Microsoft announces Window 10 defining
features to include Cortana, Spartan Browser and Holographic lens.
In
addition, the firm announced
that the OS upgrade would be offered free of charge for devices running Windows
8, Windows 7 and Windows Phone.
The
offer, which is limited to the Windows 10's first year of release, may aid its
adoption.
Windows
10 for phones will basically act like an extension of your PC, featuring universal
Windows apps that share the same central heart and design as their PC
counterparts, as well as newly universal notifications that synchronize across
Windows 10 devices.
Windows
10 phones and small-screen tablets will include a free copy of Office.
Spartan
Browser of the new Windows 10 is a new, clean-looking, lightweight browser
built around a new rendering engine. It won’t be available in the first Windows
Insider builds and it will only come to phones
eventually.
The
Spartan browser includes a note-taking mode that lets you annotate a webpage,
then share your marked-up, commented-on version with others using Windows 10’s
native Share feature. There’s also a clipping tool so you can save portions of
websites directly to OneNote.
Spartan
also doubles down on the mere act of reading
on the Internet. The browser integrates an updated version of the
stellar Reading Mode found in Windows 8’s Metro Internet Explorer app. Reading
Mode strips all the ads and sidebar crud out of webpages, formatting articles
so that they appear similar to a book. It’s a wonderful thing.
Cortana,
Microsoft’s personal digital assistant, is coming to the PC. Long available on
mobile, Cortana will now live next to the start button on the task bar and
serve as a natural-language interface for Windows 10. It will answer spoken or
typed queries, searching documents across local documents as well as ones
stored on OneDrive. It will also propose web links and other suggestions — if
you type Skype, for example, it or link to the store if you haven’t installed
it already. Cortana will also be integrated into the new Maps app, reminding
you where you parked your car. Cortana will also be proactive, popping up
notifications it thinks you’ll be interested in — tracking flights, stocks,
sports, and other it’s either learned or you’ve entered manually into its
notebook.
The
most shockingly ambitious, unexpected, and bizarrely sci-fi announcement of the event was Microsoft's
foray into augmented reality. The Microsoft HoloLens is a see-through visor
that overlays holographic imagery over the real world. The video showed
architects walking through building renders, plumbers drawing instructions onto
faucets remotely, and someone playing Minecraft on tabletops. Also
possibly a virtual dog. Alex Kipman, who worked on Kinect, described it as the
future of technology, art, and everything.
Microsoft's
chief executive Satya Nadella said the HoloLens headset
represented a "magical moment" of "category creation"
that developers lived for.
This
is an improvement over Google Glass and other existing eyewear.
Other demos involving the machine
included the wearer:
- playing Minecraft with the video game's graphics appearing over living room furniture
- seeing a Skype video appear as if it was taking place on a building wall
- creating a model of a drone, which she saw in front of her face while shaping it by moving her hands and giving voice commands
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