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Microsoft Build 2016

Microsoft Build 2016

Build was held from 31st March to April 2nd – AEST.

As it is a Conference for Developers, we will bring you content coming out of the Conference, related to News, Updates and Features related to the Consumer.

It has exciting things coming from Microsoft…


The Wrap up

Terry announced that Windows 10 is running on 270 million devices worldwide. He also hit back at Apple for their comment at their March Event, stating:

On behalf of the Windows Team, we are happy to welcome all these customers to Windows 10. Whether they have a brand new PC, a 5 Year Old PC, or a brand new Mac. Join us, your welcome on Windows 10.

– Terry

Anniversary Update

Microsoft have dubbed the Redstone 1 (RS1) Update as the “Anniversary Update”. It will be available around 1 year from the release date of Windows 10 (July 29th 2016), however, it has been referred to be coming out around June.


Windows Hello coming to Edge & Websites

Microsoft is allowing the Edge Browser and Websites, log into password protected areas of the website, using Biometrics – AKA, the Fingerprint Reader or Facial Recognition.

Windows Ink Workspace

Microsoft have noticed that despite having technology around us, we still use Pen & Paper. Its true, it is fast and easy. But as they point out, what if you lose it? And what they don’t mention, What happens if you only have your device? Well, they are making Microsoft Inking “Front & Centre”.

Since “Gadgets” were introduced in Windows Vista, the Sticky Note App/Gadget has been a useful tool for Note taking. In Windows 10, its getting better!

Since better Touch and Pen was introduced in Windows 8/8.1, Pen was enabled to properly jot down notes on the Sticky Notes. Now, Microsoft have integrated Cortana to understand what is written on the Sticky Note and give you suggestions. The Picture above shows “tomorrow” highlighted blue, indicating to Cortana that it can make a suggestion, in this case, an reminder, using the context above it, in turn, creating an entry to “Call Mom Tomorrow”.


Microsoft have added a Ruler, which snaps your Inking to the ruler, giving you perfect lines. Not only that, but you can snap Objects to the Ruler to make sure they are also lined up how you want.


Ink Workspace is enabled to go over the top of your lockscreen, making sure you can get to writing, drawing or whatever on the fly. Skip the Video above to 24min to see more Ink in action.


Live Tiles & Toast Notifications

In a Demo away from the Keynote above, Microsoft shows off some tweaks that will be arriving in the Anniversary Update and Beyond.

The first Demo was showing some of the annoyance people complained about. When a Live Tile shows a Story Event, like the News App had Breaking News! When you opened the app to read it, you find out it was an older article and now its buried deep inside the list with all the latest news that the Tile did not show first.

They have now introduced “Chaseable Live Tiles”, which allows you to open the app and making the article shown during the Live Tile be first on the list.


Tiles can now be built with more dynamic coding. For Toast Notifications (those pop up boxes on your phone or Windows PC), Microsoft have implement the Tile Dynamics and allow you to do the same with Toast. This means you can get more visual/detailed notifications from apps, making easy info gathering a breeze.

Action Centre (Where your Notifications live) will now have numbers attached to the icon on the bottom right of the taskbar when a Notification pops up. This number will indicate how many new Notifications you have since you last opened Action Centre.
If you have set your notifications to not pop out a big box, the Action Centre Icon on the bottom right of your Taskbar will now assist you by flashing the image of the App that has given you the Notification for viewing. That way, you will be able to still know on the spot what the notification is related too and view it when you open the Action Centre.


In a Build Session: “Notification Futures: Action Center in the Cloud and the Windows Notification Platform”, The Microsoft Crew talk and demonstrate Action Centre in the Cloud and how it enables Notifications to be synchronized a lot better and across different platforms.

In the Demo, they show how an android phone sent toast notifications directly to a Windows 10 PC. They could interact with the notification on the PC, which in turn, returned and did the action on the Android device.

The other issue with the current version of this interchange, especially with Windows Mobile 10 devices, is that if you dismiss the notification on the PC or Mobile, the other Device won’t have the toast dismissed.
With this new platform of Action Centre in the Cloud, you will be able to dismiss from one device and the other device will as well.

Currently, Apple make sure they are restrictive on what can be accessed, therefore there is no way this feature can do it on iOS devices thus far.

This feature may or may likely not be with the Anniversary Update. However, the team working on it said they will try to have a timeframe posted via a blog as soon as they can.


Gaming

Microsoft have enabled Developers to be able to make older games already built or even games recently built or being built on a non-Universal App Platform, take on the features of a “Modern App”, such as Live Tiles and Toast Notifications.
They have also enabled Retail Xbox machines to become “Developer” machines, enabling you to build and test your games on an Xbox without the need to buy a separate “Development Kit”.


Hololens

Available to Developers and Partners, HoloLens is now being handed out to begin developing apps and features, ready for future release to the public.

Writing about HoloLens is not as exciting as seeing it in action. View a Medical Demo on the Video above at 1hr 11min. Visit Microsoft HoloLens Channel on YouTube to see more of HoloLens in action.


Cortana & Bots

Microsoft showcased new Cortana updates, such as asking her questions straight from the lockscreen. You can also say things like, “Send Ben the document I was working on last night,” and she will look up your most recently edited file to see whether that’s what you’re referring to.

Bots allow Developers to have conversational A.I work better for the Business and Consumer. We all get angry with Automatic Machines not understanding you, but with Bots, you will have an A.I that understands you better. Also, Cortana can interact with bots, meaning you can have Cortana do the talking for you. In the Keynote Video, they demonstrate booking a Hotel Room with Cortana talking to the Hotel Bot to organize it as well as directly talking too you to organize and giving Cortana the details to finish off your end, like booking times and reminders.


That’s it from Build 2016. If you are interested, watch the full Day 1 Keynote above, but remember, it is for Developers more so than consumers, so you will see a lot of jargon.

If you are interested in watching anything else from Build 2016, head to Channel 9/Build 2016, which hosted Build Video Streams.


What do you think of what came out of Build 2016?

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