Author: Microsoft Stories

Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will include support for customized web-based app stores for enterprise users. In other words, Microsoft will let organizations curate their own app stores with complete control over what apps they offer and which employees can download them. This feature is not for individuals buying computers for their personal use, but is meant for bigger organizations. Microsoft will releasing Windows 10 next year, and is allowing enthusiasts to test the new operating system through its Windows Insider Program.

Microsoft’s last Nokia Lumia phone, the Lumia 730, also known as the ‘Selfie-phone’, has been used to capture the world’s largest selfie featuring 1,151 people. Taken in Bangladesh on Saturday, the image was captured by the Lumia 730’s 5 MP front-facing camera, which has a wide angle lens for selfie photography. Microsoft says this was an attempt to break the world record of “a selfie with the most number of people with recognizable faces”. The company says it is still awaiting official confirmation from Guinness to enter the record books.

India has over 80 incubators and accelerators, five set up by multinational companies, 25 privately run and 50 public incubators. Amid this explosion, Microsoft Ventures’ accelerator program, which has been around since 2012, has decided to re-position itself and be a true blue ‘accelerator’ than being just another incubator of technology ideas. “Acceleration is when you have built the first product and you have some customers, and then you try to grow 10 times,” said Ravi Narayan, director and Microsoft Ventures India. “We clearly want to be only in the acceleration space.”

Joseph Landes, General Manager, Developer, and Platform Evangelist, Microsoft, explains how Azure enables customers to extend their on-premise investments into the public cloud and choose between infrastructure and platform services. “The three enhancements—hyper-scale, enterprise-grade, and hybrid cloud—are brought together to make Azure a totally differentiated cloud platform for Indian customers,” Landes said.

Microsoft India, in partnership with Ubisoft, announced a new exclusive Xbox One “Assassin’s Creed” bundle with Kinect, priced at Rs 45,990 and available exclusively on Amazon. The exclusive bundle will also include a copy of a previous Ubisoft flagship, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Anshu Mor, Interactive Entertainment Business director at Microsoft India, said, “Assassin’s Creed is one of the biggest franchises on our platform and this unique partnership defines our commitment to gamers in India and enhances the overall gaming ecosystem in the country.”

According to an agreement signed between Microsoft and Opera Software, from the first quarter of 2015, people who access Nokia Store from Series 40, Series 60, Symbian, Asha and Nokia X devices will be automatically redirected to Opera Mobile Store, where they will be offered the opportunity to become customers of Opera Mobile Store and have access to tens of thousands of apps for their Nokia phones. “We continue to sell and support classic Nokia devices, which remain popular in many parts of the world,” said Rich Bernardo, Vice-President – Phones, Microsoft.

Microsoft released two new features that its channel partners said will enable them to migrate more customers to Azure: an upgraded identity management product and tighter integration between Windows and Docker. Microsoft Identity Manager, released in public preview, replaces Forefront Identity Manager with a more advanced solution. The new secure identity self-service helps users manage digital identities for use in the cloud and offers enhanced administrator security, according to Microsoft.

Open Source India, Asia’s biggest convention on open source technology, proved its mettle yet again in its 11th edition, which was held in Bengaluru from 7-8th November, 2014. The two-day event witnessed a lot of fruitful discussions, interactions, workshops, that aimed to bridge the gap in between the industry head-honchos and the community. Balaji Kesavaraj, Director, Platform Strategy & Marketing, Microsoft India, said, “This year we offered some real hands-on experience showing how interoperability works and we are glad that we were well received at Open Source India.”

When Ed Bott recently wrote about how Microsoft really is taking a new path, he mentioned many important points, but missed perhaps the most important technical point of all: Microsoft is finally really embracing open-source software. Over the years, Microsoft has, despite fighting with Linux and other open-source programs, never actually shied away from using open-source software when it was to the company’s advantage. They just never talked about it.

Real Madrid says it has reached a sponsorship deal with American software giant Microsoft. In a brief statement, the club said the deal will be signed by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez and Microsoft vice president Orlando Ayala.