Weekend Recap: Office 16 unveiled, Microsoft’s cloud briefing, Lumia 830 review, and much more

This week has been quite interesting in the world of Microsoft. We’ve covered a lot over the past week and chances are you most likely missed an important piece of news. Let’s take a look back at the past seven days in a feature we call “Weekend Recap.”

Earlier this week, we published our Lumia 830 hands-on review. There’s something different about the Nokia Lumia 830. It’s a mid-range device, but it feels like a flagship. Head over here to read why. We also pit the Lumia 830 against the Blu Win HD to see which device is the better mid-range smartphone. Speaking of the Lumia name, Microsoft recently confirmed that it will rebrand Nokia Lumia to Microsoft Lumia. Future devices will come with the new branding, but there’s no word on when we’re going to see it at the moment.

Microsoft is currently in the process of developing and testing its next version of Office, currently codenamed Office 16. This new version of Office is rumored to be the first iteration of the suite to include dedicated touch-first Modern UI apps. Microsoft has issued a private group of users an early build of Office 16, and we’ve managed to get our hands on with this pre-release build. You can check out our exclusive hands-on video of Office 16 here, including a showcase of the new black theme.

Microsoft held its Cloud Event on October 20th and our very own Dilraj Singh was in attendance. “Overall, I was impressed by the immense breadth of Microsoft’s cloud services; there really is something for every business, and I left believing their claim of the most ‘complete’ cloud,” Singh writes. You can read his entire recap of the event here.

You have probably heard of Ebola. It is a disease that is infectious through contact of body fluids and often fatal, with symptoms including fever and internal bleeding. This past week, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen committed $100 million in the fight against Ebola.

For those of you in the Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview program, Microsoft rolled out a mandatory update this past week. This update bumps the build number to 8.10.14192.280 and tests Microsoft’s ability to deliver critical updates to Windows Phone users.

Microsoft released its financial numbers for the first quarter in the 2015 fiscal year (FY15 Q1), which ended on September 30th, 2014. The numbers are quite impressive, and feature $23.2 billion in total revenue, and $14.93 billion in gross margin, $5.48 billion in operating income

It was confirmed earlier this week that Yahoo Mail app for Windows 8.1 was pulled from the Windows Store. “We can confirm that we recently ended support for the Yahoo Mail app for Windows 8 to better focus on our core offerings,” a Yahoo spokesperson told WinBeta.

Microsoft Garage launched a handful of free useful Windows 8.1 apps, including AutoTag ‘n Search My Photos, Student Planner, and Collaborate. Microsoft Garage also launched a cool new lockscreen app for Windows Phone 8.1.

On December 1st, Microsoft will be canceling their free Xbox Music streaming option that is currently available on the web, and Windows 8/8.1 devices. Microsoft is touting the Xbox Music Pass as your best bet for a fantastic music experience.

It appears Microsoft has quietly retired the Surface Pro 2 from their online store. Microsoft responded to WinBeta’s inquiry and the Redmond giant mentioned the tablet is out of stock at select retailers, and will not be replenished as the company is now focusing on selling the Surface Pro 3. 

Microsoft has added a new app launcher to easily switch between Outlook.com and its other online services. According to Microsoft, the new launcher “offers a single point of access to the personal services you use daily: Outlook.com, People, Calendar, OneDrive and Office Online”.

Following the launch of Bing Elections designed to aggregate the latest news on political perspectives, and offer you predictions on who could be the next state governor, Microsoft’s prediction engine now offers an interactive TV companion experience for people to voice their opinions with the new Bing Pulse.

Microsoft recently rolled out the October system update to the Xbox One, adding new Snap and Friends functions, TV and video improvements, and much more. The company is detailing the updates that are set to arrive in November, and those in the preview program can snag the update right now. In the November update, Microsoft is adding the ability to customize your Xbox One background and showcase, as well as share, some of your favorite achievements and game clips. 

That’s all for this edition of Weekend Recap. Stay tuned for another week of exciting news. Don’t forget that you can stay up to date with the latest Windows 10 news, features, and tutorials, by checking out our dedicated Windows 10 page.