Business Line: Microsoft targets e-sports market with Halo 5

The game, Halo 5: Guardians, will depict interstellar combat in new levels of graphical realism and offer new twists in multiplayer capabilities. It will be the latest game in the Halo series, one of the biggest in the industry, with more than $3.5 billion in global sales. “With Halo 5, we’re getting back to what the core of the game is,” says Frank O’Connor, Franchise Development Director for Halo.

Economic Times: How Microsoft taught Cortana to be more human

Cortana – Microsoft’s alternative to comparable virtual assistant services like Siri and Google Now – can do more than perform boring tasks like sending texts and managing your schedule. Cortana’s also on constant standby for a round of fun, corny banter. Cortana editorial manager Jonathan Foster says, “”We want people to feel positive [whether] it’s because they think she’s funny or intelligent or contextual or just really understands them.”

ET CIO: How MS’ $15 bn cloud bet ended up at center of company

Microsoft likes to trot out the stat that it’s invested $15 billion in building out Azure, its cloud computing product where you swipe a credit card and get access to essentially infinite computing power. That $15 billion bet could have a big payoff for Microsoft. There are indications that Azure is gaining steam to challenge that leadership position. “Azure’s growth has been incredible,” says Azure CTO Mark Russinovich. “It’s been a fun challenge to meet the demand.”

CIO: The Takeaway – Windows 10’s uptake surges

New data from Net Applications, a U.S. analytics firm, suggests that users have taken a shine to Windows 10: Microsoft’s new OS ended last week powering a record 3 percent of all Windows devices. Back of the envelope calculations show that 3 percent figure represents approximately 45 million systems.

CIO: Microsoft begins private beta of Skype for Business apps for iOS, Android

Microsoft will begin inviting users to test the new iOS and Android apps of Skype for Business, the enterprise communications software whose latest version was launched a few months ago. The preview will include a number of benefits including a redesigned in-call experience. The new call screen features larger buttons to make it easier to manage a call on a phone’s smaller screen.

EFY Times: Microsoft’s Xbox One to get Cortana, TV DVR with Windows 10

Tech giant Microsoft has revealed its plans to launch some major new projects and features on Xbox One in the coming months. The company has announced that they will unveil a redesigned dashboard on the Xbox One in November which will introduce Windows 10 to the console. Identical to Xbox 360, the Xbox One chat pad has also been unveiled by Microsoft.

Yahoo: Microsoft’ OneDrive adds new sharing feature, notifies when someone makes changes to shared files

Microsoft has unveiled new features in an update for its OneDrive, a cloud storage platform. The new feature allows the users to add shared files to their primary OneDrive folder so changes can be synced across their Mac or PC device. Also, the users can edit shared files on mobile devices via the OneDrive mobile app. The OneDrive app will now send a notification on mobile device, when a document is being edited, as well as who is making the changes.

Yahoo: Microsoft unveils Windows 10 IoT Core, a light version Windows 10 OS for IoT

Microsoft has introduced its Windows 10 IoT Core, a light version of the Windows 10 operating system for the Internet of Things. 10 IoT Core will run the Raspberry Pi 2 and Minnowboard Max and can work on devices regardless of whether they have a display. Microsoft says IoT Core is designed to have a low barrier for entry and make it easy to build professional devices and works with a variety of open source languages.