This is the big Build event where most of the major news about Microsoft products drops. Microsoft Build (often stylised as //build/) is an annual conference event held by Microsoft, aimed towards software engineers and web developers using Windows, Windows Phone, Microsoft Azure and other Microsoft technologies.
Today’s pic of news headlines from Microsoft’s Build 2017 developer conference:
Microsoft launches Visual Studio 2017 for Mac out of preview
Microsoft says 130K developers now use its Bot Framework toolkit, up from 45K in October 2016
Microsoft says 500M devices are now running Windows 10, up from 400M in September 2016
More resources:
Live feed from Build 2017 conference (Microsoft)
Microsoft Build 2017: Watch the Livestream Right Here (Wired)
Microsoft Build 2017 live blog (Windows Central)
Microsoft Build Liveblog: News From the Keynote, as It Happens (Wired)
34 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Everything that happened at Microsoft Build Day 1
https://techcrunch.com/gallery/everything-that-happened-at-microsoft-build-day-1/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft is extending Azure IoT to the edge of the network
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/10/microsoft-is-extending-azure-iot-to-the-edge-of-the-network/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
All devs can now publish Microsoft Teams apps to Office Store, not just select ones; features added to preview include 3rd-party notifications in activity feed
Developers can now publish Microsoft Teams apps to the Office Store
https://venturebeat.com/2017/05/10/developers-can-now-publish-microsoft-teams-apps-to-the-office-store/
Microsoft Teams launched worldwide in March as part of Office 365. But the company has already started showing off new incoming features this month: Last week it was classroom collaboration tools, this week it’s features for developers.
The goal is to bring information from an app or service directly into a Microsoft Teams chat without switching between windows or using copy-and-paste. Similar to the way they would add an emoji or GIF, users can include relevant data from a third-party service with a few mouse clicks so that everyone has the context needed for a discussion.
Also, third-party notifications are coming to the activity feed. This will let developers alert users of key information and updates from their service next to native notifications, such as @mentions, likes, and replies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft is on the edge: Windows, Office? Naah. Let’s talk about cloud, AI
At its dev conference, Redmond is all about Azure, bots, Azure and also Azure
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/10/microsoft_build_2017/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bot you see is what you get: The cold reality of Microsoft’s chat ‘AI’
Look, it’s a fancy user interface, not actual intelligence
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/11/microsoft_bot_framework_reality_check/
Build Microsoft’s Bot Framework received a minor feature injection at the Windows giant’s Build 2017 developer conference, with the addition of Adaptive Cards for cross-platform rich media and support for new channels and the company’s payment API.
Harry Shum, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence and Research group, made a point of mentioning the 130,000 developers who have registered to use the Bot Framework. That’s not quite the same thing as 130,000 developers actually putting public-facing bots into production. While developer interest counts for something, it’s not quite a measurement of real utility.
Earlier on Tuesday, in a press briefing, Lili Cheng, general manager of Microsoft FUSE Labs, expressed ongoing faith in bots and in natural language processing as a promising method for device interaction.
But in a conversation that followed, she described them in a way that underscores their weakness. She called them apps without an interface.
‘Command lines are unintuitive’
Ryan Volum, another Microsoft developer presenting during the session, said, “Command lines are inherently unintuitive.”
That’s why, he suggested, software engineers have gravitated toward graphic interfaces. “Instead of users having to figure out the language of the machine, we showed them what to do with icons, menus and pointers,” he said.
Volum noted that with complex applications, the GUI doesn’t necessarily make it easy to use the software. He suggested conversational interfaces could get around that. “With conversational interfaces, it can be the computer’s job to figure out user,” he said.
That may be possible with an extremely simple application, but trying to operate an application like, say, Photoshop via spoken commands isn’t going to be any easier than figuring out how to use menu commands.
In fact, it’s going to be harder because there are multiple ways to express a command in words, all of which need to be anticipated by the developer, whereas most operations in an application with a traditional GUI are tied to a single menu command.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Halo’s Cortana Virtual Assistant Brought to Life
https://blog.hackster.io/halos-cortana-virtual-assistant-brought-to-life-50e3afd85cd6
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft launches Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/10/microsoft-launches-azure-database-for-mysql-and-postgressql/
While Microsoft’s big Azure database news today is the launch of Cosmos DB, its new “planet-scale” distributed database service, there is a good chance that many developers will actually be more interested in a slightly smaller update to Azure’s database portfolio. At its Build developer conference, Microsoft today announced the launch of Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft is extending Azure IoT to the edge of the network
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/10/microsoft-is-extending-azure-iot-to-the-edge-of-the-network/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
With IoT Edge, Microsoft now makes it easier for developers to move some of their computing needs to these devices. IoT Edge can run on Windows and Linux and on devices as small as a Raspberry Pi with only 128MB of memory. The Microsoft services that can run on these devices include Azure Machine Learning, Stream Analytics (which came to Edge devices earlier this year), Azure Functions, Microsoft’s AI services and the Azure IoT Hub.
Tomi Engdahl says:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft’s Windows Story Remix uses machine learning to make your videos look awesome
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/11/microsofts-windows-story-remix-uses-machine-learning-to-make-your-videos-look-awesome/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could simply take your videos, photos and music and tell an application to turn those into a nice video presentation? With Windows Story Remix, that’s what Microsoft is trying to attempt. This new application, which will launch with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update later this year
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft announces Windows 10 Fall Creators Update with better syncing across devices, including clipboard sharing, resuming sessions and apps, more — Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is the next major update that Microsoft is planning to release in September.
Microsoft announces Windows 10 Fall Creators Update
https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/11/15610610/microsoft-windows-10-fall-creators-update-features
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Microsoft opens preorders for its Windows Mixed Reality development kits, shipping this summer; Acer’s kit costs $299, HP’s $329
Microsoft’s first VR development kits are available for preorder, will ship this summer
https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/11/15622798/microsoft-build-acer-hp-windows-mixed-reality-vr-headset-pricing-availability
While “mixed reality” often refers to augmented reality glasses like Microsoft’s HoloLens, both these products essentially seem like VR headsets. Like all Windows Mixed Reality (formerly Windows Holographic) headsets, though, the development kits use internal tracking sensors, which removes the need for external cameras or markers. Based on our previous tests, they’ll run on Windows 10 PCs with some fairly low specs — far more modest than the VR-ready standard for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. We still don’t know all the details about the actual development kits, although Acer’s headset has a very decent 1440 x 1440 resolution per eye.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Microsoft says it’s working on bringing Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora to the Windows Store
Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora are all coming to the Windows Store
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/5/11/15625320/ubuntu-suse-linux-fedora-windows-store-microsoft-build-2017
Microsoft is doubling down on offering developers more options on Windows 10, and at Build 2017, it announced that three of the most popular Linux distributions are coming to the Windows Store.
Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora will all be available to install directly from the Windows Store, making it easy to run Linux apps on any Windows 10 device. The Linux installations will run in a virtualized environment side by side with Windows, with the same command-line utilities available that you’d normally have with a full installation.
Being on the Windows Store also means that the distros will be able to work on the education-focused Windows 10S.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Microsoft says iTunes will become available on the Windows Store by the end of the year, meaning it can run on Windows 10 S
iTunes is coming to the Windows Store
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/11/itunes-is-coming-to-the-windows-store/
Here is a surprise: at its Build developer conference, Microsoft today announced that Apple’s iTunes will come to the Windows Store by the end of the year. The iTunes app will have full iPhone support and users will essentially get the same iTunes experience from the Windows Store app that the existing Windows app currently offers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft debuts OneDrive Files On-Demand, which selectively downloads files when needed, available as part of the Fall Creators Update
http://www.theverge.com/2017/5/11/15616646/microsoft-onedrive-files-on-demand-feature
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paul Thurrott / Thurrott.com:
Microsoft announces Xamarin Live Player, which lets developers run and debug iOS apps directly from Windows, instead of using a Mac — Today at Build 2017, Microsoft announced a preview version of Xamarin Live Player, which is in some ways the final piece of the mobile development puzzle.
Microsoft Announces Xamarin Live Player Preview
http://www.thurrott.com/dev/115828/microsoft-announces-xamarin-live-player-preview
Today at Build 2017, Microsoft announced a preview version of Xamarin Live Player, which is in some ways the final piece of the mobile development puzzle.
“Today we’ve released the preview of Xamarin Live Player, a live coding environment to make development and debugging faster,” Microsoft’s Nat Friedman explains in a bit of under-selling. Folks, Xamarin Live Player is huge. It lets you develop iOS apps on Windows—without a Mac—for the first time.
If you’re familiar with Xamarin development today, you know that you can use Visual Studio to create mobile apps that run natively on Windows, Android, and iOS. And that you can even create solutions that create separate apps for each platform, sharing code when possible.
To date, this process has typically involved using Android virtual machines and, for iOS, a remote connection to a separate Mac that needs Xcode, Apple’s development environment, installed and properly configured.
With Xamarin Live Player, developers will be able to do everything from their Windows-based PC: Just connect your Android device, iPhone, or iPad to the PC via USB and you can target those devices directly during development.
“Simply pair your device with Visual Studio by scanning a QR code, and hit debug like you normally would,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Microsoft updates its Microsoft Graph data sharing service with support for devices and third-party apps via Cortana
The Microsoft Graph will soon cast a wider net that spans Windows, Android and iOS
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/11/the-microsoft-graph-will-soon-cast-a-wider-net/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scott Stein / CNET:
Microsoft unveils motion controllers for Windows Mixed Reality headsets, coming “this holiday”, will be available as a bundle with Acer’s headset, others4
Microsoft unveils its own motion controllers for Windows 10 VR
https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/microsoft-making-its-own-motion-controllers-with-windows-10-vr-mixed-reality-acer/
The controllers are coming “this holiday,” and will come packed in with Acer’s headset for $399.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mark Sullivan / Fast Company:
Announcements at Build show Microsoft is fully embracing iOS and Android’s domination on mobile by focusing on extending Windows experiences to those platforms
Microsoft Is Surprisingly Comfy With Its New Place In A Mobile, Apple, And Android World
https://www.fastcompany.com/40420419/microsoft-is-surprisingly-comfy-with-its-new-place-in-a-mobile-apple-and-android-world
An awful lot of people own a Windows PC and an iPhone or Android phone. Rather than being unhappy with that, Microsoft now sees it as an opportunity.
There were iPhones on the stage here at Build. Big graphics on the screens showed Surface computers lined up side by side with iPhones. Microsoft developer tools are coming for iOS and Android. And Apple’s iTunes is coming to the Windows Store.
The company that once held a mock funeral for the iPhone—complete with dedicated “iPhone trashcans”—now has a very different attitude about the company of Jobs.
Microsoft talked a lot here at its Build 2017 developer conference about extending Windows experiences over to iOS and Android devices. And it’s not just about fortifying Windows. Microsoft says it not only wants to connect with those foreign operating systems, but by bringing over functionality from Windows 10 (along with content) it hopes to “make those other devices better,” as one Microsoft rep said in a press briefing yesterday.
The developers here at Build cheered when Microsoft announced XAML Standard 1.0, which provides a single markup language to make user interfaces that work on Windows, iOS, and Android.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paul Thurrott / Thurrott.com:
Microsoft announces Xamarin Live Player, which lets developers run and debug iOS apps directly from Windows, instead of using a Mac
Microsoft Announces Xamarin Live Player Preview
http://www.thurrott.com/dev/115828/microsoft-announces-xamarin-live-player-preview
Today at Build 2017, Microsoft announced a preview version of Xamarin Live Player, which is in some ways the final piece of the mobile development puzzle.
“Today we’ve released the preview of Xamarin Live Player, a live coding environment to make development and debugging faster,” Microsoft’s Nat Friedman explains in a bit of under-selling. Folks, Xamarin Live Player is huge. It lets you develop iOS apps on Windows—without a Mac—for the first time.
If you’re familiar with Xamarin development today, you know that you can use Visual Studio to create mobile apps that run natively on Windows, Android, and iOS. And that you can even create solutions that create separate apps for each platform, sharing code when possible.
To date, this process has typically involved using Android virtual machines and, for iOS, a remote connection to a separate Mac that needs Xcode, Apple’s development environment, installed and properly configured.
Tomi Engdahl says:
After Harman Kardon, HP signs on to launch Cortana-enabled devices, too
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/10/after-harman-kardon-hp-signs-on-to-launch-cortana-enabled-devices-too/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Harman Kardon announced the Invoke, its Cortana-enabled Amazon Echo competitor. While Harman Kardon was the first company to integrate Cortana into this kind of device, it’s not going to be the only one for long. As Microsoft announced today, HP has also signed on to build similar devices. Intel, too, is getting into this game, and promises to soon launch reference designs for Cortana-enabled devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Build Tour June 2017 at Helsinki Finland
https://www.microsoftevents.com/profile/form/index.cfm?PKformID=0x20150082ba0
Tomi Engdahl says:
Recap of announcements from Microsoft’s Build 2017 day 1 keynote
https://rencore.com/blog/recap-announcements-microsofts-build-2017-day-1-keynote/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Azure almost doubles infrastructure cloud market presence
Familiarity – and dual-cloud strategies – breeds growth
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/16/iaas_competition_intensifies/
Competition for enterprise IT spend is intensifying with Microsoft and Google applying pressure to AWS.
Microsoft’s share of the cloud infrastructure market nearly doubled in the first three months of this year, according to analysts Canalys.
Microsoft managed IaaS market growth of 93 per cent to just under $1.5bn compared to the same period a year ago.
Also expanding quickly was Google, which – invigorated under the leadership of ex-VMware chief Diane Green – increased its share by 74 per cent to over $500m.
Both come from lower starting points with AWS remaining the dominant provider, which means it’s growing relatively slowly.
Amazon’s IaaS grew 43 per cent to $3.5bn, Canalys found.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows 10: Triumphs and tragedies from Microsoft Build
Redmond’s OS needs to be cool for consumers, but its best chances are with business
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/18/windows_10_microsoft_build/
Microsoft presented its latest Windows 10 strategy to developers at its Build event in Seattle last week.
Microsoft states that Windows 10 is now installed on more than 500 million devices, halfway towards the goal of 1 billion by 2018 that it set itself at Build 2015.
In July 2016 the company acknowledged that its target was not realistic, telling the press that “due to the focusing of our phone hardware business, it will take longer than FY18 for us to reach our goal”.
“Focusing” in this context meant killing Windows Phone, other than for a business niche the company (and partners like HP) thinks may exist for multi-purpose devices that work like a PC when docked.
Build saw the announcement of a new Windows 10 release, the Fall Creators Update, along with key new features.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A bleary-eyed Microsoft wakes up after its cloud, IoT party, clears throat: ‘Oh yeah, so Windows…’
A roundup of things you might actually use
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/11/microsoft_windows_devices/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows Server’s footprint shrunk to reduce Azure bills
On-prem rules say Windows Server barely runs in 32 GB, but cloud is another matter
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/19/windows_servers_footprint_shrunk_to_reduce_azure_bills/
Microsoft’s quietly revealed that it’s shrunk Windows Server’s footprint, at least when you run it in Azure.
The newly-reduced versions of Windows Server are destined for use in Azure’s Managed Disks, a storage option that allows the creation of disks without first creating a storage account and without the need to manually assign a universal resource indicator. Managed disks are also designed for automation.
Microsoft offers Managed Disks at 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 512GB and a terabyte, with the two smallest sizes a recent addition. But it looks like users had trouble squeezing Windows into the little ones, because Microsoft’s now announced it has “dded a second set of Windows Server offerings with 30GB OS disks for Windows Server 2008R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012R2 and Windows Server 2016.”
This matters because it means Windows can now be popped onto 32GB Managed Disks at what Redmond reckons is a saving of “US$2.18 per VM if you choose to deploy with 32GB Standard Managed OS disk vs. 127GB.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Liam Tung / ZDNet:
‘Safe and predictable’ Windows 10 S won’t run Linux, says Microsoft
‘Safe and predictable’ Windows 10 S won’t run Linux, says Microsoft
http://www.zdnet.com/article/safe-and-predictable-windows-10-s-wont-run-linux-says-microsoft/?ftag=COS-05-10aaa0g&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content
Microsoft wants to clear up confusion about Windows 10 S and Linux distributions available on the Windows Store.
Just because Linux distributions are coming to the Windows Store, it doesn’t mean they will work on laptops running Microsoft’s streamlined Windows 10 S.
Microsoft wants to clear up any confusion over two recent announcements. At the beginning of May it unveiled Windows 10 S, a fast-booting, locked-down version of Windows 10 that can only install apps from the Windows Store and is restricted to Microsoft’s Edge browser.
Windows 10 S ships with Microsoft’s $1,000 Surface Laptop, as well as with forthcoming third-party Windows laptops that will be priced from $189 to take on the Chromebook market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft: Assistive technology users get free upgrade from Windows 10 S to Windows 10 Pro
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-assistive-technology-users-get-free-upgrade-from-windows-10-s-to-windows-10-pro
Microsoft announced a new edition of Windows 10 at an education-focused event earlier this month. Windows 10 S is limited to only running apps downloaded from the Windows Store, and while it’s primarily aimed at the education sector, it will come pre-installed on some devices sold to consumers too, including Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop.
Until the end of the year, Surface Laptop buyers are being offered a free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro if they need it, which will enable them to run other software not downloaded from the Store. However, after that date, the cost to make that switch will rise to $49, and that price will also apply to other Windows 10 S devices that go on sale before then.
Of course, there are plenty of apps not yet available in the Store, including many that provide assistive technologies for those with disabilities and accessibility issues.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linux 4.10 Kernel Reaches End of Life
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/05/22/0525216/linux-410-kernel-reaches-end-of-life?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
As it’s not an LTS (Long Term Support) branch, the Linux 4.10 kernel series was doomed to reach end of life sooner or later, and it happened this weekend with the release of the Linux kernel 4.10.17 patch
Therefore, users are now urged to move to the Linux 4.11 kernel series.
Linux Kernel 4.10 Reached End of Life, Users Urged to Move to Linux 4.11 Series
Users are urged to move to the most stable kernel version
http://news.softpedia.com/news/linux-kernel-4-10-reached-end-of-life-users-urged-to-move-to-linux-4-11-series-515898.shtml
Greg Kroah-Hartman informed the Linux community about the release and immediate availability of the seventeenth maintenance update to the Linux 4.10 kernel series, which also marked the end of life.
“Upgrade to Linux kernel 4.11 as soon as possible if you’re using Linux 4.10″
If you’re curious to know what was changed in the Linux 4.10.17 kernel, we can tell you that it brings various improvements to the x86, ARM64 (AArch64), ARM, and PowerPC (PPC) hardware architectures, as well as to the CIFS, F2FS, Ceph, EXT4, JBD2, OrangeFS, and OverlayFS filesystems. It also updates a bunch of drivers for USB, TTY, InfiniBand, NVDIMM, MD, crypto, and Bluetooth devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft opens Azure India to the world, not just Indian users
Those of you targeting Indian users can now do so with lower latency and local data storage
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/12/azure_india_open_to_global_users/
Microsoft’s opened its three Indian Azure data centres to the world.
Azure India kicked off in September 2015 but at the time Microsoft noted that “The India regions are currently available to volume licensing customers and partners with a local enrollment in India”, adding that “The India regions will open to direct online Azure subscriptions in 2016.”
It looks like Redmond missed that deadline by a few months, because on April 11th the company announced that “global companies can now benefit from access to the three Azure regions in India.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
In the AI wars, Microsoft now has the clearer vision
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/21/in-the-ai-wars-microsoft-now-has-the-clearer-vision/
A week ago, Microsoft held its Build developer conference in its backyard in Seattle. This week, Google did the same in an amphitheater right next to its Mountain View campus. While Microsoft’s event felt like it embodied the resurgence of the company under the leadership of Satya Nadella, Google I/O — and especially its various, somewhat scattershot keynotes — fell flat this year.
The two companies have long been rivals, of course, but now — maybe more than ever — they are on a collision course that has them compete in cloud computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence, productivity applications and virtual and augmented reality.
And while Google mostly celebrated itself during its main I/O keynote, Nadella spent a good chunk of time during his segment on celebrating and empowering developers in a way that felt very genuine.
Having spent a few days at both events, I couldn’t help coming home thinking that it may be Microsoft that has the more complete vision for this AI-first world we’ll soon live in — and if Google has it, it didn’t do a good job articulating it at I/O this year.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai noted during his keynote segment that the company is moving from being a mobile first company to an AI first one. Microsoft is essentially on the same path, even as its CEO Satya Nadella phrased it differently. Neither company really mentioned the other during its keynote events, but the parallels here are pretty clear.
The two marquee products both companies used to show off their AI prowess were surprisingly similar. For Microsoft, that was Story Remix, a very nifty app that automatically makes interesting home videos our of your photos and videos. For Google, it was Google Photos, which is using its machine learning tech to help you share your best photos more easily. Remix is a far more fun and interesting product
Google Lens, which can identify useful information in images, looks like it could be really useful
Google also still offers Google Goggles, an app that allowed you to identify objects around you for a few years now. I think Google forgot that even existed, as it’s sometimes prone to do.
At the core of the two companies’ AI efforts for consumers are Microsoft Cortana and the Google Assistant. This is one area where Google remains clearly ahead of Microsoft, simply because it offers more hardware surfaces for accessing it and because it knows more about the user (and the rest of the world). Cortana works well enough, but because it mostly lives on the desktop and isn’t really connected to the rest of your devices, using it never comes natural.
In the virtual personal assistant arena, Google actually had some interesting announcements (though things like making calls on Google Home fell a bit flat, too, simply because Amazon announced this same feature for its Echo speakers a few days earlier).
With the Microsoft Graph, it’s worth mentioning, Microsoft is now building a fabric that will tie all of your devices and applications together. Whether that will work as planned remains to be seen, but it’s a bold project that could have wide-reaching consequences for how you use Microsoft’s tools, even on Android, in the future.
Both Microsoft and Google used their events to announce relatively evolutionary updates to their flagship operating systems. Google, of course, had already pre-announced Android O and Microsoft had already pre-announced that it’ll now offer two Windows 10 releases a year, so the fact that we’ll get a new update in the fall really wasn’t a surprise.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Microsoft debuts Windows 10 version for Chinese government, letting the government use its own encryption, remove features, and get updates from a JV in China
Microsoft Unveils New Surface Pro Device to Reverse Sales Drop
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-23/microsoft-unveils-new-surface-pro-device-to-reverse-sales-drop
Microsoft Corp. unveiled a new version of its Surface Pro tablet and laptop combination device with more powerful chips and better battery life, updating an aging product with declining sales that hurt financial results last quarter.
The Redmond, Washington-based company introduced the fifth version of the Surface Pro at an event in Shanghai, the first time it’s held the launch of a major product outside the U.S. Microsoft also announced a version of Windows 10 for use by the Chinese government and state-owned enterprises, ending a standoff over the operating system by meeting the government’s requests for increased security and data control.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils new Surface Pro with 4G LTE, 13.5 hour battery life, available for preorder today starting at $799, ships June 15 in 26 countries — Available on June 15th starting at $799 — Microsoft is launching a new Surface Pro today, and it’s dropping its numbering scheme as a result.
Microsoft’s new Surface Pro has 13.5 hours of battery life and LTE option
Available on June 15th starting at $799
https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/23/15674198/microsoft-surface-pro-price-features-availability