Last week’s big AI announcements eclipsed a lot of other news at Microsoft. This week, we march forward with all sorts of exciting announcements from cloud to startups to nano technology and gaming. Hold on tight as Weekend Reading gives you the light-speed tour of recent happenings at Microsoft.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and president Brad Smith revealed that the company has invested over $3 billion across Europe to date – in effect, doubling its cloud capacity in Europe in the past year. The Microsoft Cloud is now supporting European customers such as the UK Ministry of Defence, the Renault-Nissan Alliance and ZF from Germany to innovate in their industries and move their businesses to the cloud while meeting European data sovereignty, security and compliance needs.
Furthering its commitment to make the cloud more trusted, responsible and inclusive, Microsoft also released a new book titled “A Cloud for Global Good.” And the company intends to deliver the Microsoft Cloud from datacenters in France, starting in 2017.
Microsoft Ventures made its official debut in late May and the fund is already building momentum with cutting-edge tech startups that enable digital transformation.
At the GeekWire Summit in Seattle, Peggy Johnson, Microsoft’s executive vice president of business development, publicly announced the list of the startups the company has backed including security technology company Team8 of Israel; machine learning company CognitiveScale of Austin, Texas; and the San Francisco-based Layer messaging technology company.
Satellites are no longer out of the reach of school kids. Space and environmental exploration became a reality for hundreds of youth who attended AzureCraft, a two-day community tech event held at Microsoft’s U.K. headquarters. The event brought developers and students together for a hands-on experience with a variety of technologies, including tiny, low-cost satellites called nano satellites, powered by the Internet of Things (IoT).
The latest update for “Minecraft Console Edition” was rolled out this week for Xbox. Millions of fans will get to experience fun new features including polar bears, beet soup, igloos, customizable banners and underground treasures made of Bone Blocks. Other new blocks include End Bricks, Grass Path, Frosted Ice and more.
Also, if you haven’t had a chance to play “ReCore” yet, you can now experience the first 30 minutes of the game in a free trial version on both Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs. If you decide to buy the full game afterwards, you can pick up right where you left off, with all of your progress and achievements preserved for further play.
This week on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, we highlighted Jessie Combs, the fastest woman on four wheels. After clocking her top speed at 477.59 miles per hour in her North American Eagle race car, her next goal is to eventually break the sound barrier – all with the help of Microsoft technologies. The Eagle’s custom telemetry system uploads to the Microsoft Cloud for analysis with Cortana Intelligence and helps Jessie achieve a faster speed with every drive.
That does it for this week. We hope you enjoyed all of the news and will join us again next Friday for another addition of Weekend Reading.
Thomas Kohnstamm
Microsoft News Center Staff