Windows 10 Will be Here Soon – and FREE!
Good news, Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 will be free for a year, if you are upgrading from Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows Phone 8.1. When you upgrade to Windows 10, you will have access to a all the features of the New OS including Cortana, universal apps, a seamless experience and ongoing support.
- Mobility of experience across all devices
- Improved control of privacy for it’s users
- Natural interactions with not only traditional devices but also voice, pen & gestures
Microsoft has realized how fragmented the current Windows landscape has become. A key to their strategy is to get as many Windows users as possible using their new OS: Windows 10.
Meet the Personal Digital Assistant: Cortana
Microsoft’s personal digital assistant Cortana will be an integral part of the Windows 10 Desktop. Cortana speaks several languages and is powered by the Bing search engine to equip you with the collected knowledge of the world wide web.
Cortana be instructed by voice or through the use of traditional typing instructions. In addition, Cortana has a limited ability to learn about you, to improve her ability to be of help. Cortana is a work in process and will begin to appear in a few months.
Windows 10 Will Use Universal Apps to Improve Your Experience
Windows 10 will be a single operating system but will function well across multiple devices. This adds challenges as you can imagine. Microsoft’s solution to this problem lies in what it calls universal apps. Microsoft will be offering a wide range of apps to improve your experience across all devices running the OS. Some of these demonstrated during the briefing include:
- Project Spartan, a new Microsoft browser that will change how you interact with content on the web.
- Outlook Mail and Calendar with a complete word engine, supporting the random text generating function known as Lorem Ipsum.
- Word & PowerPoint from the Office universal app will be included in Windows 10 on phones and tablets.
- Photos will have the ability to combine all your pictures, remove duplicates, enhance them, and create albums based on time, place, or people.
- People will serve to aggregates all the people in your network
- Music Experience will allow you to put your music collection into the cloud for all your devices. Only time will tell if this will present a serious challenge to iTunes.
- Maps Experience will integrate with Cortana to use traffic information to find alternative routes and provide you with turn-by-turn directions. It will remember where your car is parked.
Entertainment & Gaming is Clearly a Focus of ’10
Clearly this will be a focus of Microsoft’s new OS. Check out the video below, to get a feel for what Microsoft has planned to leverage XBox and Windows 10!
Windows 10 Will Support Inovative New Hardware
Windows 10 will support new hardware devices including the Microsoft Surface Hub for more productive meetings and the HoloLens, to enable holographic experiences. This is aimed at similar devices coming to market such as Google Glass.
So…When Will Windows 10 Be Available?
If you just can’t wait, you can join the Windows Insider program to download, install, and Test the Technical Preview. There are an estimated 1.7 million users currently participating in this program, all designed to improve the initial release, by “listening” to the multitude of testers.
The new preview build for Windows 10 desktop will be released in early February, with the first preview build for phones and tablets to follow later in the month. The official release of Windows 10 is currently expected to be before the 4th quarter of this year.
Click on the link watch the entire webcast. More detail information is available online at the Windows 10 News Center!