Microsoft to Bring Cortana Digital Assistant to iOS and Android This Year

Microsoft revealed more information on plans to move their personal digital assistant, named Cortana, to iOS and Android devices.

A competitor to Google Now and Apple’s Siri, Cortana is one of the most popular features found on Windows Phones, a voice search with a personality, capable of some fairly sophisticated actions when using casual speech commands. I’m a huge fan of person and location based reminders. Microsoft says we’ll see standalone Cortana apps for other phone platforms this Autumn.

“This kind of technology, which can read and understand email, will play a central role in the next roll out of Cortana, which we are working on now for the fall time frame,” said Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research.

It’s a smart move which plays to Microsoft’s strengths in delivering services with as broad a reach as possible, converting consumers using competitor’s hardware into customers through software and apps. I’ll always be a fan of more competition, especially when you can go cross platform. Maybe someday I’ll even get that IBM Watson app I’ve been wanting…

We’ll learn more about Microsoft’s strategy later this year.

(via Reuters)

Microsoft Unveils Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL Smartphones at MWC 2015

Microsoft took the wraps off a pair of new Lumias in Barcelona. Unfortunately no flagship phones were to be had, but the former Nokia hardware team showed off handsets adding even more pressure to the mid-range market.

Screenshot (99)

The Lumia 640 looks like it’ll be fairly standard Windows Phone fare. A 5″ 720p display will be paired up with a Qualcomm 400 and 1GB of RAM and a 2500mAh battery. The rear camera will be an 8MP shooter and the front will have a 1MP sensor for video chat.

The Lumia 640 XL takes the place of the 1320, moving the size up to 5.7″, a 13MP camera, and a 3000mAh battery. Both phones come with 8GB of internal storage with support for up to 128GB MicroSD cards. Both phones will ship with Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1, but will be updated to Windows 10 when available.

The design is plastic, polycarb shells in a variety of classic colors Orange, White, Yellow, and my favorite Cyan. The naming convention should be less confusing than the lower powered 1320, which had a higher number naming convention than Nokia’s flagship phones.

The positioning makes sense, placing these features in-between the upper entry-level Lumia 635 and the higher mid-range Lumia 830.

Microsoft also showed off a new fold-able Bluetooth keyboard specifically designed for phones.

Screenshot (102)

Buying one of these new Lumias will come with a one year subscription to Office 365, which includes a license for a tablet or PC, 1TB of cloud storage, and 60 minutes a month for Skype. A one year Office 365 license sold on it’s own costs $70.

Not bad at all considering the 640 will retail for 139€ for a 3G version and 159€ for the LTE variant. The 640 XL will sell for 189€ for 3G and 219€ for LTE. Both phones should be available in April worldwide with partnerships already announced with AT&T in the United States.

AT&T Finally Delivers “Denim” Update for the Lumia 1520

With all the noise around the FCC yesterday, you might have missed a long awaited update start pushing out to the king Lumia on AT&T.

Verizon surprised us all in being first to deliver the Lumia Denim firmware update to the Icon, but now it’s Big Blue’s turn to update the monster phablet Lumia 1520.

Windows Phone fans will be happy to play with a new camera app capable of shooting HDR photos and 4K video. Also on board is a new voice activation trigger for the Digital Assistant search app. Saying “Hey Cortana” by your phone will initiate a voice search or command even when your phone’s screen is off.

This update will also replace any AT&T pre-installed software on the phone. If you uninstalled AT&T Navigator or FamilyMap in the past, they’ll return. Thankfully, unlike bloat on Android devices, these apps can still be uninstalled without rooting or jumping through hoops.

It took us a while to get here, but Denim brings a collection of bug fixes and new features to play with, while we wait for Microsoft to deliver Windows 10.

To see if your Lumia has received the update, head to “Settings”, then to “Phone Update”. You can see our 4K video review from the Icon below (and the 1520’s camera performs very similarly).

Review: Microsoft Lumia 435 Dual SIM – The Best Budget Windows Phone?

I think the most exciting area for smartphone growth is the entry level and developing markets. The Lumia team has shown a real talent for providing smartphone solutions which aren’t painful to use at incredibly low price points. The Lumia 435 pushes this idea even further with a dual SIM card edition. Let’s take a look!

Microsoft FINALLY brings Tablet Optimized Office Apps to Android!

After we saw a demo of an iPad running Office apps, Android fans wondered, rather vocally, when we would also get to take part in the business grade festivities.

Oh sure we had an Office Phone app for basic viewing, editing, and formatting, but it lacked proper tablet support.

Microsoft office word document for android tablet app somegadgetguyAll that changed yesterday when Microsoft’s Word, Excel, and Powerpoint tablet apps were finally approved on Google Play. Each service is an individual app, and downloading the apps is totally free. When not linked with an Office 365 subscription, the apps function as viewers, and wont allow you to edit docs or spreadsheet. Though with unlimited cloud storage coming to OneDrive with an Office 365 subscription, it’s not a bad value when compared to other cloud storage solution.

Linking to Office 365 opens up a full world of document and presentation creation and editing, very similar to what we saw on the iPad version. The full toolsets of Office are included, with advanced formating and formula support, and are well optimized for touch screen use. Tied directly into Office Online, OneDrive, and can be linked to DropBox, it’s a fairly robust ecosystem for sharing and collaborating.

Microsoft office excel for android tablet app somegadgetguy

As they’re beefy services, the download sizes are pretty large. Expect all three apps together to clock in at around 370MB. There’s also an issue with compatibility. Most of the tablets I ave lying around are not yet approved to install the apps. No Asus Transformer, no NVIDIA Shield, even the newer Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 was a no go, so my first impressions were performed on a Nexus 7.

Still it’s a great collection for Android, and now Windows Tablet and Phone fans can start the waiting game as we should see touch optimized Office apps arrive with Windows 10.

Microsoft Word on Google Play
Microsoft Excel on Google Play
Microsoft Powerpoint on Google Play

Microsoft Windows 10 Announcement: OS Updates, XBOX Gaming Cross Platform, and HoloLens Augmented Reality!

Back in September we got our first look at the next version of Windows. It was a somewhat underwhelming affair, detailing the next steps Microsoft will take to retain their lead in corporate computing, and the gist of that announcement was focused on how to make their current version of Windows feel more like their last version of Windows.

But there’s a whole wide world of devices out now, and manufacturers are starting to deliver on hardware that blurs the lines between consumer tablets, laptops, desktops, and workstations. Microsoft windows 10 keynote announcement somegadgetguy (1)Taking the stage, Terry Myerson, Executive VP of Operating Systems, thanked the Windows Insider participants for their interactions with the Windows 10 BETA. Microsoft is working hard to make this version feel like it’s been built from a community perspective.

The focus moving forward is on ecosystem and tying data and devices together. Being able to move seamlessly from device to device with data and apps intact, for both business and consumer solutions, creating a “global” platform. Continue reading “Microsoft Windows 10 Announcement: OS Updates, XBOX Gaming Cross Platform, and HoloLens Augmented Reality!”

Microsoft Updates Office for Android with Dropbox Support

microsoft office android app update somegadgetguyWe wrote about this partnership last month, but it looks like Microsoft and Dropbox are finally moving forward as cloud storage BFF’s.

In an update pushing out to the Office app for Android, one of the new features allows users to connect their Dropbox account to edit any Office compatible files stored there. Microsoft has also improved support for high resolution displays, hopefully making this app a bit more accessible to a variety of phone owners.

Now we’re just waiting on Dropbox’s side of this bargain, which was to release a native app for Windows Phone…

Microsoft Office Mobile for Android (Google Play)

Smartphone Review: Nokia Lumia 830 on AT&T – Flagship Style, Mid-Range Price!

While Microsoft didn’t deliver a new flagship this quarter, they did make good on a new mid-ranger boasting high end design and build quality. The Lumia 830 is masquerading as a high end phone. It can talk the talk, but can it walk the walk? Let’s check it out.

Shop the Lumia 830 and Accessories on Amazon: http://goo.gl/g1ksKa