Author: Microsoft Stories

UCWeb’s mobile browser ‘UC Browser’ has tied up with Microsoft search engine Bing ahead of the cricket season with debut of a revamped UC Cricket. The deal will provide a mobile gateway to all things associated with cricket. This is part of a broader plan by UC Browser, a part of Alibaba mobile business group, to ride on the digital content trend and shape how content will be consumed on mobile Internet. Bing will provide predictions to upcoming games via Bing Predicts.

Microsoft Corporation, showcased an array of technology innovations across its products and service portfolio to make Hindi language computing more accessible for users. At an event in Jaipur, the company displayed the integration of Hindi on Office 365, Sway, Skype IM translator, Bing and Windows Phone that is available at no extra cost for consumers. Alok Lall, Director, Office Marketing, Microsoft, said, “In our commitment to empower users to achieve more, we are delighted to announce a suite of Hindi compatible products and services that users can use at no extra cost. We continue to enhance capabilities, making it easy for users across geographies to use our products and services without facing the language barrier.”

With the country moving ahead with 3G and 4G technology and most small businesses taking a smartphone first approach, Microsoft believes that it is in a much better position to cater to these SMBs in different parts of India. Meetul Patel, General Manager, SMS&P (Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners), Microsoft India, said, “Under our mobile first approach, we provide SMBs various efficient and low cost tools. Our target is to reach out to the maximum number of the 40 million SMB base in the country. Therefore we are raising awareness via various industry bodies, government agencies, academia, NGOs. SMB organizations are adopting the cloud more quickly than larger enterprises, which gives them a distinct advantage to adapt faster, quickly and enable employees to work anywhere at any time. All this has led to a growing demand of customized and/or tailor-made solution from different industry sectors.”

Via Technologies, the third-place x86 chip maker is making new x86 chips and bringing Windows 10 support to existing processors. The company’s chips are still used in thin clients and ITX boards. The company has added Windows 10 compatibility to its EPIA-P910 and EPIA-M920Pico-ITX boards, motherboards that have PC-grade components. The boards run on older quad-core Via processors originally designed for low-cost PCs. It will be possible to run Windows 10 on the Pico-ITX boards.

Microsoft has joined the open source Eclipse Foundation. Shanku Niyogi, General Manager of the Visual Studio Team, Microsoft said, “Today, I’m happy to share that Microsoft is taking its relationship with the Eclipse community to the next level by joining the Eclipse Foundation as a Solutions Member. Joining the Eclipse Foundation enables us to collaborate more closely with the Eclipse community, deliver a great set of tools and services for all development teams, and continuously improve our cloud services, SDKs and tools.”

Microsoft Corporation and Polycom, Inc. announced that they would expand the reach of Skype for Business meetings. This would enable Polycom customers to leverage their existing video investments as they move to Microsoft Office 365 and Skype for Business environments. In addition, Microsoft customers will have the option to use Polycom’s proven technologies in their new deployments. Zig Serafin, Corporate Vice President, Skype for Business, Microsoft, said, “Uniting Skype for Business in Office 365 with Polycom’s high-quality audio and video solutions gives customers the most complete collaboration toolkit for the modern workplace.”

Microsoft made waves in the tech industry when it announced that it is giving away the Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC) software for free. It was created by the tech giant for its own internal use. SONiC is used to run an up-and-coming type of computer network switch that is rising in popularity. Microsoft is giving SONiC software away as part of its work with the Open Compute Project, an organization founded by Facebook to build “open source” hardware for data centers the same way that the people behind the Linux operating system do with free, open source software.

Microsoft is reportedly testing a new Authenticator app for Windows 10 that will let users unlock their PC over Bluetooth. Microsoft has been trying to bring new ways to secure and unlock Windows 10 PCs, which includes introducing fingerprint reader and camera support for Windows Hello. The app, however, is listed for “internal testing purposes only”, and is currently limited to smartphones running Windows 10 Mobile.

Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC and Rakuten Inc. signed a worldwide patent cross-licensing agreement covering their respective consumer electronics products, including Linux and Android-based devices. Nick Psyhogeos, President of Microsoft Technology Licensing, said, “Our agreement with Rakuten reinforces the opportunities that cross-licensing can bring to companies across the technology spectrum. We’re pleased to have found a mutually beneficial path of collaboration that will ultimately benefit consumers.”

Primary Health Medical Group and Proskriptive from Idaho were awarded a 2016 Microsoft Health Innovation Award in the category of “Building the Intelligent Cloud”. Laura Wallace, Vice President, Health & Life Sciences, Microsoft, said, “The health industry is undergoing a seismic shift in which intelligent technologies are helping organizations, communities and individuals improve care by helping them better understand and share information. This year’s Microsoft Health Innovation Award recipients are advancing the goals of improved patient engagement and care coordination through their pioneering use of Microsoft devices, platforms and cloud services.”