Pedro Hernandez

Owners of the new, Kinect-less version of Microsoft’s video game console will soon be able to upgrade to the full, voice- and motion-controlled Xbox One experience. Microsoft’s lower-priced Xbox One console, which ships without the formerly included Kinect sensor, went on sale on June 9 for $100 less than the full-fledged bundle ($499) that first […]

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 tablet is now available in more regions beyond the United States, Canada and Japan. Microsoft began making the latest version of its business-friendly tablet available to 25 additional markets, starting with New Zealand, the company announced in an Aug. 27 statement. Unlike the staggered launch of the Intel Core i3, i5 […]

Microsoft isn’t slowing down in its efforts to lure enterprise customers—and their databases—onto the company’s Azure cloud computing platform. Soon after the company unveiled a preview of the security-enhancing Azure SQL auditing feature, Eron Kelly, general manager of product marketing for Microsoft SQL Server, announced upcoming changes to the company’s cloud-based database offering. He said […]

Lync-based virtual meetings are becoming easier to manage on iOS devices. Microsoft has added new mobile teleconferencing features to its Lync apps for Apple’s iPad tablet and iPhone. Lync is Microsoft’s enterprise unified communications and collaboration software platform, the Redmond, Wash.-based software maker’s business-class alternative to Skype, of sorts. Barak Manor, product manager for Lync […]

Bing Maps users who visit the island nation of Japan now have a new navigational aid. The company has bulked up its mass transit features for the country, said Microsoft’s Bing Team in an Aug. 25 announcement. “With this release, we’ve expanded the number of agencies and routes in Bing Maps,” they stated. “This means […]

Enterprises have one less reason to be concerned about running their SQL databases on the Azure cloud computing platform, according to Microsoft. The Redmond, Wash.-based software company and cloud services provider has launched a preview of the SQL Database Auditing feature for Azure SQL DB. “This is a key security enhancement that removes barriers from […]

Microsoft may soon face a new competitor in China. The country’s government is preparing to launch a local competitor to Microsoft’s Windows desktop operating system this fall, according to the Chinese news outlet Xinhua. Remarks by Ni Guangnan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, head of a government-backed OS development alliance established in March, were […]

Microsoft has issued an update that brings search-based navigation capabilities from the on-premises version of SharePoint to intranets based on SharePoint Online, the company’s cloud-based business collaboration platform. “Now we’ve enabled two features that previously were available only in SharePoint Server 2013—the Taxonomy Refinement Panel Web Part (TRPWP) and faceted navigation,” announced the company in […]

Microsoft’s love-hate relationship with the U.S. government is turning a bit more amicable, at least when it comes to Windows Phone. The U.S. government is a big technology buyer. The 2014 federal IT budget weighs in at over $81 billion. For fiscal 2015, federal IT spending will to dip somewhat to $79 billion, according to […]

Microsoft has released a preview of DocumentDB, a NoSQL document service for the company’s Azure cloud computing platform. The NoSQL database movement has picked up in recent years after Internet bigwigs like Twitter have flocked to non-relational data stores as scalable foundations for their Web services. “DocumentDB is truly schema-free,” said Scott Guthrie, executive vice […]

Microsoft’s embrace of environmentally friendly practices extends to its newly acquired Nokia handset business. Lumia smartphones, which run the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft, not only contain energy-saving features like Battery Sense, but they are also eco-friendly devices in their own right, according to the company. Microsoft completed the acquisition of the Lumia […]

Microsoft and cellular phone and data services provider TracFone are betting that smartphones can help improve health care. The companies announced on Aug. 21 that they are collaborating on a mobile health pilot program with the help of Health Choice Network, a Miami-based health care IT and business services company. Participants will be provided Windows […]