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      Windows, hardware, Xbox sales are dim spots in a solid Microsoft earnings report

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 26 July, 2023 - 18:21 · 1 minute

    Windows, hardware, Xbox sales are dim spots in a solid Microsoft earnings report

    Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

    It has been a tough year for PC companies and companies that make PC components. Companies like Intel, AMD, and Nvidia have all reported big drops in revenue from the hardware that they sell to consumers (though the hardware they sell to other businesses is often doing better).

    Microsoft contributed another data point to that trend today , with fourth-quarter 2023 financial results that showed modest growth (revenue up 8 percent year over year, from $51.9 billion to $56.2 billion), but no thanks to its consumer software and hardware businesses.

    Revenue from the company's More Personal Computing division, which encompasses Windows licenses, Surface PCs and other accessories, Xbox hardware and software and services, and ad revenue, was down 4 percent year over year. This decrease was driven mostly by a drop in sales of Windows licenses to PC makers (down 12 percent because of "PC market weakness") and by reduced hardware sales (down 20 percent, though the company didn't say how much of this drop came from its accessory business and how much came from Surface PCs). Microsoft makes its own PCs and PC accessories and sells the software that most other PC makers use on their hardware, so when the entire PC ecosystem is doing poorly, Microsoft gets hit twice.

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      Microsoft 365’s Copilot assistant for businesses comes with a hefty price tag

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 18 July, 2023 - 16:31 · 1 minute

    Microsoft 365’s Copilot assistant for businesses comes with a hefty price tag

    Enlarge (credit: Microsoft)

    A few months ago, Microsoft previewed Microsoft 365 Copilot , a new service that promised to integrate generative AI features into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and the other productivity apps formerly known as Microsoft Office . Among other things, Copilot promises to automate the creation of documents and emails, summarize meeting notes, and assist in the analysis of Excel data.

    Microsoft has just announced pricing for the Copilot features, and it isn't cheap. Copilot will cost an extra $30 per user per month on top of whatever your business is already paying for Microsoft 365—in many cases, this will double or even triple your monthly costs. Copilot can be added to Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Premium ($12.50 and $22 per user per month, respectively) or to Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 accounts for enterprises ($36 or $57 per user per month). It can't be added to the cheaper Microsoft 365 Business Basic plan or to any home plans.

    The relatively high cost is likely related to the high server costs for running these kinds of generative AI models. Copilot also draws context from the other emails, documents, and other files in your business's Microsoft 365 cloud, so each business that Microsoft supports will have a slightly different data set that it will need to be able to draw from.

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      Office 365 #Education : un administrateur de votre #Université peut prendre le contrôle de votre compte, données, et traiter vos données dont le contenu des communications et fichiers

      Mathias Poujol-Rost ✅ · Friday, 13 November, 2020 - 20:25 edit · 1 minute

    Capture d'écran d'une page permettant à un étudiant de souscrire la suite #Office365 avec son adresse mèl institutionnelle, ces "offres gratuites" qui mènent les étudiants à devenir dépendant alors que LibreOffice est aussi bien et d'office gratuite !

    Lire aussi les conditions du M.O.S.A. (Microsoft Online Subscription Agreement), extrait :

    h. Administrator Assumption of Control. If you use an email address provided by an organization you are affiliated with (e.g. an employer or school) to order an Online Service individually, you represent that you have authority to use that organization’s domain to sign up for a Subscription in your capacity as a member of that organization. The organization, as the owner of the domain associated with your email address, may assume control over and manage your use of the Online Services. In such a case, your organization’s designated administrator (your “admin�?) may (i) control and administer your account, including modifying and terminating your access and (ii) access and process your data, including the contents of your communications and files. Microsoft may inform you that your organization has assumed control of the Online Services covered by your Subscription, but Microsoft is under no obligation to provide such notice. If your organization is administering your use of the Online Services or managing the tenant associated with your Subscription, direct your data subject requests and privacy inquiries to your administrator. If your organization is not administering your use of the Online Service or managing such tenant, direct your data subject requests and privacy inquiries to Microsoft.

    i. Shared Directory Data. When you order an Online Service using an email address with a domain provided by an organization you are affiliated with (e.g. an employer or school), the Online Service adds you to a directory of users that share the same email domain. Your directory data (name, date of signup, and email address) may be visible to other users of Online Services within your organization’s email domain.

    #Microsoft365 #MicrosoftOffice #MSOffice #OfficeEtudiant #offreEtudiants #Libre_Office #bureautique #FLOSS #