Tag: Microsoft

Today at a special Windows Mixed Reality event in San Francisco, Samsung announced their new headset, the Odyssey.  The headset will retail for $499 and will start shipping on November 6th.  Pre-Orders however have begun at the Microsoft Store.

The Odyssey will have built-in AKG headphones that will over spatial audio and has dual array microphones.  The OLED screen in the headset will render at 2880 x 1600 at 90Hz.  This is by far the highest resolution of the other Windows Mixed Reality headsets that are on the market.  It will also have 110° of viewing angle.  Motion controllers are also included with the headset.

For those of you who have been waiting for a 1TB version of the Microsoft Surface Laptop, you wait is over – unless you want any color other than Platinum.  Microsoft has made their ultimate rendition of the laptop now available for purchase.  It had been on pre-order for a while but now anyone who has the cash can pick one up.

The price is an eye watering $2699 and for that, you get an Intel i7 powered machine, 16GB of RAM and the afore mentioned 1TB SSD for storage.  You can order yours here.

In a surprise move, Microsoft has announced that the Microsoft Groove music service will be ended on December 31st of this year with Spotify becoming the music streaming service of choice.

As of October 2, 2017, we’re excited to announce that we’re partnering with Spotify to bring the world’s largest music streaming service to you. We know that access to the best streaming experience, the largest catalog of music, and a variety of subscriptions are on the top of your list. Now you can move your curated playlists and collection from Groove directly into Spotify.

It is a surprising move by Microsoft but equally, given how competitive the streaming music market is these days, it isn’t completely shocking.

For the Android faithful who get frustrated by the use of older versions of the platform, take heart.  The problem is also shared by Microsoft Windows.

StatCounter has released their monthly report on Windows version usage globally and while Windows 10 has made gains, it still trails the now 8 year old Windows 7.  Windows 7 commanded 43.99% of all Windows-based internet traffic in September while Windows 10 jumped up to 39.3%.  That is up from 37.87% in August 2017.

In a Business Insider report that was published today, Microsoft Cortana only trails Google Assistant in overall answer accuracy as well as the number of questions asked.  In fact, Assistant and Cortana were well ahead of Apple Siri and Amazon Alexa in both categories.

The report focused on the news from earlier this week that Apple is replacing Bing as the default search engine for Siri in MacOS High Sierra and iOS 11 and points out that the move, which will have Siri leverage Google Search APIs, will likely dramatically help Apple’s assistant in its use and accuracy.

The US territory Puerto Rico was for all intents-and-purposes destroyed a couple of weeks ago by Hurricane Maria.  Millions are without power and even basic human needs like food and water are scarce.  One of the challenges is for people here in the US to get in contact with friends & family on the island since the hurricane but Microsoft is trying to help.

Until further notice, calls to Puerto Rico landlines and mobile numbers will be free via Skype.  The company announced the waiving of fees this morning and it is in effect for both domestic and international calls via Skype.