Technology is the key to improving how we edify tomorrow’s leaders, both students and educators alike. Technology changes the way teachers teach and the way students learn. With entire classrooms now able to collaborate and share virtual notebooks with OneNote, not only with Microsoft products but with Apple iOS and Google’s Android as well, Microsoft is changing the face of education and developing technology to change how learning. For David Lopez, a K-5 classroom teacher and professional development specialist, the Surface Pro 3 is the ideal tool for education and a crucial piece of technology.
Mr. Lopez’s job requires him to frequently travel to different schools and school districts. While visiting other institutions, Lopez assists other educators integrate technology into their schools, teaching them the benefits of productivity tools such as the Surface Pro 3 and OneNote. While traveling 30,000 feet in the air, Lopez often bumps elbows with other frequent fliers who are more than a little curious about all he is able to do with this Surface Pro 3. Being the ever scholarly man that he is, Lopez can’t help but demonstrate his favorite features.
Lopez tells us about his experiences in post on Microsoft in Education blog:

They see me take out my active stylus and start highlighting a document in OneNote, and then they look at the papers they’re working on, wondering how they could do the same thing. And when I flip the keyboard under the screen and read an e-book while keeping the flight tracker open on the split-screen? Yes, I’ve seen their eyes peek over at my screen and I have to say, “Pretty cool, huh? Would you like to give it a try?”
The teacher in me can’t help but demonstrate how this great device has changed the way educators collaborate and communicate with their students.
My favorite feature to demonstrate is how I can give descriptive feedback to my students in OneNote using the inking feature and the built-in microphone. I simply open OneNote, find the paper, insert a recording, and then begin writing and highlighting on the screen just as I would on paper. The real eye-opener is when I click “playback” and the inking starts highlighting and moving down the page as my recorded voice comes through the speakers.

Lopez goes on to express his desire for all of his students and fellow educators to have access to devices like the Surface Pro 3. Although there are perhaps hundreds of uses for Microsoft’s Surface devices, educators like Lopez see its value in education and all the possibilities Surface can create.
What do you think about the Surface Pro 3 in education? Let us know in the comments below.

As of October 2015, Amrote Abdella has taken over Fernando de Sousa’s role of regional director for Microsoft’s 4Afrika Initiative, a program initiated by Microsoft that aims to improve access to technology, resources, and skills development for African individuals and companies.
“At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and organisation on the planet to do more. The 4Afrika Initiative is perfectly aligned to accelerate this for the African continent through locally relevant innovation, affordable access and skills development,” Abdella said in a statement after her promotion. “Creativity is what I love most about working in Africa and is what I hope to continue to help unlock and ignite across the continent — to see Africans not just being empowered by technology but also building innovative solutions relevant for our markets.”

Abdella has a rather impressive body of experience before her time at Microsoft and has worked at the World Economic Forum, the World Bank Group, the Hunger Project, and the Grameen Foundation with a focus on African financial services, policy guidance, and economic development.
Corporate vice president for Microsoft Middle East & Africa, Ali Faramawy had the following to say about Abdella’s appointment, “Having worked with the initiative since its launch in 2013, Amrote has a deep understanding of both the continent and 4Afrika’s mission. Her wealth of firsthand, on-the-ground experience with startups, investors, government bodies and nonprofit organisations has given her insight into the exact challenges and opportunities we’re focusing on through 4Afrika. We are confident in her ability to move the initiative forward and refocus our efforts.”
Microsoft’s 4Afrika initiative has to date helped 273,000 small- to medium-size enterprises, 76,000 young people and 20,000 government employees. Two noteworthy examples of 4Afrika projects are the recent introduction of telemedicine services in Botswana and providing internet services to universities in Ghana.
Have you heard much about 4Afrika before now? What do you think is Microsoft’s most impressive initiative? Let us know in the comments below.

Microsoft is set to open up its highly touted and long awaited New York retail store next week, and the company is pulling out all the stops to entice New York citizens to check it out. The new Microsoft Store sits a few blocks away from the iconic glass cube Apple Store and sports an impressive 22,269 square foot imprint. Leading up to the October 26^th unveiling of its new five-story flagship store, Microsoft has been engaging in a bit of guerrilla marketing to spread the news.
Microsoft’s new campaign began with positioning food trucks in various places throughout New York that offered free food. The vehicles were covered in the traditional Microsoft Windows blue and suggested that not only, “lunch is on us,” but that eaters should upgrade their day, presumably at the new store.

Lunch is on us #MeatpackingDistrict. See you at 13th St. between Hudson St & 9th Ave. https://t.co/OkILBmKYZb pic.twitter.com/hQQaqWAS9x

— Microsoft Store (@MicrosoftStore) October 15, 2015

In addition to free food, Microsoft is also planning to roll out prize machines to two different locations throughout New York each day for the next week. The vending machine looking devices are covered in the same Windows blue color and wrapped with Microsoft promotional tags. Inside the machines are said to be Microsoft products such as Xbox One’s, Surface tablets and other cool swag. The vending machines are designed to dispense free gadgets as long as fans tweet directly from the box. Fans are encouraged to visit Microsoft’s Facebook events page for details on locations and prizes.

Hey NYC! Hurry to #ChelseaPiers, Pier 62 off 22nd & West Side Hwy & you can win great prizes. https://t.co/OkILBmto7D pic.twitter.com/VunvYzXisP
— Microsoft Store (@MicrosoftStore) October 18, 2015

Lastly, Microsoft will be giving away tickets to a Pitbull concert scheduled October 26^th during the flagships unveiling. To receive a free Pitbull concert ticket, fans need to line up at 6:00 AM ET at the Fifth Avenue and 53^rd Street Store location.
According to Microsoft:

• The first 1,000 people in line, at a minimum, for the Microsoft opening on Monday, October 26 will receive two complimentary tickets for the Pitbull special performance on Monday, October 26. Like us on facebook.com/microsoftstore to get up-to-the-minute details.
• Customers in line by 9:00 AM on Monday, October 26, will be entered into a raffle to meet Pitbull. A limited number of customers will be selected at random.

As Microsoft looks to influence the direction of the PC market with its renewed software and hardware offerings, the company is also taking its retail presence into heavy consideration. The location of the New York City flagship signifies a hefty investment from Microsoft in its bid to reestablish the PC buying experience for some New York natives.
We’ll see in a weeks time whether or not Microsoft’s street campaign efforts pay off with long lines on October 26^th at its latest Store.

Microsoft and the Johns Hopkins University recently announced a collaboration that could result in a solution that helps improve patient safety and care quality in the future. The collaboration is aimed at creating a solution that draws data from medical records in conjunction with the modern devices people use every day. Once the data has been gathered, the information can help better determine when a patient would require treatment to prevent possible medical complications. Microsoft likens it to “a life-saving checklist that operates in real time.”
Part of the solution relies on a previous Johns Hopkins efforts with Project Emerge. Project Emerge uses a $9.4 million (US) grant to create tablet-based apps to help coordinate data for clinicians.

The foundation of Project Emerge is a tablet application that coordinates and integrates all data from all monitoring equipment and information systems. Rather than scavenge medical records, devices and other sources to ensure patients receive all the appropriate care, clinicians can use the tablet app to quickly see all data in one location.

The tablet apps were also designed to help patients and their families interact with the health staff at hospitals. Patients and family members could use the bedside tablet and app to ask questions about health care, and include a patient’s favorite music or television programs.

Couple with Project Emerge, Microsoft’s Cloud will help scale the university’s earlier solution to bring real-time date-driven intelligence to patient care soon. Using Microsoft’s Azure computers, Johns Hopkins University will be able to tap into massive amounts of storage, analytics, and actionable insights while having everything tied together across mobile efforts, sensors and upcoming Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
Microsoft’s Health Division states:

Our mutual goal is to deliver Project Emerge to health organizations across the country and transform the way care is delivered by arming health professionals with the right information, at the right time.
By combining our leading expertise, Johns Hopkins and Microsoft hope to capture the immense opportunity to transform intensive care, and dramatically reduce the estimated 400,000 lives lost each year from preventable harms.”

Over the past few months, we’ve been reporting about how Microsoft’s cloud-connected efforts are making splashes in the health industry as it allows caregivers to jump in and out of mountains of metrics while also streamlining processes for many hospitals.
Project Emerge is currently just a pilot program and it may take some time before its partnership with Microsoft bears any tangible fruit, but the possibilities for improving health care seem to be within arms reach.

Google Apps for Work (previously known as Google Apps) took an early lead in cloud based productivity software for a long time before Office 365 hit the market. But competition really picked up once Microsoft started its new Software as a Service version of its Office productivity suite. As we have reported over the last year, Office 365 has seen much quicker growth. And just in this past quarter, reports have been surfacing that Office 365 has over taken Google Apps for Work.
As Microsoft threw its weight into the market for cloud based producvity apps, the question remained how would Google respond and how important was this competition to their business, which is historically driven by advertising revenue and dominating the search market. Not to mention their attention being divided by many other projects which include everything from Android mobile operating system to self-driving cars.
Two articles today from Business Insider by Matt Weinberger reveal that Google Apps for Work is extremely important for the Mountain View based technology company, and they aren’t going to let Microsoft ascend to being market leader without a fight.

Weinberger’s first article gives some insight into why Google Apps for Work is important to Google’s long standing corporate mission, and that the company’s mandate to compete with Microsoft Office comes directly from the founders of Google themselves. As Weinberger puts it:

“Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have long believed that given the sheer amount of time that people spend at their jobs, ignoring the workplace would be doing a disservice to Google’s long-standing corporate mission — ‘to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

As such Google wants to offer compelling services for users not just when they are on their free time searching the web, sending emails and shopping online, but also when they are sitting at their desk for eight hours a day.Weinberger also notes that Rich Rao, head of Global Sales of Google Apps for Work, recently shared Page, Brin, and newly minted Google CEO Sundar Pinchai devoted the entirety of one of Google’s “TGIF” weekly all-hands meeting to discussing Google Apps.
The question of how far Google will go to compete with Office 365, and consequently the importance of Google Apps for Work to their mission, is becoming clearer with their newest offer which specifically targets existing Microsoft customers. In his other article, Weinberger reports that Google announced Microsoft customers who are under an Enterprise Agreement with the Redmond based technology company can receive Google Apps for Work for free. The only caveat being they commit to the full price of Google Apps for Work for at least one year after their Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft expires. This provides a much lower switching cost to businesses currently locked into a three year contract with Microsoft’s services under a three year long Enterprise Agreement who are interested in considering alternatives.

Additionally, Google is paying $25 per user to resellers for signing up their clients with Google Apps for Work. As Weingerger notes, resellers are usually trusted IT contractors that help set up a business’ technology infrastructure. This includes everyone from small independent firms to large consultant practices. The $25 per user bonus helps these resellers lessen their costs of training their client’s staff in newly deployed software.
Enterprise customers are a lucrative segment, one that Microsoft has built much of its position off of through decades of renewed Enterprise Agreements. Google’s new tactics, which won’t come cheap at least in the short run, are a clear signal that they are fully committed to competing with Microsoft and not letting them amass a substantial lead. And the new levels of Google’s commitment could be a significant threat to Microsoft as many of their other businesses, such as Azure, rely heavily on Enterprise customers. As every business who switches away from Office 365 is only that much more likely to not rely on Microsoft for other services.
The question will remain who will have a more compelling service that wins over companies amidst the growing trend of cloud based producvity software. Will it be the offering from a company that’s mission is to organize the world’s data or a company whose mission is to empower every individual and business on the planet?

Microsoft Ignite is a popular get-together for IT professionals who want some insight into upcoming technologies and opportunities to build out their Microsoft skillsets. Next year’s Ignite event will be held in Atlanta on September 26-30, after being rescheduled and relocated from Chicago, and pre-registration is now open, according to the Windows blog.
Here’s what you can expect at Ignite 2016:

• 1,000+ hours of content, 700+ sessions, and a multitude of networking opportunities
Insights and roadmaps from industry leaders
• Deep dives and live demos on the products you use every day
• Direct access to product experts
• Interactive digital labs
• Knowledge and answers direct from the source
• Smart people talking tech everywhere you look

Microsoft’s complete event schedule for 2016 looks like this, according to the Microsoft Blog, just in case you’d like to fill out your entire calendar for the year:

• Build: Spring 2016 in San Francisco
• Convergence: April 4-7, 2016 in New Orleans
• WPC: July 10-14, 2016 in Toronto
• Microsoft Ignite: September 26-30, 2016 in Atlanta

It looks like Microsoft has some excellent opportunities on tap in 2016 to get up close and personal with the company’s products, services, and personnel, and so get your flights booked.

Nobody can argue that basic research and development isn’t important to a company and to an economy. Technology impacts everything today, from medicine, food production, and entertainment to business operations, logistics, and marketing. Basic research is the engine that creates the ideas that lead to products, services, and processes that change our lives on a daily basis.
Microsoft Research, a division made up of over 1,000 researchers that was founded almost 25 years ago, clearly agrees. Corporate Vice President at Microsoft Research Jeannette M. Wing took some time this morning to provide an overview of the division’s research not only to Microsoft as a company, but to the greater world as well.

A strong Microsoft is vital to the livelihood and productivity of billions of users around the world who rely on Microsoft products and services. A strong Microsoft is critical to a strong U.S. economy in a time when we are facing unprecedented global competition. And a strong Microsoft allows us to look beyond the horizon in pursuit of The Next Big Thing that can improve the human condition.
Microsoft’s nearly 25-year bet on research is a way to cover all these bases, and so far, the return on that bet is paying dividends to Microsoft, our industry and our global economy.

Microsoft Research has been instrumental to the development of a number of Microsoft products and services. The machine intelligence behind Cortana and Skype Translator is heavily influenced by the work done at Microsoft Research, and the group is looking into a variety of technologies that will drive future advances, such as quantum computing and synthetic biology.
Wing goes on to discuss two reports that highlight the value of basic research and development, Restoring the Foundation: The Vital Role of Research in Preserving the American Dream and Rising Above the Gathering Storm. Also, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella signed onto the Innovation Imperative, an initiative to compel the U.S. Congress to take a look at federal policies around STEM education and peer review.
This focus on federal involvement in basic research and development funding seems to be the ultimate focus of the blog post:

On Tuesday, October 20, I have the honor to participate in a roundtable discussion on Capitol Hill to help identify key priorities for the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2015. As lawmakers consider this bill, our goal should be clear: Let’s reaffirm our commitment to funding basic research, and maintaining our place as a global innovation leader, by passing a robust version of America COMPETES.

Microsoft Research has accomplished some amazing things over the last quarter-century. We’ll continue to look forward to tomorrow’s advancements as well.

Did you know you can unlock the Surface Pro 4 with your face thanks to Windows Hello? Our friend Sean Ong has put together a short video demonstrating how the new Surface Pro 4 can utilize Windows Hello on Windows 10 to make your unlocking experience easier than ever. “This only works if you have a special camera. Facial unlock does not work on the Surface Pro 3, Surface 3, or earlier devices. There’s also a fingerprint scanner option – which is available on a special version of the new Type Cover,” Sean explains.
Microsoft has worked hard to beef up Windows 10 with enterprise-grade security, making sure that both consumers and businesses are protected from threats. One particular feature in Windows 10 is called Windows Hello, which allows users to seamlessly and securely log into their PCs. Windows Hello supports three types of biometric entry, which includes fingerprint recognition, iris, and facial recognition.
“With Windows Hello, you’ll be able to just show your face, or touch your finger, to new devices running Windows 10 and be immediately recognized.  And not only is Windows Hello more convenient than typing a password – it’s more secure!  Our system enables you to authenticate applications, enterprise content, and even certain online experiences without a password being stored on your device or in a network server at all,” Microsoft explained in an official blog post back in March of this year.
We’ve embedded the video below for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

The second update coming for Windows 10 is codenamed Redstone, and is a larger update compared to Threshold 2. Redstone will be what Windows 8.1 was to Windows 8 essentially, bringing much needed changes and improvements to the feature-set and design of Windows 10. Redstone is scheduled to launch around a year after Windows 10 did, and is pretty much the ‘next’ version of Windows. You can read more about this here.
At the start of this week, Microsoft released Windows 10 build 10565 to participants of the fast ring. This build adds new Skype messaging, calling and video experiences, as well as the ability to sync favorites and reading list items in Microsoft Edge. There are new Cortana improvements (she can now understand your inked notes) and colored title bars in apps! Microsoft also added new icons (Registry Editor got a new icon!) and improved the context menus on Start. This build also allows you to better manage your default printer, and is also easier to activate. You can read more about the features here or watch our hands-on demo of the build below.

Microsoft also released the ISO for build 10565, in case you prefer to install it on a virtual machine or want to clean install it. Windows 10 build 10565 also introduced a preview of nested virtualization. Nested virtualization is a feature that virtualizes certain hardware features that are required to run a hypervisor in a virtual machine.
If you’re running the non-Windows Insider preview version of Windows 10, a.k.a. build 10240, then head on over to your Windows Update settings. Microsoft served up a few updates, including a security update for IE’s version of Flash and an always-welcome cumulative update.
During a hardware event in Korea, Microsoft’s Terry Myerson stated that Windows 10 is currently powering more than 22,000 devices in Korea, is seeing adoption rate 5 times faster than Windows 8, and has accumulated over 1 billion user hours in the country.
Microsoft is currently working on a way for users who own a Windows Phone to text via Cortana on the desktop. Build 10565 for desktops includes an option to alert you when you miss a phone call, but doesn’t work on the latest mobile build. It does work on more recent internal builds however, and we’ve had the chance to play with it. Watch our exclusive hands-on video below.

Windows 10 desktop build 10568 leaked onto the internet at the end of the week, and it doesn’t really feature anything new. In fact, this build is quite buggy and we advise against installing it. There is one small interesting change in this build however. A small prompt appears in Windows 10 build 10568 when you attempt to change your default apps. When you try to change your default browser to something other than Edge, Microsoft’s own browser, you are prompted with a small box that says “Give Microsoft Edge a shot” while listing a few of Edge’s features like Cortana integration and the ability to write on webpages.
That’s it for our weekly Windows 10 news recap folks. Stay tuned for another exciting week of Windows 10 news.

Earlier today, a leaked build of Windows 10 for desktop made it’s way to the internet. Build 10568 doesn’t really come with any major improvements, but there are some small differences when compared to the latest official build available to Insiders (build 10565).
One interesting change is a small prompt that appears in Windows 10 build 10568 when you attempt to change your default apps. When you try to change your default browser to something other than Edge, Microsoft’s own browser, you are prompted with a small box that says “Give Microsoft Edge a shot” while listing a few of Edge’s features like Cortana integration and the ability to write on webpages.
The same thing appears when you attempt to change your default photo app, or music app. Microsoft is really pushing their own apps as superior alternatives, and it can be a daunting task to get consumers to break away from what they are used to. Clearly this is Microsoft’s attempt at trying to convince consumers to give their own apps a chance before dismissing them.
Do you think these prompts will entice consumers to give Edge, or Groove Music a shot? Or do they simply get in the way? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

pic.twitter.com/mbnZtfxKum

— Gustave Monce (@gus33000) October 18, 2015

pic.twitter.com/80XZjBvrcK

— Gustave Monce (@gus33000) October 18, 2015

Screenshots of Windows 10 desktop build 10568 have hit the internet, just a few days after Microsoft officially rolled out Windows 10 desktop build 10565 to participants of the Windows Insider program. At this time, there is no word on exactly what’s new or changed in this build — assuming there are any changes.
The screenshots don’t reveal much, but it does indicate that build 10568 may be leaked soon. Of course if or when that happens, we’ll let you know and we’ll have a hands-on demo showing off whatever new improvements are in this build. This is a developing story, so stay tuned!

а в это время в замке у шефа …
10.0.10568.0.th2_release.151010-1734
и в буфете @buildfeed щё не знают
скоро… pic.twitter.com/BfG8cPOz3V

— ????WZor????️ (@WZorNET) October 17, 2015

Continuum for Windows 10 is a feature Microsoft announced back in April, which essentially turns your Windows 10 Mobile device into a desktop PC, allowing you to use a mouse and keyboard with apps scaled up as if they were running on a Windows 10 desktop. Since the announcement however, Microsoft hasn’t really shown off the feature in detail aside from quick showcases here and there.
Continuum is the notion that one computing experience is continued regardless of the device used or the location. It allows for a consistent user interface, a familiar style of operation for the user to become accustomed to.
A new video has surfaced online showcasing Continuum (spotted by @tfwbordom), and it appears to be an official advertisement from Microsoft. Seems like the ad may have gotten pulled for now (probably due to the music that was used) but it does show off Continuum on Windows 10. We’ve embedded the video below for your viewing pleasure.

There’s no doubt that Microsoft employees have been making some waves in the technology industry lately. From CEO Satya Nadella navigating the company through some extremely choppy waters to researchers leading the way in creating brand new technologies, Microsoft is chock full of great people.

Business Insider highlights another Microsoftie effective at his job. Specifically, Frank Shaw, Vice President of Corporate Communications, comes in at #3 on Business Insider’s PR 50. The list highlights the 50 most effective PR staff in the technology industry, and Shaw’s placement at #3 is a testament to how well Microsoft has managed to maneuver through some highly controversial occurrences.

Frank Shaw is the go-to PR guy for the many, many reporters who cover Microsoft and he has been for a lot of years. He’s fast to respond and can quickly navigate Microsoft’s labyrinth to find answers to any question, be it a product question or something to do with one of Microsoft’s executives. Shaw, a former Marine, joined Microsoft proper after years of doing Microsoft’s PR from its primary agency Waggener Edstrom (which now calls itself WE). If all that isn’t enough, he’s also “funny on Twitter and bakes incredible sourdough bread,” one tech editor raved.

Congratulations to Mr. Shaw, and we hope he keeps the lines of communications open. Microsoft is engaged in some pretty complicated strategic changes in its business, and there’s still lots to be done. It’s inevitable that hiccups will occur, and as site that focuses on Microsoft’s doings, we recognize the benefit of having someone at the helm who can make sure the right questions get the best answers.

If you’re running Windows 10 build 10565, you might notice something interesting popping up in your Start Menu. Namely, close to the same place where you’ll typically see a list of newly installed apps is a new “Suggested” section. Here, you’ll cycle through Windows 10 apps that Microsoft thinks might be of interest based on your past app installations.

This isn’t anything new: Microsoft showcased the upcoming Windows 10 feature at Build 2015. And, it’s easy enough to turn off–just head into Settings > Personalization > Start and toggle “Occasionally show suggestions in Start.” As you can see from the screenshots above, you can also disable the feature by clicking on a suggestion.

As Betanews notes, Microsoft doesn’t consider the suggestions to be “ads.” Semantics aside, this feature is just one of the ways that Microsoft collects and analyzes data in order to provide a personalized Windows 10 experience. Whether or not the feature is a privacy concern likely comes down to how intrusive a people feels about Microsoft keeping an eye on things like app installations.
In the end, the information being gathered is relatively innocuous, and there’s real value in terms of app discovery. One analogy would be music services that monitor what you listen to and then offer up customized playlists. “Suggested apps” is precisely the same kind of thing. The fact that it’s integrated in the operating system itself doesn’t necessarily make much of a difference, and the feature is certainly easy enough to turn off.
Nevertheless, Microsoft has demonstrated that it’s not afraid to turn Windows 10 into an operating system that knows your habits and caters directly to them. Whether or not this becomes a bigger deal in the future remains to be seen, but in the meantime don’t be surprised if you’re a Windows Insider and Windows 10 starts giving you advice.

NASCAR fans who use Windows 10 should be excited to hear that the race car company has released their official app for Windows 10 devices. The app comes after Microsoft’s recent partnership with NASCAR to sponsor Windows 10 on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s #88 car. It provides a comprehensive and customizable user interface.
Fans can follow their favorite driver, and will be targeted with news, videos, and social content. Fans who pay a subscription can also check out the premium live leaderboard, view the in-car cameras, and even listen to driver audio during a live NASCAR race.
All users have access to the following features:

• Interactive Chase Grid
• Live leaderboards for all NASCAR Series (limited)
• Lap by Lap commentary
• Extensive Driver data, news and social media feeds
• Real time news and video
• Complete Schedule and Full Driver Standings
• Customizable Notifications

Here’s a list features included with a premium subscription:

• Premium Live Leaderboard – Track your favorite drivers on a customized leaderboard with all new data points
• Live Driver Audio – Listen to the in-race strategy between Drivers, Crew Chiefs and spotters
• Live In-Car Cameras – Watch Live in-car cameras for the entire 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season
• Live Broadcast Radio & Officials Radio – Listen to the official NASCAR Radio Broadcast for each race of the season and listen to the NASCAR Officials Radio for all Sprint Cup Series races

If you want the app you can grab it from the link below. Have an opinion to share about the new app? We’d love to hear what you think in the comments below!

Download
QR-Code

NASCAR

Developer:
NASCAR Digital Media LLC

Price:
Free

The use of Skype in education will be the focus of ABC TV’s Born to Explore this Sunday as it’s used to broadcast a live dinosaur dig in Mantua Fossil Heritage Site in New Jersey conducted by palaeontologist, Dr. Ken Lacovara. “From an explorer or naturalist’s standpoint, the whole technology revolution has been great for us,” said Wiese about the incorporation of technology in the scientific process. “Through the magic of technology like Skype and Bing everyone can be an explorer.”
Through Microsoft’s collaboration with the team at “Born to Explore”, not only was Skype used in this episode but so was Bing and several Microsoft Surface devices. “The ability to interact with students in real time via Skype in the Classroom has been so exciting,” added Wiese. “We were able to turn a page in a 65 million-year-old history book and make dinosaurs come to life. The chance to be a part of the dig team is a rare opportunity.”
Naturally there are numerous other streaming services that could have been used to broadcast the dig to a wider, more public audience but for broadcasting video to a select target audience, Skype has quickly become one of the most popular programs to use.

Microsoft has always been one of the most active supporters and contributors to world betterment projects in the tech world, be it through third-party organizations or by itself. As part of this ongoing corporate social responsibility program, the company kickstarted a 12-month Upgrade Your World initiative where it seeks out the most prominent nonprofit organizations around the world through public voting to give monetary support, and today, a post on the Windows blog has announced 50 winners from 10 partnering countries.
Five nonprofits are chosen from each of the countries in the program, which include Australia, Japan, China, Kenya, France, Mexico, Germany, United Kingdom, India, and the United States. The causes of these organizations range from empowering young woman, fighting, refugees support, to tech literacy for children, environment protection and more. One notable example mentioned in the post, Edgar’s Mission in Australia, shelters more than 200 homeless people and abused animals and protected them through a fire last week.
As part of the program, each nonprofit organization will be able to draw from a $50,000 budget allocated to each partnering country for their projects, part of Microsoft’s $10 million investment. A new global partnership from October between Upgrade Your World with the Malala Fund, a global organization dedicated to helping girls around the world complete their 12-year education, was also announced.
You can share your stories and follow the news with the hashtag #UpgradeYourWorld.

Microsoft’s event line-up for 2016 has made quite a stir yesterday with Microsoft Ignite being rescheduled and relocated, causing much uproar in the local community. The change does not stop there however, and we are going to take a closer look at how Microsoft is staggering its events for the upcoming year, detailed in an official blog post.
According to the statement, with the change in Ignite, Microsoft’s main event line-up for 2016 will be as follows:

•  Build: Spring 2016 in San Francisco (no specific date was given)
• Convergence: April 4 – 7, 2016 in New Orleans
• Worldwide Partners Conference (WPC): July 10-14 in Toronto
• Microsoft Ignite: September 26-30, 2016 in Atlanta

At last week’s Windows 10 Devices event, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 has officially hit 110 million installations. That’s a very solid start given that the operating system only became available to the public on July 29^th. That being said, Microsoft has stated that their goal for Windows 10 is for it to reach 1 billion devices. This week’s poll is about how long that will take or if it will happen at all.
It’s important to note that Windows 10 works across multiple types of devices, and Microsoft will likely include everything from PCs, tablets, and phones to IoT devices in their counts. That may seem a bit unfair since many will compare Windows 10 install numbers to other popular operating systems that are only on one or two form factors but since Windows 10 shares a large amount of its inner workings across all of its versions, it does make sense to combine them.

Let us know what you think by voting in the poll and commenting below. You can hear us discus the results by listening to the WinBeta Podcast this week.

Microsoft’s Phil Spencer and developers from 343 Industries, Crystal Dynamics, and Remedy Entertainment attended the Brasil Game Show in Sao Paulo this week. The Brasil Game Show is the largest gaming show in Latin America and its attendance continues to grow every year. While there didn’t appear to be too many major announcements, there were a few interesting news pieces that were dropped during the several days of the show.
Xbox One games such as Rise of the Tomb Raider, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, and the recently released Forza Motorsport 6 were given their share of promotion as were Halo 5: Guardians and the animated film, Halo: The Fall of Reach, which premiered its new trailer.

It was also announced that Quantum Break and Rise of the Tomb Raider would both have a full Brazilian Portuguese voiceover option when they each launch and ID@Xbox title, Aritana and The Harpys Feather, was revealed to be the first ID@Xbox game to have a Brazilian developer.
The Brasil Game Show has been running on an annual basis since it first started in 2009 as the Rio Game Show. In 2010 it changed its name to the Brasil Game Show and has since gone from around 4,000 attendees in 2009 to an estimated 280,000 in just six years. While most Western press seems to focus on North American game events, it will be interesting to see if the Brasil Game Show becomes more of a major player on the global scene in years to come. 2016’s Brasil Game Show will once again be held in Sao Paulo from October 1^st to 5^th and with its upward trend in popularity, is expected to have an even higher number of visitors.
Did you go to the Brasil Game Show this year? What excited you the most about it?

The first episode of Minecraft Story Mode, The Order of the Stone, is out now on Xbox One in digital format via the Xbox Store. Minecraft Story Mode is a spin-off from the main Minecraft series and incorporates Telltale’s signature choice-based gameplay to explore the world of Minecraft with a brand new story voiced by a rather solid cast of actors including Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Corey Feldman, Cat Taber, Ashely Johnson, and Billy West. A short video introducing the cast has been released and you can watch it right here.

Minecraft Story Mode – Episode 1: The Order of the Stone can be bought by itself though most Minecraft fans will want to buy the Minecraft: Story Mode – The Complete Season (Episodes 1-5) which comes with the first episode and will automatically add the other four as they’re released over the following months.
In an unusual move, a special physical disk version will be made available for Xbox One and Xbox 360. This disk version of Minecraft: Story Mode is being referred to as a “season pass disc” and will contain the first episode of the five part series and grant access to the remaining four episodes as they’re made available via digital download. This retail release will be available in North America on October 27th.
Telltale Games has found tremendous success with their licenced titles with their two Walking Dead releases finding a particularly large following. One of their earlier games based on the popular Back to the Future trilogy of films was just re-released on Xbox One this week to celebrate the year 2015, which is the year the films’ future is set in.
Have you played Minecraft Story Mode – Episode 1: The Order of the Stone yet? How well do you think the franchise made the jump to choice-based gameplay? Without posting any spoilers, let us know in the comments below!
Buy Minecraft: Story Mode – Episode 1: The Order of the Stone on Xbox One
Buy Minecraft: Story Mode – The Complete Season (Episodes 1-5) on Xbox One

Have you been looking to pick up a new Windows 10 device, but aren’t inclined to wait for the cutting-edge devices coming out later this October? Today on the Microsoft Store, you’ll be able to take advantage of some good prices on the Surface Pro 3 and other laptops (Toshiba, Lenovo, Dell and Asus brands.) You’ll be able to get $150 dollars off of the laptops today only, so you should look into them sooner rather than later.

Today only at the @MicrosoftStore – get huge savings on great devices: https://t.co/A8YeMKr56O pic.twitter.com/9sxl6hnpaE

— Windows (@Windows) October 14, 2015

https://twitter.com/Windows/status/654325796715253761

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Microsoft has canceled the 2016 Ignite Conference which was set to occur May 9-13 at McCormick Place in Chicago.
The Tribune’s sources said that Microsoft wanted to reschedule for later in the year, but McCormick place was unavailable. The Tribune’s article was not able to clarify if alternate locations or cities are being considered, or if the conference is all together being canceled, as a Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment to the Tribune.
Microsoft’s Ignite conference this last May was the first for Microsoft, who used the new conference to consolidate its various conferences related to enterprise technology. The conference focused on demonstrating new Windows, Office, and Azure features important for enterprise customers and IT professionals.
The Tribune is also reporting that the loss of Microsoft’s Ignite conference is a blow to the city’s technology community and tourism industry. In total, the cancellation will affect more than 50 hotels and result in the loss of 90,000 room nights. The loss will increase Chicago’s projected deficit of convention room nights to nearly 300,000 for 2016.
It is possible the conference or some version(s) of it will continue at some point in 2016 for a number of reasons. Windows 10’s adoption by enterprise customers is a big part of their plan for its latest operating system to be on a billion devices in 2-3 years. Additionally, Enterprise customers has been a long standing core of Microsoft’s customer base and the technology company has been making big investments in its growing commercial cloud based solutions, such as Office 365 and Azure. Still, with no official word from Microsoft about the reported cancelling of Ignite, it remains to be seen exactly how Microsoft will continue to showcase its latest technology to the enterprise customer segment, or why the May dates wouldn’t work.
What did you think of Microsoft’s first’s Ignite conference? Do you hope that it continues in Chicago or elsewhere? Let us know in the comments section below.

Over the past few days, we’ve seen several OEMs launching and showcasing their new Windows 10 devices. Earlier this week, we saw some new Windows 10 devices from Acer and Toshiba and it seems LG doesn’t want to stay behind.
Terry Myerson was on hand in Korea as LG announced a number of new Windows 10 devices, including the gram 13”, gram 14”, Tabbook Duo (10.1” Tablet), and 21:9 Curved AIO. All these devices will ship with Windows 10. Furthermore, customers interested in the LG Gram will be able to get their hands on it through Microsoft stores this holiday season, and the company also aims to make sure these devices are available in other global markets as well.
LG also mentioned that all of its PCs will be upgraded to Windows 10 by December. The software giant seems to have a strong presence in Korea which is the “fastest adoption the market has ever seen for Windows – five times faster than Windows 8.” There are 22,000 devices already running Windows 10, with over 1 billion hours spent on Windows 10 since launch.

With each release of Windows 10 Insider Preview builds, more and more advanced features are being introduced. As Microsoft preps for the first public preview of Hyper-V Containers, Windows 10 build 10565 introduced a preview of nested virtualization. Nested virtualization is a feature that virtualizes certain hardware features that are required to run a hypervisor in a virtual machine.
While Hyper-V Containers are not officially out yet, nested virtualization allows for you to try it out on Hyper-V virtualization machines. As I am not the most equipped to explain nested virtualization, Microsoft’s Virtualization Blog has a better explanation:

“Hyper-V relies on hardware virtualization support (e.g. Intel VT-x and AMD-V) to run virtual machines. Typically, once Hyper-V is installed, the hypervisor hides this capability from guest virtual machines, preventing guests virtual machines from installing Hyper-V (and many other hypervisors, for that matter). Nested virtualization exposes hardware virtualization support to guest virtual machines. This allows you to install Hyper-V in a guest virtual machine, and create more virtual machines “within” that underlying virtual machine.”

For more information about the known issues with nested virtualization or the steps to enable nested virtualization, head over to Microsoft’s Virtualization Blog.

As Microsoft continues to develop Windows 10, the last iteration of its OS, users are experiencing Windows as a service with its continual update cycle. As we reported earlier today, Microsoft is already hard at work on its next major software release for Windows codename: Redstone. Members of the Windows Insider program, however,  are able to get a glimpse into the changes to come in preview builds. These previews are not just for eager users, though. Today, Microsoft has updated its Windows 10 SDK  with quite a few improvements including new emulators for both PCs and Mobile for developers.
From documentation made available from the newly released SDK, we have learned more about changes Microsoft is making to its Live Tiles. The new SDK allows for developers to expand how they use jump lists for their apps. For instance, developers can now have users right click or long press a Live Tile to pull up a jump list. From here, developers will have the option to create additional functionality or quick-actions for their Live Tiles. As Windows 10 is a single OS for PCs and phones, quick-actions could make their way to Windows 10 Mobile Live Tiles in the future.
Additionally, we reported a few months ago that Microsoft received a patent for a feature called 3-D touch (that name sounds very familiar). This feature would allow users to access contextual menus by hovering their finger over a tile. With the SDK released today, we can get a glimpse into new abilities and possible interaction paradigms for the Live Tiles in Windows 10.
What features do you wish to see added to jump lists in Windows 10? Let us know in the comments below.

A little over a month ago, we reported that Microsoft was set to deliver new educational tools to schools this year, helping educate and empower young minds. Of these tools, Microsoft has already made a significant update to its OneNote application that now allows for classrooms (and faculty) to share notebooks. However, Microsoft is not just interested in providing tools for productivity; they are also interested in educating individuals on how to use them.
From November 22^nd to the 24^th Microsoft is set to celebrate NYCATE’s 50-year Anniversary at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center in Rochester New York. NYCATE (New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education), is an organization whose purpose is to help educators transform the classroom with technology. To aid in their efforts, Microsoft will have a host of educators and trainers hold break-out sessions to help students and teachers learn tools to make them more productive.

To celebrate NYSCATE’s 50-YEAR ANNIVERSARY, they’ve lined up at this year’s conference some of the most celebrated, tech-savvy speakers in the country. You’ll also have the opportunity to visit numerous, highly informative breakout sessions, attend hands-on workshops in the latest technology for the classroom, visit over 75 exhibitors, and network and socialize with hundreds of your peers that are dedicated to incorporating and exposing technology to students in the classroom.

This conference has three main goals.

Re-invent Productivity with Office 365 Education to save teachers time and stay organized.
Build the Intelligent Cloud with Office 365 Education that fosters 21^st century skills for college and career readiness (collaboration, creation, communication and creation) across any device.
More Personalized Computing – Digital inking and personalized learning with Windows 10.

Before the conference even begins, there will be pre-conference training on both Saturday and Sunday, the 21^st and 22^nd respectively. Microsoft and NYSCATE encourage participants to bring their own devices in which they will be able to install free educational subscriptions ofOffice 365. Microsoft is set to even raffle off a free Surface 3.
For more information about NYSCAT 2015, click the link here. It is great to see Microsoft’s efforts to empower educators and students, not only providing powerful tools but teaching them how to use them as well.
If you are in the New York area, let know if you plan on attending this year’s NYCATE.

Microsoft has released the details about its new wireless Qi charging pad on its website, with a model number showing up as DT-904.
The new Microsoft Wireless Charger doesn’t appear to be any different than the previous DT-903 wireless charger. The charger holds the same shape, size and the same LED notification light at the bottom for new messages and calls. The only noticeable change is the use of the Microsoft logo on top of the device.
The new wireless charger likely comes in preparation of the launch of the Lumia 950 and 950 XL, as it’s also likely built mostly for the new handsets.
While it doesn’t seem to be available for sale just yet, we imagine that the pricing won’t be much different than the DT-903 wireless charger, which currently sells for $60.
Have something to share about what you might think about Microsoft’s wireless charger? We’d love to hear what you think in the comments below!

As a company that keeps itself on the technological cutting edge, Microsoft needs to hire and maintain a constant stream of highly competent employees. Whether it’s hardware engineers working on Surface devices, coders working on Windows 10, or mathematicians exploring the latest concepts in machine intelligence, Microsoft suffers from an embarrassment of riches when it comes to really smart people.
The Technet blog took a few minutes today to honor just such a person, researcher Zuzana Kukelova. Something of a math wiz, Kukelova works as a computer vision researcher at Microsoft’s Cambridge, U.K. research lab, and has been working on some pretty heady stuff.

Now a post-doc researcher specializing in computer vision at Microsoft’s research lab in Cambridge, U.K., Kukelova is the recipient of the 2015 Cor Baayen Award, given to the best Czech and Slovak Ph.D. thesis in computer science and, naturally, applied mathematics.
The Cor Baayen announcement specifically cited Kukelova’s ability to bridge the gap “between highly abstract mathematical results, such as algebraic geometry, and engineering applications.”

Kukelova received her Ph.D. from the Czech Technical Program in Prague, working to flesh out the work of Henrik Stewinius on applying advanced algebraic methods to computer vision to solve some significant real-world problems.

“Our techniques for solving systems of polynomial equations have wide applicability,” she said. “Computer vision of course, but also robotics, controlling satellite trajectory, game theory, market equilibrium problems, computational biology — there are still some unsolved problems that can probably be solved using techniques that we have developed.”

Speaking about receiving the prestigious award, Kukelova was a bit less effusive than some of her colleagues.

“I am honored to have been chosen,” she says.
“I am used to working with amazing colleagues, but very few combine Zuzana’s mastery of complex mathematical tools with her zeal for real-world applicability,” said Andrew Fitzgibbon, a principal researcher in the lab’s computer vision group. “We are very lucky to have the opportunity to work with her.”

We know that Microsoft is engaged in some advanced research and development, and that ultimately results in some pretty cool technology. Seeing the company taking time to highlight the people behind the research is always welcome.