Pedro Hernandez

Microsoft has released the May 2014 update for Power Query, the Excel add-on that links to the company’s cloud-enabled Power BI business intelligence offering. Released on Feb. 10, Power BI is Microsoft’s attempt at “bringing BI to a billion users,” according to Julia White, general manager of Office product marketing. The update includes a time-saving […]

Microsoft and Salesforce.com announced a strategic partnership on May 29 that promises to connect Windows and Office to the popular customer relationship management (CRM) cloud ecosystem. Financial terms are being kept under wraps. The aim is to provide a more seamless, productivity-enhancing Salesforce experience to users of Microsoft’s operating system and productivity software offerings. “The […]

Microsoft has expanded on the number of locations that users of the free Bing Maps Preview app for Windows 8 can explore in 3D. “With this release, we’re making it even easier to explore the beautiful cities that we have lit up in three dimensions,” announced the company in a statement. “Using the new Explore […]

SAP and Microsoft are delivering on some key components of their recently expanded partnership agreement. On May 19, the companies announced that as part of a joint deal to deliver new business cloud services and mobile solutions, SAP would give Microsoft Azure its seal of approval. Now, the companies have made it official. “Azure is […]

Microsoft unveiled a new technology called Skype Translator that may soon eliminate one of the biggest roadblocks in interpersonal communications. On May 27, during the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Gurdeep Pall, corporate vice president of Skype and Lync, showed how Skype Translator can provide near-real-time translation service. […]

Microsoft announced today that it had acquired Capptain, a Paris-based mobile analytics specialist, for an unspecified sum. Aimed at marketers, Capptain’s platform analyzes the behavior of mobile app users, segments those users, and pushes targeted and timely messages to foster greater levels of engagement and provide better customer service. Real-time geofencing support allows customers to […]

On May 20, Panos Panay, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Surface division, introduced the Surface Pro 3, a bigger version of the company’s x86-based computing slate that runs the full, non-RT version of Windows 8.1. A week later, Panay and his team returned to delve deeper into the factors that guided the tablet’s development. In […]

Android is essentially free for device makers that want to build products based on Google’s mobile operating system. Incidentally, Android is tightly integrated with several major Google services, including Gmail, Maps and, of course, Google Search. Now, Microsoft is following suit. After months of rumors, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant officially took the wraps off […]

Microsoft surprised the tech press on May 20 when instead of revealing the highly anticipated Surface Mini, it debuted an even bigger Surface Pro. Rather than jump into a competitive small tablet market dominated by the likes of the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Apple iPad Mini, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant instead decided to […]

Coinciding with the release of the cheaper, Kinect-less Xbox One in June, Microsoft is readying a new update that will enable external storage support on the console. Xbox Live’s Larry Hryb, also known as Major Nelson, announced in a blog post that next month, Xbox One owners will be able to plug in additional storage. […]