Recent News

Microsoft is aggressively releasing new apps and services. The latest addition to the list is Docs, a service that makes it easier to share documents with others. The relaunching it in a public beta. Docs.com is a service that aims to make sharing documents easier while also preserving source formatting. The service supports Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, and Sway among other Office-supported files, and offers importing features to quickly fetch documents from your PC, or other Microsoft services such as OneDrive.

Microsoft is offering big bucks to attract professional gamers to its Halo game franchise. At the ongoing Gamescom conference, the Xbox-maker on Monday announced an e-sports competition with $1 million in prizes. “The Halo series has always been synonymous with console e-sports and online competition,” said Microsoft.

Gamescom in Germany is known to be the place where companies make announcements. Microsoft’s press conference at the start of Gamescom 2015, where the company delivered three compelling reasons, in addition to games, to buy an Xbox One – Xbox One will record TV for free, Backward compatibility has a release month and more games, and Windows 10 to Xbox One also out in November.

Microsoft is rebranding the Outlook Web App (OWA), the Web version of Outlook in Office 365 suite, to Outlook on the Web. In addition to the rebranding, the email and calendar client is also getting a visual makeover which will help users become more efficient. Among the additions is the new ‘Action toolbar’ which aims to provide users quick access to the most frequently used commands regardless of their ongoing work, and also help them quickly and more intuitively check emails.

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.