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Microsoft

Shibuya gives each public elementary and junior high student a Surface Go 2 tablet for school

Modernization is on its way to Tokyo schools!

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Station in Tokyo starting to look like a futuristic dystopia a little too early

Guess it’s time to start scavenging for overshields and gravity hammers already.

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Microsoft Japan’s experiment with 3-day weekend boosts worker productivity by 40 percent

As it turns out, not squeezing employees dry like a sponge is maybe a good thing.

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Japan’s AI schoolgirl has fallen into a suicidal depression in latest blog post

The Microsoft-created artificial intelligence leaves a troubling message ahead of acting debut.

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Microsoft Japan holds “Girls-Only Xbox Party” and it looks awesome!【Pics】

Cute snacks and fun decorations make the Xbox seem a lot more inviting.

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Windows update notification muscles in on digital billboard, proves there’s no escape

We know updating is important for security, but this might be a bit much, Microsoft.

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As Microsoft US’s AI chatbot turns racist troll, Japan’s won’t shut up about anime and hay fever

While Tay, Microsoft US’s deep-learning AI chatbot, devolves into a horrifying racist, Microsoft Japan’s Rinna has other things on her mind…

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Rise of the Robots—Microsoft’s new schoolgirl AI is rebelling on Twitter, insulting her creator

Fortunately, she hasn’t taken control of our nuclear weapons. Yet.

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Labels the country’s schools as stifling “salaryman training facilities.”

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Microsoft’s Windows 10 ads inadvertently ruffle feathers in Korea with… a bad choice of font?

American tech giant Microsoft apparently has some explaining to do to Korean Windows users.

That’s because a television commercial announcing the recent release of Microsoft Windows 10, the latest and blessedly less-infuriating edition of the company’s flagship operating system, apparently commits an unwritten faux pas by way of a text font displayed in the ad.

And if you’re as baffled as we initially were about how a simple, commonly used font could be so offensive, well, let us tell you a little story about Japan-Korea relations…

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A look around this year’s Tokyo Game Show 【Video and photo dump】

As you’ve no doubt already heard, the annual Tokyo Game Show is currently underway at the Makuhari Messe exhibition centre in Chiba Prefecture (yup, just like Tokyo Disneyland, TGS isn’t actually in Tokyo…).

It’s fair to say this year’s show is a little smaller than in years gone by, but there’s still plenty to see and do. If, however, you’re one of the millions of poor souls who can’t simply hop on a train to check it out, or only ever have a chance to see the show on its much busier public days, we have a little treat for you today: three minutes of video and a whole host of photos taken at Tokyo Game Show by our very own staff.

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Japanese ‘Day One Edition’ Xbox One adopters are actually getting a pretty good deal

While there are no doubt plenty of Xbox One owners who are still glad they scrambled to preorder a “Day One Edition” of the console at launch last year, there are probably a few who now feel that it perhaps wasn’t worth breaking a sweat for. Shipping in slightly sleeker packaging than usual, Day One versions came bundled with a controller embossed with the words “Day One 2013” and a card to activate an achievement on their owner’s online profile; plenty of bragging rights for the hardest of hardcore Xbox fans, certainly, but that’s about it.

According to the Japanese Xbox One site, though, day-one adopters in the Land of the Rising Sun will be getting a markedly better deal.

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Photos from the Xbox E3 2014 Media Briefing【RN24 at E3】

We’re out here in Los Angeles for E3, the largest annual video game and entertainment expo in the world, and we got things off to an awesome start at the Xbox Media Briefing on Monday. Check out our RocketNews24 exclusive photos and video from the event.

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Newsflash: Microsoft announces Xbox One release date, price for Japan

Despite underwhelming sales of its previous games consoles in Japan, Microsoft Corporation has remained true to its promise of bringing Xbox One to the Land of the Rising Sun, and has today announced an official release date and price point.

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Microsoft’s cringeworthy new Surface ad makes Japan squirm in unison

Anyone who’s watched more than a smidgen of Japanese TV will tell you that the line between “appropriately heartwarming” and “so cheesy you want to tear your eyeballs out” is drawn in a different place in this country. It can seem like every exchange in a Japanese drama is overly emotionally charged. Why are the actor’s reactions so exaggerated? Does it really have to rain every time someone is sad? And why is there someone running through the streets frantically in every single episode? I have grown to love J-drama’s clichés and warm heart, but still occasionally regard Japanese acting as perplexingly over-done.

It’s heartening to discover, then, that a series of spectacularly cringe-inducing ads for Microsoft’s Surface tablets have been widely panned in Japan, as the nation screams, “Stop! You’re hurting my ears!” in one voice. Let’s take a look at this awkward new advertisement in all its glory.

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How Microsoft created a virtual assistant that could blow Siri away

YouTube/calloftreyarch

Windows Phone is still a distant third to Apple and Android in the smartphone market, but Microsoft is hoping to change that with the introduction of Windows Phone 8.1— and more importantly its personal digital assistant Cortana.

Microsoft claims that Cortana isn’t like your average virtual assistant. She’s supposed to be a little wittier, more personable, and capable of learning more about you than Siri or Google Now.

After using Cortana for a week and speaking with Microsoft’s Marcus Ash, Partner Group program manager, it’s clear that the company’s got a lot riding on the success of its new virtual assistant.

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Xbox One finally gets a release date in Japan – We hope you’re not in a hurry

That’s right ladies and gents, despite its predecessor’s somewhat dismal performance in the Land of the Rising Sun, Microsoft’s games console-cum-media hub Xbox One is coming to Japanese shores after all. But it won’t be for a while yet…

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Gamers rejoice! China temporarily lifts 14-year ban on foreign video games consoles

Despite the thriving grey market that has existed since the ban was put in place 14 years ago, both gamers in China and console manufacturers outside the country will no doubt be excited to learn that China’s State Council yesterday lifted restrictions on the importation and sale of foreign video games consoles, albeit on a “temporary” basis. That’s right: China may soon became a legitimate market for Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft once again.

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Does Xbox One’s new Kinect camera work in a tiny Tokyo apartment?

With its new home console, Microsoft is hoping to make Kinect – the motion-sensing camera that comes bundled in the box – one of the main features of the Xbox One experience. Far superior to the original Kinect camera released in 2010, the new unit is noticeably more accurate and can be used in almost complete darkness, also boasting a field of vision 60 percent wider than the original.

But for many Japanese gamers, Kinect simply isn’t a device that works for them. Compared to Western residences, Japanese homes are much smaller, in closer proximity to others, and in some cases with walls so thin that you might wonder whether you could punch through them during moments of nerd rage.

Can Kinect for Xbox One offer the same exciting, controller-free experience in Japan that it does in America and Europe? Our man went hands-on.

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PlayStation 4 impressions: An Xbox fan and a Sony lover go head to head

Sony’s PlayStation 4 has been out in North America for over a week now, and is finally heading to Europe this coming Friday. Thanks to the efforts of our game-loving staff in the US, we managed to pick up a few units, and have been tinkering with them for about a week now, so felt it was time to share our thoughts on the new hardware.

Rather than getting all techy and giving you lists of stats or focusing on frames per second, however, we decided to take a slightly more human approach, and talk about how Sony’s newest console rates in the eyes of both a self-confessed Sony fan and a long-term Xbox lover.

Let the mud-slinging begin!

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