Kip Kniskern
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @kipkniskern
Word got out yesterday that Microsoft was in final talks to acquire AI software company Nuance Communications, and today the company made it official, announcing a $19.7 billion all cash deal for the AI software company. Nuance’s CEO Mark Benjamin … Read more
As you may know, we made some changes to OnMSFT.com and Azure this month, and as is normal, we hit a few snags along the way. After some fine tuning, though, we think we’re getting close to getting it dialed … Read more
For the past 7 years, Gavriella Schuster has led Microsoft’s commercial partner efforts, a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and a well known keystone at Microsoft for both commercial partners and newshounds. Yesterday, in a LinkedIn post, Schuster announced that … Read more
As it turns out, we’ve been hosting OnMSFT.com on Azure for a little more than two years, running on an Ubuntu 18.04 VM. Since it has been past time to update Ubuntu (and MySQL and PHP etc), it seemed like … Read more
During the Microsoft Ignite livestream, CVP Jeff Sandquist revealed that “Build is coming in May.” Not a huge revelation, as the conference has traditionally been in April or May, but so far Microsoft hasn’t said much about this year’s virtual … Read more
Big news: Panos Panay is pumped! Today at a mini session at Ignite, Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer for Windows and Devices, joined Roanne Sones in a “fireside chat” about Windows. While much of the quick 15 minute session centered on … Read more
This morning, Microsoft spent most of the Ignite 2021 keynote unveiling Microsoft Mesh, the new Virtual Reality platform taking HoloLens and virtual reality to a whole new level. Now, after the announcements are over, Microsoft has released a set of … Read more
Steven Sinofsky had a long career at Microsoft, joining the company after finishing his Master’s Degree in 1989. He started out as a technical assistant to Bill Gates, rising to lead the Office division, and then becoming president of Windows. … Read more
As in all organizations, changes occur as executives move on to better opportunities (as in the cases of Brad Anderson and Julia White), or to retirement, as in the case of Executive Vice President Kurt DelBene, who will be leaving … Read more
This week, Tom Warren over at The Verge wrote that it looks like “Microsoft now has a true answer to Chrome OS.” He goes on to show off a number of features now out in the public thanks to a … Read more
Larry Hyrb, known far and wide by his Xbox gamertag Major Nelson, is celebrating 20 years at Microsoft. Starting out before that even as a vendor managing communities for MSN (which was far more a social network than a news … Read more
Microsoft’s MSPAC, or political action committee, has long been controversial at least among some Microsoft employees. The PAC donates to political causes, with a steering committee making decisions on where donations, some to controversial politicians, goes. While the employees can … Read more
Microsoft’s Excel is one of the stalwarts of the company’s business tools, used by millions around the world for everything from creating shopping lists to running multi-million dollar businesses. First introduced way back in 1985 (and preceded by another spreadsheet … Read more
Tomorrow, November 26th 2020, is the Thanksgiving US holiday. As such, and throughout this week, news coming out of Microsoft has and will slow down, as the company pauses to celebrate and gather (hopefully mostly virtually) with their families. We’re … Read more
This past July, Microsoft’s Business Development lead, Peggy Johnson, left the company to become CEO at Magic Leap. Today, the company has announced her replacement, former CEO of McAfee, Christopher Young. Young will report directly to CEO Satya Nadella, he … Read more
Microsoft is pushing the Surface Duo’s ability to function in multiple “modes,” and have chosen former Seattle Seahawk running back Marshawn Lynch, famous for his “Beast Mode” style of running, to feature the Duo in its latest ad: https://youtu.be/LcjF3sJtow4 The … Read more
If you’ve noticed some changes to the way the Windows Insider program is presented, with less emphasis on personality and more on a corporate persona, it’s not by accident. In a Twitter thread posted over the weekend, former Windows Insider … Read more
Accessibility, the ability for people with “visual, auditory, motor, speech or cognitive disabilities and their various assistive technologies” to interact with websites, is a too often overlooked area of web development. There are a number of tools to help devs … Read more
Yesterday afternoon Pacific time (officially from 2:25pm PDT to 7:25PDT), Microsoft 365 users were unable to log in to multiple Microsoft 365 services that use Azure Active Directory, including Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Office.com, Power Platform, and Dynamics 365. Users who … Read more
(Update: the login services came back after 5 hours) This afternoon (Pacific time) about 2:30pm, some Microsoft 365 services, including logins to Microsoft 365 “work or school” accounts and the Azure Portal, went down, failing to authenticate and returning a … Read more
OK, I don’t need a new phone. I don’t even need all the capabilities of the phone I’ve been using, a used Apple iPhone 7+. But like many of you, I like toys, especially technology toys, and when I saw … Read more