Author: Microsoft Stories

A top Microsoft official Sanjay Gupta met Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das and evinced interest to run IT-based training centers. According to an official release, Microsoft would also assist in other technological spheres.

An independent study conducted by IHS Markit has confirmed something that most of us knew to be true anyway – Xbox Live is a sight better than the PlayStation Network. The study rated PSN and Xbox Live across eight parameters login to network speed, login to game server speed, finding players and matchmaking, time to upload, login to game server reliability, matchmaking reliability, parties, and voice chat and in all but two categories (both the matchmaking ones) Xbox Live came out ahead of PSN. Overall, Xbox Live ranked higher than PSN, especially in the actual multiplayer experience.

Ahead of the release of the extremely promising Battlefield 1, it seems like Microsoft is going to fully leverage their partnership with Battlefield with the release of three new Battlefield 1 bundles. There will be a standard 500GB white Xbox One S bundled with a copy of the game, retailing for $299; there will be a Walmart and Microsoft Store Storm Grey 500 GB Xbox One bundle, which features a fine looking color for the console, and which will only be available in the US, for $299; finally, a Military Green 1TB Xbox One S will come with Battlefield 1 Early Enlister Deluxe edition available for $349.

Executives from Microsoft, Google, Amazon and IBM walk into a conference with one thing in common. But all of those companies are appearing on stage at BoxWorks in San Francisco, in part because they all work with the cloud storage and content services company in one capacity or another. Box works with Microsoft to integrate its products with Office 365, Amazon to host services in different cloud data centers, and IBM on new applications, services and sales. Google is the newest addition to that club. The two companies announced that they’re working on storing Google Docs, Sheets and Slides files inside Box.

The article is about the game ‘Gears of War 4’ which is going to release on October 11 on Xbox One. Microsoft has revealed what users can expect if they pre-order the game. Aside from the usual host of cosmetic items such as gold weapons and multiplayer skins based on popular series characters such as Marcus Fenix, users also get four other games by pre-ordering. The company claims this will be a limited time offer though does not state when it expires.

Microsoft has released Skype 1.7 for Linux through its alpha channel. The updated Skype client brings several noticeable improvements over the initial build that was released back in July. According to the official changelog, Skype 1.7 has fixed the standard behavior of unread messages. This new change brings the focus on the first unread message, and once you scroll down, your new messages will be automatically marked as read. The updated Skype client also comes with a new grid layout for group calls.

Microsoft has added guest functionality to its email client. Starting with the Web version of Office 365, allowing the group owners to invite people from outside to get the emails that are being sent to the group. “Once added, guests receive a welcome email, are granted access to group files in SharePoint Online, begin receiving email messages and calendar invites sent to the group, and can access the group in Office on the web and the Outlook Groups mobile application,” the company said in its official blog post announcing the feature.

LinkedIn Corp., the operator of the world’s largest online business networking service, has launched a “Lite” version of its website for mobile browsing in India. The company, acquired by Microsoft, said the version was aimed at helping users browse its website faster on their smartphones, in areas with slow or poor internet connectivity. Two more LinkedIn services were launched – “LinkedIn Placements”, aimed at students looking for jobs while “LinkedIn Starter Pack” to connect startups and small and mid-sized businesses with job seekers.

With the PS4 Pro unveiled this week and readily available from November, Microsoft’s Xbox Head Phil Spencer took to Twitter to allay some concerns of Xbox fans. Replying to a query about how developers would design their games for Project Scorpio, Spencer tweeted, “Most devs are already targeting higher specs with their PC builds. Teams have art assets and engine to use power.” In response to a concern about Scorpio games being ports of the PS4 Pro, Spencer claimed that builds for existing games made for powerful PCs would be coming to Scorpio instead.

Sony has been stumbling a fair bit of late – the PS+ price rise, the underwhelming reveal of the PS4 Pro, as well as its disappointing feature set, and now, the lack of mods for Bethesda’s games on PlayStation and Microsoft have been having some good fun with Sony’s missteps. The lack of mods for Fallout 4 and Skyrim Remastered on the PS4. Microsoft’s Xbox UK account posted a hilarious new tweet listing all the features that the Xbox One S has, including backwards compatibility, UHD Blu Ray support, and now, support for mods in Bethesda’s games. It’s a continuation of the checklist style of tweets they’ve been posting since the PlayStation meeting a couple of days ago.