Joe Belfiore, the head of Microsoft's mobile business, admitted in a series of tweets Sunday that the Windows Phone platform is basically dead in the water as the company was no longer going to develop new features or hardware for Windows 10 Mobile.
Released yesterday, iOS 11.0.1 fixed a problem with the Mail app where Outlook.com, Office 365 and Exchange customers would see their messages rejected by the server.
Apple on Tuesday published a new support document on its website which has acknowledged an issue with the Mail app in iOS 11 where Outlook.com, Office 365 and Exchange customers are seeing their messages rejected by the server.
Microsoft on Thursday said that Mixer Create for iOS has exited beta and is now available to download from App Store. The app that lets you chat and stream live gameplay of iPhone and iPad games on the go, similar to how Mixer can stream games on PC and Xbox One.
Microsoft today announced availability of Skype Preview for Mac and non-Windows 10 PC users, highlighting some of the features recently launched in Skype for iPhone that are coming soon to its desktop apps for Mac and Windows computers.
Microsoft is shutting down its one-handed keyboard for iPhone and iPod touch, called WordFlow, fifteen months after the app made its debut on App Store.
Windows giant Microsoft will outfit the next version of its mixed reality HoloLens goggles with an extra AI processor that will let the device recognize speech and images in real time, without having to send the data back to the cloud for analysis.
Orders for Microsoft's Surface devices, including the latest models, have been much smaller than the original expectations of Pegatron, the contract manufacturer which assembles them.
According to sources from the upstream supply chain cited in a DigiTimes report Tuesday, Pegatron Technology has seen weakening orders from clients recently.
Here's an excerpt from the report:
Since demand for Microsoft's Surface products has been seriously undermined by other first-tier vendors' similar devices, the software giant has been conservative about placing its orders, which have been much lower than than Pegatron's original expectations.
Pegatron also assembles iPhones alongside Apple's longtime manufacturer Foxconn.
The Windows giant unveiled a fifth-generation Surface Pro tablet on March 27 alongside a new Modern Keyboard with a built-in fingerprint reader and other accessories. Among other features, the device has 13.5 hours of battery life, Intel’s seventh-generation Core processor code-named “Kaby Lake”, a new Alcantara keyboard, a next-generation Surface Pen and more.
The same Intel chip also powers, Microsoft’s $999 MacBook rival, dubbed Surface Laptop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlZJw-zk0bU
Speaking of which, DigiTimes says that Surface Laptop orders are unlikely to boost Pegatron's revenues until later in the third quarter of 2017. Pegatron Vice Chairman Jason Cheng expects revenues in the second half of 2017 to at least stay flat year on year.
Microsoft is reportedly set to lay off thousands of sales staff around the world in the latest round of restructuring, TechCrunch said a few days ago. Bloomberg added that the redundancies would be “some of the most significant in the sales force in years.”
Following a preview at the start of June, Microsoft today began rolling out a redesigned Skype for iPhone app with a refined user interface and new capabilities such as chat bots, a Snapchat-like Highlights feature, message and in-call reactions, easier photo capture and more.
Aside from Microsoft's own smart assistant Cortana, other chat bots now available or coming soon to Skype for iPhone include Gfycat, Giphy, MSN Weather, Bing, Polls, Expedia, Stubhub, BigOven, YouTube and Upworthy.
With in-call reactions, users can add live emoticons, live text and even real-time photos to an overlay that appears on their video and voice calls. Similarly, message reactions let you inform your chat participants how you feel by adding expressive reactions to your chats.
The new Home screen launches with your chat view, but you can now swipe left to get to the Skype camera or swipe right to show your Highlights. Speaking of which, Highlights is a new Snapchat-like feature that lets you share your day-to-day with friends and family on Skype while keeping up with what they are up to.
Your highlight is basically a collection of photos and videos that you can decorate with emojis and text. Only people who follow you on Skype can see your highlights.
You can also respond to others' highlights by reacting with emoticons or even use them as a conversation starter. Unlike Snapchat, your published highlights remain live for a full week.
It remains to be seen if Highlights gains any traction given that every major chat app now has a similar feature of its own. Between Snapchat Stories, Facebook and Instagram Stories, I'm not sure I have the time to update Skype Highlights for my contacts on a daily basis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qItfRVJFljM
Microsoft readily admits that Highlights is a Snapchat clone.
“There’s a new medium that has risen,” Amritansh Raghav, Corporate Vice President of Skype, said recently of Stories in a comment to TechCrunch. “When you think about this new way of interacting, we want that to be available also in this app.”
The new features are available in Skype for iPhone, but not in Skype for iPad. Skype for Mac and Windows computers will receive the new capabilities within the next few months.
According to Microsoft, a future version of Skype will integrate gaming features into video calls and users will have the ability to synchronize and watch streaming videos together.
Visit skype.com/new to learn more about the app's latest feature additions.
Skype for iPhone and Skype for iPad are available free on App Store.
Microsoft's Surface Book notebook/tablet hybrid from a couple of years ago scored a 1/10 rating on iFixit's repairability scale, but the company's new $999 Surface Laptop, introduced in May, scores even worse: 0/10. According to the repair experts over at iFixit, a teardown analysis of Microsoft Laptop has found an utterly unrepairable device.
“It’s a Russian nesting doll from hell with everything hidden under adhesive and plastic spot welds,” wrote iFixit. “It is physically impossible to nondestructively open this device.”
Not only are there no screws holding the case together, meaning prying apart the Alcantara fabric damages it permanently, but the internals are glued down as well, including the keyboard, the motherboard and even the battery, which is glued directly to the case.
Speaking of which, the battery was boosted from a two-cell 38.2 Wh battery to a four-cell 45 Wh one, a nearly 18 percent increase in battery capacity over the previous model. To squeeze in a bigger battery, Microsoft's engineers have ditched the removable blade SSD.
“Good luck if you need to recover your data from a bricked device,” warns iFixit.
According to iFixit:
Verdict: The Surface Laptop is not a laptop. It’s a glue-filled monstrosity. There is nothing about it that is upgradable or long-lasting, and it literally can’t be opened without destroying it. (Show us the procedure, Microsoft, we’d love to be wrong.)
The device's redesigned passive cooling and a four-armed “beast of a heat sink” allow Intel's Core i5 to run fanless. iFixit has also determined that Alcantara, the fabric used on the keyboard, is not “as stinky as rumors claim,” but cautions that the material looks liable to get nasty once your hands start sweating all over it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAI6yIZI3rg
Bottom line: no matter how hard you try, you’ll never be able to fix or change the components because Surface Laptop is totally unrepairable and non-upgradable.
Windows giant Microsoft today unveiled a nicely designed wireless keyboard with a built-in fingerprint sensor located between the Alt and Ctrl keys, as reported by Engadget.
Dubbed Modern Keyboard and priced at $129.99, the accessory lets users unlock their Windows 10 devices with a finger press using Windows Hello.
The dedicated Fingerprint ID key was designed to blend seamlessly so it would appear to be any other key, said Microsoft. The keyboard supports both wired connections via USB and wireless connections via the low-energy Bluetooth 4.0/4.1 standard.
Although Modern Keyboard can be paired with any device via Bluetooth, fingerprint scanning does not work on iOS and macOS due to the lack of a dedicated Secure Enclave chip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDpGtDzAw4I
Featuring slim, low-profile design and a robust aluminum-clade frame, Modern Keyboard is “heavy and virtually indestructible”, according to Microsoft.
Like Apple's Magic Keyboard, Modern Keyboard sports a built-in rechargeable battery with up to two months on full charge and provides seamless Bluetooth paring experience, with automatic pairing when first connected to a computer via a cable.
Microsoft also unveiled a brand new mouse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eI0klTsqnA
Called Modern Mouse and priced at $49.99, it has an aluminum body and a metal scroll wheel.
The device looks visually similar to Modern Keyboard to match Microsoft's Surface styling. Unfortunately, it uses AAA batteries with up to 12 months of run time on a single charge, not a rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
Furthermore, Modern Mouse is not compatible with macOS.
Both Modern Keyboard and Modern Mouse are listed as “coming soon” on Microsoft Store.
Apple currently sells an extended keyboard with a numeric pad that can be used in either wired or wireless mode. However, the company has yet to make a standalone keyboard with a built-in Touch ID sensor.
Microsoft on Thursday unveiled a major redesign for its Skype video conferencing app. Rebuilt from the ground up, the company says the new app vastly improves the ways you can connect with your favorite people, putting chat front and center.
Early reactions to the new design have pointed out that the interface has kind of a Snapchat vibe. Group chats are more lively, expressive and personalized, and there's a new Stories-like Highlights section that allows you to share a photo or video.
Highlights can be decorated with emojis and text, and they remain available for a full week instead of the usual 24 hours. They can be viewed by anyone who follows you on Skype, or you can choose to send your Highlights to a specific group or user.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU9w41tPXyc
Other new features include Facebook-like reactions to Highlights and chats, in-video chat overlays for emojis, text, stickers and photos, and the addition of smart assistant Cortana. Skype is also adding bots from Bing, Expedia, YouTube and others.
The Skype update hits Android first, later today, iOS within the next few weeks, and Mac and Windows devices within the next few months.
Source: Skype