Microsoft News

Microsoft has donated $1 million to help fund the construction of a high-tech interactive exhibit at the US Diplomacy Center (USDC), which is set to open in Washington DC in 2017. The center itself will serve as a next-generation museum and education resource that will showcase areas surrounding American diplomacy.

Microsoft is informing users of its Outlook.com web email service that it plans to remove support for both Google Chat and Facebook Chat. That means that those users will only have support for Skype for chat, audio and video calling.

The Brit Awards is one of the biggest nights in the UK music industry and Cortana will be going with the Grammy winning act, Clean Bandit. Microsoft UK's latest ad sees the group putting Cortana to work ahead of the big night, including reminding Grace not to dance on any tables.

Oh, and Cortana will be wearing a phone down the red carpet. Of course.

The Bing team today announced new features for web surfers who are either seeking a takeaway, or wish to get away and compare hotels. Microsoft has released a steady stream of updates to its search engine, offering a richer experience for those who "Bing it."

Microsoft has announced some changes have been made to Office Online to make it easier for cloud services to integrate with the suite. This move will enable users who actively use these platforms to view, open and edit documents in a web browser.

Microsoft released a new commercial today, titled "Do Great Things," focused on the more personal future it envisions for Windows. The narrator starts off speaking to what Microsoft has done with Windows in the past, before moving on to an inspiring message about where the company is going with Windows 10, and even showing off some HoloLens in the process.

Update: Microsoft has now officially posted word that it has bought Sunrise and that video has gone live once again.

Original story: Microsoft has now confirmed earlier reports that it has acquired the Sunrise calendar app. The company did this via a video on its YouTube channel which has since been set as "private". It shows Pierre Valade, the co-founder of Sunrise, being interviewed by Microsoft's "chief storyteller" Steve Clayton. The video also features Javier Soltero, the co-founder of another company Microsoft recently acquired, Acompli, which created the new Outlook email app for iOS and Android.

If you were eager to get in on Microsoft's technical preview for its Office suite, it looks like now is your chance. Participation in the preview was originally limited to those who received an invite, however it appears to be open to the public as of today, albeit still under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

The 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand is almost upon us and Bing will be giving you some great coverage of the tournament. Searching for "ICC World Cup 2015" on the Bing homepage will bring up the content shown up top where you'll get match predictions, standings, stats, polls and trivia on a day by day basis as the competition progresses.