Gaming accessories company Razer recently launched the ‘Razer Phone’. The smartphone boasts flagship features and PC-gaming technology. Priced at £699 (approximately Rs 60,000), the smartphone went on sale via Razer’s online store and offline retailers. Now, the smartphone is available via Microsoft’s online store as well. Carrying the price tag $699 (approximately Rs 45,400), this edition of the Razer Phone is compatible with Microsoft Launcher app, and features the green Razer logo.

It’s quite interesting that Microsoft has started selling Android OS smartphones through its online store. Just recently, Microsoft added the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 smartphones to its product list. This Razer Phone however comes with support for Microsoft Launcher, which allows users to sync their smartphones with a Microsoft account, and access it across different devices. You can access your photos, docs, and even web pages of your Android smartphone on a Windows PC.

The Razer Phone features a 5.72-inch Quad HD display with Gorilla Glass 3 protection on top. The smartphone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor paired with 8GB of RAM. Also on offer is 64GB of onboard storage, which is expandable up to 2TB via a microSD card. In the photography department, the Razer Phone sports a dual-camera setup which includes a combination of 12-megapixel and 13-megapixel sensors. Up front, there is an 8-megapixel camera of aperture f/2.0. 

Keeping the smartphone ticking is a 4,000mAh battery with support for Quick Charge 4+. On the software front, it runs on near-stock Android Nougat, with an update to the latest version of Android 8 Oreo promised early next year. Its connectivity options include Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi, and NFC. In particular for gamers, the Razer Phone features a dynamic, adaptable 120Hz display refresh rate called Ultramotion. Razer says that this technology is similar to Nvidia’s G-Sync or AMD’s FreeSync, which is used in PC gaming. 

Microsoft with its once pioneering video service, Skype, has introduced major changes this year. It started with the India-centric Skype Lite launched in India earlier this year. Microsoft Skype for mobile then went through a major redesign change, albeit borrowing a few features from Snapchat. Microsoft has now officially started rolling out the new Skype for desktop app.

The update will be gradually available to Mac, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, and Linux users. With the redesigned Skype app, Microsoft aims to give a smartphone experience on desktop as well. You can choose between different colors and themes on the new Skype app. Your chat list can be customized by organizing your contact list according to time, unread, or status, and also pin people or groups. The new Skype also allows you to change the layout from a standard view to compact view, or collapse the chat list.

Skype is now cloud-based which means that you can share up to 300MB of files, photos, and videos on the app. You can do so by dragging and dropping the items. Microsoft also says that with cloud connectivity, Skype consumes less battery on your device. Skype is also enabled with cross-device functionality letting you use the app on whichever device it is installed on. 

via GIPHY

An interesting addition to Skype is the notification panel which can be accessed by clicking the bell icon on top. Here, you can view reactions to your messages, and if you’ve been mentioned in group conversations or quoted. You can tap on the notifications to open the selected message. There’s a chat gallery as well where you can look for shared media between your contacts. Skype also has add-ins now for sending content straight from Giphy or YouTube.

Quite late in the game but Skype on desktop is now enabled with reactions. You can now reply to messages during chats or video calls with reactions. In group chats, you can also mention someone by using the @ symbol against their name. Microsoft has re-introduced status updates on Skype. Lastly, Skype on desktop gets bots like Scoop, Hipmunk, among others for small tasks like ticket pricings and flight timings.

Jeff Bezos just had another successful shot at being crowned the richest person on planet earth, and this time, the status appears to be staying for longer. In what could be one of the few instances, the Amazon CEO took the top spot for the second time, overtaking long-time billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaire Rankings put Bezos on top. This morning, Amazon stock opened more than 8 percent higher than Thursday’s close, adding close to $7 billion to Bezos’ net worth. Although Microsoft’s stock also witnessed a 7 percent jump, it wasn’t enough to bring down Bezos’ ranking. Bezos recorded a net worth of $90.6 billion compared to $90.1 billion of Gates’ net worth by 10:15AM (7:45PM IST).

Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world again after adding $6.8 billion to his net worth overnight http://t.co/lRct1KdnCU pic.twitter.com/sU5CRgOrzv

— Forbes (@Forbes) October 27, 2017

Bezos became the wealthiest person in the world for the first time three months ago, when his company’s stocks recorded an all-time high, shortly before Amazon’s Q2 earnings. However, his glory lasted a few hours as the same day Amazon reported a big miss on its quarterly earning, leading to the drop in his net worth as well. 

As Forbes notes, even today, Amazon’s stock is only ‘close’ to its previous high. Irrespective of the short stint at the top spot earlier this year, Bezos featured in the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans at number two spot.

The current positioning of Bezos is still subject to change, as Forbes will be continually updating its scores based on real-time rankings.

Despite the growing competition from services such as WhatsApp and Facebook, video calling and conferencing service Skype has reached 1 billion app downloads milestone on the Google Play Store. Microsoft acquired the service from eBay for $8.5 billion in 2011, and has continued to improve it over the years.

Skype had been one of the primary sources for long-distant family members or colleagues to connect over video conferencing seamlessly, before the advent of the newer and more popular services. However, Microsoft‘s messenger has retained its own place in the market which is evident from its app download numbers. As GSMArena notes, Skype for Android hit 100 million downloads in July 2013, reached 500 million downloads in February 2015, and since, has continued to grow rapidly.

In a bid to stand at a better position against competitors WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, which are mobile-friendly services, and offer video calling, messaging, as well as some photo editing tools for social sharing, Skype underwent a major design change earlier this year. The new update introduced bots, add-ins, photo and video sharing capabilities, and more.

In addition to that, Microsoft also announced a new Skype Lite app which is aimed at low-end Android smartphones running on slow internet connectivity. The original app for Android has a file size of about 32MB, while the Skype Lite app is just 13MB. One of the important features of the app is that it comes with built-in Aadhaar integration.

The Aadhaar integration on Skype Lite is aimed at helping verify users’ identity online, and make communications more secure. An example Microsoft has given is of making an important call to a business client or government representative. With the presence of Aadhaar, identification of both parties will be easier and thus prevent impersonation fraud.

About two weeks ago, Microsoft executive Joe Belfiore made it quite clear that Windows 10 Mobile isn’t the company’s focus anymore. However, he did promise that support for the platform, bug fixes and updates will continue to be released, and Microsoft is doing just that. To help Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows Mobile 10 users install future updates, Microsoft has released the over-the-cable (OTC) Updater tool, which moves updates from a PC to the phone. Very similar to how iTunes works for iOS updates.

In order to install the updater tool, users need to download the file OtcUpdaterZip.exe and run it on a PC. In what appears to be a hastily-written support note filled with spelling errors, Microsoft explains that the tool “updates eligible Windows phones to the latest version of WIndows [sic] 10 Mobile”.

Do note, there are certain requirements you need to meet to run the updates via the installer tool. They are:

   Like mentioned above, earlier this month, Microsoft effectively shut down its latest attempt at cracking the mobile market, announcing it would only focus on security updates and not new features. Belfiore revealed that Microsoft was facing a lot of difficulty in getting developers to write apps. He said that the company tried paying companies to produce apps, and they even wrote them when creators couldn’t or wouldn’t get involved, but the number of users was “too low for most companies to invest”. Why build an app for a relatively small bunch of Windows phone owners when there are many more Android and iOS users? Belfiore says that he himself switched to Android for the “app/[hardware] diversity”.

   {BGR}

As online users woke up to fears of losing their personal data owing to a serious flaw in the Wi-Fi protocol, Microsoft said it has already fixed the vulnerability while Google promised to roll out a patch in the coming weeks to fix Android devices.

“We have released a security update to address this issue. Customers who apply the update, or have automatic updates enabled, will be protected,” a Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge late on Monday.

It is going to take some time for the patch to reach non-Pixel Android devices as the ecosystem has been slow in deploying patches, the report added. “We’re aware of the issue, and we will be patching any affected devices in the coming weeks,” Google told CNET.

Currently, over a third of Android phones are vulnerable to a simpler form of the attack. Even if your router is not patched, patching the device should be enough to stop an attacker from getting in the middle, reports said.

According to an advisory issued by the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US CERT), anyone using the Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA 2) protocol is probably compromised. The new Wi-Fi security flaw is called “KRACK” — short for Key Reinstallation Attacks.

Security expert Mathy Vanhoef from Belgian university KU Leuven discovered the flaw in the wireless security protocol WPA2. The flaw affects operating systems and devices, including Android, Linux, Apple, Windows, MediaTek and others.

Microsoft launched a lighter version of its video calling platform, Skype, in India earlier this February. Skype Lite was introduced for low-end Android smartphone running on slow internet connectivity. Microsoft has now introduced new features for Skype Lite users in India in tune with Diwali celebrations.

To start with, Microsoft has made group video calls available for all users. You can now video chat in groups free of cost. Skype has an initial trial period for group video calls after which it starts charging users. You can also share links for your group video calls on social messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Microsoft also allows you to invite friends who don’t have a Skype Lite account. These people can simply click on the video call link, and join the conversation as a guest. This guest account will be valid for 24 hours for each user. Even for those who have trouble logging in to their Skype accounts can join in as guest, since signing in isn’t required. 

Microsoft has also launched its desi AI bot Ruuh, and new Diwali-themed emoticons for all its Skype products. You can chat with Ruuh on Skype Lite, and also make Diwali cards with the AI bot. Ruuh converses in English, and is available only for users in India. As Microsoft points out, Ruuh is capable of sending and receiving instant messages, and photos. In terms of access, Ruuh will have knowledge of your Skype name, chat messages and content of your contacts. 

Microsoft is introducing an update for its Skype chat app that will have built-in support for its digital assistant Cortana. Cortana “will be gradually rolled out” for Skype on both Android and iOS platforms, starting with the US, The Verge reported late on Tuesday. Users will be able to start a private chat with Microsoft Cortana in Skype and the assistant will give them quick suggestions while responding to text chats.

“With Cortana’s in-context assistance, it’s easier to keep your conversations going by having Cortana suggest useful information based on your chat, like restaurant options or movie reviews. Cortana also suggests smart replies, allowing you to respond to any message quickly and easily — without typing a thing,” Skype wrote in a blog post.

The update to integrate Cortana with Skype was announced more than a year-and-half ago. However, it is not clear what has been the reason for the delay, the report added. The integration would be similar to what we have seen Google do with its assistant in “Allo” and Facebook with “Messenger”.

Every year smartphones start a trend, and this year’s is all-display or edge-to-edge display design. Starting with the Galaxy S8 duo earlier this year followed by the likes of Apple in the coming months. Something surprising has now popped up online of an ‘all screen’ smartphone manufactured in 2014. Microsoft‘s Lumia 435 Windows smartphone was supposed to launch with an all-screen design, but the idea was scrapped eventually.

During its development, Microsoft had created prototypes for the Lumia 435, one of which was caught hold of by Windows Central. If you look at the supposed all screen Lumia 435 now the design might not seem striking enough. But for something like this to take birth in 2014 is surely a big deal. The Lumia 435 had almost no bezels on top and on the sides with a slightly thicker bottom bezel. The side bezels were 3mm thick, and the top bezel measured 4.4mm.

The front camera lens were placed on the bottom bezel, similar to the Mi MIX and Mi MIX 2. With no home button, the Lumia 435 housed three on-screen touch buttons for navigation. On the right side, there’s was a power key and the volume rocker. In terms of specifications, the Lumia 435 featured a 5-inch HD display with screen-to-body ratio of 79 percent, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 200 SoC, 4GB of RAM, and 4GB of expandable storage. 

The rest of the features included a 1,800mAh battery, 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, and on the software front, it ran on Windows Phone 8.1. Although the Lumia 435 sports decent features and specifications, we won’t be seeing a commercial launch. Microsoft recently confirmed the death of its Windows Phone.

In comparison, the Lumia 435 that was eventually launched came with a 4-inch display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable storage. The smartphone also came with a 2-megapixel rear camera, VGA front camera, 1,560mAh battery, and ran on Windows Phone 8.1.

{BGR}

After struggling to sell Windows smartphones for quite some time as Google’s Android and Apple iOS Operating Systems (OS) surged ahead, Microsoft has finally admitted that the software giant will no longer develop new features or hardware for Windows 10 mobiles. In a series of tweets, Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President in the Operating Systems Group at Microsoft, revealed late on Sunday that the Windows operating system will only help with bug fixes and security updates for existing users.

“Of course we’ll continue to support the platform.. bug fixes, security updates. But building new features/hw [hardware] aren’t the focus,” Belfiore tweeted.

The devices that use Windows OS are HP Elite x3, Microsoft Lumia 950 XL, Microsoft Lumia 950 and Nokia Lumia 930, among others. Bill Gates has already stopped using Windows phone.  HP Inc is also halting production of its flagship Windows handset. HP Inc recently admitted it won’t add any new handset to its existing “Elite” Windows smartphone lineup.

We have tried VERY HARD to incent app devs. Paid money.. wrote apps 4 them.. but volume of users is too low for most companies to invest. ☹️ http://t.co/ePsySxR3LB

— Joe Belfiore (@joebelfiore) October 8, 2017

Belfiore also admitted that Microsoft will still support Windows 10 customers who want to use Android and iOS on their phones.  “We have tried very hard to incent app devs. Paid money. wrote apps 4 them.. but the volume of users is too low for most companies to invest,” Belfiore posted. 

According to market research firm Kantar, Windows phones account for just 1.3 percent of the market — from 2.4 percent last year — in the US. Even though Microsoft has reported a fall in Surface PC line and Windows phones revenues, the Redmond-based tech giant is reportedly aiming for new devices called “Surface Phones” and has made its patent public.

According to media reports, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has confirmed that Microsoft will “make more phones, but they will not look like phones that are there today.” Microsoft is set to roll out the “Fall Creators” update for Windows 10 on October 17 which will include Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) support sans the mobile experience.

Two years after launching the Groove Music service, Microsoft finally appears to set to shut it down as the company announced its partnership with music streaming platform Spotify. The company has requested its customers to transfer everything they had saved, downloaded and playlists they had created on Groove to Spotify, Forbes reported late on Tuesday.

Though the announcement made clear that the Groove Music app would remain functional and would continue to house downloads that had been made through the Windows store, the support for the service would cease at the end of 2017, giving listeners some time to make the switch.

The company also offered step-by-step instructions for those who may need help transferring content and suggested that some fans might be eligible for two free months of Spotify. While Spotify has one of the largest libraries of streamable songs in the world, there is no proper download store and only premium account users can save music for offline listening, the report added.

Apple has switched the default provider of its web searches for Siri on iOS and Spotlight on the Mac to Google from Microsoft’s Bing. Now if you ask Siri to search something on the internet, you will get Google results instead of Bing on iOS and Spotlight — a system-wide desktop search feature of Apple’s macOS and iOS operating systems.

Apple’s web browser Safari on Mac and iOS already use Google search as the default provider, thanks to a deal worth billions to Apple (and Google) over the last decade, Tech Crunch reported. “Switching to Google as the web search provider for Siri, Search within iOS and Spotlight on Mac will allow these services to have a consistent web search experience with the default in Safari,” Apple said in a statement.

“We have strong relationships with Google and Microsoft and remain committed to delivering the best user experience possible.” The search results would include regular ‘web links’ as well as video results. Web image results from Siri will still come from Bing, for now, the report added.

Meanwhile, a Microsoft spokesperson said that the company value the relationship with Apple and look forward to continuing to partner with the iPhone maker in many ways, including on Bing Image Search in Siri, to provide the best experience possible for our customers.

“Bing has grown every year since its launch, now powering over a third of all the PC search volume in the US, and continues to grow worldwide. It also powers the search experiences of many other partners, including Yahoo (Verizon), AOL and Amazon, as well as the multi-lingual abilities of Twitter,” the spokesperson said. Given Microsoft’s work to advance the field of artificial intelligence, the company was confident that Bing would be at the forefront of providing a more intelligent search experience for its customers and partners.

Microsoft announced that the ‘Fall Creators Update’ for Windows 10 will start rolling out on October 17 and it will include Virtual Reality (VR) and mixed reality support. Announcing the availability at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) industry show which is underway in Berlin, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President for Windows and Devices Terry Myerson said that the free update, originally announced in May, will also include a new photo app and many tweaks to the overall design and usability of Windows 10.

In the keynote, Myerson highlighted several new features, such as new inking tools for stylus users including the ability to draw directly on PDF files, new 3D features for the Photos app and a new gaming mode that limits background tasks for better game performance. Official support for Microsoft Mixed Reality headsets — such as the models coming from Dell, HP, Acer and Lenovo — is also coming with the October 17 update, and those headsets are also expected to start shipping on or soon after October 17, Myerson added.

According to Microsoft website, the update will also have ‘Timeline’ feature that will let users “jump back in time to find what they were working on, whether it was two hours or two months ago”. The new Cortana notification will let users work on several devices.

{BGR}

Months ago, Microsoft and Qualcomm had come together to announce that they will soon be launching an ARM-powered PC. While we didn’t get to see this PC at the ongoing IFA 2017, Qualcomm did announce at the event that a Snapdragon 835-powered PC will soon be hitting the market. The PC is said to be scheduled for a fourth quarter launch.

Until now, Windows 10 has worked only on x86 chips, but this is changing as Microsoft wants to stop Intel’s dominance. The Windows 10 Device with ARM is going to be thin-and-light. It will have features similar to what we see on smartphones, and considering the Snapdragon 835 was designed for smartphones, it will have a long battery life. Apparently, the device will always be connected to a cellular network. We should also expect the PC to have stylus support.

It was last year in December, when Microsoft and Qualcomm revealed their plans about the ARM chips PC. Back then, Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President, Windows and Devices Group, Microsoft said, “Bringing Windows 10 to life with a range of thin, light, power-efficient and always-connected devices, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform, is the next step in delivering the innovations our customers love.”

In May, at Computex 2017, Microsoft had also revealed that ASUS, Lenovo, and HP would be launching laptops which would be powered by Snapdragon 835.

While the PC Microsoft is working on with Qualcomm is not expected to be exactly cheap, but manufacturers such as Lenovo, HP, and ASUS are also believed to be working on a Snapdragon 835-powered computer, which are believed to be priced at a more affordable segment.

Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm’s Executive Vice President has also said, “With compatibility with the Windows 10 ecosystem, the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform is expected to support mobility to Cloud computing and redefine how people will use their compute devices.”

Microsoft on Thursday announced that the ‘Fall Creators Update’ for Windows 10will start rolling out on October 17 and it will include Virtual Reality (VR) and mixed reality support.

Announcing the availability at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) industry show which is underway in Berlin, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President for Windows and Devices Terry Myerson said that the free update, originally announced in May, will also include a new photo app and many tweaks to the overall design and usability of Windows 10.

In the keynote, Myerson highlighted several new features, such as new inking tools for stylus users including the ability to draw directly on PDF files, new 3D features for the Photos app and a new gaming mode that limits background tasks for better game performance.

Official support for Microsoft Mixed Reality headsets — such as the models coming from Dell, HP, Acer and Lenovo — is also coming with the October 17 update, and those headsets are also expected to start shipping on or soon after October 17, Myerson added.

According to Microsoft website, the update will also have ‘Timeline’ feature that will let users “jump back in time to find what they were working on, whether it was two hours or two months ago”.

The new Cortana notification will let users work on several devices.

“Log out of one device and Cortana asks if you want to continue working in your app, doc or website on your next device. You can also copy and paste between connected devices from your clipboard,” the website added.Also, users can save files on Microsoft Cloud and access them anywhere with ‘OneDrive Files On-Demand’.