Microsoft has acquired Beam, a Seattle-based interactive game streaming service that lets viewers play along with streamers as they watch. Beam’s model takes the mostly passive interaction that streaming fans may be used to from services like Twitch and YouTube, and adds the ability for viewers to interact with the streamer via crowdsourced controls. Players interacting through […]
Microsoft Pix is looking to become your new go-to camera app on iPhone. The new iOS offering from Microsoft’s mobile team employs some artificial intelligence smarts to help make sure you take the best pictures, by eliminating human error through batch captures and by enhancing image color, exposure and other variables that can make the difference between […]
Along with today’s rollout of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft is also debuting a new version of its Skype Windows application, which the company says has been redesigned from the ground up. In addition to the new app’s look, Skype is also now integrated with Windows 10, which means it can work more seamlessly […]
After the conclusion of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, I got a chance to talk to John Boyega, of Star Wars and Attack the Block fame — and erstwhile competition judge. We chatted about his relationship with technology, what he’d like to see people create, and yes, Pokemon Go. First of all, you ever make anything like […]
The market for mergers and acquisitions, particularly in software, is red-hot: Big private-equity firms, flush with cash, did 170 software deals worth $27.22 billion in the first half of 2016 alone. Beleaguered Yahoo was scooped up by Verizon for $4.8 billion; Microsoft announced a blockbuster $26 billion purchase of professional-networking site LinkedIn. That deal prompted waves […]
Following yesterday’s launch of a new version of the Skype Windows 10 application, Microsoft today announced an expanded collection of its “Skype bots,” the automated chat assistants that it introduced earlier this year in a limited preview. The new bots include those that can help you make travel arrangements, locate event tickets, pull in information from other […]
You could make a case that Minecraft is the professional network of 10-year-olds, but you’d have to work pretty hard at it. That’s not what Satya Nadella means when he uses Minecraft as an example of why LinkedIn was a great acquisition target for Microsoft, speaking to Bloomberg today in an interview reflecting on Microsoft as […]
LinkedIn has likely ended with a bang its run as an independent company built upon a network of professionals, clearly beating out what Wall Street sought. Of course, this report is largely moot. Earlier this year, LinkedIn announced it would be acquired by Microsoft for $26.2 billion. Microsoft beat out several bidders in the process, including Salesforce, […]
After a relatively short beta, Microsoft today announced that the Excel API — a way for developers to programmatically use Excel for Office 365 for doing calculations, building dashboards and more — is now generally available. Microsoft first announced the API last November and then at its Build conference in March detailed its plans for turning Office 365 […]
You can now buy Microsoft’s HoloLens Development Edition, the company’s futuristic augmented reality helmet, without having to go through an application process. Until now, Microsoft only made HoloLenses available to developers who put in an application. Now, if you have $3,000 to spare and you are in the U.S. or Canada, you can simply buy up […]