Author: Microsoft Stories

WhatsApp has announced video calling feature to its app, which will go live on Android, iOS and Windows devices over the next couple of days. WhatsApp video calls were part of the Android public beta app for those who had signed up, but it is now coming out of beta and ready for all users. WhatsApp has promised the feature will start rolling out by tonight, and all video-calls made on the app will be end-to-end encrypted just like messages and voice-calls.

Skype has now provisioned for usage of its platform via desktop website without registering or logging in. For this service, users have to head to the Skype home website and enter their name. After this they will be provided with a, unique conversation link, which can be shared to start conversations. Users can share this chat link with individuals or with groups, depending upon their requirement. The contacts that receive this link can also join the conversation using the link without signing in if they are also using Skype for web.

Project Scorpio, Microsoft’s next big Xbox console, will be the most powerful ever with 6 TFLOPS of computing power. Xbox head of marketing Aaron Greenberg revealed some interesting details on how Microsoft plans to tackle gaming in 4K. Speaking to GameTransfers, Greenberg said during the Xbox FanFest in Mexico City that, “This will really bring the most powerful console you’ve ever seen. It will bring these 4K, incredible visual games that we’ve never seen before on the console.”

One of the most anticipated games of next year is Square Enix and Platinum Games’ NieR Automata, the sequel to the cult hit that originally launched on PS3 and Xbox 360. Speaking to GameRant in an interview, NieR Automata producer Yosuke Saito admitted that the team is not averse to launching the game on Xbox One- the possibility is openly being considered, as a matter of fact, though whether the game comes to Microsoft’s system will depend on how well it does on the PS4 and PC at launch.

Microsoft has already rolled out what it’s calling its Holiday Update. Among the things that are going to get some changes are Clubs, LFG and a Gamerscore leaderboard. The Clubs on Xbox One can be created and managed by anyone and there are likely to be clubs from just about anything. This will basically be a way for people to meet others, and then set up games to play together. LFG, otherwise known as Looking for Group and this just allows you to pair down the kind of groups you are looking for.

A color blind software engineer at Microsoft has built an app which helps people with the condition to see a full spectrum of colors. Tom Overton’s Color Binocular brightens yellows, reds, greens and blues to compensate for an inability to distinguish between the hues naturally. The app offers three viewing modes – red and green, green and red, and blue and yellow and is available for free on Apple.

Just a few days ago, consumer electronics giants, Apple and Microsoft, unveiled the new line of respective MacBook Pro and Surface Book series notebooks. Both the devices come with huge upgrade over their predecessors, but how does they stack up against each other? Microsoft Surface Pro sports a 13.5-inch PixelSense display having 3000 x 2000p resolution, pixel density of 267 ppi and aspect ratio of 3:2. Apple MacBook Pro (2016) comes in two screen sizes—one, 15.4-inch and 13.3-inch. Microsoft Surface Book houses 6th generation Intel Core i7 backed by NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M 2GB GDDR5 memory with 8GB/16GB RAM and Solid state drive (SSD) options – 256GB/512GB/1TB. On the other hand, Apple offers MacBook Pro (2016) in multiple configurations.

However, some consumers have since claimed that they were unable to download Microsoft Office apps, an essential set of tools for productivity. However Microsoft is letting iOS, Android, and Windows 10 Mobile users who have 10.1-inch devices or smaller free access to viewing, creating, editing, and printing tools. Chromebook consumers who want to go beyond basic features will have to shell out the cash for an Office 365 subscription. If they do so, they’ll have full license to do things such as Presenter View in PowerPoint, tracking changes in Word, and Pivot Tables in Excel.

Microsoft recently announced their Visual Studio platform for Mac. This service will be officially introduced at the Connect Conference on November 16. Microsoft’s Visual Studio is aimed to help Apple customers through the platform’s coding tools. The Mac version of Visual Studio is quite like the Windows version of Visual Studio. ‘Compatibility is a key focus of Visual Studio for Mac. Although, it’s a new product and doesn’t support all the Visual Studio project types, for those it does have in common it uses the same MSBuild solution and project format. If you have team members on Mac OS and Windows, or switch between the two OSes yourself, you can seamlessly share your projects across platforms,’ Microsoft said in a statement.

Teams from Beijing security firm, Qihoo and South Korean Hacker Lokihardt both managed to compromise the Microsoft Edge browser on Windows, and bagged bounties of $120,000 each. Each team or contestant is given three attempts to compromise the target, with each attempt having a time limit of four minutes. Lokihardt managed to gain system level access in as little as 18 seconds. It was the first time that a VMware Workstation was successfully attacked with only remote code execution, and no interaction by the end user.