- On this episode of Ask Dan we're going
to hit your favorite topics, that includes
the new stuff with Surface Hub 2.
Where does Andromeda fit into this
future collaborative Office?
And what's the future of Windows 10 on ARM;
is Microsoft and Qualcomm really going to stick with it?
I'll tell you, stay tuned.
(techno music)
"How will the rumored Andromeda foldable device
"fit into the new concept of working environment
"highlighted by the Surface Hub 2?"
All right, so this is a great question.
This week Microsoft unveiled Surface Hub 2,
which wasn't a surprise, because they pre-announced
they were going to announce Surface Hub 2 a few months ago,
but this time we actually got to see it,
and it is breathtaking.
I think a lot of people who are even
skeptical of Microsoft these days
are taking a step back and saying wow,
these guys are really creating some amazing hardware.
And the Surface Hub 2 is pretty outstanding.
Now it's not just a giant screen on the wall,
it's built around this idea of the Office in Collaboration,
and they made it smaller so it can actually
be wheeled around on a cart and mounted on walls.
You can actually stack four of them together
in portrait mode, or two together in horizontal mode,
and then they'll operate independently or together,
so you basically have a four-screen giant Surface Hub,
which is really amazing.
And the whole idea behind this is,
this concept that Millennials and Generation Z
are now entering the workforce,
and they are what's called "digitally native."
I love PR speak, but that's what they say.
Microsoft cites a study where 72% of the workforce
want to be creative on the job,
but only 40% feel that they get the tools to do that.
Microsoft's looking to help solve that issue here
with Hub 2.
So, what about Andromeda?
The reason this is important, is because
going back to February, Zac Bowden,
our senior reporter at Windows Central, tweeted,
hypothetically, what if Microsoft is building
Andromeda, Surface Hub 2, and HoloLens 2
all together as a platform reboot
for this idea of a collaborative Office?
In other words, these are not just
random bits of hardware being built by Microsoft,
but there's a larger concept here.
So, if you can take a look at Andromeda;
it's a foldable device for note-taking.
You can definitely use it in Office;
it's going to be a lot of fun there.
But there's also the rumor that
it's going to have a 3D camera onboard,
possibly that Connect Azure technology
we saw announced at Build
that will allow 3D scanning of objects
to be put in there and then manipulated.
You can then of course send it to Surface Hub 2
or actually view it in HoloLens 2.
So there's an example of how this stuff
is all coming together.
Microsoft has also showed a lot of stuff
and we'll be talking a little bit more about
some changes coming to Office and it allows people
to build VR and AR experiences.
So, they're really pushing these ideas out there,
and that's what these are, they're tools for
a collaborative work environment
where people can create on the fly
and share across different experiences.
Yet definitely think of Andromeda
not necessarily as like an Office enterprise device
but as something that collaborators, creative people,
can use in conjunction with Surface Hub 2 and Hololens 2.
Now that doesn't mean that in order to enjoy Andromeda
you have to have those two things.
It just means it's going to work better with those services,
and it'll give you a bigger picture
of what the future of work will look like,
at least according to Microsoft.
"Is Microsoft still working on improving
"the Win32 emulation on ARM or did they pull down
"the whole Windows 10 on ARM idea?"
All right, let's talk about Windows 10 on ARM,
one of my favorite subjects.
And I have a lot of say on this,
so I can do a lot more content on it if you guys want it.
This isn't all opinion either;
I recently sat down with Qualcomm while I was at Build
and got to talk to their senior program manager,
who is overseeing this project with Windows 10.
And I got to ask all sorts of questions,
including the longterm commitment stuff,
and I can tell you, Qualcomm is very much seeing this
as a longterm category and a longterm commitment.
Those thinking this is just them
dipping their toe in the water to see how it goes
and oh if it doesn't sell well we're backing out,
that is not the case.
In fact we should be hearing more from Qualcomm
about the future of this project
coming in June at Computex.
I assume Snapdragon 845 support
is right around the corner as well.
I should also say we should expect to see
new form factors of devices hitting the market.
I don't have a time frame on those,
but because the chipsets are so small with Snapdragon,
they can now create smaller devices,
like eight-inch tablets and foldable things
and who knows what else.
I've also heard that some phone companies
may be getting involved here.
Now that doesn't mean we're going
to get Windows phones back.
What I mean is, some mobile companies
that are familiar with this stuff, I don't know, maybe HTC;
I haven't heard that but they'd make sense,
could make a foldable type device or a small tablet
running Windows 10 on ARM.
Their challenge is, it can't look like a phone.
They don't want to confuse customers
and they're going to have to figure out
how to make it look PC-ish.
But, to get more to the point here about Win32,
I need to really emphasize this,
the emulation system is meant as a fallback.
That is, if all else fails, that will kick in.
Emulation is never as good as native;
that's always been understood
and that's always going to be the case,
there's just too much going on.
In fact, it's kind of crazy that Microsoft
was able to get Win32 to run on Windows 10 on ARM
in the first place.
The OS itself runs exceptionally well.
UWPFs also run very well; this way better than Intel Atom,
so don't think that it's more Intel core i3
if you want a reference.
The question about like, 64-bit apps and all that
has been somewhat addressed.
At Build, Microsoft did announce an SDK
that will allow ARM 64-bit apps,
so developers can now recompile all their apps,
put them into the store, and run under ARM64
and get much better performance.
In fact it should make a big difference across the board.
However, Microsoft knows this will take
many months, as easy as this is,
as there's zero code changes apparently needed,
they just have to hit a button,
they know it'll take a long time,
that's why there's the emulation layer.
So I'm just here to tell you this is a longterm project;
this stuff is not going away.
It will get better over time.
Even people complaining that it's kinda slow,
which I disagree with if you're running native apps,
it is going to get better; that's a solvable problem,
just release faster processors
and that's exactly what Qualcomm is doing.
So pay attention to this space;
we're in this for the long haul.
It's a very exciting category,
and there's going to be a lot of changes.
Wait until June, I think we'll be hearing more
from Qualcomm and Microsoft then.
"Does the amazingness of the Surface Hub 2 make you
"more excited for how well done Andromeda could be?"
All right, in case you missed it,
Microsoft announced the Surface Hub 2 this week;
specifically they gave us a preview
of what it's going to look like.
It does ship in limited quantities in late 2018
to select partners and goes for general sale in 2019.
So this isn't some imaginary device;
it's going to actually happen.
And I think a lot of people were blown away
just by how good it is.
The original Surface Hub was cool, but that
was a carryover project that the Surface team inherited,
where this feels more native, like they actually
thought about how this stuff should work
and redesigned it completely.
So, does it make me feel better about
Andromeda and what it could be?
Oh absolutely; I mean think that's the short answer there,
yes.
There's still a lot of questions about Andromeda,
so I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here,
but when it comes to Surface, I think it's funny,
it was only a couple of months ago,
there was that article in The Register
and it was saying that Microsoft's
getting rid of Surface by 2019,
they're backing out of the hardware stuff.
And of course the Windows Phone fans were like,
of course he's going to do that, he obviously hates us.
And now I think it's funny here in mid-2018,
we're juggling just more Surface devices more than ever.
If fact this week Bloomberg reported that
there is a smaller Surface tablet in the works;
it's supposed to be more affordable, in the $400 range,
and those reporters who gave that story
are very reliable sources, it's Mark Gurman and Dina Bass,
and those are two high profile reporters
who I really trust their word on this.
Plus, our own Zac Bowden heard the same,
though he heard it'll be a Windows 10 on ARM device;
and they're hearing it's going to be an Intel.
Which one wins out, I'm not really sure,
but there's a lot going on with the Surface team
and Microsoft hardware, and I think it's really funny
that people a year ago were saying
oh this is all over and they're going to wrap it up,
and instead we have more stuff to look at.
So yeah, I think Surface Hub 2
should give people a lot of hope
that this team is here to stick around
and they're still about to wow us.
Okay, that does it for this episode.
Remember, if you have a question,
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Woo!