(funky music)
- Hey everyone Daniel Rubino here
and this is your top Microsoft and Windows
stories of the week.
All right, first up the Xbox Maverick,
also known by it's official name
is the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition,
where some clowns on the internet
are calling it Xbox One Sad Edition.
Well that's not really true.
It's the Xbox One SADE.
Anyway you get the point here.
This is the first version that won't have
a blue disc drive in it.
Which means you can't actually run games
on it directly through physical media.
Now a lot of us, including myself
and senior writer at Windows Central, Zach Bowden
have been asking for this for a long time,
is this gonna cut down the price
of the device and allow it to be sold
to more regular consumers who aren't
necessarily on board with going
to stores to pick up physical games,
instead want to download everything digitally.
With Microsoft pushing xCloud in the next
few months and it's digital game pass,
this version sounds like it makes a lot of sense.
There's two pricing availability
while we hear April pre-orders will begin,
pricing isn't yet set but it probably
will be cheaper than a typical Xbox One S,
so there's that.
Do you think it's a good idea?
Let me know below.
Speaking of the XBOX Maverick,
will the actual consoles eventually
go away from Microsoft?
Probably not.
Our senior games writer Jez Corden did an excellent
top five reasons why Microsoft won't
ever get out of the console business,
including the fact,
I'll just throw it out there,
they're making a ton of money.
And they're actually competing pretty well against Sony.
But more importantly it's about their
future including xCloud streaming technology.
Which not only are powered by current Xbox One S devices,
who will also be licensed out to other companies,
including maybe even Sony themselves
who don't quite have the infrastructure
that Microsoft does,
to compete at this level.
Anyway go check out Jez's article
for his top five reasons why Microsoft
will stick with the Xbox.
All right last week on this channel
we talked a little bit about Project Anaheim,
that Microsoft's shift to the Chromium web browser
for Windows 10.
And in fact a few screen shots leaked out
and it looked a lot like, well Chromium
and not a lot like Edge.
So the question to be asked actually
is will this eventually look like Edge?
And yes, Zach Bowden our senior writer
did an article explaining how his sources
have told him that yes,
it will turn into an Edge-like experience
in the coming months.
Now we do expect a preview version of this browser
to be launched at Build for developers,
but that would be more about how the bits
of the browser actually work
and not so much cosmetic.
It's going to take a few months
though for Microsoft to reskin their browser
to make it look like the current one
that we already have.
Now having said that all the features
currently in Edge may not make it to this new one.
We'll have to wait and see.
It's gonna be based on whether or not people
are using those features.
The things that people do like about Edge,
including inking and smooth scrolling,
will be making it to Project Anaheim.
So that should be pretty exciting.
Next up there's Microsoft Hololens
and Hololens 2.
So in November 2018 Microsoft announced
with a bit of fan-fair and also controversy,
a new $450,000,000 contract with the U.S. government,
specifically the U.S. military,
using HoloLens and military capacity.
And let's just say it didn't go over so well
with some of Microsoft's own employees
who protested the decision.
As to how this technology will actually be used,
our own Jason Ward wrote an article explaining
the history behind the project,
specifically the close combat lethality task force,
and it's mission to use HoloLens
on the battlefield.
specifically the environment it's gonna be used in,
and what it's goals and purposes are.
Now this is a very controversial topic
and in this article we don't actually
express pro or con for this decision.
Let's just say there's a lot of debate on that,
and that's not the time or place for it.
We'll do that at another time.
But leave me a comment and tell me
what you think about Microsoft's decision
to continue working with the U.S. government.
Finally Windows Core OS or WCOS,
as you might have seen it abbreviated,
Zach Bowden our senior editor at Windows Central
did a really massive guide on it.
It took him months to put together.
About everything we know about this,
so if have questions go check it out.
There's some screen shots there
of Oasis, Aruba, and Santorini.
If those terms don't mean anything to you
that's okay as we explain them all.
Aruba is going to be Surface Hub 2,
Oasis is HoloLens 2,
and Santorini would be for a laptops
and 2-in-1s.
As to the goals of Windows COR OS
well it's for future computing systems
including Surface Hub 2 and that HoloLens system.
And you've seen this before already in videos.
If you look back at the Surface Hub 2
demonstration video you'll see Windows COR OS,
or at least what they're planning to have
as Windows COR OS coming in 2020.
Now there's a lot of details here,
including whether it's based on Win32, yes technically.
And whether it's actually going to run
Win32 classic apps.
Yes it will in some form.
But it's gonna be a really exciting project
that Microsoft's gonna be talking about,
Hopefully more at Build coming in May 2019.
So fingers crossed.
But for now go check out that primer guide
and you'll learn everything you can
about Windows CORE OS and what's coming next.
All right so that does it for this episode
of Week in Microsoft.
Now if you have any questions or comments
leave'em below.
And go to our description as we link
to all the articles that we talk about here
if you want more information about them.
And if you like this video give us a thumbs up
and don't forget to subscribe.
Thanks for watching.
Take care everyone.
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