In the News

Microsoft Office 2016 has made its latest update available for download. The update consists of various feature improvements especially relating to Excel and Outlook. The Excel 2016 comes with options to publish locally-stored files to PowerBI and also gets great improvements to date/time transformations and text manipulations.

The article is about some really cool gadgets. Microsoft Xbox One 500GB is one of such really cool device to buy. Microsoft’s flagship gaming console Xbox One is available at an attractive price with a free copy of Gears of War game bundled with it. This pack includes one Xbox One wireless controller as well. Xbox One also serves as a comprehensive media and entertainment device for watching movies and streaming online video shows from Netflix and YouTube.

Microsoft has built a new video streaming service for businesses called Stream. It will enable organizations and employees to collaborate with video more easily. The service will allow users to upload videos and organize the same by starting a channel based on teams, groups and topics. Stream will also allow companies to manage who views videos and determine how widely to share within the organization, and to what channels. Secure access is enabled by Azure Active Directory, a product from Microsoft to protect sensitive corporate content.

Windows developers have released an update for WhatsApp that includes fixes for running the messaging app on PC, a redesigned camera and an improved date display. The update majorly resolves the WhatsApp web issue, reported by many users, so that the app can be used to chat on PC. In addition, Aggiornamenti Lumia, an Italian website has reported the release of beta version of the app for Windows 10, which includes a redesigned camera and improved date display to the app.

In a blogpost, Gurdeep Pall, Corporate Vice President, Skype said that the application is transitioning from peer-to-peer to more mobile friendly cloud architecture. He wrote, “At times, unforeseen issues have cropped up, like messages not syncing across devices, or delayed notifications. Knowing the impact of these issues for our users, we fix these issues as quickly as we can. We do ask all our users to update Skype to ensure they benefit from our latest fixes and improvements and to enable a smooth transition to the cloud.”

Small business owners are getting a new feature tailored just for them in Microsoft Office 365. A full-service system for scheduling appointments for their services over the internet. Microsoft Bookings is a new service that makes it possible for business owners to create their own scheduling page, and then let potential customers make an appointment online. It’s supposed to be a boon for businesses used to running that process through a series of emails, phone calls, or text messages.

In line with the Windows 10 Anniversary update that’s out in around two weeks, Windows 10 apps have been appearing on the Xbox One. The catch is that users will need to be running the preview update for the console to obtain them. At the moment Netflix and MSN Weather can be installed on the Xbox One. Furthermore, Groove Music will be updated with background music support soon according to Windows Central.

Windows 10 upgrade offer will end by July 29 this year. Microsoft is aiming at running Windows 10 on one billion devices by 2018, and that majorly depends on converting the large batch of Windows 7 users. Most users have avoided switching to Windows 8.1. The extended support commitment by Microsoft ends by the year 2020, and the company doesn’t want hundreds of millions of users still on Windows by then.

In partnership with Amazon.in, Microsoft India has announced a special offer under which consumers can exchange their old laptop or tablet with a brand new Microsoft Surface Pro 4, at a price of just Rs 58,990. The offer is valid for the Surface Pro 4 variant powered by Intel’s Core M processor. Although the offer is available for all consumers, it seems Microsoft is targeting the student demographic with it.

HP Elite x3, which was first showcased at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is finally shipping next month. The smartphone is priced at $699 and will begin shipping August 29 in the US. HP had announced Elite x3 under company’s device as a service model. HP’s Elite x3 takes advantage of Windows 10 Mobile’s Continuum feature and HP wants it to be the only device people own.