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xbox,-surface,-and-cloud-once-again-boost-microsoft’s-q2-earnings

Xbox, Surface, and cloud once again boost Microsoft’s Q2 earnings

Microsoft posted the second quarter of its 2021 financial results today, reporting revenue of $43.1 billion and a net income of $15.5 billion. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 33 percent. We saw some impressive growth for Surface, Xbox, and cloud-related services in Microsoft’s previous quarter, and it’s very much the same this time around.

The PC market just had its first big growth in 10 years, with around 300 million shipments of devices during 2020. The pandemic has impacted the way a lot of people work or learn, and many have turned to laptops to continue remotely.

Windows OEM non-pro revenue has grown by 24 percent for Microsoft, reflecting the demand from consumers. Windows OEM revenue overall, including pro licenses, grew 1 percent in total, likely because of the strong prior Windows 7 upgrade schedule for businesses.

Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox consoles.
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

This is the first quarter of sales of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S consoles. While both debuted toward the end of the quarter (November 10th), Microsoft says hardware revenue has grown 86 percent, thanks to the next-gen consoles.

Xbox content and services revenue has also increased by 40 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Gaming has been incredibly popular throughout 2020, and many have clearly turned to Xbox Game Pass and services like xCloud during the pandemic. That’s pushed Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue up 51 percent.

Over on the Surface side, Microsoft’s updated Surface Pro X and Surface Laptop Go also debuted during this quarter. Surface revenue is up 3 percent, but it’s crucially now a $2 billion business for the first time ever. That’s significant for the long-term health of the Surface business, and it comes during an increased demand for laptops and PCs.

Microsoft also just announced an updated Surface Pro 7 Plus device, available only for businesses and schools. The new model includes a bigger battery, Intel’s 11th Gen processors, a removable SSD, and LTE.

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3 lineup.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers have also increased to 47.5 million, a 28 percent bump. Microsoft has been focusing on Teams and Microsoft 365 services for consumers, launching a renewed effort to attract more subscribers last year.

Cloud services continue to be a big boost to Microsoft’s revenues, thanks to the general pandemic shift in work and learning behavior. Both Office commercial and consumer are up, with Office 365 Commercial revenue growth up by 21 percent. Server products and cloud services revenue has also increased 26 percent as more businesses rely on cloud services. Azure revenue itself grew 50 percent.

“What we have witnessed over the past year is the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry,” says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “Building their own digital capability is the new currency driving every organization’s resilience and growth.”

Microsoft is planning to hold an investor call at 5:30PM ET, and we’ll update this article with any relevant information.

plex-is-launching-a-game-subscription-service-filled-with-atari-games

Plex is launching a game subscription service filled with Atari games

Plex, well known as a service for streaming movies, music, and TV shows from your own computer, is now adding another thing you can stream: video games (via Protocol). Plex announced the new service, called Plex Arcade, on its blog and also launched a website for it. The service will cost $3 a month if you’re a Plex Pass subscriber, and $5 a month if you’re not.

Instead of focusing on modern console or phone games like its competitors, Plex lets you play Atari games. It’s taking the arcade name seriously, as you can play arcade classics from Atari, like Centipede, Super Breakout, and Missile Command, as well as games from the Atari 2600 and 7800. Overall, there are 27 games available on the service.

Unlike other game subscription services where you can simply sign up from your console and start playing, Plex Arcade has a few requirements. First is a Plex media server running on a Windows or macOS computer. There isn’t Linux support because Plex is using Parsec to stream the gameplay.

This means that you’ll have to sign up for a Parsec account, if you don’t already have one, and log in to it on Plex. There is a bit more freedom when it comes to what you can stream the games to, as Android devices and TVs are supported, as well as Google Chrome and Apple’s iOS and tvOS. Plex says you can play with “just about any Bluetooth-enabled controller.”

The service also supports you adding your own emulators and ROMs, which is nice, but it’s overall a bit of a tough sell. Even at the Plex Pass price of $3 a month, you’re paying a lot for games that, at this point, can basically run on a microwave. To be fair, it does let you run them on something like an iPhone or Apple TV, but the games are readily available on Android and PC.

If you’re interested in playing them for nostalgic purposes, it could be worth a try, but you may want to set aside some time for it — getting it set up was an exercise in frustration for me, and I wasn’t ever actually able to successfully play a game. (The iOS and tvOS clients got stuck at a loading spinner, and keyboard controls didn’t seem to do anything when trying to play on Chrome.)

If you want to try it out for yourself, there’s a free seven-day trial, though you will have to put in a credit card or link your PayPal. Plex says this is mostly a skunk works-type project, saying in the blog post that “[i]f there’s interest and we see some subs, it’ll grow into the glorious pheasant we know it can be. But if you guys drop the ball, it’ll die on the vine like a stomped ass goomba.” Harsh.

google-warns-of-‘novel-social-engineering method’-used-to-hack-security-researchers

Google warns of ‘novel social engineering method’ used to hack security researchers

Government-backed hackers based in North Korea are targeting individual security researchers through a number of means including a “novel social engineering method,” Google’s Threat Analysis Group is reporting. The campaign has reportedly been ongoing for several months, and worryingly appears to exploit unpatched Windows 10 and Chrome vulnerabilities.

Although Google doesn’t say exactly what the aim of the hacking campaign is, it notes that the targets are working on “vulnerability research and development.” This suggests the attackers may be trying to learn more about non-public vulnerabilities that they can use in future state-sponsored attacks.

According to Google, the hackers set up a cybersecurity blog and series of Twitter accounts in an apparent attempt to build and amplify credibility while interacting with potential targets. The blog focused on writing up vulnerabilities that were already public. Meanwhile, the Twitter accounts posted links to the blog, as well as other alleged exploits. At least one of the purported exploits was faked, according to Google. The search giant cites several cases of researchers’ machines having been infected simply by visiting the hackers’ blog, even when running the latest versions of Windows 10 and Chrome.

The social engineering method outlined by Google involved contacting security researchers, and asking them to collaborate on their work. However, once they agreed, the hackers would send over a Visual Studio Project containing malware, which would infect the target’s computer and start contacting the attackers’ server.

According to Google, the attackers used a range of different platforms — including Telegram, LinkedIn and Discord — to communicate with potential targets. Google listed specific hacker accounts in its blog post. It says anyone who’s interacted with these accounts should scan their systems for any indication they’ve been compromised, and move their research activities onto a separate computer from their other day-to-day usage.

The campaign is the latest incident of security researchers being targeted by hackers. Last December, a leading US cybersecurity firm FireEye disclosed that it had been compromised by a state-sponsored attacker. In the case of FireEye, the target of the hack were internal tools it uses to check for vulnerabilities in its client’s systems.

diyer-builds-bootleg-amd-threadripper-laptop

DIYer Builds Bootleg AMD Threadripper Laptop

(Image credit: YouTube)

Putting an AMD Threadripper HEDT chip inside a laptop might sound strange, but someone was determined to make it a reality. As spotted by Hackaday, Jeff from the Excursion Gear YouTube channel went the extra mile with his DIY laptop, by including a 16-core, 32-thread AMD Ryzen ThreadRipper 1950X. 

To make what Excursion Gear dubbed “the most powerful laptop in the world,” Jeff used a pre-built HP media center PC case, which he cut down by a few inches, as the laptop chassis. Specs-wise, Jeff went with an AsRock X399M Taichi Micro-Atx motherboard, 32GB of Corsair Vengeance RAM running at 3,600 MHz and a Zotac GTX 1050 Ti graphics card. For the display, he called in an 18.3-inch portable 4K monitor.

For cooling, this bootleg Threadripper machines uses a Dynatron A28 1U passive EPYC heatsink, which is low profile anddesigned for server-based rackmount cases.  Two Delta BFB1012HH blower fans keep the Threadripper cool. 

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(Image credit: YouTube)

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(Image credit: YouTube)

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(Image credit: YouTube)

The most difficult part of the process, according to the builder, was figuring out how to run the “laptop” purely on battery power. Jeff eventually went with six Dell companion 18,000mah power banks, paired to an HDPlex 400W ATX SFF power supply. The six power banks combined produce up to 390W of power, more than enough for the Threadripper 1950X-based system.

Considering Origin PC makes the Ryzen 9 5950X an option in its laptops, this DIY laptop is probably not the fastest in the world. But a Threadripper-based laptop is quite an engineering feat on its own.