Microsoft Cortana for Android

Microsoft Cortana for Android

Cortana is now available to all Android users - well at least in select regions. Microsoft has announced the public beta of its digital voice assistant for devices powered by Google's mobile operating system. Cortana is available for download in the US via Google Play Store. It is officially not yet available in India, but you can still sideload it on your device.

Cortana for Android is very similar to its Windows Phone counterpart. It maintains the same user interface and functionalities. If you've never used Cortana before, it is Microsoft's take on digital voice assistant. It competes with Apple's Siri, and Google's Google Now.

You can have Cortana take notes, add reminders, and ask it for weather and traffic updates. Cortana is also available on Windows 10, Microsoft's newest desktop operating system. If you are using it on your computer, you can use Cortana for Android as a companion app. Once integrated, you will be able to see your notes, emails, and other things from computer synced right into your Android mobile device.

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Lumia Launch New Phones and Surface Pro 4

Lumia Launch New Phones and Surface Pro 4

Microsoft is reportedly set to launch two new Lumia smartphones, the Surface Pro 4 tablet, and the Microsoft Band 2 at a media event in October.

The company is also expected to utilise the event to also release the next generation Surface tablet. The reports noted that the Surface Pro 4 could be launched by the company. Sadly, not much is known about the tablet at the moment except for the possibility of it integrating a fingerprint sensor on the Surface keyboard. Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 was launched in 2014. The device has sold well and was also well-received by enthusiasts. The company launched the Surface 3, a smaller and less-powerful variant of the Surface Pro 3, in March this year.

If Microsoft indeed launches the two handsets, they will be the two most powerful Windows Phone handsets in the market. As per past reports, the Lumia 950 (Talkman) is said to have a 5.2-inch WQHD (1440x2560) display. It is said to be powered by a Snapdragon 808 processor with 3GB of RAM. Other features of the device include 32GB of internal storage with support for microSD card, and 20-megapixel and 5-megapixel camera sensors, and USB Type C charger. The Lumia 950 XL (Cityman) is said to have a 5.7-inch QWHD display and Snapdragon 810 chipset, with most other features largely being same as the Lumia 950.

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Microsoft Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL May Launch in October

Microsoft Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL May Launch in October

Microsoft has been rumoured to be working on two high-end Lumia handsets the Lumia 950 (codenamed Talkman) and Lumia 950 XL (codenamed Cityman) for few months now. A latest leak claims that both these handset, targeted at premium segment, will be launching in late September or October.

Daniel Rubino of Windows Central reports that Microsoft can launch the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL at an event in New York. Previous reports claimed that both Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL smartphones may launch at the company's IFA event in September where it is expected to announce several devices. 

Some of the purported specifications of the Microsoft Lumia 950 tipped include a 5.2-inch QHD Oled display; a 64-bit hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 SoC; 3GB RAM, a 20-megapixel PureView rear camera; a 5-megapixel wide-angle front-facing camera; 32GB of inbuilt storage expandable via microSD card; USB Type-C; Qi wireless charging support, and a 3000mAh removable battery.

The Microsoft Lumia 950 XL is said to come with a 5.7-inch screen size with the same resolution; a 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 810 SoC, a triple-LED flash for rear camera; a 3300mAh removable battery; a 1-mm silver ring inside the circumference of the black camera pod, and aluminium side buttons.

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Lumia Devices Getting Update That Enables 4G Connectivity

Lumia Devices Getting Update That Enables 4G Connectivity

Microsoft India has reportedly started rolling out an OTA (over-the-air) update for select Lumia handsets that enables 4G connectivity option on these devices.

According to a report by WM Poweruser, Microsoft is rolling out an update for the Lumia 1520, Lumia 1320, Lumia 930, Lumia 920, Lumia 925, Lumia 830, and Lumia 625 smartphones. After receiving the OTA update, smartphone users will get another mobile data setting for 4G, apart from 2G (GSM) and 3G (WCDMA) settings that existed already.

The report however claims that the due to hardware limitation, these handsets will only support FDD-LTE (1800 MHz) band and not TDD-LTE (2300MHz) that's used by Airtel for its 4G network. The update doesn't seem to bring any other new features.

The report citing a Microsoft India executive suggested the company's plan to launch top-end smartphones running Windows 10 Mobile this year. To recall, Microsoft India this year has mainly focused on budget segment in the country. The company primarily launched sub-Rs. 10,000 smartphones in the Indian market in an attempt to aggressively strengthen its budget offerings.

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Lumia 640 XL LTE

Lumia 640 XL LTE

Microsoft Devices' Lumia 640 XL LTE is the souped-up version of the company's 5-inch Lumia 640. The XL ups the screen size to 5.7-inches and adds 4G connectivity, while popping a significantly bigger 13-megapixel camera on the rear, a 5-megapixel one on the front and a 3,000mAh battery inside. Even better, it does all this while maintaining a respectably low price: just $240, £219 in the UK and AU$399 in Australia.

My colleague Andrew Hoyle was quite effusive about the smaller Lumia 640, calling it "everything you'd hope for from a budget phone." But, bearing in mind the XL has the exact same processor, storage and RAM as the smaller model, are these additions worth the extra cost?

A quick note: there are a couple of different variants of the Lumia 640 XL available, including a dual-SIM model and one without the LTE offering. The model reviewed here is a version with a single SIM slot and an LTE 4G modem.

In an ocean of black handsets, the Lumia 640 XL stands out like some sort of exotic fish. Yes, you can still get it in black or white, but the blue -- wait, make that "cyan" -- review unit that I had in the office was actually quite refreshing.

Even better, the casing on the 640 XL is a matte finish, unlike the gloss on its smaller sibling. I've never been a fan of a piano-finish as they seem designed purely to collect fingerprints, so the XL gets extra points just for that.

The 5.7-inch IPS screen on the XL might be bigger than the base 640, but it has the exact same resolution of 1,280x720 pixels. This means the XL actually has a lower pixel density than its smaller cousin -- 259ppi versus 294ppi. (For some more context, the 1,440x2,560-pixel Galaxy S6 has around 577 ppi.)

The 640 XL is running the same version of Windows Phone 8.1 as the 5-inch 640, with all the same benefits and disadvantages. It's also packing the exact same processor and memory, a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 and 1GB of RAM. 

The XL improves on the 640 in both rear and front cameras. The front jumps from an underwhelming 0.9-megapixel to 5, which is going to keep you happy for both selfies and Skype calls.

But it's the 13-megapixel snapper on the rear -- complete with German-made Zeiss optics -- that's the most marked improvement. That's letting you take 4,128x3,096 resolution photos (far, far better than the screen can display) and 1080p Full-HD video -- also at a higher res than the screen can display.

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Premium Lumia Smartphones With Windows 10 

Microsoft, after announcing restructuring plans for the phone business, has now confirmed that the company will announce "premium Lumias designed for Windows 10" soon. Additionally, the Redmond giant has confirmed that it will be announcing several devices at this year's IFA.

Microsoft's Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President of the Windows and Devices Group, while speaking at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference on Monday said, "Last week we announced a focusing on our Lumia lineup, but let me be clear: soon you will see premium new Lumias designed for Windows 10." Myerson however did not mention any possibility of Windows 10 powered smartphones launching at the IFA.

In a separate announcement, Microsoft revealed  that Nick Parker, Corporate Vice President, OEM Division, Microsoft, will deliver a keynote on September 4 at IFA 2015. The keynote titled "Windows 10 Lights up New Devices," will see launch of new Windows 10 devices including tablets, 2-in-1s, premium notebooks, gaming devices and all-in-ones.

Talking about Microsoft's keynote, Jens Heithecker, IFA Executive Director said, "It's about the software and the experiences it enables on devices! Windows 10 is coming - with new capabilities and experiences for consumers and businesses. We are excited to see Microsoft take the keynote stage at IFA to give us a glimpse at how its partners plan to incorporate that future into the devices we rely on for work, home and play."

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Microsoft Lumia 940 XL Specifications Tipped

Microsoft Lumia 940 XL Specifications Tipped

Amidst recent revelations about Windows 10 for Mobiles Preview and Cortana reaching Android, a new Microsoft Lumia handset has been spotted on a benchmark site alongside specifications. Bearing model name RM-1100, the smartphone is being speculated to be the Lumia 940 XL flagship Windows 10 device that was previously rumoured to launch later this year.

The unannounced Microsoft Lumia 940 XL is seen to sport some pretty top-end specifications on the GFXBench benchmark site, first spotted by German website Winfuture. The specifications include a 5.7-inch QHD (1440x2550 pixels) resolution display with a calculated pixel density of 515ppi.

The screen size is in line with the 'Cityman' smartphone that was tipped back in May, alongside the 'Talkman' with a 5.2-inch QHD display. The smaller smartphone is expected to be launched as the Lumia 940.

Other specifications of the Microsoft Lumia 940 XL tipped by the GFXBench listing include an octa-core Snapdragon processor, which is expected to be the Snapdragon 810 due to the presence of the Adreno 430 on the list, which is only present on the flagship SoC for now. Also shown is 2GB of RAM (1.5GB usable) and 16GB of inbuilt storage (14GB usable).

The Microsoft Lumia 940 XL is also seen to include a 17-megapixel rear camera, which can also record 4K resolution videos, and a 4.8-megapixel front-facing camera which can record full-HD resolution videos. Sensors including accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, light, and proximity are also listed, apart from NFC connectivity.

More recent reports indicate that the Lumia 940 XL will come with an iris scanner, while the Lumia 940 will come with a fingerprint sensor. Both were said to sport USB Type-C connectivity, a 20-megapixel rear camera, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

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Microsoft Launches 'Portable Dual Charger' Power Banks 

Microsoft on Wednesday launched a set of three power banks with 5200mAh, 9000mAh, and 12000mAh battery capacities in the accessory market. The Microsoft Portable Dual Chargers will arrive in select regions in the "next few weeks" with an estimated retail price of $35 (roughly Rs. 2,200), $45 (roughly Rs. 2,900) and $55 (roughly Rs. 3,500) respectively.

The Microsoft Portable Dual Chargers sport the same "pocketable" shape like Xiaomi Mi Power Banks but are available in Black colour variant only. While the three portable chargers measure the same 100mm and 25mm in width and thickness respectively, they differ in length and weight based on different battery capacity versions. While the 5200mAh variant weighs 141 grams and is 50mm long, the 9000mAh and 12000mAh versions weigh 215 grams and 275 grams and are 68.5mm and 87mm long, respectively.

Microsoft claims the power banks can also charge the smartphones and tablets as quickly as the company's AC-60 wall charger accessory. Like most of the other power banks in the market, the Microsoft Portable Dual Chargers feature four LED lights for indicating the power left in the device.The company has also announced a competition to win the power bank, for which more details are available on the blog post.

As the name suggests, the power banks house two USB ports, letting users charge two devices at a time and are said to hold their charge for months at a time.The Microsoft Portable Dual Chargers have 5V - 1.5A input and offer 5V - 2.1A output. Furthermore, in case users need to charge both the handset and the portable charger simultaneously, they can make use of the 'daisy-chain' feature, in which they would need to plugin the power bank to a source and then the handset with the power bank.

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Windows 10 Minimum Hardware Requirements

The Minimum System HW #Requirements & Compatibility for Windows Platforms", states the screen size, RAM, storage, graphics and #firmware mentioned to run Windows 10. For PCs, the OS would need the UEFI 2.3.1 firmware, a minimum screen resolution of 800x600 pixels, and DirectX 9 graphics. For 64-bit PCs, Microsoft specifies a minimum of 2GB of RAM and 20GB of storage. For 32-bit PCs on the other hand, Microsoft specifies a minimum of 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. 

As for #mobile devices, the devices would need the same firmware version and graphics as detailed for desktops. The minimum memory requirement however, depends on the screen resolution of the device. Supporting screen sizes ranging from 3-inch to 7.99-inch, the Windows 10 for phones will need a minimum of 512MB of RAM for FWVGA (854x480 pixels) and WVGA (800x480 pixels) resolution devices; 1GB of RAM for WSVGA (1024x600 pixels) devices, HD (1280x720 pixels), WXGA (1366x768 pixles), and qHD (960x540 pixels) devices; 2GB of RAM for full-HD (1920x1080 pixels), WUXGA (1920x1200 pixels), and WSXGA (1440x900 pixels) devices; 3GB of RAM for WQXGA (2560x1600 pixels) and QWXGA (2048x1152 pixels) devices, and finally 4GB of RAM for QSZGA (2560x2048 pixels) resolution devices.

As per the table, Windows 7 RTM, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 RTM OSes can be only updated via the media (iso image), while Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 S14 can be updated to Windows 10 both via media and Windows Update.

Also, a minimum of 4GB of inbuilt storage is required for phones, and for handsets with this base spec an SD card slot will be required to support updates. Windows 10 for phones also requires power and volume up/ down buttons, while for phones with a WVGA display, Start, back, and search buttons are also required.

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Microsoft Launch 5 New Lumia Smartphones

Microsoft  Launch 5 New Lumia Smartphones

The list first shows the #Microsoft/Nokia RM-1031, which features a 4-inch WVGA (480x800 pixels) resolution display, hinting at an entry-level handset. The list also states that searching for the particular model number online returns matches for Nokia XL, a short-lived Android handset.

The second #smartphone shown is the Microsoft/Nokia RM - 1062, which also has variants - 1063 (AT&T), 1064, 1065, 1066, and 1067, all of which will feature a 5.7-inch HD (720x1280 pixels) displays. The Microsoft/Nokia RM - 1072 is shown housing a 5-inch HD display. It too has variants - 1073 (AT&T), 1074, 1075, 1076, and 1077.

The report further shows the Microsoft RM -1109 and RM - 1113, both of which might be the variants of the Microsoft/Nokia RM - 1072 mentioned above. Like RM- 1072, these handset are also seen with 5-inch HD display. The report adds while the RM - 1072 model was seen in Brazil, the RM - 1113 was seen in Asia. Lastly another entry-level handset Microsoft/Nokia RM - 1099 has been mentioned with 4-inch WVGA (480x800 pixels) resolution.

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Windows 10 Smartphones With Octa-Core

Microsoft will be bringing octa-core processors and powerful graphics close to desktop-level to Windows 10 smartphones and tablets soon, as per the description of a Microsoft session at the upcoming GDC (Game Developers Conference) conference on March 6. Also announced was native flac audio format support for Windows 10 smartphones and tablets in the future. Titled "Sustained Gaming Performance in Multi-Core Mobile Devices (Presented by Microsoft)," the description of the presentation clearly states that, "Windows 10 phones and tablets with 8 CPUs and very powerful GPUs are expected soon." Specific to gaming, the session is for developers to learn how to design games that make use of the powerful hardware
without triggering the throttling required by mobile devices with passive cooling. The post points to the release of flagship Windows 10 smartphones and tablets later this year, which fits in with a previous report that pegged the next flagship to launch in September 2015.

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