Everything We Know About Windows 10

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Free, Surface Hub, Cortana and Hololens

Microsoft held a Windows 10 press conference today and revealed a massive amount of details from the upcoming OS and much more. After many rumors, Microsoft confirmed that Windows 10 will be free to Windows 8, 7, and Windows Phone users...for the first year, at least. The company views it as an incentive for users to quickly jump on board to the Windows 10 platform. Beyond the year, however, Microsoft hasn’t revealed any pricing details for how much the OS will cost.
Another rumor that Microsoft confirmed is that Windows 10 will support Cortana, which the company is pitching as the OS’s personal digital assistant. In short, the character Cortana is based off the character from the Halo games and is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Siri. With Cortana, Microsoft is saying "she" is really tailored for the PC experience and you will be able to use voice commands to search for locally stored files or files on your One Drive account. These file types will include documents, pictures, music, and more. In the live demo that Microsoft gave on stage, Cortana was able to provide information on the weather, flight information, and more. What’s quite impressive about Cortana is that her voice sounds extremely realistic, much more so than either Apple’s or Google’s equivalents. Microsoft is also saying that Cortana will be able to get smarter and learn about you. For instance, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore asked her what she thinks the Super Bowl score will be. Knowing that Joe is from Seattle, she jokingly said that the Seattle Seahawks would win in dominating fashion. If you’re a little creeped out by this, you’ll be able to clear some of her history about you. She will also be able to tell you more about any particular web page you’re browsing and you’ll be able to right-click on words to get definitions and more.

To go along with Cortana, Microsoft is also creating a new browser. Codenamed Project Spartan, Microsoft's new browser will use a new rendering engine and will support note taking with either a stylus or a person's finger. Project Spartan will also allow you to click on words/phrases and allow you to leave comments. You'll then be able to share these pages with your comments on them on the various social media outlets. Project Spartan will also allow you to save web pages to view offline, much like the Get Pocket app.
Microsoft also wants to push gaming with Windows 10. In addition to supporting DirectX 12, which the company vaguely stated will run up to 50% faster than DX11 equivalents, the company also announced that users will be able to stream Xbox One games to any Windows 10 PC over a local network. This includes Windows 10 tablets/convertibles. Currently the build that the company is using only supports 30fps/720p streaming, but Microsoft hopes to up that to 60fps/1080p by the time Windows 10 officially releases.

Microsoft also revealed the Xbox app which will allow you to capture and record the last 30 seconds of gameplay in any PC game, much like Nvidia’s ShadowPlay feature. This includes games from Steam, Uplay or Origin. In addition, you’ll also be able to cut and trim the beginning and ends of clips and share them with your Xbox Live friends on the Xbox app. When we asked Microsoft if the company plans on integrating the Xbox friends list with Steam’s friends library, the company said it certainly wasn’t against it and said it was in talks with Valve.
Currently the software is only recording the last 30 seconds of gameplay, but when we asked the company if it was going to open that up to allow you to record more, the company said that could certainly be a possibility later on down the road.

Another announcement Microsoft made was its Surface Hub, which is a Windows 10 PC integrated into an 80-inch 4K TV with a mic, cameras, and touch screen. You will be able to use a stylus to draw on PowerPoint presentations, etc. with the Surface Hub. The Hub is being designed for enterprise in mind and will cater towards professionals who use Skype video conferencing.
Microsoft’s last announcement was arguably the most exciting: Hololens. Many suspected that Microsoft would release a head-mounted display for VR to compete with Oculus Rift/Project Morpheus, however the company opted to go the augmented reality route. Hololens is a head-mounted display, but unlike VR headsets, the Hololens grants you full vision of your surrounding with a clear glass overlay in front of your eyes. In the glass, you’ll have a video feed that beams on to it in real time. The end result is you looking at virtual objects lying around your real living room space. Furthermore, you’ll be able to use the company’s new HoloStudio program to easily build 3D models with your hands. Microsoft is calling it the best print preview for 3D printing out there.

We got a chance to try the headset and can say we walked away incredibly impressed. Expect a more detailed write-up on it soon. There’s still a lot that we don’t know. For instance, we don’t know how it will interact with Windows 10 PCs considering it is it’s own dedicated, wireless device. We will say that we were pleasantly surprised by it and like VR, it has the potential to be transformative if it’s pulled off right. While no release date was given, Microsoft told us that it would come out during the Windows 10 launch timeframe.
When is Windows 10 releasing? The company says it is aiming for this year. When we asked them if it would be coming out during Q4, Microsoft said it hopes to release before then, but gave no concrete date or time frame.
What did you think of Microsoft’s various announcements? Let us know in the comments below.


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