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Skype Chatbots Get Neat New Tools And Features

July 9, 2016 By Mary Duncan Leave a Comment

Microsoft gives developers new tools for Skype Chatbots

Big names are among the developers of the Skype Chatbots.

Chatbots have been everywhere in the news for the past several weeks. Last week Facebook Messenger’s chatbots had the spotlight, but this week it all goes to the Skype Chatbots.

The Microsoft Bot Framework is the way chatbot developers can try out all the new features and tools which Microsoft placed at their disposal. The Skype Bot Platform and the Microsoft Bot Framework have now been merged. Proceeding the merger, several other tool and features were made available.

Skype can now be used to log into several other Microsoft services. The company believes this will help developers and their chat bots in gathering and consolidating necessary information from user accounts

Skype chatbots can also now be part of group conversations, as they can be set to quickly answer individual questions from multiple users.

Skype Chatbots Will Probably Handle Microsoft Support In A Few Years

Microsoft wants its Skype chatbots to be able to quickly learn and adapt.Natural Language is the next big step for the software company and they seem to very driven to be the first to reach it.

Adaptable and chatty bots could be the way many industries will be handling their clients from now on and for that to not bring about any communication issues, a natural and intuitive language is necessary.

The original Microsoft Bot Framework was released in March 2016 and in its first month, it saw heavy use from more than 20,000 developers. As of the end of June 2016, the Microsoft Bot Framework had over 30,000 developers, several of them already finishing and testing out their initial Skype Chatbots.

A few big names are also part of the developers as the potential for the new industry has yet to be tapped into.

Chatbots have existed for as long as the first early AI models have existed. So far, however, they were mostly viewed in a bad light. They were used for spamming and advertisement or as phishing tools for hackers.

The idea that chatbots could be an industry is not new either but its application relatively is. Developing chatbots is a new field of programming, meaning it is a great opportunity for new jobs.

Are you excited about chatbots or do you think they will be worse than telemarketers? What would you like to find among the Skype Chatbots? Let us know.

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Cyanogen OS 13.1 Brings MOD Ready to OnePlus One Devices

June 12, 2016 By Mary Duncan Leave a Comment

The majority of MODs are currently Microsoft services and features, but that won’t always be the case.

The Cyanogen OS 13.1 has arrived to the OnePlus One and it is MOD Ready. In only hours after its official arrival, the OS has been given well-earned cheer and positive feedback. Members of the Cyanogen team are probably used to this sort of reception by now, however, as they have been praised for their activities by a much larger community than before ever since the launch of the later versions of OS 11.

So what is MOD Ready?

MOD Ready is the new feature through which manufacturers and developers can reach and add tweaks to components of the Android platform that were initially inaccessible. MODs allow any and all interested and adequately skilled parties to enhance features and services further.

In short, manufacturers may now boldly go within the inner workings of the Android platform farther than ever before.

To demonstrate the applicability of MOD Ready, the Cyanogen OS 13.1 come with several MODs made by the team in February of this year. The mods themselves were prioritized for general utility and usage rate and are various Microsoft features.

For US users, the Cortana MOD may be utilized in several useful ways – hands-free voice activated selfies, and voice activated and delivered reminders and scheduling.

The Skype MOD enables Skype calls via the device’s core Phone app.

The OneNote MOD enables various note options with the device’s core Phone, E-mail, and Quick Settings apps.

The Hyperlapse MOD was also brought to OS 13.1. It makes the recording of stable and streamlined time-lapse video through the device’s core Camera app possible.

The Twitter MOD, the only current MOD that’s not a Microsoft service or feature, will display trending tweets to the device’s core Lock Screen. The Cortana MOD is also available for the core Lock Screen and the Twitter MOD requires the Cortana MOD to be enabled.

With the OS 13.1 now live and available to OnePlus One, the MOD Ready community is sure to see a spike in growth and popularity. The Cyanogen Team has already welcomed the world to the “Post-App Era”.

With a lot more MODs soon to be shared by 3rd party users, MOD Ready has the potential to be the new trending topic for years to come. Is there a phone or feature you’d like to see brought as a MOD? Is there anything you believe could stop the MOD Ready features from picking up speed? Let us know.

Image Courtesy of Cyanogen’s YouTube Channel.

Sony, LG, Samsung and Dell Tablets Will Have Preloaded Skype and Microsoft Office

May 27, 2015 By Brandi McCants Leave a Comment

Microsoft has reached deals with LG, Sony, Dell and a few other electronics producers to install some of its most popular apps on Android tablets.

Dell, Sony, LG, and other important electronics brands customers will soon be able to use Skype, Microsoft Office and cloud services on their Android tablets immediately after they bought them after Microsoft signed an agreement with the OEMs to give out the installed apps and software.

The deal reaches to 31 partners, Haier and other smaller companies being part of the agreement as well. Microsoft has also included them in earlier contracts closed with with Samsung, Dell, Pegatron, which will allow Skype and Microsoft Office to be installed on their tablets. A significant number of these apps are already found on Samsung Galaxy S6.

The business deal with Microsoft has not been completely released, but the tech giant has announced a unilateral aim to open up new ways for gaining revenue for each of the partners.

LG is soon to start preloading Microsoft apps and software in their soon to be launched tablet, while Sony has already said they will be using them in their upcoming Xperia Z4 tablet in June.

The hardware companies from the deal will soon be uploading their Android tablets with Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneDrive, OneNote, and Skype in the future months, a fact that shows Microsoft’s ambition to have their applications and software on non-Windows mobile gadgets.

The partnerships will enlarge Microsoft’s ecosystem to a large range of mobile devices to compensate for the tech giant’s slow growth in its own mobile gadget sales. With the applications installed on Android devices, Microsoft will manage to get its programs into the market with ease.

The software company’s move to offer free MS Office apps to Android gadgets has even included iPhones and iPads, after it gave out a subscription-free Office apps, while separate individual apps launched for Android and iOS in November last year.

At the same time, Microsoft has announced that Cortana – a digital personal assistant – will soon be available as a separate app specific to Apple iOS and Google Android.

“Our strategic agreements with these partners demonstrate how Microsoft is leveraging the scale of the hardware ecosystem, and working with partners in new ways to deliver rich experiences to our customers. This is a cornerstone of our cross-platform services strategy, to bring an array of Microsoft services to every person on every device”, the company announced in a blog post.

Image Source: Derek Lovell Coaching

Microsoft Released a Major Skype Update

October 13, 2014 By Mary Duncan Leave a Comment

Microsoft is working hard these days at improving their software products. It was only a couple of weeks ago that they launched their new operating system, the Windows 10 and now Microsoft released a massive update for Skype.

Microsoft’s Major Skype Update

Microsoft has finally released a major Skype update that is going to finally bring Skype into the year 2014. Many Skype users were complaining about the bad user interface and the lack of updates for one of the most popular video calling program in the world.

With the new major Skype update, users are getting loads of improvements, such as an improved video chat experience, a free group video calling, side-by-side windows and a multi-tasking feature. The side-by-side windows make file sharing very easy!

The major Skype update is made available across all platforms: desktops, mobile and tablets for both Windows and Mac. Skype 7.0 is available for download starting today, so go on and give it a try!

Skype executive director, Tom Huang, had this to say about their major Skype update:

We’ve made the Skype experience consistent whether you are using your mobile device or your desktop PC. Now, you’ll see thumbnail pictures of your contacts, a new bubble-style chat design, and consistent icons for chat, video calls and audio calls.

He added that the company is constantly working towards improving the experience of the service. Even if you’re not a Skype enthusiast, but you do have Skype on your computer, we recommend you install the major Skype update.

What are your thoughts on the fact that Microsoft released a major Skype update? Have you already installed it? Do you like it and would you like to drop us a few lines in the comment section below to tell us about it?

Skype Translator Brings Star Trek Closer Thanks to Microsoft

June 4, 2014 By Daniel Giordano Leave a Comment

It is an honor to receive news from a man that is both a Star Trek and a Facebook icon, so when George Takei shares tech news, you can’t just overlook them. What was Mr. Takei so excited about? Well, he apparently is very happy to have lived enough to witness the universe of Star Trek coming to life and reality as we speak, all thanks to Microsoft and… Skype.

If you didn’t know, Microsoft bought Skype around three years ago, for a breathtaking sum of $8.5 billion. From our point of view, (as regular Skype users) nothing changed much, except the fact that Skype became mind-blowing popular especially in the business environment.

If you take into account the fact that Skype counts 300 million users per month, you realize that Microsoft proved to be a genius to purchase the company. But even if we didn’t see spectacular changes taking place with Skype, this doesn’t mean the two companies didn’t work together to revolutionize the world.

Let’s see together what made Mr. Takei and all tech journalists clap their hands last week:

Microsoft isn’t just pushing Skype as the text, voice, and video communication service to use, it has set its sights on emulating Star Trek. Yesterday at the Code Conference in California, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Skype corporate vice president Gurdeep Pall, introduced Skype Translator. It’s the first time that this new feature has been demonstrated publicly, and involved a Skype conversation between Pall speaking English in California and Diana Heinrichs speaking German in London.

In other words, the Skype Translator aims to break down the language barriers of the world, by translating in real time the conversation between to people, for each of them in their own language. For now, the translation skills are not spectacular, but pretty good to make two people get on the same page really fast. This is a major step for Skype as it tries to ease and support communication among people all over the world. It is definitely good for all companies and business out there, and it will be a good business for both Microsoft and Skype.

According to journalists covering the subject,

For business users especially, it’s going to make Skype look very desirable for those international calls and video meetings, and eventually much cheaper than actually hiring a translator.

The Star Trek reference is obvious, we hope. On a secondary note, we cannot but to reiterate our respect for Microsoft’s CEO, who is not only a visionary, but a man who is not afraid to work hard to accomplish the goal of giving back Microsoft its former glory.

Nobody knows yet many details about the Skype Translator regarding the number of languages it will support eventually, nor about an official availability date. We will just have to wait and see.

Microsoft announces new Surface 2 and Surface 2 Pro

September 23, 2013 By Brandi McCants Leave a Comment

Microsoft has announced the two new Surface tablets, the Surface 2 running Windows RT and the Surface 2 Pro running Windows 8.1. Both tablets look like revamped versions, with no real software changes apart from the Windows 8.1 tweaks.

The original Surface cost Microsoft $900 million, with lots of stock not selling and Microsoft paying billions in advertisement to try and sell the device. Needless to say the Surface tablet failed to gain any traction, with many contending the iPad superiority.

Surface 2

This is Microsoft’s revamped Surface 2, with new internals and some interesting freebies. Starting with the internals, the Surface 2 packs the NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor alongside 4GB of RAM and 32/64GB of internal storage.

The new Surface 2 packs 10 hours of video playback battery life, a USB 3.0 port and the slightly better 1080p ClearType display. The original Surface had incredible build quality and beautiful display and the Surface 2 is a slight upgrade.

Microsoft is bundling a year of free Skype calls and 200GB of SkyDrive storage into the Surface 2. Windows RT has four compatible Office RT applications and Microsoft will revamp Windows RT to 8.1, like its more powerful brother Windows 8.

The Surface 2 starts at $449 for 32GB of internal storage and 64GB for $549. It is available to pre-order tomorrow and will launch on October 22 in 22 different markets.

Surface Pro 2

The second tablet revealed was the Surface 2 Pro, the more powerful version running full Windows 8.1. Microsoft has added in Intel’s Haswell processor and made a whole range of accessories for the new PC/tablet hybrid.

Externally the Surface Pro 2 is the same device, but internally with the Haswell i5 processor the new tablet performs 50% better than the original, with more graphical performance and 60% improvement in battery life.

Microsoft has created a new kickstand to compliment some of the issues the original raise, they have also made a Power Cover and backlit Type Cover and added USB support for third party mice and keyboards, for a old school PC feel.

All the freebies on the Surface 2 apply for the Surface 2 Pro and prices start at $899 for 64GB of internal storage with 4GB of RAM. This can go all the way up to 8GB of RAM with 512GB of internal storage, priced at $1799.

Skype adds short video messaging for iOS and Android

February 18, 2013 By Brandi McCants Leave a Comment

Twitter has recently launched Vine, an app that allows users to create, use, and send small 6 second videos of them doing whatever they want. Skype has followed the short video format by updating its Android and iOS apps so that users can record videos up to 3-minutes in length, and these video can be used as messages or for any other purpose.

Named the Video Messages feature, the tool will be made available through updates on Skype for iOS and Android. It is not in the App Store of Google Play just yet, but it is due soon. It gives users the ability to record video messages and leave them for offline contacts to see upon their return, and while the purpose is for messaging an offline friend, we suspect the video messages will take on a new life of creativity.

The videos can be viewed on the mobile device being used, while they can also be transferred to desktops and downloaded in MP4 format, although this feature is limited to Mac users. It seems strange that Skype, a division of Microsoft is not launching the app on Microsoft’s Windows Phones. While we have no doubt it will appear on Windows soon, it could have been a nice exclusive for Windows Phone, at least for a short while.

Not that Microsoft will be concerned. Since is bought Skype in a multi-billion dollar deal, the instant messaging and call service has made huge money for the company. Microsoft announced this week that Skype phone calls grew twice as fast as all other worldwide carriers combined, while video traffic on the service rose by 44%.

For the time being, users based in the United States will be getting the new video messaging service, and while no official dates have been given for other regions, a roll-out is expected soon.

Password Reset Is Blocked by Skype After Discovery of a Security Hole

November 20, 2012 By David Crozier Leave a Comment

Skype is blocking password resets when a security hole was found out. Its users must have been adversely affected by such hole.

Hackers found a security hole in Skype which gives an outsider a chance to get into a user’s account. As a temporary precaution, Skype suspends its password reset. This issue was seen in a forum and was reiterated on Reddit. The security hole is found in the video-chat part which allows anyone to change an account’s password then do anything with the account.

Skype said that the users affected were “a small number”, and is now looking into the problem. According to Leonas Sendrauskas of Skype, there were notifications of concerns by users regarding the password rest security and most affected are those users with multiple accounts connected to the same email address.

Skype blocks reset of password for the meantime. As of today, it already has updated and properly working though.

Next Web staffers said they duplicated the attack per step and were able to have access to the accounts of their editor and writer (with the owners’ permission).

Sendrauskas added that the company is committed to giving its users a secure and safe communication experience and it is now reaching out to those who were affected by the suspension of the password reset. He apologized for the inconvenience.

Part of the flaw exploitation, the hackers got the email address associated with their Skype account, used that email address to register another account, used password reset, gain access to the user’s Skype account then blocked the original owner.

The hole may have also exposed users’ personal details such as birth dates as well as instant messages.