Microsoft January 21 Event Highlights

Microsoft had a series of major announcements on January 21. Most of them around Windows 10. Did you miss it? Let me summarize for you.

1. Microsoft revealed 1.7 million active Windows Insiders are taking part in the Insider program – getting early access and providing critical feedback.
   
2. Microsoft will be updating Cortana for the phone and will bringing Cortana over to the desktop. You can see hints of this in the Insiders build of W10.
   
   1. Users will be able to talk to Cortana, w/o buttons “Hey Cortana!”
   2. Cortana will synchronize across user devices
   3. Cortana will interact with the Photos app
3. Microsoft-built apps like Mail and Maps are getting the Windows 10 treatment. New, better, even more OneDrive integration, and so on.
   
   1. Apps are called Universal Apps
   2. Apps will run “eventually on the Xbox as well”
   3. Many apps will run on Android and iOS mobile devices
   4. “Present your PowerPoint presentation right from your phone”
   5. In the new Mail app you can left swipe to delete
   6. In the new Mail app you can right swipe to flag
   7. The Photos app syncs with any phone
   8. The Photos app has a collection view
   9. The Photos app automatically applies Auto-Enhance
   10. The Photos all de-dups redundant photos
   11. The Photos app auto-groups photos by date and location
4. Microsoft’s next generation internet explorer (Spartan) is another part of Windows 10. It will including inking, sharing, collaboration, and more.
   
   1. The new browser is a Universal App
   2. Users can annotate with a pen, finger, or keyboard
   3. Spartan includes a Reading List, synced and offline
   4. Cortana is a built-in part of Spartan
5. Microsoft’s Office suite is coming. See Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook as touch-first apps that light-up on Windows 10. 
6. Xbox Live is extending the console gaming experience to the PC. Play on your Xbox. Play on your PC. Play on both with cross-device multi-player.
   
   1. Cross-device includes friends, chat, achievements, and clips
   2. Fable was demoed as the first game to enable this feature
7. Microsoft announced more for Xbox: the ability to play multi-player over local Wi-Fi, record gameplay on the PC, and introduced DirectX 12.
   
8. Microsoft revealed the Microsoft Surface Hub, the rebranded PPI; it’s a 55-84”, 4k business-class touch-enabled whiteboard for conference rooms.
   
   1. The Surface Hub supports multi-point inking and touch
   2. The Surface Hub has a custom version of OneNote and Skype
9. Microsoft revealed Microsoft HoloLens, a wearable Windows 10 computer that is the world’s first holographic computing platform.
   
   
   
   
   
   1. The HoloLens is a stand-alone device, no wires, phone, PC needed
   2. The HoloLens has see-through HD lenses, spatial sound, advanced sensors, and a new Holographic Processing Unit (HPU)
   3. The HoloLens will be available in the Windows 10 timeframe
10. Microsoft demonstrated for the first time the Action center in Windows 10, the universal Notification center phone users have today.
    
11. Microsoft continued by indicating the Windows 10 holographic APIs are available on every build of Windows 10. Every single one.
12. Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for qualified Windows 7 & 8.x. & Phone 8.x devices that upgrade in the first year.
1. This will not include Windows Enterprise, however, most enterprises using this SKU get unlimited upgrades through software assurance.
13. Microsoft continued that they will keep all devices current for their supported lifetime with new features, security and functionality.
14. Finally, Microsoft reiterated the upcoming Build conference in San Francisco at the end of April – the place to learn more about Windows 10.
    

These are the kind of magical moments that we live for.

Pretty exciting stuff.

// End