Unity game engine to support Xbox One, gets a boost on Windows 8 and Windows Phone

Unity Announces Strategic Collaboration with Microsoft to Extend Free Platform Support for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8; Unveils Xbox One Support for Microsoft Studios' Development Partners

San Francisco, CA – June 27, 2013 – Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity multi-platform game engine and development tools, has entered into an agreement with Microsoft to collaborate on development tools for Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox One. This collaboration will make it even easier for developers to bring popular games, entertainment and apps to Microsoft platforms.

Unveiled this morning during Microsoft's annual Build Conference in San Francisco, Unity will deliver the commercial version for its "Windows Store Add-on", now included in Unity 4.2 Release Candidate 1, with a commitment to ongoing support and innovation for Microsoft platforms. Under agreement with Microsoft, Unity Pro 4 licensed developers will receive a free license for the "Windows Store Add-on" once available this summer, a $1,500 value. The "Windows Store Add-on" includes support for both Windows Store apps and Windows Phone 8 apps.

In addition, Unity will develop tools for the Xbox One entertainment system, including support for many next-generation features such as enhanced Kinect gestures and recognition, multiplayer matchmaking, SmartGlass and the unlimited power of the cloud. Developers who build games published by Microsoft Studios will have access to Unity tools for Xbox 360 and Xbox One free of charge.

Unity offers a combination of power, efficiency and affordability that has made it one of the most popular game engines and development platforms in the world. The continued collaboration between Unity and Microsoft will make Microsoft's gaming ecosystem more accessible to nearly 2 million passionate developers in the Unity community.

"Our vision is to democratize game development and provide opportunity for all developers, from individuals to massive teams," said David Helgason, CEO, Unity Technologies. "Our collaboration will help further these goals by empowering our community to create games across Microsoft's powerful platforms. Their vision to provide the best outlet for games to be enjoyed parallels our own vision to build the best platform for games to be developed and we're excited to work with them to shape the future of the industry."

"Unity has established itself not only as an incredible development toolset and engine, but as a significant force for creative freedom and innovation in the games development community," said Steven Guggenheimer, Corporate Vice President and Chief Evangelist of Microsoft's Developer & Platform Evangelism organization. "With Unity's commitment to support Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Xbox One and Xbox 360, Microsoft's gaming ecosystem will benefit from the wealth of ideas and imagination flowing from the Unity games development community."

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'Bing for Schools' tailors Microsoft's search engine to K-12, cuts ads and filters adult content

Calling All Schools: Join The Bing For Schools Program!
People search in many different places, for many different things. And while we tend to talk about Bing as one search engine, it is a little more like a Swiss Army knife, responding to different contexts and intents to provide the best possible results to help people find and do what they need.

Today, we're announcing a new initiative to give one context in particular a special treatment: we're helping our nation's schools to teach digital literacy skills. Starting later this year, Bing For Schoolswill offer schools in the U.S. the option to tailor the Bing experience for K-12 students by removing all advertisements from search results, enhancing privacy protections and the filtering of adult content, and adding specialized learning features to enhance digital literacy.

The program is completely voluntary: schools have the choice of participating or keeping the normal Bing experience. For those that opt-in, Bing will enable the experience across all searches from within the school's network on Bing.com, without any need for special software or a different search address. And of course, Bing For Schools is free for any school or districts wishing to participate.

While we aren't ready to go into too much detail, as we're still finalizing what will be available in the first iteration, here are a few things you can likely expect:

Keeping Our Kids Focused on Learning:As a country, we've set schools aside as a special place that is focused on learning, and have traditionally kept advertising out of that environment. Bing For Schools removes ads from the search experience, keeping with our strong belief that schools are for learning and not selling.

Protecting Our Kids:Bing already offers the ability to filter out adult content with SafeSearch, but with Bing For Schools, SafeSearch will automatically default to the strict setting and remove kids ability to change it.

Educating Our Kids: In addition to the beautiful Bing homepage images, which feature hotspots that encourage exploration of new and unexpected topics, Bing For Schools will offer short lesson plans that teach digital literacy skills that are related to search and tied to the Common Core. For example, thispicture of a sloth might be coupled with the question "How many sloths could live in one square mile of jungle?" and a lesson helping students use search tools and critical thinking to find potential answers.

As we look to begin another school year, we'll make more information available. For now, interested educators and parents can find out more at Bing.com/schoolsand register to receive updates and information on how they can encourage their school to participate and support the program.

Microsoft employs thousands of parents, so you can imagine that we're very passionate about the Bing For Schools program. The Microsoft Partners in Learningnetwork has allowed us to provide high-quality programs to educators for years, and we are excited for Bing For Schools to add to that work. We see the program as something we can build alongside teachers, parents, and visionaries to create the best possible search experience for our children, and will continue to update you with new information as we work towards our launch later this year.

-Matt Wallaert, Bing Behavioral Scientist (and former teacher)

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Airbus A350 completes maiden flight, uber-efficient Trent XWB engine shines

Airbus A350 completes maiden flight, uber-efficient Trent XWB engine shines data = {blogUrl: "www.engadget.com",v: 315};when = {jquery: lab.scriptBs("jquery"),plugins: lab.scriptBs("plugins"),eng: lab.scriptBs("eng")}; var s265prop9 = ('20622372' !== '') ? 'bsd:20622372' : ''; var postID = '20622372'; var modalMNo = '93319229', modalVideoMNo = '93320648', modalGalleryMNo = '93304207'; when.eng("eng.omni.init", {pfxID:"weg",pageName:document.title,server:"acp-ld39.websys.aol.com",channel:"us.engadget", s_account: "aolwbengadget,aolsvc", short_url: "",pageType:"",linkInternalFilters:"javascript:,",prop1:"article",prop2:"transportation",prop9:s265prop9,prop12:document.location,prop17:"",prop18:"",prop19:"",prop20:"", prop22:"darren-murph", prop54:"blogsmith",mmxgo: true }); adSendTerms('1')adSetMOAT('1');adSetAdURL('/_uac/adpagem.html');lab._script("http://o.aolcdn.com/os/ads/adhesion/js/adhads-min.js").wait(function(){var floatingAd = new AdhesiveAd("348-14-15-14d",{hideOnSwipe:true});}); onBreak({980: function () { adSetType("F");htmlAdWH("93319229", "LB", "LB"); adSetType("");}}); EngadgetMenu NewsReviews Features Galleries VideosEventsPodcasts Engadget ShowTopics Buyers Guides Sagas Store HD Mobile Alt Announcements Cameras Cellphones Desktops Displays Gaming GPS Handhelds Home Entertainment Household Internet Laptops Meta Misc Networking Peripherals Podcasts Robots Portable Audio/Video Science Software Storage Tablets Transportation Wearables Wireless Acer Amazon AMD Apple ASUS AT&T Blackberry Canon Dell Facebook Google HP HTC Intel Lenovo LG Microsoft Nikon Nintendo Nokia NVIDIA Samsung Sony Sprint T-Mobile Verizon About UsSubscribeLike Engadget@engadgettip uswhen.eng("eng.nav.init")when.eng("eng.tips.init") onBreak({980: function () {htmlAdWH("93308280", "215", "35",'AJAX','ajaxsponsor');}});Airbus A350 completes maiden flight, uber-efficient Trent XWB engine shinesByDarren MurphpostedJun 14th, 2013 at 2:44 PM 0

With the Paris Air Show scheduled to lift off in earnest on Monday, Airbus is hoping to steal a bit of the limelight. After being conceived in 2004, the A350 finally took the public skies today in France, showcasing a highly-efficient Rolls-Royce XWB engine all the while. The jet is arguably being launched to compete with Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, and as you'd expect, it's the magic inside of the shell that's most impressive. The Trent XWB engine was built specifically for the A350, replete with titanium blades and a mixture of technologies that have led to it being deemed the "world's most efficient" airplane engine... as said by Rolls-Royce, anyway. To date, over 600 orders for the A350 have been placed, but the outfit is hoping to land even more contracts in the days ahead. Ideally, each will ship with a power port in every seat, satellite internet connections and an allergy for mechanical failures. (A boy can dream, right?)

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Source: CNN, The New York Times, BBC

More Coverage: USA Today, BBC News, Rolls-Royce

Tags: a350, airbus, airbus a350, AirbusA350, aircraft, airline, airplane, plane

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