Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Tomorrow on March 14, 2015 (3.14.15), we are making 12-Month Xbox Music Passes available for purchase for $31.41 (usually $99).

From the Fire Hose:

Every March 14, I get an irresistible craving for pie. But really, it’s Pi Day – an homage to the mathematical constant of the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, and it’s also Albert Einstein’s birthday. And this year, the sequence is even cooler: 3.14.15. Mind. Blown.

To celebrate this auspicious day, you can pick up new digital gift cards with the Pi Day theme your recipients can redeem for apps, games and music. Download the Digital Gift Cards app for free from the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store.

Also on the 14^th – and for the day only – you can buy a 12-month Xbox Music Pass for $31.41 (regularly $99) from the Microsoft Store. This subscription gives you access to millions of songs to play on your Xbox, the Web, or your Windows Phone, PC and tablet. This offer is good for new subscriptions and renewals of existing subscriptions.

Finally, exercise your noggin with the new Einstein Brain Trainer HD app. It comes with 30 activities to stimulate your mind. It’s on sale for half-off at the Windows Store for $2.99 and $1.49 at the Windows Phone Store.

Check these out as you eat your pie in honor of Pi Day, and read more about these promotions on Blogging Windows and the Lumia Conversations blog.

Unlimited music for a year for just $31.41.  Yes, this is a total steal.  Get this while you can! 

• MICROSOFT STORE: 12-Month Xbox Music Pass ($31.41)
  (Discount starts and ends on 3/14/15)
  http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/
  en_US/pdp/12-Month-Xbox-Music-Pass/productID.258412400

Robert Downey Jr, Albert Manero, Microsoft OneNote & #CollectiveProject put their heads together to make a 7yo boy very happy.

Check out the smile on that kid.

Visit the Microsoft OneNote Facebook page for more works from the #CollectiveProject:
http://facebook.com/OneNote

We just announced the availability of a new option for Azure Media Services called, “Premium Encoding”. 

It now enables complex workflows & tuning for transcoding media into different formats using some automation that can dynamically adapt to the content.

Among other things, it also provides users with the ability to output their content in 4x the number of formats using a large number of audio & video codecs.  It also provides the ability to ingest 2x the number of audio/video formats.

Video encoding can be a complex and complicated space. I often get requests from customers asking for ways to transcode formats that are used primarily in broadcast studios, or in the movie industry. Accompanying these formats are also complicated ‘recipes’ to process the videos that requires custom logic to make decisions about what encoding steps are required.

This week, I am excited to introduce a new technology in Microsoft Azure Media Services that allows our more experienced customers to solve such workflow problems. This premium encoder offers superior quality and flexibility suited for broadcast industry/professional media transcodes. This includes automated decision-making logic that can adapt to a variety of input and output file formats such as MXF, support for additional input and output codecs such as DNxHD, support for higher output resolutions – up to 4K in AVC, support for closed captions,  and much more.

In this blog, I will provide you an overview of the new capabilities of the premium encoder. Please click here to find out more about pricing and visit our documentation center to learn more details about how to use this encoder.

…

• ANNOUNCEMENT: Introducing Premium Encoding in Azure Media Services
  http://azure.microsoft.com/blog/2015/03/05/introducing-premium-encoding-in-azure-media-services/
• DOCUMENTATION: Encoding On-Demand Content with Azure Media Services
  http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/media-services-encode-asset/#compare_encoders

Another release of the Microsoft Products Portfolio has been released. 

I actually don’t have the release notes for this document so I can’t tell you what changed between 3.4 and 3.6.  I can tell by looking at the document, a lot of Azure services appear to be newly added.

Download it below:

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Products Portfolio – All-Up View v3.6
  https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=DA410C7F7E038D!78728&authkey=!ANWOq3CEnWV7YXw&ithint=file%2cpdf

Earlier, we released a new version of the "Outlook for iOS and Android_Info for IT Pros" Word document.

<taken from the introduction>

This document provides a deeper look into Outlook for iOS and Android for IT professionals including information from Microsoft engineers and answers to frequently asked questions we’ve received from customers. If you have additional questions, please reach out to your Microsoft Account Manager or contact our product team directly by posting in the Exchange IT Pro group on the Office 365 Yammer network.

• DOWNLOAD: New release of the "Outlook for iOS and Android_Info for IT Pros" (v2.0)
  http://1drv.ms/1DUoCuN

We just released a new .MSI that contains all the most current firmware and Driver Updates for Surface Pro 3 as of January 30th, 2015.

The .MSI was created for customers that can’t or don’t use Windows Update and for customers that need to do a mass deployment.

Cumulative and current firmware and drivers for the Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 2, and Surface Pro. This firmware and driver package contains drivers for all of the components in the Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 2, and Surface Pro devices, as well as updates to the system firmware that have been released via Windows Update. These drivers and firmware are compatible with Windows 8.1 (Pro and Enterprise). The Surface Pro driver pack contains drivers and firmware that are compatible with Windows 8.0 (Pro and Enterprise). The Surface Pro 3 and Surface Pro 2 drivers and firmware are not compatible with Windows 8.0 (Pro and Enterprise). These drivers and firmware are not compatible with Surface RT and Surface 2.

For more details, read the announcement here:

• ANNOUNCEMENT: Surface Pro 3 MSI Now Available
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/surface/archive/2015/03/02/surface-pro-3-msi-now-available.aspx
• DOWNLOAD: Surface Pro 3 firmware and Driver Updates .MSI
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=38826

We’ve made a new eBook available that focuses on adapting to the world of mobility.

Separate the fact from the fiction around mobile, and understand the factors to consider in adopting a mobile strategy.

Read Unplugged: How mobility changes the way we work to learn how to:

• Bring innovation to business with low-cost devices
• Deliver exceptional customer experiences using the latest mobile technologies
• Choose the right device for specific business needs
• Assess the total cost of ownership

Visit the link below to download the book:

• DOWNLOAD: Free eBook: “Unplugged: How Mobility Changes the Way We Work”
  http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/ebooks/
  devices/affordable-innovation/unplugged/default.aspx

We’re made available a free eBook from O’Reilly on Azure Machine Learning.

The Microsoft Azure Machine Learning cloud platform provides simplified yet powerful data management, transformation and machine learning tools.

R language scripts integrate with built in Azure ML modules to extend the platform. Additionally, models running in Azure ML can be published as web services.

You will be provided information on how to perform data science tasks including, data management, data transformation, and machine learning in the Azure ML cloud environment.

You will learn:

• Data management with Azure ML.
• Data transformation with Azure ML and R.
• Data I/O between Azure ML and the R Scripts.
• R graphics with Azure ML.
• Building and evaluating machine learning models with Azure ML and R.
• Publishing Azure ML models as a web service.

Free tier Azure ML accounts are now available with a Microsoft ID at: https://studio.azureml.net/Home/Free.

• DOWNLOAD: Free eBook, “Data Science in the Cloud with Microsoft Azure Machine Learning and R”
  https://azureinfo.microsoft.com/CO-Azure-CNTNT-FY15-02Feb-Data-Science-in-the-Cloud.html

We finally released the preview of Office 2016 for Mac.

For those of you who’ve been using the Office 365 release of Outlook 2016 for Mac, you know that big changes are in store. 

The product is demonstrably modern & tremendously improved over the 2011 release.

Read on for more info.

• ANNOUNCEMENT: The Office 2016 Mac Preview is here!
  http://blogs.office.com/2015/03/05/office-2016-mac-preview/
• BETA: Office for Mac Preview
  http://products.office.com/en-US/mac/mac-preview
• FIRST LOOK: Microsoft Launches Office 2016 for Mac Preview
  https://www.thurrott.com/office/1797/microsoft-launches-office-2016-for-mac-preview

Here’s a list of blogs about Surface & Surface Pro in particular that might be useful for those of you with new Surface Pro 3 units.

• Microsoft Surface Blog
  http://blog.surface.com/
• Surface Pro Bro Blog
  http://surfaceprobro.blogspot.com/
• Surface Pro Artist
  http://surfaceproartist.com/
• Surface Geeks
  http://surfacegeeks.net/
• Love My Surface
  http://www.lovemysurface.net/
• Surface Tablet Help
  http://www.surfacetablethelp.com/
• WindowsRT Source
  http://www.winrtsource.com/
• Microsoft Surface Forums
  http://www.surfaceforums.net/
• Official Surface Facebook Page
  https://www.facebook.com/Surface
• Surface SubReddit
  http://www.reddit.com/r/Surface

And as a bonus, if you use Twitter, here’s some folks to follow that tweet a lot about Surface:

• @surface
  https://twitter.com/Surface
• @surfacesupport
  https://twitter.com/SurfaceSupport
• @winrtsource
  https://twitter.com/WinRTSource
• @MS_SurfaceEvang
  https://twitter.com/MS_SurfaceEvang
• @surfacegeeks
  https://twitter.com/surfacegeeks
• @surfaceprobro
  http://www.twitter.com/surfaceprobro
• @surfaceproart
  https://twitter.com/SurfaceProArt
• @lovemysurface
  https://twitter.com/Lovemysurface