Microsoft is testing out a brand-new widgets panel for Windows 11 that replaces the MSN feed with something called Copilot Discover. This new layout uses AI to curate stories based on your likes and Copilot usage and displays them in a clean layout that's similar but not identical to the old MSN feed.

In fact, the new Copilot Discover feed appears to be much faster, with less laggy animations and scrolling. It's also much less noisy, with stories presented in large boxes with big text to make them more legible. All of the stories that appear here still take you to the MSN website, it's just the feed itself that has been updated and replaced with Copilot Discover.

Stories that you hover over will present different options, including voting the story up or down based on your preferences, bookmarking the story for later, and following or blocking particular media outlets. Some stories with videos attached will also automatically begin playing them when you hover over it.

The ability to follow news outlets on MSN has been a feature for a long while, so make sure to follow Windows Central on MSN if you aren't already!

There's a new Notifications button at the top of the feed that highlights things such as breaking news, weather updates, and stock market changes. These notifications can be customized, so you can choose to turn off certain types of alerts if you don't want them.

Microsoft is also testing a feature that lets you read the stories you click on directly in the widgets panel itself. Currently, clicking on a story will open it in your default browser, which creates a disjointed experience. Seamlessly reading the story directly in the widgets panel is much faster.

It's good to see Microsoft making changes and improvements to the Widgets Board on Windows 11. In recent months, it has felt like this feature has been left by the wayside, especially with how little third-party developers have adopted the ability to build widgets that appear in this area.

Curiously, this new layout actually moves your widgets out of the main feed and into a separate widgets tab that can be accessed from the top left of the panel. The only widget that has remained on the main page is the weather widget, which can no longer be moved or resized.

Microsoft is also planning to let you customize and pin these same widgets to the lock screen on Windows 11, which should provide even more options to users, and hopefully encourage developers to build more of them on Windows.

The widgets panel itself can no longer be full screened, meaning it now only exists as a tall narrow slide-out on the left side of your display. Of course, this feature appears to still be in early testing, and so more features and improvements are still likely to be made.

Microsoft first announced this new Copilot Discover feed back in May, and has recently started testing it with a small subset of users. Assuming feedback is positive, it will likely roll out more broadly over the coming weeks.

My intrigue for computing started when my parents brought home our first Windows 3.1 family PC and transitioned to an offline-only Windows 95 build with its iconic Start menu, obsessed with drawing shapes in Paint and writing homework in Wordpad.

However, it significantly picked up when we graduated to Windows 98 SE with a dial-up Internet connection and a heavy investment into yearly hardware upgrades. Having access to the World Wide Web from age 10 was formative to an incredible degree, influencing me throughout my life.

Now, as Microsoft turns 50 years old, I'm looking back at three programs that played a powerful role in shaping who I am today — do you remember them all, or were you occupied with others?

Let me know in the comments while I overcome my pre-millennium nostalgia.

MSN Messenger

I can draw a clear picture from where I am now to the dawn of MSN Messenger, which shows how I met some of my closest friends and developed my career; it was that important.

It eventually became the most popular instant messenger in my environment, replacing ICQ and, particularly, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) once I convinced my friends to sign up for a ".NET Passport" from Microsoft.

Having a small pool of peers didn't stop me from using it in the early days, and some of my strongest memories involve the basic (and ugly) layout of MSN Messenger 1.0+ before Windows XP repackaged it with a Luna-style UI.

However, some stubborn holdouts forced me to keep a copy of the multi-networked Trillian app installed on my PC. Without that, I'd have lost contact with the contrarians who refused to ditch Yahoo! Messenger or whatever already-doomed platform it might have been back then.

In the end, everyone migrated to what became Windows Live Messenger, and it was a mandatory mainstay on my daily desktop until everyone broke off to Skype and elsewhere.

Still, I fondly recall memories circa 2003 when Microsoft's instant messenger had connected me to lifelong friends and introduced me to mutual connections that would shape my entire career.

Where is it now?

Officially, Windows Live Messenger is dead; a part of Microsoft's ever-growing graveyard. Its intended replacement was Skype, but it never felt quite the same to me, while TeamSpeak and Ventrilo better served VOIP services for my friends.

Unofficially, the instant messenger lives on within a fan-made MSN Messenger project called escargot.chat — a replacement for the login service that unfortunately remains insecure (so don't use your usual passwords.)

It's a fun toy to play with, but it doesn't have much staying power beyond that. Modern replacements like Discord, Telegram, and WhatsApp are supported on multiple devices with easier access, so MSN Messenger doesn't have much reason to stick around outside nostalgic fancy.

Microsoft FrontPage

Before the modern age of smartphones and cellular data, "going on the computer" felt more like an active journey to the Internet — a place you left once you shut off your Windows PC or your 56k dial-up modem dropped its time-limited connection.

In that era, personal websites were booming. They often resembled blogs or diaries, but there were corners of the web that hosted ultra-niche hobbyist pages or dedicated fan zones for particular video games, sharing tips, tricks, and cheat codes that I would send to the family printer to waste some ink.

I was lucky to attend a school that took personal computing seriously, and basic HTML was a brief segment of that class. As a pre-teen, building tables with bracketed code was mildly entertaining, but slow to satisfy.

Thankfully, Microsoft FrontPage was a gateway to expressing my earliest designs of garish font choices and clashing background colors. Everything I made in Frontpage was awful, but it was mine, and that was the appeal — sharing knowledge of hidden clothing colors in Habbo Hotel, surrounded by animated .gif images of dancing hamsters. Bliss.

Where is it now?

Web development has become easier as these WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) apps, including successors like Adobe Dreamweaver, are now mainstays alongside browser-based page builders and editable templates.

While blogs are still popular on the modern Internet, social media has pulled most of their appeal to casual users on platforms like Facebook and professionally-driven LinkedIn.

FrontPage doesn't make sense for Microsoft to maintain now that demand is lower, and it would take a significant effort for it to evolve beyond the usefulness of existing competitors like Squarespace and Wix.

Windows Movie Maker

I developed an obsession with Windows Movie Maker years before the launch of streaming platforms like Google Video and its predecessor, YouTube.

It was still exciting to throw together homemade videos with images and clips from my hard drive alongside cliché animated titles set to awful bit-crushed .mp3 music ripped from a CD.

Those old enough to remember the days of Microsoft's .wmv (Windows Media Video) format might share similar memories of their "My Received Files" folder filling up with cheesy compilations shared across MSN Messenger in an aggressively compressed codec that resembled the garbled mess of RealPlayer's thankfully retired .rv format.

Nevertheless, it felt like a breakthrough in creativity at the time. I spent many weeks creating stop-motion animations with LEGO figures and a basic Logitech QuickCam, all set to movie soundtracks recorded with an awful 3.5mm microphone pointed at my television.

I might have apologized to my friends and family members who suffered through my 240p flicks, but truthfully, I regret nothing. Windows (Live) Movie Maker had such a significant influence on me that it led to me spending almost all of my savings on a MiniDV camcorder and a PCIe FireWire adapter to rip all the footage.

Where is it now?

Windows Live Movie Maker still sort of exists as a spiritual successor within Clipchamp, but only because Microsoft acquired the web-based video editor in 2021.

Clipchamp has an incredible number of competitors, as freemium options in CapCut and DaVinci Resolve offer powerful toolsets with paid memberships expanding even further, so there's little reason for Microsoft to keep Windows Movie Maker around separately.

Even the .wmv format has become deprecated, as .webm and modern codecs for .mp4 like AV1 and H.265 take over as standardized replacements across the Internet.

Clearly, my affinity for Windows and Microsoft in general hasn't faded, as evidenced by where I am today. While I might cling to rose-tinted nostalgia for bygone mascots like Clippy, I still love following the company and its continued efforts in the PC space, for better or worse.

Stick with us for more celebrations and criticisms of Microsoft's 50-year history as we continue to speculate, report, and analyze practically everything the company does in its various categories.

What you need to know

• A bug caused weather widgets and graphics powered by Microsoft to show temperatures as high as 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
• The issue seems to affect the Windows 11 weather widget and other displays powered by Microsoft's weather information.
• Generally speaking, the earth stays cooler than 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

For much of the world, Christmas and the holiday season is about landscapes covered in snow. In other regions, it's summertime, so this time of year is quite warm. But in a hypothetical world described by the Windows 11 weather widget, the end of 2024 will include melting roads and the world as we know it on fire. A strange bug has caused weather graphics powered by Microsoft to display temperature as high as 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

It's not exactly clear what's caused the Windows 11 weather widgets and other Microsoft-powered weather displays to claim the world will be hotter than the surface of the sun. For reference, the surface of the Sun is around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit while the inside of that star is roughly 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. At least it won't hit temperatures in the millions in Microsoft's imaginary nightmare of a fiery hellscape. What we do know is that the bug is relatively widespread.

Reddit user Guilty_Parking made a post about their PC showing 30,014 degrees Fahrenheit in the Windows 11 weather widget. Another user, darkfae83, shared a similar post.

windows11 from r/Windows11/comments/1h6t2cr/30014f_temperature_mistake

Perhaps the bug is actually an homage to Doom Eternal. It could also be a not-so-subtle reminder about Microsoft's commitment to combat climate change. In actuality, it's likely just a programing bug. I don't see the bug on my PC and haven't been able to replicate it but our Zachary Boddy ran into the issue on one of their devices.

I imagine the bug will be fixed soon. But it's caused some funny photos and gives me an excuse to share one of the funniest videos on the web.

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What you need to know

• Microsoft is revitalizing the MSN brand with a fresh new logo as it replaces "Microsoft Start" branding in Edge.
• In a statement to Windows Central, Microsoft has confirmed that it's unifying its news content services under the MSN brand once again.
• Microsoft rebranded many MSN services to "Microsoft Start" in 2021, but now seems to be reversing on that decision.

Last week, users began noticing that the Microsoft Start website and new tab page in Edge had been updated with a new MSN logo, seemingly replacing the Microsoft Start branding in many key areas. The new logo features Microsoft's modern design language, which has been applied to the iconic MSN butterfly.

In a statement to Windows Central, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that the company is moving its news content services back under the MSN brand:

"We regularly review our offerings to ensure we’re delivering the highest value for customers. As part of this review process, we are unifying our content services under the MSN brand to better simplify our experiences. There will be no impact on functionality as part of this change."

It's worth pointing out that even when Microsoft moved to the Microsoft Start branding in 2021, the company never fully retired MSN. The MSN.com homepage remained online, but articles and content would redirect to the Microsoft Start website if you wanted to read more. Now, everything appears to be going back under the MSN brand, with the Start.com and MicrosoftStart.com domains and articles redirecting to MSN.com.

As part of this move, Microsoft has also updated the Start apps on Android and iOS with the new MSN branding. Microsoft had initially intended to create "the everything app" with Start, similar to WeChat in China, an app that does everything from social networking to news, video, gaming, and payments.

MSN first launched in 1995 alongside Windows 95 as a subscription-based dial-up service before becoming the MSN.com web portal we're all familiar with in 1998. It's been the default home page of Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge, and it's also integrated directly into the Windows 10 and Windows 11 Taskbar via the News & Interests and Widgets flyout.

Because of this, MSN is still viewed by millions of people a day. In 2005, it was the second most visited portal website globally. MSN was also the brand used for many of Microsoft's internet services in the late 90s and early 2000s, including MSN Messenger, MSN Hotmail, and MSN Search, eventually replaced or renamed to Skype, Outlook, and Bing. In fact, most online Microsoft services from that era began life as an "MSN" product.

Today, MSN mainly exists as a news aggregator website, along with a few spin-off services such as MSN Weather, MSN Money, and MSN Gaming for online, browser-based games. While the brand is still recognizable, it's not as strong as it used to be. Similar to AOL, it's a recognized name from a bygone era. Still, the nostalgia around the brand is strong, which is likely worth more than an unrecognized brand like "Start."

What you need to know

• Beeper is a free app with an optional future paid subscription model that connects up to 14 chat services into a single desktop and mobile app.
• Previously charged $10 per month, the release version dropped its fee and iMessage support after Apple implemented a block.
• Compatible with Windows and Android, among other popular platforms, Beeper supports messaging, group chats, images and videos, and other rich chat elements.

After a period of exclusive access restricted by a waitlist, Beeper has opened its universal chat app to everyone across multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, and Android devices. The public launch follows Automattic's acquisition of Beeper, which already owns website builder WordPress, blogging platform Tumblr, and survey creator Crowdsignal.

Previously named Beeper Cloud, the truncated version also drops its more obvious aesthetic inspiration of 1990-era pagers in favor of a more vibrant, all-encompassing chat network theme as the official Beeper Android app leaves its beta status and stands alongside versions for Apple's iPhone, iPad, macOS, and even ChromeOS alongside Windows and Linux.

Unfortunately, while iOS and macOS are supported, iMessage isn't included after the development team had to abandon their efforts when Apple blocked Beeper to 'protect' the service. Still, it's arguably the best option to consolidate your long list of chat apps into one accessible place with a universal inbox, connecting up to 14 different networks, including:

• Telegram
• WhatsApp
• Signal
• X (Twitter)
• Facebook Messenger
• Instagram
• Slack
• LinkedIn
• Discord
• Android SMS
• Google Messages (SMS/RCS)
• IRC
• Matrix
• Google Chat

Beeper is available to download for free, following a business model that its developers announced in March 2023, removing a $10 monthly fee. It won't necessarily stay that way forever, as the app's FAQ page describes a plan to "offer an optional paid subscription at some point in the future." Thankfully, the key word there is "optional," which implies basic functionality will remain for free users, and "additional features like being able to add multiple acounts per network" will be reserved for paid, premium users.

I tested Beeper for Windows and Android, and it couldn't be easier to set up

I regularly use at least six of the fourteen chat apps that Beeper supports, potentially pushing that to eight if I really want to read some unusual private messages on 'that' ex-bird network. Admittedly, I don't have each installed as a dedicated app on my Windows 11 desktop, so I'm often slow to reply to chats on a handful of the more web-centric networks (sorry, LinkedIn.) Now, I don't have much of an excuse, as those conversations are grouped, albeit in a tidy manner, with a separate icon on a sidebar, with the likes of Instagram DMs.

Setting up Beeper on Windows 11 first is the best approach, as following up with the Android app on my Google Pixel smartphone relieved me of any hard work other than entering my username and password once. Telegram and WhatsApp both make admiral use of QR codes to authorize logins, while most of the others stick with a traditional login, which is made easier with saved passwords on Microsoft Edge or whatever browser you choose.

Beeper's instructional messages rightly suggest that you keep your original chat apps installed but mute their notifications (except for voice and video calls; those aren't supported yet). Allowing the Beeper app to display its notifications instead and access your contacts helps with relevant profile photos to identify contacts at a glance, whether or not you choose the 'Pro' view (as I do), highlighting per-network badges.

Once you're finished with set up and everything works, it'll feel familiar and even nostalgic to those like me who used Trillian around the turn of the millennium, which offered a similar solution to contacting friends fractured over chat networks like MSN Messenger, ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger.

Naturally, technology has progressed significantly since then, and a focus on privacy and safety has become a priority for Beeper's development team as they lean on the open-source 'Matrix' networking protocol for zero-access encryption and local recovery keys. However, end-to-end encryption may still be more effective per-app for specific apps like WhatsApp and Signal.

Personally, I dig it. The desktop app is simplistic without looking ugly, and the benefit of never missing a message on a rarely visited service is self-explanatory. The only downside is that now I have to reply to all of my friends and colleagues who have been left on read for too long (or do I?).

What you need to know

• The Weather app for Windows 11 and Windows 10 has received a significant update that's available for Insiders.
• The app now has a new home page with suggestions for your day, such as if you'll need an umbrella or a jacket.
• Toward the bottom of the homepage, you'll now see trending news stories.

Microsoft rolled out an update to the Weather app for Windows 11 and Windows 10 that brings a new home page and new features. The latest version of Weather also includes trending news topics, which may not be a welcome addition to everyone. The changes were spotted and then shared online by Twitter user FireCube.

Many have complained about Microsoft shoehorning the MSN news feed into apps and services. I've written about news within the Windows 11 widget panel in the past. A Reddit thread about the latest Weather app update includes several criticisms about the addition of news.

"I don't know why every MS product now have "recommended content" or in other words ads. This is just getting too bad. They've gone too far now," said Reddit user fancemon.

The trending news stories at the top seem to be weather related. That being said, the types of stories shown are similar in style to those that you'll see on the general MSN news feed.

In addition to the trending stories, you'll also see ads within the feed. 

The new layout should appear in version 4.53.50501 of the app or later. That build of the app is available to Insiders at the moment.

If you don't have the latest version of the Weather app yet, you can still see what the revamped interface will look like. The home page of the updated app is essentially identical to the MSN weather website.

Assuming that the updated Weather app is identical to the web version of MSN Weather, you will also see general news in addition to weather-related stories.

It's the spookiest time of the year, Halloween. In honor of the holiday, we have a horrific poll this weekend. We'd like to know which Microsoft product or service you'd like to see brought back from the dead. From MSN Messenger to the Windows 10 Start menu, Microsoft has a kill count higher than Michael Myers. In fact, it was difficult to keep the list of options short enough to make a functional poll. So: If you could pick just one item to have Microsoft resurrect, which would it be?

We expect Windows Phone to take the lion's share of the votes, but there are some other beloved Microsoft services that have been buried over the years. Many miss Windows Media Center being the center of the living room. There are still Zune enthusiasts, including one fan who made a digital coffee book dedicated to the history of the music player. Others mourned the end of Minecraft Earth.

If your favorite dead Microsoft product or service didn't make the list, please share it in the comments below. If you want to take a trip down memory lane, you can check out Killed by Microsoft for a complete list of everything the company has axed over the years.

Some Microsoft services are already honoring the spirit of Halloween. The Kinect is being used by ghost hunters looking to search out the undead. Some claim that the camera can track "skeletal figures that aren't there." We can't verify that claim, but we can confirm that it worked well with Sonic Free Riders, one of the favorite Kinect games of our news editor Robert Carnevale.

What you need to know

• MSN scored second place in the race to be the most-visited site on the web, as of September 2021.
• It managed 960.5 million visits during September.
• The BBC's websites beat it with a collective 1.1 billion visits.

Microsoft makes the Windows operating system that promotes its browser Edge, which in turn advertises its news vehicle MSN. That trickle-down of Microsoft products is one of the ways in which the tech giant has managed to get msn.com to the coveted number-two spot on the "most visited sites in the world, as of September 2021" list (via Press Gazette).

The only thing able to beat out msn.com was a tag-team of BBCs: bbc.co.uk and bbc.com, which combined managed a whopping 1.1 billion visits in September, while msn.com "only" managed 960.5 million. CNN came in at a distant third with 583.8 million visits.

As mentioned above, it's not like MSN rose to that spot all by its lonesome. It had the power of Windows and, by extension, its default browser Edge to help claim the number two spot. If you've ever looked at Edge's default landing page, you'll notice it's filled with little boxes promoting stories about celebrities, movies, politics, and everything else under the sun. That's all MSN. And you landing there is part of how it gets its gigantic viewership figures.

MSN is a big-enough deal for Microsoft that it's helped spawn the likes of Microsoft Start and got a not-so-indirect shoutout during Microsoft's most recent quarterly earnings report. In that report, wherein the company stated it managed $45.3 billion in revenue for the quarter, it was mentioned that "search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 40%." In other words, Bing and MSN were big business for Microsoft, building off of Edge and Windows as part of one large, synergistic family.

What you need to know

• Microsoft has announced a new personalized news feed service.
• The new app and service is called Microsoft Start and is available on iOS, Android, and the web.
• It's available today and builds off MSN and Microsoft News.
• People already running Microsoft News on iOS and Android will get an app update that refreshes the experience with the new Start design, layout, and icon.

Microsoft has today announced that it is launching a new personalized feed website called "Microsoft Start," designed to make it easy to gather news and information content from premium publishers in one place. The company says that Microsoft Start builds off the legacy of MSN and Microsoft News, with enhanced AI and machine learning paired with human moderation to help curate content.

Microsoft Start is available starting today, and focuses on making it easy to bring all your interests together into one place. Just like MSN today, the service will present breaking news and on-topic articles on the front page, but Microsoft Start makes it so that the user can customize what exactly shows up there.

Liet Ben-Zur, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft describes the service:

The new Microsoft Start service is what powers the Windows 10 "news and interests" experience, as well as the Widgets panel found in Windows 11. It's also what users will find when they open a new tab in Microsoft Edge, and users can download a dedicated Microsoft Start app for Android or iOS, as well as access the service via the web (the mobile app replaces the current Microsoft News app on iOS and Android).

Microsoft Start appears to be a combination of a number of other Microsoft products and services, including MSN, Cortana, and more. Cortana used to be able to learn your interests and display latest news and headlines in its feed, as well as give you travel time estimates based on your location. Now, these feature has returned as part of Microsoft Start.

Microsoft says that Microsoft Start doesn't replace MSN.com, and the dedicated Microsoft News app for Windows 10 and Windows 11 will continue to exist for the time being.

What you need to know

• Microsoft will discontinue the MSN Sports app for Windows 10 on July 20, 2021.
• The app now shows a message warning about its upcoming end of support.
• Microsoft has not provided a reason for the end of the Windows app at this time.
• The Android and iOS versions of MSN Sports appear to be unaffected by this change.

Microsoft's MSN Sports app will be discontinued on July 20, 2021. If you open the app now, you'll see a message warning you about its end of support. Following that cutoff date, you won't be able to install the MSN Sports app through the Microsoft Store.

The in-app message was spotted by OnMSFT. The message doesn't provide a reason for the app being discontinued. It reads:

This move may be the result of Microsoft focusing on the widgets panel on Windows 11, which includes news, sports, and weather. While some of the functionality of the MSN Sports app lives on within Windows 11, it isn't the same as having a dedicated app.

The message was first seen on a PC running version 4.54.31792.0 of the MSN Sports app. As pointed out by OnMSFT, the iOS and Android versions of MSN Sports don't appear to be affected by this change. We'll have to wait to see if Microsoft clarifies the statuses of its various MSN Sports apps.

What you need to know

• Microsoft News shared figures about readership, revenue shared, and more.
• Microsoft News has shared over $1 billion with publishing partners since 2014.
• Microsoft News has 550 million monthly readers.

Microsoft News is a popular news service that gathers together content from a large collection of publishing partners. The service has over 500 million monthly users across MSN, Bing News, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Launcher, and Microsoft's apps on iOS, Android, and Windows. Microsoft News shared figures this week regarding how much revenue it's shared with publishing partners and how it's expanded since its launch.

Microsoft News moved away from creating its own content in 2014, instead focusing on licensing and curating content from other publishers. The service licenses content from over 4,500 media brands and uses a mixture of AI and human insight to curate content across its various delivery mediums. Since shifting to this approach of licensing content, Microsoft has shared over $1 billion with publishing partners.

A blog post from Microsoft News also shares that the service is available across 180 countries and is in 31 languages. This week, Microsoft also released a blog post that outlines several ways the company will support journalism, including supporting local newsrooms.

What you need to know

• Microsoft's Weather app now shows weather news on its front page.
• The feature allows you to easily browse through and expand weather news.
• The feature appears to be rolling out gradually.

Microsoft's Weather app now shows a weather news section on its front page. The feature allows you to browse through weather headlines and expand stories to read more about the weather in your area. You can browse through the biggest stories on the homepage or click "See All" to see more weather news stories.

The feature appears to be rolling out gradually or to be in testing. The update comes when the app bumps from v 4.36.201714.0 to v 4.43.21842.0. One member of our staff saw the update as part of a general release, while another has not seen the change yet despite checking for an update. The system that did see the update was not part of the Windows Insider program.

What you need to know

• Microsoft reportedly cut several members of its MSN staff.
• The move continues a trend by MSN to move toward AI.
• MSN sparked controversy when AI confused two multiracial singers in the pop group Little Mix.

Microsoft is making further cuts to its MSN team, according to a recent report from GeekWire. The move continues MSN's trend of moving away from humans toward AI.

In June, Microsoft eliminated several MSN contract positions. These newly reported layoffs are for direct employees of MSN, including senior leaders of the Microsoft News editorial team, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke with GeekWire. The cuts to MSN staff come as part of Microsoft's annual fiscal year-end business review, according to GeekWire's sources.

MSN's initial move toward AI caused a stir when the service accidentally confused two multiracial singers from the pop group Little Mix. The story gained traction as it occurred soon after MSN let several human editors go.

Former MSN Money editor Bryan Joiner recently shared his thoughts on being replaced by AI. The piece goes over how Joiner believes AI can't perform the role of humans in the case of MSN.

What you need to know

• Microsoft's AI software confused two stars of the singing group Little Mix.
• The mix up led to frustration because both stars are multiracial.
• Little Mix's Jade Thirlwall, who was confused for Leigh-Anne Pinnock has experienced 'horrific' racism at school, which she discussed recently.

Microsoft's AI made a mistake this week that's created quite a bit of tension. The AI software, which now selects images for MSN, confused Little Mix singers Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock. On a story which ran on MSN.com, a picture of Pinnock was used instead of Thirlwall. The mix up led to criticism as both stars are multiracial, leading to accusations of racism by MSN (via The Guardian). The misused image is particularly inflammatory as the article that had the incorrect image was about Thirlwall experiencing 'horrific' racism while at school.

Thirlwall expressed her frustration on her Instagram story, stating, "@MSN If you're going to copy and paste articles from other accurate media outlets, you might want to make sure you're using an image of the correct mixed race member of the group." She also stated, "This shit happens to @leighannepinnock and I ALL THE TIME that it's become a running joke," adding, "It offends me that you couldn't differentiate the two women of colour out of four members of a group … DO BETTER!"

Sources at Microsoft spoke with The Guardian regarding the post, stating that the incorrect image was selected by Microsoft AI software, which is used to edit parts of Microsoft's news site.

Microsoft recently decided to fire several human journalists and to replace them with AI. The incorrect image in the article comes at a particularly bad time, as racial tensions flair up in the United States and around the world. Thirlwall recently attended a Black Lives Matter protest in London and shared her experiences with racism at school.

When asked about the incorrect image use, a Microsoft spokesperson said, "As soon as we became aware of this issue, we immediately took action to resolve it and have replaced the incorrect image."

One Microsoft member of staff shared their thoughts on the incident with The Guardian, stating, "With all the anti-racism protests at the moment, now is not the time to be making mistakes."

The unfortunate error could have been caused by a wide range of factors. As pointed out by The Verge, the mistake could be caused by mislabeled pictures provided by wire services.

According to The Guardian, the human staff members at MSN have been warned that coverage critical of the incident could be pushed to the MSN homepage by the AI. Reportedly, the staff have been told to remove the stories covering the AI mix up if the AI does this.

What you need to know

• Microsoft will reportedly replace roughly 50 journalists with AI.
• Those losing their jobs currently curate stories, write headlines, and select pictures for MSN.
• Those affected will reportedly lose their jobs at the end of June.

Dozens of contract journalists will reportedly lose their jobs with MSN by the end of the month. The Seattle Times reports that Microsoft will not renew the contract of roughly 50 news production contractors working at MSN. Microsoft will replace the workload of these employees with artificial intelligence, according to people close with the situation that spoke with The Seattle Times.

The employees are currently contracted through staffing agencies Aquent, IFG, and MAQ Consulting. They were notified last Wednesday that their contracts would not go beyond June 30.

"Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis," said a Microsoft spokesman in a statement. "This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time to time, re-deployment in others. These decisions are not the result of the current pandemic."

Microsoft will retain full-time news producers that are employed by Microsoft. They fill a similar role to the contractors losing their jobs.

Speaking anonymously to The Seattle Times, some of the employees specified that AI will be utilized to replace their work. The tasks include using algorithms to identify trending news stories and optimizing content by rewriting headlines and adding photographs and slideshows. One of the contractors losing their job stated, "It's been semi-automated for a few months but now it's full speed ahead," adding, "It's demoralizing to think machines can replace us but there you go."

In addition to the work mentioned above, the contractors also planned content and worked with partner news sites.

What you need to know

• Microsoft News on Android is now available in Arabic and Hebrew.
• The app has four new editions, covering the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel.
• The app shows you news from your region, so creating regionalized variants is more important than it is for some other apps.

Microsoft News for Android gained support for two new languages and four new countries in a recent update. The update brings support for Hebrew and Arabic and comes with editions for the United Arab Emirates (Arabic), Saudi Arabia (Arabic), Egypt (Arabic), and Israel (Hebrew). The update brings the app to 20.023.01 and doesn't seem to come with any other changes. Below is Microsoft's complete changelog for the update:

Microsoft News shows you news from your region, so creating a regionalized edition of the app is more important than many general apps. Microsoft curates news for the app with a joint effort of human editors and artificial intelligence to show people relevant news.

Microsoft overhauled the design of the Microsoft News app back in the Summer of 2018. It features a clean layout and a dark mode that's friendly on your device's battery. You can personalize the app to show you a specific news experience. The app features content from over 3,000 global brands and currently has editions in over 20 countries. Thanks to this update, that list of countries now includes The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel.

Microsoft is set to drop support for its Windows 8.1 MSN apps next month. In a message spotted by Twitter user Brawl345 (via Dr Windows), Microsoft has begun alerting users, through messages in MSN News and MSN Weather, that the apps will be discontinued as of June 3, 2019.

The alert reads (translated from German):

Given that Microsoft's focus is now on the Microsoft News and Weather apps for Windows 10, it's not entirely surprising to see that the Windows 8.1 apps will be discontinued soon.

Microsoft has already stopped accepting new app submissions for Windows 8 and 8.1, and it is set to stop distributing app updates to Windows 8 as of July 1, according to a blog post from last August. The same fate awaits app updates for Windows 8.1 devices starting July 1, 2023.

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Over the weekend, Microsoft confirmed that its email services suffered a breach, allowing hackers to view data associated with MSN, Hotmail, and Outlook email accounts.

In a statement to TechCrunch, Microsoft said that the hackers had used a customer support agent's compromised credentials to view users' email addresses, folder names, subject lines, and lists of email addresses that affected users had corresponded with.

"We addressed this scheme, which affected a limited subset of consumer accounts, by disabling the compromised credentials and blocking the perpetrators' access," a Microsoft spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement.

In its initial statement, Microsoft said that the contents of emails weren't visible to the hackers. However, Motherboard later confirmed with Microsoft that email contents for "around six percent" of customers affected by the breach were impacted.

Microsoft has sent out email notifications to those who were affected by the breach, and it recommends that users change their passwords as a precautionary measure. The company says that hackers had access to the information between January 1 and March 28, but an anonymous source speaking with Motherboard offered a conflicting timeframe, saying that "hackers had access for at least six months."

According to Microsoft, corporate-level accounts were not affected by the breach.

The MSN News app for Android and iOS is getting a new name: Microsoft News. We first noticed the rebranding in an update to the beta version of the app on Android, but OnMSFT has also confirmed the new moniker is rolling out for iOS beta testers as well.

Aside from the new name, there isn't much else to see here. However, users will have to go through a new setup experience, which introduces the new name and asks you to check off your interests, after updating.

The renaming follows a major update that rolled out to beta testers in January, bringing a whole new look to the app. The revamp included the ability to keep your news interests in sync across all devices, a dark theme, and continuous scrolling from one article to the next.

If you're a beta tester, you can grab the updated app for Android and iOS now. There's no timeline on when the revamp will make its way to the release version, but I wouldn't expect it to be too far off.

• See at Google Play
• See at the App Store

Microsoft has introduced a new MSN News beta for Android and iOS, bringing along a complete revamp of the app with a new look and experience on both platforms. On top of the new look, Microsoft has tucked in a number of other tweaks that make the app feel more modern.

Though it's in beta, the revamp looks fairly polished from the outset. After going through an initial setup process, during which you choose topics that interest you, the app will default to a "My News" section that acts as an aggregator for the top headlines from topics you like. From there, you can use a pivot menu to swipe between topics, such as "Top Stories," "World," "Politics," and more. Across the bottom of the app, you'll find navigation options that let you quickly tab between your settings, interests, and more. There's even a dark theme toggle if that's your thing.

Here's a full look at what's new in this beta, according to Microsoft:

• A first-run experience helps get you set up quickly
• The look and feel is updated and tailored to Android
• Personalize the app by choosing from hundreds of topics to follow
• You can roam your interests across all your devices
• A widget gives you easy access to MSN News
• A dark theme makes it easier to read at night
• Local news is available for many cities
• You can scroll continuously from one article to the next

The new MSN News beta app is available for anyone to check out on Android by signing up to be a tester on Google Play. If you're using an iPhone, space through Apple's TestFlight program is fairly limited, so you'll have to sign up and wait for an invite.

Back on November 11, Microsoft updated their MSN News and Weather apps to bring a few new features from the Anniversary Update.

Build 4.17.72 of MSN News for Mobile and PC brought chase-able Tiles where "Live tile articles now appear at the top of My News (for the News app)." The same update brought an optional transparent Live Tile for Weather on Mobile as well.

Tonight, both of those apps have been released for Production (non-Insider) with build 4.17.74 for PC and Mobile. Those versions match the current Fast and Slow Ring Insider builds as well. Additional changes include "Performance, reliability and accessibility improvements" and "general bug fixes."

Note: Only MSN Weather on Mobile has the transparent Tile. MSN News gets the chase-able tile feature.

With just a 10-day turnaround Microsoft is making quick use of the Insider program to test and push out new features right away to all Windows 10 users.

Thanks, Robert de N., for the tip!

Download MSN News in the Windows Store

Download MSN Weather in the Windows Store

Earlier today Microsoft pushed out an update to MSN Weather that brought an optional transparent Live Tile for Mobile. That was not all, however, as the software giant is updating all the MSN apps including News, Money, and Sports as well – at least for those on the Insider Fast Ring.

The most interesting feature, however, is for MSN News v4.17.72.0, which finally grabs a 'Chaseable' Live Tile. Announced at Build earlier this year the feature now shows you the article on the Live Tile at the top of the app when opened.

For MSN News Microsoft describes the feature in the changelog as "Live tile articles now appear at the top of My News (for the News app)." In playing with the app for a few minutes, we noticed that the Tile rotates through stories and those stories are all at the top of the My News area as expected. It makes finding the Live Tile content much easier.

Also, there are the usual changes:

• Performance, reliability and accessibility improvements
• General bug fixes

This is one of the first times we have seen Microsoft apps embrace Chaseable Tiles, which were introduced to developers with the Anniversary Update. Hopefully, as more PCs and Mobiles get on the Anniversary Update, we'll see more developers get on board (that includes our apps too).

Users in the Slow and Release Preview Insider rings should expect the new app to hit their devices in the coming week, with a final push to Production (non-Insiders) shortly after that.

Download MSN News in the Windows Store

Little by little Microsoft is bringing user-requested features to the Windows 10 OS for PC and Mobile. Today, we see a small but popular request put to action: transparent live tiles.

The default MSN Weather app for PC and Mobile today was updated to version 4.17.72, but only for those in the Insider Fast Ring (we haven't tried the other Insider rings just yet). The standard production branch is at 4.16.15.0.

The big change is simply that by default the Weather Live Tile is now transparent. Previously, the Live tile was always a blue color with clouds reflecting the current weather conditions. If you prefer the old style, there is no need for concern as transparency is an option under the app's settings.

In the scheme of things, this is a small addition, but it goes a long way for those on Mobile who desire a clean, clear Start screen. Hopefully, Skype won't be too far behind.

For those on production aka non-Insider builds, you'll likely get the update within the next few weeks.

Download MSN Weather in the Windows Store

Thanks, Loren B., for the tip!

Microsoft updated a number of its Windows 10 apps today for non-Insiders. The MSN News app added a new Dark theme, while the Groove Music app has added Explore features and local metadata editing.

The MSN News app added the Dark theme for members of the Windows Insider program in July, but now the new update, which went from version 4.11.156 to 4.13.47 has made that theme available for all Windows 10 users.

Similarly, the Groove Music app added the new Explore and metadata features in previous Insider updates, but the new version for all Windows 10 owners has included those features. The version number has jumped from 3.6.2304 to 3.6.2398

Again, as seen in the screenshot above, these are just two of many Microsoft core apps that have received updates on production. If you are on Insider Fast, Slow, or Release Preview Rings you will likely not see any new updates.

If you do notice any other new features in the apps, please let us know in the comments.

Thanks to Jeremy for the tip!

Download MSN News from the Windows Store

Download Groove from the Windows Store

Read More

• How to use Explore and Your Groove in Microsoft Groove
• Everything you need to know about the Groove music app on Windows 10

Microsoft's MSN Sports app has been updated for Windows Phone and Windows 10 on PC and Mobile. Among other things, it adds a new Rio 2016 Olympics category so sports fans can keep track of the massive event in Brazil that begins next week.

From the looks of the update, the new Rio 2016 Olympics category will not only include news and videos from the event, but fans will also be able to keep track of each country's medal count during its two week run. Here's a look at the change log for the MSN Sports update:

• 2016 Rio Olympics News Coverage is now available!
• Ability to copy links to easily share articles, slideshows and videos
• Performance, reliability and accessibility improvements
• General bug fixes

Thanks to Rakesh Singh for the tip!

Download MSN Sports from the Windows Store

Late last night, the suite of MSN Apps for Windows 10 were updated at least for those on Insider Rings (Release Preview, Slow, Fast). The update bumps MSN News to 4.12.184 (Production is 4.11.156) and with it comes a proper full dark theme.

Dark theme was introduced earlier in the year for MSN News and the other apps, but it was only for when reading articles and not the app itself. Now, at least for MSN News, the whole app matches the new dark theme option in Windows10 for PC and Mobile. Even better, toggling the light/dark theme option is now instant and feels like a light switch.

Oddly, the option is not yet available for MSN Sports, and Weather does not need it (although the menus to match your theme choice just not the banner areas). Also, some articles do not pull down in dark mode if only because they are not being processed through Microsoft's engine.

Still, overall it is great to see MSN News get the black treatment, which works much better for night time reading. If you're not on any of the Insider rings you can take a peek at these screenshots to see what full dark mode is like.

We're only a couple of weeks away from the big Anniversary Update hitting the Windows 10 family across the board, which includes the Xbox One console. Preview members have been seeing little snippets of what's to come, but right now the latest build gives access to MSN Weather, Microsoft's own app that is now universal across phones, PCs and the console.

It's probably not the first app you might want in your living room, but what it does right now is give us an early look at how a Universal App will translate across the big(ger) screen.

For the most part it's exactly what you'd expect.

In some cases there will be user interface tweaks that need to be made in order to adapt an application for the TV. Aside from everything looking generally larger than it does on the PC, MSN Weather is the exact same app you're familiar with from the other Windows 10 versions. Well, almost. There doesn't seem to be the "News" section present on the console, but that's about all that seems to be missing so far. The 'hamburger' menu completely disappears on the console, too, meaning you have to slide it out fully to access the other sections of the app.

Navigating is fairly straight forward. Moving around will auto-select elements within the UI, though when you're looking at a map that then switches to being an on-screen cursor. Locking on to your location seems to yield mixed results. We've had both very fast and accurate pin-pointing of the city we're in and results saying we're in France. And since it hooks in to your Microsoft account, so long as you're signed in on other devices your favorite locations will be synced across them.

One thing that would be nice down the road, is if Microsoft made this an app that can be snapped. Reducing to the phone UI at the side of the screen would be pretty useful for quickly checking the forecast while you're doing something else.

The app itself isn't that exciting, but it is fairly slick and so far, problem free. The bigger picture is what it means for the future, and it really does look like current Windows 10 apps will scale up to the Xbox One just fine. We're not developers, so we can't say how easy it is or isn't. But this here is just a taster and it's got us ready and waiting for an onslaught of apps to come.

Check out some more images below. If you're on the preview program you can head into the Store and download it right now to check out yourselves.

As we get ready for Universal Apps to start hitting the Xbox One, we're already getting a look at one from Microsoft that's set to make the leap. As of the latest Preview Program build, MSN Weather has appeared as an app in the "Ready to Install" list on the console.

But while it's there and we've been able to install it, it's definitely not ready to go just yet.

The app was first reported on r/xboxone and we've verified it is indeed correct. While the Reddit post said you couldn't install MSN Weather, we've been able to download and install it but it errors out when you try to launch.

The Store listing is there to see and Xbox One has been added to the list of supported devices for the app, alongside phone, PC and HoloLens. There are no screenshots of what the Xbox One version looks like, but a rough guess would leave us expecting it to look a lot like the PC version.

As we get closer to the launch of the Anniversary Update across all Windows 10 products, it's likely we'll start to hear much more about console apps coming soon. Exciting times for sure.

Microsoft has begun rolling out a pretty big update to MSN News on Windows 10 and Mobile, bringing features that were recently only available to Fast ring Insiders. Now available to everyone, MSN News version 4.11.155.0 brings the ability to add specific news sources to different topics.

As we reported when this first hit the Fast ring, you can start using the new feature by heading to Interests in the sidebar. From there, you can sort through different categories like Music, Science, Politics and more to select your favorite news outlets for each.

The feature brings a bit of added customization to MSN News, which should be welcome by many users. If you'd like to check it out and start customizing your categories, you can grab the latest update from the Windows Store now.

Thanks to Scionluna for the tip!

Download MSN News from the Windows Store

Microsoft has pushed out an update tonight for their MSN News app for Windows 10 and Mobile in the Fast Ring. The latest update adds a highly requested feature that lets you add specific news sources to various topics. This new feature is in addition to the already existing Interests feature, which provides general categories to choose from when setting up the app.

Build 4.11.123.0 is now rolling out to the Fast Ring for Mobile and PC. That version is ahead of Production, which sits at 4.9.76.

The new Sources feature appears in the sidebar under Interests. The user can go through various categories like Sports, National & World News, Music, Science, Technology, Politics, and more and star their favorite news outlets for sourcing.

Presumably, the user will then see more news coming from those outlets than Microsoft's default feed. Users can also open the feed and choose news stories direct from those sites in a single feed e.g. only American Scientist.

In a similar move, Microsoft recently let users "mute" sites that appeared in their Cortana feed. However, users cannot do that (yet) on MSN News. Instead, it is more of an opt-in to specific sites rather than opt-out of ones you do not enjoy. Users can also search for news sources. However, the offering is limited to what MSN News has already preselected and is unlike a custom RSS feed.

Overall, this seems like the right move to let users add news from specific sites, but will fall short of what people tend to want, which is to view sources that only reflect their own worldview. While many of us see that as an unhealthy way to get your news that has not stopped users from wanting such a feature.

Besides this new feature, users will be prompted to go through their Interests again the first time the app is launched as Microsoft has added more categories to choose from.

Grab the latest update for MSN News and let us know what you think.

Download MSN News for Windows 10

Microsoft will shut down its MSN site in China on June 7. The move represents a shift away from offering content in China to delivering services and products to Windows 10 devices.

According to The Wall Street Journal

Microsoft pushed out updates for its suite of MSN apps for Windows 10 Mobile this morning. It also released a new version of its Glance Screen app as well.

It's not immediately clear what's new in the MSN or Glance Screen apps, since the published change logs appear to be old. The Glance Screen version number is now 4.1.0.151 and, according to one of our tips, it appears that the background images might be working again for some users who have had problems with this feature.

Let us know if you notice anything else that may be new or interesting after you finish downloading and updating the apps

Thanks to everyone who tipped us!

• Download MSN Weather
• Download MSN Sports
• Download MSN News
• Download MSN Money
• Download Glance Screen

Looks like the last update for MSN News brought a new feature that slipped by our eyes: night mode.

The feature appears in both the Mobile and PC versions of the app as a little toggle near the bottom of an article (or globally in the app settings). Switching it on simply toggles the article background from white to black and reverses the text color.

So-called night mode settings have been very popular in apps lately, and with how often we stay up using our phones and computers we can understand why. Switching the background to black makes reading easier on your eyes — light text on a dark background is much easier in the darkness than "day" modes, i.e. looking directly into a light bulb.

Unfortunately, there are two caveats we have found:

1. The theme does not change the white borders of the app, which leaves an odd contrast
2. Custom article categories do not have the night mode feature, only articles that Microsoft sets as curated for the default sections

So far, we have not seen the dark mode feature roll out to MSN Money and other apps although Outlook did pick it up a few months ago. Likewise, other Windows 10 apps like Groove Music and Movies & TV have also grabbed user-controllable dark theme too.

What other apps would you like to get a night mode?

Thanks, Dennis R., for the tip!

Microsoft has rolled out an update for its MSN suite of apps, available for Windows 10. The latest release of MSN Weather, MSN Money, MSN Sports and MSN News bumps the respective apps up to a more recent build, offering improvements that are too good to be listed on the version notes tab of the Windows Store.

As these are Universal apps, you'll be seeing the updates roll out across your Windows 10-powered PC and tablet, as well as smartphones running Windows 10 Mobile. According to MicrosoftInsider.es, we're looking at some minor improvements for both weather and News. The former adding barometer support, while News now features a night/dark mode for articles.

Let us know if you notice anything else that may be new after updating the apps on your smartphone or PC.

Thanks to everyone who tipped us!

• Download MSN Weather
• Download MSN Sports
• Download MSN News
• Download MSN Money

Members of Microsoft's Bing Rewards program in the US will now be able to earn a few extra points each day. The company has announced that it will now allow those members to earn points while they are on the MSN website.

In case you are unfamiliar with Bing Rewards, its a free program in the US that rewards people with points when they use the Bing search engine on both their PC and mobile device. You can earn a certain amount of points per day, and they can used to purchase e-gift cards from Microsoft, Amazon and others. They can also be used to enter contests and can even be given to charity. Now those same points can be earned by checking a selected number of stories and videos on MSN

Microsoft said:

There is one small catch: the MSN Bing Rewards points can only be earned when users are on a PC or tablet; they cannot be claimed on smartphones.

Source: Bing blog

Microsoft has pushed out updates to a duo of its own apps on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile, bringing new versions of MSN Weather and News. While Weather doesn't seem to have gained anything notable in this update, News now has a new feature that should be welcome to many: Breaking news alerts.

As you'd expect, enabling breaking news alerts in the News app will allow you to receive notifications when something particularly big or important is happening. To enable the setting, simply head into the Settings menu in the News app and toggle the Breaking News Alerts switch to "On" under the Notifications heading.

While the Weather update isn't nearly as exciting, it most likely contains some bug fixes and performance improvements as well. If you'd like to grab either update, hit up the links below. And be sure to shout out in the comments if you happen to spot anything notable that we missed.

Thanks for the tips, Tony and Mark!

• Download MSN Weather from the Windows Store
• Download MSN News from the Windows 10 Store

Microsoft is again pushing out updates to some of its core apps on Windows 10, this time bringing new versions of MSN News, Weather and Sports. Since these are universal apps, you should also see the updates hitting Windows 10 Mobile as well. Also on the docket is the Windows Phone 8.1 version of the News app.

As usual, there are no change logs to go along with these updates, and we haven't spotted anything new quite yet. Still, the updates likely address some bugs and bring some performance improvements along for the ride, so they're worth clicking that update button if you see it. If you happen to spot anything new that we missed, be sure to shout out in the comments below.

• Download MSN Weather from the Windows Store
• Download MSN Sports from the Windows Store
• Download MSN News from the Windows Store

In addition to Photosynth, Microsoft will also be shutting down a few of its MSN apps as well, including MSN Food & Drink, Health & Fitness, and Travel apps. Microsoft sent out an email to users, letting them know that the apps will be shutting down this fall, and detailing how to get their data out of them. In a statement to VentureBeat, a Miscrosoft spokesperson said:

The first apps to shut down will be MSN Food & Drink, and MSN Travel, which takes place on September 28, 2015. MSN Health & Fitness users will have a little more time, as the app is due to shut down on November 1, 2015. On these dates, the apps will be removed from their respective stores, and will no longer be accessible to users.

Source: VentureBeat

Late tonight, some new app updates have rolled through for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile.

The big change is in regards to the Music apps, which now grabs the new branding of Groove Music announced earlier this week. Everything from the new Live Tile (which reveals now playing info) to the app itself has the new Groove label on it. No other changes are noted.

The version has been updated for phone and Windows 10 desktop. Look for version 3.6.1154.0 in the Store for the Groove labeled release.

Download Groove Music for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile

Also, the MSN Weather app for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile has been updated to version 4.4.156.0 and 4.4.157.0 (for Mobile). There appear to be some minor UI tweaks and performance improvements, but the biggest change is the removal of ads within the app. Indeed, many users using the Insider feedback app have complained about ads within Microsoft's first-party apps and it looks like they may be listening. Although we will have to see if this is just a glitch or a change in policy.

Download MSN Weather for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile

If you are using Windows 10 grab the apps and let us know what you think!

Thanks, Aakash S., for the tip!

Microsoft has new updates available for the Windows Phone versions of its MSN Money, News and Sports apps. However, they appear to be minor updates, with just some unnamed bug fixes and improvements.

Here's the breakdown: MSN Money, News and Sports all now has the version number of 3.1.4.501. The Money app's change log shows "Bug fixes" listed, with the News app showing "Stability improvements" and the Sports app posting "Performance improvements". The Weather app shows both "Performance improvements" and " Live tile update fix" in its change notes. In other words, there's not much to these updates, but if you happen to find something that's noticeable, let us know in the comments.

Thanks to Abhishek for the tip!

Download MSN Money for Windows Phone (Free)

Download MSN News for Windows Phone (Free)

Download MSN Sports for Windows Phone (Free)

Download MSN Weather for Windows Phone (Free)

Microsoft's new universal Windows MSN apps have been out for Windows 10 PC for a few weeks now, but we are now seeing them arrive for phones as well.

MSN Weather, News, Sports and Money all have the new design that ditches pivots for split-view menus. Indeed, all the new Microsoft apps do feel very coherent in that their design elements are all reused for each app. This experience gives an enjoyable familiarity when using Windows 10 Mobile, something we are sure to see more of in the future.

For now, we will just leave the new screenshots below to give you an idea of the new design for mobile. We will say they do feel quite fast and fluid when in use, which is a impressive sign.

MSN Weather

MSN News

MSN Sports

MSN Money

Shout out in comments on what you think and if you are finally coming around to the new design language found in Windows 10 and universal apps.

Thanks, Aakash S., for the tip

Microsoft just released a new preview of Windows 10 (build 10122) today, but the company is also rolling out a wave of updates for the Windows Store (beta). Additionally, many of its universal Windows apps, including the MSN suite are getting refreshes as well.

Let's take a look and what is new!

Perhaps the most noticeable changes will be found in the Store (beta) and on the MSN apps. Then there others, such as the Music and Video Preview, Word Preview, Get Started, Windows Feedback and many more apps are also getting updated, but only to fix known issues and various other problems.

Windows Store (beta)

As you probably noticed, the Windows Store (beta) behaves like an app, and it also gets updated like one. The new update brings many interesting UI tweaks and a few new additions. For example, in the list of feature apps, app tiles now take the background color based on the app's icon color scheme. Also, the underline on links are no longer present in most areas, the Store icon goes from gray to blue, and now the main navigation bar has a transparent effect when scrolling.

With the new update, users will notice a new My Library option listed in the profile menu. Inside My Library, users will find all their apps and games that were acquired by the Windows Store.

The main area is called "Refine" and only shows a partial list of apps and games you already own. To view the complete list, simply click Show All from the top-right corner or by clicking Apps or Games from the top-left corner of the screen.

A welcome new addition are the options now available in the settings area. Before users will only the version information of the app, but now we can see that Microsoft is including an option for users to enable or disable automatic app updates. Also, there is a link to manage your devices online, and it appears that in the future users will be able to limit to get Live Tiles updates only over Wi-Fi.

MSN apps

Although, we have recently seen a major overhauled of the MSN apps, Microsoft is pushing new improvements to most of these new MSN apps. Weather and News are the apps that get the most treatment.

The Weather universal app for Windows 10 features a fresh new look. All the weather information now appears centered on the screen; the new background covers the entire screen, and like we have previously seen the content continues to scroll vertically.

Microsoft seems to have removed the main navigation bar and users can only move around using the menu located on the left, which can be expanded using the hamburger button on the top-left corner of the screen. Like before, users can access forecast data, maps, historical weather, places, and weather-related news. Also, users will now find the setting and profile button at the bottom of the menu.

The News Universal app for Windows 10 looks pretty much unchanged. However, the main menu and title bar now have a gray background color. There is also a new dark theme for the main menu (just like the Weather and various other apps). Articles also have a new style format, very similar to the style Microsoft uses for MSN.com.

The Money app shows pretty much all the same changes found in the News app. And Sports looks pretty much unchanged. The only thing new are the tiles below the feature article. They now have a white background instead of a dark one.

Wrapping things up

Although, these aren't huge changes they are welcome additions. The Windows Store (beta) is finally taking shape, and it looks more consistent in its design. The MSN apps are also starting to come together. But Microsoft still has a lot of work to do. The Sports app doesn't include the majority of the changes we're seeing today in the other apps, and the software giant has yet to release a new Food & Drink and Health & Fitness apps.

While the latest official release of Windows 10 Technical Preview still stuck in build 10049, a new preview of the operating system (build 10056) recently leaked onto the web. This release of the OS unveiled a number of changes, improvements and updated apps including a new Weather app.

Additionally, Microsoft is also including new redesigned version of its Sports, Money, and News apps (now called MSN Apps).

All these new apps are universal, which means that they run on PCs, tablets, and phones. All the new MSN apps introduce a fresh new design. Microsoft is also changing the scrolling to a traditional vertical orientation (moving away from the awkward horizontal scrolling that only made sense on tablets).

Let's have a look as to what's new in these apps for Windows 10:

Sports

Interesting enough all the new apps share a similar look and feel to the same sections in MSN.com. When launching Sports, you will see the top featured article front and center and access to the different sections. Scrolling down the page, you'll find all the latest article arrange on a Pinterest's like grid.

The new MSN Sports app also features a Scoreboard, Slideshows, and Videos section. In addition, you can do pretty much everything you were able to do before, like follow your favorites sports teams, read statistics, and more. Also, clicking the hamburger menu button in the top-left corner of the app will the you access to settings and list of your favorite teams.

Money

Money for Windows 10 also features a main finance article when you first open the app. Unlike the Sports app, MSN Money does not feature a top menu with different sections; instead, you have to click the hamburger menu button to see a listing of what is available to you. For example, Market data, which currently is not available, Watchlist, News, Personal Finance, Currencies, Mortgage Calculator, World Markets, and access to Settings, which at this time is very limited on all the apps.

News

The News app for Windows 10 is a little different from the rest, when you launch the app you'll go directly to Headlines, and you'll see a listing of the top stories. Each section features the top four stories making headlines with a listing of the latest articles arranged on a Pinterest's like grid.

From the menu, you can access other areas, such as Topics. There you can make a list of your interests, Local for local news, and Videos that look the same as the Sports' Videos section.

Weather

The Weather app is perhaps the MSN app that received the most changes, including a fresh new design. Like the rest of the apps above, the content can be scrolled vertically. The new MSN Weather app also features a main Forecast section as well as one for News, and a Maps, Historical Weather, and Favorites area, which aren't yet available.

(Note: Although we have seen the Weather app in previous posts, I wanted to include it in this list as it part of the MSN apps group.)

Wrapping it up

Even though these new universal MSN apps are an early version of what is to come, they already are an improvement from the same apps we have been using in Windows 8.1. The UI has a modern look and matches the elements Microsoft is implementing in Windows 10. Despite many people not liking the new hamburger menu, the new UX choice is very useful, I even like the back button that appears whenever you access a new section.

Weather, News, Sports and Money have been spotted in Windows 10 Technical Preview build 10056. This version of the OS is not available to the public, and for those wondering the Health & Fitness and Food & Drink apps remain the same for now. Nonetheless, we can certainly expect these apps to get updated in the future.

How do you like the new MSN apps for Windows 10? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below.

Microsoft is reportedly moving control of its MSN web portal from the Applications and Services Group over to its Operating Systems Group, the home for its Windows development teams. The move was announced this morning by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in an internal company memo.

This move, as first reported by GeekWire, could be part of Microsoft's plans to integrate MSN more with Windows, particularly with the upcoming launch of Windows 10. Microsoft already rebranded its Bing apps for Windows Phone and Windows 8.1 with the MSN name in late September.

Microsoft also launched a major redesign of the MSN.com webpage last fall, but there were reports that traffic to the site dropped significantly after that event. GeekWire is now reporting that the traffic to the MSN site has now recovered.

Source: GeekWire

Recent comScore numbers have indicated that a recent redesign to the MSN landing page may have hurt Microsoft's web traffic, including Bing's. The hit was hard enough that Microsoft asked comScore to include Skype, Outlook, and all of their other web properties in a revised count by comScore.

The problem is that the MSN portal used to point people to articles through Bing search results, and now they link directly to the outside sources, bypassing MSN and Bing altogether. In September, MSN's site saw about 3.79 million visitors, while the revised count for October including Bing and Skype is up to 6.77 million.

Do you guys have MSN set as your home page? How often do you click through on articles there? Is it fair for Microsoft to ask comScore to pad their traffic numbers with other web properties? Should they just shut MSN down and stick with Bing as Explorer's default home page?

Source: BusinessInsider

All MSN apps have picked up an update, although there isn't much in the way of new features. Last week, Microsoft announced that it was updating its suite of Bing apps to MSN apps, which is in line with a larger rebranding effort being carried out by the software vendor.

There isn't an official changelog (yet) detailing what changes were implemented in this update, although from the look of things it looks like Microsoft just rolled out a series of bug fixes.

Update: Looks like the install to SD functionality is back, which was removed during the rebranding.

Are you guys noticing anything new in any of the updated apps? If so, let us know in the comments.

• Download MSN Money for Windows Phone (Free)
• Download MSN Weather for Windows Phone (Free)
• Download MSN Sports for Windows Phone (Free)
• Download MSN News for Windows Phone (Free)
• Download MSN Health & Fitness for Windows Phone (Free)
• Download MSN Travel for Windows Phone (Free)
• Download MSN Food & Drink for Windows Phone (Free)
• Download MSN Money for Windows 8.1 (Free)

Thanks everyone for the tips!

Microsoft is now in the process of rolling out its previously announced revamp of its popular MSN.com website after it allowed 10 million of its 425 million readers to preview the site and offer their feedback.over the past few weeks.

Microsoft says:

The new design is being launched at the same time as the branding of the previous Bing apps for Windows Phone and Windows 8.1 to MSN. Microsoft will also launch new MSN apps for iOS and Android in the near future. What is your opinion on the new MSN.com?

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft has just updated the suite of Bing apps on Windows Phone. The update drops the Bing branding and replaces it with MSN. So far we're not seeing any new features in these apps, mostly just the branding change.

Earlier this month Microsoft announced plans to replace the Bing apps with a rebranding that focused on MSN. This coincided with their overhauled MSN portal that came out a few weeks ago. At IFA, we saw the slight rebranding starting to place in the Bing apps on Windows Phone.

We also recently learned that Bing Finance wouldn't become MSN Finance, but instead would rebrand as MSN Money.

Today all those changes we've been talking about have happened. Head into the Windows Phone Store and you'll see updates for Bing Travel, Bing Finance, Bing Sports, Bing Food & Drink, Bing Health & Fitness, Bing News and Bing Weather. However after the update, they won't say Bing.

Play around with the new MSN apps and let us know if you notice any new features!

On Windows 8.1 we're only seeing an update for Bing Finance, which also turns it into MSN Money. We'll let you know when the rest of the Bing apps on Windows 8.1 receive their rebranding.

Update: Turns out MSN Health & Fitness does come with a changelog of new features! With the Health & Fitness app you now have:

• Added new and independent cloud store to sync data between devices; removed integration with Microsoft Health Vault
• Added a lock-screen option

Let us know what you think of the update to Health & Fitness and if you see other new changes. Thanks for the heads up Greg!

• Download MSN Money for Windows Phone (Free)
• Download MSN Weather for Windows Phone (Free)
• Download MSN Sports for Windows Phone (Free)
• Download MSN News for Windows Phone (Free)
• Download MSN Health & Fitness for Windows Phone (Free)
• Download MSN Travel for Windows Phone (Free)
• Download MSN Food & Drink for Windows Phone (Free)
• Download MSN Money for Windows 8.1 (Free)

Thanks for the tips everyone!

Back in Berlin a few weeks ago, Microsoft made clear their current suite of Bing apps, including Weather, News, Finance, Travel and Health + Fitness, would be adopting MSN as the brand. Microsoft has already phased out Bing from the apps in previous updates back in April. The change is seen to separate Bing search from Microsoft's news and information offerings, which evidently fit better under a retooled MSN homepage.

This morning, we are getting reports from users that the Finance app is displaying an in-app message revealing that the name Bing Finance will be no more in the "coming days". (We have been able to reproduce the message ourselves and you can see the screenshot in the lead photo) Instead, the app will be titled MSN Money, although, like the current Bing apps, the app name itself is only going to be 'Money' on the phone (Paul Thurrott reported as much a few weeks ago on WinSupersite).

When Money hits the Store, nothing else about the app is expected to change, just the name and app listing. Using Money for a moniker is certainly concise, and with Microsoft Account syncing and login support for E*Trade, Charles Schwab, TD, Sharebuilder and Fidelity, Microsoft still makes a solid financial app.

Microsoft had previously announced that the same suite of apps will be heading to iOS and Android too.

Considering the name change is impending for Money, we suppose that other Bing apps are likely to get the name change in the coming weeks as well. Earlier, we revealed the new MSN Weather app, including richer Glance screen support for Lumia devices.

Even though the user experience will be the same, what do you think of the MSN focus by Microsoft for these apps and services?

Thanks, Jorge S., and others for the tips!

This morning, Microsoft detailed plans to push their Bing apps, like Weather, Finance, Food, News, to the MSN branding. Microsoft started this process some time ago when they first ditched 'Bing' in the name of those apps, and instead kept them with just their category-generic names.

During the Microsoft #moreLumia event last week, I showed you folks how the Microsoft Weather app and Lumia Denim play nicer together. Specifically, Glance gets what look to be third-party app support, letting other Lock screen apps appear on the Glance screen (see it above on a Lumia 830).

I also dug deeper into the Weather app as it is called 'Weather beta' in the app listing. This section is where I first noticed the 'MSN Weather' name pop up as seen in the About section of the app.

Indeed, Weather is jumping to MSN Weather branding in the coming months. The good news is that visually the Weather app is no different from the current form. In fact, without the Glance information you could not tell the difference. The only reason I point this out is personally, I am on the fence about the whole 'MSN' thing, which to me looks like a dead brand, one that was never really successful. I am not convinced that bringing back MSN, or giving it another push, is going to change anything.

Big app updates in the fall?

As a Windows Phone specialist, something I am interested in is whether this new MSN Weather app is compiled as a pure 8.1 app instead of the current Windows Phone 8.0 version compatible with 8.1. In case you do not know, one of the issues in performance differences between apps on Windows Phone is if they are built as 8.1 apps or not, including support for 'fast resume.' Steve Litchfield over at AAWP did a nice write-up explaining the problem – and how it is solvable by devs going forward.

My informed hunch is that Microsoft – and their big-ticket partners like Instagram and Twitter – are holding back on true Windows Phone 8.1 apps until the majority of users are on Windows Phone 8.1 and Lumia Cyan. The marker for that is getting close as last month's AdDuplex numbers show that nearly 1/4 of users are now 8.1. By late September, when the new Lumia 730 and Lumia 830 are expected to launch, that number should be approaching 50% or more (my guesstimate).

Heck, if you look close enough in some photos, you can even see hints of forthcoming apps.

The problem with pulling the trigger too early is that app developers risk alienating the majority of their customers. Alternatively, maintaining two versions of the same app (8.0 and one for 8.1) is far from ideal either. Microsoft is having a hard enough time getting companies to support one app, asking them to do two is pushing it. However, there is a lot of incentive for companies to wait and do everything in 8.1, as it also means Universal apps for the Windows Store is more of a reality.

Wrapping it up, my intuition tells me that once these new phones hit later this month, and Windows Phone 8.1 becomes more of a reality for users, Windows Phone customers are going to see some excellent changes going forward. Hope springs eternal.