By: Ali Bin Saleem.
Dated: 11-Nov-2015
Email: alisaleem_06@outlook.com
Microsoft
is still relatively fresh off the launch of Windows 10, which as presenter and
Windows team head Terry Myerson pointed out happened less than three months
ago. Now, the company is getting ready to release its smartphone variant,
Windows 10 Mobile. And while the operating system isn’t out yet, we just got
our first look at the phones that will run it: Microsoft’s two flagship Lumias,
along with one budget option.
But the
most interesting parts of the presentation weren’t about phones. One was a fast-paced shooter played on the HoloLens augmented reality
headset to be clear, it was fairly misleading about the HoloLens’ limited field
of view, but that doesn’t make it less cool to watch. The other was Microsoft’s
announcement that after years of touting the Surface tablet as a laptop
replacement, it’s now outright making Surface convertible laptops. We haven’t seen Microsoft’s presenters
look this excited about Windows hardware for years.
THE LUMIA 950 XL: MICROSOFT'S REALLY BIG PHONE The Lumia 950 isn't exactly tiny,
but the 5.7-inch 950 XL is its bigger sibling. Under the skin, it's got a
different processor but a similar feature set to the Lumia 950, including the
20-megapixel rear camera with image stabilization and support for Windows
Hello. (It's also actually a slight step down from the 6-inch Lumia that was
released in 2013.) Like the 950, the XL will be released in November; it will
cost $649.
THE SURFACE BOOK: AN ACTUAL LAPTOP FROM
MICROSOFT Remember when Microsoft was just a software company? Today, the
company moved even further away from that with the Surface Book, a convertible laptop version of the Surface. It has a
13.5-inch display that supports both stylus and touch input, along with 12-hour
battery life, a Microsoft-designed keyboard, and a glass trackpad. It also has
a crazy, snaking hinge that Microsoft calls the dynamic fulcrum hinge, letting
the screen flip around or be safely detached to create a standalone Surface tablet.
The Surface Book is available on October 26th and starts at $1,499.
HOLOLENS DEVELOPMENT KITS WILL COST $3,000 The HoloLens has always wowed us in concept, even
if the actual implementation hasn't quite lived up to expectations. Today we got another
jaw-dropping (if still overhyped) game demo Project X-Ray and there's also some
important news about the promised development kit. For $3,000, devs will be
able to get their own HoloLens kit in the first quarter of next year. Microsoft promises these
kits will be "fully untethered" meaning no cables or connection to a
PC required once apps are loaded onto it. If you're a prospective augmented
reality developer, you can put in an application starting today.
THE NEW MICROSOFT BAND: AN
ANSWER TO SMARTWATCHES
Microsoft positioned the new Band
as the ultimate fitness device, with an array of sensors and a barometer to
track elevation, all of them feeding information to the Microsoft Health app.
It's also got an OLED screen in a curved Gorilla Glass display, with an
aluminum color scheme. But perhaps the biggest news is the array of third-party
partners: Subway, Starbucks, Twitter, and Uber were all listed. It's coming on
October 30th for $249.
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