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Microsoft has announced partnerships with 20 device manufacturers to pre-install apps including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Skype, OneNote, and OneDrive on various Android devices:
In addition to Sony and LG, Microsoft is also announcing 18 other partners today, including Haier and a number of smaller manufacturers, bringing its total partner count up to 31. Microsoft previously made deals with Samsung, Dell, and Pegatron to have these apps pre-installed on tablets. A number of apps also come preinstalled on the Galaxy S6. The exact business agreement between Microsoft and these manufacturers isn't detailed, but Microsoft says that it opens up "new revenue streams" for its partners. LG is supposed to begin including the apps in an upcoming tablet, and Sony will add them to the Z4 tablet within the next few months.
In addition, Cortana, Microsoft's "digital assistant" alternative to Siri and Google Now, will be coming to Android and iOS:
This should not be very surprising since the Redmond based company has moved quickly over the last year or so to bring most of its services to iOS and Android, and Cortana is just the next step. Just like with Cortana on Windows Phone, you can use it to track flights, check sports scores, or use the geo-fencing to set location based reminders. Unlike Windows Phone though, the deeper integration with Cortana such as "Hey Cortana" voice activation or the ability for Cortana to perform actions within other applications is not going to be possible on the third-party systems.
[...] The Phone Companion app will be coming soon to Windows 10 through the Insider Program. Most of the apps are already available for iOS and Android, but Cortana support will be coming at the end of June for Android and later in the year for iPhone.
[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2015, @07:54AM
I haven't been able to get skype to start on boot since microsoft bought skype. Also it does not know when it's online and when not, and it's butt ugly.
(Score: 4, Informative) by archshade on Thursday May 28 2015, @09:29AM
Skype is awful, it always has been (but it has got worse since MS bought it).
That said it is my my main IM and VoIP service (across Android and Linux). This is because just about everyone has a Skype account and it works (to some extent or the other on Just about every platform (Does it work on *BSD?). Google Hangouts works on on pretty much all Desktops and Android. Facetime works on OSX and IOS. Skype Works on everything.
What I would like to do is convince the people I want to talk to to use XMMP for IM with some decent encryption. All this exists and is usable on Android and Desktop systems. I don't know about how possible it is on WinPhone (I know there is at least one payed XMMP client for WinPhone, I somewhat doubt it will support OTR or PGP though). Because these things are not household names and are not quite as easy to set up no-geeks just don't care. No matter the QoS, resource or privacy concerns. Have any Soylentils had any success in migrating friends/family to these platforms? Maybe I need new friends.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday May 28 2015, @11:47AM
Seems you have an echo on the line, though...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford