Build 2018: Microsoft's Windows 10 hits 700 million active devices, announces 'Your Phone' app, and more
The biggest tech companies, during the summer months, hold annual developer conferences. While Google's is slated for later today, Microsoft held its keynote speech at Build 2018 yesterday. Build 2018 is a developer conference where Microsoft brings together developers and software engineers into its fold.
Here's all that Microsoft announced at Build 2018 in Settle:
Windows 10 & Office 365
Microsoft put out its headline number for all media outlets to run. The number was about 700 million. Microsoft announced that “nearly” 700 million devices were now running Windows 10 - the latest operating system from the company. A year ago, the number was at just 500 million. Whilst the company may not achieve its "1 billion devices by 2018" goal, it is making significant strides.
Office 365, on the other hand, has 135 million monthly active users. This is up from 120 million users.
A new focus on phones
Windows 10 Mobile may have been killed off last year, but the company is not entirely giving up on phones. The company wants to make sure, in the future, that Windows 10 is compatible with Android and iOS. They're doing this so that you can have your Windows experience on the go. Microsoft announced an app called Your Phone. This can send and receive text messages, transfer photos, receive notifications and much more from Windows 10.
Simply put, this means that for the basic tasks, one won't need to take out their smartphone from their pocket. Microsoft said that it is also bringing Timeline to the Microsoft Launcher on Android and Edge on iOS.
Cortana and Alexa
Microsoft and Amazon have announced that their assistants will now be able to share each other smarts. This will happen both through smart-enabled speakers an in Windows 10. There isn't any release date yet, but rumours are it will come before the end of 2018.
Artificial Intelligence
Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, said that AI will be ethical and will be for the people. To that extent, the company has begun a $25 million program that will fund AI-related projects that assist people with disabilities.
Mixed Reality
Microsoft doesn't want to slow down on pushing AR and VR into the enterprise space. They've announced two new features. First is Remote Assist. Customers can collaborate remotely using Remote Assist with hands-free video calling, image sharing and more. The other is Layout, where customers can create and design spaces in mixed reality.
Microsoft & DJI
Microsoft has partnered with the world’s most popular drone maker DJI to create a brand new DK for Windows 10 PCs.
We're partnering with @DJIGlobal to bring Azure IoT to their drones, including the #MavicAir, to execute tasks that are dirty, dangerous, or just dull. #MSBuild
— Microsoft (@Microsoft) May 7, 2018
Meeting Room
Microsoft also demoed a prototype hardware they are calling 'meeting room'. This will make meetings far more easier to manage. The meeting room features a 360-degree camera and an array of microphones that can detect anyone in the meeting room and transcribe what they say into any language. Furthermore, it uses AI to follow up on what each participant says in the meeting.
There is no timelime on when meeting rooms will be availble, but with new Surface Hub displays coming soon, so should meeting rooms.
First published: 8 May 2018, 15:40 IST