Microsoft

Strategy Analytics has issued its latest estimates of global mobile phone shipments, and reports that Huawei overtook Microsoft (which incorporates the Nokia-designed Lumia) last quarter to become the third-largest mobile phone vendor in the world. The company saw its shipments grow almost 50% to 30.6M units, contrasting strongly with an overall industry growth rate of just 2%.

Ken Hyers, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Huawei shipped 30.6 million mobile phones and captured a record 7 percent marketshare worldwide in Q2 2015. Huawei is rising fast in all regions of the world, particularly China where its 4G models, such as the Mate7, are proving wildly popular. Huawei has finally overtaken Microsoft to become the world’s third largest mobile phone vendor for the first time ever.”

The company shared some earnings results earlier this month, showing a 30% increase in revenue and claiming to be on track to hit 100M sales this year.

Samsung retained the number one slot, but saw its market share slip from 22.3% to 20.5% on disappointing Galaxy S6 sales. Samsung earlier revealed an 8% drop in profits, the fifth year running it has reported a decline in profitability …

Quick Look at Microsoft’s new Arrow Launcher beta for Android [Video]

Cam Bunton Jul 29 2015 - 4:16 pm PT

A couple of days ago, Microsoft pushed out a beta version of a new Android launcher out to testers. Arrow Launcher aims to give you all the most important people and apps as efficiently as possible. Apps are on one screen, notes and reminders on another, and contacts on a third.

It’s still in its early beta stages, but Arrow Launcher reminds me a little of Yahoo’s Aviate launcher. It’s not the most customizable launcher ever developed, but it does seem efficient and I can see, with time, it’ll be really productive. I’ve put together a quick video to give you an overview of all the features of Arrow Launcher.

Xbox Music’s ‘Groove’ name-change hits Android in redesigned app

Cam Bunton Jul 29 2015 - 1:37 pm PT

Xbox Music changed its name to Groove at the beginning of this month, and today, the rebranding has made its way to the music app on Android’s Play Store. It’s free to download, and is available right now.

Along with the new look and name, the app has had a couple of new features added. More devices can now download tracks for offline listening thanks to newly added compatibility. Music stored in your OneDrive folders will automatically show as music in the new Groove app. What’s more, you won’t need a paid subscription to make use of the app, although you will need one to access the entire streaming catalogue ad-free.

As per the Play Store listing:
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Skype for Android updated with visual refresh & improved chat experience

Zac Hall Jul 22 2015 - 7:44 am PT

Microsoft has released an updated version of Skype for Android today that delivers both a visual refresh to several parts of the app as well as performance improvements throughout.
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Cortana BETA vs. Google Now: How does Microsoft’s assistant for Android stack up?

Cam Bunton Jul 20 2015 - 7:37 am PT

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Late last week, Microsoft made its Cortana digital assistant available as a beta for Android, and we’ve been putting it through its paces ever since to see how it stacks up against Google Now. To compare, we put together a list of all the things we think a good assistant should be able to do, then tested them both using the same commands.
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First Look at the Microsoft Cortana beta on Android (Video)

Cam Bunton Jul 17 2015 - 2:41 pm PT

Microsoft recently released its Cortana digital assistant as a beta app, and we’ve been able to get our hands on the preview. Apart from its Material-like design, the app looks, performs, and acts just like the Cortana on Windows Phone. You can ask it to set reminders, give you directions and weather information, or do simple arithmetic. It has its limitations and doesn’t feel quite as intuitive or in-depth as Google Now or Siri, but it has its uses.

PSA: Microsoft’s ‘Hyperlapse Mobile’ is now out of beta

Stephen Hall Jul 17 2015 - 1:47 pm PT

We told you in May about a new app from Microsoft called “Hyperlapse Mobile” (not to be confused with Instagram’s Hyperlapse), but it was at the time only available to an exclusive set of beta testers. Now, the app is publicly available to any and all that might want to give it a try, and — aside from its horrendous icon — I’m decently impressed.

Not much has changed since it was first introduced, and it’s still a little on the buggy side according to reviews, but overall users — myself included, briefly — are satisfied with the app’s resulting video footage. You can import existing video into the app, choose between multiple speeds, create selfie hyperlapses, and more.

You can get Microsoft Hyperlapse Mobile right now on the Play Store for free.

Microsoft’s Cortana for Android beta leaks a bit early, we try it out [Gallery]

Stephen Hall Jul 17 2015 - 11:27 am PT

Microsoft announced last month that its Cortana voice assistant would be coming to Android in beta at some point in July, but it looks like the APK has managed to leak out a bit early. We grabbed it as soon as we could, and decided to give it a look. And our first impression, frankly, is that there’s not really anything special about Cortana — especially when Android has Google Now, Hound, and other competitors to pick from.

Google Cloud Platform expands to General Availability on Windows

Chance Miller Jul 14 2015 - 7:54 am PT

Google today has announced that its Compute Engine on Windows is expanding to General Availability. Google’s Cloud Platform allows users to deploy and operate a wide variety of technologies and today’s expansion to Windows will allow for more users to take advantage of the platform.

Compute Engine offers Windows 2012 R2 and Windows 2008 R2 customers benefits of rapid deployments, increased uptime due to transparent maintenance, cheap and predictable block storage, and best in class Google Cloud Storage Nearline backup. Sharepoint, SQL and Exchange Server, and other Microsoft applications are also available to Compute Engine customers via the Microsoft License Mobility program.

Google shared more details about the graduation to General Availability for Compute Engine on Windows in a blog post on its Cloud Platform blog. Details include that Windows instances are now covered by the Compute Engine SLA, the ability for users to deploy a server running Active Directory or ASP.NET using the Cloud Launcher, and users can securely extend their existing infrastructure into Google Cloud Platform using VPN.

Microsoft’s $99 Universal Foldable Keyboard for Android & other devices now available

Jordan Kahn Jul 14 2015 - 7:27 am PT

Microsoft’s new Universal Foldable Keyboard, first unveiled earlier this year, is now available to purchase online and through Microsoft stores. The super portable Bluetooth keyboard folds in half when not in use and allows users to connect to two mobile devices at once including Android, iPhones, iPads, and Windows devices.

Microsoft notes that the keyboard has full-size keys, a spill-resistant, water-repellent keyboard and outer material, and a built-in rechargeable battery that will get you around three months of use on a charge. There’s also an “OS” button for switching between connected devices. Here’s a closer look at the keyboard:

The Microsoft Universal Foldable Keyboard is available for $100 on Amazon, and it’s also available through Microsoft retail stores and online.

Microsoft made a new video for today’s launch to show off some of the keyboard’s features and its compact, 5mm thin design:

[youtube=https://youtu.be/zNrop5Mwv0g]

Microsoft de-emphasising phone hardware, writes off more than it paid for Nokia, cuts 7,800 jobs

Ben Lovejoy Jul 8 2015 - 8:09 am PT

Windows Phone has not been the greatest success story in the world, and Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia to produce its own handsets looks to have been an even bigger flop. The company today announced that it is writing off $7.6B against the Nokia business – more than it paid for the company in the first place.

Microsoft has also revealed that it will be laying-off 7,800 staff – more than 6% of its workforce – over the next few months, mostly from the Phones business …
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Yahoo trialling Google ads in search despite earlier objections by Dept of Justice

Ben Lovejoy Jul 2 2015 - 6:24 am PT

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Yahoo is currently including Google ads in some of its search results in what the company described to the NY Times as a “small test.” The ads were first spotted by SEO Book.

Yahoo confirmed on Wednesday that it has begun testing the use of Google search ads for a small portion of its desktop and mobile web search results. “As we work to create the absolute best experiences for Yahoo users, from time to time, we run small tests with a variety of partners including search providers,” the company said.

Google offered Yahoo an ad partnership all the way back in 2008, but pulled out after objections from the Department of Justice on antitrust grounds …
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Gmail for Android now has Oauth support for Yahoo and Microsoft accounts

Tom Maxwell Jun 10 2015 - 1:08 pm PT

Google killed its stock email app in favor of Gmail with the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop, but they also made it possible to connect email accounts from other providers including Microsoft and Yahoo. Today they’ve gone ahead and added OAuth support for both of these third-party providers, which means increased security and added features including two-step verification and account recovery. The change will be rolling out to users over the next few days.

OAuth is an open-source standard used for authorization by many large services including Twitter, PayPal, and a bevy of others. In layman’s terms OAuth is used by these service providers to give applications like Gmail for Android a token they can use to access a user account on company servers. It’s considered much safer than simply giving out email-password combinations to apps which could be targeted by outside attacks.

UK tax authorities adopting Google Apps, offshore data storage and all

Ben Lovejoy Jun 8 2015 - 4:55 am PT

The UK tax body, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), has completed a successful trial of Google Apps and will be rolling out the service to more of its staff throughout the year, reports The Register.

HMRC has 70,000 staff, and as such will be Whitehall’s first mass deployment of Google’s cloud services […]

David Fitton, head of public sector sales for Google UK, wrote on Linkedin: “The acceptance by HMRC that they can store official information offshore in Google data-centres represents a major change and endorsement of Google’s approach to managing sensitive information.”

HMRC said that it had “carefully considered the protection of customer information” when making the decision …
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Microsoft reportedly buying cross-platform to-do list app Wunderlist

Zac Hall Jun 1 2015 - 11:26 am PT

You can now add the German mobile app firm 6Wunderkinder GmbH to the growing list of companies with Android apps that Microsoft has bought in recent months. 6Wunderkinder makes the popular cross-platform Wunderlist task manager for Android. According to The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft has spent somewhere in the ballpark of $100-$200 million for the firm.
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Microsoft launches its Office Lens document scanner app on Android

Tom Maxwell May 27 2015 - 11:50 am PT

Continuing with Microsoft’s new mission under CEO Satya Nadella to make its productivity software available everywhere that potential customers are, the company officially released its Office Lens document scanner app for Android today to the Google Play Store.

Microsoft ran a public preview of Office Lens for Android from April 2nd up until today through the Google+ communities method, which they say had over 130,000 testers, and Android was the only place where they tested it with users before launch. Here’s how the company describes the functionality of Office Lens in its announcement:
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Microsoft’s Google Now competitor Cortana coming to Android in June, plus tight integration with Windows (Video)

Ben Lovejoy May 26 2015 - 6:37 am PT

Reuters reported back in March that Microsoft planned to bring its Google Now competitor Cortana to Android, and Microsoft has now officially confirmed this in a blog post.

Today, we’re announcing a Cortana application for Android phones and for iPhones which works as a companion to Cortana on your Windows 10 PC. The ‘Phone Companion’ app on the PC will help you install the Cortana app from the Google Play or Apple App Store onto your phone so you’ll be able to take the intelligence of Cortana with you, wherever you go […]

The Cortana companion will be available for Android phones at the end of June and for iPhones later this year.

While Microsoft is pitching the intelligent assistant as a companion to a Windows PC, it appears that most of the functionality will work in the Android app without the need for a Windows device, Microsoft saying that you can “make the same queries, ask the same questions” in the standalone app …
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Microsoft launches Word, Excel, and Powerpoint for Android phones in beta

Stephen Hall May 19 2015 - 8:34 am PT

Microsoft has this morning launched the smartphone counterpart of its previously tablet-only word processing suite for Android. Microsoft’s Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps on the Play Store have now—appropriately—ditched the “for Tablet” part of their name, and beta testers now have access to these apps with smartphone support baked right in…
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Preview version of Microsoft Hyperlapse now available on Android, smoothing timelapse video

Ben Lovejoy May 14 2015 - 6:47 am PT

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd9RQ07kcy0]

Timelapse videos are a great way to share experiences like cycle rides, hikes or road-trips, where you want to show all the scenery in a clip short enough that your friends will actually watch. But conventional timelapse video tends to look rather jerky – the problem Microsoft set out to solve with Hyperlapse.

The software is now available for beta-testing on Android, and early indications are that it produces impressive results – as you can see in the sample video above of a walk across London’s Millenium Bridge …
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Cyanogen receives more ‘strategic investment,’ this time from Foxconn

Stephen Hall May 12 2015 - 10:12 am PT

The details are very scarce at this point, but a fresh press release this morning reveals that Cyanogen has received a “strategic investment” from Foxconn, closing out its series C round of funding. While an exact number isn’t mentioned (in fact no details are really mentioned), the release does say that Cyanogen has raised a total of $110 million in funding to date, assumably including the amount that Foxconn has invested.

Cyanogen received $70 million in an investment round in January, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Some amount of that was from Microsoft, another company that Cyanogen calls its partner. Kirt McMaster, Cyanogen’s CEO, was quoted as saying that the company plans to “take Android away from Google,” and apparently Foxconn—like Microsoft—will happily support this venture.

Cyanogen Receives Strategic Investment from Foxconn

Leading Consumer Electronics Manufacturer Invests in Cyanogen’s Open OS Vision

PALO ALTO, CA–(Marketwired – May 12, 2015) – Cyanogen Inc. announced the strategic investment from Foxconn and closed out its series C round of funding. With offices in Palo Alto and Seattle, Cyanogen is leveraging the investment to accelerate talent hiring and the development of its open OS platform. The platform will create a more open, level playing field for 3rd party developers, enabling seamlessly integrated experiences within the operating system.

Foxconn is the leader of contract manufacturing and FIH Mobile is the leading end-to-end provider for world’s best known handset brands. Along with Cyanogen’s other investors, the strategic investment from Foxconn will help advance Cyanogen’s commercial adoption and growth in major markets around the world.

“We’re evolving Android and creating an open computing platform that will change the way consumers interact with their mobile devices,” said Kirt McMaster, CEO of Cyanogen Inc. “Foxconn and our diverse group of strategic investors and partners reflect the mobile value chain, from device manufacturers and mobile network operators to chipset makers and 3rd party developers. They see the great potential of what we’re doing in creating the next major paradigm shift in mobile computing.”

To date, Cyanogen has raised a total $110 million in funding. As the third leading mobile operating system, Cyanogen is known for its commercial operating system, Cyanogen OS, and open source community distribution CyanogenMod that the company backs.

About Cyanogen Inc.
Cyanogen is reimagining mobile computing, giving power to the people to customize their mobile device and content experiences. The CYANOGEN® operating system is built on Android and known for its revolutionary personalization features, intuitive interface, speed, improved battery life, and enhanced security. With a rapidly growing global user base and a vibrant community of developers, we’re intelligently connecting smartphone and tablet consumers to people, apps, and things they love. For more information, visit Cyanogen’s website, Google+, Twitter, and Facebook.

About FIH Mobile Ltd.
FIH (http://www.fihmb.com) is a vertically integrated manufacturing service provider for the mobile device industry worldwide. It provides a wide range of manufacturing services to its customers in connection with the production of mobile devices. Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Limited is the ultimate controlling shareholder of FIH (Hon Hai), and Hon Hai and its subsidiaries (as a group commonly known as the Foxconn Technology Group) is the leading global manufacturing service provider in the 3C (computer, communication and consumer electronics) industries.

Microsoft Remote Desktop for Android gets a new UI, multi-session support, more

Jordan Kahn May 4 2015 - 9:01 am PT

Microsoft has updated its Remote Desktop app for Android with a number of new features including a brand new UI that includes a “new connection center and in-session improvements.”

Also included in the update is multi-session support, allowing you to run multiple application or desktop sessions simultaneously. In addition, you’ll find a few other improvements including overall stability enhancements and a lot of bug fixes for issues that many users were experiencing.

The updated Microsoft Remote Desktop app, version 8.1.11, is available on Google Play now.

What’s New

What’s new in 8.1.11

This release introduces a completely brand new client. We’ve put a lot of work into delivering a new improved experience that provides:

– A new user interface – New connection center and in-session improvements

– Multi-session support – Run more than one application or desktop session at a time

– Overall stability – Lots of bug fixes

Thanks to everyone for the on-going feedback and support!

Microsoft announces new tool for effortlessly porting Android apps to Windows 10

Mike Beasley Apr 29 2015 - 10:56 am PT

Microsoft announced today during its Build conference that it will release a tool for developers to port their Android apps directly to Windows 10 as “universal apps” that run on both phones and desktop computers. Developers will be able to feed their existing Java and C++ code into a new software package and have it converted to work on the upcoming PC operating system.

At least, that’s how Microsoft is pitching it, though the whole process is a bit more complex. Essentially Windows 10 will ship with APIs that mirror the expected behavior of many Android APIs, and this new conversion tool will help developers swap out Android code for matching Windows code.

Nokia publicly refutes reports claiming the company plans to start selling smartphones again

Stephen Hall Apr 27 2015 - 5:59 am PT