The Department of Homeland Security announced a new fee of over $103,000 for H-1B visas, a slight increase from a similar $100,000 fee a federal judge struck down in June after more than 70 employers had already paid it. The same day, the State Department revealed plans to revoke visas for up to 200,000 asylum seekers, described as potentially the largest mass visa revocation in US history. DHS has also signaled it may impose a comparable $100,000 fee on the Optional Practical Training program, which allows international students to work in the US after graduation.
Microsoft's Xbox controllers have evolved gradually since the original console launched in November 2001, but core elements like the asymmetrical stick layout, colored ABXY buttons, and AA battery power have persisted throughout. Key changes included the slimmer Controller S in 2002, wireless connectivity and shoulder buttons with the Xbox 360, and refinements like Impulse Triggers, Bluetooth, and a headphone jack on the Xbox One pad. The newest Xbox Wireless Controller adds a Share button and textured grips as its main updates.
Microsoft has launched a Designed for Xbox 25th Anniversary collection featuring limited-edition peripherals in translucent 'OG Green,' matching June's Xbox Series X25 console announcement. The lineup includes Razer's Basilisk V3 Pro mouse, BlackWidow V4 keyboard, and Hammerhead V3 X earbuds, plus an 8BitDo charging dock and a GameSir mobile controller, all available for pre-order now. A Backbone Pro mobile controller is also included as a blind-box item in clear, blue, or orange variants instead of green.
Microsoft has released PowerToys version 0.101.2362.0, introducing a new utility called Window Hopper that lets users cycle only through windows belonging to the currently active app using a configurable Alt+backtick shortcut. The update also brings a compact search-box mode for Command Palette, synced brightness controls across multiple displays via PowerDisplay, Windows-key activation for Shortcut Guide, a new DemoMirror feature for ZoomIt, and a ripple effect for Mouse Highlighter.
Microsoft released Windows 95 on August 24, 1995, an event that drew crowds lining up for the software in a way never repeated for a Microsoft product. The operating system marked a major upgrade over Windows 3.x, introducing true multitasking instead of relying on applications to cooperatively share resources. It also better exploited faster processors, unlike Windows 3.1, which plateaued in performance around 100 MHz regardless of chip.
Jim Cramer said on 'Mad Money' that rising political and community pushback over electricity and water use is slowing the unrestrained buildout of data centers, citing tighter demands from officials in Pennsylvania and Texas. He argued this won't kill the data center trade but will make smaller speculative developers and suppliers like GE Vernova, Micron, Sandisk, Western Digital and Seagate less attractive to investors at premium valuations.
Microsoft has introduced a referral scheme that gives Edge users 500 Microsoft Rewards points—about $0.45—for each friend who installs Edge Mobile and searches with it on two separate days within a 14-day window. Monthly earnings are capped at 7,500 points, roughly $6.82 in Xbox or Microsoft gift card value. The program applies to Edge on Android and iOS and had earlier surfaced in a Canary test build before rolling out broadly.
Microsoft has shipped the first official release of the Agent Lightning Skill, a tool that helps coding agents systematically improve other AI agents. Users supply an editable agent and a benchmark, and the skill guides iterative changes to prompts, tools, workflows, models, and reasoning settings. It installs directly into Claude Code, Codex, or GitHub Copilot via a simple CLI command.
Reverse engineering of Windows Paint and Photos apps found that both send user prompts to a Microsoft server for moderation even when image generation runs locally via onboard AI models. That server returns a GUID alongside the approved prompt, and this GUID gets invisibly embedded into the pixels of the generated image, separate from the visible watermark toggle users can control. This applies even on Copilot+ PCs where generation happens entirely on-device.
Microsoft shipped Windows NT 4.0 to retail on August 24, 1996, bringing the Windows 95 graphical interface—including the Start Menu, Taskbar, and Explorer shell—to its business-focused NT platform for the first time. Previous NT versions had used the older Windows 3.x-style interface, so this release aligned the look and feel of Microsoft's consumer and workstation operating systems.
Valve, the studio behind Half-Life and Steam, was founded on August 24, 1996, by former Microsoft engineers Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. The company released Half-Life in 1998, reshaping first-person shooter design, then launched Steam in 2003, establishing digital game distribution as an industry standard. Today the company celebrates its 30th anniversary with both products still shaping the industry.
Microsoft is rolling out a new Teams meeting protection policy letting admins automatically block all identified external bots from joining meetings, without requiring organizer approval. This expands on a June update that flagged bots in the lobby but still let organizers admit them manually. The feature is off by default, deploying via targeted release through August with general availability expected by late September.
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