Ondrej Holzman Microsoft had a big day yesterday, presenting the future of its Windows operating system and not only that. Windows 10, promising unification on all platforms and great technological progress, but also futuristic "holographic" glasses had the main word. In some ways, Microsoft was inspired by Apple and other competitors, but in other places, in Redmond, they sympathetically bet on their own intuition and overtook their rivals.
Microsoft managed to present a lot during a single presentation: Windows 10, the development of the voice assistant Cortana, the connection of operating systems on various devices, including Xbox and PC, the new Spartan browser and HoloLens.
You can learn more about everything read in Otakar Schön's article na immediately, we will now focus on a few details - some of Microsoft's innovations are similar to Apple's solutions, but in others the company under the leadership of Satya Nadella is entering uncharted territory. We have selected four innovations in which Microsoft responds to competing solutions, as well as four innovations where the competition could be inspired in the future for a change.
Windows 10 free
It was practically just a matter of time. Apple has been providing its OS X operating system to users completely free for a few years now, and now Microsoft has taken the same – and indeed significant – step for it as well. Windows 10 will be free for computers, mobiles and tablets.
Existing users of Windows 10, Windows 7 and Windows Phone 8.1 will be able to upgrade to the new version of the operating system for free in the first year when Windows 8.1 is available. However, it is not yet clear when Microsoft will release its "ten", it still has several months of development ahead of it, and we will see it in autumn at the earliest. But what is important for Microsoft is that it no longer considers Windows a product, but a service.
The following statement describes everything that Satya Nadella wants to achieve with Windows 10: "We want to make people stop needing Windows, but choose Windows voluntarily, to love Windows."
Continuum - a slightly different Redmond Continuity
The name Continuum for its new feature in Windows 10 was not entirely happily chosen by the managers at Microsoft, because it is too similar to Continuity. Introduced in OS X Yosemite by Apple, this feature allows users to easily switch activities between Macs and iPhones or iPads. But Microsoft's philosophy is a little different.
Instead of having multiple devices, Continuum works by turning your touchscreen laptop into a tablet and adapting the interface accordingly. Continuum is thus tailor-made for so-called hybrids between notebooks and tablets, where with the help of a single button you replace the keyboard and mouse as control elements with your own finger.
Integrated Skype modeled after iMessage
Skype plays a big role in Windows 10. The popular communication tool will focus not only on video calls, but will be integrated directly into the operating system as well as within text messages. Based on the iMessage principle, the device then recognizes whether the other party also has a Skype account and, if so, sends him a Skype text message instead of a regular SMS. The user will see everything in a single application, where classic text messages and Skype messages can be mixed.
OneDrive everywhere
Although Microsoft didn't talk much about OneDrive at yesterday's presentation, it was visible throughout Windows 10. We should learn more about the greater role of the cloud service in the new operating system in the coming months, but OneDrive will work in the background as a link between unified applications for data and document transfer, and photos and music should also be transferred between individual devices via the cloud.
The cloud is not the music of the future, but of the present, and everyone is moving to it to a greater or lesser extent. In Windows 10, Microsoft comes with a similar model to what Apple has for iCloud, although it is much more closed, at least for now, but it also works quietly in the background and synchronizes data across applications and devices.
Surface Hub reminded me of the legendary Apple TV
Rather unexpectedly, Microsoft showed a "television" with a giant 84-inch 4K display that will also run on Windows 10. It's not really a television as such, but I'm sure more than one Apple fan when looking at the Surface Hub, as Microsoft named its new piece of iron, thought of Apple TV, which is often talked about.
However, Surface Hub has nothing to do with television and should primarily serve companies for better and easier collaboration. Microsoft's idea is that you can run Skype, PowerPoint and other productivity tools side by side on a large 4K display, while you write your notes in the remaining free space and at the same time share everything with colleagues thanks to the system connection.
The price has not been announced yet, but it can certainly be expected to be in the thousands of dollars. For this reason, Microsoft is mainly aiming at companies, but it will be interesting to see if in the future they will not also focus on ordinary users with a similar device. It is possible that it could face Apple in such a segment.
Cortana came to computers before Siri
Although the Cortana voice assistant is two and a half years younger than Siri, which is available on the iPhone and iPad, it is coming to computers earlier. In Windows 10, voice control will play an important role and Cortana will offer a wide variety of uses. On the one hand, it will immediately be ready to answer and engage in a more complex conversation with the user in the bottom bar, it will search for documents, applications and other files. At the same time, it integrates into some other applications and, for example, in Maps it will help you find where you parked your car, and across the system it will alert you to important or interesting information, such as flight departure times or sports results.
Microsoft sees voice as the future and is acting accordingly. Although Apple had bold plans with its Siri, the arrival of the voice assistant on the Mac is only talked about so far. Moreover, the engineers in Cupertino will have to work hard because Cortana seems really ambitious. Only real testing will show whether Microsoft has moved its voice assistant further than Google Now is now, but in its current form Siri would look like a poor relative on computers.
Windows 10 as a universal system for computers, mobiles and tablets
No more Windows Phone. Microsoft has decided to unify its operating systems for good, and Windows 10 will run on computers, tablets and mobiles, so that developers will develop only for one platform, but applications will be usable on different devices. The already mentioned Continuum function ensures that you always have a customized interface if you are on a computer or tablet, and by combining operating systems, Microsoft would like to improve the situation on mobile devices in particular.
Until now, Windows Phone has been at a significant disadvantage compared to iOS and Android, both because it came late and because developers often neglected it. Microsoft now promises to change that with Universal Apps.
In connection with Apple, a similar move - the merging of iOS and OS X - has been talked about for some time, but it has always been more forward looking, now that Apple is constantly bringing its two operating systems closer together. However, unlike Microsoft, it still keeps a sufficient distance between them.
HoloLens, the music of the future
Visionary is still very much associated with Apple since the days of Steve Jobs, but while the Californian company usually comes out with products already ready for the market, competitors often show things that could become hits, if they develop at all.
In this style, Microsoft completely shocked with the futuristic HoloLens glasses - its entry into the segment of augmented reality. HoloLens have a transparent display on which holographic images are projected as if in the real world. Other sensors and processors then adjust the image according to how the user moves and where he stands. HoloLens are wireless and do not need a PC connection. Developer tools for HoloLens are available on all Windows 10 devices, and Microsoft invites people who have worked with Google Glass or Oculus to start developing for them.
In contrast to these products, Microsoft plans to start selling HoloLens as a commercial product together with Windows 10. However, the date of neither is known yet, as is the duration or price of HoloLens. Nevertheless, Microsoft even collaborated with engineers from NASA during development, and using HoloLens, for example, you can simulate movement on Mars. More common use can be found, for example, for architects or remote instruction in various activities.
etc. Windows for free - I don't know why the aforementioned android and ios are compared to win10 - do people have to pay extra for windows phone 8.1 and older?
etc. onedrive – the great interconnectedness of onedrive is already in windows 8.1, where it is also integrated from the beginning
etc. skype - I'm waiting for another lawsuit to come out about microsoft favoring its core integration products over other services. Here, I don't see it as a happy step, since the system is closed and people don't want to use it.
Could you elaborate on "free"? I heard conflicting information that Widle will be paid the same as Office on a yearly basis (and the first year will be free). Is this hoax true?
The first year that Windows 10 is available will be free for those Windows 10 users. There will apparently be a fee to switch after that, but Microsoft hasn't mentioned how yet.
Not "free for a year", but "free upgrade for the first year after the release of Win10". However, a regular retail license should really be a subscription - in exchange for ongoing updates, similar to Office today.
Free Windows seems like crap to me. Apple lives by selling hardware, but what will Microsoft live by? It's a mystery..
Few people today buy a boxed license for several thousand. Most users buy/pay for new windows on a new computer as OEM.
So skydrive/live mesh is here long before iCloud. I think I used it sometime around 2009. With Microsoft, as a monopoly, it is more complicated to integrate applications into the system, such as Internet Explorer.
I remember using iDisk before 2009 :) - long before "iDrive", "Skydrive", "GoogleDrive", it was fully integrated into OSX, as it is now!!! it was a big minus when they took it down for a while!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MobileMe
Complete agreement! In my opinion, however, iDisk was in many ways better than the current iCloud Drive (for example, a shared file link with a password or expiration line, etc.)
I can see it quite clearly, the integration of Skype/OneDrive into the system won't let the European bureaucrats sleep, who, at the initiative of other cloud storages, or scumbags, will give MS a hefty fine for not allowing the user to choose what should be integrated in the system. I'm afraid I'll laugh myself to death next year :D
Otherwise, as for hololens, I really can't imagine wearing something like this in public, I liked the design of Google Glasses better :)
Why would you even go out in public with a hololens?! These glasses have no ambition to become a fashion accessory.
I'm sorry, I didn't understand their meaning, anyway VR helmets have been here before and if they're not careful, they'll end up the same
I think that treating Windows 10 for all platforms as one Windows will not work. Perhaps just by name. From that title, the "distance" between W10 on PC and phone will be the same as between OSX and IOS. Or other opinions?
I can already see the disgusted wives, how they will read messages about what we men want :-D I already have a problem with this iphone - ipad...
You'll believe in one Woknows... It's been here many times before... I'm afraid that it won't rain from this cloud even this time... ;)
Continuum is something completely different from Continuity. I would like to have an ipad and when I connect a keyboard and touchpad to it, I have a macbook air with the same programs and data, only the controls change to those that use the x-axis. If Microsoft succeeds in Windows 10, it will be a huge success compared to Apple.
I still plan to buy an iMac 5K, but then Apple will have to convince me a lot to replace the iPad 2 with another iPad or the iPhone 5S with another iPhone.
Siri should have been on OS X a long time ago. It's Apple's sloppiness again.