Pedro Hernandez

Microsoft’s venerable Skype instant messaging and conferencing apps are getting a youth-oriented makeover. The company is rolling out a major overhaul of its Skype mobile app, first to Android followed soon by an iOS version for iPhones and iPads. The desktop Skype clients for Windows and macOS will follow suit in the coming months, according […]

Confirming earlier rumblings, Microsoft officially announced today that it is acquiring cyber-security firm Hexadite. Although the financial details of the transaction are officially being kept under wraps, financial news outlet Calcalist reported last month that Microsoft agreed to buy the firm for estimated $100 million. “Microsoft has signed a deal with intent to acquire Hexadite,” […]

Microsoft is making managing contacts on Outlook for iOS and Android easier with a new update. On the latest iOS version of the mobile email client, users can now add and edit Outlook.com and Office 365 contacts. The feature will soon be available in an update to the Android version of the app as well. […]

Data Science Virtual Machine (DSVM), Microsoft’s cloud-based offering for big data analytics, is now available in a new preview version based on Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Edition. Previously, the Windows version of DSVM only ran on a Windows Server 2012 image. Microsoft also makes DSVM available in Ubuntu and CentOS Linux flavors. In upgrading to […]

Microsoft’s cloud is constantly under attack. While it’s no surprise that the Redmond, Wash. technology giant makes a tempting target for cyber-attackers, but the scale of the attacks weathered by the company may raise some eyebrows. On a typical day, 1.5 million attempts are made to breach Microsoft’s cloud systems, the company revealed today in […]

Microsoft Azure isn’t the only cloud that can run Windows Server Containers. Cloud hosting provider Atlantic.Net has added support for Windows Server Containers, enabling its customers to accelerate their cloud DevOps initiatives. The company provides its services from six data centers, located in San Francisco, New York, Dallas, Toronto, London and its hometown of Orlando, […]

Microsoft has expanded Bing’s image search capabilities, enabling users to not only find images online that fit their criteria but also learn more about the objects contained in those images. Bing’s Visual Search feature now includes a new object recognition option called Detailed View that allows users to select and search for items within a […]

A mistake on Microsoft’s part may have revealed the existence of an upcoming edition of Windows 10 Pro aimed at workstations stuffed with high-end components to handling compute-intensive applications. Last Thursday, the software giant unintentionally released some internal builds of the Windows 10 operating system to the Windows Insider early access program. “This happened because […]

In its latest stab at cloud-based data protection for enterprises, Microsoft is making it easier for Azure Backup customers to bounce back from Windows Server mishaps, or worse, debilitating ransomware attacks. Moving beyond simple data backups, Microsoft this week announced an expansion of the features in its Azure Backup agent software that also take a […]

Nearly two months after the release candidate of Microsoft’s open-source deep learning toolkit made the rounds, the company made it official this week by announcing the general availability of Cognitive Toolkit version 2.0 under an open-source license. Formerly known as the Computational Network Toolkit (CNTK), this artificial intelligence (AI) toolkit includes a deep learning system […]

Full-fledged Windows on ARM-based hardware took a major step closer to reality this week. During the Computex 2017 tradeshow in Taipei, Microsoft officially announced the impending release of so-called “Always Connected PCs” featuring eSIM technolgy, some of which will be powered by Snapdragon 835 processors from Qualcomm. Echoing the software giant’s relatively new “cloud-first” ethos, […]

Nearly a year after launching Planner, Microsoft’s answer to Trello, Blossom and other collaborative project management tools, the software giant has released a companion app for Android smartphones and the Apple iPhone. Planner is available to customers with subscriptions to Office 365 Enterprise (plans E1 through E5), Business Essentials, Business Premium or Education. On the […]