Author: Microsoft Stories

Microsoft has acquired Groove music player app, developed by a Montreal-based startup called Zikera. It is a smart music player app which offers personalized playlists with the help of machine learning. The users who already have the app, however, will not receive any further update for it. Microsoft is working towards increasing the market share of Windows Phone devices, and this move will enable it to improve the input methods on Windows Phone devices.

Microsoft released a new update (build number 10586.104) for Windows 10 to fix a number of bug fixes including security vulnerabilities in its Edge Web browser. The company announced that it has created a dedicated portal on its website to showcase Windows 10 update changes. The portal lists information about every Windows 10 update Microsoft has seeded to date. Among the things listed in the change log for the latest Windows 10 update, is a security patch aimed at addressing vulnerabilities in Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL is undoubtedly the most important smartphone for the company. It is one of the first devices based on Satya Nadella’s vision of offering only six devices catering to three different set of users. Lumia 950 XL has better build than Google’s Nexus 5X, and its plastics don’t make any creaking noises. Microsoft’s own liquid cooling technology keeps the device pretty cool for most part. Microsoft Lumia 950 XL’s display is crisp, and the colors are extremely vibrant. Even the saturation of the display is very evenly matched. The 20MP Pureview image sensor is more like a digital camera than a smartphone camera.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 got a new patch for Xbox One earlier this week. The new patch, labeled 1.06 brings a number of fixes and tweaks to the popular game. Among the things fixed with this new patch, there is an added support for the Tactical Mode “auto-on” feature. When it comes to the zombie mode, the company has done a bit of weapon balancing as well as tweaking things like the visibility of the Lil’ Arnie bottles.

TechBlocks has been chosen as one of the Red Carpet Program partners for Microsoft Azure Internet of Things offerings. The IoT Red Carpet program is a worldwide invitation only Microsoft program for selected Microsoft partners. It is intended to help the partners develop and grow their practices through accelerated development of solutions and services based upon Microsoft Azure IoT. One of the main reasons the company was selected to be a top IoT partner is its exhaustive knowledge and experience on Azure.

Microsoft has announced that a public preview of the enterprise-specific synchronization of settings, apps and passwords between devices running Windows 10 is now available. Dubbed “Enterprise State Roaming,” the capability is tied to Azure Active Directory Premium, the commercial cloud-based directory and identity management service. Azure AD is an in-the-cloud replacement for on-premises Windows Server-based Active Directory. Enterprise State Roaming was first mentioned by Microsoft when it announced several Windows 10-specific functions powered by Azure AD, like self-provisioning, single sign-on and a corporate-oriented Windows app marketplace.

Microsoft’s Azure Stack private cloud system has some new platform services and DevOps in less than two weeks after it was launched initially. Users can now download a beta version of the Web Apps feature for Azure App Service that runs on Azure Stack. It makes building websites on top of it easier. Users can also install new beta tools for running MySQL and SQL Server workloads on Azure Stack; the system already has built-in tools for running virtual machines. The Azure Stack team said that users, however, should expect minor changes in the functionality before Azure Stack’s launch.

The most visible product and the public face of Microsoft is Windows. Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented-reality headset has been called groundbreaking, and the company jumped to No. 3 on the BrandZ list of most valuable global brands in 2015. Between early September 2015 and February 1, 2016, the company’s stock price surged more than 25%. But Microsoft’s future is all about the cloud. During a call to discuss Microsoft’s recent quarterly results with analysts, CEO Satya Nadella said, “The enterprise cloud opportunity is massive. It’s larger than any market we’ve ever participated in.”

Sony and Microsoft will present at this year‘s GDC. Both the companies will be hosting multiple panels that they will use as platforms to discuss upcoming technologies they have invested in. For Sony, the next thing is VR, and it will host a panel called “PlayStation VR: Development and Innovations”. Meanwhile, Microsoft will speak about their much awaited DirectX 12 API at GDC. Microsoft will also discuss their continued push to develop a seamless ecosystem across Windows PCs and Xbox.

Market research has found Microsoft’s HoloLens better poised at dominating the market by 2020. In a recently published report, it is said that more than 12 million smart glasses will reach consumers by 2020. Microsoft has the upper hand because the HoloLens is advertised as a product people could use at home or at work.