microsoft news

Microsoft today announced partnership with Stack Overflow to support Stack Overflow Documentation for Microsoft developers. Stack Overflow Documentation is a new community-curated, example-focused developer documentation, based on the principles of Stack Overflow. Microsoft said that Stack Overflow Documentation content will be integrated into docs.microsoft.com API reference content in the future. The launch of Stack Overflow Documentation enables the community to have an easy way to create and vote on code samples using the .NET Framework, Xamarin, and other Microsoft products and technologies.

In the future, docs.microsoft.com will integrate a curated list of Stack Overflow documentation samples directly into Microsoft API documentation. Developers looking at Microsoft API reference will see both samples created by Microsoft as well as Stack Overflow’s samples created by the community

Lea more about this partnership here and here.

With the release of Xbox One Backward Compatibility, consumers can play some of their favorite Xbox 360 titles on their Xbox One, with more titles being added regularly to the list of available games. Microsoft today added 8 new titles, find the list below.

How to install and play Xbox 360 backward compatible games on your Xbox One

• Disc: For disc-based games that are a part of the Back Compat game catalog, simply insert the disc and the console will begin downloading the game to your hard drive. After the game has finished downloading, you will still need to keep the game disc in the drive to play.
• Digital: The digital titles that you own and are part of the Back Compat game catalog will automatically show up in the “Ready to Install” section on your Xbox One, and once they are installed they will show up in the Games section of your Xbox One.

Update: The new firmware is also available for the Lumia 950 XL on the Windows Device Recovery Tool.

Microsoft earlier this month released firmware for the Lumia 950 and 950 XL which enabled the long-awaited double tap to wake feature on them.

While the rollout was earlier limited to single-sim, open market devices, the update is now on the WDRT (Windows Device Recovery Tool) servers for dual sim enabled Lumia 950s according to a report from Windows Central.

Here’s what the firmware update brings to version 01078.00053.16236.35005 brings:

• Wi-Fi connectivity improvements, including fixes for Wi-Fi connection dropping randomly and Wi-Fi scan occasionally not retuing any results.
• Support for double tap to wake enabled.
• Bluetooth connectivity improvements.
• Stability and reliability improvements.
• Camera improvements, including improved image and video quality, improved Auto-focus and fix for a problem that was causing slow motion capture to skip frames for some users.
• Cellular connectivity improvements, including fix for a problem that caused occasional network loss for some users.
• Audio quality improvements, including fix for a problem that caused voice call audio to get scrambled for some users

All in all, it’s a pretty nice update that should add some spring to your Lumia 950.

Its worth noting that an update via WDRT means you’ll end up having to wipe your device and set it up from scratch afterwards, so its better to wait a few weeks till the update finally rolls out OTA (over the air).

Got the new firmware? Let us know what you think in the Idea below.

Surface Hub has been one of the most interesting devices from Microsoft in the last couple of years. The company announced the device last year, and it started shipping the devices to customers recently. The device, as you may expect, isn’t cheap: the 55-inch variant of the device costs $8,999 while the bigger 84-inch variant comes in at $21,999. Now, a Microsoft spokesperson stated that the company has sold the Surface Hub to more than 500 customers worldwide which is quite a lot. Apparently, the demand for the Surface Hub is “very strong and exceeded initial forecasts.” Here is the full statement (via Petri):

“Demand for Surface Hubs is very strong and exceeded initial forecasts. To date, we’ve shipped to over 500 customers worldwide and that number continues to grow. We are ramping up production to meet this strong demand via our partner reseller channel as soon as possible. Customers are encouraged to speak with their sales representative if interested in ordering Surface Hubs.”

As Microsoft stated, the company is ramping up production to meet the demand. However, as it looks like, Surface Hub has been quite a hit for Microsoft already. Did you order a Surface Hub for your company? Let us know in the comment section below.

Game Troopers today released a new game for Windows 10 devices. The company’s new game is for the fans of American Football. The game is available for both PCs and Mobile devices, but it doesn’t seem to be a Windows 10 app which is pretty weird. In case you are wondering, the game itself is pretty simple, as you just need to move your mouse around on your PC to move the player — and on Mobile, you just tap to move the player around to touchdown. Here’s a list of the full features of the game:

• Decide when you want to RAM, SPIN or FAKE to breakthrough towards the TOUCHDOWN ZONE!
• CUSTOMIZE your player from head to toes and show what you’re made of!
• Score TOUCHDOWN after TOUCHDOWN to beat high-scores and climb the ranks!
• Free limitless fun for everyone
• Unique slow-motion feature
• Easy to lea controls
• Loads of teams and characters to unlock
• Different types of opponents, fields and weather conditions
• Original old school graphics
• Great retro-style music and sound effects

You can get the game from the link below.

Developer: GAME TROOPERS

Price: Free^*

Microsoft Translator today announced the Cantonese text translation. It will be available throughout Microsoft Translator’s ecosystem. Cantonese (Language code YUE) is spoken by about 55 million people in China, and another 20M globally. Cantonese will also be available as an IM language in Skype for Windows desktop. It is also available through the Microsoft Translator API, so developers can integrate Cantonese translation into their own products and apps.

Adding Cantonese brings us a step closer to our ultimate goal — permanently breaking down the language barriers that separate us, by allowing people to translate anything, anywhere, at any time. Cantonese speakers in Southeaste Asia and around the globe now have access to a wider range of information and culture, can interact with speakers of 50+ languages throughout the world, and have direct access to the rich history and culture of Cantonese speakers far and wide.

Download Microsoft Translator apps here.

Microsoft is planning to build yet another data center in West Des Moines. This is Microsoft’s third data center in West Des Moines and they are planning to invest $417.7 million in the first phase. Microsoft has applied for $4.7 million in state incentives in the form of a service or tax refund to Iowa Economic Development Authority Board.

This proposed project will be located on the southwest side of West Des Moines, occupying land in both Madison and Warren counties. To receive the incentives, Microsoft must create 57 jobs and 11 of those jobs would have to pay at least $27.92 an hour.

Read more about it from the source link below.

Australian streaming company Stan has released its official app for Windows 10 devices. It offers subscription to unlimited viewing of selected movies and TV shows. With Stan, you access thousands of hours of entertainment including:

* First-run shows including Ash vs Evil Dead, iZombie, UnREAL, Better Call Saul, Transparent, Community, Flesh and Bone and The Following.
* Award-winning and premium TV shows including Breaking Bad, Justified, Fargo, Sherlock, Masters of Sex, The Good Wife and The Last Ship.
* Blockbuster movies including The Imitation Game, Man of Steel, The Hunger Games and The Wolf of Wall Street.
* Every episode ever of hit TV series including Friends, The OC, Will and Grace, The Nanny, Dawson’s Creek and more.
* An exciting slate of kids content including Dora The Explorer, Shrek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, iCarly, The Wiggles and Charlie and Lola.

App features:

* Watch in up to full 1080p HD
* Watch on your TV using Chromecast
* Add your favourite shows to your My List to watch later
* Control your kids viewing with profiles
* View your watch history from any device, continue watching across multiple devices.

Download it from Windows Store using the below link.

Developer: Stan Entertainment Pty. Ltd.

Price: Free

Yesterday, we reported about some of the new UWP applications that are coming to Xbox. MSN Weather app is now available for download from Xbox Store. Using MSN Weather app, you can get the latest weather conditions of your location. You can see accurate hourly, 5-day, and 10-day forecasts. This app automatically syncs your favorite cities across MSN Weather on the web and your mobile apps for quick access to the places you care about.

If you are part of Xbox Preview program in the US, you can download it from Apps Section of Xbox Store.

If you are a fan of the simplicity and reliability of Google’s Chromecast device but do not want to install Google’s power-sucking browser on your PC the latest update to Opera’s developer version of their browser will bring a smile.

The update to version 40.0.2296.0 brings support for Google Chromecast for Opera if you install the extension.

The update also brings support for the 53.0.2783.2 of the Chromium rendering engine, fixes some Windows 64bit issues, and brings a rudimentary RSS readers.

The installation links can be found at Opera here.

NuAns today announced a new contest for its Neo device. The company has started a new #GIVEMEANEO contest, where users will have to post their favorite picture of the NuAns Neo on Instagram, and get a chance to win a free Neo. In a statement to MSPU, the company stated:

Today we are very excited to announce the new #GIVEMEANEO contest. Our first contest will be ran through our Instagram account. Contestants will follow various contest rules in order to win themselves a free NEO device. Winner will be chosen and announced at the completion of the Kickstarter campaign. The device will be delivered the same time as the rest of the Kickstarter orders. (Nov. 2016)

The contest has some rules, which are listed below:

• Must follow @NuAnsGlobal Instagram
• Must tag @NuAnsGlobal in photo
• Must be a photo of NEO
• Use #GivemeaNEO in post
• Must have a minimum of 25 likes to be entered into the contest
• Participants can post as many pictures as they want

As you can see, the rules are pretty simple but you need to have a few followers to get at least 25 likes on a photo, so that might be quite difficult for some fans. If you don’t want a free Neo and want to buy it instead, you can support the company’s Kickstarter here to get a Neo later this year (November). Are you going to enter the NuAns Neo contest? Let us know in the comment section below.

Microsoft recently released Skype UWP app for Windows 10 Mobile devices. Today, Microsoft is releasing another update for Skype UWP app for Windows 10 devices. With the latest update, Microsoft has changed the icons to the “mode” looking icons in the app. The app still doesn’t use the default Windows 10 icons, which is pretty annoying. Recently, they added the following new features,

• You can call mobiles and landlines at low rates using Skype Credits
• Leave and receive voicemails,
• Put a call on hold
• Answer a call if you’re already on a call with call waiting.
• We’ve made it easier for you to find people in search.
• We’ve added additional collaboration tools such as file sharing, screen sharing and translation for audio and video calls.
• For a new way to bring expertise, products, services and entertainment into daily messaging on Skype, we’ve also released a preview of Skype Bots.
• Lastly, we’ve made many improvements to the overall app performance and experience.

Download it from Windows Store using the below link.

Developer: Skype

Price: Free

TeamViewer is releasing their QuickSupport app for Windows 10 Mobile devices. With this app, you can remote control your Windows device or allow a technician to access and control your device as if it were in their hands.

Features:

• Live screen sharing

• Remote control

• Exchange information securely using the clipboard

• Secured connection with 256 bit AES session encoding

• Get support for your device from any computer (Windows, Mac, Linux).

Download the preview here from Windows Store.

Developer: TeamViewer

Price: Free

An HP consultant is currently taking and answering questions on the new Windows 10 Mobile flagship, the HP Elite X3.

Some information revealed so far is that the device will be available in Paypal credit, that it runs a 32 bit version of Windows 10 Mobile TH2, so not all 4 GB is available to the OS (yet), executives are “drooling about it”, that the camera is actually pretty good and that battery life is “off the hook”.

He also confirmed image stabilization is via software, and that the device features active noise cancellation.

He also interestingly said it does support CDMA but will not be certified on Verizon.

He confirmed the lap dock will cost $499 and said that HP Work Space will allow you to connect accessories via your lap dock ports to the virtual PC in the cloud, allowing you for example to print from Word in the cloud to a local printer.

The device is expected to last 12-15 months on the shelves, before being replaced with another, and the system is targetted at vertical markets such as medical, sales and other highly mobility enterprises.

See three camera samples below:

Take part in the Q&A here.

So for now you can tu it on again and reload the App to the latest version (if it doesn`t update automatically). Please be sure that your current version is 1.0.33.0.

Client for Hangouts Pro in the Windows Store

Try new Client for Hangouts Pro version!

New features:
– Ability to add more than one image / photo to send. View/delete images before sending.
– Ability to insert an image from the clipboard.
– User search for any email.
– Enable / Disable to save chat history.
– “Paper clip” button. When writing a message “paper clip” hides items to add photos and images, giving more space for text.

Fixed bugs:
– Improved the synchronization between the client and the web version (update tiles).
– Improved opening of panel with smiles. Opening of panel is smooth now.
– Fixed bug with lost messages.
– Fixed bug of displaying conversations with Google Voice.
– Fixed bug with a long connection.

Developer: Attractor Mobile Software

Price: $4.99^*

A brand new build’s just landed in the Xbox One preview program, and it should be downloaded to your Xbox very soon if you’re a preview member. This build was originally announced a few hours ago by Brad Rossetti on Twitter, and released at 6PM PDT/9PM EDT.

You can check out the full changelog for the build below.

Xbox Universal Store
The Terms of Use should no longer appear again after backing out of the purchase interface.
CAST
Resolved an issue which could cause the console to crash in response to using the media remote with the CAST app.
Home
Resolved an issue which caused a white flash to appear when launching the context menu (pressing menu button) while a game or app is minimized in the large tile on Home.
My Games & Apps
Games should no longer appear in the Apps category. Pressing the Xbox button after a game or app finishes installing should now correctly launch the game or app.
Localization
Numerous localization fixes for Home, Sign in, and Settings.

CURRENT KNOWN ISSUES

Guide
The Guide may fail to launch by navigating to the left on the dashboard or double tapping the Xbox button.
Netflix
You may experience a “Do you own this game or app?” error when launching or using Netflix if it was installed by another user on the console. Workaround: While signed in as the primary user, uninstall Netflix, navigate to the Store, search for Netflix and select Free to download and install it.
Profile
Users are able to select their own Gamertag at no charge once per account. After this you will be charged for future Gamertag changes. In the current update, any free Gamertag changes will complete successfully. Attempting to purchase a Gamertag change will charge your account, but will not change your Gamertag. Please avoid purchasing a Gamertag change on Xbox One at this time. To successfully change your Gamertag, visit https://account.xbox.com/ChangeGamertag.
When selecting “Add new” to add a new profile, the add profile interface may take up to 30 seconds to appear.
Cortana
When using a language Cortana does not support, you may still see references to Cortana in text.
Pins
If you have pins on your Home to movies, TV shows, or music, they will disappear from Home when that app takes its new app update. The pins for the apps will stay on your Home, easy to get to.
My Games & Apps
You may encounter an error when attempting to load Ready to Install with a large number of digital games and apps.
Community Calendar
Links to the Store in Community Calendar event details do not currently function.

Are you an Xbox One Preview member? Let us know in the Idea below!

Microsoft is now releasing Windows 10 Anniversary Update (build 14393) to the slow ring for Windows Insiders. This update, believed to be the version Microsoft will ship to consumers on August 2 (i.e RTM). I’ve been running this on my Surface since it hit the fast ring and in my experience, it has been smooth, crash free, and generally behaves just like you’d expect an RTM build to on a daily driver PC.

Here’s what Microsoft’s fixed for both PC and Mobile devices:

• We have improved the reliability of Start, Cortana, and Action Center.
• You should now be able to mount iPods as USB mass-storage devices.

• We fixed an issue resulting in rapid battery drain when Visual Voicemail syncs voicemail messages on Dual SIM devices like the Lumia 950 XL.
• We also fixed an issue causing some battery drain on older devices like the Lumia 535, 640, 735, 830, 930 and Icon.
• We fixed the issue causing Voice Recorder to not show up consistently as an option for Call Recording. An app update was released last Friday that fixes this issue. Make sure you have the app version 10.1607.1931.0.
• We fixed several issues impacting Dual SIM capabilities. Using a device with two SIMs should work as it should.

For PC users, there isn’t anything to worry about in this build of note – while Surface users has a BSOD issue originally, Microsoft’s taken care of that with a quick fix update.

For mobile users, here are some of the pitfalls Microsoft highlights:

If you’re a Windows Insider on the release ring, now’s the time to get on the slow ring. It won’t get much better than this for a while. For an hour or so of your time, you gain extension support, access to newer Microsoft apps, and backend improvements to Windows 10 reliability. Sure it’s still a “preview” at this point, but seeing as it is much likely the same thing you’d get in 2 weeks – there’s no harm in opening your presents a bit earlier,

We posted earlier today that following an architecture change Skype is set to drop support for Skype on Windows Phone 8.1, and older versions of Android. The Windows Phone app is set to stop working in October 2016.

Rudy Hyunn has now reminded us that this means more than 80% of Windows Phone users will soon be excluded from the app.

Skype will drop the support of WP8.1 devices, seriously?7
~80% of WPhones runs 8.1…One more bullet in the feet… pic.twitter.com/RrAMcR0HZN

— Rudy Huyn (@RudyHuyn) July 20, 2016

This is not the first time the Microsoft company dropped support for older versions of Windows Phone, with the company abandoning 10 million Windows Phone 7 users in August 2014. With the vast majority of Windows Phone users still on Windows Phone 8.1, we estimate on this occasion 30-50 million Windows Phone users have been left in the lurch once again.

In a case of deja vu we then wrote:

It is expected the move is due to Skype moving to a new architecture, and not feeling bothered enough to code a new app for a dying platform.

This attitude is of course common, but seeing it from Microsoft itself should set off alarm bells about promises for future support.

The crux of the issue is of course that Microsoft reneged on its promise to upgrade all Windows Phone 8.1 users to Windows 10, and the limited distribution and selection of Windows 10 Mobile handsets even if users wanted to upgrade within the OS family.

It seems clear to me that Microsoft has already discounted the mass of the Windows Phone installed base, and that this will soon result in a self-fulfilling prophesy of an installed base so small that its irrelevant even to Microsoft.

Dr. Girish Shirali, a pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Mercy hospital in Kansas City has created an app that has already saved babies and made life easier for their worried parents, and now it’s expanding across the country and being contemplated for many types of diseases as well. Shirali’s app is called Cardiac High Acuity Monitoring Program, or CHAMP, consists of a Microsoft Surface 3 running Windows 10, connected to a database in the Microsoft Cloud. This app has been a success with 62 patients in Kansas City so far, and now 16 families in Seattle are using it.

Before the app and tablet were introduced, parents would check various vital signs at home, such as heartrate, weight and oxygen saturation, that are important indicators of cardiac health, and then it was up to them to provide that information to the hospital each week over the phone. Otherwise nurses would try to track down the parents to find out if they were conceed about anything.

With this app, the family enters the baby’s information in the app throughout each day, and the figures are instantly analyzed in the cloud. If there are any measurements outside healthy cardiac parameters, such as oxygen saturation that’s too low or high, the baby’s medical team is automatically alerted. There’s also an “I’m conceed” box parents can click that will immediately page the nurse.

“It was a reactive model,” says Lori Erickson, a nurse practitioner and the clinical coordinator for the CHAMP program. “Now it’s become proactive. I can see every piece of data within two minutes as it goes from the tablet to the cloud, and even if there are no alerts, we look through the reports every day. We can catch things before parents do, because we’re the ones who are medically trained, and that’s the way it should be, to reduce the burden on the parents.”

Read more about this story here.

Microsoft has started teasing background music support for the Groove Music app on the Xbox One. If you are running the latest builds from the Xbox One Preview program, you will now be greeted with a Coming Soon message in the Groove Music app. The message states:

Groove will be launching a new ap pexperience on Xbox One that includes background music. In the meantime, you can continue enjoying the current Groove app.

Of course, this isn’t anything surprising as Microsoft has previously announced that this feature will be coming to the Xbox One with the Anniversary Update. However, this message could mean that we will be getting the new Groove app on the Xbox One very soon. If you are a Groove Music user, are you excited about the upcoming app? Let us know in the comment section below.

Thanks for the tip, The Wee Bear!