In the News

Just as Satya Nadella is making Microsoft more relevant in a world that prioritizes cloud computing and mobile technology, so too is the company breaking new ground in the bond market. Microsoft sold $19.75 billion of bonds in its largest-ever debt issue. The notes, which were sold to raise cash for its planned purchase of LinkedIn Corp., were graded AAA, the highest possible credit rating by S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service.

The latest update to Windows App Studio includes new features such as the API Gallery and the Custom API Sharing that powers it. The API Gallery is a new data source that builds upon the REST API Data Source while decreasing the complexity of implementing a REST API. The API Gallery aggregates and collects implementations of the REST API data source that users want to share, and makes it easy for anyone to consume them. For instance, you have an API that lists events by region and type, and has links to buy tickets.

Microsoft’s largest update for Windows 10, the Anniversary Update, should start hitting your devices from today. The much-awaited Anniversary update incorporates a whole gamut of feedback from millions of Windows Insiders (beta testers). The most noticeable changes will come in the form of slight visual and functional tweaks to many staple Windows features. The Action Center is getting far more useful in this update with a dedicated notification button on the right of the clock in the taskbar.

Microsoft has rolled out a beta version of Flow for Android. Flow is essentially a web tool that automates actions across some of the major web services available at the moment, similar to IFTTT. Flow enables users to connect apps and services and automate their actions to ease workflow. It also lets users set up automated ‘recipes’ to execute actions on services like Twitter, Dropbox, Google Drive, Slack, OneDrive, Facebook, YouTube and more.

Looks like Microsoft’s Xbox One S is already a huge success in the UK, in spite of the already announced Xbox One Scorpio. Aaron Greenberg, Head of Xbox Games Marketing, tweeted that the console already seems to be selling out in the country, with both GAME UK and Amazon UK reporting that their inventories of the system are depleted already

Good news for Xbox One owners. The summer update is upon us, and brings with it a range of new features. The list of new features is pretty comprehensive, including Cortana for Xbox One, the ability to play background music when gaming and a redesigned interface for your games library. A very handy feature is the inclusion of the ability to see how much time a game will take to download, and the speed at which it is downloading.

Microsoft raised $19.75 billion in the third-largest U.S. corporate bond sale of the year to help finance its planned purchase of LinkedIn Corp. Investors put in more than $50 billion of orders for the deal in the software maker’s biggest ever sale. The strong demand helped Microsoft to borrow at lower rates than it paid for the $13 billion of bonds it raised in October. It also saved about $40 million in annual interest payments.

Microsoft is likely to introduce three new smartphones from the Surface Phone line-up in 2017. These new models are speculated to come with better hardware and top-notch features. Some of the speculated features, these devices will carry, are a fingerprint reader, compass, barometer, proximity sensors and a 20-megapixel Carl Zeiss rear camera. These three models may sport an Intel Atom X3 processor, encased in an aluminum and magnesium structure, furnished with a 5.5 inch Active-Matrix Organic Light-emitting Diode display, a USB Port and a liquid cooling technology.

For a year after its launch, Microsoft allowed users of previous versions of its desktop OS to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. If you’ve missed the boat, you’ll be interested to learn that the company’s free upgrade offer is still available to those who use assistive technologies, such as screen reading tools. Microsoft isn’t restricting the offer to specific technologies, and isn’t verifying that you’re using them either.

Announced at E3 2016, the Xbox One S is a slimmer Xbox One that’s easy on the eyes. It’s 40 percent smaller than the Xbox One and is available only in white, for now. The first exception to that will be the Gears of War 4 special edition console out in November. Xbox One S comes with 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB storage options versus 500GB and 1TB on the Xbox One. Microsoft India has no plans to launch the Xbox One S at the moment.