Microsoft hires Apple veteran Ruben Caballero for hardware, AI division

Microsoft has hired former senior Apple executive Ruben Caballero for its hardware division that makes HoloLens Mixed Reality headsets.

An Apple veteran, Caballero has joined Microsoft as Corporate Vice President Engineering - Hardware Design & Technology at its Mixed Reality and AI Division which is responsible for the development of HoloLens and other "Special Projects".

Caballero worked as Vice President of Engineering at Apple for nearly 14 years on the strategy, roadmap and design of products, including the first designs of the iPhone and iPad.

He was one of the founding leaders of the iPhone hardware team and later expanding his role to include iPad, Apple Watch, Macintosh and all other hardware products, according to his LinkedIn bio.

In addition, he became the product leader for the last two generations of Apple TV and Airport devices.

ALSO READ: Microsoft powers IoT company Gaia in the fight against coronavirus

Microsoft's HoloLens 2 augmented reality headset, which was introduced at Mobile World Congress in February last year, is now available to purchase.

The next-generation AR headset is built off a Qualcomm system-on-a-chip and is targeted at enterprise, not mainstream customers.

The headset offers a new time-of-flight depth sensor, combined with built-in artificial intelligence and semantic understanding to enable direct manipulation of holograms in a more realistic fashion.

ALSO READ: AI-powered Microsoft 365 with new productivity tools to replace Office 365

Microsoft is offering three pricing options for HoloLens 2: A $3,500 HoloLens 2 developer edition (available with financing for $99 per user per month); a HoloLens 2 device-only SKU for $3,500; and a HoloLens 2 subscription version (with Dynamics 365 Remote Assist preloaded) starting at $125 per user per month.

Additionally, the tech giant is also working on a custom US military version of the HoloLens.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

AI-powered Microsoft 365 with new productivity tools to replace Office 365

Microsoft on Tuesday introduced a refresh version of Office 365. Built on the foundation of Office 365, the Microsoft 365 gets artificial intelligence (AI), rich content and templates, and cloud-powered experiences to empower people in various ways. The Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based service, available for personal and family usage. The Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans will be available from April 21, at starting price of Rs 4,199 a year.

For the best value, a family of up to six people can use Microsoft 365 Family for Rs 5,299 a year, the company said in a statement.

The new Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans will include access to Outlook and the Office desktop apps for Windows and macOS, 1 Terabyte of OneDrive storage per person and 50 Gigabytes of Outlook.com email storage, Skype call recording and 60 minutes of Skype landline and mobile phone calls.

In addition, Microsoft also introduced two new Microsoft 365 experiences that will be available for preview in the coming months.

A new 'Family Safety' app is designed to keep families safe across the digital and physical worlds.

Microsoft is previewing new home features for Teams that are now part of Microsoft 365 subscriptions designed to let friends and family connect in a group chat or through video calls.

Microsoft is also adding a lot of Office-related features with transition to Microsoft 365.

AI-powered Microsoft 365 with new productivity features replaces Office 365Users will soon be able to access the existing Editor feature of Word, which is more of an advanced proofing service than the regular grammar and spellcheck features.

PowerPoint is also getting some exclusive features for Microsoft 365 consumers.

Microsoft also launched a presentation coach for PowerPoint. This AI-driven feature helps you avoid filler words and other presentation no-nos.

AI-powered Microsoft 365 with new productivity features replaces Office 365In partnership with Plaid, one can now link their bank accounts to Excel and import all of their expenses into your spreadsheets.

This feature, dubbed "Money in Excel," will launch in the US in the coming months.

AI-powered Microsoft 365 with new productivity features replaces Office 365Outlook is getting the ability to link your work and personal calendars on the web.

Additionally, Microsoft 365 subscribers also get exclusive access to more than 200 new templates and thousands of images and videos from Getty Images.

Microsoft has also introduced a new Password Monitor feature for its Edge browser.

The Password Monitor will let users know if any passwords have been compromised in database breaches so you can change them easily.

To help people get connected even faster, Microsoft recently introduced a new feature in Skype called 'Meet Now' that allows users to easily create video meetings in as little as three clicks for free, with no sign ups or downloads required.

Tech giant is also working with Adobe, Experian, Bark, Blinklist, and others to offer limited-time access to other premium consumer subscriptions.

Microsoft Cloud services see massive traffic surge due to Covid-19 lockdown

Microsoft has seen a huge 775 per cent increase in its Cloud services in regions that have enforced social distancing or 'shelter-in-place orders.

Microsoft Teams now has more than 44 million daily users and they generated over 900 million meeting and calling minutes, according to Jared Spataro, Corporate VP for Microsoft 365.

"Windows Virtual Desktop usage has grown more than 3 times. Government use of public 'Power BI' to share COVID-19 dashboards with citizens has surged by 42 per cent in a week," Spataro said in a statement late Sunday.

Despite the significant increase in demand, said Microsoft, it has not had any significant service disruptions.

"As a result of the surge in use over the last week, we have experienced significant demand in some regions (Europe North, Europe West, UK South, France Central, Asia East, India South, Brazil South) and are observing deployments for some compute resource types in these regions drop below our typical 99.99 percent success rates," said the company.

ALSO READ: YouTube, Netflix, Facebook reduce bit rate to mitigate network congestion

Microsoft has implemented few temporary restrictions designed to balance the best possible experience for its customers.

"We have placed limits on free offers to prioritize capacity for existing customers. We also have limits on certain resources for new subscriptions. These are 'soft' quota limits, and customers can raise support requests to increase these limits," informed Spataro.

Impacted customers and partners are notified through the Service Health experience in the Azure portal and/or in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

ALSO READ: Covid-19 hit supply chain returning to normal, but demand a worry: Nadella

On Xbox Live usage, Microsoft said it is actively monitoring performance and usage trends.

"At the same time, we're taking proactive steps to plan for high-usage periods, which includes taking prudent measures with our publishing partners to deliver higher-bandwidth activities like game updates during off-peak hours," the tech giant noted.

Microsoft said it has been in discussions with several internet service providers (ISPs) that are taking measures to reduce bandwidth from video sources in order to enable their networks to be performant during the workday.

Microsoft will overcome Covid-19 crisis 'pretty strong', says Satya Nadella

Asserting that Microsoft is financially strong despite the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, its India-born CEO Satya Nadella has voiced confidence that the company will come out of the crisis "pretty strong".

In an interview to CNBC on Tuesday, Nadella, however, said the big question would be whether the demand holds up in the US and Europe and other developed markets badly hit by the pandemic.

We feel good about how we are able to meet the demands of work from home kits. On the supply side we are getting back on rails, Nadella said when asked whether Microsoft would be able to deliver later this year certain products, like the new Surface devices and a revamped Xbox gaming console, it had promised before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Microsoft cuts revenue estimates, says will feel impact of COVID19 outbreak

Microsoft on Wednesday lowered its revenue estimates for the current quarter, saying it will feel the impact of the coronavirus epidemic with lower sales of Windows software and Surface devices.

The US tech giant became the latest global firm to warn of a financial hit from the global outbreak of the disease which has killed thousands worldwide.

"Although we see strong Windows demand in line with our expectations, the supply chain is returning to normal operations at a slower pace than anticipated," Microsoft said in a statement.

As a result, Microsoft said that in the current fiscal quarter its revenues will fall short of earlier forecasts, with Windows and Surface "more negatively impacted than previously anticipated.

Satya Nadella: A History buff in school, says Sachin yesterday, Virat today

Even though he heads one of the largest technology companies in the world, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was a history buff in school.

Speaking at an event in New Delhi on Wednesday, Nadella took a few “rapid-fire” questions from Anant Maheshwari, president at Microsoft India.

While his favourite subject in school was History, he also loves books. However, he took the safer route when asked about his favourite cricketer — Sachin Tendulkar or Virat Kohli. Saying the choice was as difficult as choosing religions, he replied with a diplomatic, “I would say Sachin yesterday, Virat today.”

The India-born CEO of Microsoft is on a visit to India, meeting business leaders and the larger tech community in Mumbai, Bengaluru and New Delhi.

He will also call upon the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday.

When asked what superpower he would like to have, Nadella said, “If I could read all the books I bought, I would be so much better off...That’s why I am excited about natural language progress.”

He also spoke about two key trends that will define the compute fabric needed in the future.

He said there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2030, which will be the endpoints. On the other hand, by 2025 data generation will quadruple to 175 ZB.

Microsoft’s tip boss also spoke highly of coding. When asked if he would choose coding or cricket, Nadella said “coding for cricket”.

Citing the example of Anil Kumble, whose startup is using IoT and artificial intelligence through sensors in cricket bats, and Dr. Devi Shetty, the founder of Narayana Health that uses data analytics extensively, Nadella said, “Coding can inspire you in liberal arts and sciences to make a difference.”

“Coding is perhaps one of the most liberating of exercises. It’s a classic example of deep work,” he added.

Indian CEOs need to build their own inclusive tech solutions: Nadella

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella on Monday urged Indian business leaders to build technology capabilities that are inclusive in nature.

Beginning his three-day visit to India, Nadella was addressing Microsoft's Future Decoded CEO Summit here.

"Indian CEOs need to build own tech capability and ensure that the solutions are inclusive," he said.

Stating that the last decade saw emergence of the aggregators, he asserted that aggregators are not enough alone. "We need to ensure that digital interventions lead to broadening of productivity."

Nadella stated that 72 per cent of jobs for software engineers in India are outside of the technology industry.

Speaking at the same event, Rajesh Gopinathan, chief executive and managing director of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said the company prefers to train internal talent for the changing technologies and ensure that good quality talent is retained, rather than searching for it externally.

He said the millennials possess phenomenal knowledge and are quick learners as well, but need to be trained on the same.

The era of multi-year projects in IT is over; and three years ago, TCS took a bet to completely adopt Agile technologies by 2020, he said.

59 per cent of all the developers are now working on Agile, he added.

Microsoft hunts for Unicorns in Tier 2 Cities in India, selects 54 startups

Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, is increasing its efforts to empower the startup ecosystem in Tier 2 cities across the country. As part of this initiative, the Redmond, Washington-based firm’s ‘Highway to a Hundred Unicorns’ programme, has selected 54 startups from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Kerala and Telangana. Some of them include Spider G, NeuroTags, Genrobotic Innovations, AI Aeronautics, Synersense, Dealshare and NanoHealth.

The top tech startups selected through ‘Emerge-X’, a competition for startups, win credits to access Microsoft’s cloud computing platform Azure and get a host of business and tech benefits. The competition has received over 530 applications and the top three startups from each state gain access to a year-long mentorship program and a two-day founder boot camp. ‘Highway to a Hundred Unicorns,’ the Microsoft for startups initiative, works closely with local governments to strengthen the startup ecosystem in each state.

“The entrepreneurial energy of startups is rising well beyond the known metropolitan hubs and is remarkably high in Tier 2 cities, despite the obvious challenges. Through ‘Highway to a Hundred Unicorns, we’ve been able to reach some highly promising innovators from each of the five states,” said Lathika Pai, country head, Microsoft for Startups - MENA and SAARC. “In the next phase of our journey, we look forward to engaging with more startups and accelerating their growth and providing them with Microsoft’s platform to go global.”

The fifth edition of the Microsoft’s outreach programme was hosted at Hyderabad in association with the Government of Telangana. More than 150 innovators and entrepreneurs engaged with Microsoft experts, industry stalwarts and ecosystem stakeholders, including members of the state government.

More than 650 startups that have participated in the five events have benefited from the mentorship and guidance through technology workshops on Azure, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Microsoft said over 75 ecosystem players including the Global Entrepreneurship Network, TiE, Headstart, NASSCOM, and Startup Grind as well as prominent investors, entrepreneurs and executives in the national startup ecosystem have actively engaged with the innovators at each of the locations. Microsoft said firms such as Wholesalebox and Rapidor are among the participating startups in the programme that have received recent fresh funding from one of the participating investors.

Microsoft takes down 50 web domains used by North Korean hacking groups

Microsoft has said that it obtained a court order allowing it to seize web domains used by North Korean hacking groups to launch cyberattacks on human rights activists, researchers and others.

The US technology giant said on Monday that a federal court allowed it to take control of 50 domains operated by a group dubbed Thallium, which tricked online users by fraudulently using Microsoft brands and trademarks.

"This network was used to target victims and then compromise their online accounts, infect their computers, compromise the security of their networks and steal sensitive information," said Tom Burt, Microsoft's vice president for customer security and trust.

"Based on victim information, the targets included government employees, think tanks, university staff members, members of organizations focused on world peace and human rights, and individuals that work on nuclear proliferation issues. Most targets were based in the US, as well as Japan and South Korea."

Microsoft, which had been investigating the group through its Digital Crimes Unit and Threat Intelligence Center, said the hacking group sent spoofed emails that appeared to come from Microsoft which tricked users into revealing their login credentials, a technique known as spear phishing.

"By gathering information about the targeted individuals from social media, public personnel directories from organizations the individual is involved with and other public sources, Thallium is able to craft a personalized spear-phishing email in a way that gives the email credibility to the target," Burt said.

After getting the victim's credentials, the hackers can access emails, contact lists, calendar appointments and other data and often forwards any new emails to the attackers.

The hackers also used malicious software which can access other data on a victim's computer.

An order from a US federal court in Virginia allowed Microsoft to take control of the domains, meaning "the sites can no longer be used to execute attacks," Burt said.

Microsoft said this was the fourth nation-state group it has acted against and follows similar moves against operations from China, Russia and Iran, dubbed Barium, Strontium and Phosphorus, respectively.

Microsoft to apply California's digital privacy law across US from Jan 1

Microsoft has announced to implement California's digital privacy law, that comes into effect from January 1, 2020, throughout the US.

In a blog post, the tech giant said the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) marks an important step towards providing people with more robust control over their data in the US.

"It also shows that we can make progress to strengthen privacy protections in this country at the state level even when Congress can't or won't act," Julie Brill, Microsoft's chief privacy officer, said on Monday.

The CCPA allows people to request that data be deleted and gives them the opportunity to opt out of having their information sold to a third party.

In 2018, Microsoft voluntarily extended the core data privacy rights included in the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to customers around the world, not just to those in the EU who are covered by the regulation.

"Similarly, we will extend CCPA's core rights for people to control their data to all our customers in the US," it said.

More than 25 million people around the world, including over 10 million people in the US, have used Microsoft's privacy dashboard to understand and control their personal data.

Under CCPA, companies must be transparent about data collection and use, and provide people with the option to prevent their personal information from being sold.

"Microsoft will continue to monitor those changes, and make the adjustments needed to provide effective transparency and control under CCPA to all people in the US," Brill said.

The European Union last year rolled out new privacy regulations for its citizens called the GDPR, but the US doesn't have a similar law.

Microsoft unveils foldable Android phone, earbuds, ARM-based Surface laptop

Microsoft's October 2019 Event saw the company unveiling a large range of new Surface devices.

Some other big announcements include Surface Laptop 3, Surface Pro 7, Surface Earbuds, Surface Neo, Surface Pro X and Surface Duo.

The 13-inch Surface Laptop 3 comes with the latest 10th-generation quad-core processors from Intel, while the 15-inch model comes with a custom AMD Ryzen 7 processor, or as Microsoft calls it, "Ryzen 7 Surface Edition".

The 13-inch Surface Laptop 3 will start at $999 and will go up to $1,199 for the 15-inch model.

Microsoft has updated its Surface Pro 6 tablet with the Surface Pro 7. Like the Surface Laptop 3, it finally gets a much-requested USB-C connection.

Inside, there is an option of tenth-generation Intel Core CPUs, and storage options that run from a 128GB SSD through to 1TB.

The Surface Pro 7 will launch on October 22, starting at $749.

The company has introduced their first noise cancelling wireless earbuds for $249 and these will be available later this year.

There are two mics embedded in each bud and it comes with 24 hours of battery life.

They also feature touch controls and integration with Microsoft Office apps.

Microsoft

The company unveiled the Surface Neo. It runs a new version of Windows called Windows 10X and is expected to come at the end of 2020.

It is two 9-inch tablets put together into a dual-screen machine so it looks like a notebook.

Surface Pro X is the first ARM-based Surface from Microsoft since the Surface 2.

It powered by a custom SQ1 processor. That chipset has "Snapdragon mobile DNA," according to Panos Panay, Microsoft's chief product officer, alongside an "integrated AI accelerator."

The laptop has integrated LTE support, USB-C, and fast charging to the boot.

The 2-in-1 laptop will be available from November 5 for $999 and one can pre-order the device starting Wednesday.

In addition, the tech giant also showcased a foldable Surface Duo phone that runs on Android.

The company said the two screens would make users more productive.

The Duo has two 5.6-inch displays merged by a 360-degree hinge and will be available by next year.

Microsoft partners with Eros Now for next generation online video platform

Technology giant Microsoft announced a collaboration with Eros Now, a entertainment OTT (over-the-top) video platform by Eros International Plc, to build a next generation online video platform on Microsoft Azure targeted at its consumers across the globe.

Microsoft Azure and Azure Media Services will develop a new, intuitive online video platform to provide seamless delivery of content for its consumers across geographies and languages, supported by a robust infrastructure including Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN).

"AI and intelligent cloud tools will be the next drivers of the media business and will impact everything from content creation to consumer experience. We have been working in India across many categories but ErosNow will be using our Azure media services," said Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President, Microsoft.

Microsoft has a few similar partnerships globally including one with Disney. Eros will work to create new interactive voice offerings for consumers, powered by Azure AI tools, including OTT app video search experiences and voice search for video content across 10 Indian languages. The OTT platform is focused on differentiating itself from the global video streaming platforms with a stronger focus on regional language access.

Eros will create an engine to deliver personalized content recommendations for consumers by leveraging its own user data, combined with Azure AI, analytics, Cloud Data Warehousing solutions and Azure Media Services.

Currently, Hotstar is India's most popular OTT video platform, followed by Amazon’s Prime Video and SonyLIV, according to a market survey by Counterpoint Research. ErosNow has the highest percentage of its users consuming content on Smart TVs. Among OTT users in India, Reliance Jio is the most popular network, followed by Airtel and Vodafone-Idea, said the survey. Last month, Reliance Jio (which also holds stakes in Eros) announced 10-year deal with Microsoft that will help the telecom player set up a network of large data centers across India. The tech giant will deploy Azure cloud platform in these centres to support offerings.

Previously, Microsoft tied up with ZEE5, a video-on-demand platform owned by Indian media company Zee Enterprises. The Eros Now collaboration will focus on using media specific solutions for the likes of video indexing and content based cognitive services.

“The online video market has brought a paradigm shift in the way technology is used and will be used to enhance the customer journey and user experience. The objective and the goal of this collaboration is to ensure we become the primary innovators for the video business and a gold standard for the others to follow,” said Rishika Lulla Singh, CEO- Eros Digital.

Analysts have noted that while Microsoft has done well in the enterprise tech market due to their historic presence in the space, rival Amazon Web Services was able to lead ahead in the SMB and new digital services market. This is also a reason for Microsoft’s foray into media solutions as AWS has large presence in the space.

New Microsoft patent may turn your smartphone into a handheld Xbox

In an apparent bid to take on the popular Nintendo gaming Switch, a new Microsoft patent has revealed plans for controllers that would turn your smartphone into hand-held Xbox.

According to a report in Digital Trends late Sunday, the patent shows "a charging device for removable input modules. While there is no specific mention of the Xbox in the application, a couple of the drawings feature all-too-familiar buttons and symbols".

Possible features for the controllers include built-in speakers, a headphone jack, and wireless headphones support.

The detachable controllers in the patent looks similar to the Nintendo Switch but a key difference with Nintendo's hybrid console is that Microsoft controllers would "focus on enabling the Project xCloud video game streaming service on mobile phones".

According to Microsoft, Project xCloud's state-of-the-art global game-streaming technology will offer you the freedom to play on the device you want without being locked to a particular device.

Similar to Google Stadia, Project xCloud would allow players to stream console and PC games to their devices through Cloud.

"We are developing a new, game-specific touch input overlay that provides maximum response in a minimal footprint for players who choose to play without a controller," Microsoft said last year.

Microsoft has nearly 40 years of gaming experience starting with PC and is well equipped to address the complex challenge of cloud game-streaming.

With data centers in 54 Azure regions and services available in 140 countries, Azure has the scale to deliver a great gaming experience for players worldwide, regardless of their location.

According to the report, the controllers featured in the Microsoft patent may make Project xCloud more attractive to smartphone gamers.

Sarang Sheth, a designer from Yanko Designs, has mocked up 3D concepts of the device using the patent which was filed last month.

"It's pretty certain that Microsoft isn't just taking on Google's Stadia with its own Cloud-based gaming service, but is also going gung-ho into the hardware side of things too, with detachable controllers you can clip to your phone for the most portable Xbox experience ever imagined!" Sheth wrote in a blog post.

Two controller-halves clip onto either side of the phone, turning it into a handheld gaming console, complete with everything you need to play Xbox's signature titles.

"Designed for immersive landscape gaming, the controllers come with two flippers that hold your phone gently but securely from the sides, while memory-foam pads make sure they don't press any buttons," Sheth added.

These side flippers are ideal for phones with no bezel, because this makes sure the controllers don't overlap the screen from the left or right.

"Both halves of the controllers connect to your phone via Wi-Fi to deliver a seamless gaming experience that's absolutely lag-free. They even come with their own speaker units that deliver gameplay audio in stereo," he wrote.

The Xbox Cloud controllers have their own headphone jack too, with support for wireless headsets and earphones as well.

--IANS

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