In the News

Satya Nadella described how he puts on a HoloLens, every morning, to look at a virtual and interactive calendar projected on a wall of his house. The system was intelligent, productive, and futuristic: everything he hopes Microsoft will be during his tenure. “No matter where we work in the future,” Nadella says, “Microsoft will have a place in it.” The company’s “conversation as a platform” offering, which it unveiled in March, represents a bet that chat-based interfaces will overtake apps as our primary way of using the internet.

OK Go’s song “This Too Shall Pass” is merely a serviceable song with an interesting video that features contraptions inspired by Rube Goldberg. Microsoft and the University of Washington have deemed it important enough to write it to the largest DNA storage trove created to date. So the 2010 music video is only a small, 202-megabyte cache added to the whole of Project Palix, a partnership between Microsoft and researchers at the University of Washington in conjunction with startup Twist Bioscience.

Microsoft is working on a new offering called Dynamics 365 that will combine its current ERP and CRM cloud services into a single bundle and include applications purpose-built for specific business functions. Jujhar Singh, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, explained, “Our new role-based approach will give customers the flexibility they need to support modern, more agile, more diverse employee roles enabling them to access functionality across all applications within Dynamics 365.”

Microsoft has confirmed that it will add a wheelchair option to Xbox avatars in the near future. Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, confirmed the news on Twitter saying, “No petition needed, we hear you. This is something that we’ve already looked at, not far off.” Mike Ybarra from Xbox then tweeted a “sneak peek” of what to expect from the update with a picture of two avatars using Xbox-themed wheelchairs.

The Xbox One Software Preview, which is set to give a taste of what’s in store in terms of interface overhauls later this year, received an update. The new build will fix a number of bugs and issues.

SUSE has joined the Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Alliance as part of its ongoing strategy to enable customers to quickly respond to changing business needs. Nicole Herskowitz, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Microsoft Azure, said, “The Enterprise Cloud Alliance provides the opportunity to enhance our strategic relationship with SUSE and increase awareness of SUSE Linux Enterprise for customers searching for best-in-class enterprise solutions. SUSE is one of the first open source vendors to join the Microsoft Partner Network and the Enterprise Cloud Alliance and provide the benefits of open source technology in Microsoft Azure.”

US Biotech Company Monsanto and Microsoft have announced a partnership to invest in agricultural technology startups in Brazil. Monsanto will join a Brazilian investment fund with up to 300 million reals ($92 million), managed by Microsoft, evaluating ideas for new digital tools to be applied to agricultural production in the country.

Last week, Microsoft began serving some Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users with a full-screen notice that reminded them of the July 29 end to the free Windows 10 upgrade offer and urged them to accept the deal. The full-screen notification appeared when users unlocked the OS at the log-in screen. “Sorry to interrupt, but this is important,” the notice stated. “Windows 10 free upgrade offer ends July 29.” Customers may choose to upgrade immediately, ask that the reminder reappear later, or permanently dismiss the message and Microsoft’s plea.

The Microsoft Garage team just launched Thinga.me, a mobile-focused service (currently iPhone-only) that has users collecting real objects. If users want to share favorite apparel or a vintage toy collection, they just have to take photos and Thinga.me will cut out the backgrounds and drop them into the themed gallery of choice. Users can also tag and share collections to help others find what they’re looking for.

Microsoft’s Cortana is getting smarter by the day. A new update for the iOS app now lets users save location-based reminders. The update tagged as version 1.9.0 will now help Cortana remember things for users. While the reminders can be added via voice, Microsoft’s Cortana can now remember those location and time based reminders and will prompt users when needed. The new update also adds improved feedback input experience as well.