In the News

Indian language experience is available in Bing.com both on Desktop and Mobile devices. Indian users can use Bing in their native languages as it supports 9 Indian languages viz. Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati and Punjabi. A virtual onscreen keyboard helps users in typing their preferred language without requiring additional keyboard installations. Users can also easily toggle between English and their native language by simply clicking on the keyboard icon in Bing search bar or closing the onscreen virtual keyboard.

Microsoft unveiled a slew of new Windows 10 devices in the UAE, pledging to continue with its “bold ambition” of making computing more personal and empowering users to do more. The US technology giant launched the Surface Pro 4, and the Lumia 950 and 950 XL smartphones, the first mobiles to come pre-loaded with Windows 10. “The Surface Pro 4 is possibly the most productive PC you’ll find in the market,” Mohammed Arif, Windows business group lead at Microsoft Gulf, told before the start of the event in Dubai.

Microsoft is adding a new organization under its belt today: Microsoft Philanthropies. As one might infer from the name, Microsoft Philanthropies will be dedicated to humanitarian causes with a technology lean, akin to Google.org. It will be led by Brad Smith, who was appointed to the role of company-wide president in September and has been with the Microsoft since 1993.

Microsoft has revamped the name and identity of audience engagement platform, Bing Pulse. The relaunched service, Microsoft Pulse, encompasses several products in Redmond’s lineup to create a more robust research tool. Like its predecessor, Microsoft Pulse is free to use. It’s available to users starting Dec. 15.

Microsoft recently announced its Office 365 Planner, the tool for teams to create plans, organise and assign work, share files, chat about what everyone was working on and get updates on progress. The Planner preview has started to roll out to Office 365 First Release customers.

Federation of Rajasthan Trade & Industry (FORTI), an apex chamber in Rajasthan, and Microsoft have come together to enable 30,000 small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the state to adopt technology. With support from BB Professionals, one of Microsoft’s leading partners, the adoption of modern technologies will make businesses more profitable and productive by connecting them better with suppliers, distributors, government agencies and increasing their reach to customers across India.

Microsoft India’s research and development arm posted a nearly 30 per cent jump in profit for the financial year, driven mainly by higher sales and a rise in software development projects, according to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (ROC). Microsoft India R&D Pvt Ltd posted net profit of Rs 271.3 crore ( Rs 209.48 crore) for the year through March 2015. Revenue climbed nearly 15 per cent to Rs 2,635 crore.

One of the largest start-up accelerators in the world Microsoft Ventures is aggressively eyeing the Indian start-ups and partnering with corporate’s to connect mature start-ups with them. Scott Colman, General Manager, Microsoft Ventures, said, “We think our value proposition of startups is to help them grow to every stage of lifecycle. What we see in the Microsoft Ventures programme today is to help companies growth, find customers to expand geographically.”

As Google and Microsoft battle for enterprise cloud customers, each company’s natural strengths (and weaknesses) become more apparent. Microsoft, for example, is winning over large enterprises that already have massive workforces on Office 365. The pendulum started to slowly swing back in Microsoft’s favor after it released Office 365 in 2013 and finally embraced the cloud, according to TJ Keitt, a Senior Analyst with Forrester Research. Keitt also says Microsoft is on the winning end of the recent shift.

Microsoft has revealed features that have been added to the new Microsoft Band, including music controls, activity reminders and an improved Exercise Tile. With the new music controls, users can put away their phones and turn directly to the Band to pause, play, skip forward and back, and adjust volume. With the activity notifications, users can set the time intervals and the days they want to receive reminders or even set time when no reminders will be sent. The Exercise Tile lets users choose from popular options such as yoga or weightlifting when tracking their exercises, and summaries and observations from Microsoft Health or the Web Dashboard are now grouped by exercise type.