For three years, Microsoft has been trying to convince us that a tablet can replace our laptops. Throughout three major design iterations, that’s been the driving message behind the Surface. Last year’s Surface Pro 3 represented the best execution on that idea yet. It showed that if you were willing to make some compromises, you could certainly have a tablet device that replaces your laptop in many ways. (It also has spawned a litany of copycat designs from HP, Dell, Lenovo, and others. Even Apple is about to get into the pro tablet fray.)

This year, Microsoft is putting that fight behind it. It’s no longer trying to sell the idea that a tablet can replace your laptop. If you want a true laptop, Microsoft is now more than happy to sell you one.

So the Surface Pro 4 is different. Not in the ways you might think — it’s shockingly similar to the Surface Pro 3 in design, appearance, and functionality. Rather, the Surface Pro 4 casts aside the burden of being Microsoft’s lone vision for personal computing, and now it can just be the best Surface it can be.

This isn’t the Surface that will convince you a tablet is better than your laptop. This is the Surface for the people that are already convinced.

The Surface Pro 4 is so similar in appearance and design to last year’s Surface Pro 3 that only the most trained eye could distinguish them. It has the same overall shape and footprint, from its infinitely adjustable kickstand to its warm grey magnesium finish. It’s a familiar and signature look, and using it two generations in a row establishes both a brand and visual identity for Microsoft’s computers.

Microsoft is rolling out add-in support to Outlook for Android this week, more than six months after first debuting mobile add-ins on iOS. The first set of Outlook for Android add-ins includes Evernote, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Translator, Nimble, OnePlaceMail, Outlook Customer Manager, Smartsheet and Trello.

The add-ins are designed to show up as an icon when you’re interacting with an email, allowing you to create a project card in an app like Trello, or clip emails to Evernote. They’re basic extensions to other apps on Android or iOS, and Microsoft is working with a number of partners to slowly add more to both the Android and iOS versions of Outlook. Wrike, JIRA, MeisterTask, Gfycat, and MojiLala will all be available soon, alongside support for add-ins for Gmail accounts.

Microsoft is launching a special Office 365 toolbar for macOS, providing quick ways to access documents, calendar items, and more. My Workspace is the result of Microsoft’s Garage program that encourages employees to create apps in their spare time. The latest macOS app is designed to sit in the toolbar area and includes a quick overview of calendar items to let you join Skype meetings or RSVP to events.

Just like Dropbox or OneNote, My Workspace also includes a list of recently used files and you can pin important ones or just open them up straight from the app. There’s also quick shortcuts to popular Office 365 settings, and the ability to pin Office Mac apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook. The app is available immediately free of charge, and it’s a useful addition if you’re a Mac user who regularly uses Office 365 documents.

Microsoft has removed the Windows Phone keyboard from App Store and is now encouraging iPhone users to download the SwiftKey Keyboard.

"The 'Word Flow' experiment is now complete! We encourage you to download the SwiftKey Keyboard from the App Store. The SwiftKey product team is frequently building and evaluating new features for SwiftKey and shipping updates," the company said on Microsoft Garage page on Monday.

Microsoft has tested out several iOS keyboards and apparently is focusing on SwiftKey after acquiring the app in February last year. SwiftKey Keyboard uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automatically learn your writing style, including the emoji you love to use, the words that matter to you and how you like to type.

The keyboard - which also offered a Swype-style keyboard with a conventional layout - was originally launched as a free app last year. It was later updated with new search and prediction features, as well as support for '3D Touch'.

To put things in perspective, Microsoft began inviting people to test the Word Flow keyboard in January last year. It only started testing the app in April, and made it available to all users shortly after.

We reviewed the Word Flow v2 keyboard for iPhone in August last year, and found it to be worthwhile contender in the iOS keyboard category that already had some great offerings such as Google's Gboard. We also said it may come down to personal preferences for what you'll like. If you rarely need one-handed mode and prefer Google over Bing, then Gboard - with its honed gif and emoji search, plus support for languages outside English - will serve you better.

Microsoft Word now has a new 'Read Aloud' feature that has been finely tuned for users with dyslexia. The Read Aloud feature is similar to the existing Read Mode that came out in December, The Verge reported on Wednesday.

The software giant has been testing text-to-speech features in Word for quite some time. The new feature has come out of the Office 365 pipeline through which users with reading difficulties can easily change speed and voice.

It has the capabilities to let the user change voice and speed and interact with edits in real-time, the report added. Read Aloud feature is currently available to Insider versions of Office 365.

Apart from Windows desktops, it will be available for other operating systems later this year. Dyslexia is a specific learning disability who have trouble reading accurately and fluently. They may also have trouble with reading comprehension, spelling, and writing.

A recent Windows 10 Insider Preview build revealed a new feature that is expected to arrive with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update - smart search for photos uploaded to OneDrive. Spotted in the updated Photos app, the feature used machine learning to categorise images, for quicker search later.

The new Photos' smart search feature reportedly takes a second per image to search. The feature is very similar to Google Photos, and the recently Photos app on iOS, it also has face detection that will group photos of what the app believes is the same person.

Microsoft is trying to increase the compatibility of Windows 10 and Office with iOS and Android and had come up with yet another cross platform feature that will feature in the Fall Creator's Update for Windows 10.

Microsoft's mobile platform Windows 10 Mobile might be on the verge of extinction but the company is still striving to stand by its "mobile-first, cloud first" strategy. Microsoft revealed several new features during the Build 2017 event in March that would make it easy for iOS and Android users to interact with Windows 10 PC.
However, the "Continue on PC" feature is something that motivates users to use the Windows 10 more often. It allows users to continue browsing across platforms. Microsoft introduced the feature in the Windows Insider preview build 16251 with Android receiving the support first of all. The feature is now also available on iOS.
Here is how to setup the feature on iOS devices:
All you need to do is connect your phone to your PC using the 'Phone' settings.
You will be required to enter the phone number for the device you are trying to connect to the PC.
Once you enter the number and hit enter, you will receive a text message with the link to the App Store from where you need to install the app on your device.
Once you have installed the app from the store you need to turn it on in the share list.
To activate the feature you simply need to open the share tray on a web page and turn on the "Continue on PC" feature.
When you want to use the feature all you need to do is click on the share menu and tap on "Continue on PC."                                                                                         
This is indeed a cool feature if you keep switching a lot between your PC and smartphone.

Little more than a day after announcing it was adding Eye Control to Windows 10, Microsoft is letting Windows Insiders take the feature for a spin.

Eye Control is an accessibility-enhancing eye technology that started off three years ago as a One Week project. One Week is Microsoft's annual internal hackathon, and in 2014, the Eye Gaze Wheelchair team took the top prize for a system that enabled Steve Gleason, a former NFL player diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), to move his motorized wheelchair by simply glancing at a Surface tablet.

After three years of engaging the ALS community along with work done by the software giant's researchers and engineers, the technology is being made available to millions of Windows users.

Windows 10 build 16257, out now for members of the Windows Insider early-access program, features a beta of the new Eye Control feature as an accessibility option. Unlike most of the operating system's other accessibility settings, using Eye Control requires specialized hardware, not just an ordinary front-facing camera.

The experience requires a compatible eye tracker, like the Tobii Eye Tracker 4C, which unlocks access to the Windows operating system to be able to do the tasks one could previously accomplish with a physical mouse and keyboard," announced Dona Sarkar, a software engineer at Microsoft's Windows and Devices Group in a blog post. "We are starting by supporting the EN-US [English, United States] keyboard layout, and we are looking to expand to more keyboard layouts in the future."

Microsoft also plans to expand support to more eye trackers, including the Tobii Dynavox PCEye Mini, PCEyePlus, EyeMobile Plus and I-series, said Sarkar.

Addressing potential privacy concerns, the Eye Control settings pane assures users that their data is safe. "We don't save or share eye tracking data," reads a statement containing a link to Microsoft's privacy statement under feature's on-and-off toggle.

In addition to replicating mouse and keyboard functions, Eye Control supports shape-writing, wherein users focus on the first and last letter in a word and quickly glance at the letters in between. Windows' on-screen keyboard then generates predictive matches. Paired with the operating system's text-to-speech functionality, users can have phrases spoken aloud.

Eye Control is a work in progress, reminded Sarkar. The shape-writing function gets stuck on occasion and some interface elements can sometimes get in the way. Direct sunlight can also cause problems with the eye-tracking technology and changing lighting conditions may require a recalibration.

Also new in build 16257 is the company's first update to the Windows Console's default colors in 20 years. The command-line utility now supports full 24-bit RGB color, enabling new color schemes that improve legibility on today's displays, said Sarkar.

The Edge browser has been adorned with the company's Acrylic material, a part of the company's new Fluent Design System that lends depth and transparency to various interface elements with the aim of providing a more modern and polished look. The latest preview build also allows participants of both the Windows Insider and Office Insider programs to incorporate 3D objects into their Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.