Microsoft Windows 10 event : All that happened
Phew! This is the word we used after Apple events about half a decade ago and meh! was the word for Microsoft events that happened at that time. In the past few years, be it Apple’s complacency and overly safe approach or Microsoft’s cool management and R&D approach, a role reversal happened. While Apple events are defa vu`, Microsofts events are full of energy and new stuff that was not seen before. Today, with the announcement of Windows 10 ecossystem, Microsoft pulled much much ahead of Apple in operating system race and by making Windows 10 free upgrade for existing Windows users, they are the new ‘cool personal computing company’. Here, in this post, we explain the best features of Windows 10.
Windows as a service
Till Windows 8, those using earlier version of Windows had to pay to Microsoft to upgrade to new version of Windows and Apple fans used to ridicule Microsoft users as Apple, for long, provides new version of Operating System OS X for free to existing users. With WIndows 10, Microsoft is going to offer Windows 10 as a service where for the first year, the operating system is free to use. The catch here is that this ‘free upgrade’ is only for those who upgrade to Windows 10 within a year after the launch of the operating system to the public. This way, all those who love ‘free’ will upgrade to Windows 10 as soon as the possible making Microsoft bring all their user base onto one platform. Once you upgrade to Windows 10, Microsoft will offer support till the supported lifetime of the device (not, as long as the device is alive) at no extra cost. This is a very very good decision from Microsoft and given that even Windows 7 users can upgrade to Windows 10 for free, this is a massive offer from the Redmond giant. With an upgrade of Windows version, IE gets automatically upgraded and this will help Microsoft in bringing web users on a single platform and ditch old and EOLed versions of browser as fast as possible.
“We think of Windows as a Service – in fact, one could reasonably think of Windows in the next couple of years as one of the largest Internet services on the planet. And just like any Internet service, the idea of asking “What version are you on?” will cease to make sense – which is great news for our Windows developers. With universal Windows apps that work across the entire device family, developers can build one app that targets the broadest range of devices – including the PC, tablet, phone, Xbox, the Internet of Things, and more.”, said, Terry Myerson
Cortana Integration
Cortana, Microsoft’s personal digital assistant (like Apple Siri and Google Now) is getting very positive response from blogosphere and now, Cortana will be built into Windows 10 operating system. You can now do simple tasks on your Windows 10 PC without using the keyboard, by talking to Cortana. Cortana learns your preferences, usage stats so that she can provide recommendations, faster access to information you seek and set important reminders. You can provide input to Cortana by using keyboard if you cannot use voice. You can even ask Cortana to compose an email for you and dictate the content for the email, tell her to whom the mail has to be sent to and bam! If this works out well, we might very well see managers and leads in offices talking to their computers and phones and entire workplace will resemble one large Cortana family.
Phones and Tablets
Windows 10 will offer consistent user experience across phone, tablet and PC. The new Office applications for Windows 10 mobile phone OS are designed from scratch, offer simpler creation and editing of documents/slides/mails/sheets. The updated UI for smartphones help users experience seamless interaction with PCs. New universal applications will start shipping with WIndows 10 and offer innovative new experience that is consistent across apps and across devices. Content for the applications is stored and synced through OneDrive service. Similar to apple ‘Continuity’, work that you have started on on device can be continued on another device (given that the app and device support this feature, named ‘Continuum’.
Spartan Web Browser
With Windows 10, Microsoft will be bundling a brand new ‘built from scratch’ web browser code named Spartan. The next generation browser is built to have much better interoperability between devices, have a reliable and consistent user interface across all Windows devices. This way, when a user gets a new Windows Phone device, he/she should not wonder how to use the web browser and should be right at home. Browser will support advanced inputs like annotate by keyboard/pen, easy sharing with friends, a readability view, Pocket like reading list, offline webpage access. The best part is that Cortana will be integrated into the browser so you can spend less time going through bookmarks or typing the long website name by keyboard. Thanks to Cortana integration, searching from a web browser will be much easier now.
Xbox Live, new Xbox App and gaming
For game addicts, this would be the best feature of all. Every now and then, we do want to continue a game that we were playing on an Xbox connected to TV by shifting to laptop/desktop but the problem is that these two devices cannot share the game progress data for most games. Moreover, you will need a really powerfull laptop/PC to play modern games at highest setting. Enter the new Xbox App, all you need to do is to sync the gameplay from Xbox to your PC. Instead of loading the game on your laptop, with Xbox App, you stream the gameplay audio/video to your PC/laptop from Xbox. The game runs on the console but you will be playing it on your PC/laptop. This should help those countless gamers who are pushed away from TV during boring ‘tv serial’ hour(s). You can even watch your favourite game/sport/race on TV and play your favourite game on your laptop. You can also capture, edit and share your gameplay using Game DVR. Do note that you will need a Xbox One console and Windows 10 enabled PC with Xbox Live subscription for this work.
With DirectX 12 native to Windows 10, games that are optimized for DX12 will offer improvements in speed, efficiency and graphics quality.
Continuum Mode
Continuum mode is not just to help you transition between devices. When you are using 2-in-1 devices (devices that can be used like laptop and like a tablet), Windows 10 will transition much more smoothly between laptop and tablet modes. Windows will automatically detect when to move to keyboard/mouse input and when to move to touch/tablet input.
Microsoft HoloLens
If you think that what you read till now is cool, this is nothing. The biggest announced that happened at the event is HoloLens, a new holographic computing platform that redefines virtual reality. In Windows 10, holograms will be Windows universal apps, these apps can work as holograms that are projected as 3D object in front of you, with which you can communicate, create and explore. Watch the video listed below to understand how amazing this is
http://www.gadgetdetail.com/microsoft-windows-10-event-all-happened
Microsoft HoloLens is the world’s first untethered holographic computer. You can view the holograms in high definition and hear them in surround sound simply by wearing the glasses fit with HoloLens equipment. Do note that its not just another Google Glass like implementation. Capabilities of HoloLens is way way beyond what Google Glass can do.
The complete set of APIs that help develop holographic experiences is ready. With these applications, you can be at the center of Windows 10 computing experience and interacting with applications gets a whole new meaning.
Microsoft Surface Hub
Microsoft has expaned the Surface family with a giant 55”/84” screen named Surface Hub. The new large screen device takes full advantage of built in camera, sensors and mic to provide amazing capabilities for conferencing at workplace. With built in Skype for business, One Note, white boarding, instant remote conferencing, share and edit content on the screen from any compatible device, trusted platform module for large screen apps, Surface Hub will be Microsoft’s answer to enterprise conferencing.
