Microsoft shows the world device paradise, Satya Nadella visits Latin America, and Internet...

[Guest Jennifer Warnick]

This week was a gadget-lovers paradise. Let’s discuss amongst ourselves.

 

In New York Tuesday morning, Microsoft unveiled a new era of Windows 10 devices, including new Surface, Lumia and Band devices.

 

Among the new devices was Surface Pro 4 (now thinner, lighter and faster), new Lumia Phones (Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL and Lumia 550), the Microsoft Band 2, and the much-buzzed-about Surface Book (the new, ultimate laptop that brings together best-in-class performance with the versatility of pen and touch).

 

 

 

 

HP and Dell also released some powerful new devices, with Dell joining Windows and Devices Marketing Corporate Vice President Yusuf Mehdi on stage in New York City to showcase several of their newest, all optimized especially for Windows 10.

 

“It’s been an amazing journey to get to this point, with over a year of deep collaboration on new experiences, the positive early reception of Windows 10 which is now running on over 110 million devices worldwide, and now the chance to introduce the new XPS family to the world,” Mehdi wrote in a Windows Experience Blog post.

 

Meanwhile Windows and Devices Executive Vice President Terry Myerson flew to Barcelona to join HP’s unveiling of their Windows 10 consumer devices.

 

“HP has done a fantastic job helping us deliver Windows 10 – shipping the most Windows 10 devices to date,” Myerson wrote in his Windows Experience post. “We look forward to seeing many more customers take advantage of these wonderful new Windows 10 devices.”

 

 

 

 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella returned from a visit to Latin America, where he sought to learn and see first-hand how technology is transforming thousands of lives in the region, with new job skills, entrepreneurial opportunities, innovative services and stronger, digitally inclusive societies.

 

Nadella met with developers, students, startups and community and business leaders in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, where he reinforced Microsoft’s commitment to foster innovation, create opportunities and help businesses grow in Latin America.

 

“Innovation … will come from every corner of the planet, [including] Latin America,” Nadella said during his stop in Chile.

 

 

Technology is transforming lives in other countries, including Kenya, where teacher Livingstone Kegode won the “Most Inspirational Skype Master Teacher” award for getting a Skype in the Classroom program up and running for his students. Skype in the Classroom has brought real-life learning to more than 6 million students all over the world, and Kegode found success with few resources to work with: one computer for 200 students ages 6 to 8; limited electricity and, for a while, no water in his school. He also traveled throughout Kenya and Uganda helping other people get connected and showing them the power of the Internet.

 

In the Philippines, where only four of every 10 people are connected to the Internet, Microsoft has been partnering with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Philippine government to extend high-speed, wireless Internet access to remote parts of the Philippines utilizing unused television broadcast frequencies or “TV white space.”

 

Finally, this week on the Microsoft Instagram account we met Ariela Suster, founder of the SEQUENCE collection, a line of jewelry and accessories that supports non-violence in her native country of El Salvador. After a successful career in fashion publishing in the U.S., Suster returned to El Salvador with the urgent desire to positively influence her home country. She saw an opportunity to disrupt its story of violence by employing – and empowering – a group of at-risk youth to create beautiful, handcrafted products in their own community.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! May the Internet access and cool Windows 10 devices be ever in your favor as they were this week.

 

Jennifer Warnick

Microsoft News Center Staff

 

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