Today, Microsoft held another event to show off even more features of Windows 10 and other consumer products coming this year. Here are the best things the company announced.
Windows 10 Will be Free For a Year
Easily one of the most popular announcements, Microsoft said that Windows 10 will be a freeupgrade to anyone using Windows 7 and up for the first year. That's a huge change from the way Windows has been licensed in the past. If you have Windows 7 (which we liked!) or higher, you can upgrade to Windows 10 without paying a dime. Microsoft even confirms that once you're upgraded, you'll get support for the lifetime of the product, so this isn't a trick where you'll have to pay after the first year. Windows Phone 8.1 users will also get a free upgrade, as well.
A Continuous Experience Across Desktops, Tablets, and Phones
Microsoft kicked off the consumer-focused portion of the event by talking about a continuous experience across devices. Often, there's a disruption that occurs when you move from your desktop to your phone, or your phone to your tablet. Microsoft wants to fix this with a feature called Continuum. This allows you to swap between desktop and tablet mode in convertible devices. Microsoft is also moving its mobile and desktop versions of Windows closer together so that apps work similarly across all form factors.
Microsoft also showed off how Windows 10 will behave on phones or tablets, if you use one of those devices. There are new mobile features like replying directly to notifications, a floating keyboard, and voice dictation anywhere you can pull up the keyboard. Gizmodo has more if you want to see what Windows 10 looks like on a phone or tablet.
Cortana is Bringing a Powerful Voice Assistant to the Desktop
We've heard rumors that Cortana is coming to the desktop, but today Microsoft showed off how it's going to work. Cortana lives in the task bar and can be used alongside search much the same way that integrated search already works in the existing Windows 10 beta. You can trigger Cortana with the voice command "Hey Cortana" and ask it many typical voice commands like "Do I need a jacket today?" Desktop users can also type commands and the assistant has been adapted to some simpler commands so you don't have to write out entire sentences to do simple tasks. For example, you can start typing the name of an app and Cortana will give you a shortcut to launch it. In a way, Cortana is taking over some of the functions of the Start Menu (which is still present, so don't panic!).
Importantly, Cortana will also have a "notebook" of information she knows about you. Google Now has a similar feature, and both are likely to be very helpful not only in improving suggestions, but in helping you maintain your privacy. If Cortana learns something about you that you don't want her to know, you can remove it.
Universal Apps Work Across All Devices
Microsoft wants developers to be able to write apps once and run them on everything from Windows desktops to Xbox consoles. The company showed off a bit about how these apps will behave and be distributed. The above is an image of the Calendar app that was written for the Universal Apps platform and automatically adapts to different interfaces.
Microsoft showed off the Ribbon interface in Word as it appears in Windows phone, described as a "nearly no compromises" experience. The upside is that if you get used to a menu on one device, all the same functions should be in roughly the same place in mobile versions of the app with a slightly different layout. This is very similar to the way Android handles phone-to-tablet conversions, which dynamically adjust to different screen sizes. A welcome approach.
Project Spartan: Internet Explorer Reborn
Internet Explorer has had a hard life, starting as one of the most loathed programs on Windows and growing up into a decent browser most people still ignored. Now Microsoft is looking to the future with Project Spartan. The entire browser has been rebuilt from the ground up with a ton of new features like an in-browser notebook mode that allows you to freeze and annotate a page (seen above), a reading mode that strips a webpage down to just the text for easy reading, and a built-in PDF reader. Cortana is also built into the browser, so you can use many of the same commands directly in the browser's search bar. It also attempts to predict what you need. For example, Microsoft showed Cortana giving flight information when you start typing "Delta", because it knows you're watching for a flight. It also pops up when you're on pages it can provide information for, so when you visit a restaurant website, it will tell you it has directions, hours, and more.
An Improved Suite of Built-In Apps
Microsoft launched or improved a ton of new apps in Windows 8, but not many of them saw much usage because of the difficulty of the Modern-style interface. Many of these are getting updates that not only make them easier to use on the desktop, but extra features that make them really useful. These apps include the People contacts app, Photos, Music, Maps, OneDrive, and more. While these have been around for a while, they may be worth a second look when Windows 10 drops.
Xbox Gets a Windows 10 App on the Desktop
Microsoft took a step in Steam's general direction with a brand new Xbox app for Windows 10. The app will come pre-loaded on all Windows 10 devices. For Xbox Live users, you can chat and voice chat with everyone on your friends list, see all of your games in the app, view screenshots and videos from players and so on.
The Xbox app goes even further by allowing you to record your own videos for any Windows app. Including Steam games. The company demoed the Xbox app recording a gameplay video of Sid Meier's Civilization—a version of the game that is old enough that it hasn't been updated for Windows 10 at all—with the screen recording feature. It even works with games run from Steam, so it's nice to see the service playing nicely with other gaming platforms.
Xbox Games Can Stream to Windows 10 Machines, Play with PC Players
Gamers have plenty of reasons to enjoy Windows 10, as well. The biggest news is that Microsoft will allow Xbox One users to stream their games to the PC, much like Steam's in-home streaming works, just in reverse. The games will run on your console and stream across your home Wi-Fi to your desktop, so you can play it in the best interface for your play style.
The company also said that it will enable cross-platform multiplayer for some games. Microsoft demoed Fable Legends running on Windows 10 and showed two players—one on a console, one on a PC—playing in tandem. Presumably this won't be enabled for every Xbox One game, as that could prove problematic, but it will be coming for some titles. source
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment