Microsoft has been making notable improvements to the experiences on its Twitch competitor, Beam, since it purchased the startup this past August. A major update was just launched globally for the service which highlights a new faster video player, Xbox Live sign-ins, and a redesigned home page that makes the service’s various communities more visible to users. These […]
If you’re enrolled in the beta version of the Cortana app for Android, you’ve already got access to one of its more interesting updates in recent memory. As spotted by MSPoweruser, Microsoft has introduced a feature that brings its AI assistant front and center on Google’s mobile OS. Enabling “Add Cortana to my lock screen” […]
Microsoft today announced that it has acquired Simplygon, a company that develops 3D-optimization solutions for game developers and other industries that need to visualize 3D data. Simplygon’s SDK is used by many major game development studios and the company recently expanded into the AR/VR market, too. Given Microsoft’s push into AR with its Hololens project and […]
Microsoft has acquired Canadian startup Maluuba, a company founded by University of Waterloo grads Kaheer Suleman and Sam Pasupalak that also participated in TechCrunch’s 2012 San Francisco Startup Battlefield competition. Maluuba focuses on natural language processing, in service of pursuing general artificial intelligence, or building computers that can think like people. The Montreal-based company focuses on […]
Microsoft today unveiled the newest addition to its Office 365 suite with the debut of an application for shift workers and management, called StaffHub. The program is aimed at those who don’t tend to work from desktop computers and have different schedules from week to week, such as in retail, hospitality, restaurants and other industries. The […]
The Garage — Microsoft’s home to experimental projects like smart news apps, Android launchers, productivity add-ons, smartphone keyboards and yes, even that app that tells you what sort of dog you look like — is expanding to three new locations, including Cambridge, Massachusetts, India and China. In total, there are seven Garage locations now open or under construction. […]
Announced in October, Windows 10 Creators Update is still a ways off — slated to be released this spring – but Microsoft’s already testing new features galore by way of its Windows Insider preview. The latest edition includes a number of usual updates for the forthcoming OS that are shaping up to make a pretty […]
Microsoft launched one of its larger Insider Builds for Windows 10 today. The new version (15002) includes a plethora of new features that touch everything from the Start menu to the Edge browser, Windows Ink, Cortana, Defender and Windows’ built-in accessibility features. All of those are great, but the one new feature that may make […]
Microsoft isn’t building its own connected car — but it is launching a new Azure-based cloud platform for car manufacturers that want to use the cloud to power their own connected-car services. The new Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform will go live as a public preview later this year. “This is not an in-car operating system […]
Unlike IPOs, 2016 was pretty active for tech M&A. The year resulted in $612.9 billion in global tech deals, according to Dealogic, which made it the second best year for acquisitions. It nearly kept up the pace of record-setting 2015, where we saw $691.4 billion in tech transactions across the world. A confluence of factors led to […]