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Microsoft has set up a new gaming cloud division late last year, and according to The Verge, the company's new team is readying for a future of gaming in the cloud.

Microsoft of course is not alone in its strategy. Gaming from the cloud has been a big focus of Sony's after it bought Gaikai in 2012 for $380 million. Gaikai of course is one of the prominent cloud gaming developers and service providers.

With Gaikai's technology, as is probably planned for the Xbox Cloud, or whatever it will be called, allows gameplay by streaming the content from the cloud servers. That allows most of the heavy lifting to be done by remote computers and the client itself can remain agile, if you will.

Thus for example smartphones and tablets are able to provide gameplay that otherwise wouldn't be accessible with performance levels provided with mobile technology. Sony calls this feature PlayStation Now.

Nvidia believes in the same type of future as well. Their service, called GeForce NOW, is currently looking for beta testers for Mac, and is available for PC users as well.

Microsoft's Kareem Choudhry says they are looking to bring entertainment to all 2 billion future gamers, no matter the platform.

Microsoft has achieved something that many probably thought would be ways off in the future. The Redmond-based tech giant has managed to reach human-level translation from Chinese to English with a computer.

Microsoft's official AI blog writes that the team lead by Xuedong Huang has reached an AI system that can translate news articles from Chinese to English as well as human counterparts. They used a test called newstest2017, developed by industry and academic partners, and had external bilingual human evaluators compare the results with human translations.

Anyone that regularly uses the currently de facto translation tools on browsers and social media knows that human parity is definitely not the case in current iteration. The updates can't come soon enough for us mere mortals.

However, this is just one step in a continually challenging landscape of human language that is tackled by AI teams such as Microsoft's. It is a very encouraging example how far we can get but work is all but done, researchers caution.

To learn more about Microsoft's accomplishment and other recent news about AI translation head to the blog post.

The go to device for computer DIY enthusiasts and other nano-sized computer needs has been updated with a new model. The new version of Raspberry Pi is called the Model B+.

While Model B+ is a fairly minor upgrade to the previous version, it does improve upon connectivity features and thermal management. It features a quad-core Broadcom BCM2837B0 chip that now offers 1.4GHz clock speeds instead of the previous 1.2GHz.

Although clock speeds have been improved, the bulk of the upgrade is not to the performance but to thermal design and power management which should provide a better overall thermal performance.

The nanocomputer Model B+ features a WiFi chip that supports 802.11ac and both 2.4 and 5.0GHz networks as well as Bluetooth 4.2 and Bluetooth LE (Low Energy). There's nothing new in terms of USB's though, so you'll still have the same four old, yet popular, 2nd gen ports, unsurprisingly.

What's nice, though, is that the computer-on-a-chip now supports Power over Ethernet, or PoE, which allows both power and network data to be transported in the same Ethernet cable. This is a common practice in many of the security cameras, for example.

Raspberry Pi Model B+ costs around $35 and can be found on Amazon.

E-commerce giant Amazon is preparing a launch in a few new countries this summer, says Di Digital, a Swedish publication. According to them, and their insider sources, Amazon is expanding to at least Sweden but probably a few surrounding countries as well.

Others are corroborating the rumors too. Per Svärdsön, the founder of Adlibris and Apotea, a book and a healthcare online store, has heard the same rumors, according to Business Insider.

Most of it points to this summer or at least this year. Staffan Mölndal from venture capital firm Verdane Capital says Amazon has been on the lookout for e-commerce talent to recruit and eventually launch in Sweden. The launch schedule is expected well before this year's favorite American shopping holiday Black Friday.

There's a lot of demand for a larger scale, better functioning e-commerce in Sweden for sure, but expanding to only one of the Scandinavian, or Nordic countries, seems like a lot of hassle for a very limited customer base.

Elon Musk's latest venture, whimsically named The Boring Company, is building an underground network of transportation underneath Los Angeles. Previously Musk has revealed plans to transport cars underground but has now announced that they will be instead focusing first on pedestrians and mass transport.

While fast car transportation from station to another is still in plans, Musk says that they've decided to prioritize pedestrians and mass transportation because not everyone can afford a car.

It is of course true that not everyone can afford a car, although almost everyone seems to have one in LA compared to ratios in metropolises on the East Coast, but the real reason might be something else. However, Musk's tweets reveal that car transportation will only be a priority after public transport needs are met.

The public transportation is done, according to a Boring Company video (below), by small shuttles that are swallowed by the ground and propelled on tracks to their destinations. Must says the station itself doesn't require more space than a single parking space, although a few should probably be reserved according to the video.

If you didn't know, it's Mario Day today! Yes, that plummer from dozens of Nintendo games is being celebrated today.

You might ask why? And the answer is not because he was born today, or anything like that at all. It all comes from the date itself, Mar 10. MAR10 is celebrated by Nintendo in a variety of ways, including rewards and deals, but they're not the only ones to have noted the mustache-wielding Italian.

In fact Google is one of the companies that has decided, for a reason or another, to include a bit of a easter egg in one of their apps. Both Android and iOS versions of Google Maps have been updated with a Mario Kart function.

When navigating on Google Maps there a new Mario-like question mark below via which you can enable what is called Mario Time. After enabling this your app changes the boring navigation arrow into a Mario Kart, driven by the famous plumber himself.

Google has also revealed that if you don't have nowhere to go on the actual Mario Day, no worries. You'll be able to use the feature for the next week.

This isn't of course the first easter egg from Google, not even on Maps. Couple years back on April Fools' Day they added a function which turned Google Maps into a game of Pac-Man.

The powerhouse of a comedian Norm Macdonald is getting his own talk show on Netflix, reports Variety. The 58-year-old Canadian is known for his stand-up as well as a five year streak on SNL during the 90s.

Now Netflix is grabbing one of the country's prominent comedians to host a talk show. The show by the name of "Norm Macdonald has a Show" is slated for a season of 10 episodes. This isn't actually the first time Macdonald has a show carrying his name, as some of you might remember a sitcom at the turn of the millennia called The Norm Show.

The talk show will be of course hosted by Norm Macdonald and features a sidekick in the form of Adam Eget. The duo has produced three seasons of Norm Macdonald Live video podcast.

The show is produced by Norm Macdonald and David Letterman serves an advisory role. Every episode of the talk show will welcome one celebrity guest.

There are currently now dates attached to the show so we'll just have to wait and see.

Netflix has been expanding over the years like no other streaming service. Not too long ago it was a service only provided to Americans and a few lucky others, now the service is available in over 190 countries – so pretty much the entire planet except for China.

Perhaps even more importantly, though, the company has been expanding on the variety of original content it provides, Netflix Originals as they call them. That has earned the company's first Emmy in 2013, Golden Globe in 2014, and now even an Oscar in 2018.

The company offers a medley of content types that range from anime to feature films and from documentaries to anthologies. Netflix has even expanded to new territories with localized original content that you've got for example from Japan, Germany, Brazil, and Denmark.

However, there are categories Netflix will not be expanding towards.

Netflix has revealed that while there are tons of opportunities for them to expand on, some stones will remain unturned. They want to focus on what they are doing well, and how can anyone argue against that?

However, this means that many of us who've hoped for a revolution in terms of sports streaming, are going to be disappointed, Engadget reports.

Google has released the first glimpse of its upcoming Android P operating system. New version of Android is about to launch sometime in Fall 2018, but Google provides information for developers and manufacturers about the most important changes beforehand to allow them to adjust to new APIs and design.

Android P includes several changes to the visuals of the UI. Icons are more rounded and plain as is the custom nowadays. Additionally, the settings have been revamped quite a lot and also the notification area has gone through some changes.

Despite those changes, the biggest visual change is the support for iPhone X-styled gap in the top of the screen to accommodate better for front camera while allowing "borderless" displays.

Samsung has today unveiled their 2018 TV lineup in New York. The updated line of smart TVs is divided roughly into three categories: Quantum LED powered Q Series, Premium UHD models, and Ultra Large TVs.

The latter TVs are sized 75 inches and above, and according to Samsung the demand for larger TVs has been ever growing. These models offer a proper home theater experience but are also popular for commercial uses.

However, Samsung's most important TV branding effort of recent years has been Quantum LED, or QLED for short, that is used in the company's Q Series smart TVs. Now they come with an improved backlighting technology.

This includes what the company calls Carbon Mesh which limits the backlighting per pixel and minimizes leakage to nearby pixels. Obviously this comes with a full panel backlighting the company calls Direct Full Array backlighting. All this should provide a better picture quality and improved contrast definition.

Netflix will beef up the parent controls available to users of its service to make its platform more child appropriate.

As it stands, parents can use Netflix parental controls to prevent their children from accessing content above a specified maturity rating. The content can be hidden behind a PIN altogether, or parents can available of designated child accounts.

In order to give parents more control over what their children can access on the service, Netflix will allow parents to control access to individual movies and shows behind a security PIN.

Spotify appears to be cracking down on the use of unauthorized applications that allow users with Free accounts to get benefits of its paid Premium tier.

Some users with free accounts opt to download modified Spotify apps that allow them to get around some of the limitations of a Free account, and have some benefits of the paid Premium service. While having almost 160 million users of its service, around 71 million actually pay for Premium accounts whilst the rest of the active users are limited to lower quality, ad-supported service.

Free users who have been using modified apps have been receiving a warning from Spotify that reads as follows:

Dear User:

We detected abnormal activity on the app you are using so we have disabled it. Don't worry - your Spotify account is safe.

To access your Spotify account, simply uninstall any unauthorized or modified version of Spotify and download and install the Spotify app from the official Google Play Store. If you need more help, please see our support article on Reinstalling Spotify.

If we detect repeated use of unauthorized apps in violation of our terms, we suspend all rights, including suspending or terminating your account.

Popular open-source video player, VLC, has been updated to v3.0.1 version.

The new version is mostly a bug fix release after the player's major v3.0 release recently. This version improves HEVC video playback support on macOS, Android and iOS platforms. It also speeds up and fixes issues with Chromecast support on all platforms, including Windows.

Furthermore, MKV seeking is finally significantly faster. There's also bunch of minor bugs that have been fixed, like the one that caused the software to crash after closing it on some Windows versions.

You can download the Windows versions from AfterDawn's own download servers:

VLC for Windows
VLC for 64-bit Windows

Mobile editions for Android and iOS can be found from their respective app stores.

Samsung has today revealed the next generation of Galaxy S smartphones. As expected the Galaxy S9 and its bigger sibling, the Galaxy S9+, retain much of the design from their predecessors, but there are a few key differences and why you might want to buy one of them.

The new flagships have the same glass sandwich design with aluminum body. The buttons (even Bixby), connectors, and speakers seem to be exactly where they were, but there's one minor but oh-so-important change in the design. Samsung has moved the fingerprint reader from next to the camera to below the camera, which might have been the single most requested change to the predecessor.

Design aside there's plenty to talk about about the new phones. Upgraded CPU, now Snapdragon 845, is more powerful and energy efficient, the phone has stereo speakers thanks to earpiece acting as another speaker, and you can extend the fairly limited 64GB now up to 400GB with a microSD card.

Those aren't huge changes, though, and differences are miniscule in display tech as well. Galaxy S9 has the same 5.8" and S9+ the 6.2" QHD+ AMOLED display as previous models. IP68 dust and water resistance is intact as well.

When it comes to camera, however, you have major improvements, or distinctions at least. The Galaxy S9+ has a dual camera setup with zoom capabilities thanks to a wide and telephoto lens. But the magic is found even in the single camera on the smaller Galaxy S9.

Nokia has been back with a vengeance for the past year or two releasing Android phones for many different price points. They even brought back a classic from year 2000, the 3110, in last year's Mobile World Congress.

This time around Nokia revived the banana phone that was made famous not only by its iconic design but The Matrix. HMD Global, the company behind today's Nokia Android phones, has just concluded its MWC keynote where it announced a slew of new phones.

The most surprising was definitely the new Nokia 8110 4G. This new banana phone is 4G enabled , as you might imagine from the name, and features a little bit improved specs compared to the original one, although reaching the operator might not be as easy.

It has a 2 megapixel camera, 2.45 inch 240 by 320 color display, 4GB of storage space, half a gig of RAM, and a Snapdragon 205 chip. It runs a feature phone OS but you wouldn't expect Android with those specs, right? All this is fairly irrelevant, though, since you won't be buying the phone for its specs, you are going to get it because it looks awesome in either black or yellow of course, so here are some pics: