Author: Microsoft Stories

Betting big on advanced analytics and machine learning on its Azure cloud, Microsoft is planning to ramp up its market reach through its existing clients across verticals and government initiatives in India. According to Microsoft Bing Search and Advertisement India and R&D General Manager Russ Arun, “Big data analytics, coupled with machine-learning algorithms, holds immense potential in terms of driving fundamental changes in critical areas like education and health. To that extent, advances in computing can help governments and society create relevant interventions in pressing issues.”

Ratan Tata-backed Infinite Analytics’s personalization engine has been integrated into Microsoft Dynamics AX, an ERP (enterprise resource planning) suite that provides end-to-end retail solutions connecting people, information and processes. Infinite Analytics, a predictive analytics company based out of Boston and Mumbai, was founded by MIT alumni Akash Bhatia and Purushotham Botla three years ago and has its genesis in a class taught by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web.

Businesses may adopt Windows 10 earlier and boost the PC market in 2017. The global PC shipment market is expected to total 287 million units in 2016, a decline of one per cent year over year, but on pace to increase four per cent in 2017.“Ultramobile premium devices are expected to drive the PC market forward with the move to Windows 10 and PCs built around Intel’s Skylake architecture,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “We expect that businesses will deploy Windows 10 faster than with previous Windows upgrades.”

iQor, a global provider of customer interaction and product support services, today announced that it has been named as Microsoft’s service partner for hardware support in North America. iQor currently supports a wide range of Microsoft devices in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Microsoft said it will put a billion dollars’ worth of cloud computing power in the hands of non-profit groups and university researchers free of charge. A philanthropic arm of the US software colossus will make the donation during the coming three years to 70,000 non-profit groups and researchers, chief executive Satya Nadella said while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Cloud computing lets people use the Internet to tap into processing or data storage capacity at huge data centers.

Microsoft is bringing another formerly exclusive feature of Windows smartphones first of all to iOS then to Android. This time it’s the Word Flow virtual keyboard. Microsoft is keen to share some of its platform’s choice innovations — like Cortana, Office and now the Word Flow keyboard — with users of other mobile operating systems. Microsoft is currently letting members of its Windows Insider program test a beta version of Word Flow for iOS. This virtual keyboard uses exclusive technology that considerably speeds up text input on smartphones, as users don’t have to lift up their finger when typing words onscreen.

Orckestra announced that it has partnered with Microsoft Dynamics to help retailers, grocers, and branded manufacturers realize the promise of Unified Commerce in the Cloud, which brings together technology-enabled retail functions to serve consumers where, when and how they desire.

Microsoft is giving developers and students a free crack at its new server software for the R programming language. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Joseph Sirosh announced the new Microsoft R Server for Developers, which offers a free version of the software to members of the company’s developer program. The software will give developers a test bed to work with an enterprise-grade version of the popular data analysis language before rolling it out into production.

The Microsoft Selfie app that was introduced last month for iOS has now been updated with a new logo, new UI, and some new features as well. The Microsoft Selfie v2.0.0 besides a new UI and logo, introduces a ‘Share’ feature using which you can send the selfie images clicked to others, something that was missing earlier. This app gives us a glimpse of Microsoft’s machine learning technology.

Microsoft appears to have begun seeding the Windows 10 Mobile software update to Lumia smartphones. The Redmond-based company earlier this week made available the latest version of its mobile operating system to the Microsoft Lumia 640, and it is now seeding the update to the low-cost Lumia 535 in at least one region. The company has also released Upgrade Advisor Beta for all Windows Phone 8.1 users, to help them upgrade their phone. the app allows users to know whether their Windows Phone handset is eligible to upgrade. It also helps with cleaning up memory on the smartphone to make enough room for the new software version.