Call it a missed opportunity. Microsoft finds itself with a unique chance to leverage its full range of products and services to promote the new OS. Unfortunately, not all parts of the Redmond giant are on board with the new strategy. The Office team, in particular, has only half-heartedly embraced key Windows 10 technologies, like Universal Windows Apps and XAML. And this lack of commitment may very well prove fatal to Windows 10 Mobile.

But first, some perspective: Rewind the clock to late last year when Microsoft was touting the forthcoming Office 2016, including the much anticipated "touch-centric" version of Office (code-named "Gemini") that customers had been clamoring for. Next, fast forward a few months to when the first technical previews were released -- both Office 2016 and what would go on to be known as "Office Mobile" -- and reality set-in. Not only were the new fangled "Mobile" versions less functional than their Win32-based counterparts, they lacked much of the core integration plumbing (COM/OLE/VBA) that had made traditional Office such a powerful in-house development platform.

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Businesses are increasingly dealing with a mix of data, both real time and historical, and stored locally and in the cloud. This can mean that they end up having to use a mix of analytic tools.

Visual analytics specialist Zoomdata is announcing its AnyCloud initiative, which enables enterprises to visually interact with all data in the enterprise, whether on-premise or in the cloud.

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Bing may now be the default search engine in Microsoft Edge, but that is about to change for Windows 10 users in China. Microsoft has announced that it will replace Bing with a local alternative, making its new browser a more attractive option to Windows 10 users in the country.

The new default search engine -- and homepage -- in Microsoft Edge will be Baidu, which Microsoft says has over 600 million active users. In turn, according to Microsoft, Baidu's "'Windows 10 Express' will make it easy for Chinese Internet users to download an official Windows 10 experience".

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Microsoft’s Garage division has released Snip, a simple tool for capturing, annotating and sharing screenshots.

There are plenty of similar tools around, and Snip doesn’t begin to compete with the best of breed freeware, but it still has a few features you might find very interesting.

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The PC market is in a decline, and there’s nothing new about it. We reported earlier how the upgrade cycle for the PC won’t be complete before 2017, when people are mostly expected to upgrade their machines.

However, much was expected from the recent release of Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 10. To be more precise, the OS was expected to boost PC sales before 2017. That, according to a Gartner report, didn’t happen.

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Talk may focus on the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus and new Nexus devices at the moment but LG also has something in store. Recognizing that phone screens can only use larger dimensions as a selling point for so long, LG has taken a leaf out of Samsung's book and come up with a phone with a secondary display.

While the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge provides a little extra screen space with its curved edges, the upcoming LG V10 takes a different approach. A new video shows that it utilizes 'wasted' space at the top of the handset to house a secondary 'ticker' screen that can display notifications from apps.

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Lufthansa will offer high-speed internet to passengers flying on its planes in Europe as of next year.

Travelers will benefit from in-flight net access thanks to a partnership between Deutsche Telekom and Inmarsat, with the broadband delivered by a combination of the former’s ground-based cellular network and the latter’s satellite network.

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Xiaomi, which has earned a name selling insanely cheap-priced smartphones, smart TVs, a smart band, and a range of other smart products, is indeed making a laptop. Inventec, one of the company’s manufacturing partners  has confirmed.

In an interview with Taipei Times, Inventec Corp chairman Richard Lee said that Xiaomi Inc’s first notebook computer product not only exists but it is set for shipments in the first half of 2016.

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In my last post, I joke about the other five people who also bought Nexus 6 to make a broader point. Apple laps up positive PR—and rubs Android's nose in stinky sidewalk dog poop—by touting rapid iOS 9 adoption. Based solely on devices accessing the iTunes App Store, the number is 52 percent as of September 19. By the same measure, as of September 7, from Google Play: 20 percent of Androids run the newest version, Lollipop. iOS 9 released last week, and Android 5 arrived last year. Ouch!

Google shouldn't let the comparison stop there. The company should release Lollipop adoption data selectively, for stock Android devices like Nexus 6. That makes the comparisons to iOS more equal, being devices for which both companies control updates. Apples to, ah, Apple is more appropriate and responsive public relations management.

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As September 29th approaches, and Google's annual autumn launch event, rumors increase in frequency, and a few in absurdity, about what will be revealed. The gadget-obsessed shouldn't forget what else might arrive with one, or even two, rumored new Nexus smartphones: Expanded support for Project Fi. I am surprised how little buzz there is among the fan base. Where are the rumor-wagging tongues?

The search and information giant introduced the invite-only cellular service in April 2015, piggybacking Sprint and T-Mobile networks for a cool $20 a month, plus 10 bucks more for each gigabyte of data (refunding for portion unused). The gotcha: Project Fi only supports one device: Nexus 6. You buy one or you bring your own. Otherwise it's fee-Fi-fo-dumb for you.

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Remember parachute pants, Members Only jackets, leg warmers, Swatch and other accouterments of the 80's? Well, you aren't the only one if you answered "yes", because apparently Pebble not only remembers, but wants to revive that bygone era.

The company's latest offering is a round version of the new Pebble Time and it comes in multiple colors. The company claims it's lighter and thinner than any other smartwatch. Like its cousin it still sports an E-Paper display that is always on. The display allows for excellent battery life, at least in my experience.

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Earlier in the week there was a serious Skype outage. Users around the world found they were unable to connect, unable to communicate, throwing many people into confusion. Yesterday, Microsoft issued an apology -- but it’s simply not good enough.

The new Microsoft, under the direction of Satya Nadella, has been banging the "mobile first, cloud first world" drum, and this means being connected. The company might well be "extremely sorry for any inconvenience caused to our users", but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

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Laptops are designed to be portable, but you are crazy to carry it under your arm or in a chintzy bag. You paid good money for the thing, so you should protect it. While backpacks are the most logical choice for comfort and weight distribution, they are not exactly stylish (you will look like a high-school student). Carrying a messenger bag is surely the more trendy option, if that sort of thing matters to you.

Today, booq announces an all-new notebook messenger bag called 'The Shadow'. Not only is it stylish (for both men and women), but it will accommodate 15 inch laptops and smaller, plus additional accessories too.

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A company creating cameras and software capable of filming 360-degree videos has just gotten a significant money boost, which signals that the era of virtual reality movies is almost upon us.

The company, called Jaunt, has received $65 million (£42m) in series C round of funding. In investment was led by The Walt Disney Company, together with Evolution Media Partners -- a partnership of CAA-backed Evolution Media Capital, TPG Growth and Participant Media; and China-based China Media Capital (CMC).

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Visit just about any website and you’re pretty much guaranteed to see a Twitter button of some sort. Just as here at BetaNews, you’ll be offered the chance to follow the author of the article you’re reading (or the site’s Twitter feed), as well as being given the opportunity to tweet about the page you’re looking at.

Now this familiar page furniture is about to get a new look. From next month, a new set of buttons is rolling out with a fresh, flat, modern look. It’s a redesign that will please minimalists, but there are important API changes coming that will annoy some developers.

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