Weekend Reading: Microsoft devices news and stories you may have missed

Love for feature phones, the potential of Microsoft HoloLens, and a special message of peace and harmony – here are our picks for Weekend Reading.

Feature phones aren’t just for hipsters

Blogger Daniel Clough writes about the benefits of switching from a smartphone to a feature phone, such as the Nokia 130. It’s hard to argue with a battery life of eight days, says Daniel!

The potential of Microsoft HoloLens

Fast Company explores how the collaboration between Microsoft HoloLens and Autodesk Fusion 360 will help industrial designers and mechanical engineers work more creatively and productively. Read also our story on the partnership.

Do you have a great idea for using Microsoft HoloLens? Through January 11, share your ideas with the HoloLens team and community. The team will pick top three among the most popular ideas and post for a public vote on Twitter. The winning entry will be created by our HoloLens team.

Introducing Microsoft PowerApps

Microsoft PowerApps allows employees to create and share business apps with their organizations—no coding experience needed. You can quickly create apps that work on any device using a Microsoft Office-like experience, templates to get started quickly, and a visual designer to automate workflows.

Speak, hear, talk: The long quest for technology that understands speech as well as a human

As personal digital assistants such as Cortana become more commonplace, we ponder a future in which artificial intelligence will not only better understand us, but also help us better understand each other.

Read more about the advances in technology that make great speech recognition a reality from our friends at the Microsoft News Center.

Top Bing searches for 2015

The billions of searches conducted on Bing in 2015 gives us a unique perspective on the moments that moved us and the people who made this year memorable. From the World Cup victory for the U.S. Women’s team to the discovery of water on Mars, take a look at some of the stories that shaped this year on Bing.

Microsoft shares message of harmony

To celebrate the holiday season, Microsoft employees from the flagship Microsoft Store on 5^th Avenue in New York City sang a holiday carol to their neighbors at the nearby Apple Store. A local youth choir joined them and what happened was pretty magical.

https://youtu.be/5Olg_FFD-vM