In the News

Codenvy, Microsoft and Red Hat Inc. announced adoption of a language server protocol project representing a collaborative effort to provide a common way to integrate programming languages across code editors and integrated development environments. Announced during DevNation 2016, this protocol extends developer flexibility and productivity by enabling a rich editing experience within a variety of tools for different programming languages. Erich Gamma, Microsoft Distinguished Engineer, “We have defined the common language server protocol after integrating the OmniSharp for C# and TypeScript servers into VS Code.”

Freecharge has launched a unified application which is now going to be available on desktops and tablets with Windows 10. Consumers can download the Freecharge app from the Windows store and experience an adaptive layout coupled with a great user interface on screens of all sizes including tablets, laptops, and desktops. The app has adaptive tiles that showcase contextual data to users.

Xbox Fitness has provided an at-home workout with the help of the trusty game console and Microsoft’s Kinect since 2013. However, the exercise option won’t be around much longer. Microsoft Studios announced that the console-driven workouts would be shuttered July 1, 2017, citing the effort required to ship regular updates to keep the gym routines fresh. The company says it has “given much consideration to the reality updating the service regularly in order to sustain it.”

At last week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, the video game industry forecast a future where Xboxes and PlayStations are updated almost as frequently as smartphones. The move to release more consoles with varying features may mark the end of the traditional console cycle, the decades-old tradition of brand-new systems coming out every seven years or so. Microsoft offered a glimpse of this potential reality by unveiling the Xbox One S, a slimmer Xbox One set for release in August with an infrared blaster and support for 4K video.

Microsoft’s open source programming language push reached a new milestone with the company announcing the general availability of .NET Core and ASP.NET Core 1.0. Those two projects are an attempt by Microsoft to make the core elements of its programming language available for use on Linux and OS X, operating systems that previously didn’t support it. To reach this milestone, more than 18,000 developers, representing 1,300 companies, contributed to .NET Core.

Microsoft has named Moravia, Supplier of the Year in the large company category of the 2016 Microsoft Supplier Program Excellence Awards. The MSP selected Moravia for its innovative machine translation evaluation platform to improve supply-chain management and help Microsoft deploy machine translation. This year marks the third time Moravia has earned an MSP Excellence Award, and the first time to be honored as Supplier of the Year Large Company.

ValChoice, the first analytics company that lets consumers of insurance know which companies offer the best price, protection (claims payment) and service, announced that it has received a $120k Microsoft BizSpark Plus Award. Joshua Drew, Senior Technical Evangelist, Microsoft, said, “ValChoice was a clear choice for the Microsoft BizSpark Plus award because of the unique technology platform the company has developed to bring industry-first transparency to the insurance industry. We look forward to further their goal of becoming a mainstream insurance rating service.”

Microsoft turned heads earlier this month when it announced its acquisition of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. It signified Redmond’s largest acquisition to date and the company’s ninth recorded deal exceeding $1 billion. As part of the deal, expected to close by year’s end, the professional social network will retain its name. It will remain an independent operation under the leadership of CEO Jeff Weiner, who will report to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

At ISTE 2016 opening general session, the International Society for Technology in Education and Microsoft announced their plan to combine and expand a host of their world-class initiatives to ensure educators and school leaders around the world have access to school planning and professional development resources. Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Worldwide Education, Microsoft, said, “Microsoft’s focus on supporting education transformation has great synergy with the work of ISTE. We are proud of the collaboration announced today and the opportunity we have together to empower students, educators and school leaders globally to achieve more.”

AI powered chat bot platform, ‘Yellow Messenger’, allows end users to search for products and services based on their location and past search behavior across its multiple services like cab booking, e-commerce purchases and mobile recharges. Incubated at Microsoft’s Bengaluru Accelerator, it is powered by the Microsoft’s open sourced Azure services and its Bot Framework. This framework enables the startup to create machine learning bots which would interact with users in a conversational way.