Microsoft began rolling out substantial updates to some core Windows 8 and Windows RT applications tonight. And while users of the Mail, People, and Calendar apps will see a laundry list of new features, they will also reportedly lose some functionality. Users of Mail, Calendar, and Contact apps have lost sync support via Google's Exchange ActiveSync, according to a report in The Verge.
More tidbits are leaking out about the kinds of changes to expect from
Windows Blue, the next big release of Microsoft's signature operating
system. In an alleged newly leaked build, the Windows 8 Start screen appears with both bigger and smaller Live Tile setups, an additional snap view, and new personalization options. It also shows a hint of IE 11.
As Microsoft marches toward its early April 2013 end-of-free-support deadline for Windows 7, the company is planning to update automatically some of those who still have yet to install the first (and seemingly only) Service Pack for the operating system. As announced yesterday on the Microsoft "Blogging Windows" blog, Microsoft plans to begin rolling out Windows 7 SP1 automatically, via Windows Update to Windows 7 users who still are running the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) version without SP1 installed. This process will begin today.
In a surprise reversal, Microsoft has changed the default behavior of Flash content on websites viewed using Internet Explorer in Windows 8 or Windows RT. Previously, sites had to be on a whitelist before Flash would work. The new behavior effectively turns the Compatibility View list into an exclusive blacklist of badly behaved sites.
Six months after its initial launch, the preview of Outlook.com, Microsoft’s free webmail service that is meant to replace the aging Hotmail brand and design, now has over 60 million active users according to the company’s own data. Microsoft is officially taking Outlook.com out of preview and will start prompting its 360 million Hotmail users to switch to the new service (while keeping their old email addresses). Microsoft expects to switch all Hotmail users to the new interface and platform by the summer.
As previously announced, the February cumulative update includes fixes designed to improve Surface Wi-Fi reliability and connectivity, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed. Microsoft also has provided a fix for the app-store-downloading bug that a number of Surface RT and Windows RT users reported a few weeks back. The problem resulted in Windows RT systems entering Connected Standby while the devices were downloading new Windows Updates via Automatic Update.
Microsoft and Huawei announced yesterday that they're partnering to bring a new Windows Phone to Africa. The two companies are targeting the continent, which is one of the fastest growing technology markets in the world but has seen few smartphones to date and whose majority of users still rely on feature phones. Dubbed Huawei 4Afrika, the smartphone will be the first in a series of devices being created for the region.
In an effort to create more synergy between its products, Microsoft’s search platform Bing has announced that Office 365 Premium is now available to users. The five apps included in the add-on for the newly launched Office 365 and Office 2013 make it easier for users to insert information and images directly from Bing searches into their documents. They are: Bing Finance for Excel, Bing Maps for Excel, Bing Image Search for Word, Bing News Search for Word, and Bing Dictionary for Excel and Word.
Microsoft is taking the wraps off its most ambitious Office project yesterday. The software giant, synonymous with Office and Windows, is aiming to turn users over to a subscription package with its latest offering: Office 365. It's an important change for the company, but convincing users to pay an ongoing monthly or annual charge for its latest Office is going to be a hard sell, and the company is very much aware of that — treading carefully in its march towards the cloud.
Microsoft continues to expand its cloud offerings with the general availability of Windows Azure Media Services, which lets enterprises skip building their own infrastructure for streaming on-demand video. The service, released Tuesday, can be used to deliver training videos to employees; stream video content from a website; or build video-on-demand service similar to Hulu or Netflix.