If you like math and Microsoft, then you’re in for a treat, as Microsoft just rolled out Microsoft by the Numbers, a site dedicating to present facts about the company, all in easy-to-get statistics, reported the company’s blog.
The site is presented in a friendly and modern manner, with most numbers accompanied by playful fully-animated 3D objects (the cute kind you can spend hours staring at.)

Among the statistics, which include impressive numbers that reflect Microsoft’s achievement in each of its businesses (like 75 million Windows 10 installs from 190 countries all over the world, 1.5 billion Office users, and 80% of Fortune 500 companies being on Azure), there are also some interesting, and some downright silly-fun, tidbits. Did you know that 20% of Azure VM servers are on Linux? Or 984,000 orders of french fries are consumed each year in Microsoft’s Redmond campus area? Or how Microsoft’s optics fiber cables can stretch 3 times the distance to the Moon? Many more are waiting for you at the site, so visit it now.
 

Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Bob Stutz, took to the company blog today to announce Microsoft’s acquisition of a long-time partner, Web portal and application lifecycle management solutions provider Adxstudio Inc.
According to the post, Microsoft will acquire “key product and technology assets” of Adxstudio Inc, and this will translate into features that customers can “immediately take advantage of.” Adxstudio Web portals are built natively on Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM and can also be used with its Parature Service. The acquisition also delivers pre-built engagement solutions both on-premises and in the cloud, and will enable independent software vendors (ISVs) to “build their own CRM Web engagement solutions on Microsoft technologies.”
The acquisition is said to be “another step” towards fulfilling Microsoft’s commitment to “delivering intelligent customer engagement solutions.”

The Verge is reporting that LG’s 14” ultrabook, the Gram, is coming to the US as a Microsoft Signature Edition and will be available in the Microsoft Stores across the US today.
Vlad Savov of the Verge did a quick review of the Gram in his announcement of today’s news and notes that this device seeks to one up the dominant ultrabook on the market, the Macbook Air, in terms of display with an impressive looking 1080p IPS. But other than its display, the Gram falls short of being a hands down winner compared to the MacBook Air. Savov comments that the construction is a little flimsy in comparison to the Macbook Air’s aluminum unibody design. Also, the Gram comes with Windows 10, but does not feature a touch screen or Intel RealSense camera to best utilize some of the new features in Microsoft’s latest OS.
The Gram does weigh in at less than a kilogram (980 grams or 2.16 lbs to be precise) and has a slim profile. But it is also shipping without the latest Skylake generation of processors from Intel and is instead going with the 5th generation Broadwell Core i5 and i7 chips. The Gram is currently listed on Amazon for $999 for the 14” base model with a Core i5 processor and 128GB of storage and $1,399 for the more top of the line Core i7 model with 256GB of storage. The official Microsoft Store listing has not been posted but will probably have comparable, if not identical pricing. For those unfamiliar with Microsoft Signature Edition, it is their line of PCs sold without bloatware pre-installed in order to boost performance both in terms of speed and battery life.
While LG certainly knows how to build impressive displays, the Gram may face steep competition from other similarly priced ultrabooks. For example, the Dell XPS 13 comes the same gen processor but with more features like a higher resolution screen, touch enabled, and better battery life. Not to mention the slew of Skylake powered devices set to be unveiled as the PC manufacturers and sellers gear up for the holiday season. Ultrabooks may also face an uphill battle in this next commercial cycle as the 2-in-1 form factor continues to grow in popularity with Apple recently unveiling its own version of the concept Microsoft pioneered, and with Microsoft’s rumored Surface Pro 4 set to be shown off for the first time next week on October 6th.

While speaking at a dinner in honor of visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella said the Redmond-based company aims to bring low-cost broadband to 500,000 villages in India as a part of Digital India initiative (via Times of India).

“We believe that lost-cost broad band connectivity coupled with the scale of cloud computing intelligence that can be harnessed from data can help drive creativity, efficiency and productivity across governments and businesses of all sizes… A key part of both Make in India and Digital India, bringing world class infrastructure into India, respecting India’s digital security, sovereignty and privacy is a key milestone for us.”

Microsoft’s jumping on the Digital India initiative program will be a large help as they have the capacity and the technology to make sure high-tech equipment is available in the country. While technology such as broadband internet can be taken for granted, it is not as widely available as some would initially believe. Last week Engadget reported on the United Nation’s findings that indicate over 4 billion people in the world will go without internet access in 2015.

There are now over 669,000 apps in the Windows Store, which includes apps for both Windows (desktop) and Windows Phone, as well as Universal apps which work on both platforms. The Redmond giant is highlighting this achievement on it’s “Microsoft by the Numbers” website, which you can take a look here (first spotted by Neowin).
There are quite a few other cool stats mentioned by the company. For example, 80% of the Fortune 500 is on the Microsoft cloud, more than 75 million devices are running Windows 10, Skype Translator can translate voice calls in six different languages, and Office has been downloaded more than 100 million times on iOS and Android.
Microsoft also mentions that there are over 48 million Xbox Live users in 42 different countries. Outlook.com has more than 400 million active users and more than 1.2 billion people use Office.
Probably the most interesting statistic is the 669,000 apps in the Windows Store. Over the past year, new apps have made their debut and some developers are even jumping onboard the Universal app train (TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Fitbit, etc).
You can check out the webpage here. Do you believe the Windows Store has improved over the past year? Let us know in the comments below.

Welcome back to another addition of the Windows 10 news recap. This week, Microsoft began hinting at a lot more features coming for Windows 10 apps very soon. Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president at the Operating Systems Group at Microsoft, shared on Twitter that the apps bundled with Windows 10 will receive many more new features. Although we don’t know what features exactly, we hope Microsoft will detail their plans soon.
Also this week, Microsoft released an update for the Photos app on Windows 10. The update doesn’t appear to add any new features to the app so it most likely brings performance or stability improvements. The Photos app receives regularly updates and just recently it was updated with an option to browse content by folders from the sidebar.
Up next, the Redmond giant announced a brand new partnership with Baidu in China. As China continues to become an increasingly strong point of interest for outside companies, Microsoft’s new partnership with one of the largest used Internet gateways in China is pivotal. As much as Bing is heavily touted in the US (features wise, not usage) it’s great to see Microsoft opening Windows 10 to arguably offer a better-localized experiences.
Microsoft also detailed its new activation methods with Windows 10. Gone are the days of requiring a product key to activate your copy of Windows. Microsoft is introducing a new term called “digital entitlement.”
“Activation helps verify that your copy of Windows is genuine and hasn’t been used on more devices than the Microsoft Software License Terms allow. Depending on how you got your copy of Windows 10, activation will use either a digital entitlement or a 25-character product key,” Microsoft explains.
Finally this week, Microsoft mentioned that a new Windows 10 desktop insider build could be making its way to insiders soon.Gabriel Aul, head of Windows Insiders, revealed on Twitter that build 10550 is in Microsoft ring at the moment, and it may roll out to Windows Insiders Fast ring soon. He didn’t mention an exact availability date, but it shouldn’t be too far off.
That’s all for this week, what was your favourite story? Leave your comments below!

Microsoft news recap is a new weekly feature highlighting the top Microsoft news stories of the past week. Sit back, grab some coffee, and enjoy the read! Let us know in the comments section if you would like to see this particular recap every week!
At the start of the week, we learned that Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against software recycling firm Global Electronics Recycling  for improper disposal of its Office software. The Arizona-based recycling company reportedly unknowingly allowed as many as 10 employees to steal 70 thousand copies of Office 2010 meant for disposal, which went on to be sold on the black markets. The company and its owners Danny and Gary Kirkpatrick are liable for the copyrights damage, according to Microsoft’s lawsuit.
Skype faced a massive outage this week, with frustrated users unable to log into the service or use it. Turns out, a “larger-than-usual” configuration change was the culprit, causing some versions of Skype to disconnect users from the network. Microsoft offered an apology shortly after the services were restored. “No matter how quickly we were able to resolve this issue, it would not have been quick enough. We know many of you needed to use Skype during the outage, and finding that you couldn’t would have been incredibly frustrating. We are extremely sorry for any inconvenience caused to our users, and appreciate your patience while we addressed the issue.”
Familiar with Amiibo? Nintendo’s hugely successful figure-slash-interactive-toys that are all the rage these days? Well it looks like the market has caught Microsoft’s attention, as it filed a patent for a similar device. The patent, filed in April and published on September 17,  feature a device akin smart bracelet or accessory, consisting of a “connecting element” and “two or more smart beads” which are user-re-arrangeable. Each smart bead will have its own ID and data storage, and can presumably interact with some sort of base, similar to how Nintendo’s Amiibos work with Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. No word if Microsoft actually has something planned in this arena.
Office 2016 was released this past week, and you can read our hands-on review right here. Alongside the Windows release, Microsoft is also rolling out Office 2016 for Mac, which brings the same much needed features over to the Apple platform.
Microsoft and Baidu have partnered up to deliver a local Windows 10 experience in China. In other words, Baidu.com will become the default homepage and search for Microsoft Edge in Windows 10 (at least in China). Chinese President Xi Jinping, First Lady Peng Liyuan and other high-profile Chinese executives also visited Microsoft’s Redmond campus this past week, talking about the importance of a global partnership between the US and China. After the welcoming session, the visitors were taken on a tour around the Redmond campus, where they met with executives, watched tech demos and potentially had a hands-on with Microsoft’s most game-changing product in recent years, the HoloLens. Interestingly enough, while this get together was occurring, China’s government debuted NeoKylin OS, a Windows XP clone.
Do you know who Brad Anderson is? He is the Corporate VP of Cloud and Enterprise at Microsoft. Our very own Kip Kniskern had lunch with him and it was on video. Check it out below.

Expect to see two new Microsoft Stores opening up in the United States in November. International Plaza and Bay Street in Tampa, Florida, and the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania are the two new locations. You can check out the details here.
A few years ago, Microsoft applied for a patent of a 3D cube-based user interface element based on its Live Tile theory. The patent covered a cube based Live Tile that could rotate in 3-dimensional space and house smaller cubes or subfolders within the larger Live Tile. Microsoft has now been granted this patent and we wonder if the company plans to do anything with it.

Windows 10 has been available for quite some time now but one aspect of the new operating system still has people scratching their heads — activation. Gone are the days of requiring a product key to activate your copy of Windows. Microsoft is introducing a new term called “digital entitlement.”
“Activation helps verify that your copy of Windows is genuine and hasn’t been used on more devices than the Microsoft Software License Terms allow. Depending on how you got your copy of Windows 10, activation will use either a digital entitlement or a 25-character product key,” Microsoft explains.
The following scenarios fall under digital entitlement and will not require a 25-character product key:

• You upgraded to Windows 10 for free from an eligible device running a genuine copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
• You bought genuine Windows 10 from the Windows Store and successfully activated Windows 10.
• You bought a Windows 10 Pro upgrade from the Windows Store and successfully activated Windows 10.
• You’re a Windows Insider and upgraded to the newest Windows 10 Insider Preview build on an eligible device that was running an activated previous version of Windows and Windows 10 Preview.

The following scenarios will require a 25-character product key:

• You bought a copy of Windows 10 from an authorized retailer. (on a label inside the retail packaging)
• You bought a digital copy of Windows 10 from an authorized retailer. (in a confirmation email)
• You have a Volume Licensing agreement for Windows 10 or MSDN subscription.
• You bought a new device running Windows 10. (pre-installed or included with your device)

So there you have it. Upgrading for free to Windows 10 from a genuine copy of Windows 8.1 gives you digital entitlement, whereas purchasing a retail boxed copy of Windows 10 will require a product key to activate. Hopefully this clears up some confusion regarding activation on Windows 10.

There is no denying that Microsoft is in a very ‘collaborative’ mood as of late. The software and services company at its core has always been about partnerships, deals, and collaborations. However, over the last few years, Microsoft has muddied the waters a bit, on where it wanted to stand in certain industries. To its defense, some industries benefited from Microsoft-led competition, while other endeavors left people scratching their heads.
Armed with a new CEO, a clearer goal for its future and a new top-down philosophy, Microsoft is once again about collaborating and partnerships.
Peggy Johnson, the executive vice president of Business Development, recently spoke about the five partnership principles for the new Microsoft. Peggy joined the Re/code Decode podcast hosted by Kara Swisher, where she talked about her recent high profile acquisitions and partnerships. She began her discussion withthe importance of Microsoft and its valued partnerships.

Since joining Microsoft a year ago to lead business development, I often get asked how I think about partnerships. To me, partnerships are a path to innovation. By coming together with others, we’re able to unlock new opportunities, chart new territories and reach people in new ways. Office 2016, released this week, is a great example of partners like Salesforce, Dropbox and Uber bringing so much innovation to the Office platform.
When you work with competitors, as we often do, it’s easy to think that partnerships are about competing for value. They are not. Partnerships are about creating mutual value. Competition is not a barrier to partnership. Even with companies that compete, if you open your eyes and mind to the potential, you can often find rich areas of collaboration.”

To Peggy, every relationship is different but she believes are five universal understandings to every partnership.

Respect
Simple and almost self-explanatory – respect for the people at the table and the experiences they bring, respect for the other company and its mission, according to Peggy.
Listen
Perhaps the easiest of her five focuses, listening is another form of respect. Listening also helps with connecting while establishing a relationship built on effective communication. “Plus it’s just hard to build a relationship with a bad listener, Peggy says.
Say what you mean and mean what you say
Peggy encourages being straightforward as a way to not only keep pace in continually innovating industry but as a way to achieve a mutually agreeable outcome. While we in the press might mock Microsoft for its lack of transparency or communication at times, its contracts and negotiations with its partners are often very clear.
Stay focused
Starting small and providing accomplishments is Peggy’s way of staying focused. Rather than tackle a broad scope of interest, the idea is to start with one or two areas of focus and prove that the each contributing partner can work together, successfully. Then expand from there.
Don’t be afraid to take a pause or hit reset
At first blush, this may seem like a horrible idea in a partnership. However, this is more about constantly evaluating and reevaluating the partnership so that parties involved do not begin to strain the relationship or stagnate. “Sometimes, it’s critical to look at an existing relationship with a fresh set of eyes,” Peggy believes.
As the landscape of technology and business continues to shift and evolve it’s crucial for Microsoft to do the same. Fortunately, for the company, the person helping to change its business development is not interested in playing hardball. Rather, Peggy Johnson and the new Microsoft are more interested in building relationships and establishing partnerships.

For some time now, China has made it clear that it would like to transition away from the governmental use of Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Part of the Chinese government’s wish to transition away from Windows was due to Microsoft dropping support for the fourteen-year-old operating system. Over the years, we’ve seen reports of the Chinese government partnering with Linux based developers and engineers to build its own operating system offering. Every so often, news about the Chinese Linux-based operating system would flare up for a month or two and then the stories would subside and government offices in China would go back to Windows usage.
As the Chinese government undoubtedly realized, building an operating system from the ground up is a rather arduous and daunting task. Even more difficult, is retraining thousands, if not millions, to learn a newly developed operating system. It would seem the Chinese government has a solution for both instances, rebuild Microsoft’s Windows XP on Linux.
Recently, screenshots and walkthroughs of China’s new Linux-based operating system codenamed NeoKylin surfaced from Quartz. NeoKylin is the successor to the Chinese government’s first attempt to transition away from Microsoft’s Windows operating system in 2013. In the two years since Kylin’s first appearance, the Chinese government learned a thing or two, and its result is an operating system that looks and operates suspiciously similar to Windows XP.
NeoKylin comes equipped with a Start Menu, Media Center, Taskbar, Jump List and Linux alternatives to games such as Minesweeper. Other similarities include an identically looking office alternatives bundled into the software as well as references to ‘My Computer’ ‘Control Panel’, etc.

The overall look and feel of the NeoKylin is unabashedly Microsoft’s Windows XP, and for good reason. Historically, government offices have been slow to transition between operating systems. While Microsoft may have killed support for Windows XP last year, it still runs on an estimated 27 percent of Windows-based machines in China. Arguably, much of that 27 percent Windows XP usage is hanging around on government-issued laptops and desktops.
Beyond government, it seems that the NeoKylin Operating system is also being picked up commercially thanks to Dell in China shipping it on various laptop and desktop offerings. “The NeoKylin OS is available on Dell Latitude commercial laptops, Dell OptiPlex commercial desktops, and DellPrecision workstations,” a spokesperson for Dell in China told Quartz. As it stands, Dell in China is reporting that 40 percent of its commercially sold PCs are running the new operating system.

This begs the question, where does Microsoft and Windows stand in China?
Microsoft’s ability to monetize its Windows usage in China due to piracy has been an ambiguous numbers game. Just because people are transitioning to NeoKylin does not necessarily translate to a lost customer for Microsoft. While the hoopla over Windows XP losing support and the Chinese government banning Windows 8 in protest, Microsoft has been providing the Chinese government with copies of Windows 7. We’ve also recently reported a partnership between Microsoft and Baidu that places China based Baidu front and center on Windows 10. Microsoft’s position in China is definitively in flux, but the company has laid the ground for a positive future in the area.

For those of you hoping Microsoft’s newest browser Edge becomes the ideal replacement to Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer, Microsoft is reassuring consumers that they are committed to making Edge the best tool for browsing the web. Today, the company has revealed upcoming accessibility improvements for the browser– useful for those who depend on assistive technology in Windows 10.
“We’ve made a major step forward with architectural changes in Microsoft Edge, some of which regress experiences compared to Internet Explorer in the short term, but which are in the interest of creating a more inclusive experience for everyone in the long term,” the company stated in an official blog post.
According to Microsoft, the following new accessibility features will be made available to Microsoft Edge in the coming months:

• Better keyboarding and narrator support in major UI elements such as the address bar, settings, favorites, history, and downloads
• Support for semantically tagged PDFs for paragraphs, links, and images including alternative text specified for links and images. PDF improvements also include better keyboarding for links within a document
• Improved Flash accessibility
• Improved ARIA and HTML mapping to UIA

“We recognize Microsoft Edge isn’t where it needs to be to provide a fully accessible browsing experience. Building a new browser required new user experience work in all levels of the product, including accessibility.  Windows Insiders and others in the accessibility community have provided valuable feedback which we’re using to prioritize improvements to the accessibility of the browser’s controls and the web itself in Microsoft Edge that will be available in the coming months,” the company explained.
Alongside WebDriver support for automating accessibility API testing, the following improvements to Edge are considered high priority to Microsoft and are longer-term investments:

• HTML Semantic Elements and Narrator Landmark Navigation
• Accessible Name and Description: Computation and API Mappings 1.1
• Improvements to Core Accessibility API Mappings 1.1 (ARIA implementation)
• Improvements to HTML Accessibility API Mappings 1.0 (HTML accessibility implementation)
• Including text in default Narrator navigation
• Improved Tagged PDF support

These improvements are based on your feedback, so continue chiming in! No word from Microsoft on when we might see other improvements to Edge like support for extensions.

A few years ago, Microsoft applied for a patent of a 3D cube-based user interface element based on its Live Tile theory. The patent covered a cube based Live Tile that could rotate in 3-dimensional space and house smaller cubes or subfolders within the larger Live Tile. We could only assume at the time, the idea was for Microsoft to expand, what it thought, would be the future of the Live Tile.
After the push back of  Live Tile usage in Windows 8 and 8.1, it’s understandable that we didn’t see much movement on this project. However, it looks like Microsoft hasn’t completely given up on the idea. Rumors had Microsoft working on a new touch (or lack thereof) implantation of a 3D-like touch interface for its unannounced Lumia flagship last year. The mystery handset codenamed the McLaren was rumored to bring along some form or expanding Live Tile functionality. A user would be able to hover over a regular functioning Live Tile and trigger an ‘explosion’ of information from within the tile. Mini tiles of information pertaining to an app would propagate the screen similar to the Zune interface for desktops. While not identical to the patent, the idea still encompasses the fundamental layering of information the 3D cubed tile patent would.

Microsoft specifically highlights the activity with its 3D cube as such:

A basic concept used herein will be that of a three-dimensional volume with faces. A volume or its faces may correspond to applications or elements (sub applications) thereof, with appropriate icons or graphic representations displayed thereon. A volume may be any three-dimensional volumetric shape, such as a pyramid, cube, and polyhedron, etc. When displayed, the volume may have graphic faces and edges, or alternately, transparent or semi-transparent faces and edges (or no edges).”

We found that Microsoft has been granted the patent. Even though much of Windows 10 relies on flat 2D interactions and transitions, the 3D cube patent could be a sign of Microsoft looking to turn Windows 10 3D with the help of the HoloLens. During Build 2015, Microsoft showed a lengthy demo of HoloLens and isolated apps that were already open and functioning. It’s not hard to image a series of floating cubes that can be manipulated in 3D spaces to access layered information populating the screen on start up.
However, don’t be surprised if nothing comes out of this patent.
Thanks Adrian for the tip!

Microsoft recently announced that it is to open a new flagship store at 677 Fifth Avenue in New York City, but that’s not the only US city lucky enough to be getting a new Microsoft store. Other locations with new Microsoft stores on the way are two cities in Florida and Pennsylvania.
Here are all the details:

International Plaza and Bay Street (2223 N Westshore Blvd, Tampa, Fla. 33607) – Thursday, Nov. 5. The store will be located on the upper level Nordstrom wing. This will be Microsoft’s eighth retail store in Florida. The store will have 3,521 square feet of retail space and employ approximately 30 people.
King of Prussia Mall (160 N Gulph Rd, King of Prussia, PA 19406) –Saturday, Nov. 7. The store will be located on the Plaza lower level near the fountain. This will be Microsoft’s first full line store in Pennsylvania. The store will have 3,565 square feet of retail space and employ approximately 30 people. It is an exciting time for King of Prussia Mall with the upcoming wing expansion and Microsoft is excited to be a part of the second largest mall in the country.

We’ll bring you more details about all the activities surrounding the opening of these stores as soon as we receive them.
It’s great to see Microsoft rolling out more stores across the country as these are a much needed physical presence in the community. Microsoft stores offer customers technical guidance and give them the opportunity to go hands on with Microsoft hardware such as the Surface tablet devices or Microsoft Band.

We’ve been reporting recently on how many designer and luxury brands have opted to use Microsoft’s Office 365 to help them get their products to customers, and that trend is still ongoing.
Pandora is a luxury jewelry company that sells coveted pieces to over 9,500 stores in over 90 countries and is an avid customer of Office 365. Philip R. Kennedy, the director of Information Technology at Pandora, recently spoke about how Office 365 has helped the company make sweeping changes in its interactions with its franchisees.

We adopted Microsoft Office 365 a while back and find ourselves constantly benefiting from the continuing innovations that Microsoft adds. For example, we recently gave Microsoft Office 2016 a try so we could take advantage of lots of time-savers. Our geographically dispersed employees have already become enthusiastic users of the new Office Groups features, which give them an easy, organized way to share conversations, calendars and notebooks. Office Groups are easy for anyone to create, and they’re particularly effective when used in conjunction with Microsoft Outlook, because everything related to a team project shows up right within Outlook, which is where I spend most of my day.”

Specifically, Kennedy is a fan of Microsoft’s OneNote, claiming it “may be the best app ever developed.” Kennedy enjoys the ability to have a single place to put anything he can think of such as notes, images, jewelry design, sketches, production schedules and logistical information. On top of Microsoft’s OneNote catch-all ability, Kennedy is also pleased he and others can now make those ideas and notes searchable, accessible from any device and share that access to anyone.

In fact, one of our executives used to be a strictly paper guy. He had special notebooks that he carried around everywhere. When we showed him OneNote, he immediately switched over completely, and now he uses it for everything, making his notes available to the executive team, who comment on them electronically.”

When dealing with the terms ‘luxury’ and ‘designer’, it’s easy to get lost in the idea of only top-level executives benefiting from highly niche services. Kennedy is quick to note that Office 365 did more than help the executives make faster decisions that moved the company forward. Pandora employees routinely make use of Skype for Business for instant messaging, telephony, presence and video calls. Beyond the connections that occur when sharing something face-to-face, many of Pandora’s employees use screen sharing of marketing campaigns and IT schematics to effectively collaborate.
[pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”Use Office 365 on Microsoft Surface Pro 3, MacBook Pro, and an iPad, all without missing a step in productivity”[/pullquote]
Another tool Kennedy points out is the use of OneDrive for Business among employees. Using OneDrive for Business means employees don’t have copies of changing project plans or spreadsheets cluttering up their inboxes. Instead, Kennedy can just send out links that take employees to the latest version of the document, and he can continue to modify the docs after his link has been sent out.
Arguably, Office 365’s biggest strength is in its cross-platform functionality. Kennedy notes that he’s able to use a Microsoft Surface Pro 3, MacBook Pro, and an iPad, all without missing a step in productivity. The same goes for his employees, many of which are free to use whatever device works for them.

We’re getting so much value from Office 365 and the new Office 2016 suite, but I feel like we’ve only scratched the surface of what it can do for us.”

Kennedy is so impressed with Office 365’s ability to streamline processes within the company; he’s already looking forward to using expanded Office toolsets. Items, such as Sway for more polished presentations and Outlook Clutter to keep his emails prioritize, are next on his list.

There have been murmurs and rumors about Windows 10 for IoT. From its early announcements, many have questioned whether Microsoft could target small embedded devices that don’t have screens with Windows 10. During Build 2015, Microsoft made an impressive albeit brief argument that it could. However, since Microsoft’s developer conference in April, the news about the company’s development of Windows 10 for IoT has sputtered out in dribs and drabs.
Here we are in late September, and Microsoft is finally offering a clear picture of what’s to come for Windows 10 for IoT. The news includes support for pulse width modulation (PWM), analog-to-digital converters (ADC) and Windows IoT Core Starter Kits.
Back in early August Microsoft announced the Windows Insider release of its Windows 10 IoT Core. Also, the Windows team says they are receiving tons of feedback that is helping them build out the next update to the Windows 10 IoT Core.

Your feedback on Windows 10 IoT Core has been tremendously influential in improving the quality and completeness of this release, and we’ll be including many of the changes and requests that you have made, such as adding support for pulse-width modulation (PWM) and analog-to-digital converters (ADC) via an integrated and extensible provider API, addressing issues around the USB HID class driver, and many bug fixes. We also saw how popular the web-based device management interface is with customers, so we’re continuing the investment in it and delivering new functionality to change the device name, password and the ability to start processes.”

On top of those additions, Microsoft is also announcing a partnership with Adafruit. The partnership has enabled Microsoft to release a new Starter Kit, “designed to get you started quickly and easily on your path of learning electronics or Windows 10 IoT Core and the Raspberry Pi 2.” The new kit includes a set of compatible sensors, wires, electronic parts and cables that all work with Windows 10 IoT Core. Users will also receive a preloaded Windows 10 IoT SD card in their kits along with instructions and sample codes for beginning projects to get them up and running immediately.

Kits can be ordered from www.adafruit.com/windows10iotpi2 or picked up at Microsoft’s booth at World Maker Faire in New York on September 26^th and 27^th. Other information about Microsoft’s Windows 10 IoT progress can be found at both Windows Insider Program and WindowsOnDevices.com
Microsoft’s progress with Windows 10 for IoT is impressive and fortunately for the company the IoT revolution has yet to be fully realized. No one company has come up with a centralized hub for connected devices, and Microsoft has as much a chance of turning Windows 10 into that hub.
 

Okay, music fans, Rock Band 4 download is now available for pre-order, according to MajorNelson.com. The game should be available for download on October 6, 2015, and if you order now you get 12 free bonus tracks:

• All That Remains – “What If I Was Nothing”
• BABYMETAL – “Gimme Chocolate!!”
• Earth, Wind & Fire – “September”
• Interpol – “All The Rage Back Home”
• Jefferson Starship – “Jane” – Linkin Park ft. Daron Malakian
• “Rebellion” – Marilyn Manson – “The Mephistopheles Of Los Angeles”
• Mastodon – “High Road”
• My Morning Jacket – “One Big Holiday”
• Pierce The Veil ft. Kellin Quinn – “King For A Day”
• “Weird Al” Yankovic – “My Own Eyes”
• The Wild Feathers – “Backwoods Company”

Here’s the official description of Rock Band 4, in case you’re just getting caught up:

With Rock Band 4, players get access to the incredibly deep music library, featuring over 1500 great songs. Additionally, Rock Band 4 supports most songs you have purchased for previous Rock Band titles. All this, combined with a cutting edge visual presentation and a soundtrack featuring some of rock’s biggest acts, makes Rock Band 4 the defining music gaming platform for this generation.

The game comes in at $59.99, and requires some equipment. If you have Xbox 360 wireless music controllers, you can buy an adapter to use them with the Xbox One. If you don’t have the Xbox 360 controllers, then you’ll want to hold off and purchase the Rock Band 4 guitar bundle or the Rock Band 4 Band in a box. The Xbox One controllers don’t seem to be available as a separate purchase.
So there you have it. If you just can’t wait to get your musical fix, head on over and hit the pre-order button.
 

Chinese President Xi Jinpin, First Lady Peng Liyuan and other high-profile Chinese executives visited Microsoft in Redmond, reported Microsoft on their blog.
The group was greeted by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the company’s Executive Briefing Center, and talked about the importance of a global partnership between the US and China “based on cooperation and mutual respect” in advancing technology in various areas including healthcare, energy and data sciences. Nadella also expressed optimism regarding the development of tech education in China, as well as a future shaped by technology.
After the welcoming session, the visitors were taken on a tour around the Redmond campus, where they met with executives, watched tech demos and potentially had a hands-on with Microsoft’s most game-changing product in recent years, the HoloLens (hinted at with the phrase “reviewed innovative new devices” in the original blog post.) President Xi also met with other tech companies CEOs and had a private meeting with Bill and Melinda Gates.

Microsoft has scheduled an event on October 6th where the company is expected to take the wraps off a number of new devices alongside the new Windows 10 Mobile operating system, a new Surface Pro 4 and the Microsoft Band. It’s not just the high-end flagships which we’re anticipating, rumors hint that Microsoft will also take the wraps off a few mid-range devices, and one of them could be the alleged Lumia 750.
AdDuplex’s head Alan Mendelevich recently posted a teaser about the company’s upcoming data. In the recent data collected by AdDuplex, they spotted a mid-range device with a model number RM-115 which appears to be the Lumia 750.

AdDuplex stats teaser: meet RM-115[0,2,4,6] a 5″ 720p Lumia Windows 10 Mobile phone. #windev #uwp #windows10 #not550

— Alan Mendelevich (@ailon) September 23, 2015

In addition, the teaser also revealed some of the internals of the upcoming handset, which is said to come with a 5-inch display boasting a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels, and will ship with Windows 10 Mobile as its operating system out of the box.
There’s no information about more specifications, but it seems we’ll see a handful of new devices next month. Stay tuned to WinBeta as we’ll make sure you get every bit of the October 6th event as it happens.

The relationship between Microsoft and China recently, has been prickly, to put it nicely. While, Microsoft’s Windows OS has a significant desktop presence there, the awkward level of nationwide piracy obscures Microsoft ability to monetize its efforts in the area effectively. Added complications include Microsoft’s mobile ambitions in China that are all but extinguish, as Android and iOS have become the platforms of choice, leaving Microsoft with a less than 1% OS presence.
However, Microsoft’s relationship with China may be turning around and charting a new course. Recently, the Windows team spoke about partnerships between Microsoft and China that would have the two working on groundbreaking devices and consumer experiences for Windows 10.
As it stands, with the help of a few established partnerships such as Tencent, Qihoo 360, and Lenovo, Microsoft has seen Windows 10 installed on over 10 million devices in China. It’s Microsoft’s newly announced partnership with China-Baidu though that will help Microsoft tap into over 600 million active Baidu Internet users.
The outlined strategy between the two includes making it easier for Baidu customers to upgrade to Windows 10 by delivering ‘custom experiences’ such as local browsing and search, according to Microsoft.

Baidu.com will become the default homepage and search for the Microsoft Edge browser in Windows 10. Baidu’s new Windows 10 distribution channel, Baidu “Windows 10 Express” will make it easy for Chinese Internet users to download an official Windows 10 experience. Additionally, Baidu will deliver Universal Windows Applications for Search, Video, Cloud and Maps for Windows 10.”

As China continues to become an increasingly strong point of interest for outside companies, Microsoft’s new partnership with one of the largest used Internet gateways in China is pivotal. As much as Bing is heavily touted in the US (features wise, not usage) it’s great to see Microsoft opening Windows 10 to arguably offer a better-localized experiences.

The Dell Venue 8 Pro was a very capable tablet, good enough to tackle the routine tasks such as checking emails on-the-go, browsing and more. Earlier this month, a rumor popped up hinting at the launch of its successor, and it turns out the leak was spot on.
Dell has introduced the all-new Venue 8 Pro and Venue 10 Pro 5000 series tablets, and this time, they are shipping with Windows 10 as their operating system (via Windows Central). The new tablets also ship with improved internals, and feature an Intel Atom quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM, and USB Type-C port for fast data transfers. Additionally, they support Wacom styli, have LTE connectivity, an option for NFC, and more.
The Venue 8 Pro ships with an 8-inch display with option to go for either the FHD version with 1920 by 1080 pixels resolution or and HD version which comes with a resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels. On the other hand, the more powerful Venue 10 Pro boasts a 10.1-inch Full HD display and can be used as a 2-in-1 device which are quite popular these days. There’s a detachable keyboard which give users the ability to use it as a laptop as well as a tablet when removed.
The Dell Venue 8 Pro starts at $299, while the bigger Venue 10 Pro starts at $429. The exact availability details are not available yet, previous reports indicate that we may get to see it by November this year. We’ll update you as soon as we get to hear anything about its availability.

Terry Myerson could be considered the second most powerful man at Microsoft. He was (and still is) leader of the team that created Windows 10. However, Terry was also recently promoted to the Windows and Devices Group (WDG), which is a merging of the Operating Systems Group and Microsoft Devices Group. Incidentally, the latter group was once headed up by Stephen Elop until he was let go from the company. The WDG covers an enormous part of Microsoft’s portfolio and is a massive responsibility for Myerson.
Typically, when Myerson wants to communicate a new feature or nuance of Windows 10, he does so in substantially long blog posts over at Blogging Windows. In a post today, Myerson issued a short but sweet message about Microsoft Office that include a nod to Windows 10 in a roundabout way. First off, Myerson congratulates the Office team on getting Office 2016 out the door.
In the second part of the message Myerson informs readers of a new offer from the Office team. The promotion involves a “50% discount on a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal through the pre-installed “Get Office app”. The only requirements are that users must upgrade to Windows 10 and own a copy of Office 2010 or earlier.
So, if you own an old version of Office and want to take up Myerson on his offer, all you have to do is upgrade your operating system to Windows 10. Remember that if you’re running Windows 7 or Windows 8 you can upgrade to Windows 10 for free. Presumably if you have already upgraded to Windows 10, and you own an old copy of Office you can also benefit from this generous offer.
Windows 10 has been a free upgrade for the past two months and in that time it has been installed on 100 million devices in the market. One can imagine that this latest offer detailed by Myerson will encourage more users to upgrade to Microsoft’s newest version of Windows and Office.
 

What is CloudFlare and why is it worth the combined interest of Microsoft, Google, Qualcomm and Baidu? On its own, Cloudflare is a U.S. based content delivery network that acts a reverse proxy for websites. Chiefly specializing in the protection of websites or mobile applications, Cloudflare also manages to help increase speed, reduce load times and optimize for best performance of content.

“Once your web site is a part of the CloudFlare community, its web traffic is routed through our intelligent global network. We automatically optimize the delivery of your web pages, so your visitors get the fastest page load times and best performance. We also block threats and limit abusive bots and crawlers from wasting your bandwidth and server resources. The result: CloudFlare-powered websites see a significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks.”

However, what makes Cloudflare such a hot commodity these days are the deals, it’s landing. According to recent Forbes article, the relatively new startup managed to partner up with Baidu to bring its security and cloud protection services to over 650 million Chinese Internet users.

As far as Microsoft’s involvement, it may have to do with CloudFlare’s already four million customers in 30 various countries. Microsoft may also be very interested in CloudFlare’s ability to process 5% of the world’s Internet request while squashing more than 200 billion cyber attacks monthly. In the enterprise, security perhaps outweighs productivity in many cases. A partnership with a security firm able to be cross platform and multi-national could be a critical investment for Microsoft.
In regards to Google and Qualcomm’s contributions, CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince clarifies that the company’s expansion was dependent on four key avenues. Google helps with collaborating with Baidu, Qualcomm addresses mobile; Baidu answers the company’s China strategy while Microsoft supports its enterprise ambitions.
While the company is playing the field as it looks to expand, it is no doubt companies such as Microsoft and Google see the potential of CloudFlare’s 17 data centers in China as future opportunities.
In its latest round of funding, Cloudflare found Microsoft, Google, Qualcomm and Baidu contributing to its $110 million dollar cash pile.

Recently, we reported that the some of the Windows 10 apps (including the Photos app) were updated. But it seems that was just the beginning of what Microsoft has in store for us.
Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president at the Operating Systems Group at Microsoft, shared on Twitter that the apps bundled with Windows 10 will receive many more new features.

Folder view in Photos app on Win10 PC! Tried it yet? Lots more good stuff coming to our apps. ?

— joebelfiore (@joebelfiore) September 21, 2015

We don’t know what new features Belfiore might be talking about, but we will share them with you as we find out. Be sure to follow us on Twitter or add us to your feed reader so you can have the latest news delivered to you as soon as they come in.
What kind of features do you think will be added to Microsoft’s Windows 10 apps? What do you think Microsoft can do to improve some of the apps? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

Insteon is a supplier of home automation kits and devices that are conveniently used to control the appliances of a house. Specifically, Insteo provides kits that can be used to monitor the lights in someone’s home via an app or other ‘smart home’ related duties, remotely. Insteon gadgets are rather well represented in Microsoft Stores due to a partnership between the two companies. A little over a year ago Insteon updated its app to allow voice activation with Microsoft’s digital assistant, Cortana so that users could control their appliances with verbal dictation.
Insteon’s current app is a Windows 8.1 app, and the company keeps it well supported with its most recent update occurring just this August. However, Windows 10 is nearly two months old to the world, and Insteon has yet to get around to releasing a Windows 10 Universal app. According to an anxious user over on Window Central, who sent Insteon an email, the company is hard at work on one. Unfortunately, the news ends there, as Inseton has no info on when Windows 10 users can expect an updated app to drop.

It’s still not clear from this reply if Insteon is developing a Windows 10 app or not, but hopefully they won’t let Microsoft down. The two companies have been in partnership over a year and with Google now owning home automation company: Nest, it would serve Microsoft well to keep Insteon as a valued partner. The home automation space is an obvious area where Microsoft and it’s devices such as Windows 10 Mobile or an Xbox One with Cortana, can shine.

Fhotoroom has just gotten an update that transforms it into a Windows 10 app. It still supports Windows 8, and will soon be updated to support Windows 10 Mobile via the universal platform.
The latest version includes several bug fixes, as well as a fix for issues with AMD processors. It also includes a new border blur feature.
Fhotoroom is an app that aspires to be “The Photography Experience Platform”, elevating photo editing and sharing to a whole new level. It espouses interactive, touch-driven photo editing with features including:

• Edit photos up to 41MP. Whip out that Lumia 1020!
• Full Exif and GPS data support.
• Support for a full roster of file types including  650 RAW*, JPG, JXR, WDP, PNG and TIFF.
• Standard editing features such as crop, curves, resize, rotate, color correction, exposure correct, and more.
• HDR filter
• Lens Correction, panorama rotate, tiny planet
• Masking tool

The app also features robust sharing features revolving around the fast growing Fhoto community. Users can follow, like, comment on, and share photos. Other app additions include,  joining challenges and contests, as well as discussing and sharing filter combinations and recipes to enhance your photo editing skills.
And of course, Fhotoroom lets you share on Facebook, VK, Flickr, and Twitter.

Download
QR-Code

Fhotoroom

Developer:
Supporting Computers Inc

Price:
Free

As WinBeta reported earlier today, Skype users experienced a momentary outage of Skype services. The Skype Heartbeat Blog announced that they deployed a fix for the Skype outage that many users experienced, noting that the Skype service disruption did not affect Skype for Business users:

“We have identified the network issue which prevented users from logging in and using Skype today. We’re in the process of reconnecting our users, and focused on restoring full service. The issue did not affect Skype for Business users.”

We're pleased to say we've found and are now rectifying the Skype problem you may have had today. For latest info: https://t.co/COwIPfl7s3

— Skype (@Skype) September 21, 2015

The Skype outage issues revolved around not being able to change your online status, video calls and messaging issues, and problems signing in to your Skype account. It looks like everything is back to normal as Skype services appear to quickly be coming back online. I barely noticed the outage; I only had problems with setting my online status and some problems signing into my Skype account, but it looks like the issue is fixed (for me at least).
 

Another Windows 10 news week has passed us. This week kicked off with a new Windows 10 build leaking onto the web. Build 10537, which is an unofficial Insider build, found its way onto public sharing sites at the beginning of the week. The build didn’t include much, but as per usual we went hands on with all the new changes.
Up next, Microsoft kicked off the Windows 10 for Xbox One preview for select Xbox Preview members. Invitations started going out earlier in the week, but the update only just started rolling out as of a few days ago. The new update includes a brand new user-interface and a whole bunch of performance enhancements which will make the Xbox One experience a lot better.
Microsoft also published a number of new app updates for the Mail and Calendar apps, improving their user-interfaces and overall experiences dramatically. The updated apps now include a new and improved dark mode, with the ability to have a wallpaper within the app, and new icons which make the taskbar a lot more detailed.
Furthermore, Microsoft released a new Windows 10 Insider build, build 10547. The new build is available now for fast ringed Insiders, and packs a number of new features such as the ability to have 4 columns on Start, disable the login wallpaper, and more. Make sure you check for updates via Windows Update as an insider if you’re yet to install the latest bits.
Microsoft’s October 6th event is almost upon us and we expect Microsoft to announce new devices. There will be a live stream of the private event, and oh, of course, we will be in attendance too! Stay tuned for another exciting week of Windows 10 news!
That’s all for this week. What was your favorite story? Let us know below.

The Skype Team has announced the availability of the Object RTC API preview on Microsoft Edge for the latest Windows 10 insider build. According to the Skype team, later this year when Object RTC is fully enabled in Edge, users will be able to make audio and video calls within the browser without the use of plugins. The Skype and Edge teams are also working on bringing this functionality to Skype for Business.
ObjectRTC (ORTC), as well as its sister API, Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC), are in-development web standard APIs that enable real time streaming of data between web browsers. This facilitates web apps such as voice calling, video conferencing, and general P2P data sharing directly within the browsers. These APIs are the last puzzle pieces needed to make apps like Skype for Web and Skype for Outlook.com fully functional within the browser.
With Adobe’s Flash browser plugin on its way out of mainstream browsing, the healthy development of ORTC and WebRTC brings us one step closer to the web ideal: a world wide web where content is powered without the use of proprietary and potentially unsecure plugins, entirely by open standard browser technologies. Although, interestingly enough, what constitutes a viable “open standard” is still a hotly contested arena.
Object RTC was developed by Microsoft in response to what the company saw as a flawed WebRTC standard. The WebRTC standard is backed most noticeably by Google and Mozilla, the developers of Edge/IE competitors Chrome and Firefox respectively. It should be mentioned that Google is also an active participant in ORTC development as well.
If web standards are supposed to eliminate unnecessary in-fighting and strengthen interoperability between browsers, doesn’t having two competing real-time data APIs go against this ideal? Not necessarily in this case, as the ORTC developers have promised that ORTC will be compatible with WebRTC. Currently, Edge will be the only browser support ORTC, whereas Chrome, Firefox, and Opera will support WebRTC. It should be noted that Apple is conspicuously absent from officially supporting either API.
For those interested in the more technical explanation of what the ORTC API encompasses, the vaunted Edge Team discusses it here.