Microsoft will unveil what it calls the next generation of Windows at an event on the 24th of June. But let’s just say you have the opportunity to suggest a new feature in the next-generation Windows 11 operating system(OS), what will it be?
What new feature will you want to be in Windows 11 and what will you want taken out? I understand this is what the Windows Insider program lives for. I also understand it might be too late to get this in even if the Microsoft program managers are reading this and see your brilliant suggestion. This suggestion is for a new Windows OS that Microsoft is building and wants your feedback on? One that is modern and meets the needs of every kind of PC user.
Will you want a new looking OS? Because what we have seen in the leaks doesn’t really look new. That is if you look at the transition from Windows 3.1 to 95, then Windows 95 to Vista and 7. Oh, I almost forgot Windows 8. This was the most radical change I guess we saw? But seeing how people responded to the change and the slow adoption, I believe Microsoft will be wary of doing something like this.
So go ahead and tell me what you will like to see.
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Microsoft announces the appointment of Salima Amira as Country Manager for its operations in Morocco. In her new role as Country Manager, Salima will conceptualise strategies, allocate resources, oversee engagements, and highlight Microsoft’s work in Morocco. She is tasked with developing and maintaining relationships within the regional sales and marketing departments, as well as across Microsoft’s subsidiaries.
She has 17 years of experience as a leader within complex and competitive sales environments. Salima is an agile and analytical thinker with a strong technical background. Salima has held various roles within IBM and spent the last two years as Territory Manager for Morocco. Prior to this, she spent eight years selling services and solutions across industries. And six years at INWI in the telecommunication industry where she took on roles in B2B business development management and subsidiary management.
“I’m eager to join the Microsoft team in Morocco. To meet the people, get to know them, understand and embrace the culture, and support each member. Together as a team, I believe we can accelerate Microsoft’s plan for Morocco,” says Salima.
Salima expresses her goal of driving business development, client success, and partner empowerment by working closely with clients and partners to understand their market- and industry-specific needs. She is passionate about attracting talent and empowering people, linking their work to greater customer impact.
Salima Amira is a firm advocate for fostering a culture of inclusion, transparency, and trust. Guided by these pillars, she aims to successfully mentor her staff, instilling a resilient, growth-oriented mindset, to action the best strategies for scalable, innovative results that matter to clients, and the ecosystem at large.
Ibrahim Youssry, Regional General Manager for Microsoft’s Middle East & Africa Multi-Country Region, on her appointment, says, “We are thrilled to welcome Salima to the team in Morocco. With her wealth of experience and knowledge, she is set to successfully drive our shared goal of enabling digital transformation in the region.”
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Microsoft will announce Windows 11 at a Microsoft event on June 24th. Ahead of the official launch event, Windows 11 leaked images and an operating system (OS) with Build number 21996.1 have shown up online. The Windows 11 leak seems legit and shows what looks like a new start menu, user interface, Windows widgets, etc.
The leaked version shows an all-new out-of-box redesigned setup experience. There are still familiar things from Windows 10 and everything in the look isn’t a refresh. But most things have a visually refreshed outlook. It comes with a new startup sound, sound effects and really nice looking default wallpapers. I’ll see if it tempts me away from the Bing desktop wallpapers.
The Start Menu, taskbar icons and widgets are now in the centre by default. People who have spent time with the OS say you can move it back to the left side. The Start menu looks just like the cancelled Windows 10X and doesn’t have live tiles. The Start menu icon uses a new modern look and is similar to the Microsoft logo. More like a blue version of the Microsoft logo. When you open new applications they add up on the right side of the taskbar and it grows and spreads but aligns to the centre. You can change the taskbar alignment from the taskbar settings by right-clicking on the taskbar. You can opt to not show widgets buttons and can choose to hide the taskbar in desktop mode.
One thing to note is that some of the old Windows features like control panel, task manager, computer management still looks the same.
Microsoft hasn’t said this yet but I believe Windows 11 just like 10 will comes as a free upgrade to Windows 10 users. And upgrading to 11 will also be over the air from the Windows update settings.
some of the new UX changes coming with Microsoft’s next OS
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Standard Bank and Microsoft announce a strategic partnership to accelerate the digital transformation of Africa’s largest financial institution and further drive the continent’s growth. The Bank’s growing investment in the Microsoft Cloud will enable the innovation, efficiencies, and resilience required to respond to market dynamics and customer needs.
This partnership builds on the 30-year relationship between the two companies and involves migrating workloads, applications, and platforms to Microsoft Azure to drive organisational efficiencies, as well as workforce collaboration with Azure, PowerApps, Workplace Analytics and Microsoft Teams.
“Investing in the cloud will allow Standard Bank to achieve its strategy to transform from a traditional financial services company into a digital platform company, providing financial services, plus ancillary and associated services. We have adopted a cloud-first strategy, underpinned by end-to-end security and data-driven insights that will enable transformation with tangible results,” says Standard Bank Group Chief Executive, Sim Tshabalala.
“Standard Bank’s cloud-first strategy underlines the growing momentum in financial services to deliver differentiated experiences that today’s customers expect,” said Judson Althoff, Microsoft’s executive vice president of Worldwide Commercial Business. “As a long-standing technology partner, we are pleased to collaborate with Standard Bank in realizing this strategy and in becoming Africa’s future-first financial services firm through digital skilling-focused initiatives that will expand economic opportunity for young people across Africa.”
As part of the partnership, the companies will also:
Establish the African Digital Foundry (The Foundry), a strategic alliance, for Standard Bank and Microsoft to collaborate to co-create unique solutions through new technology to meet the financial needs of Africa’s consumers. Through the Foundry, the companies aspire to reach 100 million customers in Africa over the next five years.
Bring together their resources and know-how to provide youth with the relevant digital skills needed to secure future-ready jobs and equip Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with digital skills and capabilities so that they can take advantage of the growing shift to digital technologies.
The African Digital Foundry (The Foundry)
Standard Bank and Microsoft, through the Foundry, will co-create and execute joint go-to-market digital services related to trade, payment, and risk-based (lending and insurance) solutions. They will also develop ecosystems enabling digital trading to facilitate Africa’s growth.
“The Foundry is a digital initiative established in Africa, for Africans, to address the unique challenges the continent faces with customised innovations, services and solutions,” says Tshabalala. “The partnership will further enhance and create ongoing collaboration between our firms around co-engineering solutions for African consumers’ unique needs.”
Skills and Small Medium Enterprise (SME) Development
Harnessing the power and reach of both organisations, the partnership will also drive digital skills development, boost youth employment, and accelerate the growth of SMEs on the African continent.
Both organisations believe that digital transformation represents an opportunity for the continent to leap ahead, taking a leading role in enabling economic and societal growth in Africa.
Microsoft and Standard Bank will leverage their combined research, industry, partner and start-up programmes to impact the continent – where similar opportunities and challenges exist – using technology such as mixed reality and artificial intelligence.
“Continuing to build on the partnership is part of the ongoing journey that Standard Bank and Microsoft are on to invest in digital transformation as the enabler of meaningful and tangible innovation. Our journey is underpinned by collaborative efforts to develop, scale and roll-out digital solutions that will deliver personalised services to 100 million Africans and by meeting their unique and evolving needs and demands,” says Tshabalala.
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As part of their commitment to fostering innovation and building digital skills even in the remotest part of the country, Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa, today heralded in a new digital dawn in the Eastern Cape with the opening of the first Innovation and Digital Skills Centre (IDSC) in Mthatha.
Through this initiative, communities close to the Digital Skills Centre will be exposed to local learning and business opportunities. The IDSC will serve as a technology hub where learners and entrepreneurs can equip themselves with the latest and most relevant digital skills. The IDSC is equipped with state-of-the-art classroom learning facilities with high-speed connectivity, helping positively impact the education system in the city.
As part of the learnerships, the courses on offer will include:
Microsoft Office Fundamentals: In this training course, learners will learn basic Word, Excel, and Outlook skills.
Introduction to Design Thinking: This course will introduce learners to the Design Thinking process and illustrate best practices for each step along the way.
Introduction to C#: This is part of a three-part course where learners will be taken through the fundamentals, object-oriented programming concepts and instruction on data structures and algorithms
According to Deon Geyser, Chief Executive Officer Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa, “As we stand at the cusp of the 4IR, digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, Big Data, Robotics, 3D technologies and many more have become the means and solutions to many of the world’s problems. We believe that empowering the youth with the necessary technological skills will prepare them to thrive in today’s digital age and become part of the digital revolution. The opening of the centre is a realisation of our commitment to future-ready local communities, upskilling the youth and accelerating digital adoption among entrepreneurs based in the Eastern Cape.”
Empowering South African youth and communities has always been at the core of Liquid SA. The organisation has implemented leadership programmes for 93 students in the Eastern Cape covering ICT while also awarding 20 bursaries to students through the Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu Universities for the 2020 Academic year.
Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Ms Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams says, “A key aspect of economic development and growth is the ability to enhance competitiveness through skills and competencies that are on par with international markets. The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies pro-actively developed the National Digital and Future Skills strategy to keep pace with the advancement of technology.”
Commenting on the opening of the centre, Honourable Premier: Eastern Cape Provincial Government, Mr L. O. Mabuyane said, “It is indeed heartening to see social partners, across the spectrum, including business, heed the call by government, to join in the pact towards a better life for all – of our people. The mastery of the set of skills that, in particular, an evolving curriculum and a refocused education outcomes agenda – towards a workforce that will be ready for the 4th Industrial Revolution, will place all of us and the future of generations to come on the right footing towards exponential growth and development in our province. Through innovation and digital technologies, we have the potential to tap into the full potential of the Eastern Cape and her peoples”.
To date, 140 underprivileged students benefitted from bursaries to leading tertiary institutions; 811 learnerships and internships have been implemented in various courses for learners, including those with disabilities. 50 unemployed youth were trained on Introduction to Programming, 630 mainstream schools and 20 learners with disabilities benefitted from ICT equipment and expos, while 389 learners went through The Virtual Mathematician maths and science schools in the Eastern Cape.
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Today, Microsoft is hosting the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase at 5 pm GMT, 8 pm EAT, 10 am PT. Here is a time zone conversion to get the correct time in your zone. The 90-minute show will feature gaming lineups coming out of the Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks partnership. Games coming to Xbox this holiday, upcoming releases on Xbox Game Pass, and more.
Ahead of today’s showcase, Microsoft announced what’s next for Xbox and the future of Gaming. Talking about working with global TV manufacturers to embed the Xbox experience directly into internet-connected televisions with no extra hardware required except a controller. Opening cloud gaming on the browser and all browsers to all Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members. Working with telecommunications providers on new purchasing models like Xbox All Access. Which will allow consumers to buy both a console and Game Pass for a low monthly price. Find out more on these and others.
The Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase will stream live on the official and regional Xbox Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook pages. Also on Bilibili in China, Jeuxvideo in France, and VK in Russia. OTT platforms including Samsung TV+, Xumo, PlutoTV and Vizio. We are embedding the YouTube live stream below and you can follow it right here.
Watch Xbox Bethesda Games Showcase live stream
https://youtu.be/1YnVzOA2wNs
What are your expectations? What will you like to see announced?
New game announcements
Starfield arrives exclusively on Xbox Series X|S and PC on November 11, 2022. Play it on day one with Xbox Game Pass.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Heart of Chernobyl launches April 28, 2022
Back 4 Blood is coming to Xbox Game Pass on day one with Xbox Game Pass on October 12 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, and cloud gaming (beta). Early access starts from August 5 to 9. You can get more details on the Back 4 Blood Open Beta here.
Avalanche Studios is working on Contraband, more details coming in the future.
Sea of Thieves Season Three launches June 22 and is available free for all players with Xbox Game Pass and across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows 10 and Steam.
Psychonauts2 launches on August 25. It will be available with Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows, Xbox Cloud Gaming, PlayStation 4 and 5 (with backwards compatibility). It will also release on Mac and Linux in the future.
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