Category: Microsoft

Microsoft’s Skype for Android has hit a rare benchmark.  The communications app has hit the 1 billion downloads mark, something that few apps have reached, especially those outside of Google itself.  The messaging, calling and video app has been around in various names for years and is one of the linking apps between phones and PCs for Windows users.  It may have taken it a while to hit one billion downloads but it did it and many others have never come close.  Indeed, even Microsoft’s other apps are mostly in the 100 million download range.

Like many of their other Android apps, Microsoft has continued to update the features of Skype and that continues today.  There is a small update that is rolling out in the Play Store that bring messaging improvements.  The update is version 8.9.0.64295 for those keeping score at home and should be rolling out to users over the course of the next few days.

The popular keyboard app SwiftKey has a new update rolling out in the Play Store today.  The update, version 6.6.9.32 for those keeping score at home, is primarily a performance and bug fix release but there are a couple of new features of note too.

First, the app now supports signing in and synchronizing of your learned words and typing patterns with your Microsoft account.  Support for Google and email sign-ins have been support for some time now but not for those who prefer to use their Microsoft account.  Why is this a big deal?  Because Microsoft owns SwiftKey.  They bought the company in February 2016 so it seems odd that it took this long to bring support for their own accounts to their own apps.

Microsoft continues to develop their suite of apps for Android and the latest update to Microsoft Teams reflects that development.  The Slack-like app for enterprise Office 365 customers has been updated to version 1416/1.0.0.2017071901 for those keeping score at home and with it comes several key new features and improvements.

The big news is HD audio & video joining of meetings.  Audio meetings has been in Teams for sometime now but the audio was not HD quality and the option to join via video was not available.  Now when you join a meeting, you have the option to do so via video from your phone.

Microsoft has begun rolling out a significantly revamped Bing for Android app to the Play Store.  The update brings a new look with a simplified search experience, a color refresh, and quicker access to specific content in search results.  The update also expands the search results you can get from the app such as searching for GIFs and being able to save them to your favorites.

While most Android users tend to think about Google Search on their devices, Bing remains the number 2 search engine in the United States and for those who are deep into the Microsoft ecosystem, especially Windows 10 users, this update to the Bing app will be a welcome update.

Microsoft has released their financial report for their fiscal year Q3 2017 that ended in March.  The company reported revenue of $23.6 billion for the quarter which was down slightly from what analysts had expected.  Their expectation was $23.62 billion and it has impacted their stock in after hours trading.  The positive however were around Microsoft’s cloud solutions and Office.  Cloud revenue, principally Azure, were up 11% to $6.8 billion year-over-year.  Productivity and Business Processes increased by 22% with Office products revenue increasing by 7%.  Office consumer products rose 15% and Dynamics saw a 10% for the quarter.

A bit of a surprise in the report was the falling Microsoft Surface revenue.  It fell 26% for the quarter despite the launch of the Surface Studio.  The lack of significant hardware upgrades in the lineup likely impacted this the most and there is only rumor and conjecture at this point when the Surface Pro will get a technology refresh.  Overall, personal technology numbers fell by 7% to $8.8 billion.

Today, Microsoft is officially calling it a day on Windows Vista.  The ten year old version of Windows has officially reached EOL (End of Life) and if there are any readers who are still using it, it is seriously time to upgrade.  EOL means that Microsoft is doing nothing to support the OS any longer.  There will be no further security updates or patches and no service packs for the platform.  In other words, you are on your own.  Microsoft is still maintaining and supporting Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

Windows Vista was codenamed Longhorn and was the first in a series of departures from the traditional look and feel of Windows to that point.  It was also the first version of Windows that seriously focused on security with multiple security improvements over Windows XP.  It was launched in October 2009 globally.