Originally announced in September last year, Microsoft has today, acquired Nokia. The deal has reached its completion, and Nokia’s Devices and Services business now belongs to Microsoft.

Nokia and Microsoft share a long history, where the former is the leading partner of the latter’s mobile operating system, Windows Phone. “The opportunity for Microsoft to be both a devices and services company, so that it can deliver the complete proposition to its consumers, is at the heart of this,” Stephen Elop, former Nokia CEO and now executive vice president of the Devices Group at Microsoft, said recently.

“We have been going through and assessing who has the best tools…so we take the best of both worlds.”, said Tom Gibbons, who has spearheaded hardware for Microsoft, and now leads the integration work for Microsoft. “The real value from this integration is bringing two globally sized capabilities in organizations together under one roof, really intimately and much more efficiently.”

The completion of the deal also makes Microsoft a hardware technology giant. The companies believe that this convergence of two tech titans will help to speed up the execution work. “Nokia certainly has a tremendous depth of experience in the design, the manufacturing and delivery of devices,” Elop said. “Nokia over the years has literally delivered billions of devices. Just in the last year alone, some hundreds of millions.”

“Customers should see a bunch of great end-to-end experiences that really empower them to have very enjoyable, very comprehensive solutions to things that they want to get done, whether you’re talking about smartphones or feature phones. The feature phone product family coming to Microsoft will start to have more of the Microsoft services shipped on those phones right out of the gate.”

As we heard yesterday, Nokia’s Chennai-based factory hasn’t been a part of the acquisition deal. However, exclusion of one of Nokia’s biggest plants hasn’t revised the original terms of the deal. Nokia will be operating the plant on a contract to Microsoft.

As Nokia becomes part of Microsoft, “We have to not only evolve to fit into Microsoft in general, but into an evolving Microsoft,” he said. Employees of Nokia’s Devices and Services business are “very excited to be joining Microsoft,” Elop said. “And we look forward to bringing our skills and experiences to Microsoft to do our very best to light up the Microsoft experiences for people all over the world.”

As part of the deal, Stephen Elop, Jo Harlow, Juha Putkiranta, Timo Toikkanen, and Chris Weber will be joining Microsoft. Whereas, the company is expected to announce Rajeev Suri as its next CEO on Tuesday.

Bringing the latest Microsoft news to you is our passion, but we’d like to take a short time out of the busy day to say thanks to our readers. Thanks for helping us grow! We do appreciate our readers. We’re giving away a $25 Windows Store gift card, which you can use towards purchasing an app on Windows Phone or Windows 8.1, in appreciation of you.

First off, I’d like to highlight the top-five commenters on our site. StarEy3 is at the top with 1323 comments so far, while Aaditya Menon, Ray C, Sargon, and arrow2010 round out the top-five list. A special shout out goes to Abster for being our unofficial editor on the site – we appreciate you!

Secondly, we’re giving away a $25 Windows Store gift card to our readers as of right now. Post a comment below telling us why you like our site or what you want improved, and you will be automatically entered for a chance to win the gift card. We’ll randomly select a winner tomorrow evening, April 23rd.

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Thanks everyone! And we are excited for what the rest of 2014 has in store – especially Windows 8.1 Update 2! We know we are not perfect, but we strive to be the best and we are actively improving our site. Now back to the news..

If you haven’t bought a copy of Titanfall yet, Amazon has an offer which is really hard to resist. The incredibly popular game title, which usually sells at $59.99 is currently selling on Amazon for $36.99. Both Xbox One and PC platform are getting the discount.

“Prepare for Titanfall. Crafted by one of the co-creators of Call of Duty and other key developers behind the Call of Duty franchise, Titanfall is an all-new universe juxtaposing small vs. giant, natural vs. industrial and man vs. machine. The visionaries at Respawn have drawn inspiration from their proven experiences in first-person action and with Titanfall are focused on bringing something exciting the next generation of multiplayer gaming,” its description reads.

Launched in March this year on Xbox One and PC, Titanfall has already become the most successful game of 2014. It surpassed FIFA 2014, and has sold roughly twice as copies. Click on the Via link to get to the Amazon store. 

Those who know about gaming history  have likely heard the story of the Atari game E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Legend has it that the game was so bad that the company buried all copies in New Mexico in an effort to keep it from the public.

Now a crew is going in search of this — a bit like looking for Bigfoot — and Microsoft plans to be present for the event. In fact, it is even planning a documentary through Xbox Entertainment Studios.

To kick off this big event, a party is planned, and you’re invited. Larry Hryb, Xbox Live chief, announces “This weekend, you’re invited to join us in digging into the greatest mystery in videogame history: are there really millions of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Atari cartridges buried in the New Mexico desert?” Here are the details.

• What’s going on: Prep for  the big dig by playing classic Atari games, courtesy of Gamers Anonymous. Enjoy complementary food and soft drinks, and we’ll be raffling off prizes, including Xbox One games and an Xbox One system.
• Where: Gamestop 516 1st St, Alamogordo, NM 88310 (map)
• When: Friday, April 25 from 7:00pm – 9:00pm
• Please note, the event is free and open to the public.

As for the big dig, that will commence on Saturday morning beginning at 9:30 am, though you are recommended to be there by 8:30. Prizes will be given away to the first 250 people.

Not only did Microsoft roll out Windows 8.1 Update earlier this month, but the company also rolled out Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Update. This update is available to customers and partners via Windows Update, Microsoft OEM Online, and Volume Licensing Service Center.

Windows 8.1 Update brings along quite a lot of new improvements for non-touch users, but did you know that Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Update brings along some new improvements for retail, manufacturing, and health devices? Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Update enables sideloading, easier app development, low-cost hardware deployment, and much more.

Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry extends Windows 8.1 to a range of industry devices across retail, manufacturing, health and any other industries in which powerful line-of-business applications and the ability to perform a specialized function in a secure and reliable way is paramount.

Here are some of the key features of the update:

• Sideloading will be enabled on Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry – meaning the customers no longer need to purchase a sideloading key through VL
• Inter-process communication between a modern app and a desktop app will be enabled, allowing developers to take advantage of both the modern app model as well as the existing desktop app model
• Updated Embedded Lockdown Manager provides a more unified way to manage embedded lockdown features such as unified write filter and gesture filter
• User interface improvements to help naturally bridge touch and desktop, especially for keyboard and mouse users
• Enabling Windows on lower-cost hardware (for example: 1 GB RAM and 16 GB SSD), enabling a wider range of industry tablet devices

“For our customers, this update will help them stay current with modern technologies as well as continue to receive future updates, including security updates. For ISV partners, deploying modern apps on Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry will be more streamlined. And OEM partners will have the ability to enable Windows on lower-cost hardware; also note that OEMs will need to apply this update to continue getting future security updates,” Microsoft explained in an official blog post.

Microsoft is looking to revolutionize the classroom experience with a new service called Office Mix. While its not live yet and requires an invite to sign up, Office Mix a new service that turns PowerPoint presentations into interactive, online lessons that you can share with anyone. 

“MIX allows you to turn your PowerPoints into interactive online lessons or presentations. We install an add-in that gives you the ability to record audio, video, and handwriting, and insert interactive elements like quizzes and CK12 exercises. There’s even a screen capture tool so you can record anything on your PC,” the description reads. 

First spotted by @h0x0d, Office Mix sounds like an excellent tool for schools, allowing instructors to distribute presentations to all their students via the web. Instructors can check student progress online and see who actually watched the presentation. 

“Once your presentation is ready just click “Create MIX.” We work our magic to mix in xml for an interactive document complete with analytics, and place it in the cloud. From there, just share the link, and your students can watch it on just about any device with a web browser. You can then check student progress online and see who watched the presentation, and how they did on your quizzes.”

More on this as it develops. You can head over here to sign up to test the service when it becomes available.

While I love content management systems, I have little faith in any of them, and prefer to write my stories in Word. That isn’t a problem, as I work primarily from Windows 8.1 — both desktop and laptop. However, I sometimes wish to roam around my house, leaving the office for the living room or, as the weather grows warm once again, the porch. For those times, I find the HP Chromebook 11 to be invaluable — it’s light and easy to carry. It even works with a Bluetooth mouse, which is great, as I have an aversion to trackpads.

That presented a minor problem in the past, since it meant I’d have to move to Docs, which I don’t dislike, only find less familiar. That changed when Microsoft finally acknowledged that these notebooks may just be useful, and released its Office Online products as apps for them.

I immediately installed Word on mine, and found both good and bad aspects to it. Really, the bad consists of only one thing — there is no offline mode, which is something Google Docs offers, despite past Scroogled ads claiming otherwise.

Aside from that, I found a quick and responsive word processor that provides a much more familiar environment. Simply opening the app is a welcoming experience.

You have options to create a new document, open an existing one, or choose from an array of templates. Regardless of your choice, you’ll find a scaled-down version of what resides on your desktop, complete with the familiar ribbon interface.

This isn’t really any different from what you can get by visiting the site in the Chrome browser, so temper your hopes. But it does offer a glimmer of hope for the future. Maybe that much needed offline mode may even show up in the future. Perhaps, just maybe, Microsoft will begin working with Google on future innovation, as opposed to simply posting corny videos depicting its rival as the devil

Microsoft has apparently filed a trademark application for a new game called “Screamride.” Not much is known about Screamride, except that it will be an online computer game. Could it be for the PC, or the Xbox platform? Who knows! Microsoft won’t offer any details on it.

Microsoft routinely files for trademarks, so this name doesn’t necessarily mean that a game called Screamride is in development. The trademark application was filed on April 9th with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. “Microsoft often acquires various trademarks as part of its ongoing business strategy, but beyond that we have no comment,” the company stated in a statement.

E3 2014 is nearly upon us (it takes place June 10th), so perhaps we might learn more about Screamride then. What could Screamride be about?

During an event in San Francisco today, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the launch of SQL Server 2014, a public preview of the Microsoft Azure Intelligent Systems Service, and the general availability of the Analytics Platform System (APS). Microsoft stressed the importance of a data culture during the event, a culture that encourages curiosity, action, and experimentation.

“The era of ambient intelligence has begun, and we are delivering a platform that allows companies of any size to create a data culture and ensure insights reach every individual in every organization,” Nadella said during the event. Microsoft’s data platform includes new “Internet of Things” capabilities and provides the necessary building blocks to connect, refine, and analyze data. Here are the products announced during the event:

• Launch of SQL Server 2014. The latest version of the world’s most widely deployed database delivers real-time performance with built-in in-memory technology and public cloud scale and disaster recovery with Microsoft Azure.
• Limited public preview of the Microsoft Azure Intelligent Systems Service. This new Azure service helps customers embrace the Internet of Things and securely connect to, manage and capture machine-generated data from sensors and devices, regardless of operating system.
• General availability of the Analytics Platform System (APS). APS combines the best of Microsoft’s SQL Server database and Hadoop technology in one low-cost offering that delivers “big data in a box.”

SQL Server 2014 brings in-memory capabilities across all data workloads, offering breakthrough performance for applications in throughput and latency. In-memory technology allows for the manipulation of millions of records at the speed of thought, as well as the ability to scale analytics solutions to billions of records in SQL Server Analysis Services.

You can check out a list of the new features in SQL Server 2014 here.

Microsoft looks set to dominate the tablet office suite market now that Office 365 Personal is available for less than $7 per month. The new name and pricing structure means that there is one less obstacle standing in the way of anyone who is thinking about trying out Microsoft’s office suite. At this price there is simply no excuse not to try it out for a bit!

But this is, of course, much more than a tablet-based office suite. For their money, user are essentially provided with two licenses meaning that the suite can be used on a tablet as well as on a PC. Two copies of Office for $6.99 a month — it’s very difficult to argue with that.

This is a great example of Microsoft reacting to the way people now work — albeit a little late in the game. For too long now, Office has been a behemoth tied to the desktop, and this allowed something of an Office alternatives market to build up for tablet users looking to edit files on the move. Now, at long last, the company has answered the prayers that Office users have been making for years.

For the price of a glass of wine, your Mac or PC can be furnished with a copy of Office, and so can your favorite tablet — be it powered by Android, iOS or Windows. Microsoft may be entering the iPad app game quite late on, but it is going in with gun blazing, making up for lost time.

The new Personal packages are a perfect solution to the low-cost solutions people are now looking for. A plethora of app store has made people get used to the idea of cheap or free apps, and it makes sense that Microsoft would react in this way. For anyone yet to try Office, there has never been a better time to do so. This is not a case of try-before-you-buy, but try-as-you-buy. Don’t like it? Stop using it and stop paying. But the chances are that you will love it.

Anyone who has been an Office users for a number of years but has resisted moving to Office 365 will quickly realize that this is a case of buy one, get one free — a deal that makes sense in anyone’s book.

Office is already a force to be reckoned with, but the new low pricing structure means that usage figure are likely to go up even further. It will also be extremely interesting to see just how many tablet users pop up over the coming weeks, months and years, taking advantage of what essentially amounts to a free copy of Office. 

You can now purchase an Office 365 Personal subscription, which will run you $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year. This subscription allows for one PC or Mac, and one tablet (including iPad) to be connected to the service, and is the best option for individuals interested in using Office 365. 

“On March 13, we revealed that a new consumer subscription offering, Office 365 Personal, would be coming this spring. Today we’re announcing that it’s available for purchase – $69.99 USD/year or $6.99 USD/month (ERP)1 – online at Office365.com, at Microsoft Stores and through online and retail partners,” Microsoft stated in an official blog post.

If you are looking to utilize Word, PowerPoint, and Excel on the iPad, then this subscription is perfect for you. You can also purchase an Office 365 Home subscription, which runs for a few dollars more, but allows you to run it on up to 5 computers and tablets – perfect for families. Head over to Office365.com to check out the subscription.

One of India’s largest state-owned banks, Canara Bank, has completely migrated from Windows XP. In the process, the bank upgraded around 33,000 PCs from the 12-year old and now retired operating system to a more modern versions of Windows Operating System.

Last week, on April 8th, the more than a decade old desktop operating system, Windows XP, reached its end of support. Which in simple language means that Microsoft won’t provide any further support to Windows XP (unless the organization pays), leaving its users on their own.

Besides security concerns, Canara Bank says that hardware compatibility was a big factor behind this upgrade. The bank states that the unavailability of driver modules for various new hardware such as printers, scanners, and biometric machines was one of the primary reasons behind this decision.

“We want to ensure smooth and streamlined customer experience without any stoppage in day-to-day banking operations. In addition, by migrating our entire base of around 33,000 PCs to modern Windows, we have overcome potential challenges of compatibility with modern hardware, software and applications. The upgrade will also allow our employees for transition to modern applications leveraging latest work processes and mobility,” said RK Dubey, Chairman at Canara Bank.

According to earlier estimations, until a few months ago, there were over 35 percent of the systems running Windows XP. Realizing the vulnerability and consequences it could have, RBI, nation’s central banking institution, and Indian Banks Association issued several security advisories.

“Running unsupported technology especially in the BFSI sector carries [a] huge risk. Canara Bank is amongst the progressive PSU banks in India that have taken the decision to move off Windows XP. They understand how debilitating and damaging the security breaches can be after support ends. We urge all businesses to complete their migration immediately, if they haven’t already,” said Karan Bajwa, Managing Director, Microsoft India.

By switching to a modern operating system, the banks and other institutions will get better security, reliability and tools that favor productivity. In the past few weeks, we have seen many such institutions making the switch. However, there are still plenty of banks and ATMs that are running Windows XP.

Azure Websites is now available in four different Asian regions – East Asia, Japan West, Japan East and Southeast Asia – Microsoft revealed in an official blog post. Azure customers will now have the option to create their websites in the new region.

“Since reaching General Availability last year, Azure Web Sites has been expanding to additional regions. It is our pleasure to announce the general availability of Southeast Asia Region for Azure Web Sites,” Microsoft stated in an official blog post.

Windows Azure (now known as Microsoft Azure), for those that did not know, is Microsoft’s cloud platform that enables you to quickly build, deploy and manage applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. You can build your applications using any language, tool or framework and integrate them with your existing IT environment.

According to documents seen by The Des Moines Register, a new data center in Iowa, known as “Project Alluvion”, could be something to do with Microsoft. After making a public records request, the Register was provided with files that detailed correspondence between employees in Microsoft’s cloud storage and data center services.

As is the case with many other companies, security means the Microsoft usually likes to keep the locations of its data centers secret. Undetailed information in the document obtained by the site suggests that Microsoft may also be looking for a new site in West Des Moines, but the company understandably refused to comment on this.

Similarly, city officials remained tight-lipped about whether “Project Alluvion” was in any way connected with Microsoft, but the involvement of two known Microsoft employees makes it highly likely that The Des Moines Register’s suspicions are correct.

Microsoft has previously revealed that it has data centers in Redmond and Quincy, Wash.; San Antonio, Texas; Chicago; Boydton, Va.; Cheyenne, Wyo.; and West Des Moines, as well as sharing that they are used for, among other things, cloud data services like Azure, Xbox Live and Skype.

April 8th marked the day Microsoft stopped providing support for Windows XP, a popular operating system from the Redmond giant which made its debut back in 2001. It turns out that the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), usually the people who take your money, are now paying Microsoft millions of dollars for an extra year of security patches – they missed the April 8th end of support deadline.

The IRS apparently has approximately 110,000 Windows powered computers, and only 47% of those computers have been upgraded to Windows 7. The rest of the devices still run Windows XP. Unfortunately, due to the budget, the migration was unfinished. John Koskinen, IRS commissioner, defended the unfinished migration, stating that the IRS had $300 million worth of IT improvements on hold because of budget issues – including the Windows XP to Windows 7 migration.

“Windows XP will no longer be serviced, so we are very concerned if we don’t complete that work we’re going to have an unstable environment in terms of security,” Koskinen said, stressing that the migration is necessary and shall continue. The IRS will muster up $30 million out of its enforcement budget to finish the migration, paying Microsoft $11.6 million for “Custom Support” for critical security patches. The IRS will also spend $18.4 million to purchase new PCs to replace the older computers running Windows XP.

The IRS hopes to complete this migration by the end of the year. Don’t worry, according to the IRS, your tax filings are not handled by Windows XP systems. “None of our filing season systems or other major business operating systems for taxpayers use Windows XP,” an IRS spokesperson said Friday. “The IRS emphasizes the situation involving Windows will have no impact on taxpayers, including people filing their tax returns in advance of the April 15 deadline.”

Microsoft researchers in Asia are apparently experimenting with interactive Live Tiles in Windows, according to research videos which were uploaded (and subsequently removed) by Microsoft. Is this a sign of things to come with Windows 9? 

“This project features an Interactive-Tile UI system that enables users to access and manipulate Live Tiles in an interactive way with touch gestures. Interactive Tile’s UI is responsive and flexible to an app’s content and function. Users can provide quick input to the Interactive Tile on the Start screen. With a perception of Start as an entrance page, Interactive Tiles were introduced to empower the start screen with an intermediate access level to applications,” the project description reads.

In the demonstration, which we have embedded below for your viewing pleasure, Human-Computer Interaction Group researcher Jiawei Gu shows off the Interactive Live Tiles research project and how you can drill down a Live Tile to get more information on the app.

The idea is to allow for “parallel tasking.” For example, the Interactive Desktop Tile lets you interact or even open apps from the tile! As ZDNet points out, this can “help Windows 8 users who find moving between the Desktop and Metro-Style environments less than smooth and intuitive.”

Of course, this is just a research concept and there is no guarantee that this feature will ever make it to a future version of Windows. Microsoft has apparently pulled the demonstration videos as well, but thankfully the internet was able to snag them before they disappeared. Hey Microsoft, were we not supposed to see this just yet? 

You can take a look at the Interactive Tiles below. Do you find this useful?

Thanks for the tip, @Steveo!

Patents today seem to have a bad name, mostly due to some companies giving the entire system a black eye and launching the term “patent troll” into the technology lexicon. Regardless of personal views on this, Microsoft, along with Sony, have invested in Intellectual Ventures.

The report from Reuters tells us that both Apple and Intel declined investment in the venture. However, both companies have previously invested in the patent firm. The pass during this round of fundraising is considered significant, as past investments suggested support that now is perhaps lacking.

None of the companies involved, including IV itself, would comment on this. This all comes on the heels of possible patent reform on the horizon. It’s a thin line to walk, as patents offer insurance for the cost of innovation, but have also served as a beacon for the problems in today’s market, as shadow companies randomly buy up the rights to these patents and sue smaller companies over similar innovations.

According to Reuters, “The investment decisions by four iconic technology companies comes in the midst of a heated debate over whether it is too easy for patent owners to extract large royalty payments, and whether patent buying firms spur or stifle innovation”.

Should companies like Microsoft invest in such ventures? It’s certainly a hot topic in today’s technology world, which is filled with news of lawsuits, notably Apple and Samsung’s high-profile court battles.

Microsoft Ventures today announced the launch of a new initiative in India called ‘JumpStart’. It is a toll free helpline which will provide startups and entrepreneurs with resources to ask business and technical questions. The service will be open during business hours from Monday-Friday between 9AM to 5PM IST.

Microsoft Ventures is the global technology giant’s initiative designed to attract and nurture top entrepreneurs through its fund, accelerators, and community programs. “Microsoft Ventures supports startups at every stage of maturity by providing them with the tools, resources and expertise they need to succeed,” said Joseph Landes, General Manager, Developer & Platform Evangelism, Microsoft India.

“Our experience has shown that a major pain point for startups across the ecosystem in India, irrespective of their stage of maturity, is the lack of real-time support for various critical queries they face. JumpStart fills a major gap and ensures that startups get professional advice that enables them to make smart business decisions,” he continued.

Microsoft Ventures has tied up with thousands of lawyers, tax and human resources service providers, and chartered accountants to help startups and entrepreneurs find solutions to queries. These queries will be answered by professionals who have been trained by Microsoft. As of now, there is just one call center in Delhi to handle the queries. The company says it will soon extend it to satisfy the needs. It anticipates about 500 to 1,000 calls per week.

The initiative has received overwhelming response by the government and industry leaders throughout the nation. Microsoft held a launch event this morning at Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in Bangalore, India. “So many great ideas are born every day. While some are nurtured by the industry, many face a short lifespan because they go unnoticed and end up making wrong decisions due to lack of proper guidance or information. By availing this critical support through JumpStart, startups will have the opportunity to be heard and have access to informed decision-making support, a critical component in their journey. We are delighted that this service will also be available shortly through the Karnataka MobileOne Platform, our new mobile governance system,” said Srivatsa Krishna, Secretary, IT, Biotechnology, Science & Technology and Secretary E-Governance, Karnataka.

The service is currently available in English and Hindi, but the company may add more languages depending on demand going forward.

Microsoft will continue to offer tech support for Windows XP users in China. The software giant has partnered with Lenovo Group Ltd and Tencent Holding Ltd to provide security services to the 13-year old, and now retired, operating system.

After 13 years of service, Windows XP finally reached its end of support earlier this week. The operating system is used by over 27 percent of users across the globe. In China, around 200 million, or 70 percent, still use Windows XP, according to data from Zhongguancun Online.

One reason people are not upgrading is the expense. While $140 for Windows 8 doesn’t seem huge, for some, such as students, it may be out of reach. Plus, there may be added expense if the existing hardware can’t handle the new operating system.

Microsoft has shook hands with Lenovo Group Ltd and Tencent Holding Ltd to continue providing support to XP users. “For domestic users who continue to use Windows XP before upgrading to a new operating system, we have made it a priority to provide safety protections,” Microsoft told Reuters. The support will include services such as information protection, post-virus repairs and upgrades to the newer Windows 7 or 8.

Similarly, Tencent has promised that it will keep two 24-hour hotlines running to help out Windows XP users. Besides these giants, another firm, Qihoo, also promised that it will support Windows XP users. “Qihoo 360 will continue to provide Windows XP support to Chinese users as long as there are still XP users in China,” Alex Xu, Qihoo 360 co-chief financial officer, told Reuters.

Editors note: Story has been edited to reflect that security services, not security updates, will be provided in China. Thanks to our reader Abster for pointing this out!