In the News

Microsoft’s new console, the Xbox One, is launching in India in September. In a recent interview, the head of Xbox in India, Anshu Mor says that he believes that their console has the most comprehensive line up of games and the portfolio of services, apps and software will speak for themselves when the console is sold exclusively through Amazon starting next month.

Microsoft had long announced that their support for Windows Server 2003 will end in July 2015. Now that the time is closing upon the tech industry, the need to have a plan in place becomes extremely essential. “We run our business-critical applications on Microsoft, be it end-point, like laptops and desktops, or servers. We knew this was about to happen, so six months back we started migrating. We have upgraded everything everywhere,” said Sanjeev Kumar, group CIO and President-Business Excellence, Adhunik Group of Industries.

Norwegian software maker Opera has signed a deal to take over the browser building unit at Microsoft’s Nokia mobile phone unit. “We have signed a strategic licensing deal with Microsoft. We are basically taking over the browser building department in Nokia,” Opera Chief Executive Lars Boilsesen said. “This means that Opera Mini will become the default browser for Microsoft’s feature phone product lines and the Asha phones product lines,” he added.

Microsoft has announced an improvement to its chat message notification synchronizing for its Skype applications across all devices. The ‘active endpoint’ feature is currently rolling out and should become available globally over the next few weeks. To use this, users need to update their Skype apps across devices to the latest available version. The feature essentially ensures that Skype notifications will only be received by the device that is currently being used actively, even if users are logged in to multiple devices at the same time.

Over 10,000 channel partners in India will now offer the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to enterprises, enabling the company to reach thousands of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country. Microsoft India General Manager Meetul Patel said, “Microsoft is making Azure available in the open licensing catalogue for India”. This move will facilitate SMEs to purchase Microsoft Azure cloud platform from their local IT partners.

India has emerged as one of the largest markets for smartphones—driven by the youth segment and a desire to stay connected—and Microsoft Devices Group (MDG) is excited about its market share growth in the country, according to TS Sridhar, Director-Mobiles, Nokia India Sales, a subsidiary of Microsoft Mobile Oy. Pointing out that buyers wanted the same facilities on their smartphone, desktop, or laptop, Sridhar said Microsoft and Nokia coming together has ensured the best combination of powerful hardware and software in the world.

As part of its efforts to unify its operating system, Microsoft offers one app for many devices. Since April, universal apps have been available for Windows, regardless of whether the operating system is running on a smartphone, tablet or PC. The apps work on all platforms running Windows 8 onwards. Since the update to Windows 8.1, users can recognize these apps in the Windows Store by a small symbol that appears next to the purchase price.

With the affordable smartphone segment growing exponentially in India, Microsoft Devices has launched the Lumia 530 dual SIM in Kerala as part of the ‘Onam’ festival. Consumers purchasing from an array of Lumia devices will get a chance to participate in the ‘Onam’ scratch and win contest and win a Lumia 630 and free or assured cash back of up to Rs 1,000 on select devices, T S Sridhar, Director-South, Nokia India, a subsidiary of Microsoft Mobiles Oy, told reporters.

To let administrators make better use of storage resources allocated to SharePoint websites, Microsoft has tweaked the controls in SharePoint Online. The changes seek to make processes more automated and add flexibility in how storage for SharePoint Online is managed within the Office 365 suite. Until now, SharePoint site collections, which are groups of related SharePoint websites, had to be assigned a set amount of storage, and that space couldn’t be used for anything else even if some of it went unused.

Microsoft Devices has launched its pocket-size powerhouse MD-12 in India! Weighing just 180g, the MD-12 is a portable Bluetooth mini speaker that plays for up to 15 hours and uses almost any surface to create a large bass sound. Compatible with Lumia devices as well as other smartphones, the speaker will be available at an MRP of Rs 4,499 in four distinctive colours—yellow, green, orange and white. With no cables needed, the MD-12 is also one of the best gadgets for a traveller!