Tag Archive for Microsoft

Microsoft’s announcements: Ahead of the times or just playing catch up

Posted on January 22, 2015 by

Global IT company Microsoft, which once held lead position across the world, today made a series of announcements to tackle competition, some of which had started to majorly affect its bottomline.

The new products are expected to pump fresh blood in the nearly 40 year old, and some would dare say, jaded company. Will they? Only time will tell.

For now, we bring to you snippets of the many announcements made by Microsoft, as announced on its blog.

Windows10 Upgrade

A free upgrade for Windows 10 will be made available to customers running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, & Windows Phone 8.1 who upgrade in the first year after launch.

This is more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, it will be kept current for the supported lifetime of the device – at no cost.

Cortana, Microsoft’s personal digital assistant, comes to PC & Tablet, for the 1st time with Windows 10.

Windows 10 for phones & Tablets – Windows 10 for phones & small Tablets features a fast, fluid and familiar experience that seamlessly interacts with your PC.

Code-named “Project Spartan,” the next generation browser was built with greater interoperability, reliability & discoverability, with a new look and feel built just for Windows 10. Advanced features include the ability to annotate by keyboard or pen directly on the Webpage & easily share with friends, a reading view that is distraction free, displaying the article in a simplified layout for a great reading experience for Web articles Online & offline, & the integration of Cortana for finding & doing things Online faster.

Xbox Live & the new Xbox App bring new game experiences to Windows 10. Xbox on Windows 10 lets gamers access the best of the expansive Xbox Live gaming network on both Windows 10 PCs & Xbox One. Players can capture, edit & share their greatest gaming moments with Game DVR, & play new games with friends across devices. Games developed for DirectX 12 in Windows 10 will see improvements in speed, efficiency & graphics capability.

Microsoft HoloLens

Windows 10 is the world’s 1st holographic computing platform – complete with a set of APIs that enable developers to create holographic experiences in the real world. With Windows 10, holograms are Windows universal apps & Windows universal apps can work as holograms, making it possible to place three-dimensional holograms in the world around you to communicate, create & explore in a manner that is far more personal & human.

Image Credit Microsoft Blog

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Microsoft’s Skype Qik – new entrant in the messaging app space

Posted on October 15, 2014 by

The old Qik died some months ago, welcome to its re-birth. Microsoft has just released messaging app, Skype Qik, in a move to garner whatever little space is left in the increasingly crowded messaging space.

It was created from the technology Skype Technologies acquired through the purchase of Qik in 2011. The ne service allows users to exchange video messages between individuals or within a group. The earlier Qik app offered a mobile-based live video-sharing Website & 2-way video conferencing that allowed users to stream live video from their cell phones to the internet.

new video messaging appSo does Snapchat need worry about Skype Qik? Online reports suggest that this is still a “watered down” version of the former, though there are a couple of features in Microsoft’s latest baby that may give it a slight edge. One of them is the ability to send pre-recorded videos. Now, that’s something that many messaging app lack. The other plus point to Skype Qik is the neat manner in which it organizes the Contacts.

Setting up Skype Qik is easy. You need to key in your mobile number so it can pull from your contacts. To record a video clip, you just tap the neon pink button once to start & again to stop, & then send it to your friends. You may choose to do this manually, to a single friend or a group, or use your Contacts page for mass forwards. Not only can users create groups easily from the contacts on their phones, & send messages to them privately.

Another feature that could propel this new messaging app up the ladder of popularity is the fact that it allows you to keep your chats in shape by deleting messages whenever you want – they’ll be removed from everyone else’s phone too. Once a message is 2 weeks old, it disappears.

Skype Qik has the ability to record 42 seconds videos or if you are not in the mood, even a 5 sec one. These Qik Fliks has been described by Skype as “GIFs you record yourself”. Like GIFs, stickers & memes, the idea is that you’ll store these in order to send them quickly, whenever required.

You may click here to download Skype Qik on your Android device.

You may click here to download Skype Qik on your Windows device.

You may click here to download Skype Qik on your iOS device.

 

Image Credit: Skype Qik

 

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