In the News

Microsoft’s annual developer conference, Build 2016, might focus a lot on Universal Windows Apps and HoloLens developer edition hardware. However, Windows 10 is set to see a fresh set of change in terms of UI. Microsoft’s Windows 10 has undoubtedly the best user interface among all software platforms. Its live tiles are a huge departure from standard icons and now the Redmond-based software giant is working to make it even more effective. Microsoft is planning to turn its Live Tiles even more interactive, and one such session at Build could throw more light on that effort.

Microsoft plans to buy energy credits from Dominion to offset the company’s energy use elsewhere, without reselling them. The state of Virginia has agreed to buy all the energy produced for $51.50 per megawatt hour for 25 years. Utility and state officials say the commonwealth will save up to $1 million over the life of the contract, versus the cost of other energy. Once built, the plant could produce almost 40,000 megawatt hours a year. The overall deal was cheered last week by Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Dominion and Microsoft.

Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect, a popular sensor-based gaming console, can evaluate the respiratory function of patients and spot conditions such as cystic fibrosis. The team from the University of Warwick and the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, University of Birmingham and Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT) have developed a method to use the gaming device for medical purposes. The system consists of four Kinect sensors which are capable of quickly creating a 3D image of a patient’s torso. In tests, it has proven to be as accurate as a patient breathing into a spirometer.

Microsoft is paving the way for productivity in the Middle East with the launch of the new Microsoft Dynamics AX and CRM Online 2016. Karim Talhouk, Director, Microsoft Business Solutions for the Gulf region, said, “It will enable people and empower individuals inside any organization to redefine their business processes faster, and make smarter decisions based on insight and intelligence. The result of this would be delivering an amazing customer experience in order to retain and win new customers.” Christian Pedersen, General Manager, Microsoft Enterprise ERP for the United States, added, “There are two core products on our customer engagement platform which is very much centered around what we do on Dynamics CRM, and then there are the operational capabilities, that is where we have Dynamics AX targeting the upper mid-market enterprise level organizations. We have SMEs that are more targeted with Dynamics NAV and Dynamics GP. But we look at upper mid-market enterprise level customers and that is what we are targeting with our Dynamics AX.”

Microsoft has made a version of Windows 10 for the Chinese government, called Windows 10 Zhuangongban, or “Windows 10 Specially-provided Edition”. Ralph Haupter, Microsoft China’s CEO, told that through a joint venture with China’s CETC, Microsoft has already completed the first version of the specialized Windows version. So what’s different about this version of Windows? It features fewer of Microsoft’s consumer-targeted apps and services, while including more management and security controls, in accordance with the needs of China’s government.

Veeam Software has announced Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure, available for preview as a free, pre-configured Azure appliance in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. This new solution enables users to take on-premises workloads and restore or migrate them to the cloud using an automated physical-to-virtual or virtual-to-virtual conversion process. The ability to restore backups directly means users can utilize Azure as an on-demand cloud data center for disaster recovery (DR) and benefit from its flexible and scalable cloud resources.

Microsoft’s cloud-based business intelligence service, Power BI, now has more than 5 million subscribers, who are using the service to take in business data and create dashboards they can use to better understand their businesses. A handful of new features has been now included to Power BI including the ability to import data from an Excel spreadsheet and turn it into live-updating charts and graphs. Subscribers will be able to use an Excel connector to easily “pin” live-updating data from the Excel desktop app to a Power BI dashboard.

A new update to WhatsApp for Windows Phone brings several new features. It will let users trim a video clip before sharing it with friends. Additionally, WhatsApp for Windows Phone users will also be able to share document files with their friends using the app. For now, only Pdf files are supported by WhatsApp. The company recently stated that it was working on expanding support to other document file types as well in a future update.

Members of the Microsoft Insider program can download the latest Insider Preview build for Office 2016. According to the company, the new build features are Power Query Enhancements, Find Photos in a Flash and Easier Files and Folders Sharing. Microsoft has been working hard to make OneDrive more useful than just an online storage tool. These features, along with improvements to the photo sharing functionality and live editing tools are going a long way towards achieving that goal.

Microsoft has been pushing the importance of the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps, since Windows 10 was announced. Now, Microsoft is building a UWP app that will eventually integrate all of the legacy Skype program’s features, and more. Moreover, the company says it will eventually completely kill off the desktop-only app in favor of the universal one. It has worked to simplify the interface by removing duplicate menus and clutter, and of course, the interface is much more touch-friendly.