Hi everyone. So
the Microsoft announcement was yesterday. We now have a much better idea of what
the launch features and functionality of Windows 10 is going to be.
Now it seems Microsoft are going to be striking across multiple device types
including Xbox, tablets,
desktops and smartphones as well.
All of this all running Windows 10 - one operating system across all devices
exactly as we expected the unified architecture as it were.
Microsoft is going a step further. On the Xbox side of things
they've promised us that Windows 10 PC users
will receive an extra boost from gaming. Now I personally thought this might be
a case that we'd be able to play Xbox One games on PC
and I was right. This is going to work in a very similar way
to Nvidia's Shield streaming technology, the game stream technology.
Essentially you start the game on your Xbox One, you head over to your PC
fire-up the Xbox smart glass app and start playing the game on your PC.
Now in part this is really cool but it's not quite the
boon I was expecting for PC users. For starters
this is not really a way to reward PC gamers
but a way to sell more Xbox Ones. Essentially Microsoft seem to be saying
here
PC gaming we don't care about. But play it on Xbox One and stream it to your PC.
Microsoft this is not the way it's supposed to be.
You're supposed to be treating both ecosystems which are now one unified ecosystem
equally and here all you're really doing is propping up the Xbox One still.
What we really needed to see were some announcements related to
gaming on PCs using the PC hardware and architecture not
streaming from an Xbox One. It's pretty lazy and actually it's pretty basic
really from what we know of this streaming technology and the fact that pretty much everyone else beat
you to it.
But,
let's leave that to one side for a moment because what Microsoft
have announced is this holographic system -
holograph glasses for all intents and purposes. Now
this is potentially where PC gaming
is going to take a massive massive uplift. If you think that Oculus Rift
provides that kind of 360-degree
immersive gameplay what
Microsoft's holo technology does it says the world around you
is the game essentially. That is very very similar
to Google's Project Tango. Essentially what Microsoft are doing is
painting onto a front layer of glass
on these glasses a display. Now that display can be
absolutely anything and owing to the cameras built into the glasses
it can see the world and project information on top of it,
including understanding where your hand gestures are. Very Kinectish.
But really what this actually means is a whole
new classification of games - essentially augmented reality
and this is where we've kind of had a promise for a very very long time since
AR was first kind of first bursting onto the market but no one has ever
actually taken it to a point where you could kind of use it for something practical.
Microsoft does seem to be about to change that.
This new technology looks very impressive
certainly it appears to be more fully featured and well thought out than Google
Glass
or even Oculus Rift at this stage. Microsoft does seem to be at least a year ahead
of these other devices coming into the market but
it all depends on when they launch it and the price point is going to be absolutely
crucial as well.
If you think Oculus Rift is targeting a £199 £299 price point,
Microsoft can't launch for any more than that. Likewise when they do launch
they need a software suite available - games and apps that
really demonstrate the principle of this new holographic technology.
Now the final thing to say is I don't necessarily any consider this to be
holograms in the traditional sense
kind of thinking princess layer and R2D2 here.
It's not quite like that. What this really is is two panes of glass
effectively. One pane of glass at the very front appears to have
this essentially laser etched onto it in real time and
that's what gives us this kind of holographic the display is hovering in front of us.
Now there does seem to be another set of glass there which I believe may be some kind of focal
piece
essentially so you can always make sure the depth perception is correct. But it's very
interesting technology and
I can't wait to see how Microsoft actually rolls this out. Some of the
other features coming to Windows 10 include well basically
rethinking what Windows 8 was and what Windows 7
is and attempting to kind of merge those two elements together.
And it certainly looks like they've done a pretty good job so far.
A lot of the things we were complaining about during the technical preview
have actually been fixed this time including new features where necessary.
If you go back to Windows 8 when Microsoft had its fingers in its ears and was simply
going lalalalala we're not listening,
anything that was being suggested as being necessary to make Windows 8
usable for Windows 7 people was being ignored. This time around
essentially Microsoft is saying please Windows 7 users please Windows 8 users
all is forgiven as it were. We don't hate you any more you were telling us the
truth
and we're now fixing the operating system to make sure it is perfect for those users.
When we throw into the mix the fact that Windows 7 users and Windows 8 users
will be getting a free upgrade to Windows 10 if you upgrade in the first year
it's pretty clear that Microsoft is very very focused right now
on moving people off those old operating systems - even Windows 8
and into this new unified architecture for obvious reasons.
So what do you think? Were you impressed with what Microsoft announced or
were you a little disappointed? Do let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching.
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