Author: Microsoft Stories

WizIQ, one of the world’s largest online education platforms, looks all set to mark a momentous shift in the Indian e-learning space with its EdTech.Now conclave. Organised in exclusive collaboration with Cambridge University Press India and Microsoft, the event promises to be the biggest congregation of thought leaders, decision makers and pioneers in the field of education. More than 300 visionaries, investors, edtech innovators, academicians and media personnel are expected to mark their presence at the conference on October 15 in New Delhi.

Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME), an apex industry body, and Microsoft have come together to enable more than 10,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises across the country to adopt information technology and cloud computing. This will help them to connect better with their existing customers and reach out to potential customers across India.

The Xbox One Elite wireless controller that was unveiled by Microsoft in June finally has a release date. October 27 is when US consumers can pick it up for $149.99 (around Rs. 10,000). Incidentally, that’s the same date as Halo 5: Guardians. The release dates for rest of the world is expected to be announced soon. With a host of games such as the aforementioned Halo 5, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Fable Legends out around the same time on the Xbox One, it’s shaping up to be Microsoft’s season in terms of exclusive games.

With Windows 10, Microsoft has been aiming to unify the user experience across all its devices. Right from PCs to Xbox consoles to HoloLens augmented reality wearable headset, Microsoft is deploying Windows 10 on everything. Microsoft has started rolling out Xbox One preview to a subset of preview program members. Like Windows 10, the rollout is happening in waves and Microsoft’s Larry Hryb and Richard Irvine narrate all the new improvements in this video.

Windows 10 preview build 10547 features plenty of new tweaks and improvements, and among them is a preview of the Object RTC (ORTC) APIs for Microsoft Edge, a collection of tools that will make it easier for developers to build audio and video calling into Web apps without requiring any browser plugins. Skype is a natural fit for ORTC, and, the Skype team announced y that it is working on new versions of Skype for Web and Skype for Outlook.com that take advantage of this new technology.

Microsoft under Nadella is a company that believes in openness and collaboration. It is a company that has snubbed its corporate ego to put customer at the front. Microsoft under Satya Nadella is less of a tech giant and more of a startup that develops platform. Microsoft is now about Windows, Azure and Office. Rest all are just supplements to these broader platforms. While speaking to Jessi Hempel of Wired, Satya very nicely summarised his CEO job as “curator of culture.”

Microsoft launched Lumia 640 LTE 4G device priced at Rs 17,399 with an aim to widen its portfolio in the mobile devices space under the Lumia series.The Lumia smartphone with 4G capability, which comes with 13MP camera, 5.7 inch HD screen and Windows 8.1 operating system, would be available across India, Microsoft Mobile Devices, Director (Sales), South, T S Sridhar said.

Microsoft is hoping to double the revenues from cloud segment in India from the current 12 per cent to about 25 per cent this financial year on the back of greater adoption of cloud technologies by the government as well as small and medium businesses, according to Neeraj Gill, General Manager (Public Sector), Microsoft India. He said Microsoft is betting big on the cloud and has made huge investments in it and has also set up data centers to support the growth.

Microsoft arranged a mega start-ups conclave Tuesday in Hyderabad to map cutting edge smart city solutions for Telangana. Senior Telangana government officials, including IT minister K.T. Rama Rao and IT secretary Jayesh Ranjan, participated in the tech conclave. The discussions focused on solutions and apps in the areas of transport, healthcare, public safety, water and energy by startups from Microsoft Ventures’ Portfolio which included Mybustickets.in, Celstream, iBot and Flamenco Tech.

Microsoft launched its first-ever laptop called the called the Surface Book. With a 13.5-inch screen and weighing 3.34 pounds with a detachable keyboard, it’s clearly putting it in competition with Apple’s MacBook Air and the many, many Microsoft partners who make ultrabooks. Microsoft Surface leader Panos Panay tied the new laptop and other gadget announcements directly to Nadella’s strategy of expanding Microsoft’s reach by touting them as showcases for the best of what Window can do.