Microsoft Garage

Microsoft Garage

Type of site	beta testing
Available in	English
Owner	Microsoft
Slogan(s)	Do epic s--t.
Website	www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/
Commercial	Yes
Registration	No
Launched	October 22, 2014 (website)
Current status	Active

The Microsoft Garage is a Microsoft project lab that lets employees work on projects that often have no relation to their primary function within the company, and has been compared to Google's "20% time" initiative. The physical location of the Microsoft Garage is Bill Gates' former office on the Microsoft campus, and employees from all divisions of Microsoft are free to take part in Microsoft Garage in their off-duty time. It contains a hardware workshop as well as an actual working garage door. The Microsoft Garage's official motto is "Do epic s--t". It was made public via the Microsoft Garage website in October 2014 as a part of opening up Microsoft's software development to the public.^[1] At the Microsoft Garage website, people are invited to try out the latest experimental applications developed by Microsoft.

Projects developed in Microsoft Garage may or may not become a part of Microsoft's product offerings, depending on the success achieved in testing.^[2]

History

The Microsoft Garage originated as an offshoot of Office Labs in 2009. The central idea during the nascent period of the Microsoft Garage (2009-2014) was based on the fact that many tech companies were "started in a garage". As Microsoft is an old tech company, they needed a safe space where employees could "fail fast". After the 2014 worldwide hackathon, an event that drew over 10,000 Microsoft employees and interns, the Garage community expanded to a pathway to move small scale ideas forward.^[3]

In October 2014 the Microsoft Garage was elevated to a division without physical location that enabled all Microsoft employees to participate. On October 22, 2014, The Garage launched the first set of lightweight, cross-platform apps created by incubation teams across the company. When the Microsoft Garage website was made public, there were 16 different applications available for various operating systems such as Google Android, Android Wear, iOS, Windows, Windows Phone and the Xbox One.^[4]

In February 2015 Microsoft launched a new wave of Android and Windows Phone applications, one of them previously being a Nokia application.^[5] As of April 2015, the Microsoft Garage has completed over 10,000 projects by 3,000 employees.^[6]

Microsoft divisions often shut down to relocate to the garage to test their new software, an example of this occurred when the MSN Mobile team tested its page layout on various smartphones every time the team made a small tweak to the web portal. They developed a tool to email mockups of screenshots of the phone every few minutes.

Applications

Windows

• Mouse without borders is a Windows desktop application that allows users to control up to four different computers with a single keyboard and mouse set by acting similar to a virtual KVM switch.^[7]
• Snip is a screenshot-taking and annotation application that allows its users to make notations on captured screenshot images and make them into instructional videos.^[8]
• Plumbago is a notebook app designed for handwriting recognition and pen input, Plumbago comes from the Latin word for graphite and is also used for several species of flowering plants.^[9]

Windows Phone

• Tetra Lockscreen was a Windows Phone application designed to work with the new lock screen APIs of Windows Phone 8.1, it had a stopwatch, weather, agenda, and maps widgets that provided information collected from the user's applications. Tetra Lockscreen served to show developers what they can do with Windows Phone's lock screen.^[10]
• Join Conference (previously Nokia Conference) was originally a Lumia Beta App designed by Nokia, when elevated to the Microsoft Garage it gained Cortana integration, it works by notifying users about their coming meetings in their calendars and shows the meeting IDs and PIN codes. Upon its re-released it was no longer a Lumia exclusive, but the available markets on which application was available was reduced to 17.^[11]
• SquadWatch is a friends tracker that allows users to see where their contacts are if they have registered with the service.
• DevSpace is a Visual Studio-based application that allows users to check the developments they were working on on their desktops and notebooks from their mobile telephones, it uses a two-step verification process called OAUTH.
• InstaNote is an audio capturing note-taking application that allows users to capture an unlimited amount of sound but will only save 30 seconds of the selected recording, among its other features are tagging, task assignments and importing speaker identifications from the Outlook Calendar.^[12]
• Receipt Tracker is an expense tracking application that allows users to make a picture of their receipts and then the application will analyze it through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and make a note of the expenses which can then be saved to Microsoft OneNote.^[13]

Android

• Torque is a voice-controlled application for Android and Android Wear that can conduct searches using Microsoft Bing. Torque was originally an exclusive for Android Wear but with version 2.5 it was released to Android phones and added local events and flight status to the functionality of the application.^[14]
• Next Lock Screen is an app launcher that shows users their latest appointments, most used applications, meetings, and shows the general agenda, Next Lock Screen has been criticized for offering the native lock screen capabilities of Android 5.0 rather than adding anything new.
• Journeys & Notes is a social application that connects users who are on the same route and use the same mode of transportation, and lets users write notes to each other.^[15][16]
• Your Weather a Chinese application that provides the weather conditions of various cities in China, it was developed in close cooperation with Microsoft Research Asia and the China Meteorological Administration.
• Keyboard for Excel is a keyboard optimised for Microsoft Excel Mobile with a 10-key number layout for fast data entering and a tab key for easier navigation through tabs.
• Snap to Pin is an application that can save internet articles for later consumption through screenshots that users can then save to Microsoft OneNote or share them with the user's contacts via social network outlets.^[17]

• Parchi is a note-taking application similar to Evernote and Sticky Notes, the name Parchi comes from the Hindi word Patchi meaning "'small pieces of paper used for short notes", other than simple note taking users can use the application to colour notes and make notes searchable via hashtags and notes taken with Parchi can be shared via SMS or instant messaging services.^[18]
• Microsoft Garage's new android apps "arrow launcher". Arrow Launcher is developed for instant access to users' favorite apps.^[19]
• Connections is a contact manager that aids in managing different types of relationships both personal and professional, over traditional contact managing it offers annotation and categorisation. Microsoft's Connections application was released in India on January 18, 2016^[20]
• Microsoft Mimicker is an alarm clock application that forces users to play a game or take a selfie of the user's mood in order for them to turn off the alarm.^[21]
• Kaizala is a productivity app for Android designed to track a user's bills, jobs, and location, it also enables group conversation and communication by sharing relevant information and extracting value from a group chat.^[22]
• Sprightly is a business productivity app that allows users to create E-Cards, Price lists, Catalogs and Flyers for their companies.^[23]
• Hub Keyboard is a keyboard for Android devices that features language translation and the ability to search for documents and contacts from the keyboard itself.^[24]

Cross-platform

• Tossup is communications and scheduling tool for Android and iOS designed to combine SMS and web messaging for social meet-ups and integrates Yelp data, but the application has been criticized for essentially being "another" instant messaging service that offers no innovative features.^[25][26]
• Send is an emailing application originally launched for iPhone but was announced for Android and Windows Phone (and only available in the United States of America and Canada upon launch) that is designed towards short-form email messages and allows users to send emails without subject lines and is geared towards adding "key facts" and asking "quick questions" as opposed to more traditional means of emailing. Only messages generated in Send are visible in Send while for comparison messages in Microsoft's Outlook Mobile will display other emails as well as emails created in the Microsoft Send application.^[27]
• Invite is a meeting scheduling application originally launched for the iPhone but was immediately announced to launch on Android and Windows Phone at a later date. Invite allows users to suggest times that work best for them and will let attendees vote for the best time; attendees can be invited via email and may vote within the application or via a browser; after voting the user can send the date to all attendees' calendars.^[28]
• Twist is a photo conversations application originally launched for iPhone and iPad devices that acts as an instant messaging service but instead of using the traditional emoticon and emoji characters for visual communication users can use photographs.^[29]
• MyMoustache.net is a website that adds facial hair to pictures in the spirit of Movember; it is based on Microsoft's Project Oxford Face API.^[30]
• Fetch! is an iOS application and a website (what-dog.net) based on Microsoft's Project Oxford's APIs but unlike MyMoustache it can identify a Dog breed based on an uploaded picture.^[31]
• SandDance is a data visualisation site developed by the Microsoft Research Visualization and Interaction Team (VIBE) which can analyse and present it in a more visual way to make it easier to be understood by wider audiences. SandDance is both available as a web-tool and as an add on for Microsoft Power BI.^[32]

See also

• Windows Insider
• Lumia Beta Apps

References

External links

• Official site
• Microsoft Garage apps

Microsoft
History All topics
People (list)	Founders Bill Gates Paul Allen Board of directors John W. Thompson (Chairman) Satya Nadella (CEO) Dina Dublon Maria Klawe David Marquardt Charles Noski Helmut Panke Mason Morfit John W. Stanton Senior leadership team Satya Nadella (CEO) Scott Guthrie Amy Hood (CFO) Qi Lu Terry Myerson Harry Shum Kevin Turner (COO) Corporate VPs Joe Belfiore Richard Rashid (SVP) S. Somasegar (SVP)
Divisions	Engineering groups Mobile Skype unit Digital Crimes Unit Garage Press Research Studios .NET Foundation Outercurve Foundation
Estates	Microsoft Redmond campus Microsoft Talo Microsoft Algeria Microsoft Egypt Microsoft India Microsoft Japan
Product families	Operating systems Windows Software Office Servers Visual Studio Hardware HoloLens Lumia Surface Xbox
Web properties	Bing Channel 9 CodePlex Developer Network MSN Office.com OneDrive Outlook.com TechNet Windows Store
Conferences	Build MIX PDC TechEd WinHEC WPC
Criticism	Bundling of Microsoft Windows Clippy iLoo Internet Explorer Microsoft Bob _NSAKEY Windows 2000 ME XP Vista Xbox 360
Litigation	Alcatel-Lucent v. Microsoft Apple v. Microsoft European Union Microsoft competition case Microsoft v. Lindows Microsoft vs. MikeRoweSoft Microsoft v. Shah United States v. Microsoft
Acquisitions	6Wunderkinder Altamira Software aQuantive Azyxxi The Blue Ribbon SoundWorks Bungie Calista Technologies Colloquis Connectix Consumers Software Danger Farecast FASA Studio Fast Search & Transfer Firefly Forethought GIANT Company Software GreenButton Groove Networks High Heat: Major League Baseball Hotmail Jellyfish.com LinkExchange Lionhead Studios Massive Incorporated Mobile Data Labs Mojang Nokia Devices and Services Onfolio Pando Networks Perceptive Pixel PlaceWare Powerset ProClarity Rare Revolution Analytics ScreenTonic Secure Islands Skype Sunrise Atelier SwiftKey Winternals Software Teleo Telekinesys Research Tellme Networks Twisted Pixel Games Vermeer Technologies Visio Corporation Vivaty (defunct) VoloMetrix VXtreme WebTV Networks Xamarin Yammer Yupi
Category Commons Microsoft portal WikiProject