In the News

Yappn Corp., a leader in real-time language technology and translation, has been recognized as a Canadian Cloud Leader by Microsoft Canada’s Cloud Society. Janet Kennedy, President, Microsoft Canada, said, “As a customer using Azure, we value your contribution towards elevating Canada to the cloud. By adopting Microsoft Azure, our Cloud Leaders are helping to fuel the growth of our digital economy and driving innovation in ways that extends their impact beyond just technology in Canada.”

TeamViewer, the global pioneer of remote control and online collaboration software, announced its interoperation with Microsoft Intune to enable remote assistance for Windows PC users. Andrew Conway, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Enterprise Mobility Suite, Microsoft, said, “Organizations today need secure solutions that give them the ability to provide flexible, remote IT support for their users. We’re excited to welcome TeamViewer into the Microsoft Intune ecosystem, enhancing our mutual customers’ capabilities for remote assistance on Intune managed Windows PCs.”

Convey Services announced that the Convey online platform now directly supports Microsoft Office Sway content within catalog posts and pages. The company’s Convey for Channel and Platform as a Profit Center are cloud-based solutions that host and deliver content, training, promotions and events to engage and improve communication between manufacturers, carriers and vendors and their sales partners.

Microsoft has chosen Ottawa-based Lixar IT Inc. as the latest IoT Red Carpet Program partner for Microsoft Azure offerings. The IoT Red Carpet program is a worldwide invitation-only Microsoft program which selects technology partners to provide IoT solutions targeted for the Azure IoT platform.

StarLeaf, the leading video conferencing and calling provider, announces the StarLeaf GTm 5140 Huddle. It is a meeting room solution that works directly with Microsoft Skype for Business. It delivers reliable, easy to use and great quality video conferencing, ideal for collaboration in small meeting spaces.

Microsoft and Xamarin are hosting an after party on the day of the WWDC for iOS app developers on June 13. The Microsoft Outlook headquarters of its mobile team is at San Francisco. Outlook is just one of the many powerful applications Microsoft has released across multiple platforms, including iOS. Other attractions at the party include Xamarin’s Test Cloud Wall, something known as the Xamarin playground, and robots and drones.

Microsoft has introduced a Surface Membership Plan that allows small businesses to keep up with the latest Surface hardware and buy the devices on a monthly payment plan. Starting at $32.99 per month, business users get “the latest Surface devices, accessories, support, and training.” The membership plan includes the current generation Surface Book, Surface Pro 4, and Surface 3, and it also comes with free upgrades when newer models become available.

Microsoft is back to funding startups in a big way. The company is reviving its venture arm, Microsoft Ventures, with an independent fund allocation to back startups. Microsoft Ventures announced its first funding, to San Francisco and Pune-based Helpshift, a customer support platform for mobile devices. Scott Coleman, General Manager, Microsoft Accelerator, said, “One of the most important benefits that Microsoft brings to startups are business relationships. This strategic partnership gives the startups the ability to leverage subject matter experts, mentors, pilot programmes, joint go-to-market initiatives and marketing support from Temasek and its portfolio companies.”

Sonata has won the 2016 Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Award for India. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology. Gavriella Schuster, General Manager, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft, said, “We are honored to recognize Sonata of India as a Microsoft Country Partner of the Year. Sonata is a prime example of the excellent talent we see in our Microsoft partner community to deliver innovative and transformative solutions.”

Last year, Xbox One transformed to an easier, faster and more social Xbox One Experience, and since then it has been delivering regular fan requested features and updates. This week, they are releasing Preview, a summer update that will start to rollout to the Xbox Preview audience for Xbox One, and in the coming weeks they will also release it to the Xbox app (beta) on Windows 10. New features will roll out to the Preview audience in waves, not all at once. Microsoft also revealed a bunch of new features coming to the Xbox One and Windows 10.