Author: Microsoft Stories

Microsoft debuted at LinuxCon 2016 with few of its offerings for the open source world. Alongside demonstrating its interest for the Linux community, the Redmond giant announced the preview release of its OMS (Operations Management Suite) Docker Container monitoring. Microsoft’s open source leader Wim Coekaerts said that the new solution provides a “simplified view” of containers’ usage. There are also options to diagnose issues on the performance of containers whether they are running in the cloud or on-premises.

Microsoft has just released an update to the Windows Camera app that enables the panorama app for several devices. Insiders have had the feature for over a month, but this is a nice bit of news for the seven people still using Windows Phone. It works on the Lumia 550, 650, 950, and 950 XL, 640, 830, Icon, 930, and 1520.

Apple’s opening of the iOS keyboard floodgates has created enough space for a small skirmish between Google and Microsoft. Microsoft only introduced its iPhone keyboard, Word Flow for iPhone, in April and the company is already moving to version 2.0. The latest update from the Microsoft Garage project, which launched, adds some new search features that appear to be a direct response to Google’s Gboard that rolled out in mid-May. The new Word Flow update adds an easy search function for GIFs and emojis to add a little spice to your messages, as The Verge first reported.

Microsoft released 64-bit versions of its Office 2016 applications for the Mac, following a series of previews offered testers since April. The five apps; Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word, will be updated to 64-bit for all customers, including those with an Office 2016 retail license, a consumer or commercial subscription to Office 365, and a volume license. Most users will be updated automatically as the suite launches an update app on its regular schedule. Microsoft has been testing the 64-bit versions with Office Insider participants since April.

Microsoft is a hyper-scale global cloud provider that offers a complete portfolio of cloud services from local datacenters in India. “In the second half of 2015, we announced the availability of our commercial cloud services from three local datacenters in India. These three datacenters, located in Chennai, Pune and Mumbai are hyper scale datacenters with thousands of servers, petabytes of storage and massive network capacity. We have made these long term investments in the cloud datacenters to ensure that Indian businesses don’t have to worry about capacity expansion or regulatory issues in the future,” said, Peter Gartenberg, General Manager, Enterprise Partner Group (EPG), Microsoft India.

Microsoft had three major titles set to release this year with Halo Wars 2, Crackdown 3 and Scalebound. But all three were subsequently pushed back to next year. Speaking to DualShockers, Xbox Marketing Head Aaron Greenberg said, “As you go through that creative process, sometimes things happen fast, sometimes they take longer than you expect. For us making the games great, making sure the stories are great, the graphics are great in these immersive experiences, is a priority.”

The latest release from the Xbox One maker is no game or a console, but a cozy garment for user’s gaming consoles. The Xbox Onesie has been launched in Australia to compliment the release of new Xbox One S console. The Xbox Onesie packs a bunch of features that the company touts as “everything an entertainment enthusiast could need when streaming a favorite TV show or film, watching sports or embarking on the ultimate gaming session.” The Xbox Onesie includes custom gamer tag embroidery, pockets to fit controllers and remotes, an extra-large hood to house a gaming headset, an arm pouch for user’s phone and forearm grips.

Microsoft had kept its augmented reality headset, HoloLens, a secret in its early stages of development but then realized that it needed developers to ensure that the users are able to get the most out of its device. Microsoft revealed the specifications of its Holographic Processing Unit (HPU) used inside its AR headset at Hot Chips conference in Cupertino, California. The Register reports that the HPU present inside HoloLens is a custom-designed TSMC-fabricated 28nm coprocessor with Tensilica DSP cores. The HoloLens HPU comes with 8MB of SRAM, 1GB of LPDDR3 RAM, around 65 million logic gates, and it all fits in 12mm-by-12mm BGA package that is capable of performing a trillion calculations per second.

Microsoft has released a new productivity application with closed access called Project Sonoma to both Google Play and the iTunes App Store. It helps shift workers keep track of their daily toil. Employees who need to keep track of their ever-changing schedules can see shifts, request swaps, and chat with teammates either one-on-one or in groups. The app looks somewhat like Slack, given its team chat emphasis. However, the main aim is managing employees’ schedules with three sections on the main screen: My Shifts, Requests, and Messages.

Speaking about Project Scorpio, Microsoft’s next big addition to the Xbox One family, and Sony’s upcoming PS4 Neo, EA executive VP Patrick Soderlund said, “I believe that it’s an interesting approach. We haven’t seen this whole idea of upgrading since the Mega CD in 1991 or something. At the time, that might not have worked, but this is different. I can only comment to what’s been announced by Microsoft, the whole idea of keeping the ecosystem intact and scalable is right.”