Microsoft Windows 10

by Volker Weber

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That's the Microsoft HoloLens, a pie-in-the-sky project that wants to be the next big thing. No pricing yet, availability with Windows 10. What does it do? It projects holographic images into your field of view and augments what you see. It's the opposite of Google Glass. You don't run around with it all day. Instead you put it on to immerse yourself. Your kids love Minecraft? They will demand this thing for Xmas.

What else was on?

  1. Windows 10. Period. No more Windows RT, Windows Phone, etc. It's all going to be called Windows 10. And of course you still can't run Win32 apps on your smartphone. Simplified branding does not make technical differences go away. It will be a free upgrade from Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows Phone 8.1. Preview for PCs next week, for phones in February.
  2. Office Touch will come with phones and small tablets. Finally. There is a lot of catching up with iOS and Android.
  3. Cortana comes to desktops and tablets. The German version is currently alpha (on Windows Phone).
  4. New web browser. Reminds me of Chrome. Web pages can be saved and annotated.
  5. OneDrive will get music support in a month or two. You will be able to upload your library and stream it. I'll eat my hat if Sonos will not take advantage of that. I am also confident that we will see a Windows (10/Phone/whatever) controller before the decade year is out.
  6. One Xbox thing I did not understand or care for ... :-)

HoloLens isn't the only exciting hardware. Microsoft has also shown giant Surface hardware for your wall. 55 or 84 inches. Surface Hub runs on Windows 10, ties into Office 365 and Skype for Business (the artist formerly known as Lync). Coming to a conference room near you.

And finally: Satya promised a Windows 10 flagship phone.

Missed the webcast? Watch it here.

Comments

Danke für die unaufgeregte, informative Zusammenfassung. Auch deswegen komme ich hier regelmäßig vorbei :)

Frank Quednau, 2015-01-22

Engadget reports that also Windows RT 8.1 will be able to upgrade to Windows 10. Apparently that was confirmed in an FAQ session. And the moderator's closing statement about the ambition to "move every Windows device to Windows 10" seems to be in line with that as well. Do you also see that confirmed?

Ragnar Schierholz, 2015-01-22

@Ragnar
This is everything but confirmed.

"Microsoft later said in a statement provided to CNET...
We are working on an update for [the Windows RT version of] Surface, which will have some of the functionality of Windows 10."
Source: cnet.com

This strongly reminds me of Windows Phone 7.8.
WP7 devices didn't get an update to WP8. Instead they got WP7.8, which only had some of the functionality of WP8.

Looks like Windows tablets based on ARM chips are dead. The last 2 devices (Surface 2 and Lumia 2520) are nearly sold out, and there are no rumors about successors.

R.I.P. Windows RT
You were not very popular. But some of us will miss you.

Manfred Wiktorin, 2015-01-22

The Xbox stuff had a few interesting pieces:

1. the social aspect of XBox One and 360 is coming to any windows device. friends, activity stream, achievements, etc. and its the same experience across all of them. that is a cool thing
2. the xbox app above enables streaming from an xbox one to a windows device (computer, tablet, phone) when on the same network. so you could play a game on a tablet instead of on the tv. this is to compete with steam streaming that lets me play steam computer games on my tv or another computer.
3. DirectX12 which has some major hardware acceleration for lower power devices. it's also a big deal because direct12 will be on every windows 10 machine - so you can port games from a computer or xbox to the tablet much easier.
4. the xbox one game recording funtion - that is always recording games and lets you publish the last 30 seconds with a button push - or much more with setup - to your stream. curious if this is games only - would love this for webcasts.

some very cool stuff that has impact on much more than games over time IMO.

John Head, 2015-01-22

Manfred, ja, das habe ich in zwischen auch gefunden. Schade drum... Ich mag mein 2520 in der Tat und erst recht, seit ich den Fehler mit dem nicht-aufwachenden Bildschirm umgehen kann.

Ragnar Schierholz, 2015-01-23

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