In the News

Microsoft’s Office 365 service is most popular among a lineup of 4,000 business apps, according to identity and mobility management firm Okta. This was revealed in its first-ever ‘Businesses @ Work’ Report. Office 365 is a core component of Microsoft’s ‘mobile-first, cloud-first’ vision. The company’s commercial cloud revenue grew 88 percent driven by the cloud-based productivity suite Office 365, along with Azure and Dynamics CRM Online.

Microsoft has stepped in to assist the Chennai Corporation in its pursuit to improve online civic services. Over 500 employees of the Corporation will receive training in dealing with glitches in the system of online civic services. Over 250 tax collectors, 100 licence inspectors, 100 tax assessors and 25 assistant revenue officers participated in a programme on Thursday. Residents who have been reporting problems pertaining to the services are expected to get quick assistance from trained employees after a few weeks.

Microsoft is contributing in ‘Skill India and Digital India’ programs in which company has taken CSR initiatives which are working for the underprivileged sections of the society. In an interview, Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman Microsoft India, said, “Microsoft vision is to empower every Indian and every Indian organization to be able to achieve more. With that kind of a mission it actually becomes important for us to consider social responsibilities as a key mandate in India. Therefore, for us CSR or the social responsibility aspect is actually built into our mission statement.”

Almost a month after its launch, the reviews and tests by experts and users, have given it the thumbs up to the Windows 10 operating system from Microsoft. Geoffrey A Fowler of the Wall Street Journal, wrote:” I’ve been testing Windows 10 for three months on these computers and even on my everyday work laptop. It’s the best experience I’ve had since Windows XP.

Microsoft’s vision for Windows 10 is for it to use apps that look and feel comfortable to use whether they’re running on a 40-inch monitor or on a HoloLens heads-up display. These so-called Universal Windows apps are designed to be built once and run on Windows 10 phones, PCs, tablets and IoT devices – adapting their appearance and behavior depending on which device they are running on. To help persuade more developers to create these Universal Windows apps Microsoft is refining the technologies available to software makers in Windows 10.

Move over, Docker, and make room for Microsoft in the emerging market for software containers. Microsoft has released a technical preview of the first publicly available version of Windows Server Containers, which will be built into Windows Server 2016, the next version of Microsoft’s operating system for servers. “A huge number of our customers are Windows-only, so what we are doing here is bringing the power of containers to them in their native operating system,” said Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Azure CTO.

Skype has released an update to its android app that allows the users to set customized ringtones for their contacts. The users can use the new feature by going into a conversation with a contact and tapping on the lower right and click on ‘select custom ringtone’. The update also includes features to make the client a bit more useful, like the users can now tap and hold on an image inside a conversation and select ‘Forward photo’ to share the image with another contact.

Microsoft has released the new preview build of Windows 10 to Windows Insiders, the testers of Windows. Microsoft has released the final version of Windows 10 last month but the company is releasing updates of the operating system. Microsoft says it has received a lot of feedback over the color options for Windows 10 and the company is testing a new default color with this new 10525 build of the OS.

Microsoft’s Windows 10 has easily surpassed the global usage share ascension of Windows 7 six years ago, putting it on track to become the company’s most successful OS introduction ever. Windows 10’s usage share neared 6.6% on Sunday, data from analytics vendor StatCounter showed. That was a 23% increase over what the OS logged the Sunday prior, continuing the unbroken stretch of double-digit-or-more, week-over-week increases since Windows 10’s July 29 debut.

Seen as a strategic move, the internet giant announced a host of new capabilities, on Tuesday, aimed at increasing ad revenue for app developers on the Windows platform. Microsoft wants to integrate video interstitials to boost app monetization.“The Microsoft Universal Ad Client SDK supports video interstitials, which is especially useful for monetizing gaming apps given the opportunity to show video ads between levels,” said Vijay Rajagopalan, Director of Engineering & Product Management for Windows & Developer Monetization at Microsoft.