Microsoft’s OneNote application has been updated with Android Wear support, but interestingly enough, Microsoft’s team of Android developers were unable to throw in this capability into the existing OneNote app on Google Play, and instead, have launched a standalone app called OneNote for Android Wear. (more…)
Microsoft
It’s Official, Microsoft Acquires Makers of Minecraft for $2.5 Billion
Made official early this morning, Microsoft is set to purchase Mojang, the makers of Minecraft, for a smooth $2.5 billion dollars. In Minecraft, a survival sandbox game, players must forge and build whatever they see in their imaginations, using blocks that they collect with pickaxes, axes, shovels, and swords.
Over the course of just a few years, Minecraft has grown from a small community of players to an entire marketing machine, complete with versions available on many platforms, as well as merchandise in Target and countless other retailers. Since 2009, Minecraft has seen 100 million+ downloads on PC alone, with nearly 2 billion hours played on the Xbox 360. In terms of popularity, not many recent games stack up to Minecraft. (more…)
OneDrive Receives Minor Update, Brings PIN Protection and Business Sign-In
As far as cloud storage goes, you could do worse than OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive). Sure, it isn’t Drive or Dropbox, but if you are inextricably tied to the Windows ecosystem, it certainly gets the job done. That isn’t to say it could not use a few improvements, though, something of which Microsoft is aware. (more…)
RIP Nokia X Running Android
Along with the news of major layoffs at Nokia, Microsoft has stated that there will be no more intermingling between the Nokia X lineup of devices and Google’s Android. Going forward, the Nokia X lineup will be Lumia devices, set to run Windows.
While it was almost encouraging to see Nokia working with Android, Microsoft has laid down the law. (more…)
Microsoft Releases Climatology, a Weather App for Climate Geeks
Budding meteorologists, take note – Microsoft’s Climatology app is chock-full of esoteric weather information that will have you geeking out for hours. Leveraging technology developed by Microsoft Research, the app is a portal to a vast trove of data, including temperature, rain, and sunniness statistics from around the globe.
Ever wanted to look up the humidity of Ghana in March or compare average rainfall in London during February? The Climatology app makes those worthy searches possible. (more…)
Microsoft Opens OneNote Beta for Android
Microsoft is the latest high-profile company to embrace the Play Store’s beta feature with OneNote. OneNote is a lot like Evernote – you can record audio, video, picture, and text notes, format them to your liking, and sync them across multiple platforms, like Windows PCs and iOS devices.
It’s been historically well-supported on Android devices, and while it doesn’t support Android Wear quite yet, perhaps beta testers could be the first to see that feature. (more…)
Report: Microsoft Smartwatch Incoming, Will Work With Android Phones
According to sources of Forbes, Microsoft is working on a smartwatch that will work with not only Windows Phone devices, but Android phones and iPhones too. The report speculates that the watch could be here as soon as this summer to compete in a wearable market that Samsung has tried to get a jump start on.
Forbes’ sources claim that the watch will “draw on optical engineering expertise from Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect division” and be sensor-rich with features like constant-heart rate monitoring. Battery life could weigh-in somewhere around two days, which is similar to Samsung’s Gear devices. (more…)
Microsoft Makes Office Mobile Free to Download, Looks to Move in On Google Drive
Even though a lot of us have invested in the Google ecosystem for our document creating and editing, Microsoft Office is still a giant in the game. Up until today, editing and sharing Office documents through mobile wasn’t accessible or it cost money if you were not on a Windows device.
Today, Microsoft is changing up its strategy. (more…)