Author: Microsoft Stories

Technology giant Microsoft today said sectors like healthcare, banking, financial services and insurance as well as startups are among the leading users of its local cloud services in India.
The US-based company, which had launched its local data centers in India in September last year, said state governments are also experimenting with the cloud platform to solve challenges in education, healthcare and agriculture.

Backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One has helped a number of classics like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Red Dead Redemption reach a number of new players this generation. However, not every backwards compatible title has performed so well in terms of frame rate. However, some users have noted improved performance with the latest system update. Mike Ybarra, Director of Program Management, Xbox, further confirmed on Twitter that the latest update helped improve V-sync and reduced overall input lag for games.

Microsoft’s board authorized the buyback of an additional $40 billion of stock on top of an existing $40 billion repurchase program. This is to keep up a strategy of returning money to shareholders as its cash pile grows. Reportedly, the global software maker also raised its quarterly dividend by 8.3 percent to 39 cents a share. The company’s stock has jumped 31 percent in the past year, giving Microsoft a market capitalization of $442.7 billion, the third-largest in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

Microsoft launched the Nokia 216 Dual SIM at Rs 2,495. The phone comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA display (240×320 resolution), running on Nokia Series 30+ operating system, with up to 32GB of storage via MicroSD card support. The handset features a VGA camera (0.3-megapixels) with an LED flash module on both the front and back. Nokia 216 Dual SIM will be available in India from October 24 in black, grey and blue.

The ninth batch of startups chosen for the Microsoft Accelerator in Bangalore has a distinct theme of AI and data analytics. This aligns with Microsoft’s strategic push to be an AI platform coupled with its Azure cloud computing platform. “I think artificial intelligence and data analytics will be in the DNA of every company,” said Bala Girisaballa, CEO, Microsoft Accelerator.

Microsoft is working to untangle user accounts that straddle both its consumer and corporate cloud services, helping administrators keep a tighter lid on corporate data. “Users might think that their personal Microsoft account is business-compliant and that they’re in compliance when they save business documents to their OneDrive,” Ariel Gordon, a Microsoft Identity Principal Program Manager, wrote in a recent blog post, explaining why creating a personal Microsoft Account with work email is a bad idea.

Microsoft is now bringing back the Messaging Everywhere feature with Windows 10 Insider Preview build 14926. The update to Skype Preview allows users to send and receive text messages from their phone, via Skype app. To make use of this new feature, Insiders will have to set Skype Preview as their primary SMS via the app’s settings. Microsoft plans to bring the SMS relay service to the public in the coming months as well as some new features and improvements such as the ability to hide conversations, add contact button, and support for Skype URIs.

Windows smartphone users can rejoice as a new update has been rolled out for the beta version of WhatsApp. A shortcut for camera has been added, making it easier to send images and videos. Windows users can download the beta version of WhatsApp from the Windows Store as it had recently been made available for download.

With the PlayStation 4 Pro announcement last week, the cat’s finally out of the bag: both Sony and Microsoft have broken the traditional console cycle and opted instead to release incremental, mid-cycle refreshes. The interesting thing here is that despite adoption rates for 4K displays that remain relatively low both manufacturers are firmly positioning their new platforms as 4K consoles. Super sampling, anti-aliasing and higher frame rates are major plus-points, but at the end of the day, nothing that won’t run on the PS4 or Xbox One will run on the PS4 Pro and Xbox Scorpio because of brand positioning policies.