Author: Microsoft Stories

At the recently held Microsoft Ignite conference in Atlanta, USA, a slew of updates (and features) were announced for Office 365. Majority of these additions, in terms of security, intelligence, and collaboration, are directed towards the business users employing Office 365 in an organization environment.

Microsoft launched the preview version of Spark for Azure HDInsights last year. The same preview has now been translated into general release. This general release for Azure HDInsight is fully managed with Spark service from Hortonworks. Spark for Azure HDInsight offers the industry’s highest availability service level agreement for Spark deployments at 99.9 percent. Also, it comes with out of the box integration of open source notebook Jupyter.

Windows user in the US was paid $650 by Microsoft for distress caused due to repeated notifications to upgrade to Windows 10 as a result of which his grandfather’s computer system required 10 hours to get restored to Windows 7. This user, by name Jesse Worley, has stated that he spent almost 10 hours to re-install Windows 7 in his grandfather’s computer and make the OS look like the legacy Windows XP. This was because his grandfather reportedly suffers from Alzheimer’s.

Dell EMC has broadened support of Microsoft environments with new Microsoft Azure Services, Validated Systems for Microsoft Exchange and SQL, as well as customer momentum for the Dell EMC Hybrid Cloud System for Microsoft. The news comes in coordination with Microsoft’s Ignite conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

Microsoft Corp. Executive Qi Lu, a key architect of Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella’s strategy for artificial intelligence and bots, is reportedly leaving the company due to health issues. Lu was a respected technologist who ran both the Office and search groups in his eight years at the company. With Lu’s departure in October, Microsoft is creating a new AI research group, to be led by company veteran Harry Shum, whose career has spanned leadership roles across research and Bing engineering.

Microsoft is finding new ways to become successful in mobile with business solutions before returning to consumers. In an interview with a local newspaper, Vahé Torossian, President of Microsoft France said that Redmond is now moving away from the consumer market in mobile, trying to concentrate more on businesses in the coming years. Microsoft is finding new ways to become successful in mobile with business solutions before returning to consumers.

Microsoft released a new version of Skype for the iPhone and iPad that lets you call any of your contacts without opening the app. Just like calling from your phone’s contacts, a simple command like ‘call Joe Smith’ will lead Siri to the Skype contact assuming it’s saved in your iOS device. After confirmation, the call is dialed just like you’re used to.

Microsoft’s popular blogging solution Open Live Writer is now available for Windows 10 users. Originally debuted as Windows Live Writer, Open Live Writer supports a majority of blogging platforms including Blogger and WordPress, and advanced features such as live tiles and Cortana integration. Its Windows 10 version is created using Project Centennial, and works only with PCs.

Microsoft revealed the next feature update for Windows 10 Redstone 2 at the Microsoft’s Ignite conference. The session called, ‘Discover what’s next for Windows 10 Mobile for phones and small tablets,’ consisted of a number of announcements especially regarding Redstone 2. The update brings along a new feature called Proximity Connect which, through the use of Bluetooth pairing will allow users to connect wirelessly to a dock without manually removing the phone out of their pockets.

Microsoft has expanded its existing bug bounty programme to cover open source .NET Core and ASRNET Core. To reach out to developers who dig into the RTM, beta and RC releases of the community-backed platforms, Microsoft is giving away bounty payouts from US$ 500 to US$ 15,000, based on the quality of the report.