Microsoft Windows 10 briefing live stream and blog: Windows 10 will be a free upgrade

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Update 01:44pm: Microsoft HoloLens was just announced. It’s an augmented reality solution with a head-mounted display.

Update 01:28pm: Finally, we have remote play for Xbox! Windows 10 PCs and tablets will stream gameplay live from the Xbox One, and allow you to play anywhere in your house.

Update 01:00pm: Project Spartan is the new web browser for Windows 10! Windows 10 has Cortana now — even on the Desktop. Office, photos, and music all work across your Windows devices. It’s a nice deal.

Update 12:20pm: Windows 10 will be a free update for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 users for the first year. Fantastic!

Update 12:00pm: The show has begun! Follow along as we find out all about Windows 10.

Back in September, we first learned that Redmond is skipping Windows 9, and jumping right to 10. Today, the Windows team will take the stage at Microsoft’s headquarters, and give us a proper rundown of what Windows 10 is all about. Will we finally see something worth upgrading for? Is DirectX 12 going to matter? I’m not quite convinced yet, but we should hear some firm details about pricing and release dates at the very least. Check back here at 12pm EST (9am PST) for all of the latest details as they become available.

How to watch the Windows 10 event

Unless you are able to attend the event in person, in Seattle, the best way to watch the Windows 10 news will be a livestream. Microsoft will be streaming the event online so in addition to following our live blog (for the keen insights the stream will be missing!) you can watch everything as it unfolds.

Live blog

02:20pm Terry Myerson is back on stage, and promises a lot more in 2015. That’s a wrap, everyone.

02:06pm Satya Nadella is on stage wrapping things up. He wants us to love Windows. It’ll take a lot of work, Satya!

01:59pm Unsurprisingly, you look like a complete doofus interacting with things that don’t really exist.

01:56pm My biggest problem with this isn’t the core tech. It’s actually fantastic, but this should be presented as a neat side project — not a revolution in computing.

01:49pm The HoloLens is just a pair of hefty glasses that display “holograms” onto your vision. This is just AR — not real holograms, though. It’s shipping with a CPU, GPU, and a dedicated specialty processor for dealing with the massive amounts of input data. It’s cool, but this is being oversold in a major way. AR is a fun niche, but come on. These glasses are a stepping stone at best. This isn’t a paradigm shift.

01:44pm Windows Holographic is an augmented reality solution. It’s a head-mounted display. *shrug*

01:39pm Yes, yes. It’s a big tablet. You can use it for meetings. We get it, Microsoft. Zzzzzzzz.

01:34pm Microsoft Surface Hub is a giant Smart TV with a touchscreen and built-in cameras. It’s basically a giant wall-mounted tablet for work and school environments. It seems okay, but it’s not particularly exciting or shockingly new.

01:32pm Over the next few weeks, new builds will ship on PC and on phones, and upwards 25 languages will be supported.

01:27pm Finally, Microsoft is implementing remote play! Any Windows 10 PC or Tablet will stream Xbox One games over the network. Obviously, controllers are a must.

01:23pm With Windows 10, cross-platform play is now easier to pull off. For example, Fable Legends on Xbox One and PC work together for multiplayer. Achievements work on Windows 10 as well — no need for GFWL.

01:21pm The Unity engine will now support DirectX 12.

01:20pm DirectX 12 can improve performance on CPU-bound games by 50% on the same hardware. Meanwhile, it cuts battery usage by 50%.

01:19pm Spencer wants to give you a virus, I think. Definitely wants to increase “viralness.”

01:18pm Game DVR is now baked into Windows. You can save the last 30 seconds of gameplay on any game.

01:14pm The Xbox app shows all of your games, friends, messages, and cheevos. Just like we thought. Voice and text chat work as well. Nice, but not a game changer.

01:13pm Phil Spencer takes the stage. Talking about PC gaming now. Battletoads t-shirt, by the way.

01:09pm Spartan uses Cortana as a smart address bar. It’ll pop up relevant info as you type — not just websites. It’s nice, but other browsers have been doing this for a long time. These features should be minor bullet points — not the major selling points. *sigh*

01:07pm Spartan is largely copying Safari here. It has a minimalist reading mode and a reading list. It has offline reading as well, so that’s pretty neat.

01:05pm Using touch or keyboards, you can mark-up web pages with notes, and share it with friends and co-workers. It’ll be good for developers, but the use case for normal users is WEAK.

01:03pm Project Spartan is real. It’s a new web browser coming to all Windows 10 devices. It has a new rendering engine as well. Goodbye, IE.

01:00pm Soon, you’ll be able to store and manage your music library on OneDrive. Change playlists on any device.

12:57pm The new photo app makes management easier. It sports an “Auto-enhance” mode too. It’s nothing new, but it’s a much better name that Google’s awful “Auto Awesome.”

12:55pm The calendar syncs across devices. Shocking.

12:54pm Swipe left to remove an email, right to flag. The new Outlook is Tinder for email.

12:52pm Showing off the built-in Microsoft Word engine across different apps.

12:51pm There’s a new, universal, version of Outlook across all Windows 10 devices.

12:50pm Office apps ship with Windows 10 on phones.

12:47pm “Nearly no compromise” sounds like “actually, a lot of compromise, Joe.

12:45pm Joe B is discussing universal apps. PC, tablets, smartphones, and the Xbox One all running specially compiled versions of the same apps. Sounds like “Windows Everywhere.”

12:43pm Speech-to-text input anywhere you can type.

12:40pm Newly installed apps are now floated to the top on small devices.

12:38pm Now it’s Windows 10 on devices smaller than 8 inches. Joe B really wants us to know that this is buggy software, though.

12:37pm Cortana will be rolling out across the globe over the next few months.

12:35pm Cortana can search across all of your Windows 10 devices and in the cloud. That seems pretty useful.

12:33pm Cortana’s Notebook is basically an overview of everything this program knows about you. You can change it at will. Smart move. Maybe “Call my Master Chief” is in order.

12:30pm As you speak, Cortana will show the text as it deciphers it in real time. Pretty cool, but other speech-to-text systems have similar features.

12:28pm Doing a super goofy Cortana demo. It’s running on Windows 10. Duuuuuuuuh!

12:27pm Now onto new features! These will be coming in the next 3-5 months.

12:24pm Belfiore is showing off how Windows 10 switches back and forth between touch UI and desktop-style UI. It seems decent, but I wonder if this really matters to many people. The tablet/laptop combo hasn’t exactly set the world on fire.

12:21pm Joe Belfiore is on stage giving us a demo of Windows 10. Showing off some neat UI improvements.

12:18pm For the first year of Windows 10’s existence, it will be free for Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 users. Same for Windows Phone 8.1 as well. This is massive news. Now that’s a reason to upgrade.

12:16pm 200+ million people are on Windows 8.1 now.

12:13pm Is the stream cutting out for you? Don’t worry, you’re not missing much.

12:10pm “More personal computing” is the mantra this time around. Lots of touchy-feely talk.

12:05pm 1.7 million people have signed up to test Windows 10.

12:02pm Terry Myerson is on stage giving us a broad overview.

12:00pm Here we go.

11:50am 10 minutes to go. Everybody get hype!

11:39am The press are in.

11:24am It’s almost time!

What to expect at the Windows 10 briefing

If Microsoft doesn’t give us concrete details about the pricing model and release window at this event, I’ll be shocked. Whether Windows 10 will be a traditional release, a subscription service, or a free update à la OS X, it’s hard to guess where Microsoft wants to go. There are decent arguments to be made for each model, but I can’t see Microsoft launching a new OS in 2015 for $200 — especially with Chromebooks and Steam Machines breathing down its neck.

As for features, we’ve heard quite a few rumors since Windows 10 was first announced. Perhaps the most contentious of which is thedeath of Internet Explorer. Sources point to a new browser codenamed “Spartan” as Windows 10’s primary browser, and good ol’ IE taking a backseat for compatibility purposes. Of course, they’ll likely both be using a version of Microsoft’s Trident rendering engine, so it’s hard to tell what difference it’ll make.

We’ve also seen builds of the Windows 10 tech preview sporting Cortana integration, a new app store, and a dedicated Xbox app. These are all sensible additions, but none of them are particularly thrilling. DirectX 12 may very well receive some attention today, but I wouldn’t expect much. After all, Microsoft has a gaming machine it would really like you to purchase instead.

Finally, we’re bound to see substantial coverage of the touchscreen-oriented features of Windows 10. Tablets and smartphones are a major part of Microsoft’s business strategy, so don’t be surprised if desktop features like “we brought back the start button, you babies” take a back seat to tapping and swiping.

source :extreme tech 

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