Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 Technical Preview build is debuting today. It includes the new Cortana integration, Microsoft’s continuum tablet interface, tweaks to the Start Menu and user interface of Windows 10, and a new Xbox app. Microsoft is also previewing a lot of changes to its Action Center (notification center) with this latest test version, alongside some of the new built-in universal apps like Photos, additional apps like Mail and Maps will be updated in future builds.
I occasionally hear someone, while sharing their opinion of a movie, complain how none of the characters ever ate dinner or used a toilet on screen. It's a complaint most often lobbed at action films, where the heroes can feel like robots turned on moments before the film begins and turned off during the credits. It's a silly request for a 90-minute movie to stop while its hero waits for an elevator, but it's not the worst request. We may not fight evil empires, but we eat three meals a day and, you know, evacuate those meals with some regularity. The rituals of everyday life, like buying coffee and taking off shoes, are familiar and they help to humanize characters.
We just finished a heavily scripted, carefully managed, and completely amazing demonstration of Microsoft's HoloLens technology. Four demos, actually, each designed to show off a different use case for a headset that projects holograms into real space. We played Minecraft on a coffee table. We had somebody chart out how to fix a light switch right on top of the very thing we were fixing.
Microsoft's Windows 10 event is just getting started, and it sounds like the company is eager to make it as easy and cheap as possible for those running older versions of Windows to upgrade. Terry Myerson just announced on stage that, for the first year after Windows 10 launches, any device running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or Windows Phone 8.1 will be able to upgrade to the latest version of MIcrosoft's OS — for free. How exactly this program will work isn't clear just yet — it'll certainly be subject to some hardware requirements, particularly for older machines running Windows 7. But a simplified upgrade path will likely do a lot to help Windows 10 adoption — rather than dealing with a number of different versions of Windows and different upgrade costs, most consumers will simply take this free update and enjoy running Microsoft's latest. Beyond this, Myerson shared Microsoft's vision for Windows as a service, not just an operating system. A big part of that is Microsoft's new commitment to keep devices consistently updated throughout the "supported lifetime for the device." It sounds like that means those upgrading from Microsoft's older versions of Windows will consistently receive updates to keep it as up-to-date as possible. Myerson noted that this will let developer "target every single Windows device" when they build apps — anything that makes it easier for developers to reach more users will certainly be appreciated by both the developer community as well as end users.
Tickets for Microsoft's annual developers conference were gone almost as soon as they went up today, selling out in just an hour. By comparison, it took a whole 24 hours for tickets to last year's show to get snapped up. The conference, which takes place in San Francisco on April 29th through May 1st, costs $2,095 to attend, though Microsoft also sells lower cost tickets to students. Now that tickets are gone, Microsoft's opened up a waitlist.
|
HeadlinesArchives
May 2016
Categories
All
|
Copyright © 2014-2016 Your Daily Spot. All Rights Reserved.