In the News

As part of National Military Appreciation Month, Microsoft Military Affairs, in collaboration with Boot Campaign, will participate in Pushups For Charity. The event was held on May 16, 2016 at the Microsoft Flagship Store in New York City. The challenge featured Staff Sergeant (Ret.) Johnny “Joey” Jones, Boot Campaign chief operating officer; Jose Cruz, Microsoft Software & Systems Academy (MSSA) graduate; J.W. Cortes, Marine veteran and actor on FOX TV’s “Gotham”; and Steve Weatherford, Super Bowl Champion, 10-year NFL player, fitness expert and TV personality. They competed with local premier athletes to determine who can do the most pushups in 90 seconds.

Two of Apple’s biggest competitors, Google and Microsoft, are using fancy keyboards to get closer to iOS users. One is better for wordsmiths, while the other can help you find just the right GIF, and faster. Google’s Gboard and Microsoft’s Word Flow replace the iPhone’s standard keyboard and offer new features. Since launching in the last month, the free apps have been among the most popular utilities for iOS.

Scribe Software, a global data integration leader, announced the company’s integration platform of its service (iPaaS), Scribe Online, with the new Microsoft Power BI solution templates. The Power BI solution templates empower businesses with end-to-end, enterprise-ready analytic dashboards for sales management. Through Scribe Online, Power BI users get fast and easy access to data from on-premises systems such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and cloud services such as Dynamics CRM Online and Salesforce.

Microsoft and Netflix announced extension to its partnership. Mohammed Arif, Windows and Devices Group Lead, Microsoft Gulf, said, “This partnership is a win for the customers we serve. We have a long relationship with UAE consumers, through Windows, Office and our many device brands, such as Xbox, Surface and Lumia. Those same consumers have now embraced the Netflix brand, demonstrating a thirst for the quality content on offer from them. By teaming up like this, we both create awareness in a crowded market and demonstrate to our customers that doing more can also mean having fun.”

Data Masons Software, a leading provider of integrated EDI and XML solutions for Microsoft Dynamics GP customers, announced the integration of its Vantage Point EDI solution with Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016. This announcement demonstrates the company’s continued alignment with Microsoft’s six-month product release schedule for Microsoft Dynamics GP and commitment to providing customers with DayOne EDI integration for Microsoft’s latest Dynamics ERP releases.

Microsoft plans to double the number of promoted apps that appear in the Start menu in the Windows 10 Anniversary update. The update, also known by Redstone, will bring with it plenty of new features. Improved Cortana, a new dark theme, and a bolstered Edge browser are all things to look forward to in update, which arrives this summer.

Bethesda Softworks announced that its highly-anticipated first-person shooter, Doom, is now available worldwide for the Xbox One computer entertainment system and PC. Relentless demons, impossibly destructive guns, and fast, fluid movement provide the foundation for this intense, first-person combat. Doom, the iconic game that defined a genre and is considered one of the most influential games ever, made returns as a brutally fun and challenging modern-day shooter experience.

The Chandrababu Naidu-led administration plans to triangulate and collect information from a number of databases including the Aadhaar system, funnel that data into Microsoft’s machine learning platform, use the company’s software to flag at-risk children, and ultimately “monitor” a student as she moves throughout her academic journey. “What was offered was literally a solution. Azure, our cloud offering, comes with a bunch of high-value services which are effectively part of the overall Cortana Analytics Suite (CAS). CAS has a lot of tools and algorithms… a lot of data-crunching capabilities that can provide a lot of useful insight as long as you pump in the data and the right modelling,” Anil Bhansali, Managing Director of Microsoft India (R&D) told The Wire

Turn 10 and Microsoft recently launched the open beta of Forza Motorspot 6 Apex on Windows 10 and it gave a chance to see how it fares against the Xbox One version. Forza Motorspot 6 Apex marks the first instance that the series will be losing its console exclusivity and will be heading to Windows 10 later this year. To begin with, Turn 10 Studios have added a plethora of graphical settings in the game. Players can change the Dynamic Rendering Quality, Shadow Quality, Particle Effects and more. The Xbox One version used an EQAA solution while the PC build uses MSAA, an expensive but a much better solution than EQAA. As a result, the image quality is much sharper compared to the console version.

Perfect World Entertainment, the publisher for Star Trek: Online announced that the game is going to be coming to the Xbox One this fall. Because the game has been in existence in one form or another for years now, when it hits consoles, it will be bringing over 130 featured episodes and 11 seasons worth of content. Familiar races and classes, as well as ships and characters, are all included in this version.