Kurt Shintaku's Blog

[Here’s the official invite to Ignite for those of you who didn’t get it]

It’s finally here—one enterprise conference with infinite possibilities. For the first time ever, Microsoft Ignite brings together our best and brightest for a single, remarkable enterprise tech conference.

It will challenge what you know, reveal new opportunities and boost your innovation. You’ll connect with peers from across the globe, get inspired, and then get a game plan for your own business. Feeling fired up? See where technology is headed and meet who’s fueling it—at Microsoft Ignite.

Ignite Your Expertise

• Stimulate your brainpower and learn best practices from leaders who have seen it all and conquered impossible challenges.
• Dive deep into technology and conversations that spark new discoveries.
• Test-drive technology in a hands-on learning environment that engages, excites, and educates.
• Arm yourself with practical tactics and a strategic roadmap to drive your business ahead by working directly with industry greats.

Ignite Your Business

• Be among the first to learn about tech innovations and how to maximize them for your business advantage.
• Get inspired by how your peers are changing their businesses. See how other folks are using our technologies to conquer impossible challenges and find fresh ideas.
• Partner up with brilliance. There will be hundreds of technology partners ready to tackle your toughest dilemmas—they’re up for the challenge!

Ignite Your Connections

• Surround yourself with people you respect and follow online. Share knowledge, some laughs, and Twitter handles.
• Connect with peers from around the world to expand your network, and reconnect with people in your existing communities.
• Unwind after hours, kick back, and truly enjoy the scene.
• Meet the minds that make it happen. For the first time under one roof, Microsoft Ignite gives you unprecedented access to hundreds of Microsoft technology and business leaders. Practice your power handshake.

It all happens May 4–8, 2015, in Chicago. Seats are limited, so register today.

Today, we are delighted to report that we’ve reached another important milestone in our efforts to reinvent productivity.

Skype Translator preview is releasing to external audiences for the first time! Skype Translator is addressing one of the oldest and hardest problems – communicating across languages. A decade ago Skype broke down the distance barriers. Starting today we are breaking down the language barrier.

With Skype Translator we will change the way people communicate across cultures and around the world, one conversation at a time!  The video embedded in our blog post showing the interaction among schoolchildren in Mexico City and Tacoma, Washington gives you a sense of just how transformational this technology can be.

Today, we’re supporting English and Spanish, but our intent is to support more languages in the coming months.

To use Skype Translator:

• Register at www.skype.com/translator.
• When the preview program is available to you, you will receive an e-mail invitation. Follow the instructions in the email you receive to activate your access and install the app
• Note: The store app only supports speech translation between English and Spanish.

——————————-

Announcement post is here:
http://blogs.skype.com/2014/12/15/skype-translator-preview-an-exciting-journey-to-a-new-chapter-in-communication/

WOW. In case there was any doubt about Microsoft’s commitment to:

• Being the market leader in delivering cloud services
• Supporting cross-platform clients

Today I’m pleased to announce that we have acquired HockeyApp, a class leading service for mobile crash analytics and app distribution for developers building apps on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.  We will integrate HockeyApp into the Application Insights service in Visual Studio Online to expand Application Insights support for iOS and Android.

Based in Stuttgart, Germany, HockeyApp offers a range of mobile development services enabling developers to develop, distribute, and beta test great mobile applications.  This includes:

• Crash reporting.  Fast and precise crash reporting with easy app integration, rich crash analysis and support for connecting directly to existing workflows and bug tracking systems. 
• Distribution and feedback.  Beta distribution and built-in user feedback system.
• Cross-platform.  Support for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone provides a consistent developer experience across mobile devices.

Read more at Soma’s blog:

• Microsoft acquires HockeyApp, leading mobile crash analytics and beta distribution service for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone
  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2014/12/11/microsoft-acquires-hockeyapp-leading-mobile-crash-analytics-and-beta-distribution-service-for-ios-android-and-windows-phone.aspx

Office Lens is now a Business Card scanner!  Office Lens is a free app for your Windows Phone that captures images through your phone’s camera, and dynamically identifies the object. (whiteboard, projection screen, document, business card)  By banding the edges digitally (see image below), it “straightens out/realigns” the image visually no matter what angle the photo is taken at and can even interpret the text in the image using OCR – in this case, for creating Outlook Contacts out of business cards.

What Office Lens sees vs. What Office Lens captures
(Image taken from Thomas Maurer because I’m lazy)

From the Office Lens blog:

Now you can scan business cards in its new Business Card mode! Using technology from Microsoft Research, when you take a picture of a business card with Office Lens for Windows Phone and save it to OneNote, it will automatically recognize the card’s contact information and format it nicely into your OneNote notebook. Using OneNote on your phone, tablet, Mac or PC, you can search for text contained in the scanned business card, initiate a call to the number recognized, find their address on a map or open the attached VCF file to save their contact details to Outlook or your phone’s contact list.

Read more about this new improvement on the Office blog:

• BLOG: “Office Lens gets you networking—scan business cards to OneNote, contacts to Outlook
  http://blogs.office.com/2014/12/08/office-lens-gets-networking-scan-business-cards-onenote-contacts-outlook/

In case you missed this, we released the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) 2014 R2 to the Volume Licensing Service Center.

You’ll find it under Software Assurance. 

For a list of everything that’s updated and all the new improvements made to the suite, see the announcement blog post from the “Windows for Business” blog.

• BLOG: “MDOP 2014 R2 Now Available”
  http://blogs.windows.com/business/2014/12/08/mdop-2014-r2-now-available/

Did you know that we offer Windows Software Assurance licensing on a per user basis, through a new offering called the “Enterprise Cloud Suite”?

“Per User” licensing for Windows SA means that “all of a user’s devices are covered through Windows Software Assurance, including those running iOS and Android operating systems.  Only the user’s primary work PC needs to be running a qualified operating system (ex: Windows Pro).  With Windows Software Assurance per User, Windows Enterprise Edition can be delivered across the user’s devices.  This provides simpler license management by allowing you to count just the users with primary PCs instead of counting every single device.”

I’ve seen very little discussion about this – and that’s kinda surprising given how revolutionary this offering is for Microsoft.  We have in the history of Microsoft, only offered actual Windows licenses on a per device basis.  Note that this is just one component of the Enterprise Cloud Suite however it’s a very special one. 

The Enterprise Cloud Suite actually contains 3 per user licenses:

• Office 365 E3
• Enterprise Mobility Suite
• Windows Software Assurance per User

For more details, check out the following references:

• DATASHEET: Enterprise Cloud Suite at a Glance
  http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/9/A/89A3F8B9-94DE-4956-A56E-F6D2B215D0E6/Enterprise_Cloud_Suite_At_a_Glance.pdf
• ANNOUNCEMENT: “The Enterprise Cloud Suite launches December 1, delivering simplified, user-based cloud licensing”
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/volume-licensing/archive/2014/12/01/the-enterprise-cloud-suite-launches-december-1-offering-simplified-user-based-cloud-licensing.aspx
• PRODUCT SITE: Enterprise Cloud Suite
  http://www.microsoft.com/ecs
• TRAINING: Introduction to Enterprise Cloud Suite (ECS) (LIC266CAL)
  Join us for an overview webcast as we discuss the Enterprise Cloud Suite, which is an evolution of the Enterprise Agreement, to prepare your customers to seamlessly move into a Cloud-first, mobile-first world.
  https://www.eventbuilder.com/microsoft/event_desc.asp?p_event=9r76n42i
  (Note: Register for the course through the link above and you’ll be sent to the streaming on-demand playback link & the PowerPoint deck downloiad)

RESELLER & PARTNER ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• SHI: http://blog.shi.com/2014/11/03/how-microsoft-enterprise-cloud-suite-licensing-affects-you/#.VIawc_90yFA
• ENPOINTE: http://www.enpointe.com/microsoft/enterprise-cloud-suite
• HP: http://www8.hp.com/h30458/uk/en/ent/Microsoft%E2%80%99s-Enterprise-Cloud-Suite_1451071.html

The “Work & Play” bundle is a set of 1 year subscriptions offered at a VERY steep discount ($149), only at the Microsoft Store.  As mentioned here & here, it contains 4 subscriptions:

• Office 365 Home ($99 value)
• Xbox Live Gold ($59 value)
• Xbox Music Pass ($99 value)
• Skype Unlimited World + Wifi
  ($150+ value: NOT AVAILABLE SEPARATELY)

WHAT DO YOU PHYSICALLY WALK OUT OF THE STORE WITH?
For those that haven’t done this yet, they give you 3 gift cards each with “scratch off” codes for each subscription, along with one small boxed copy of Office 365 Home. (This box simply contains yet a 4th gift card in it with a “scratch off” code to redeem for Office 365 Home)

There’s no product box or anything for the Work & Play bundle:  It’s basically just 4 separate gift cards. (Photo above is a snapshot of what I got walking out of the Microsoft Store in Century City.)

There doesn’t appear to be anything preventing you from simply using the gift cards you need personally, then gifting the remaining gift cards for the holidays to friends & relatives.

WHY IS IT BUNDLED LIKE THIS?
Here’s the funny thing:  The store actually has “cardboard boxes” for this bundle on display but they don’t actually give the box to you.  As it’s been explained to me, it’s basically just something the store is “trying out” as a promotional vehicle for a limited time (that’s why the offer ends in January) and it was put together by the Microsoft Stores themselves.  This is why you won’t find this deal anywhere else – not even the online Microsoft Store.

Jump on this bundle:  The Work & Play Suite is an awesome “65% off deal” that is available until January 4th… or until they run out since it’s a limited run of subscriptions bundles.

[Note: MS MVP Richard Hay brought this up on his blog which caught my eye initially however I never saw written proof of this posted on the Microsoft Store web site until recently… and I verified this with store management]

Imagine getting free, hands-on technical support… from the company that wrote the operating system and likely the Office productivity suite you’re using.

Imagine having some place to send your friends & relatives to when they need tech support.  Again, from a name they can trust & a company that has a vested interest in making sure your PC is working, outside of just making money on tech support services fees.

Apparently, we’re now providing FREE technical support to anyone with a Windows PC at the Microsoft Store:

Free in-store services
Whether you bought your PC from Microsoft or somewhere else, our Answer Desk experts will repair any software-related issue, including the following services, for free:

• Extended diagnostics on any device
• Software repair or support
• Virus and malware removal
• PC tune-ups for increased performance
• Recycle for Rewards appraisal with store credit¹

This list just absolutely blows my mind.  Yes, the free technical support for all Microsoft Windows customers is amazing but for just $49, you can also get some very complicated services:

$49 in-store services
We also offer a wide selection of paid services at our Answer Desk. Get affordable, expert help with upgrades, installation, or data needs, including the following services:

• Warranty Concierge, where we work with the manufacturer to resolve any in-warranty issue at our store (so you don’t have to ship it in)
• Hardware upgrade/install for your PC; free with new memory or drive purchase
• App install for your PC or tablet; free with new PC purchase
• Windows 8.1 upgrade/install
• Data backup migration to ensure your info remains safe on your PC, phone, tablet, Xbox One, or other device
• OneDrive setup to synch all your devices together; free with new PC purchase

Here’s a snapshot of the services list:

Please CALL and make a reservation before going to the store. If you’re looking for the nearest Microsoft Store, check out this page:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/locations/answer-desk

I want to clarify something I think is very important about what we offer in the Microsoft Work & Play Bundle for $149.

The bundle contains 4 subscriptions in it:

• Office 365 Home ($99 value)
• Xbox Live Gold ($59 value)
• Xbox Music Pass ($99 value)
• Skype Unlimited World + Wifi
  ($150+ value – NOT AVAILABLE SEPARATELY)

SKYPE UNLIMITED WORLD != SKYPE UNLIMITED WORLD + WIFI
Notice the “NOT AVAILABLE SEPARATELY” above.  The subscription in the Microsoft Work & Play bundle includes Skype WiFi” for a year – not just Skype Unlimited World, which is unlimited worldwide voice calls.

WHAT’S SKYPE WIFI?
Skype WiFi is this awesome service that gives you access to over 2,000,000 WiFi Internet access points.  This is done by connecting you to a number of 3rd party WiFi Services throughout the world.  When you go into hotels, coffee shops, and other locations, they often offer pay-for WiFi access.  This can cost anything from $4.99 to $19.99/hour depending on the length of access.

The most expensive of these is usually GoGo Inflight, the service that provides WiFi Internet access on airplanes like Virgin America, American Airlines, United Air, Japan Airlines, Delta Air, Alaska Airlines, US Airways, etc.

Normally, you use Skype Credit in order to pay for Skype WiFi to connect to GoGo Inflight or another 3rd party WiFi service.  The Skype WiFi that comes with the Work & Play Bundle gives you FREE and UNLIMITED access to all these WiFi Internet services for 1 year. 

In other words, you’re not burning any Skype Credit.  You can use participating WiFi services any time you like, for as long as you like, without any additional charges.

Again, “Skype Unlimited World” purchased separately does not provide access to Skype WiFi.  This is a benefit exclusively of the Work & Play Bundle.

There is no other way to obtain unlimited access to “Skype WiFi”.  For more information on Skype Wifi, visit this page:

• What is Skype WiFi?
  https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10008/what-is-skype-wifi

UPDATE 12/8/14 1:40PM
I was asked what WiFi Hotspots Skype WiFi users get access to.  I honestly don’t have a list but here’s just a sample of the networks that Skype has agreements with based on their Hotspot finder:

• GoGo Inflight
• Advanced Wireless Group WiFi
  (LAX & most major airports)
• Wyndham Hotel Group
  (Ramada, Super 8, Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Travelodge, Planet Hollywood, etc.)
• Choice Hotels (Comfort Inn, Quality Inn/Suite, Clarion, Sleep Inn)
• Boingo Wireless
• Hilton Honors
• Holiday Inn
• SpotOn Wireless
• Marriott Guest Wireless
• AT&T Wireless
• iBahn
• Ethostream
• Instant Internet
• FON Network
• …

I bought a brand new Seagate 4.5TB USB3.0 External Hard Drive explicitly for use on my Xbox One.  (It was on sale at the time for $139, if you can believe that.)

I plugged it in and *boing*, the Xbox One recognized it but according to my Xbox One’s Settings it was only useful for ‘videos, music, and photos’.  That’s NOT what I wanted:  Most of my storage was occupied by games consuming as much as 65GB EACH.  Now according to most 3rd party articles, the External Hard Drive needed to be “formatted” specifically by the Xbox One in order to load games and apps on it so I searched the XB1 console interface for a way to “format” the hard drive for this purpose since when I plugged it in, I received no prompt asking me if I wanted to format the new drive.

I couldn’t find a thing. <sigh>

HOW DO I GET THE XBOX ONE TO RECOGNIZE THE DRIVE AS GAMES & APPS STORAGE
So I started doing some Bing searches to try to figure out what went wrong and how to get my Xbox One to recognize the drive for “Games & Apps” not just “Videos, Music, & Photos”.  All I turned up was this:

• SUPPORT: Xbox One console doesn’t detect external storage
  http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/system/console-doesnt-detect-external-storage

You don’t really need to bother clicking the article above because it didn’t help me at all.  I found a somewhat helpful video tutorial that someone named David “Briar Rabbit” did that at least provided me with some context.

This is the screen I was apparently trying to get to, but never saw when I plugged in my drive. 

• VIDEO: How to Install an External Hard Drive on XBOX ONE (by David “Briar Rabbit”)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xADMo6StFcI

SOLUTION: DELETE THE PARTITION ON A PC
I decided to take the hard drive to my PC, plug it in, and take a look at it through the Disk Manager.  (run “diskmgmt.msc”)  There was an existing NTFS partition on there that Seagate preinstalled on the drive.

WARNING: Making changes using the Disk Manager can be very dangerous & result in data loss if you don’t know what you’re doing.  It is infamously easy for an inexperienced user to accidentally delete the partition of ad important hard drive connected to their PC instead of the intended External Hard Drive they just plugged in.  This process will DELETE ALL DATA on the hard drive you target with this tool so make sure you do all of this on the right hard drive.

I opened Disk Manager & deleted the existing partition on the External Hard Drive, then disconnected the drive and brought it back to the Xbox One.

Sure enough, once I plugged it in, and the Xbox One examined it for a few seconds, the all-important “We see you have external storage. Let’s set it up.” screen appeared. 

At this point, I was able to format the drive and start using it as my default storage location for future games & application installations.  YAY!

EPILOGUE…
So there you have it.  I never saw where this was documented on Microsoft.com or Xbox.com so I decided to quickly write this up.  It’s a little annoying that this isn’t managed through the Xbox One interface, and even more annoying that the average human would still be confused by this, just because the Xbox One appears to recognize any drive with a pre-existing partition on it as for video/music/photos only. 

I’d say some improvements are necessary for Xbox One storage management.