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Microsoft Wants to Win VR Without Actually Releasing a VR Headset

June 1, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

Even though virtual reality is upon us, the arrival of Microsoft’s HoloLens won’t be for a while longer.

Microsoft isn’t keen on building its own traditional VR headset, and it doesn’t have a release date for its magical augmented reality (AR) headgear. So until that happens, Microsoft has concocted a plan.

It wants to use the allure of VR and AR to sell VR headset manufacturers, developers, and users on its Windows 10 operating system. Microsoft announced on Wednesday that Windows Holographic won’t be simply a special version of Windows that connects to its HoloLens headset.

Sometime soon, Microsoft wants to bring all its features to the traditional versions of Windows 10, which means opening up the floodgates for VR headset makers to develop their own headsets for computers using Microsoft’s most recent OS.

But Microsoft grand vision needs all those headsets to play nice with Windows, too. If successful, the plan would allow people to work together from across different time zones as if they were in the same office, regardless of the headset each of them is using.

Even if one person would be using an HTC Vive and their colleague a HoloLens, Microsoft’s new platform would allow them to see each other and their surroundings so they could collaborate on their project.

This will be made possible with the help of the HoloLens’ sensors; as they scan the room, Microsoft’s platform can share that visual data with the HTC Vive user as well.

Of course, this unbelievable scenario only really works if at least one person has purchased a $3,000 HoloLens Development Kit – which hasn’t even made it to the shelves yet.

But Microsoft’s plan doesn’t have to wait some more years until a consumer-ready version of the HoloLens will arrive; before the idea of VR and AR collaboration will bear fruit, the company hopes to inspire as many developers as possible to create Universal Windows Applications for VR headsets right now.

The catch is that if they start using Microsoft’s standard, the applications they build now will work just as well on AR headsets like the HoloLens later.

Microsoft’s idea is simpler pitch than asking VR developers to build apps for the HoloLens itself, which might not be released yet for some years.
Image Source: Wired

Microsoft Surface Book Proves Interesting

December 21, 2015 By Deborah Campbell 2 Comments

Microsoft released the Surface Book on October 26, 2015 in the US, with later release dates for other countries.

In the barely two months since its launch, the Surface Book has gained a lot of traction on the market, by some reports, accounting (along with the Surface Pros) for what appears to be Microsoft’s new-found dominance over Apple in the tablet sales category.

This success is as surprising as it is easy to understand.

Easy because the Microsoft Surface Book, despite initial announcements of being Microsoft’s first laptop, is in fact more than that: a laptop-tablet hybrid (which counts in the above mentioned report)!

Surprising, because not many expected that there was a good potential market for laptop-tablet hybrids out there just waiting to be tapped. Which Microsoft seems to not only have confirmed, but already dominated.

The design and functionality of the Microsoft Surface Book is, admittedly, impressive.

It splits into two parts: a bottom, solid keyboard base which also has the nifty capability of acting as a tablet stand and a top, completely functional and detachable tablet (including a battery).

When connected, they become a proper laptop. In other words, it doesn’t look, feel or function like a tablet with a support that happens to be a keyboard.

This also has to do with the brilliant hinge that allows you to move the screen of the laptop (in this case the tablet itself).

Because most of the important hardware is built-in into the tablet, it is of course heavier than a normal laptop screen. So the hinge was a critical component to take into account to prevent the screen from closing or falling backwards under its weight.

It’s made of multiple strong segments that neatly extend or retract as needed.

However, there’s a downside to this as well: when in a fully closed position, because of these segments, there is a bit of space at the back of the laptop, where the keyboard base and tablet are joined (think the spine, if the laptop where a book).

The tablet itself is a 13.5 inch display one, but with an intriguing, not so frequently used 3:2 ratio. It’s also slim: 8.5 mm.

As regards technical specifications, the Microsoft Surface Book is highly capable. With varying configurations you can choose from, but all of them with sufficient computing power and capabilities.

From the Intel ‘Skylake’ Core i5 CPU, 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of SSD storage cheaper entry-level models to the more expensive higher-end Core i7 CPU, 16 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of SSD storage ones. The latter also has a dedicated 1GB Nvidia GPU.

Prices currently range from 1,499 $ to 3,199 $.

Whether the Microsoft Surface Book success was just a fluke or Microsoft is actually on to something remains to be seen, but early signs are very promising. What do you think?

Image source: 1.

Microsoft Shuts Down Zune Music Player

November 16, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Microsoft shuts down Zune Music Player, officially – and it was about time they did so. The Zune music service was dead and gone, its body tucked away in a coffin, and all the nails in place.

Zune was dead, but not a ghost town as Yahoo. A few users were still coming back to Microsoft’s music service, even though Xbox Music launched – which, by the way, is now called Groove Music.

On the 15th of November 2015, Microsoft discontinued the Zune service for good. It was a dark Sunday for some, and for others, it was just an average day. Lucky Zune users can’t download or stream content any more. The gate has been closed.

You can read the official Zune retirement FAQ for more details.

But don’t despair, die-hard Zune fans. Microsoft is trying to entice you, the Zune core, to switch to their Groove Music service – it’s the company’s music streaming platform that has about 38 million songs.

Those of you who own a Zune music device can continue to listen and transfer music as usual. Yet, if you plan on using these devices to side with Groove Music, you are out of luck. Zune devices aren’t Groove-enabled, the following are.

Any Windows 10 capable device
Xbox One
Xbox 360
iOS
Android
Sonos
Any web browser

Unfortunately, don’t expect the same traits you used to have as a Zune user. The 10 free tracks per month feature is gone forever. Microsoft hasn’t specified if it will reiterate it within Groove Music, but I’m sceptical they ever will.

The main difference between Groove Music and Zune Music is that the Groove platform allows to store digital content on OneDrive – Zune didn’t. Also, the fact that Groove Music is available on a plethora of platforms – see above.

The Zune Player has been considered a failure since 2011 when reports showed really low sales. It was a means to compete with the ever-growing iTunes and the iPod era. Yet, Apple maintained its position as head dog, and controlled what music listeners tuned into. Hence, how now Apple Music has a big shot of becoming one of the biggest music streaming platforms in the world – along with Spotify and Google Play Music.

Microsoft’s Groove Music is witnessing more success than Zune. Go figure, giving users the possibility of listening to music on a plethora of devices and OSs actually means turning a profit.

If you are a Zune die-hard fan, you should know that if you want to switch over to Groove Music you have to cough up $9.99 a month. Want more? $99 per year to download and stream unlimited music.

Image Source: 1

Code.org Hour Of Code Minecraft Tutorial

November 16, 2015 By Kenneth Scott Leave a Comment

Code.org is a relatively new but now popular organization (founded in 2013) whose purpose is to not only motivate people all over the world, especially school children, to learn how to code, but to also help them do so by giving free coding lessons online.

They do this via their eponymous website (www.code.org) where anyone can take free lessons of his or her choice from the offered curriculum.

But another important part of their efforts is the Hour of Code challenge. Which they first held in December 2013, during Computer Science Education week (9th of December to 15th of December) when they launched the concept. The Hour of Code consists of a tutorial that teaches the basics of computer science to anyone who is interested, in under one hour, using a visual programming language called Blockly.

Since its launch in 2013, a new tutorial teaching the same concepts was modeled for each year. In 2014, for example users could learn to make and then customize their own Flappy Bird game.

And now, in 2015, the Hour of Code tutorial is Minecraft-oriented. Meaning that potential learners will use Blockly to give instructions to one of two characters of their choice Steve (male) or Alex (female) so that they can perform increasingly difficult tasks over the course of 14 levels in an interface visually similar to the Minecraft environment.

The emphasis behind this being that Minecraft uses the same basic programming and computer science concepts being taught in the Hour of Code, this enticing potential learners because of Minecraft’s huge popularity and appeal, a fact which incidentally has been consistently confirmed by learner’s requests that Code.org kept receiving to make a Minecraft-themed tutorial up to now.

And speaking of enticing learners, Code.org designed the last of the 14 levels in this Hour Of Code Minecraft tutorial to be a free play experience, without a pre-determined set of tasks to do, similar to Minecraft, allowing them to choose from several actions and make their own decisions, in the hope that it would have replay value and they would return to play.

But this would not have been possible without Microsoft (who owns Minecraft, having bought it last year). Because Microsoft, apart from being one of Code.org’s high-profile and generous backers (along with Obama, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, Apple and others), with more than 3 million $ donated to Code.org so far, gave the company the right to use the Minecraft name without charge. And also pitched in with a few developers of its own to write this new tutorial.

It also says it was more than happy to help make this tutorial a reality because they had the intention of somehow using Minecraft for education since January and this is a perfect opportunity.

Image source: 1.

Microsoft OneNote adds Video Embeds and iPhone feats

November 14, 2015 By Karen Jackson 2 Comments

It’s November and this means a massive cycle of updates from Microsoft. Yesterday, as in Thursday, the big M pushed a plethora of new features to its OneNote software across a broad variety of platforms.

Basically, Microsoft OneNote adds video embeds, new iPhone features and more!

Those who use OneNote Online and OneNote for iOS have the chance to record audio directly into a note from either the web or your usual mobile app. This feature was already available for both the Mac and Windows OneNote app.

However, implementations aren’t similar. If you choose to record or play back audio in a note on an iPhone, or any other iOS-capable product, it blocks everything else on the screen. Meaning, you can use the phone solely for those two actions until you press stop.

OneNote Online is limited to only record audio in 90 seconds portions. This is more than acceptable if you want to record short snippets of somebody’s speech, clearly not sufficient for recording an entire one-hour long lecture.

Unfortunately, neither the OneNote Online or OneNote for iOS are capable of linking notes to positions within the text. It’s a little bit disappointing considering the fact that the Windows and Mac desktop apps can easily do so. Microsoft has noted that it has big plans for iOS – meaning, it wants to improve features and bring new ones. I’m quite hopeful that my iPhone will see improved audio recording, but with no launch date in sight, I’ll just stick to my Android mistress.

Those of us that use the Windows desktop version of OneNote 2016 now have the option to embed videos directly from the web straight into notes – with one simple click of a button called Insert Online Video. Pretty straightforward, right?

The prompted box takes URLs only from Vimeo, YouTube and Office Mix. Sorry, no love for PornHub apparently.

Microsoft is looking to bring this feature to its other platforms – Mac, Android, iOS and its specially designed mobile app for Windows 10. Also, to OneNote Online, which seems to get the short end of the stick every single time.

iPhone 6S and 6S Plus owners have an unique feature designed just for Apple’s OS platform. By using the 3D Touch feature, users can quickly access OneNote’s note creation tools.

By hard pressing down on the OneNote icon, a menu will materialize and users can choose between – recently accessed notes, new photo note and new note.

Microsoft is directly competing with search engine behemoth Google and Evernote. The three are struggling to gain the title of – Best place for ideas and thoughts.

Do you think Microsoft can do it? Or does Google and Evernote have better chances?

Image Source: 1

Microsoft’s Surface Hub has been Delayed to January

August 13, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

The Surface Hub, Microsoft’s wall computer has been delayed, and it will now start to ship on January the 1st 2016. The announcement comes right after the company’s July statement, when they noted that a Fall release date isn’t plausible.

The software-maker promised that they will update its status when August arrives.

Microsoft’s official note, regarding their Surface Hub wall computer can be read just down below.

A little bit lackluster, isn’t it?

Mary Jo Foley, a contributor to ZDNet was the first to observe this rather annoying delay, and she brings to our attention that Microsoft started taking pre-orders for their Surface Hub on July the 1st, and that the company’s initial plan was for a September 1st ship date.

The big M released a statement in July which noted that they have received strong demand for the Surface Hub, and the reason for this multi-month postponement is that they want to polish their process of manufacturing in order to produce them on a more larger scale.

Microsoft built, from top to bottom, a factory in Oregon especially to create the Surface Hub.

This delay isn’t worrying, nor has it caught us off-guard. I wouldn’t even go to say that this entails system, or production troubles. It’s just Microsoft admitting they want to make more money, because there is a demand for their product.

Microsoft isn’t selling flag-ship consumer-oriented smartphones, where timing is of the essence when considering a release date. They are trying to breakthrough a niche, which doesn’t really have a standard of quality cemented into the user’s mind, nor promoted by an industry leader.

Microsoft’s new system, the Surface Hub is a 80-inch, or 55-inch computer that you can display on your wall. It has a built-in touch input, specially made cameras that will track your movement, and other features oriented for businesses – video conferences are stable, and easily initiated.

It will come pre-assembled, and the design team at Microsoft aims it at businesses first, consumers second.

It can also run all of the apps on the Windows Store.

The Surface Hub is capable of running Windows 10 apps, and it will be more practical than their previous iterations. It will also run a sort-of custom version of the newly released Windows 10.

Depending on the size of the Surface Hub that you choose, you’ll need to pay-up $6,999 or $19,999.

As I said before, this delay isn’t worrying, but if January comes, and Microsoft delays their system once-again, then we might start to ask ourselves some questions.

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Amazon Confirms Windows 10 on USB Flash Drive

July 19, 2015 By Kenneth Scott Leave a Comment

Amazon has confirmed that they will be selling Windows 10 on an USB Flash Drive starting August the 30th.

Forbes contributor Antony leather was talking about this exact thing last week – a rumor regarding Windows 10 availability on an USB Flash Drive.

This makes it even more appealing, to be honest. Having an OS on an USB Flash Drive which you can carry around with you everywhere may entice a lot of customers to buy the dongle. Most importantly, it’s way faster than your average DVD.

If you go on Amazon right now, you’ll be able to see the Microsoft Windows 10 store page for it’s Home, and Pro Versions.

The Windows 10 Home product will cost $119,99, and the Pro versions – which can come in English, or Spanish; will retail at $199,99.

Microsoft has announced that Amazon is their prime merchant of their, at the current moment, unreleased OS.

It’s strange, to be honest. The dongle isn’t available on Microsoft’s official store, and neither at Best Buy. A Microsoft spokesperson has replied to a few questions from VentureBeat, regarding the unavailability to buy from other online retailers – ” Windows 10 will be available on USB drives for purchase in retail channels shortly after launch. The suggested retail prices for Windows 10 in the U.S. are the same as Windows 8.1.”

The official release date for Windows 10 is set to 29th of July, and it can be downloaded for free across 190 markets across the world.

We expect an announcement to be made soon regarding Windows 10 on DVD.

Rumors have been plaguing the interwebz that Microsoft will tax Windows 10 users after the first free year of usage. They are incredibly false. Microsoft has stated time, and time again, that their product will support the device which was installed on for the entirety of its life-time.

Gordon Kelly, which also is a Forbes contributor has noted that owners of Windows 7, or Windows 8.1 are eligible for a free upgrade within the first year, but Enterprise owners – basically, different editions; of Windows 7, and 8.1, won’t be able to upgrade. Neither those who have pirated copies.

Edge is going to be the next step from Internet Explorer.

This is quite strange, because in March of this year I remember Microsoft saying that everyone could upgrade to Windows 10 – which was a way to combat piracy in China.

We will provide a mechanism for non-genuine Windows 10 PC devices to ‘get genuine’ via the new Windows Store, whether they are upgraded versions of Windows or purchased.

Now, this feels like a bait-and-switch strategy which I seriously don’t like. We’ll have to wait for the official release date, and see for ourselves what Microsoft statement is true.

Are you going to upgrade to Windows 10 at the end of this month? Or are you going to wait a couple of months for reviewers to tackle the new OS?

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Sony Announced a New 1 TB PlayStation 4

June 22, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Sony’s just announced a new model for their console – it’s going to be called PlayStation 4 Ultimate Player 1 TB Edition.

Sony acknowledges that the downloadable content market is growing more and more with each passing year, and the company wants to take the bulls by its horns while the bull isn’t all grown up. The Japanese company is going to release their PlayStation 4 1 TB Edition next month – doubling its original capacity.

The PlayStation 4 1 TB Edition is going to be available at the end of this month for those residing in Japan. European, and US gamers will have the possibility of buying the newer model on the 15th of July. At the current moment, nobody knows how much it will cost, nor if it’s going to be bundled with an additional controller, or a Sony exclusive game.

Microsoft announced last week that an Xbox One 1 TB Edition is in the works and it will feature their new Xbox One killer controller. This is Sony’s counter attack to the growing fan-base for Xbox one – reports state that the Xbox One will sell like crazy this X-Mass. Why? Well, because Xbox One will feature backwards compatibility, and a string of AAA titles will also hit Microsoft’s console.

Xbox 360 users will most likely shift towards the next generation consoles, says Microsoft executive Aaron Greenberg – ” A lot of people have been waiting for the next Halo; a lot of people have been waiting for Gears; a lot of people have been waiting for backwards compatibility.”

Sony doesn’t have a thrilling line-up for this holiday – No Man’s Sky is known to be released at the end of 2015, but Sony has lost it’s timed exclusivity deal, and the open-world virtually infinite space exploration game will be released on the PC at the same time.

But Sony’s new model for their PlayStation 4 product line will feature a reduction in power consumption – the Ultimate Player 1 TB Edition will use 8 percent less power than the 500GB version.

Here’s the official video announcement from Sony.

If you didn’t jump on the next gen console bandwagon already, this might be the perfect time to do so. You only have to choose between a Sony PlayStation 4, and a Microsoft Xbox One. Take a look at what exclusive titles stir your curiosity, and decide. You don’t want to miss this period – it’s the best time to be a gamer, and this year’s E3 event is a statement that gaming can only get better.

I’m a happy owner of both the Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. I highly recommend you buy both of them, but if you can’t, I’m more inclined to tell you that Sony has better exclusives, while Microsoft has a better controller.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3

Oculus Rift and Microsoft Have Announced Their Partnership

June 14, 2015 By Karen Jackson 1 Comment

The internet is in an uproar. Oculus Rift has just announced their partnership with Microsoft. More exactly, their virtual reality headset will come paired with an Xbox One controller.

Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe also announced that their Oculus Rift device will fully support Windows 10, and its users will be able to play Xbox One games directly inside their, er, heads via Xbox-to-Windows streaming.

It is unknown at the moment what other services Microsoft will provide for the Facebook-owned virtual reality device.

Microsoft’s Head of Xbox Phil Spencer sported a huge grin on his face when it was time to take to the stage and announce their unlikely partnership. But even though the internet hates it, for whatever reason, I seriously applaud their entrepreneur spirit.

It makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s a way to counter attack Sony’s Project Morpheus, and who would be better to do so than one of the most known virtual reality headsets on the planet. Oculus Rift has a super-high brand recognition – mostly because it was the first that tackled this trend, and partly because Facebook acquired it and made everyone wonder how Zuckerberg will tackle social media in the VR medium.

Oculus Rift is already built, and it’s in the polishing process – can’t say the exact same thing about Project Morpheus; we have no clue what Sony’s up to.

It’s a pure win-win situation for Microsoft. They don’t have to maintain the VR hardware, they only have to make their software compatible, and easy to use. Unlike Sony, who will most likely adopt the same thing for their VR headset. Sony needs to develop its product first, and then tackle compatibility issues that it may encounter. Or maybe Sony will shock as all, and when the time comes it will have all its problems fixed.

Whether the trend will ship towards augmented reality, or it will stay in the VR medium, Microsoft is more than prepared. The big M has enough time, and resources to focus on their HoloLens project and not worry about Oculus – which big daddy Facebook can easily take care of by opening its deep pockets. Some say that they are filled with gold, and others warn that they are drenched in tears of social media users from around the globe.

This might also be Microsoft’s chance of winning the console wars. Its Xbox, and Xbox 360 were gold, but when you talk about next gen consoles, PlayStation 4 is the reigning king.

Oculus Rift is also offering up to $10 million to help indie developers build games for their VR headset. I think they’re off to a tremendous head start, and Sony might just release their VR headset in time to barely taste the dust.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4

Skype for Web Beta Available in the UK and US

June 9, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Microsoft’s Skype is expanding its borders. If you reside in the UK or US, you can try the all new Skype for Web, but be warned, it’s in its beta phase.

What’s Skype for Web? Well, it’s basically the same old Skype that you know and love, but now you aren’t required to install the client. It works exactly the same, meaning that you can video call someone, and use the chat without a hitch.

Jonathan Watson, Skype Senior product manager has wrote on the official Skype blog the following – ” As we explained at the end of last year, Skype for Web is an important step for Skype as we move towards implementing the technology to make Real-Time Communications (RTC) on the Web a reality.”

Last November Microsoft announced that it was planning to roll out the new software for a select few, and that the team developing the browser plug-in was hard at work. It seems that the project has finally reached the phase were the public can test it.

Just download and install the browser plug-in to use Skype for Web. If you reside in the US, or UK, you just need to login with your Skype credentials, and your contacts will load up in just a few seconds. Watson added that – “[…] whether you usually use Skype on a mobile, tablet, native desktop app or a TV, you’ll see your latest chats are ready to respond to in your browser.”.

In an era where everything, and everyone is moving at lighting speed, having Skype super accessible is a divine gift.

Microsoft is jumping on the trend that Google and Apple have started – integrating everything! If you’ve been using Outlook, you know that Skype is fully integrated, and if you click on the sidebar, you’ll notice your contacts load. You can continue to make calls, and reply to texts – that is, if you’ve paired your Skype account with Outlook.

What’s more interesting though, is the fact that Microsoft’s devs are trying to constantly improve Skype for Web, and in the near future you won’t even need to install the plug-in.

Also, more features will come to the video-calling application. Skype marketing manager Yasmin Khan has stated yesterday that the near real-time Skype Translator app will be added to the Windows Desktop Skype app soon – ” We are targeting the end of summer 2015 for the roll-out to begin.”

The Skype Translator app currently supports four spoken languages – English, Spanish, Italian and Mandarin; and about fifty written ones. Last month, the company has decided to scrap the sign-in requirement, and it usage has increased by 300%. Khan added – ” “We will continue to expand the repertoire of languages as they meet our quality standard.”

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