Recent News

Microsoft made good on a promise from last year, adding several basic mobile device management (MDM) tools to all commercial Office 365 subscriptions. “With MDM for Office 365, you can manage access to Office 365 data across a diverse range of phones and tablets, including iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices,” said Shobhit Sahay, Technical Product Manager with the Office 365 group.

Microsoft Ventures will host Pivot – a platform where startup enthusiasts get to meet some of the hottest startups and explore an opportunity to work with them – on April 3rd & 4th. The two-day ‘Hire-a-thon’ will see 23 startups from the Microsoft Ventures portfolio looking for passionate and like-minded team members for more than 60 positions – in technology, marketing, design and sales.

It’s a big year for Microsoft, with the local launches of Microsoft’s key Cloud products Azure, Office365 and CRMOnline, as well as Windows 10. Microsoft’s Director of Partner Business and Development, Phil Goldie, has been a key figure in Microsoft’s channel sales operations since 2009. He sat down with ARN Editor, Allan Swann, to discuss the company’s big 2015 plans, changes to its channel partner programs and his wine collection.

Microsoft looks set to introduce more exclusive titles to Xbox One. With Forza 6 and Rise of the Tomb Raider already announced, next on the roster is Halo 5: Guardians. While two collector’s editions have been announced for international markets, one expects at least one of them to make it to India via Microsoft’s exclusive Xbox One partner, Amazon India.

Tech giant Microsoft is all set to roll out their affordable Lumia 640 and 640 XL smartphones in India in April. The Lumia 640 features a 5-inch HD display with an 8MP rear snapper, while the Lumia 640 XL features a 5.7-inch HD display and a 13MP rear camera with Carl Zeiss optics. Both the handsets carry 8 GB inbuilt storage expandable to 128GB.

KPMG announced an expansion of its strategic relationship with Microsoft to include a global collaboration to jointly deliver new suites of innovative solutions and services in data and analytics (D&A), cloud compliance and transformation, and business solutions. The collaboration signals an important phase in the Microsoft and KPMG relationship, driven by a shared certainty that clients are looking for business partners with solutions and services that combine the best in leading-edge technology, industry insight and innovative thinking with proven excellence in managing complex global projects.

Microsoft has said it has purchased the office mobile app LiveLoop, which allows multiple users to collaborate on PowerPoint presentations simultaneously. The purchase is the latest by the tech giant, after recent acquisitions of other mobile apps for professional use. “We are excited to welcome the talented team from LiveLoop to help build great collaboration across Office applications, part of our strategy and vision to reinvent productivity,” Microsoft said in a statement.

Microsoft has increased by a factor of eight the maximum size of OS drives that can run on its Azure cloud, hoping to get enterprises to migrate more workloads. Microsoft is methodically launching new services and adding features to Azure to make the platform more competitive and a better fit for different applications.

Microsoft has announced a second round of devices that will be able to run the latest builds of Windows 10 wherein the list has expanded considerably. According to the Verge, Microsoft opened up its Windows 10 Technical Preview to Windows Phone users last month, but only a scant few Lumia devices were supported. Now, that is set to change.

Microsoft has revealed the games that will be offered as part of the Games with Gold program in April 2015 for Xbox Live Gold subscribers on Xbox One and Xbox 360. Microsoft will be offering not three, but six games to download for free all through April.