Bangalore, Microsoft today announced an innovative programme to aid ten early stage start ups by hosting them on Windows Azure and help their businesses that take advantage of the Cloud. Announcing the programme, Microsoft India (R&D) Managing Directoir Amit Chatterjee said Microsoft will neither have any stake or share IP with these ten start ups who would be provided technical and business guidance besides mentoring and connecting them with prospective investors and venture capitalists. He said these start ups who would be selected through a rigorous screening process would also have the benefit of working out of Microsoft R and D office here for four months, using resources of Microsoft's BizSpark programme and USD 60,000 in Azure credit. He said they would leverage the unlimited possibilities enabled by an open and flexible cloud platform, the metro user interface on Windows 8 and Windows phne, besides other technical inputs of Microsoft. He said over the next three years Indian tech smart entrepreneurs have a major play in the 'connected network and continued services' arena as business will flourish in the cloud environment. The start ups could be from ...
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Kolkata, In spite of its tremendous potential, India's information technology (IT) industry has been suffering due to several issues which the government needs to focus on, a top official of software giant Microsoft Corporation said Thursday. "The country has some major issues and challenges. I am hoping that thegovernment will start focusing on some of the issues very seriously. There are lot of issues regarding taxation and policy. I think the latest Finance Act is trying to rectify some of those. Let's see what happens," said Microsoft India chairman Bhaskar Pramanik. "The industry wants a stable and predictable policy and regime. We want less ambiguity, clear guidelines, clear policies and an environment where everybody can do business successfully and legally," he said. Pramanik on the occasion launched "To the Cloud", a book written by fellow employees Raj Biyani, Salil Dave and Pankaj Arora on cloud computing, the latest phenomena on the use of internet. The chairman retracted from his earlier view that India was no longer a preferred destination for MNCs, saying the country continued to be huge market. "As long as we remain competitive, investment will ...
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New Delhi, Software major Microsoft India on Wednesday announced that it has appointed Avnet and Redington as its Value-Added Distributors (VAD) in the country in a move aimed at creating an enhanced and superior level of service for partners and customers in the SMB space on the latest technologies. The Value-added distribution role is built on a unique business model with a specialized resource portfolio optimized for increasing adoption and market development of specialty solutions. Under this tie-up, Avnet will provide complete solutions to Microsoft’s value added resellers for ‘Virtualization and Management and Identity and Security’ and Redington will cater for ‘Unified Communications, Security and Cloud Services’ and would reach out to all cities across India, adding reach and presence portfolio of Microsoft. According to Rajiv Sodhi, Director, India SMB at Microsoft, “Avnet and Redington both have experience and expertise in the providing services and products for Virtualization, Unified Communications, Security and Cloud and we are confident that they will help us strengthen our support to customers specifically, in for small and mid-enterprises to ...
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New Delhi, Sofware major Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. has announced the availability of Kinect Star Wars for India. This game of the Kinect for Xbox 360 hits the Indian stores from Tuesday. Anshu Mor, Category Lead – Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd., said, “This new title will add to the growing popularity of the family-friendly gaming portfolio for Kinect for Xbox 360.” With Kinect, gamers can actually step in front of the TV and act just like a Jedi does in the Star Wars series. One can hit out with the light sabre and use the force to push the opponent. The five dynamic game-play modes include Jedi Destiny: Dark Side Rising, Podracing, Rancor Rampage, Galactic Dance Off and Duels of Fate. ...
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Germany, Microsoft, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions, has announced that its Windows 8 Consumer Preview is ready for business. In his CeBIT keynote speech on Tuesday, Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft Corp., showed how Windows 8 will bring together the potential of a tablet with the power of a PC. He also invited IT professionals around the world to test the recently released Windows 8 Consumer Preview, now available for download at http://preview.windows.com. The Windows 8 Consumer Preview offers a more robust experience for testing the world’s most popular operating system and is available to the widest range of people yet following the initial release of the Windows 8 Developer Preview late last year. “Windows 8 will deliver no compromise experiences on a range of devices from tablets and PCs to desktops. It will give people functionality they love and the enterprise-grade capabilities that IT departments demand,” Turner said. “We encourage IT professionals to begin using it to get a firsthand experience of how Windows 8 will give people a beautiful, fast and fluid experience with the mobility and familiarity ...
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New Delhi, Hackers, allegedly belonging to a Chinese group called Evil Shadow Team, struck at www.microsoftstore.co.in on Sunday night, stealing login ids and passwords of people who had used the website for shopping Microsoft products. While it is troublesome that hackers were able to breach security at a website owned by one of the biggest IT companies in the world, it is more alarming that user details - login ids and passwords - were reportedly stored in plain text file, without any encryption. Following the hack, the members of Evil Shadow Team, posted a message on the Microsoft website saying "unsafe system will be baptized". The story was first reported by www.wpsauce.com. Later, the website seemed to have been taken offline by Microsoft. We advise the users at Microsoft India Store to change the password as soon the website comes online. Also, if they have used the same password or login id on any other web service, they should change it immediately. Last year, hacker groups like Lulzsec had carried out several-profile high profile break-ins, putting focus on the security measures companies put in place. Sony allegedly suffered several security breaches and ...
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San Francisco, Microsoft Thursday announced a patent licensing agreement with LG Electronics covering tablets, smartphones and other consumer devices running Google's Android or Chrome operating system. Microsoft said it marks the 11th deal with a device manufacturer leveraging Google's operating system platform. "More than 70 percent of all Android smartphones in the US are now receiving coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio," Xinhua quoted a press release from the Microsoft as saying. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. So far, Microsoft has struck major cross-licensing patent agreements with HTC, Samsung and Acer, among others. Last September, Microsoft announced a broad patent deal with Samsung. US media reports cited South Korean media as saying that Microsoft had wanted Samsung to pay USD 10-15 for each Android device. The booming mobile market has been harassed by acrimonious legal battles over patent infringement. Being an open source operating system, Google's Android has become a major target of patent suits. Microsoft has been going after companies that make phones and tablets running Android, rather than directly against Google. But the ...
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New Delhi, Software major Microsoft Corp. on Friday announced that Office 365, the company’s next-generation cloud productivity service, is the first and only major cloud-based platform to offer leading information privacy and security standards for customers operating in the European Union and United States. As part of its contractual commitment to customers, Microsoft will now sign the EU’s Model Clauses, which will help customers certify compliance with the European Commission’s stringent Data Protection Directive, and the U.S.-mandated Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Microsoft also announced the availability of the Office 365 Trust Center. The site provides in-depth information about the privacy and security practices for Office 365 and was recently redesigned to be more accessible and easy to understand. The new site can be accessed at http://trust.office365.com. Along with furnishing the Model Clause provisions, Microsoft said it has gone a step further than other cloud providers to include a data processing agreement for EU customers. Some of the 27 member states have more exacting requirements than those of the EU-wide Data ...
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London, Software giant Microsoft is reportedly trying to buy Yahoo for a second time after it signed a confidentiality agreement with the embattled Internet firm. The two companies are reported to have inked an agreement that will give Microsoft some access to Yahoo’s books. Microsoft joins a number of private equity companies in signing such accords as the embattled board of Yahoo tries to work out the future for the company. Speculation on Microsoft''s interest in Yahoo has so far focused on it being part of a consortium of potential bidders or helping to finance a bid, the Telegraph reports. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft''s chief executive, offered nearly 50 billion dollars for Yahoo in February 2008, but was rebuffed by the company''s board. According to an earlier report, the software firm’s bid failed that time because Yahoo founder Jerry Yang believed the offer undervalued the company. The two companies have since signed a deal to co-operate on search, where Microsoft is trying to develop its service Bing to wrestle the market share from ...
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