Weekend Recap: Satya Nadella and karma, Windows 10, Surface Pro 3, Cortana to hit Canada, and more

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Weekend Recap: Satya Nadella and karma, Windows 10, Surface Pro 3, Cortana to hit Canada, and more

This week has been quite interesting in the world of Microsoft. We’ve covered a lot over the past week and chances are you most likely missed an important piece of news. Let’s take a look back at the past seven days in a feature we call “Weekend Recap.”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made the headlines this past week after he gave some controversial advice. At the ‘Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing’ event, Nadella advised women to not ask for a raise, and instead hope that “good karma” will favor them in the end. Nadella emailed Microsoft employees after the fact, clarifying his remarks during the interview. According to Nadella, he answered the question completely wrong.

Speaking of Microsoft, Interbrand recently released its Best Global Brands report, rating Microsoft as the fifth most valuable brand in the world with a brand value of over $61 billion, an increase of three percent. 

Weekend Recap: Satya Nadella and karma, Windows 10, Surface Pro 3, Cortana to hit Canada, and more

Microsoft has sent out invitations to a cloud event taking place October 20th in San Francisco. The event takes place Monday, October 20th, and CEO Satya Nadella will be in attendance along with Executive Vice President of Cloud and Enterprise, Scott Guthrie. The event will focus on Microsoft’s Cloud OS and how it enables businesses to build, do, and make in a mobile-first, cloud-first world.

Microsoft also sent out first round of invites to the pre-release beta program for Office. This means Microsoft is ready to begin the beta program for Office on Windows and Windows Phone (which is what this specific invite stated). Microsoft might focus on Windows first, prior to Windows Phone.

Speaking at ITxpo, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made it clear that Windows 10 is poised to be an important step in order to spread Microsoft’s reach from wearables to sensors. In his own words, Microsoft’s CEO commented that Windows was “architected… where it can run on everything.”

On October 1st, Microsoft launched the Windows Insider Program, allowing interested consumers and IT professionals a chance to beta test Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 10 operating system. This Insider Program allows participants to evaluate Microsoft’s offering and provide feedback to make it better. Now it appears that this program will most likely continue after Windows 10 is released.

Weekend Recap: Satya Nadella and karma, Windows 10, Surface Pro 3, Cortana to hit Canada, and more

Microsoft made a few Surface Pro 3 related announcements this week. The company introduced a new support bundle called “Microsoft Complete for Business” as well as a “laptop replacement” bundle. Microsoft also announced that all Surface Pro 3 tablets will be upgradeable to Windows 10 when the operating system releases next year. Taking things a step further, all Surface Pro 3 accessories will be supported by the next version of the Surface Pro. If you live in India, you can now purchase the Surface Pro 3.

We learned this week that Cortana is set to make its debut in Canada with the Lumia 830 in the coming days, albeit in alpha form. You can watch our unboxing and first impressions of the Lumia 830 right here. You can also check out our full review of the Lumia 530 right here.

Speaking of Lumia devices, it appears that Verizon has ‘retired’ the Lumia Icon, after only being available for eight months. This information comes from Verizon’s official support account on Twitter, which simply states, “We have stock in all areas, however it has been retired.”

Windows Phone fans can rejoice — within the United States, Amazon.com reports that out of its top five best selling no-contract cell phones, three of them are Windows Phone devices. How cool is that?

Earlier this week, Microsoft introduced a new way to send and share files with Outlook Web App (OWA) and OneDrive for Business. When sending email attachments, a prompt will ask if you would like to send the file as an attachment or if you would like to upload the file to OneDrive and send a link.

Gameloft’s Cars Fast as Lightning made its way to the Windows Store for Windows 8.1 devices. We also brought you Xim, the newest creation coming out of Microsoft’s Research department. It is designed to share pictures in a way that makes it as easy and convenient as possible for everyone involved. If you are looking for a new adventure on your Windows Phone device, check out Secrets and Treasure from Microsoft Studios. This game, which was originally released in September, is now available for all regions.

Weekend Recap: Satya Nadella and karma, Windows 10, Surface Pro 3, Cortana to hit Canada, and more

The highly anticipated Xbox One title Sunset Overdrive has gone gold (meaning the development of the game has finished), and is now available for pre-order ahead of its release on October 28. Speaking of the Xbox One, Xbox chief Phil Spencer confirmed this week that the Xbox One will soon allow its users to take in-game screenshots, and customize the interface of their console’s dashboard.

It also looks like the Xbox One is selling like hotcakes in China, with over 100,000 reportedly sold in just a week. The sales figure comes from a local news site which claims to cite Shanghai Media Group vice-president Zhang Dazhong. The 100,000 units figure also takes in account the number of Xbox One units which were pre-ordered.

Have you ever wanted to create a game, but not deal with the coding aspects? Then Microsoft’s Project Spark might be for you. It has finally come out of its six month beta, and is available in the Windows Store and Xbox One store, as well as retail stores.

Lenovo unveiled a range of new Windows 8.1 devices including the Yoga 3 Pro and the Yoga Tablet 2. And of course, we will have a full hands-on review of these devices soon.

Earlier this week, Microsoft rebranded Windows Intune to Microsoft Intune. Microsoft also made a pledge to protect student data from advertising. 

Weekend Recap: Satya Nadella and karma, Windows 10, Surface Pro 3, Cortana to hit Canada, and more

Microsoft unveiled a partnership with CyArk, revealing a brand new world heritage website that showcases 3D content. Furthermore, the 3D content is best viewed in Internet Explorer, which Microsoft is touting as a browser that lets you experience the best touch experience with fast and responsive app-like performance. 

You can check out our hands-on first impressions of the Universal Mobile Keyboard and Arc Touch Bluetooth Mouse from Microsoft.

Microsoft had filed a lawsuit in August against Samsung for $6.9 million in unpaid interest from the previous year. The lawsuit was finally unsealed, and we can now see some of the details involved. With that being said, did you know that Microsoft makes more money from its Android patents than from Windows Phone, Xbox, and Skype combined?

That’s all for this edition of Weekend Recap. Stay tuned for another week of exciting news. Dont forget that you can stay up to date with the latest Windows 10 news, features, and tutorials, by checking out our dedicated Windows 10 page.