Microsoft mobile services
From December 2014 to June 2015, Microsoft made a number of corporate acquisitions, buying several of the top applications listed in Google Play and the App Store including Acompli,[1] Sunrise Calendar,[2] Datazen,[3] Wunderlist,[4] Echo Notification Lockscreen,[5] and MileIQ.
It provides local listings, maps (road and aerial satellite), driving directions, and traffic conditions.
In the United States, Microsoft operated a toll-free number (1-800-BING-411 or 1-800-CALL-411) for directory assistance called Bing 411.
In 2014 Microsoft launched Cortana with the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system, Cortana is a digital personal assistant with music searching capabilities and has the ability to tell jokes, show the latest headlines, predict sports events, enable "quiet hours" and show relevant local data using Foursquare.
[21] The service works only if the files are in a OneDrive folder named "Music" and otherwise can't detect any other songs.
[25] Internships Lens is an augmented reality application developed by Microsoft Mobile (previously Nokia) in cooperation with Internships.com and works similar to JobLens.
Applications may graduate to become commercial offerings, or they will be archived along with the lessons learnt based on user feedback.
[30] Originally the site was operated by Nokia but Microsoft moved the development to a more feedback-orientated design in August 2014 to allow more users to add their feedback rather than just Nokia-developers.
[45] In Windows Phone Microsoft bundled a preinstalled email client that supports Outlook.com, Exchange, Yahoo!
Mail, iCloud, IBM Notes Traveler and Gmail natively and supports many other services via the POP and IMAP protocols (the latter was added with Windows Phone 8.1).
Microsoft Data Gathering enables organisations to create questionnaires that they can send over to fieldworkers via WiFi and mobile networks, the application has had several past successes such as in Brazil where the Nokia Data Gathering application was used by the Health Vigilance Foundation to track the spread of dengue fever.
[53][54] The sites are also used to host videos of Microsoft Lumia related events such as the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Catalonia.
This move reflected the larger reorganisation where Microsoft would put all their commercial hardware teams into a single division.
It operates in countries like the Philippines where it is used in over 38,000 public schools and has been running for 10 years, debuting on the Nokia 3310 device.
Microsoft sold the service to the LINE Corporation in 2015 and it now operates as a subsidiary called MixRadio Ltd.[67][68] Motion Data (previously the Nokia Motion Monitor)[69] is a SensorCore based activity tracker included in Microsoft Lumia devices that collects data on a user's steps and physical location for usage in third party applications.
Motion Data is included under settings in newer Microsoft Lumia devices and displays user information such as recent insights on physical activity in a timeline.
[70][71] Motion Data also maps the route where the device has been and lists the applications that have access to the Lumia SensorCore.
[78][79][80] MSN Mobile product offerings originate from two mobile-focused groups within Microsoft's online services division.
The oldest group, named Windows Live Mobile, primarily delivers SMS and WAP-based services.
[101] In 2014, Microsoft acquired Acompli, a company that developed an email and calendar application for Android and iOS which was rebranded as Outlook Mobile.
[102] In October 2015 Microsoft announced that another acquisition, Sunrise Calendar would be integrated into the Outlook Mobile application.
[106] Microsoft Lens (formerly Microsoft Office Lens) is a OneNote companion app designed to capture, scan and enhance images of whiteboards and printed documents, including traditional business cards, and store them in various formats including PDF, JPG, Word, OneNote, PowerPoint as well as contact address-book databases (e.g.for business cards).
[117] Users have the option to geotag their digital shots on sites such as Flickr and then upload them to the online Photosynth web service.
Images uploaded on Photosynth give people the ability to seamlessly view landmarks, public spaces and objects from all sides.
[122] A year after the Remote Desktop service's initial launch Microsoft expanded it to the Windows Phone platform,[123] which later got Azure RemoteApp support.
[130][131][132] The redesign of the applications and site proved positive and helped increase traffic with an additional 10.000.000 of daily visitors.
Videos created via Skype Qik can't be shared or saved in any way or form and will be automatically deleted after a short period of time.
[144] On February 22, 2016, Microsoft announced their plans to retire the Skype Qik app on March 24 citing low usage.
[148] In 2012 the service was expanded to the United Kingdom and provided it in the form of routers and would be gratis for owners of a Skype account during the entire month of October.
[153][154] The Skype for Business application was first rebranded on Windows Phone in July 2015 and was gradually introduced to other platforms.
