Microsoft Outlook, Teams, and other services are back online Wednesday morning following a cloud outage that affected millions of customers over several hours. Microsoft attributed the Azure disruption to a "networking configuration issue." The company said most services were restored by 9:30 a.m. ET. More: - The outage affected Microsoft 365 services across the U.S., South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa.
- During that time, users were unable to access Microsoft Teams, Outlook, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, Graph, PowerBi, Microsoft 365 Admin Center, and Xbox services.
- Microsoft said a change to the Microsoft Wide Area Network (WAN) affected "connectivity between clients on the internet to Azure, connectivity between services within regions, as well as ExpressRoute connections."
- Azure claims more than 500 million active users and 15 million corporate customers.
Related: - The outage occurred a day after Microsoft reported its latest quarterly earnings.
- The software giant saw profit fall 12% for the October-December quarter. Its revenue was $52.75B, an increase of 2% from the same period the year before.
- Last week, Microsoft announced global layoffs affecting 10,000 employees or nearly 5% of its workforce. CEO Satya Nadella said customers upped their digital spending during the pandemic but are now optimizing their expenses "to do more with less."
BBC 
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Employees at Activision Blizzard's Proletariat gaming studio no longer plan to unionize. The Boston-based studio was set to be represented by the Communication Workers of America (CWA). However, the CWA has since withdrawn the petition to unionize after saying that the workers were swayed by anti-union messaging. More: - In December, the CWA filed for union representation with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on behalf of Proletariat workers.
- At the time, a supermajority comprised of 57 animators, designers, and others was supportive of the union.
- However, the CWA claims that Proletariat CEO Seth Sivak used "confrontational tactics" to derail unionization efforts, which made a "free and fair election impossible."
- The CWA withdrew its petition with the NLRB on Tuesday, effectively ending the effort.
- In response, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said the company appreciates that the CWA "unilaterally decided to withdraw its petition" due to employees' feedback. It also denied that Sivak interfered in the election, saying the CEO "was responding to concerns from employees who felt pressured or intimidated by CWA."
- Blizzard acquired Proletariat, the developer behind the battle royale game "Spellbreak" and "World of Warcraft" Dragonflight Expansion, last year.
POLYGON
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Apple's latest operating system updates add support for physical hardware keys to better protect Apple ID and iCloud accounts. This week's iOS 16.3 and MacOS 13.2 enables users to set up security keys, which are physical devices that must be nearby for users to log in to Apple IDs and iPhones, iPads, and Macs. More: - The keys replace the digital two-factor authentication for Apple ID logins, providing an extra layer of protection from phishing attacks and other hacks.
- The company says the feature is geared toward public figures, like celebrities and politicians, who may face more threats to their online accounts.
- Apple is requiring users to have a minimum of two security keys, though it supports up to six.
Other updates: - iOS 16.3 started rolling out to iPhone users on Monday.
- In addition to the security keys, Apple iOS 16.3 adds the usual bug fixes, support for the second-generation HomePod, a new Unity wallpaper honoring Black history, and an update to Emergency SOS to thwart accidental calls. It also brings Advanced Data Protection for iCloud to all users worldwide, not just in the U.S.
- The full list of new features in the iOS update is available here.
THE VERGE
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Tesla plans to invest $3.6B to expand its existing Gigafactory near Reno, Nevada. The expansion will involve the addition of two new factories at the site, one to manufacture advanced battery cells and another to mass produce its new electric Semi trucks. More: - The truck factory will be Tesla's first high-volume plant to produce the Semi.
- The new battery factory will manufacture Tesla's 4680 lithium-ion cells. It will eventually have the capacity to produce enough batteries for 2 million light-duty vehicles a year.
- Tesla has not said when it plans to break ground on the factories. It did says they will create around 3,000 jobs in Nevada.
- After years of delays, Tesla delivered its first production Semis to PepsiCo, its first customer, in December. It came five years after it first showed off a prototype of the electric semitrailer truck, which has an estimated range of 500 miles and a per-mile energy efficiency of under 2 kWh.
ELECTREK
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Cloud-gaming services such as Amazon Luna and Nvidia GeForce Now are offering free trials in the wake of Google Stadia's shutdown. The services are hoping to attract users who are seeking Stadia alternatives. More: - Ubisoft is the latest to offer a one-month free trial for Nvidia's GeForce Now Priority membership, which normally costs $10 a month.
- Amazon's Luna streaming service has extended its seven-day free trial to two months for the Luna+ subscription tier, which also costs $10 a month.
- Another alternative is Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming, though it does not appear the service is offering promotions linked to Stadia's shutdown.
- Google Stadia was discontinued last week after first launching in November 2019. By 2021, it was reported that the service was underperforming, and had failed to reach its target of a million monthly active users.
THE VERGE
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An AI chatbot will assist a defendant in court for the first time on Feb. 22. The chatbot was developed by DoNotPay, a company providing "AI robot lawyer" services. More: - The smartphone-run AI tool can process audio during courtroom sessions and issue replies.
- In the upcoming traffic court case, the AI will "whisper in someone's ear exactly what to say," said DoNotPay CEO Joshua Browder.
- The company has not disclosed who the defendant is or where the case will be heard.
- Browder promised to share the results publicly.
- Meanwhile, DoNotPay recently demonstrated an AI chatbot that's capable of negotiating bills. The tool is built on OpenAI's GPT-3 API.
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- A technical issue caused share trading to be briefly halted on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning. The freeze was attributed to a manual error in the exchange’s Disaster Recovery configuration.
- DeepMind Technologies, Alphabet's London-based AI lab, is closing its office in Edmonton, Alberta, and will cut some positions in the U.K.
- Live streaming service Twitch will alter the ways it displays ads as part of sweeping changes it's planning for 2023.
- Instagram chief Adam Mosseri admitted that the platform “overfocused” on videos in 2022 and will now redirect its efforts back to photos.
- Ford is now planning to cut 3,200 jobs across Europe. The layoffs would impact 65% of product development and 20% of administrative roles, largely in Germany.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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