Microsoft's support-stoppage mandate- Ready to discard IE old versions?

According to the mandate passed by Microsoft, around 70% of the IE users currently relying on the older version either have to upgrade to the new IE version or switch to another browser. The time limit set is 16 months. According to the Microsoft, their borrowers will be stopping the support function during the early part of 2016 hence it recommended for the current old version users to upgrade. But looks like the IE users are in no mood to let go their older versions.

Microsoft’s announcement can as surprise on 7th August wherein they stated that post January 2016, they will support IE.9 on Windows Vista, Windows server 2012 will need to have IE.10 and Windows 7 and 8.1 will need to have the IE.11 version. It was informed that IE 7 and IE.8 support will be completely dropped off and some other versions on specific editions like IE.10 on windows 7.

Even though the browser will continue to function; but there will not be any technical support provided by Microsoft and no security updates will be sent to the users after the versions will be banned.

It has been recommended that it will risky for a user to still rely on unsupported versions as Microsoft will no longer will be patching any bugs in the banned versions. Microsoft has always been constantly working on fixing bugs in the current versions. Microsoft has urged to their 2/3 of the old versions users to ditch the versions and upgrade to a supported version by the end of 2015.

IE.9 is the newest version able to run on windows vista and has been able to gain a stable ground. Vista which powers around only 3% of the windows computers and runs mainly on Windows 7 needs to be discarded by the users by Jan 2016.

Microsoft has announced that IE.8 will have more issues. The basic default explorer in many standard Windows XP computers has been adopted by many companies for being user friendly and has also been implemented on certain windows 7 by many businesses. IE.8 last month accounted for about 21.4 percent of all the browsers and 36.6% of different versions of IE. IE currently has 58.8% browser space share when compared to all the browsers available.

IE.6 and IE.7 was supported last month but IE.6 is still available on Windows server 2003 as it no longer supports windows XP. IE 6 is scheduled for being unsupported/retirement in July, 2015. IE 10 has barely shown improvement in terms of usage, it accounted at 6.2% among all the browsers and 10.6% among all copies of Internet explorer. IE.11 was able to show some improvement as it was averaging at 17.6% among other browsers and 30 percent of all copies.

With the above browser space %, IE 8 and IE 9 might have to be suppressed in order to increase the percentage share. The numbers are quite daunting for Microsoft has forced them to urge the users of old version to move to new upgraded versions.

Microsoft Distributed First Prerelease Versions of Windows 9

Microsoft will announce the new Operating System code named “Threshold” on a special press conference on 30th September according to the sources. But the close partners of the company already received the preliminary version of the OS and it is well protected against leaks and the preliminary version is yet to have more features according to the sources.

Until now Microsoft never communicated the official name for OS Threshold but the terminology Windows 9 seems more logical and it was accidently disclosed by the Microsoft’s counterpart in China. Windows 9 will have the start menu again which was originally indented to return with the update of the previous version; hence the user may expect substantial changes in the OS.

According to the experts; the tool bar or the Charms bar may vanish and the features of the menu will be built directly into the windows application of Modern UI interface. Another novelty expected is the introduction of virtual desktops that allow users to run their applications in different areas while maintaining a unified view. Windows 9; The Microsoft’s next generation of Windows is on a strict separation of modern user interface (UI Modern) and classic desktop interface hence the PC users who feared for windows 9 with tile screen may breathe freely.

The desktop and Note book users who operate mostly with Mouse and Key board will be more benefited and they can operate freely without tiles and where as the Tablet users has to satisfy with the Modern UI interface. According to Neowin, the developers have the updated the feature of Windows 9 and vigorously revised so that the existing Windows can be upgrade to a new version with only one button click is possible.

What features going to happen into the account of the update is unclear. It is conceivable that Microsoft so retrofit the language assistant Cortana. Apparently, Microsoft is currently testing a pre-release version, in which the voice assistant Cortana is integrated, according to Neowin. Cortana is Microsoft's answer to the voice controls which is the competition to Google Now and Siri from Apple.

However, Cortana is probably not an integral part of Windows 9, but an additional application. According to Neowin, the trial version is named "Windows Technical Preview for Enterprise". The final version of the much spoken OS under the code name "Threshold" Windows 9 will follow in early 2015. According to insiders Windows-7 and -8 users will get the free switch over to the new system.


Accordingly, it is expected that Windows 9 under the hood again brings more changes, which unifies the use of the operating system on different device classes. Windows 9 is going to be activated via the Internet and then on the one hand to the Microsoft account of the user and on the other hand bound to the PC.

The coupling with the PC can be overridden, so you can move the system to other computers also. As part of the reports to the Windows 8 successor even see some information appeared to Windows 10. As the successor to Microsoft Windows 9 plane, therefore the first operating system that runs entirely in the cloud. Instead, the operating system to be installed on the local hard disk, the user then grab on "to be" system from any computer with an Internet connection to. As the earliest release date applies 2017.

Microsoft Research Invented Video Game Time Travel to Repair Cloud Gaming

In spite of huge efforts from companies like OnLive and Nvidia, the cloud based gaming still seems to be difficult dream to be fulfilled. Even though there are latency issues, remote server based games are now making more sense at a time when low power Smartphone’s and tablets are continuing to grow. Microsoft’s research team seems to have got solution in video game time travel. They are calling it DoLorean.

Existing cloud gaming platforms might have to strike a balance between value and latency. Based on the user input and the data transfer over internet before you can get the end result seem to be causing quite a long delay. This is basis for the frame to get rendered. To keep the round trip time (RTT) sensible, Cloud gaming will have to rely on rough compression and low resolutions. DoLorean has been developed keeping all these factors on mind.

How DoLorean works? 

It actually performs four tasks which have been developed to improve response and lower the RTT. The tasks are

1. Future input prediction

2. State space sub sampling

3. Mis-prediction compensation, and

4. Bandwidth compression


These tasks will improve and eliminate the lag upto 250ms and it will be cloud based game accessible even on mobile connections example being Doom 3 and Fable 3. Let’s say if a person is playing a cloud based shooter game, before anything can be done, DoLorean based server will be able to initiate three of the slaves in one instance. These are used for rendering frames as you progress in the game. These are all saved in the main server and it will send the correct frame whenever there is an input sent from the player’s end. Depending on the past behaviors, algorithm method has been used to make this as accurate as possible. The space sub sampling along with GPU computation play a significant part.

What to expect? 

If only few known instances of the cloud game, DoLorean seem to unable to deliver all likely future. Mis-prediction compensation comes into existence if the prediction of the future is no correct but it is close to the correct answer. DoLorean can use the interpolation to match the output with the rendered frame. This is very fast when compared to rendering on frame from initial point. It can also opt to compression of bandwidth to maintain a lower latency. According to Microsoft, video encoding system can get this job done even with fewer artifacts. 

Very high end software was being used by Microsoft to get the DoLorean running. This server comprises of quad-core Intel Core-i7, RAM of 16GB and Nvidia GTX680 along with VRAM of 4GB. In order to get the game running on DoLorean, the server was manually configured to artificially develop delays; a slight change might be required though. But still the future of gaming might be lying on this at the moment.

Microsoft and Amazon Rides Together to Ensure A Strong Market Response for Xbox One

In the world of online shopping, amazon.com has been one of the biggest names worldwide. Microsoft, a company whose name is enough to reflect its glory, has set its feet in the field of online retail with a mutual understanding with Amazon. Microsoft has set this bond with Amazon to retail their gaming console which is a patent production from their house. The X-box gaming console can be bought by interested customers only through the internet, and exclusively from Amazon.

For the Xbox one, which has been a revolution in the field of Video gaming on television, Amazon has opened its pre-booking.Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business or the IEB is the division that is responsible for designing and manufacturing the Xbox gaming consoles. These are highly in demand in the market as it is considered to be one of the best gaming devices with its utter perfection in performance. Amazon will make it open for sale on the 1st of September this year.

How this kid of mutuality balances both ends of business. 

Indian e-commerce giant, Flipkart has taken up this business strategy to act as the sole retail partner. They joined hands with cell phone manufacturers like Motorola and Xiaomito retail their handsets in India. These companies will not have them retailed in shops but only through online shopping with the help of Flipkart. This kind of exclusive retailing helps maintain the company’s brand image while securing the profit margin.

They have made it a point to let Amazon handle the entire responsibility of marketing and selling their various Xbox products. Xbox is actually a series of gaming devices and it consists of the Xbox one, the Xbox 360 and the consoles or the game pads that brings a feel into the gamers. Microsoft’s publication of Xbox changes the entire scenario of gaming, and did not take long to build a fan base of its own.

The brand image of Xbox and its sale through Amazon. 

Microsoft has designed the gaming DVDs which are only meant for the Xbox devices only, they have a huge array of games and all of these will be available only on Amazon. If you are interested to buy an Xbox game, you have to get it from Amazon only as it is the only source of buying them. The various Xbox accessories including its stand and wireless gaming consoles will be available through Amazon.
Offers to attract pre-booking and its price in this online forum.

In India, Amazon will launch the Xbox one for sale this September 23rd, 2014; that is a few days after the products will be online. If you are looking for the Xbox one without a Kinect, you should be ready for a pocket pinch of Rs. 39,990 and if you can extend you r budget with another Rs 6000, you can have it with the Kinect. An amazing deal offered by Amazon and Microsoft will pull a huge list of pre-booking, as they offer a free Fifa 15 game for pre-bookers.

What Breed does that Dog Belong to? – Let Microsoft Answer that!

Microsoft’s research division is very proactive and always making headways into cutting-edge research and pushing the boundaries of software and hardware. One such innovation is Microsoft’s project Adam – an advanced AI with a manifold performance increment over its predecessors and its competitors along with advanced object recognition technology it incorporates.

Project Adam

At Microsoft’s 5th Research Faculty Summit keynote, Harry Shum, executive vice president of Technology and Research, demonstrated the power of the AI along with its various capabilities. Its primary goal was to recognize any object given to it. It was achieved by culling a massive 14 million image database from Flickr made up of 22k different user-generated tag categories. Using 30 times fewer machines than average, it was used to train Adam – a 2 billion connection neural network and it produces results 50 times faster than the competition.

Adam’s Capabilities

As actions speak louder than words, so a prompt demonstration was given and dogs definitely steal the show. In main aim was to recognize the dog’s breed. In order to make it more interactive it was integrated with Cortana, Microsoft’s very own personal assistant for their windows phone 8.1 lineups. Project Adam researcher Johnson Apacible pointed the phone’s camera at a Dalmatian named Cowboy and it was quick to identify the breed. He then showed a Rhodesian Ridgeback and it was spot-on to identify it too. A Cobberdog lead to some confusion as people said it was Labradoodle whereas Cortana said terrier but both were right. Just for some fun, he then pointed at Shum and Cortana was quick to reply with a negative.

The Possibilities

At the end, Shum quoted that there was a paradigm shift from personal computing to a future where user is the centre and hence it’s not about computing power or storage but people’s time and attention. One day Project Adam might make it possible for people to snap pictures of their skin or infection, identify the cause, and take appropriate medication based on the suggestions. It can also identify the calories contained in a meal by pointing it at the food. Another scenario would be when you are in woods; you would like to differentiate between poisonous and edible plants where it can help too.

Competition

However, as always the case, Microsoft is not alone in this race. In January, Google outbid Facebook to buy “DeepMind” – a London based AI Lab for 400 million. Further Google launched Quantum Artificial Intelligence lab to further study how quantum computing can lead to advances in artificial intelligence. HartmutNeven, Director of engineering for Research team at Google, was quoted saying that machine learning will gain utmost importance in near future with more accurate predictions and better models, which will also help them to produce a more useful search engine.

The Future 

In future, we might see Microsoft integrating it with smartphones and Cortana for a richer user experience and make them stand apart from the competition where product differentiation is becoming increasingly difficult.

Microsoft Seeks Office Beta Testers for Android

Microsoft invites beta testers to participate in the Office beta test. Yes, Microsoft sent out invitations to test the private beta for Android.

There was a speculation about this for some time back. In early April, Microsoft released the Office app for the iPad. Soon Microsoft wishes for the version of Office could come for Android Tablets for which Microsoft currently looking for beta testers.

This version of Office seems to offer more features than the iPad edition, which is actually quite logical if Microsoft wants to maintain its value on Windows ecosystem. The evidence specifically designed for Android Tablets Office version condenses. The Verge already reported that Microsoft will soon make a non-public beta test of the new Office start version for Android-based tablets and it is currently looking for suitable testers.

Applicants should be in the so-called "Pre-Release Programs" for both businesses and individuals. The new logon page itself does not reveal to which Office products it goes, but speaks only generally of pre-release versions of the entire Office product in range.

It is also not revealed that when the beta test is to be going to start. The individual Office programs are designed to provide the same touch interface, in principle, according to The Verge, as is known from the iPad version, published in April. Applications are going to be selected for testers are for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint one by one in order.

Word is going to be published in the specially designed version for Android tablets, as speculated for some time already, even before the introduction of Office for Windows Touch in early 2015. The Microsoft expert Mary Jo Foley firmly believes that Office for Android is on its way; after the huge success of the iPad app. Microsoft already known that the app has been dubbed over 27 million times on the iPad.

Canon And Microsoft Signed A Cross-Licensing Agreement

Most of the time the companies are suing each other for patent rights and for a change they now Microsoft and Canon have signed a cross-licensing agreement intended to cover a wide range of products and services, including digital imaging and consumer mobile products public.

Microsoft and Canon formalized yesterday a cross-licensing agreement that involves a number of patents held by the two companies. Microsoft and Canon has announced that they are going to share with each others with broad user rights to help in patents.

But no details have been revealed. But we can guess that this agreement covers a wide range of products and services by both companies in the field of digital imaging and the mobile products.

Nick Psyhogeos the leading Microsoft’s patent Attorney told that Microsoft is hoping that the agreements like this will raise the innovation and where it will reduces the patent litigations. And the both companies have granted access to each other in the past to access to the technology.

Hideki Sanatake head of the Canon patent rights also welcomed this type of agreements and assured that the decision will heads up to the advanced collaboration that represents the evolution of business relationships firmly. In 2009, Canon entered a similar agreement for the exFAT file format.

Everyone can guess that these agreements will help Microsoft to use Canon Photo patents in Nokia Smartphones in near future.

Microsoft Runs out of IPv4 Addresses

Due to the shortage of IPv4 addresses in the United States, Microsoft had to assign customers to Azure VM to U.S. IP from other regions, which may create problems for location services running on these virtual servers.

 The shortage of IPv4 addresses is not new and it is long standing issue. Nevertheless, the effects of the depletion of the stock of addresses have been delayed. They are nevertheless increasingly visible as have seen users of cloud service Microsoft Azure.

Some customers have deployed Azure platform virtual machines in the United States have noted, by opening a Web page in a browser, they were redirected, for example, to the Brazilian version of Yahoo. The reason is simple, says Microsoft on their blog, that all blocks of IPv4 addresses in the United States have been assigned.

Azure, the publisher had to obtain IPv4 addresses of other regions, including Southern America. As a result, Web services hosted on Azure can be detected as not being located in the United States, even if virtual machines are, they are hosted in a datacenter located in U.S..

 For Microsoft and other cloud players, this will be repeated more often. LACNIC, the body responsible for the management of IP addresses for the Latin America and Caribbean region, said this week no longer have IPv4 address blocks available.

Microsoft Brings Its Windows Tiles on The Car Dashboard

The Microsoft wants to more present in the infotainment system on the dashboard, one of the team members of the company said in the Build 2014 Developer Conference. Tiles of Windows phones could soon show on the big screen of the car if Microsoft manages to enforce their “Windows in the Car" concept. The Smartphone content will be mirrored and adapted so that the driver can control music, navigation and many vehicle functions.

Apple had presented with Carplay already in March 2014 with such a system. Microsoft does not want that car concept since Microsoft is already there since 2006 Fiat, Ford and Nissan have been using the new Windows Embedded Automotive and other manufacturers such as BMW use the former as Windows Automotive or Windows Auto -known system of the CE product family. Apple had already demonstrated with Carplay at the Geneva Motor Show, as the integration of Smartphones is possible in the car dashboard, without losing the look and feel of iOS.

They the Microsoft, now wants to emulate and represent information of Smartphones with Windows Phone on the car display. For this, the optics must be adjusted so that the driver is not distracted. Want to play besides the typical entertainment features like music and phone calls accepted, read text messages and the navigation function can be used. Also, all apps can be displayed on the screen, albeit in an adapted form. App developers should be given the opportunity to change depending on the condition of the vehicle complexity.

Driving the car, for example, the interface can be simplified. The user can access the home screen to set the tiles of his apps that he often needs to find them again fast. Also, notifications can be faded in the display to alert the driver, for example, in front of schools on his way or to show the maximum allowed speed. According to media reports, Microsoft Mirror link uses for communication between the Smartphone and the car. The industry standard Mirror Link was developed by the Car Connectivity Consortium, will allow users to connect mobile devices to the vehicle electronics it.

Scrolling and swiping on the big screen are thus transferred to the Smartphone. The control of music playback on the big screen may be on the steering wheel. Toyota already demonstrated in the end of 2011 how this works in the car.

Apple does not support Mirror Link, but numerous car manufacturers such as VW, Citroen, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and provider of car radios like Alpine, Panasonic and Sony. On Smartphones support is still quite manageable. This Mirror Link can be offered to Nokia's Symbian Belle devices and the Sony Xperia Z too.

Microsoft Brings Office Suite to Apple’s iPad For Free

Microsoft has just announced the introduction of a new version of its Office package Office for the iPad and other mobile devices. At the same time, the software giant gave an overview of his plans for the “Microsoft Mobile Cloud" too. Office for iPad in the App Store of Apple's iOS will be available now. First, the applications Word, Excel and PowerPoint for the mobile operating system of Microsoft's competitors are released and available now.

Office and Microsoft Excel on the iPad are come with a special numeric keyboard; Microsoft has developed a special surface for Office on the iPad. This combines the design of Apple's operating system with Microsoft's design language and offers other things, from the desktop version Ribbon interface, where various adjustments can be made to the touch controls on the tablet. Among other things, there are special onscreen keyboards for entering data and various editing functions with regard to the touch surface.

In this way, text files, spreadsheets and presentations are supposed to be created in the future on an iPad easily. Microsoft has integrated a function for parallel editing content. In this way, multiple users can work simultaneously on the same document. Files are stored in Microsoft's cloud so that when a connection is lost nothing is lost everything will be intact and you can get the last saved data from the cloud. For basic functionality, of course, also include the various formatting functions with which data, texts and presentations can be prepared.

The real data are used as the basis for preview graphics. PowerPoint also offers the option to use the fingers of the user as a kind of laser pointer, if you want to give the presentation to an audience, making use of the iPad. Microsoft relies on a “freemium" business model, in which the iPad version of Office is available on the App Store for free. However, you can watch with this version only documents and presentations. Who also want to edit the Office documents, an office must complete 365 subscriptions.

For all customers who have already subscribed to Office 365, the iPad app is available as a free supplement to the existing range available. Who wants to try Office for the iPad, you can start a 30 - day trial and should therefore be able to get free Office on your new Apple tablet. In future, the software company plans to market the touch version of Office for Windows and other popular operating systems. From this it is very clear that the software will be available for Android soon.

Microsoft makes source code of MS-DOS for public free access

The source code of the operating systems MS- DOS 1:25 and 2.0 and the word processor Word for Windows 1.1a can be viewed or downloaded from the website of the Computer History Museum. Microsoft handed over the source code for the benefit of future generation. With the handover of the source code if future generations can study the roots of the personal computing, Microsoft justifies his action.

The Museum in Mountain View, California, was previously also passed Apple's first DOS as well as the source of Adobe Photoshop 1.0. Microsoft's MS -DOS was commissioned by IBM. The future Windows manufacturer licensed the base of the operating system from Seattle Computer Products and developed it according to the wishes of the PC manufacturer IBM.

There it was delivered under the name PC -DOS on PCs. Other producers have launched the operating system under the name MS -DOS on their own computer. The entire assembler source code of PC-DOS 1.1 or MS- DOS includes only 1:25 300 Kbytes and 12 Kbytes needed in memory. PC-DOS 1.1 was released in May 1982, the appropriate version of MS- DOS 1:25 first appeared and in August of that same year it appeared on the double-sided diskette with 360 Kbytes.

MS- DOS 2.0 was released in March 1983, after Microsoft had largely developed the operating system. The device drivers were loaded individually, and save files in the newly created subdirectories. In addition, MS -DOS 2.0 supported 10 MB of hard drives stuffed in the PC - XT computer from IBM.

Word for Windows 1.1a was almost simultaneously published in November 1989 with Windows 2:11. It was next to Microsoft Excel and PageMaker, Adobe is one of the first applications for the fledgling operating system with graphical user interface. Meanwhile, the server of the Computer History Museum can be reached again and the source code can be downloaded. He is under a special license that allows you to compile and modify for a non commercial use.

Microsoft DirectX 12 Will Be Released in 2015

The next version of DirectX and Direct3D will appears at the end of 2015, Microsoft said. The new version of the hardware interface will be closer and with better support, among other multi-core systems. As Expected first games appear end of 2015, based on the upcoming Direct3D 12 interface.

The Microsoft gave it known at GDC 2014 in San Francisco. In the coming months there will be a preview version of DirectX 12, an extensive Early Access offer for developers is planned. The new version of the graphics interface supports as expected not only for Windows PCs, but also the Xbox One and Windows Phone.

 Which versions are supported by Windows, is not yet clear and not yet disclosed. The serious question about Windows 7 is not answered. On the basis of presentation Microsoft has demonstrated, among others, 3DMark, that the new version of Direct3D brings much better support for multi core CPUs that were different from the currently issued of the interface utilized almost evenly.

Representatives of key partners such as AMD, Intel, Nvidia, Epic Games and Qualcomm have explicitly welcomed the new version of Direct3D. Microsoft will announce later this week  more information about DirectX, in  another major event instead.

Windows XP Users Will Receive $ 100 If They Opt For Windows 8

Windows XP users, who buy a new computer with Windows 8, will receive under a scheme for the amount of U.S. $ 100. Yes XP users in North America will receive $ 100 discount on a Windows 8 computer but it has too many limitations. Microsoft will discontinue support for Windows XP from 8 April 2014.

And there won’t be no more software update for the same. But all users are by far not ready for change. That's why Microsoft is offering an incentive. XP users, who buy a new computer with Windows 8, will receive an amount of $ 100.

 The offer is valid until 15 June 2014 and is aimed at buyers in the U.S. and Canada. Interested parties, can reach the Microsoft Store with an XP machine, get the discount at your order. Alternatively, Microsoft accepts old computers in its stores. The selection in their online shop is very limited.

In addition, the action is not valid for all Windows 8 products available there. On the tablet surface 2 there is no discount. Furthermore, Microsoft sells only devices in the middle and upper price range. The lowest computer goes for $ 599 on the counter.

Microsoft unleashes Office 365 Android SDK for developers

Microsoft has released an SDK open source through which Android developers will be able to introduce Office 365 support data in their applications.

Microsoft Open Technologies, responsible for creating a bridge between Microsoft products and other technologies via open source tools and open standards branch, has unveiled a new development kit for Office 365 to Android.

A preview of the SDK open source (Apache 2.0 license) is available on GitHub platform. Developers will be able to allow applications to access Office 365 data through links to SharePoint and Exchange servers.

Applications will include access to SharePoint lists and files, calendars, contacts and Exchange messaging. The SDK is compatible with Android versions ranging from KitKat. Those wishing to contribute to the project must sign a licensing agreement Microsoft Open Technologies Contributor.

Microsoft Announces DirectX 12 On March 20

The Game Developers Conference to be host the late giant, which must unveil the new version of the API dedicated to the video game. The Windows - maker Microsoft has announced a new version of its graphics platform DirectX - DirectX 12 In a blog entry on the developer side of the Microsoft Developer Network, this is the company’s first published preliminary info. Microsoft will announce on March 20 the new version of DirectX API dedicated to video game developed over the years by the giant.

He unveiled at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, during a session on the future of DirectX. According Polygon, eight workshops dedicated to Microsoft DirectX 11, but prepare the future. The giant did not hide it also, which gave appointment on the date specified by the newspaper on MSDN. Microsoft made a trailer focused on machine performance, and their exploitation by video games. Several presentations sessions of GDC are however state the future of graphics, Direct3D, etc.

Each time, they promise the developers for a unprecedented level of control equipment and increased to a broad hardware ecosystem performance. In short, if you are sure that the new version of the API will be presented on March 20 - and that's a good thing, the previous major version for Windows from before 2009 - there are quite a few details the direction taken by Microsoft.

Microsoft announces new graphics platform DirectX 12. Microsoft's announcement page shows next to the DirectX logo and the logos of AMD's graphics division, Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm – The good thing is it is likely to be that DirectX 12 will be equipped on desktop computers and mobile platforms such as Smartphones and tablets with new graphics capabilities.

Microsoft Plans Language Assistant Cortana For Windows Phone!

Microsoft wants Windows Phone 8.1 to install a language assistant who carries the name Cortana in it. It is said that it is similar to Siri on iPhones and Google Now on Android Smartphones. With the update to Windows Phone 8.1 Smartphones get with Microsoft's mobile operating system a language assistant that is designed to provide the functions of Siri and Google Now, The Verge has learned from people who are familiar with Microsoft's plans.

The designation is based on the computer game series Halo, in which there is the AI Cortana character. On Windows Phone Cortana is only an animated icon and not a female character as in the Halo games. The approach of Cortana is a similar virtual personality as with Apple's Siri. Moreover Cortana collects data from Bing, Foursquare and other services in order to offer comparable performance to Google Now.

The user will thus find all relevant information in Cortana to simplify his use of Smartphones. A sub- function of Cortana is called notebook and is used to control the data flow with matching privacy settings. The user should therefore be set in the notebook, which data sources may use Cortana. So Cortana can on location information, personal data, reminders and contact access. In addition, the function can monitor the user behavior and show based on that information or make suggestions.

Depending on the chosen notebook settings to the Windows Phone Assistant noted the information in question. The user should edit later stored within the notebook information or delete, so that a privacy setting in the base can be changed at any time later. Moreover Cortana can be used to remove the user tasks. For example, if a message comes is asking in for a meeting at 19:00 clock, offers the wizard to create a matching calendar entry.

In addition, a Do Not Disturb mode is scheduled to appear in the notifications. The user may specify a specific user group, which is not affected by the Do Not Disturb mode. News of these individuals appointment would then continue to appear. It is expected that a first preliminary version of the update version will be come to the market only at the beginning of April 2014 is shown at Microsoft's Build conference. When Smartphone owners will get the update is still not known.

Microsoft would offer a free version of Windows 8.1 with Bing

Windows 8.1 is currently the latest version of Microsoft's operating system Windows 8. Microsoft currently experimenting with a free version of its operating system for PCs. According to unconfirmed sources, Microsoft could offer a free version or low cost of its OS called "Windows 8.1 with Bing", and integrating key services and applications.

It would be an update designed to attract users of Windows 7. Exactly one year before the Wall Street Journal quoted that Microsoft has decided to lower the price of Windows 8 and Office for OEMs licenses. The Verge now evokes an experimental project of Redmond called " Windows 8.1 with Bing " which would be a free or low-cost version of the update for users of Windows 7 operating system.

The Verge indicates the exact intentions of Microsoft are not yet finalized and that experimentation is part of a series of initiatives to monetize cloud services and applications of the publisher. According to The Verge, the free version called "Windows 8.1 with Bing” and is currently in development. Hence, they also contain the most important Microsoft apps and services and put an emphasis on the search engine Bing. In addition, Microsoft is targeting apparently from it, to win by no or low price more users for Windows 8. Early versions of Windows 8.1 with Bing are leaked on the internet and the familiar Windows Leaks website WZor.net already published screenshots of the software installed .

The Verge goes on to write that Windows 7 users might get the upgrade to Windows 8.1 with Bing free or very cheap. Another possibility is that the operating system is also available to PC manufacturers on favorable terms. The focus is to get as many new Windows 8 users. This information last week via Bloomberg that Microsoft would charge more for Windows 8.1 license of $ 15 on devices sold in more than 250 dollars. Service Pack 1 for Windows 8.1 is expected in early April.

 Now Windows 8.1 download costs currently around 120 Euros for individuals. It is therefore questionable how Microsoft makes money when it offers (nearly) the operating system and key applications for free. The Verge suspected that the company wants to move to new customers to use its fee-based additional services, such as major cloud storage. Details of these plans of Microsoft may known public at developer conference which will be held in San Francisco on of 2 up to 4 April.

Microsoft Signs Agreement With Hop-On

Microsoft has signed its twenty-second license agreement for the use of patents related to Android and Chrome OS with “Hop-on” the original equipment and design manufacturer of American electronics. As usual, the amount of royalties paid and other terms remains confidential.

After Voxx Electronics last week, Microsoft announced a new licensing agreement relating to the exploitation of its portfolio of patents related to Android and Chrome OS two days before. The new licensee is Hop-on; they are one of the manufactures of Smartphones, tablets, e-readers, set- top boxes and televisions.

Financial terms of the agreement were, as usual, not disclosed, but Microsoft states that they will receive royalties. “The license is an effective way to share technology and rely on each other's work to provide valuable products for consumers," said Horacio Gutierrez, Assistant Vice- President and General Counsel in charge of innovation and intellectual property at Microsoft. This agreement is the twenty- second of its kind for this Redmond Company.

Microsoft SkyDrive is renamed OneDrive

As part of the renaming campaign, Microsoft is apparently feeling generous and have been given 20 GB of extra storage for one year. However, it is not yet clear how Microsoft selected this “valued customer“. The software giant Microsoft has entered in to the conflict with the British TV channel Sky and has to change the name of its cloud storage SkyDrive.

It is still unclear whether SkyDrive should be renamed only in Britain, else throughout the globe. In future the SkyDrive will be called as OneDrive making the name similar to their game console Xbox One and the Domain onedrive.com will soon replace the skydrive.com and already a promotional video has been published.

The agreement entered with Sky Broadcasting Group has given reasonable time to migrate to the new name and the whether the agreement include cash payment was not yet known. This is the second set back for Microsoft earlier it was forced to retire from use of “Metro” in the user interface of Windows 8 since the Metro AG group challenged the use.

Defeated in court by British TV channel Sky in 2013, Microsoft was forced to abandon to SkyDrive brand. Hence online storage file services of Microsoft’s SkyDrive, name will be changed. This was formally announced by Ryan Gavin, head of services and applications, in a blog post without giving much detail.

Support for Windows XP is partly extended!

Microsoft announced earlier that April 8th 2014 will be the final closing for all updates for Windows XP but Microsoft announced surprisingly that Antivirus support goes into extra time until mid 2015 and it will be valid for all other updates also.

Microsoft says that the support for XP will be ended on 8 April 2014 and it has not changed and yet it is for Microsoft Security Essentials anti -virus updates to 14 July 2015 passed, the manufacturer has now informed in a press release on Technet . For enterprise customers, it is further definition updates for System Center Endpoint Protection, Forefront Client Security, Forefront Endpoint Protection, and give Windows Intune.

 The move comes not entirely unexpected. Almost all the businesses and people of XP are not switched to a different operating system for a long time. Still most of the people are using outdated operating system and it is around 14 percent of total computers in use in Europe alone, the U.S. Company said in December 2013.


To help businesses and consumers, promote the migration, the supply of anti -malware updates will now be extended considerably. Microsoft stressed, however, that the effectiveness of this measure is limited for which there will be no more updates operating system. Almost all companies running on Windows XP and they cannot be part them. Since most of the old software are not compactable on Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Also the cost of upgrades of software industry is likely to deter many a company. With Windows 7 Professional license however, there is the free XP Mode. This virtual machine can help to continue working with old software. Nevertheless, there are cases where this does not help. There is no longer the XP Mode in Windows 8.