In the News

Microsoft has detailed updates coming to the web version of Outlook in Office 365 with an improved UI, new productivity features and a different name – Outlook on the web.The latest version of Outlook on the web will roll out to Office 365 subscribers whose plan includes Exchange Online and have signed up for Microsoft’s First Release program.The biggest change Microsoft has made is the addition of an Action bar available across Mail, Calendar, People and Task experiences in Outlook on the web.

In its annual financial filing with the SEC for its just-ended 2015 fiscal year, Microsoft has an entire new section entitled “Our vision.” As part of that section, it lays out its top three priorities for research & development for the coming year. They are: Reinvent productivity and business processes, build the intelligent cloud platform, and create more personal computing.

Voice-based virtual assistant Cortana, which Microsoft introduced to the desktop operating system in Windows 10, is a super useful service. It lets you take notes, play music on your computer, get reminders, and also check real-time traffic information. But its application doesn’t end there – Cortana can be made to work with third-party services to control your Android device as well as your smart bulbs, speakers, and other IoT devices linked to the device.

In line with new improvements in the Windows 10 operating system, Microsoft has added a fresh set of keyboard shortcuts. While most of the keyboard shortcuts in Windows 10 remain the same as the ones in Windows 8 (or older), there are many that are exclusive to Windows 10. This list of the 10 most useful all-new keyboard shortcuts that will not only make your Windows 10 experience smoother, but can also help speed up whatever you are doing on your PC.

Now Microsoft aims to get into the IoT market with specific flavors of its brand-new operating system, Windows 10, which the company officially released July 29. Windows 10 will include a new IoT edition for small devices that is tuned to run Windows universal apps and drivers and is royalty free to makers and device builders.

Microsoft announced on Monday that it has bought a startup – Texas-based Incent Games – with a winning way of using game play to boost the performance of sales teams. “They’ve disrupted the old sales incentive model with an original twist that combines gamification with fantasy sports and expertly applies it to a sales setting,” Microsoft corporate vice president Bob Stutz said in a blog post announcing the acquisition.

Microsoft said there are more than 14 million devices running Windows 10.In a Microsoft blog, Yusuf Mehdi, a Windows vice president, said the new operating system has seen “unprecedented demand.” Windows 10 is, perhaps, the most significant product launch for Microsoft since Satya Nadella became CEO last year. Under Nadella, the company’s focus has shifted toward the mobile market and cloud computing.

Microsoft Corp.’s stockpile of offshore profits rose to $108 billion, with a 17 percent increase over the past year as the company continues reaping profits in low-tax foreign jurisdictions. The company crossed the $100 billion mark, making it just the second U.S. corporation — after General Electric Co. — to do so, according to a securities filing July 31.

Microsoft’s Windows 10 got off to a roaring start in its first few days, with its initial usage share handily trumping that of the firm’s last free upgrade, Windows 8.1, data from a Web analytics vendor showed. Worldwide, Windows 10’s usage share — a measure of how active users of the OS were on the Internet, not the number of users or PCs running the operating system — doubled from 0.3% to 0.6% on the official launch day of July 29, according to Irish metrics company StatCounter. By the end of Saturday, Aug. 1, Windows 10’s global usage share had climbed to 2.5%.

Microsoft’s HoloLens headset will become available to you a little sooner than originally expected. In an interview with BBC, Nadella said that Microsoft will release ‘V1’ (or version 1) of the HoloLens headset “within the next year”. He further noted that the new hologram-projecting device will be focused “more around developers and enterprises.” While still in the developing stage, the HoloLens has already attracted big players in the industry.