Author: Microsoft Stories

More than 30 major technology and communication companies said on August 19, 2016 they are joining the US government to crack down on “robocalls”, automated and prerecorded phone calls. Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Apple, BlackBerry and Nokia are among members of the ‘Robocall Strike Force’. The strike force hopes to implement Caller ID verification standards to help block calls from spoofed phone numbers and consider a “Do Not Originate” list for governments, banks or others.

In an effort to make people switch to Microsoft Edge, the company will now pay users to use the browser. Edge can deliver 36-53 percent more battery life while doing daily tasks, including watching videos on YouTube, browsing internet or checking in with friends on social networks. Microsoft Rewards, a rebranding of Bing Rewards, is only available in the US so far and offers points for using Edge and Bing, as well as shopping at the Microsoft store, CNET.com reported.

The article is about the games releasing on Xbox One. Worms W.M.D. is one of those games which is going to release on Xbox one on August 23, 2016. The worms are back for more destruction and mayhem in this 2D side scrolling multiplayer brawler. The other games releasing in this batch are Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Valley, and King of Fighter XIV.

Even though there are many types of productivity software available out there, office suites are arguably the most commonly used. And when it comes to office suites, Microsoft Office is pretty much the gold standard. Whether we talk about MS Office as a whole, or take its constituent applications (e.g. Word, PowerPoint and Excel), the sheer number of advanced features offered is amazing. However, some of the popular Microsoft Office alternatives are: Apache OpenOffice, LibreOffice, WPS Office, Softmaker FreeOffice and NeoOffice.

The Microsoft Accelerator hosted 15 startup CEOs (out of +500) for its First Global Startup Roadshow in Silicon Valley and Seattle in June. The aim of the five-day event was to help these startups in their mission to penetrate the US market and help them strengthen their presence and scale up. In addition, Microsoft also hosted Silicon Valley investors for 1:1 “speed dating” with the CEOs who are about to disrupt their industries. The startups also got the opportunity to leverage Microsoft’s internal resources for face-to-face meetings with Microsoft Executives from various fields including business, marketing and sales groups.

Technology is playing a big role in the ongoing Krishna Pushkarams. The tech-savvy Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has asked officials to use the latest technology for effective networking of the huge contingent of government Officers and staff besides scores of volunteers working to make the 12-day-long festival a success in Krishna, Guntur and Kurnool districts. Kaizala, an Android app developed by Microsoft, has made life easy for the multi-disciplinary teams deployed at the Pushkar ghats and Pushkar Nagars. It facilitates privacy-based sub-groups which can be coordinated as per requirement.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella turned 49 on August 19, 2016. A Microsoft veteran, Nadella was named to the top position in February 2014. He succeeded Steve Ballmer, who was software giant’s CEO for 14 years. 9 interesting facts about him are: He studied at Manipal University, joined Microsoft in 1992, married his childhood sweetheart, loves cricket and poetry, happens to be the highest-paid tech CEO, Bill Gates was his mentor, he is a Seattle Seahawks fan and is currently working on his book.

In an interaction, Meenu Chandra, Senior Attorney, Lead, Digital Crimes Unit of Microsoft India, said, “Recent years have seen the rapid growth of the Internet and growing reliance of societies on information systems. From hackers causing mischief to organized crime syndicates employing sophisticated financial ruses, the surge of sophisticated, targeted cyber-attacks highlights the need for improved defenses. At Microsoft, security is a core focus and we invest more than a billion dollars in security research and development. We are working with partners across the globe in better approaches to secure digital assets in a mobile first, cloud first world.”

In an interview, Aaron Greenberg, head of Xbox marketing, said, “For us, we think the future is without console generations. We think that the ability to build a library, a community, to be able to iterate with the hardware we’re making a pretty big bet on that with Project Scorpio. We’re basically saying, ‘this isn’t a new generation; everything you have continues forward and it works.’ We think of this as a family of devices.”

Microsoft has announced Xbox Wireless. It’s a new ecosystem of compatible hardware and peripherals. Existing Xbox One consoles and accessories are Xbox Wireless ready. “While this is the first partner device to have built-in Xbox Wireless support, it won’t be the last. We are currently working with other partners such as Astro, PDP, Turtle Beach, and many more,” posted Will Tuttle, Xbox Wire Editor in Chief on the official Xbox website. “Going forward, you should expect to see both new PCs and new accessories that support Xbox Wireless as we create new ways for our fans to play seamlessly across devices.”