From PC Mag: Mixed reality just got a lot more serious and lucrative for Microsoft thanks to the US Army. A contract worth $480 million has been awarded to Microsoft that will see it supply up to 100,000 modified HoloLens headsets for use in training and combat situations.

As Bloomberg reports...

From InfoWorld: Amazon has spent more than a decade trying to free itself of Oracle’s “one database to rule them all” approach, something Amazon snidely calls “clunky” and “old guard.” Not content to unshackle just itself, Amazon has announced a series of database introductions and improvements to...

From CNET: In India, a hub for tech support centers, a rise in scams forced Microsoft and the police to take action.

Scammers based in the suburbs of New Delhi set up fake centers, from which they sent out alerts and called people to say their computers had been infected with a nonexistent virus...

From PC Mag: I'm not 100 percent sure who started this "Snapdragon 8150" thing, but let me end it: Qualcomm is announcing the chipset that will go into all of the first major 5G phones next week, and it isn't called the Snapdragon 8150.

The full details for Qualcomm's new chipset will be announced...

From ComputerWorld: Popular consumer technology often makes the jump from the personal to the professional. AOL Instant Messenger, the iPhone and Facebook, for example, started off as consumer apps and devices and quickly gained ground in the office.

More recently, WhatsApp, the messaging app now...

From CNET: YouTube will reportedly make all its upcoming original programing free and ad-supported from 2020.

That'll mean you won't need a YouTube Premium subscription to watch the Google-owned video sharing site's original shows and movies, but you'll have to sit through ads, Reuters reported...

From The Verge: Microsoft has filed a patent for a Surface Pro Type Cover redesign that would potentially make it thinner. Spotted by WindowsUnited, the patent includes details about cutting or etching the Surface Pro keyboard to create a thinner version. Microsoft also appears to be exploring...

From PC Mag: It used to be the case that Sony competed with Nintendo on two fronts: home consoles and handheld gaming devices. But with the demise of the PS Vita it looked as though Sony had left the handheld market for good. However, a new patent for a game cartridge suggests otherwise.

As...

From CNET: Facebook rolled out a feature called "Watch Party" in July that allows users to watch and chat about a video in one spot as if they were sitting together in a digital living room.

Now that tool, which was made available first within Facebook Groups, is expanding to all pages and profiles...

From The Verge: Samsung has apologized to all sufferers of work-related diseases who were employed on its chip and LCD production lines, and has agreed to a compensation package with a maximum value of 150 million Korean won (around $130,000) per illness, reports Yonhap News Agency.

”Beloved...