Microsoft’s Cortana and Alexa of Amazon are Two Digital Assistants turned Intelligent friends helping customers do more
Microsoft and Amazon are working together to bring a much richer digital assistant experience to their customers. They are doing this by making both digital assistants, intelligent friends. Taking the strengths of both assistants, interacting with each other and making them available on every device possible.
“In the ambient world,
we believe that assistants will work together each and every day to help us”.
– Megan Saunders, GM Cortana
Microsoft believes the technology of the future is putting people at the center instead of devices. Explaining this as multiple devices interfaced in multiple locations with multiple people using multiple senses.
An example of how this comes together is Cortana and Alexa’s new partnership in enriching lives. Microsoft showcased early stages of this development on stage at Build 2018. Take a look at this demo by Megan Saunders, Cortana GM and Tom Taylor SVP Amazon Alexa in this video.
The Cortana Alexa partnership is still in a beta stage. If you’ll like to try it, Microsoft say visit https://aka.ms/cortana_alexa to be notified when it goes live.
The vision for Microsoft with Cortana is to meet customers wherever they are and no matter the device. Also for developers Microsoft is promising building skills for Cortana and Alexa will enable access to more devices across devices.
Excited about what partnering with other digital Assistants can and might bring or do? Surely it will be interesting to see Cortana, Alexa, Siri, Aura, Google all working together at a point.
Microsoft and DJI partner to Enable Real-Time AI And Machine Learning For Drones
Satya Nadella on stage at this years Build developer conference talks about Microsoft’s AI innovations. Sharing on innovations that will help developers become AI in tuned, to build AI and multidevice, multisense experiences.
“We’re partnering with DJI to bring Azure IoT to their drones, including the MavicAir, to execute tasks that are dirty, dangerous, or just dull.”
The two companies have created a new SDK for Windows 10 PCs. The SDK is designed to bring full flight control and real-time data transfer to Windows 10 connected devices globally. Also as part of the partnership DJI and Microsoft will co-develop solutions leveraging Azure IoT Edge and Microsoft’s AI services to enable new scenarios across agriculture, construction, public safety and more.
There was a demo on stage where the drone camera was used to detect anomalies on pipes. You can imagine a large field of pipes and having to manually check them. This is an instance and you can imagine where it’s applied in agriculture and safety, etc. Solutions like this will save time and money. Explaining how this works, Sam George says “Azure IoT edge enables Azure services and your own code to escape the cloud and be deployed on devices and managed remotely”.
“DJI is the leader in commercial drone technology, and Microsoft Azure is the preferred cloud for commercial businesses. Together, we are bringing unparalleled intelligent cloud and Azure IoT capabilities to devices on the edge, creating the potential to change the game for multiple industries spanning agriculture, public safety, construction and more.” – Microsoft
Microsoft and DJI release SDK
“DJI is excited to form this unique partnership with Microsoft to bring the power of DJI aerial platforms to the Microsoft developer ecosystem,” said Roger Luo, president at DJI. “Using our new SDK, Windows developers will soon be able to employ drones, AI and machine learning technologies to create intelligent flying robots that will save businesses time and money, and help make drone technology a mainstay in the workplace.”
DJI’s new SDK for Windows will empower developers to build native Windows applications that can remotely control DJI drones including autonomous flight and real-time data streaming. The SDK will also allow the Windows developer community to integrate and control third-party payloads like multispectral sensors, robotic components like custom actuators, and more, exponentially increasing the ways drones can be used in the enterprise.
Through this partnership, DJI is releasing a software development kit (SDK) for Windows that extends the power of commercial drone technology to the largest enterprise developer community in the world.
Microsoft and Tek Experts unveil Microsoft’s first Africa Customer Service Support Center in Lagos, Nigeria
Microsoft and Tek Experts have established a Customer Service and Support (CSS) centre in Lagos, Nigeria. The support center among many things will also support Microsoft Azure customers in the Europe, Middle East and Africa EMEA regions.
Executives of both companies shared on the vision and reason for the partnership.
Microsoft CVP, Customer Service and Support, Aileen Allkins, shared on why Nigeria. She said “we are able to enhance the support we offer Microsoft’s customers across multiple time zones. In EMEA and the east coast of the US”. She went on to say Microsoft was committed to investing in Nigeria’s talented workforce. “We are committed to investing in the talented workforce Nigeria has to offer through our partnership with Tek Experts. I expect that this relationship will continue to grow and provide additional career opportunities for the local market“.
Founder of Tek Experts Yaniv Natan, talked about developing talent during the unveiling of the company in Lagos. Speaking on the collaboration, he said “We are delighted to collaborate with Microsoft in developing talent that will improve the technology landscape in Nigeria. Leverage the skills and expertise of Nigerians to provide great levels of service to customers as we have done in other locations around the world. We are committed to investing in the region and the people. To raising the profile of Nigeria as an exceptional location for technical talent”.
Nigeria, first country in Africa to host a Global Operation for Microsoft with Tek Experts
Microsoft Nigeria Country General Manager, Akin Banuso also spoke on the prospects the collaboration between Tek Experts and Microsoft offers Nigeria.
He said “We are excited to have Nigeria be the first country in Africa to host a Global Operation for Microsoft through our strategic partnership with Tek Experts. This will be a unique opportunity for our youth to show their potential and get World Class Career jobs opportunity. This is in line with our mission of empowering every individual and organization on the planet to achieve more”.
According to Tek Experts, it plans to employ 1,000 young people into its operation in Nigeria. It currently has employed about 200 people.
Join us and Watch Microsoft’s developer conference Build 2018 Vision Keynote address
Join us 8:30AM PT,1700 SAST, 1500 GMT, 1600 WAT, 1800 EAT Monday May 7th for Build 2018. Follow the online viewing of Microsoft’s developer conference. Get to hear what’s new and evolving in Microsoft world of technology.
Join Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, talk about the Intelligent Edge during the vision keynote. Hear from Scott Guthrie about Microsoft Azure and Joe Belfiore define Microsoft 365 as a powerful development platform.
We will have all the announcements coming out of Build 2018 here and on this site, Stay tuned, share what you are most excited about with us in the comments.
Microsoft partners with Techno Brain Limited to launch Africa’s first Software Testing Centre in Kenya
Microsoft’s partnership with Techno Brain Limited will bring it’s software testing and quality assurance centre to Africa. This means Techno Brian engineers will get early access to the latest Windows operating system builds. They’ll perform complex tests for various applications before it becomes available for public preview.
The Microsoft software testing center, a first of it’s kind in Africa will be located in Nairobi, Kenya. Making it the fourth outsourced Microsoft testing centre, with others based in India, China and Poland.
“This testing centre will help to profile Kenya as a leading regional hub of emerging technologies and innovation. Said Microsoft Director of Software Engineering, Bambo Sofola at the launch event. It’ll provide employment opportunities for young people as well.
Kenya is said to be Africa’s ultimate technology hub of the future and it is rapidly growing in that area. Microsoft is here to support and enable Kenya and Kenyan’s to excel and achieve that purpose. The inauguration is more than job creation.
It is a lot more that includes how we train, share talent and how we transfer knowledge to the young engineers in Kenya.
These engineers will continue to learn and be on a level across the globe on how you do technology, testing and write software, to help fill the talent growth in Kenya.
Techno Brain Limited hosts Africa’s first Software Testing Centre
The Microsoft Windows engineering team worked collaboratively with the Techno Brain team to set up a highly specialized and secured test environment. Techno Brain Nairobi software testing centre will get exclusive access to Windows Insider software builds that are yet to be released in the global market.
Manoj Shanker, CEO of Techno Brain Ltd said; “Kenya in particular, has a rich pool of skilled human resources. This Testing Centre is another great testament that we’re truly committed to empowering lives through education and innovation”.
It is interesting to see Microsoft invest more in Africa as we look forward to it’s first datacenters in Africa.
