In the News

It’s almost been a year since Microsoft launched its Windows 10. The Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users were offered a free upgrade to the newer version of the OS. After July 29, the company will be charging $119 for upgrades to Windows 10. Users who upgrade to Windows 10 during the free period can also upgrade to the Anniversary update coming on August 2 for free.

Windows 10 Pro Education is the new version that is specifically aimed at schools. ‘Existing devices running Windows 10 Pro, currently activated with the original OEM digital product key and purchased with discounted K-12 academic licenses through OEM partners (these discounted licenses are sometimes referred to as National Academic or Shape the Future), will upgrade automatically to Windows 10 Pro Education as part of the Windows 10, version 1607 installation,’ Microsoft explains.

Many Surface Pro 3 users have been complaining about battery drain since May. Now, Microsoft has confirmed that the battery drain issue can be fixed via a software update. A company representative confirmed this through the company’s support forums, “Based on our investigations we can confirm that it is not an issue with the battery cells. We believe this is something that can be addressed via software.”

Microsoft’s plans for the F# “functional first” language include an upgrade later this year that adds capabilities ranging from struct tuples to improved error messages. Backing for .Net Core, a multiplatform, open source version of the .Net programming model, also is in the works. F# 4.1 focuses on flexibility and incremental improvements, the Microsoft Visual FSharp team said. It features struct tuples and interoperability with Visual C# 7 and Visual Basic tuples.

Windows 10 will be a year old on July 29 and Microsoft’s offer to legal owners of Windows 7 and 8 to upgrade to Win 10 for free, ends on that day. They will also be eligible to install the Anniversary Update, scheduled for August 2, and all subsequent updates, for free. Unless Microsoft extends the deadline again, which seems unlikely, Windows 10 in its cheapest version will henceforth cost the equivalent of $119. Also, Windows 7 may be perfectly adequate right now, but it will be supported only till 2020.

Microsoft just built an all-new iPhone camera app. It’s in fact better than the camera app that ships with the iPhone, because apparently it is smarter. The app in question is called Pix and is the brain-child of Microsoft’s Computational Photography Group. The Pix app essentially works by taking a burst shot of 10 frames with each shutter tap and then intelligently selects up to a maximum of three shots that look the best while deleting the others.

Xbox gaming has its hardcore fans and these fans always crave for a nice nickname. Over the decade, almost all the favorite possible nicknames or gamer tags have been taken by the user and it is quite possible that the user may have abandoned it. Microsoft is updating its Terms of Services, wherein users have to sign in twice a decade. The software company warned that if one does not adopt the new policy, they will lose the existing gamer tag ownership.

The first two bundles of the new Xbox One S, that pair games with the smaller 4K-ready console, will ship August 23. But they’re up for pre-order now. First, a Madden NFL 17 option comes with a One S that offers a download of the game, 1TB of storage, seven Madden Ultimate Team Pro Packs and one month of EA Access for $349. Unfortunately, there’s no 500GB model available with the popular football title.

Microsoft is announcing a whole slew of updates throughout Office, using the cloud and artificial intelligence to help you work more efficiently across Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

BlackBerry announced that more of its secure enterprise mobility solutions will utilize the open, flexible, enterprise-grade cloud computing platform Microsoft Azure to run a broad range of business apps. Steve Guggenheimer, Corporate Vice President, Developer Experience and Evangelism and Chief Evangelist, Microsoft, said, “With BlackBerry’s Good Dynamics now on the Microsoft Azure platform, we continue to help protect customers’ data and enhance our ecosystem of business-critical apps.”