In the News

Software giant Microsoft will host the maiden edition of its Machine Learning and Data Sciences Conference in India this year, highlighting importance of the Indian market in terms of future deployment of these new emerging technologies. The 2-day event, to be held in Bengaluru on August 8-9, is expected to see participation from over 600 people, including government officials, start-ups, developers, students and industry executives.

The Xbox One S console is technically capable of 4K output even for games. And now, a recent teardown of the system by iFixit reveals that there are more improvements still under the hood. The new Xbox One S apparently uses a SATA III hard drive, which is a step up from the SATA II types that the original model used. It also apparently has an 802.11ac standard Wi-Fi chip, making the Xbox One’s Wi-Fi compatibility the most advanced on the market.

The PS4 NEO and the Xbox One Scorpio represent a very dramatic departure from the standard discrete hardware generation’s model of progression. “We’re continuing to be excited about the growth of the overall console business. And I think the plans that were announced at E3 around both Xbox and PlayStation were viewed in the industry as very positive. I think moving beyond the notion of or jumping into the compatibility issue head-on and trying to stop the notion of having consoles that are not compatible will help the software side of the equation dramatically over time, and I think that’s a big plus.”

CodeGuard Inc., the global leader in cloud website backup services, announced a new product line backup for Microsoft SQL Server. Microsoft SQL Server has the largest number of licensed instances in the commercial database market, and announced on March 7, 2016 the release of SQL Server for Linux, which means that Linux-bound customers looking for a commercial-quality database backed by a major vendor have options other than Oracle or instances of Windows Server.

Microsoft began distributing 2016’s major Windows 10 upgrade to customers via the operating system’s update service. Labeled “Anniversary Update” in a nod to the July 29, 2015, release of the inaugural edition, it was officially tagged as version 1607 to denote year and month. The build number assigned to today’s code was 14393.10.

RDP, a leading IT hardware and mobility devices manufacturing company, on Wednesday announced the launch of its RDP ThinBook ultra slim laptop at Rs. 9,999. The 14.1-inch laptop is claimed to be India’s most affordable laptop in its segment. Developed in strategic association with ecosystem players Microsoft and Intel, the new device aims to address the needs of entry-level consumers looking for an affordable yet robust device.

Indian telecom and technology companies on Wednesday said passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill will facilitate ease of doing business and address ambiguities in the current indirect tax landscape, thus benefiting the economy. Microsoft India chairman Bhaskar Pramanik said the development will address the ambiguities of the current indirect tax landscape, proving beneficial for the economy at large.

The Xbox One Scorpio will be a complete overhaul of the Xbox One console hardware when it launches next year. But it looks like Microsoft has already begun to incrementally improve performance of the console with the launch of the Xbox One S, the slimline redesign of the console that launches worldwide. As Digital Foundry reports, the Xbox One S has a GPU clock-speed of 914MHz, up from 853MHz in the original model, which is a 7.1% increase.

One of Microsoft’s most radical innovations is set to hit the virtual shelves. The HoloLens is now available to order through Microsoft’s website. The augmented-reality headset, which features advanced sensors that detect optical movement and an HPU that can process a large amount of data per second, lets users interact in “mixed reality.” Think AR with to-scale holograms transposed into the real world around you.

As Microsoft released an updated Xbox gaming console, the company’s stock was up more than 20 percent from a year ago. That’s significantly better than the technology industry as a whole. That may be because analysts and investors finally see potential for tech veteran Microsoft to seize market share from its younger competitors. A cornerstone of the company’s budding turnaround is Windows 10, which was released last year and which fixed many of the problems.