Tag: Recent News

Hey everyone!

Some of the most inspiring mixed reality fans we’ve met are those who have become champions of forward motion within their organizations. These people are agents of change who look at the working environment around them and discover firsthand the opportunity mixed reality represents to engage employees and improve operations in ways that simply weren’t possible before. These are also the agents of change in our own team—the individuals who influence how we build products, prioritize features, and provide continuous value to customers in monthly updates.

Last year, we released Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Layout, two new mixed reality apps built specifically for the needs and problems customers told us they wanted to be able to solve. People have told us they’re already seeing immense value as they deploy Remote Assist and Layout across their organizations. This is extremely fulfilling for us as it’s why we’re here, and it motivates us to do more. In December, I promised that you could expect more from Dynamics 365 mixed reality this year. This week marks the next step in our journey together.

Check out what we announced this week.

HoloLens 2

Yesterday, we introduced the world to HoloLens 2. Customers asked us to focus on three key areas to make HoloLens even better. They wanted HoloLens 2 to be even more immersive and more comfortable, and to accelerate the time-to-value. I’m inspired to see what new things customers will accomplish with HoloLens 2 and Dynamics 365 mixed reality applications.

Get Dynamics 365 Remote Assist with HoloLens 2

We’re also making it possible for organizations to get HoloLens 2 and Remote Assist together for a low monthly price per employee – learn how to preorder here.

Benefits include:

• Same-day deployment
• Low-cost financing for the device
• Enterprise-grade security
• No custom development required

Learn how to get Remote Assist with HoloLens 2

Dynamics 365 Guides for HoloLens devices

One of the things we’ve continued to hear from customers is the growing need to equip new employees with skills as they get started on-the-job, so they can get up to speed faster and do what they do even better.

This week we introduced Dynamics 365 Guides, a new mixed reality app that empowers employees to learn by doing. Guides enhances learning with step-by-step instructions that guide employees to the tools and parts they need and how to use them in real work situations.

With Guides, we’ve also eliminated a longstanding problem that’s existed with AR and VR experiences: the need for an easy way to create content. In addition to the experience of using Guides on HoloLens, a Guides PC app makes it easy to create interactive content, attach photos and videos, import 3D models, and customize training to turn institutional knowledge into a repeatable learning tool.

Employee performance data is securely collected and pulled into real-time Power BI dashboards, making it easy to identify where instruction is needed and where to improve the process.

Guides is available today in preview for existing HoloLens customers and will become generally available on HoloLens 2 later this year.

Learn more about Guides

Dynamics 365 Remote Assist for mobile devices

At Microsoft Business Forward in Paris, James Phillips and Alysa Taylor announced that we’re bringing our mixed reality communication app cross-platform.

Customers continue to tell us that HoloLens is the best mixed reality device for business, and that it’s a breakthrough for many areas that require heads up, hands free work. But we also know that many employees carry AR-capable phones and tablets everywhere they go. We want to provide every employee with the ability to get help from experts in remote locations, no matter what device they use.

Remote Assist will be coming to Android in preview on April 1st.

Learn more about Remote Assist

Dynamics 365 Product Visualize for mobile devices

As we’ve listened to all the ways customers have told us they want to be able to use mixed reality, a universal desire they share is the ability to look at something together through a hologram or 3D visualization that stays in place in the actual, physical environment.

That’s what led us to announce Dynamics 365 Product Visualize this week; it’s a new way to empower sellers to showcase and customize product visuals in their actual environment so they can interact with and understand the product. This helps create a shared understanding between buyer and seller, allowing stakeholders to quickly weigh in and answer questions—helping simplify complex sales processes. Product Visualize integrates deeply with Dynamics 365 for Sales. This means voice notes and annotations captured by the seller are saved to the sales opportunity so sellers can leverage this information from a customer visit in future engagements.

Product Visualize comes to iOS in preview on April 1st.

Customers continue to inspire us

This week, we also shared that PACCAR is exploring Guides and HoloLens devices to improve manufacturing productivity and employee onboarding. We’ve learned a ton from spending time with the team at PACCAR and we’ve used what we’ve learned to build the product. We’re humbled to share their story with you.

I can’t wait to hear your feedback and ideas and I’m energized to see what you do with mixed reality in your business—let me know at @lorrainebardeen

At MWC Barcelona 2019, Lenovo announced a fresh range of Windows 10 IdeaPad and IdeaCentre mainstream consumer PCs that deliver budget-friendly design choices and greater value for students, young professionals and families.

Available in 14-inch and 15-inch sizes in an all-aluminum chassis, the new IdeaPad S540 ultra-slim laptop balances higher performance with greater portability and longer battery life [1]. You can get it in two options: the latest 8^th Generation Intel Core i7 processor with up to NVIDIA GeForce MX250 GPUs, or up to an AMD Ryzen 7 3700U mobile processor with Radeon RX Vega 10 graphics. Either way, the IdeaPad S540 gives you more than enough horsepower for binge-watching a TV series, word processing and online shopping. It has up to 12 hours of all-day battery life [2] with RapidCharge technology, which enables up to two hours of use with about a 15-minute charge [3].

The IdeaPad S540’s younger sibling is the new IdeaPad S340, which shows off an even slimmer and lighter profile than before in an array of four colors and 14-inch or 15-inch size options. Also boasting more power than before, this ultra-slim laptop has up to the latest 8^th Generation Intel Core i7-8565U processor with up to NVIDIA GeForce MX250 GPUs, or the option of up to AMD Ryzen 7 3700U mobile processor with Radeon RX Vega 10 graphics.

With AI-powered features in Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Cortana [4], you can schedule meetings, get reminders or manage to-do lists on Cortana or ask to shop, order food, or turn on the music and the lights through Alexa.

Thin and versatile for those on the move, the new IdeaPad C340 2-in-1 convertible laptop is a close cousin to the IdeaPad S540 and S340 ultra-slim laptops. It offers full-day battery life of up to eight hours [1] with RapidCharge technology [3], Active Pen support on select models to conveniently sketch or write from anywhere, and an optional integrated fingerprint reader for quick and easy PC log-in. Also available in 14-inch and 15-inch sizes in three colors [5], it can easily flex from a laptop for typing longer emails and spreadsheets into a tablet for watching videos during daily commuting.

Completing the new family of consumer PCs is the new IdeaCentre AIO A340 all-in-one desktop. Designed to fit seamlessly into nearly any modern home or workspace, the new IdeaCentre is available in 22 or 24 inches as a full HD display, with thinner bezels. Made for families or professionals who want a space-saving home desktop or reliable work desktop for their small workspace or home office, it has an Intel Core i5-8400T processor with AMD Radeon 530 or integrated graphics, or up to a 7^th Generation AMD A9-9425 processor with Radeon R5 graphics for daily work or home computing needs.

For an immersive entertainment experience or focused productivity, pair any of the new IdeaPad or IdeaCentre PCs with the new Yoga ANC Headphones, which include hybrid ANC (active noise cancellation) and ENC (environmental noise cancellation) mics with voice assist and Dolby-tuned drivers that can intelligently filter out background noise during calls.

The evolution of workspaces includes connected devices that provide features and benefits for laptops, which are central to modern users’ digital wardrobe. With this in mind, Lenovo also introduced the latest additions to the ThinkPad portfolio: the T490s, T490, T590, X390 and X390 Yoga. (They join more than 140 million ThinkPads that have been sold to date.)

Whether it is working on business-critical workflows or interacting on social media, users expect access wherever and whenever they want. All ThinkPad models include high-performance Wi-Fi and optional LTE-A global WWAN capability. The ThinkPad T490 takes roaming connectivity to the next level with CAT16 LTE-A support with the 4×4 UltraConnect antenna configuration for up to Gigabit speeds and maximum signal strength.

The ThinkPad T490s, X390 and X390 Yoga also feature new Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ technology with Bluetooth 5.1 for premium Gigabit wireless connectivity.

For 2019, Lenovo has embraced Intelligent Connectivity principles through a foundational engineering philosophy.

With industry-leading security with ThinkShield, users can confidently work with confidential information. The online world is full of hazards and threats, such as data breaches and stolen identities. Users want their personal information, identity and data to be secure out of the box. In any typical day, a user will most certainly login to their laptop, likely participate in a video conference and perhaps review confidential information.

The Match-on-Chip fingerprint reader enhances the privacy of fingerprint information by ensuring the biometric image never leaves the chip, thus delivering a more secure identification for login and online transactions.

ThinkShutter [6], a physical camera cover, available on both RGB and IR webcams, offers a way to protect users from malicious webcam hackers. ThinkPad PrivacyGuard [7] activates screen privacy at the touch of a button. PrivacyAlert can even warn you if someone is snooping over your shoulder.

Users will also notice significant improvements to the ThinkPad BIOS, such as a new modern Graphical User Interface making the BIOS much easier to navigate. Lenovo has also developed a range of new UEFI-based BIOS security and manageability enhancements, providing users and IT administrators with higher levels of security and management capabilities.

One of those is a self-healing feature that is able to revert to a known good backup copy in the event of BIOS corruption or a malicious attack. This is designed to provide customers with a more resilient BIOS and to prevent hackers from infiltrating the lowest level firmware code.

To further enhance the mobile work experience, Lenovo has high-definition displays, such as a new low-power 400 nit FHD display using Low Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon technology to boost brightness with improved battery life. And for the first time in ThinkPad T and X series, Lenovo introduces dual far-field microphones that significantly enhance VOIP conferencing performance, especially for multiple participants and in noisy environments, and Dolby Audio Premium greatly improves sound.

These updated ThinkPad T and X series laptops also include HDR displays with Dolby Vision support available on all T series and the latest 8^th Generation Intel Core processors.

Also debuting at MWC: the Lenovo 14w with Windows 10 and Lenovo 14e Chromebook laptops, which are aimed at increasing firstline worker productivity; an all-new ThinkVision M14 mobile display; and X1 ANC Headphones to maximize the flexibility of remote teamwork.

Firstline workers are key contributors within large enterprise segments, such as retail, hospitality, travel and manufacturing. By providing firstline workers with PC devices, such as the Lenovo 14w and 14e Chromebook, companies can improve their collaboration and contribution. Designed with this specific segment of the workforce in mind, the Lenovo 14w and 14e Chromebook, powered by AMD, are built with features to handle the wear and tear of a day on the shop or factory floor.

In the Lenovo 14w with Windows 10, users will find AMD A6-9220c performance in a thin and light package: 17.7mm and 3.39 pounds, with an aluminum top cover. There’s also a 14-inch FHD with IPS touch display; a spill-proof and backlit keyboard; and a 57 Whr battery built to last a full day. It will be available starting in March, with an expected starting price of $299 [8].

The new ThinkVision M14 monitor offers a simple mobile display solution for increased screen real-estate while on the move so users can share content with colleagues and customers. Both USB-C ports can be used as a pass-through when connected to AC power. They can also charge your laptop or simply connect as a second screen. It will be available starting in May, with an expected price of $249 [8].

The X1 ANC Headphone, professionally tuned by Dolby for Lenovo systems, offers enhanced audio capability and noise-cancelling features such as active noise cancellation (ANC) and electronic noise cancelling (ENC), similar to technology used in aviation headsets. The headphones can be used wireless through Bluetooth 5.0, or connected and charged by USB-C. The collapsible design means easy storage and transport. It will be available starting in June, with an expected price of $149 [8].

The following will be available starting in June:

ThinkPad T490s, with an expected starting price of $1279 [8].
ThinkPad T490, with an expected starting price of $999 [8].
ThinkPad T590, with an expected starting price of $1029 [8].
ThinkPad X390, with an expected starting price of $1099 [8].
ThinkPad X390 Yoga, with an expected starting price of $1359 [8].

Find out more through Lenovo’s press release.

[1] All battery life claims are approximate and based on test results using the MobileMark 2014 version 1.5 battery life benchmark test. Actual results will vary, and depend on numerous factors including product configuration and usage, software, operating conditions, wireless functionality, power management settings, screen brightness and other factors. The maximum capacity of the battery will naturally decrease with time and usage. See https://bapco.com/products/mobilemark-2014/ for additional details.

[2] Up to 12 hours of battery life available on the Intel-based IdeaPad S540 and IdeaPad C340, based on MobileMark version 1.5 battery life benchmark test above.

[3] Charged in power-off mode, requires using 65 watt power supply.

[4] Cortana is accessible through the Windows 10 start menu, and Alexa for PC is accessible through Lenovo Vantage during the initial set-up. Alexa is available on select Lenovo PCs in the U.S., U.K. and Germany.

[5] Prices may not include tax and do not include shipping or options and are subject to change without notice; additional terms and conditions apply. Reseller prices may vary. On-shelf dates, size and color options may vary by geography and products may only be available in selected markets. All offers subject to availability. Lenovo reserves the right to alter product offerings, features and specifications at any time without notice.

[6] ThinkShutter physical webcam security is available on all ThinkPad models including both RGB and IR webcam options.

[7] ThinkPad PrivacyGuard is available on the new T490s, T490 and X390, as well as the recently announced ThinkPad X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga.

[8] Pricing and availability may be subject to change and local country configuration.

Technology for first-line workers

Information workers — people who do much of their work at a computer to produce words, design things, respond to emails, manage people or make business decisions — have benefited from an explosion of technologies allowing them to learn nearly anything with the touch of a mouse and communicate instantaneously. That’s driven unprecedented productivity gains for individuals and businesses.

But most people don’t work that way. People who use their hands to assemble, care for, repair, troubleshoot or interact with things have too often been an afterthought in this technological revolution. That’s left an enormous opportunity to give first-line workers the technology they need to make similar productivity gains, said Lorraine Bardeen, Microsoft general manager for Dynamics 365 Mixed Reality at Work.

“The first-line workforce in so many companies is vital not only to day-to-day operations, but also in the way they craft their products. And they’re often the majority of employees,” Bardeen said. “And yet they’ve experienced very little of the empowerment that technology has brought to people who work in offices or more traditionally compute-friendly environments.”

When Microsoft started asking companies about how mixed reality could benefit them, the same needs bubbled up across industries. They wanted help connecting workers in remote locations or disparate workplaces with experts to troubleshoot problems, in envisioning how equipment or furniture or physical objects will actually fit in three-dimensional spaces and in training new employees who need their hands free to perform work.

To deliver more out-of-the-box value — in the way that programs like Microsoft Word and Excel helped people find value in a new operating system called Windows — Microsoft has created mixed reality applications for Microsoft Dynamics 365. These allow companies to almost immediately use HoloLens 2 to meet workplace needs without needing to hire a small army of developers.

Dynamics 365 Guides now joins Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Dynamics 365 Layout as Microsoft’s pioneering mixed reality applications for business. Guides allows companies to move training materials from flat paper and screens into an immersive three-dimensional experience.

“Everyone here wants to be successful, and the ability to get new employees in and make them productive quickly is invaluable,” said Rob Branson, senior director of global technologies and operations for PACCAR ITD, which has worked with an early version of Dynamics 365 Guides.

“If you think about the way adults learn, it’s very visual. And the ability to see step-by-step instructions overlaid on an actual physical object will really accelerate how an employee learns a new task,” he said.

HoloLens 2 was designed with these workers in mind — it’s lighter and far more comfortable than the previous generation of HoloLens, with a more balanced center of gravity, so a person can wear it all day. A new flip-up visor lets workers switch easily between physical and holographic worlds.

Wearing a device that slips on as easily as a hat, PACCAR employees are able to access step-by-step holographic instructions to guide them through unfamiliar tasks like assembling a truck door. In Dynamics 365 Guides, lighted arrows create a path from each instruction card to the precise hole where a wire needs to be threaded or to the location of the correct tool on the factory floor.

Holographic drawings superimposed on the actual door show how to perform that task and light up structures behind the steel panel that normally can’t be seen without superpowers like X-ray vision.

In industries with aging workforces, there’s also an urgent need to impart workplace wisdom that employees have accumulated through years of apprenticeship or decades on the job to the next generation of workers.

At Alaska Airlines, for instance, it can take roughly two years for a new mechanic to get fully trained and up to speed. The hope is that mixed reality tools might reduce that learning curve significantly. The immersive training environment also resonates with employees who have grown up with video games and nearly instantaneous access to digital information.

“It brings the paper to life,” said Mike Lorengo, director of Architecture and Strategy at Alaska Airlines. “Rather than seeing a flat piece of paper, I’m seeing 3D projected onto an engine.”

Intelligent conversations between people and things

Mixed reality is even more powerful when it takes advantage of the intelligent edge and intelligent cloud’s different capabilities.

In some scenarios, you want to quickly process information on the intelligent edge without sending that data to the cloud, such as in cameras that can alert you to imminent safety risks or algorithms that control braking systems. On a factory floor, not all the data from each sensor on each piece of equipment is relevant at any given time. So running less-complicated AI services on the edge can help filter out irrelevant information or perform tasks that don’t require the power of the cloud.

If you need a hologram to help potential customers envision how a new car or potential remodel will look with different options, a single HoloLens 2 using on-board capabilities in a showroom or living room will offer plenty of computing power and resolution.

But connecting that device to the new Azure Remote Rendering mixed reality cloud service can quickly produce intricate, three-dimensional digital models that begin to rival the sculpted clay or detailed architectural models that a company might spend days or months building today. That simply wouldn’t be possible without the graphics processing power of the cloud.

“Suddenly mixed reality goes from something that’s a novel way to augment what you’re already doing to being able to replace an entire business process — for example, using full digital construction in a way that just couldn’t happen before,’” said White.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has expanded the world of computing far beyond mobile and PC, bringing a new and ever-growing class of cloud-connected devices that is on track to reach 20 billion devices by 2020. This year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) programming reflects this profound shift, where IoT is transforming industries from agriculture to retail, leveraging emerging technologies including AI, Mixed Reality, edge computing, 5G, and more to not only accelerate business but to also address societal issues like improving our global food supply, reducing energy use, and waste.

IoT unlocks the power of the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge, enabling businesses to take informed actions based on real-time insights from any physical part of their business. Customers including Chevron, Volkswagen, Kohler, CBRE, Thyssenkrupp, and more are embracing IoT as critical to their technology portfolio and using it to optimize business processes, create new connected experiences, and manage digital and physical assets at scale.

Today, Microsoft made a series of announcements for new devices and cloud services that will further increase the strategic value of IoT. Microsoft boasts one of the fastest growing IoT partner ecosystems in the market, with 10,000 IoT partners developing intelligent edge to intelligent cloud and 1,500 IoT solutions built by partners.

Through this partner and solution ecosystem, we can jointly serve customers in their mission to find business value from IoT, no matter what their industry or solution needs are.

Announcing new IoT partnerships for global-scale IoT solutions

This week, we are announcing new partnerships to enable global-scale IoT solutions with SAP, Inmarsat, and myDevices.

SAP Leonardo IoT and Azure IoT integration: Today at MWC, we are announcing new integrations between SAP Leonardo IoT and Azure IoT to deliver a complete solution for customers that simplifies the collection and ingestion of data and streams it into familiar business applications that can act on it, such as SAP S/4HANA. The SAP Leonardo IoT will leverage Azure IoT services, including Azure IoT Hub and Azure IoT Edge, to provide access to market leading secure connectivity, powerful Device Management functionality and a global scale data ingestion engine. This joint solution will enable SAP Leonardo IoT to fully manage the physical assets in a secure manner while streaming the data they produce to SAP’s portfolio of fully integrated business applications used by many of the world’s largest companies, ultimately creating improved customer experiences.

We are also adding enterprise-grade capabilities to the edge. Customers can now run SAP Leonardo IoT Edge Business Essential Functions on the highly secure Azure IoT Edge platform deployed on enterprise-ready certified devices. This will enable customers to seamlessly extend their SAP enterprise business processes to the edge, reducing their dependency on latency, bandwidth or connectivity, while creating immersive business experiences that are highly responsive and contextually aware.

Inmarsat and Microsoft collaborate to bring cloud-powered industrial IoT to global supply chain: Inmarsat, a world leader in global, mobile satellite communications services, is collaborating with Microsoft to enable its customers to transfer data collected by their Industrial IoT solutions to the Microsoft Azure IoT Central platform. Azure customers will also be able to access Inmarsat’s global, highly reliable and secure satellite communications network, enabling them to connect their IoT infrastructure to cloud-based applications. The collaboration will initially focus on the delivery of Industrial IoT-based solutions to the agriculture, mining, transportation, and logistics sectors. Customers will gain access to a variety of tools that will help connect anything to anything, bringing together assets in the physical world with applications in the digital world, no matter how remote the location with the power of the intelligent edge.

myDevices to connect LoRaWAN Sensors to Microsoft Azure: myDevices, which designs solutions to help enterprises to quickly design, prototype, and commercialize IoT solutions, today announced a powerful collaboration with Microsoft that empowers users to onboard hundreds of LoRaWAN devices to instantly send data directly to Microsoft Azure. myDevices has amassed one of the most extensive known catalogs of pre-configured LoRaWAN sensors and gateways consisting of nearly 200 different devices from over 50 hardware manufacturers from around the world. The devices range from standard indoor temperature sensors to industrial strength tank monitoring devices and everything in between. All of the sensors and gateways include a scannable QR code that is used with the myDevices’ IoT in a Box mobile application. Scanning the QR code with the app connects the device, decodes the payload, normalizes the data for interoperability, and provides the user with features such as sensor activity logs, time-series visualization charts, sensor maps, customizable alerts, corrective action reports, permission-based user management, white label deployments, and more.

Azure IoT partners and customer solution demos

At MWC we have several partners showcasing Azure IoT solutions in our booth across industries ranging from manufacturing and healthcare to real estate and retail:

• CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, will be demonstrating CBRE Host. The Host mission is to increase individual well-being, personal productivity and organizational effectiveness through people-led, technology-enabled services. CBRE Host uses Azure Digital Twins to model its workplaces and derive insights about how space is being used.
• Cradlepoint, the global leader in cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network edge solutions, is partnering with Microsoft to create an integrated solution powered by Azure IoT Central that will make it faster and easier for enterprises to create distributed enterprise IoT solutions. Cradlepoint makes is simple to securely connect, manage, and monitor thousands of IoT devices using a combination of LTE-as-a-WAN and real-time cloud-based management.
• qiio and Feldschlösschen Breweries, a subsidiary of the Carlsberg Group, will be showcasing an Azure-enabled beer brewer that sends device utilization, health, and performance data to the cloud via the end-to-end IoT solution of qiio. Azure Sphere securely connects the brewer, protecting the device from security breaches, giving Feldschlösschen a peace of mind and useful insights around their operations.
• Sensoria Health with partner Optima Molliter are solving for health needs with smart aging digital solutions, such as the first smart diabetic footwear product, MOTUS Smart powered by Sensoria, that monitors patient compliance to a clinician’s prescribed mechanical offloading protocol to help reduce the risk of amputations.
• Toyota Material Handling Europe created new and evolved “lean” processes that leverage AI to help service technicians optimize tasks and lower inefficiencies. Toyota is showcasing an autonomous pallet drone that identifies safety hazards with AI-enabled cameras and processes the data at the edge with Azure IoT Edge to cut down latency and response times.

If you’re at MWC, make sure to stop by our booth 3N30 in Hall 3 to see the demos in person and learn more about the Azure IoT platform.