500px teams up with Microsoft to showcase curated photos from its community on Bing’s homepage (The Next Web)
Photo-sharing service 500px today announced a partnership with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) that will help photographers in its community gain even more exposure. Their work will have the chance to be showcased on Bing’s homepage as featured images. The photos that get picked will include the photographer’s biography and details about the image, including where it was taken and what it represents. How exactly 500px will do the choosing, however, is unclear. Oleg Gutsol, founder and CEO of 500px, insists that this move is all about the photographers. It’s not difficult to see how the move increases exposure for 500px overall, and that can’t hurt. Gutsol did also say, however, that his company is “exploring other avenues” to showcase photographers on the site.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has fixed a potentially nasty set of authentication vulnerabilities involving Yammer, the “Facebook for business” enterprise collaboration and social networking platform. The flaws – discovered by Ateeq Khan, a security researcher in the Vulnerability Laboratory Research Team – would have allowed hackers to bypass the token-based Yammer account authentication system, and log in as users without knowing their corresponding passwords. Vulnerability Laboratory discovered that, thanks to an insecure implementation of OAuth2 authentication protocol on the Redmond-owned Yammer network, “it is possible to steal other user profiles by simply requesting a leaked access token”, which it turns out were not difficult to find.
Microsoft Reverses Xbox One DRM Policies (IGN News)
Microsoft continues to miss the point with Surface pricing (PCWorld)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) got out the axe again, and cut the price of some Surface Pro models by $100. While the move may help boost the anemic sales of Microsoft’s tablets, it’s not significant enough to make a real impact—especially for business users. It’s being framed as a sort of “back-to-school” promotion, following closely on the heels of a dramatic drop in the price of Surface RT tablets. Saving money is great, and $100 is $100, but the cost of Surface Pro models is still high compared with some competing devices, and the reduced price is unlikely to sway a purchasing decision.
Microsoft Offers Self-Service Office 365 Upgrades, But Not For All Customers (CRN)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is loosening its licensing terms for the business versions of Office 365, its suite of cloud-based productivity apps, making it easier for customers to upgrade from one plan to another. The most notable change is that customers can now upgrade their Office 365 plan without calling Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) support, by using something Microsoft calls a “switch plans wizard.” Customers simply go to the Office 365 admin Web page and click a link, and their user licenses will be automatically moved over to the upgraded Office 365 plan, Paul Andrew, a technical product manager on the Office 365 team, said in a blog post Friday.
Microsoft’s Bing updates for Windows Phone: Who gets what, when (ZDNet)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is rolling out a set of user interface and feature updates to Bing on Windows Phone 8. But the details as to who would get them and how were rather slim in Microsoft’s August 6 blog posts announcing the rollout. Word of the new updates began trickling out late last week. The current four categories of Bing search results on Windows Phone 8 — Web, Local, Media and Shopping — are being changed to Web, Images and Videos. Images and videos won’t be loaded automatically in order to save bandwidth; they’ll only load when users swipe over them.
