In the News

In an interview, Sudhir Nayar, Director SMB, Microsoft India, said, “India is home to a large base of over 51mn SMBs generating employment for over 116mn people. In an environment where cyber threats continue to grow exponentially in volume, complexity, and threat vector, it’s vital for SMBs to defend themselves against cyber-attacks. SMBs are also at a greater risk of being targeted by Cyber Attacks as they don’t have the same security system and infrastructure as their larger counterparts.”

Call of Duty 2 released back in 2005 as a launch title for Xbox 360, and received very high scores from almost every outlet. Microsoft has updated its list of Xbox One backwards compatibility titles to include the franchise’s first console game. Infinity Ward’s title was the series’ second instalment, with a memorable storyline and an entertaining online multiplayer mode. This is a good timing to add such a title to Xbox One backwards compatibility list, with the studio’s upcoming iteration of the franchise, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, just a few months away.

To influence VMware customers to opt for its Hyper-V, Microsoft has announced a new migration offer. The new move gives away Windows Sever Datacenter licenses for free to the ones who switch to Windows Sever 2016 Datacenter from a VMware solution. Customers need to pay for Software Assurance that includes new product version rights, deployment planning, technical and end-user training and support. The offer runs from September 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017.

Microsoft debuted at LinuxCon 2016 with few of its offerings for the open source world. Alongside demonstrating its interest for the Linux community, the Redmond giant announced the preview release of its OMS (Operations Management Suite) Docker Container monitoring. Microsoft’s open source leader Wim Coekaerts said that the new solution provides a “simplified view” of containers’ usage. There are also options to diagnose issues on the performance of containers whether they are running in the cloud or on-premises.

Microsoft has just released an update to the Windows Camera app that enables the panorama app for several devices. Insiders have had the feature for over a month, but this is a nice bit of news for the seven people still using Windows Phone. It works on the Lumia 550, 650, 950, and 950 XL, 640, 830, Icon, 930, and 1520.

Apple’s opening of the iOS keyboard floodgates has created enough space for a small skirmish between Google and Microsoft. Microsoft only introduced its iPhone keyboard, Word Flow for iPhone, in April and the company is already moving to version 2.0. The latest update from the Microsoft Garage project, which launched, adds some new search features that appear to be a direct response to Google’s Gboard that rolled out in mid-May. The new Word Flow update adds an easy search function for GIFs and emojis to add a little spice to your messages, as The Verge first reported.

Microsoft released 64-bit versions of its Office 2016 applications for the Mac, following a series of previews offered testers since April. The five apps; Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word, will be updated to 64-bit for all customers, including those with an Office 2016 retail license, a consumer or commercial subscription to Office 365, and a volume license. Most users will be updated automatically as the suite launches an update app on its regular schedule. Microsoft has been testing the 64-bit versions with Office Insider participants since April.

Microsoft is a hyper-scale global cloud provider that offers a complete portfolio of cloud services from local datacenters in India. “In the second half of 2015, we announced the availability of our commercial cloud services from three local datacenters in India. These three datacenters, located in Chennai, Pune and Mumbai are hyper scale datacenters with thousands of servers, petabytes of storage and massive network capacity. We have made these long term investments in the cloud datacenters to ensure that Indian businesses don’t have to worry about capacity expansion or regulatory issues in the future,” said, Peter Gartenberg, General Manager, Enterprise Partner Group (EPG), Microsoft India.

Microsoft had three major titles set to release this year with Halo Wars 2, Crackdown 3 and Scalebound. But all three were subsequently pushed back to next year. Speaking to DualShockers, Xbox Marketing Head Aaron Greenberg said, “As you go through that creative process, sometimes things happen fast, sometimes they take longer than you expect. For us making the games great, making sure the stories are great, the graphics are great in these immersive experiences, is a priority.”

The latest release from the Xbox One maker is no game or a console, but a cozy garment for user’s gaming consoles. The Xbox Onesie has been launched in Australia to compliment the release of new Xbox One S console. The Xbox Onesie packs a bunch of features that the company touts as “everything an entertainment enthusiast could need when streaming a favorite TV show or film, watching sports or embarking on the ultimate gaming session.” The Xbox Onesie includes custom gamer tag embroidery, pockets to fit controllers and remotes, an extra-large hood to house a gaming headset, an arm pouch for user’s phone and forearm grips.