In this edition of Weekend Reading, we’ve got stories on E3, Microsoft and Best Buy teaming up to create new Windows Stores only at Best Buy and more.
News from the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. It was a big week for Microsoft and Xbox fans at E3. Just weeks after unveiling the Xbox One, Microsoft unleashed a wave of news at E3, and Xbox Wire covered it all. However, here are a few of the highlights: Xbox unveils a new generation of games; a letter from Marc Whitten, chief product officer in the Interactive Entertainment Business, on cool new features coming to Xbox Live; a breakdown of some of the awesome accessories coming for Xbox One; Major Nelson’s update on changes coming to Xbox Achievements; Xbox One breaking pre-order records on Amazon.com; IEB President Don Mattrick participating in a panel on interactive experiences with legendary Star Wars creator George Lucas, luminary filmmaker Steven Spielberg and others at USC; the unveiling of open-wheel race cars for “Forza Motorsport 5” for Xbox One; and the debut of the new Xbox 360. Finally, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications Frank Shaw penned this wrap up of some of the biggest news of the week for readers of The Official Microsoft Blog. Below is video from Xbox's E3 media briefing.
Office Mobile for iPhone now available for Office 365 subscribers. Today, we're releasing Office Mobile for iPhone available at no extra charge from the Apple App Store for Office 365 Home Premium and Office 365 ProPlus subscribers. Similar to our free Office Mobile for Windows Phone that ships with every handset, the iPhone app enables great Office content viewing and on-the-go content editing capabilities. After signing in to an Office 365 account, you can access, view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents from anywhere. And, you can count on Office Mobile to keep all your content and formatting intact so the document still looks great when you're back on your PC or Mac. Get the rest of this story over on the Office News blog.
Microsoft and Best Buy team up to create the Windows Store only at Best Buy. Looking to purchase a Surface Pro or Windows Phone 8 device, but you want to actually hold it in your hands before laying down your hard-earned cash? Well, it just got easier to demo one of the many awesome Microsoft devices through a new strategic partnership announced today that will create the Windows Store only at Best Buy, a comprehensive store-within-a-store in 500 Best Buy locations across the United States and more than 100 Best Buy and Future Shop locations in Canada. Head on over to Blogging Windows to get the rest of the story.
Big week for apps on Windows Phone! It was a big week for Windows Phone 8 apps as well. This week, we announced the availability of MapQuest, sports app Buzztap and two killer games – first-person scifi stunner N.O.V.A. 3 and Temple Run: Brave. Below are a few screenshots of the MapQuest app.
More features arrive on Bing Desktop. An updated version of Bing Desktop released on June 7 preserves the elegant simplicity of the original while incorporating new features that make it much more useful. You can search Bing inline within Web pages, documents and many apps without having to launch a browser, get visually rich news updates at a glance and keep an eye on your Facebook notifications. The Bing Search Blog posted a full list of updates. Also in Bing news, we announced an exciting new chapter in Bing’s collaboration with Apple and the addition of new aerial views and more searchable venues.
Sneak peek: Microsoft showcasing experiences that go beyond at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Over seven days in June each year, the advertising industry comes together at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to learn from the best and celebrate work that is changing the marketing landscape. Celebrating its 60th year, Cannes Lions 2013 is expected to be the largest ever with at least 11,000 delegates attending from more than 90 countries. We have been a proud sponsor of the Festival and the Cyber Lions Awards for the past 12 years and will have a strong presence at the event again this year, which starts on Sunday, June 16. Read Thursday’s post from Frank Holland, corporate vice president of Microsoft Advertising and Online on The Official Microsoft Blog to find out what’s going on at Cannes.
That’s a wrap for this edition of Weekend Reading! Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!
Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog