In the News

Microsoft announced that Jabil, one of the world’s leading design and manufacturing solution providers, has built its predictive analytics solution on Microsoft Azure Machine Learning. Jason Zander, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Azure, said, “Jabil’s digital transformation on the factory floor will reshape its industry. As product cycle times shorten and products get smarter, Jabil understands how the intelligent cloud combined with predictive analytics will help it support the needs of its customers.”

Microsoft Corporation announced it is working with the OPC Foundation to enable virtually any industrial Internet of Things scenario through interoperability between the millions of applications and industrial equipment compliant with the OPC UA standard. Sam George, Director, Azure Internet of Things, Microsoft, said, “As Industry 4.0 reaches a tipping point, we believe that openness and interoperability between hardware, software and services will help manufacturers transform how they operate and create solutions that benefit employees’ productivity. Microsoft’s support of OPC UA in Azure IoT and Windows IoT will reduce barriers to industrial IoT adoption and help deliver immediate value.”

Microsoft India announced the winners of the India leg of Imagine Cup 2016, after concluding the National finals. Imagine Cup is a global student technology competition, and an effort to transform skill development, nurture budding technologists and foster innovative spirit. Three teams emerged as the winners under each of the three categories: World Citizenship, Gaming and Innovation after an intense nationwide contest among 27 teams.

Microsoft has confirmed that Xbox One sales are actually up year over year, contrary to predictions of sales of the troubled console slowing down. Microsoft explained that the contradiction was explained by lower Xbox 360 sales this year than last year, as well as Xbox One sales at lower price points. According to Microsoft, Xbox Live grew 26% year-over-year. Also Xbox One sales continue to outpace Xbox 360 sales in both “reach and engagement.”

Windows announced the release of the new PC and mobile OS build, allowing users to try out Windows Ink, a hub for writing and sketching apps. As part of the new Windows 10 Build 14328, users will be able to test the system’s new features, most notably Windows Ink, whose workspace includes sticky notes, a sketchpad, whiteboard and a screen sketch option.

Microsoft has reported a profit of $3.8 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2016. Azure revenue grew 120% with the usage of the platform doubling year over year. Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella said, “The IoT market is expanding as companies look to deliver new services and value. Our new Azure IoT suite streamlines the process of building IoT applications and acts as the hub for managing and monitoring millions of assets. Each week more than two trillion IoT messages are processed by Azure.”

During the quarterly conference call, Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella was asked how he plans to compete with Amazon and win. He answered “Amazon doesn’t sell things like database software, email software and Windows Server software that a company can install in its own data centers. It only offers the cloud, where companies rent that stuff hosted on Amazon’s servers, accessing it over the internet. But many businesses are still buying old fashioned software, using their data centers for some stuff, the cloud for other stuff, a concept known as hybrid cloud computing.”

Microsoft Corporation and Rolls-Royce, a leading manufacturer of aero engines for the airline and business aviation market, announced about their collaboration. Rolls-Royce will integrate Microsoft Azure IoT Suite and Cortana Intelligence Suite into its service solutions to expand its digital capabilities to support the current and next generation of Rolls-Royce intelligent engines. Jason Zander, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Azure at Microsoft, said, “Rolls-Royce has always been a pioneer in engine services, and this collaboration will create a new digital engine for Rolls-Royce to deliver an even better service to its customers across its world-class engine fleet through Microsoft Azure.”

Windows comes with a lot of useful built-in programs and utilities (e.g. Calculator, Sound Recorder) for the daily productivity needs of the users. One such program is Notepad. Notepad is really convenient when users need to quickly jot down important information in plain text format. Notepad AutoSave constantly monitors the active Notepad and auto saves it every 30 seconds. The app can also display a 3 second countdown tool-tip before triggering an auto save.

Elegant MicroWeb announces the completion of the IdeaLab cloud migration as part of an ongoing partnership. The migration of the IdeaLab product to the cloud-based Azure platform provides multi-tenant software architecture in a secure and scalable environment. It is quick to roll out, easy to manage and can support multiple apps and data for multiple clients. This cloud migration also benefits many of the Organized Feedback customers who are in the public sector and government environments.