Recent News

Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system now has 400 million monthly active users worldwide (mobile, PC, etc), since its launch in July 2015. CEO Satya Nadella added that increased adoption is driving developers, search and Cortana engagement as well.

The Microsoft Xbox One has had a bit of a resurgent 2016, especially in the second half of this year. Microsoft has even claimed that Xbox One S is the best-selling model in the United States. Now it appears Microsoft has doubled down on its success. During Microsoft’s Windows event, yesterday, the company announced it’s about ready to integrate the Beam service. This service is said to allow users to watch live game streams and interact in “near real-time” with broadcasters according.

Ingram Micro channel partners in India can now offer Microsoft Azure in a flexible consumption-based, pay-as-you-go pricing model through the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program. The Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace fully automates the service delivery, customer management, and invoicing of Azure services, allowing resellers to quickly bring the Azure suite to a wider client base by accelerating time-to-market and eliminating operational complexities.

Aspire Systems has announced its certification as a Microsoft Gold Partner for DevOps and Application Development, thereby further enhancing the company’s competency in the DevOps and Application Development arena. This accreditation is quite important for the company as it would result in an increased level of support from Microsoft, which would enable the company’s engineers to deliver exceptional services to their customers across the globe.

Microsoft launched its first IoT (internet of things) innovation hub in Asia, aiming to link startups, research institutes, and local partners with the company’s network as it further expands its network in the continent. “Asia is a critical and rapidly growing IoT market that is important to Microsoft. We have deployed the Azure IoT Suite to multiple regions in the world and believe that through the first Microsoft IoT Expo in Asia, our market leading IoT offerings and the newly launched Microsoft IoT Innovation Center will enable customers and partners to realize the enormous business potential of IoT,” said Sam George, General Manager of Azure IoT, Microsoft.

Microsoft announced an imaginative new all-in-one PC for design and creative professionals, the Surface Studio. This new ultra-premium device combines incredibly powerful hardware with specific optimizations in Windows 10 in a stunning metal body. One of its most notable features is a new peripheral, the Surface Dial, which gives Surface Pen users a way to manipulate their tools and workspace intuitively using their non-dominant hand. The Surface Studio will cost $2,999 (approximately Rs. 2,00,450 before taxes and duties) and will be available in limited quantities this holiday season.

SQL Server Analysis Services, one of the key features of Microsoft’s relational database enterprise offering, is going to the cloud. The company announced that it’s launching the public beta of Azure Analysis Services, which gives users cloud-based access to semantic data modeling tools. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Joseph Sirosh said in an interview that the change to the Azure SQL Data Warehouse trial was necessary because setting up the system to work with actual data warehouse workloads would blow through the typical Azure free trial.

Microsoft announced that it is open-sourcing the Cognitive Toolkit, previously known as CNTK. The Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit will empower developers to “harness the intelligence within massive datasets through deep learning by providing uncompromised scaling, speed and accuracy with commercial-grade quality and compatibility with the programming languages and algorithms you already use.” Xuedong Huang, Microsoft’s Chief Speech Scientist told, “We prioritized internal efficiency and internally we’ve been using C++ all the time. We open-sourced the internal tool and shared that with the public.”

Microsoft has updated Cortana’s Android app with several new features. The Cortana for Android update brings along faster home page loading and a more accurate reminder triggering on Android Marshmallow devices. Further, it comes with better notification sounds for reminder and offers pull-down refresh capability for your reminder list page, as per the changelog of the application on Google Play. Microsoft’s Cortana on Android has been updated to version 1.9.10.

Microsoft has been chosen as a partner for the TiE-ISB Connect 2016 event of entrepreneurs. The 7th edition of the event will be held at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. “We have always encouraged ideas from aspiring entrepreneurs and supported them with our technologies. For us, TiE-ISB Connect will be a great platform to meet young minds, exchange ideas and share knowledge about Conversations as a Platform, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence,” said Anil Bhansali, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt Ltd.