to communicate among themselves and with the NFL. A special form was used to make selections, and it was timestamped to make sure everything adhered to the on the clock nature of the draft.

In its own blog post about the behind-the-scenes activity, Microsoft said a tool called Power Automate would automatically post the selection on the private Head Table channel and simultaneously relay it to Commissioner Roger Goodells Surface tablet so the pick could be transferred to a paper card and announced for the TV audience.

Its all a new wrinkle for a sports world in which Surface tablets have become as familiar on the sidelines as some of the coaches and players who use the devices whether theyre tossing them on the ground or swiping through plays in unique ways.

We want to be a part of the game Mehdi said. We dont want to be like a banner thats up on a stadium wall. We want our tech to be so emotional that people grab it and use it.

Mehdi is optimistic and hopeful that the NFL will be back in action, not just virtually, later this year, with Microsofts technology back on the sidelines. But building on the momentum of the virtual draft, he says the company is ready to help however it can.

They made all these draft picks, now they have to help get all these players on board and say, OK, what are our plays? How do we come together?' Mehdi said. The ability for our technology to help with that, whether its the Surface device or Teams or anything else, were going to play a big role.

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Inside the NFL Draft: How Microsoft pulled off a win at a turning point for collaboration tech - GeekWire

Microsoft last night issued what it believes will be the final build of Windows 10 version 2004, ending months of pre-release improvements.

We are releasing build 19041.208 to Windows Insiders in the Release Preview ring, an updated version of the Microsoft announcement notes. While we originally thought that build 19041.207 would be the final build, we made the decision to take in one more fix we felt was important to have before making the May 2020 Update generally available. We believe that build 19041.208 is the new final build and still plan on continuing to improve the overall experience of the May 2020 Update on customers PCs as part of our normal servicing cadence.

As you may know, Microsoft finalized Windows 10 version 2004 back in December from a functional perspective, but its updated this release numerous times since then as it made its way, very slowly, from the Fast ring to the Slow ring to, finally, the Release Preview ring. Those updates take the form of cumulative updates (CUs), so they require a reboot, just contain fixes, and do not add additional features.

This latest build will only be pushed to a subset of those testing Windows 10 in the Release Preview ring because who the hell knows why, this never makes sense. But anyone running any build of Windows 10 version 2004 (who is not in Release Preview, apparently) can simply check for updates in Windows Update and initiate the install manually. Because, again, whatever.

Oddly, this final build still arrives with a list of known issues. Theres a problem with Windows Mixed Reality that could impact dozens of users, a problem with the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool that Microsoft says will be fixed in an upcoming servicing release (whatever that means; CU or feature update, why be clear), and some app interoperability issues with the Input Method Editor (IME).

Anyway, this slight misstep doesnt seem to change our latest guess at the initial public release of Windows 10 version 2004, which will be delivered via a feature update called the May 2020 Update, on Patch Tuesday, May 12, 2020. I guess well see.

Read more from the original source:

Microsoft Issues Final Build of Windows 10 Version 2004 - Thurrott.com - Thurrott.com

Ancient Olympia, one of Greeces most popular archaeological sites, will be introduced to people around the world via a new app to be designed and sponsored by Microsoft.

Greeces Central Archaeological Council (KAS) recently approved the project for the development of a digital application that will offer a 3D presentation of the monuments and artefacts of the archaeological site and museum in Ancient Olympia, as they were in antiquity.

The tour will be based on scientific data provided by a special committee to be established by Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni.

The promotion of our cultural heritage through the use of modern technology is a basic desideratum and a political choice of the Ministry of Culture. This sponsorship, apart from highlighting the archaeological site and museum of Ancient Olympia, also contributes to the promotion of the values of harmony and peace that are strongly connected with the sanctuary of Olympia as host of the [ancient] Olympic Games, said Mendoni.

Apart from the app, Microsoft will also create a website that will offer a virtual tour around Ancient Olympias archaeological site.

The website and app will be developed at no cost for the Greek state, as part of Microsofts AI for Good Corporate Social Responsibility program.

The projects details were also discussed during a meeting in Athens on Monday, between Greek Prime MinisterKyriakos Mitsotakisand Microsoft PresidentBrad Smith.

During his visit to Greece, Smith also toured the archaeological site of Ancient Olympia and said he felt impressed and honoured to visit the birthplace of the Olympic Games.

*Source: GTP

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Ancient Olympia to be showcased in new Microsoft app - Greek City Times

While Microsoft provides the operating system used by the vast majority of PC gamers, its fair to say that its attempts to build gaming services atop Windows have often fallen flat. Initiatives like Games for Windows Live failed to take off, and for a while, Microsofts overt presence in the PC gaming space was almost nonexistent. These days, though, the company is putting its efforts into something that might actually work: Xbox Game Pass. The subscription service has been one of the best things about the Xbox One for years, and its getting better on PC by the month.

You know, if were being honest, theres been some fits and starts from the Microsoft perspective for PC gaming over the long history of the company, says Ben Decker, general manager of Xbox marketing. But PC gaming is really where gaming at Microsoft started. And I think theres a deep commitment at the company to get it right and to deliver something of real value to the PC gaming community.

This weeks launch of Gears Tactics, a turn-based strategy take on the Gears of War series, is perhaps the most significant indicator of that so far. This is a high-profile, expensive-looking game in a marquee franchise for Microsoft, but its in a genre traditionally associated with the PC, and it doesnt even have a version for Xbox One consoles yet. Its available on Game Pass for PC from day one, and Microsoft is also selling it on Steam. Were expecting to be successful both places, Decker says, though he wont say how Microsoft thinks the split will break down.

This isnt the first time Microsoft has adapted its shooter IP to the strategy genre; the two Halo Wars games were ambitious exercises in making real-time strategy games work well with a controller. Gears Tactics, however, was designed for the PC from the start. Itll come to Xbox consoles eventually, but for now, youll need a PC to play it.

When we talk about PC-first, I think were really just talking about the focus that we wanted to bring to the product and making sure that we are giving the PC gamer everything that they expect, says Mike Crump, director of operations at The Coalition, Microsofts in-house studio that oversees the Gears franchise. PC gamers are a pretty demanding group, generally. And we wanted to make sure that we had the appropriate level of focus to give them everything they expect everything from building the game to scale where it can run well across laptops and machines without discrete graphics cards all the way up to, you know, for gamers that have invested in a very high-end gaming rig, delivering something that would be exceptional for them.

The Coalitions first original Gears game was 2016s Gears of War 4, which I noted in my review as having an unusually good PC version, with great optimization and visual options that went far beyond your average console port. That continued with last years Gears 5, one of the best-looking games you can play on any hardware. From what Ive played of Gears Tactics, it appears to have been developed very much in the same vein.

Gears 4 and 5 were both games where we really put a ton of effort in not just doing a typical port, but in making sure that we deliver something that PC gamers are gonna be delighted by, says Crump. And Tactics really from the ground up has been built first and foremost as a PC game with the PC gamer in mind. We have over 40 different visual settings that players can tune and customize to optimize their rig. We have a benchmark mode that allows you to test all those changes before you go into gameplay. We have settings where you can enable and disable different UI elements. So were really just trying to give the player every opportunity to customize and tweak the game to their preference.

With Gears Tactics launching day one on Xbox Game Pass for PC, The Coalition and Microsoft see an opportunity to grow the reach of the franchise. Our hope is that the kind of player that maybe has never played a Gears game before will try Tactics and will find that they are kind of really drawn into the Gears universe, and they are curious to try other Gears games and they can do that through Game Pass with a very low barrier to entry, Crump says. I think the magic of Game Pass is that it completely lowers the barrier for people trying something. Decker says that Gears 4 saw a 50 percent increase in players during the run-up to Gears 5s launch last year, with 40 percent of those playing a Gears game for the first time. (Right now, Gears 4, 5, and the Ultimate Edition remaster of the original Gears of War are available on PC, though Crump wouldnt be drawn on the possibility of further releases.)

The average Game Pass player ends up playing 40 percent more games overall, including games that arent part of the service, according to Decker. Games in the catalog also see their player bases increase sixfold on average. What we find with developers is that while this is a new model for a lot of them, theyve really been impressed by the discovery that the service can drive, he says. We see that after users join Game Pass, they play 30 percent more genres. So someone who is sort of stuck in the rhythm of just playing the latest first person shooter really branches out and tries puzzle games, tries more narrative-based games. So its really been a benefit from that perspective.

It still feels like its early days for the PC version of Game Pass. The service currently costs $4.99 a month or $14.99 a month for the Ultimate plan that includes access to the Xbox console Game Pass library and Xbox Live Gold. It launched with a small selection of games, and while its grown considerably, many big titles from the console service arent available on the PC subscription. Red Dead Redemption 2 is the most recent example. On the other hand, the PC subscription includes PC-focused titles like Football Manager that you wouldnt expect to see on Xbox consoles.

This is by design, according to Decker. People dont actually want the catalogs to be exactly the same, he says. There are genres and franchises that are incredibly beloved on the PC and are built for the PC-specific user interface and capabilities that dont translate incredibly well on the console and vice versa. I think youre always going to see some games that are specific to a platform within each of the catalogs.

This makes sense to some extent. I play a lot of NBA 2K on my Xbox, for example, and I wouldnt have much interest in doing so on my PC. Similarly, I dont really want an Xbox version of World of Horror, which is currently on Game Pass for PC in early access. But with something like Yakuza 0 (available in both PC and Xbox libraries) or Devil May Cry 5 (only on the console Game Pass), I could go either way. Ultimately, though, the decision is up to publishers.

With each game that we put in Game Pass, we really work with that publisher to understand their goals, understand their strategy, and come up with the right mix from a platform and an availability standpoint for them, Decker says. And there are some developers that are pursuing a different strategy on PC than they are on console, and so they choose to include their game in the PC catalog, but maybe not necessarily the console catalog or vice versa.

Even in a vacuum, though, Xbox Game Pass for PC is already an appealing service thats worth checking out. Gears Tactics is a significant signal of intent thats likely to draw more attention to Game Pass and how Microsoft will follow through with further releases. Its not an experiment, Decker says. Its really a commitment by Microsoft to get it right and bring something unique to the gaming space.

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Gears Tactics and Game Pass show Microsoft is serious about PC gaming - The Verge

Microsoft is adding to its slightly worryingly named Productivity Score preview with additional granularity and categories.

The preview, which is accepting sign-ups next month, can be enabled from June via the Microsoft 365 Admin Center by selecting Productivity Score in the Reports menu.

It's a little creepy-sounding. Its goal is to assist a company in getting the best out of Microsoft's tools by analysing how users are working with the platform. As well as keeping on eye on collaboration habits and "meeting culture", the score is also affected by technology (for example, whinging about how many users are dragged down by spinning rust versus solid state). Helpfully, the system will also provide tips on how to improve things.

Things have got a bit more granular since those halcyon Ignite days, and more insights are now available, including a Communications category, which is all about seeing how users communicate and share.

More important in these remote-working times is the Network Connectivity category, which gives insights into locations where connectivity is, frankly, a bit rubbish.

Microsoft 365 corporate veep Brad Anderson's own particular obsession the time it takes a Microsoft-powered computer to cold boot to productivity is also measured by Endpoint Analytics.

The Reg put it to Anderson that all this slurpage might be a little worrying, and perhaps some less than enlightened companies might use such "productivity" data to slap an employee or two with the wet fish of HR.

He insisted that "there is no PII (Personally Identifiable Information) data in there... it's a valid concern, and so we've been very careful that as we bring that telemetry back, you know, we bring back what we need, but we stay out of the PII world."

Anderson went on to explain that within the Productivity Score, data could be retrieved on an individual level although it was possible to configure exceptions, for example where a country's labour or privacy laws do not allow that level of oversight.

In today's post on the matter, Microsoft stated: "In the Employee Experience area there is now user-level granularity in all categories to help you determine who needs upskilling."

Melissa Grant, Microsoft 365 director of product marketing, added that enabling snooping was not the plan, although Microsoft had been asked if it was possible to use the tool to check, for example, that employees were all online and working at 8, as usual. "We're not in the business," she said, "of sort of monitoring employees or using that stick to say, 'Hey, you're not doing this, you're not doing that'."

As well as tinkering with Productivity Score and associated analytics, Microsoft also extended the ability to use Azure Active Directory (AD) single sign-on (SSO) for an unlimited number of cloud apps at no extra cost.

Sponsored: Practical tips for Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration

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Extra knobs and dials for Microsoft's Productivity Score while Azure Active Directory lays on the freebies - The Register

This article is part of a series tracking the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on major businesses, and will be updated. It was originally published on April 16.

As the last recession washed over Microsoft Corp. in 2009, the companys sales and earnings declined in the same year for the only time in the tech giants storied history.

A lot has changed since then at Microsoft. MSFT, -2.58% . As the COVID-19 pandemic brings fears of another economic downturn, the company could face difficulties in the same businesses that caused that decline, but could be spared a similar overall fate by the different focus that arrived with a new chief executive.

When Satya Nadella arrived in 2014, he refocused Microsoft on the cloud, putting money and other resources into the Azure cloud-computing business and transitioning Microsofts software offerings to cloud subscription offerings. Those businesses are less likely to be slammed by economic difficulties for Microsofts customers than the legacy Windows and on-premises IT businesses that Microsoft still has.

Business in the age of COVID-19: Read profiles of how other large companies will be affected by the coronavirus

For an example of this dynamic, consider Microsofts software business. In past recessions, customers would likely choose not to upgrade to a new version of Office in order to put off that expense, depriving Microsoft of that revenue. However, with cloud subscriptions, customers are more likely to maintain their subscription to avoid changes to workflow as employees are stuck at home and already facing new difficulties.

Microsoft has also repeatedly crowed about the performance of one of its newest software offerings, Teams, collaboration software that was launched in 2017 and seeks to combine the instant-messaging features of Slack Technologies Inc. WORK, -1.16% and teleconferencing abilities of Zoom Video Communications Inc. ZM, +2.50% .

For more: In just one week, Microsoft adds as many users to its Teams collaboration software as rival Slack has in total

While the cloud businesses should help Microsoft stave off the type of decline it suffered in 2009, it still has the businesses that suffered then, and their performance could obscure gains from next-generation counterparts. The Azure cloud-computing business is lumped with sales of servers and other IT-focused products in Microsofts earnings report, for example, so it may be tough to discern gains for one and losses for another. Microsoft typically discloses percentage gain in Azure sales, but could seek to provide more info or break out full results from Azure, as rival Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -7.59% does for its Amazon Web Services cloud-computing division.

Microsofts stock performance in the first quarter reflects the dynamic at play: It was the only one of 30 Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.55% components to gain in the first three months of the year as COVID-19 wracked the stock market, but added only a single penny to its share price.

Revenue: Expectations for Microsoft have declined by less than 1.5% overall, with analysts currently estimating that the company will report fiscal third-quarter sales of $34.05 billion, down from $34.55 billion expected at the end of January. Microsoft is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings on April 29. For the fiscal year, which will end at the end of June, analysts are currently estimating revenue of $141 billion, down from $141.88 billion as of the end of January.

Microsoft reports sales in three large buckets: Productivity & Business Solutions, which comprises most of the cloud software assets, including LinkedIn; Intelligent Cloud, which includes Azure, server sales and some other IT-focused offerings; and More Personal Computing, which includes the Windows and Xbox businesses along with Surface hardware and some other properties. Expectations for all three have declined, but the biggest hit is expected to come in the PC division, where third-quarter projections have declined to $10.6 billion from $10.95 billion at the end of January. Cloud expectations have dipped to $11.88 billion from $12 billion and software projections have dropped to $11.55 billion from $11.67 billion, according to FactSet.

Earnings: Analysts on average expect Microsoft to report fiscal third-quarter net income of $9.99 billion, or $1.30 a share, according to FactSet, down from $1.33 a share on Jan. 31. For the full year, analysts expect earnings of $5.61 a share, down from $5.69 a share at the end of January.

Stock movement: Microsoft added a penny to its share price in the first quarter, the best performance of any Dow component and one of only 30 S&P 500 components to increase in that period.

Microsoft has been collecting its COVID-19 communications and information on a single page. Here are some highlights.

April 9: Microsoft detailed the growth of Teams and other remote-work trends in a blog post, revealing that meetings on the software totaled a record of 2.7 billion minutes on March 31, a 200% increase from just two weeks earlier.

March 28: Microsoft posted on a blog that traffic for Azure had increased 775% amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Two days later, it corrected the post to note that figure was solely related to traffic for Teams meetings in one specific country, hard-hit Italy. Microsoft filed an 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission to acknowledge the error.

March 21: CEO Nadella posted an email to employees publicly on Microsofts business-networking property, LinkedIn, that detailed what the company was doing to address COVID-19 for customers and employees. In the following days, Nadella gave interviews to CNBC and Axios on the same topic. Azure also detailed its efforts in a blog post on the same day.

March 13: Microsoft co-founder, chairman and former chief executive Bill Gates stepped down from the Microsoft board. Gates has focused on his foundation, which is seeking to combat the coronavirus pandemic, and also stepped down from the board of Berkshire Hathaway on the same day.

Feb. 26: Microsoft disclosed it would not reach its guidance for the More Personal Computing segment because of supply-chain issues, but maintained guidance for its other segments.

While the company will navigate through this downturn better than most, it is not immune to a broader contraction in IT spending. The clear positives for Microsoft are the uptick in demand for Teams, cloud consumption (Azure), and Xbox Live. However, on the other side of the coin, PC demand, new enterprise bookings and higher potential churn for O365 subs could create some near-term headwinds. Evercore analysts on April 15, maintaining an outperform rating and $190 price target.

Microsofts diverse businesses do, unsurprisingly, suggest a range of positive and negative impacts from COVID and a recession. However, we expect the companys momentum as it aggregates increasing portions of enterprise application, database, data center and cloud spend to continue through this period, prompting as enterprises consolidate vendor choices even more in this environment, prompting us to a below sector mean cut to estimates. We see more economic sensitivity in the Windows PC OEM and Server businesses and its more transactional businesses, and less so in Office/Azure and its EA businesses. We see Microsoft benefiting as a COVID play around collaboration (Teams), gaming, virtual desktop, and some areas of cloud, offset by likely slower server, services, and Windows OEM. Raymond James analysts on April 3, maintaining a strong buy rating and decreased price target to $183 from $200.

Weve heard from more large enterprise customers that have told us that the pace at which theyve been able to pivot to WFH technologies and scale down less-critical IT projects has been constrained by their on-premise infrastructures and that at a result, they plan to accelerate their move to Azure (and AWS/Google) once the crisis passes. In fact one such customer told us today that they had a precrisis plan to be 40% in the cloud within 10 years and now have an accelerated goal (admittedly aspirational) to be 80% in the cloud in 5 years. This is a key part of the medium-term bull case on Microsoft and AWS and we agree. Deutsch Bank analyst Karl Keirstead on April 1, with a buy rating with $180 price target.

The main message is that spending on AWS and Azure may prove to be a particularly resilient vector, much more so than other software categories, as the shocks from COVID-19 create a forcing function which catalyzes faster public cloud adoption as companies understand the need to scale up remote work capabilities. JP Morgan analysts on April 3, with an overweight rating with $185 price target.

Microsoft has added new incentives (effective 1st April through 30th September) for partners who work with customers to achieve 15% usage in Teams deployments. Credit Suisse analyst Brad Zelnick on April 3, who has an outperform rating with a $190 target.

While our 1Q20 AlphaWise CIO Survey indicates slower IT budget growth and potential for negative revisions, software is still an IT budget share gainer and Microsoft is exposed to many near-term remote work priorities. Microsoft remains a top vendor for the key secular trends in tech postcrisis. While Microsoft is not immune to impact from COVID and likely will see macro drag on the transactional businesses in addition to some demand destruction on new business in non Work from Home businesses, our 1Q20 CIO survey highlights Microsofts strong positioning for both the near-term and longer-term environments. Morgan Stanley analysts on April 2, with an overweight rating with a $180 price target.

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Microsofts push to the cloud may save it from a coronavirus crash - MarketWatch

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Between the effects of COVID-19, post-holiday lulls, and the continued waning console cycle, it was a quiet Q3 for Microsoft's gaming segment.

Today, the company reported its quarterly financial results for the period ending March 31, 2020, stating that gaming revenue was down 1% year-over-year and Xbox content and services revenue up 2%.

Microsoft noted that the slight rise in Xbox content and services revenue was attributable to more people sheltering in place due to COVID-19, but was partially offset by "a high prior year comparable primarily from a third-party title" -- a line that's been used in the last several prior quarterly reports.

For the More Personal Computing business segment, which includes Xbox and gaming as well as Windows OEM, Surface, and search advertising, revenue reached $11 billion -- up 3% year-over-year.

This is within the company's projections of between $10.75 billion and $11.15 billion for the segment this quarter, even though Microsoft said in late February it expected to miss argets.

Operating income for the segment was at $3.63 billion, up 15% year-over-year.

Revenue for the company as a whole reached $35 billion, up 15% year-over-year, with Microsoft reporting that COVID-19 had a minimal net impact on the company as a whole.

Update: Microsoft's 10Q form offers a bit more color on its gaming segment, specifying that segment revenue for gaming reached $2.35 billion in Q3, down $14 million from the previous year's revenue.

Xbox hardware revenue was down 20%, which Microsoft attributes to recent price decreases in hardware.

Xbox content and services revenue was up $33 million.

Update: During today's earnings call with investors, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that there are now over 10 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers, and that during the last quarter the company saw "record levels of engagement," with nearly 90 million monthly active users of Xbox Live.

Additionally, Xbox's Xcloud service now has "hundreds of thousands" of active users in beta.

Update: Also during today's earnings call, Microsoft announced it projected that the More Personal Computing segment would bring in between $11.3 billion and $11.7 billion during Q4 2020 ending June 30, with gaming revenue growth in the high teens.

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Microsoft's gaming revenues flat in Q3 2020 - GamesIndustry.biz

Microsoft has seen massive growth in the adoption of Microsoft Teams as a video conferencing solution but in many cases, a service is only as productive as the quality of the voice and video quality, which not only depends on your connection but the hardware you use to stream with.

To help companies get the most out of Microsoft Teams, Microsoft, working with device partners, has announced a new range of Teams certified devices. The new range of certified personal devices are aimed at supporting customers working remotely.

The Microsoft device Certification Programis designed to offer Microsoft customers confidence that third party devices will provide a compatible, high-quality experience when used with Microsoft Teams.

Certification highlights for headset and speakerphones

All the headsets listed below deliver the longstanding benefits of certification, such as great audio and integrated call control. They also include two additional important benefits offered by many of the devices below:

Below are a range of new Teams certified devices across all categories.

Teams headsets

Teams phones

Teams rooms and room accessoriesWith Microsoft Teams Rooms and certified meeting room accessories, organizations can transform any space to a Teams meeting place.

Via theWindowsClub

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Microsoft announce new Microsoft Teams Certified hardware - MSPoweruser - MSPoweruser

In late March, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that COVID-19 lockdown measures in Italy sparked a 775% jump inTeams' calling and monthlymeeting users within a single month. It also noticed a "very significant spike" in Teams usage worldwide, as over 44 million daily users spent more than 900 million meeting and calling minutes on the platform within a single week.

That growth spurt seemed like bad news for Slack Technologies (NYSE:WORK), which competes against Microsoft Teams with its messaging and collaboration platform. To make matters worse, research firm SimilarWebrecently revealed some head-to-head comparisons between Microsoft Teams and Slack throughout the crisis, and claimed the former left the latter "in the dust."

Ed Lavery, Director of Investor Solutions at SimilarWeb, noted that the COVID-19 pandemic "gave Teams a huge opportunity to onboard millions of users," and Microsoft Teams "couldn't have dreamed of a better March than the one it just had."

Let's discuss the two main ways Microsoft beat Slack in March.

Image source: Getty Images.

SimilarWeb noted users downloaded the Microsoft Teams app on Android 1.22 million times in March and 2 million times within the first quarter -- which marks 500% year-over-year growth and 140% quarter-over-quarter growth. Slack's Android app was downloaded just 1.02 million times in the first quarter.

That surging in interest in Teams is troubling for Slack since it serves a smaller audience. Last October, Slack revealed that it had 12 million daily active users. In late March, it noted its total concurrent users topped 10 million onMarch 10, rose to 10.5 million on March 16, and hit 12.5 million March 25.

But those figures still paled in comparison to Microsoft Teams' 44 million daily active users and indicated Microsoft's marketing blitz -- which included pricey TV ads aimed at Slack -- was paying off.

SimilarWeb claims Microsoft's Teams website racked up 187 million visits in March, compared to just 134 million visits to Slack.com. This marked a major jump for Microsoft Teams, which averaged just 39.2 million monthly visits in January and February while Slack served an average of 95 million monthly visitors.

Slack's month-over-month growth is impressive, but it's clearly failing to keep pace with Teams' explosive growth. That raises another red flag, since Slack has repeatedly touted its gains against Microsoft in recent conference calls.

Image source: Slack.

During last quarter's conference call, CEO Stewart Butterfield stated that Slack continued "to win not just against the status quo, but head-to-head against Microsoft Teams," and that four of its top five biggest deals in the fourth quarter were against Teams.

Butterfield declared that customers chose Slack over Teams for its scale and security and that one of its Fortune 100 customers that temporarily switched to Teams struggled with "challenges from a near-complete lack of engagement to architectural deficiencies."

Unfortunately, SimilarWeb's download and traffic numbers suggest that Slack merely woke a sleeping tiger, which can leverage its dominance of the OS, productivity software, and cloud services market to pull customers away from Slack.

Slack is still growing at a robust clip: Its revenue rose 57% last year as its paid customer base expanded 25%. However, Slack's net loss still widened on a GAAP basis, and it has no clear path toward profitability. The stock is also richly valued at 17 times this year's revenue forecast.

Microsoft is firmly profitable, has a lot more cash than Slack, and can afford to rack up losses on Team's plans to drive Slack out of the market. Slack isn't in serious trouble yet, but it probably can't survive a prolonged war with Microsoft.

The pandemic presented Slack with an opportunity to shine, but Microsoft arguably stole the spotlight. In retrospect, the COVID-19 crisis could be the defining moment that tilts the scales back in Microsoft's favor and throttles Slack's growth.

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2 Ways Microsoft Is Leaving Slack Technologies in the Dust - Motley Fool