Microsoft unveiled the first details of its Windows 10 operating system Wednesday, which they say will span devices from PCs and game consoles to smartphones and tablets.
Terry Myerson, Microsoft's executive vice president of the company's operating systems group, says the latest rendition of Windows focused on "more personal computing."
Myerson says Windows 10 targets three pillars: "mobility of the experience," trust and "the right interaction at the right time," hinting the platform can be controlled by mouse, touch or even gaze.



Among the new features is the introduction of a successor to the Internet Explorer Web browser, dubbed Project Spartan. The browser, which will work across multiple devices, includes a note-taking feature for annotating webpages, a reading mode and built-in support for PDF files.
The Start menu appears to be a hybrid of the classic Windows PC interface and the tile-based presentation of applications, allowing users to go full screen with the Start menu for more information.
Microsoft will also add Cortana, the personal digital assistant users communicate with through voice, to PCs running Windows 10. Users will be able to ask Cortana to pull up PowerPoint slides, send e-mails or search for photos and other information.
Microsoft will integrate Skype across all devices, and include Office programs Word, Excel and PowerPoint on all Windows 10 phones and tablets. It will also feature an Xbox app where users will find their games or follow the activity of friends.

"We want to move from people needing Windows, to choosing Windows, to loving Windows," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
While PCs and mobile devices dominated the event, Microsoft offered an incredible glimpse into the future with a jump into holographic computing. The company introduced the HoloLens, a virtual reality style headset that allows its users to view holograms in the real world. Demos showed users watching Netflix programs on a virtual screen, or manipulating three-dimensional images.
Windows 10 is the first significant upgrade to the platform since the arrival of Satya Nadella as CEO last year. During his tenure, Nadella has made a strong push toward mobile, enterprise and the cloud as well as thrown support toward the company's popular Xbox video game brand.
The introduction of Windows 10 is the first step in Microsoft realizing Nadella's vision, says FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives. "This is about Nadella leading Microsoft into its next stage of growth away from the PC and towards a cloud, virtualized world which can connect all devices on one platform."
UPDATE: Microsoft Has Announced That It Will Provide Free Upgrade to Windows 10 for PC's Running On Windows 7 & Windows 8.Now That;s a Big Reason To Upgrade To Windows 10.

After just a week with the Surface Pro 3, the Type Cover 3 and flexible kickstand had left us furious with Microsoft. But only because the changes they bring from the first and second generation Surface are so obvious that you wonder why they didn’t happen earlier (don't worry if you own an earlier Surface - we're sure Microsoft has a letter of apology in the post...).
In place of the two-stage kickstand debuted by the Surface 2, the support now bends almost all the way back, using a brand new hinge design.
The Type Cover keyboard, meanwhile, can now be latched at its upper edge magnetically to the bottom of the SP3's screen, creating a rigid platform in place of the wobbly board that haunted previous Surfaces.
Those two changes transform the Surface into a good laptop that will work almost everywhere. With the kickstand bent back to 120-130 degrees and the keyboard attached, it works as well as any conventional laptop if you spend your life with your legs crossed on the sofa.
Tilt the kickstand back further to 140-150 degrees, and it's a perfectly-angled writing surface for use on a desk if you’re taking notes. In fact, we couldn't find a scenario where the Surface Pro 3 borked: it now works, really well.
The kickstand, in particular, is a minor engineering marvel. It retains the first two stages from the Surface 2; pull it away from the body, and there are two distinct locking points.
But push gently beyond the second lock point, and it will bend back to almost 150 degrees. We’re not irresponsible enough to give any view on the hinge’s long-term durability, but we will say that it feels beautifully made, and operates with the same well-damped smoothness after a hard month of use as it did on the day of opening the box.
The Type Cover 3, meanwhile, is a dramatic improvement over the Type Cover 2. The keyboard’s now spacious enough for big, clumsy fingers, and at last the trackpad is of a size and sensitivity that make it a pleasure to use. One thing, though: the keys clack if you’re typing in anger - but even then, the cheap-ish clack doesn’t infer shoddy build.
The kickstand and keyboard aren't the only changes for the better. Many (including us) found text too small on the 1920 x 1080 10in screen of the Surface 2 or Pro 2. So the switch to a 12in display at a rather unusual 2160 x 1440 resolution for the SP3 is welcome, as is the shift to a 3:2 aspect ratio. Somehow, the Pro 3 just looks and feels the right size (whatever that is), while its predecessors were too small to be taken that seriously.
The SP3's now natural to use in portrait mode (a claim you could never make for the Surface 2), making it a great (albeit large) ebook reader (which was one of Microsoft's stated intents with the 3: make it feel as much as possible like a good paper notebook).

PERFORMANCE: A GOOD LAPTOP, A BRILLIANT TABLET

The Surface Pro 3 will be available with a choice of Intel i3, i5 and i7 chips, 4GB, 8GB or 12GB of RAM, and 64GB, 128GB, 256GB or 512GB of SSD storage.

Whatever combo you go for, you're buying a ridiculously powerful tablet, and a decently meaty mid-range laptop - and you can be confident that even the lowliest spec won’t be a slouch. Our Intel i5 / 4GB / 128GB model belted through just about every task we could hurl at it - Office, browsing, email, music and movies.
That said, let’s be clear on one thing - the SP3’s no gaming rig. It will happily chomp through the lighter games you'll find in the Windows Store. But with only an Intel 4400 HD graphics chip on hand to push the pixels, it'll stammer to a halt if you fire up Crysis at max settings (at which point, you’ll also discover how hot the top right hand edge of the unit can get).
Avoid giving it that kind of abuse, and the SP3 will run quiet and cool. We did find that the top right of the tablet (or top left, if you're holding it in portrait mode) is always slightly warm (we'll assume that's where the i5 is housed), but it’s barely enough to register in normal use.
So which spec should you go for? After a month with the 128GB i5, we wished we'd chosen 8GB of RAM and the 256GB SSD.
While 4GB of RAM will keep Windows 8.1 running happily enough, the OS is happier with 6-8GB under the hood (and since the memory is soldered to the SP3's motherboard, you can't upgrade at a later date).
As for wishing that we’d gone for the 256GB hard drive, the Pro 3 has convinced us that it’s more than a toy - it's easily flexible enough to be used day in, day out, with the result that we’ve half filled the 128GB with our usual digital detritus.
There’s a well-hidden microSD slot tucked into the back of the Surface’s casing, enabling you to add up to 128GB of extra storage.
That’s all very well, but as of now, you cannot install Windows Store games to an external drive - and with some of those games weighing in at over 1GB (Halo: Spartan Assault is 1.6GB, for example), we’d still spend the extra for the comfort of 256GB of onboard space.

Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Tech Specs

The Pro 3's screen is stunning. Although it has fewer pixels per inch than the iPad Air (216ppi vs 264ppi), you'd need comically good eyesight to find flaws with the 2160 x 1440 display. Everything's pin sharp.
The 12in screen is also commendably natural in the way it renders colours: its neither neutral to the point of being washed out, nor vivid in a way that'll give you a headache after an hour. It's just right.
And Microsoft has chosen a display that will go bright enough to ensure that your Surface will stay usable even in pretty bright daylight (just as well - the screen has a glossy coating that’s quite reflective).
Be aware that the driver for the Surface screen will only allow two resolutions - the native 2150 x1440, and a laughably old school 1024 x 768. Couple that with Windows 8.1’s, er, ‘interesting’ approach to DPI scaling, and be prepared to tweak before everything’s to your liking.
You should also know that quirks in that same DPI scaling can make life with an external monitor more arduous that it should be.
Our SP3 hooks up every day to the HDMI input of a 23in Philips 1080p desktop monitor, via the Pro 3’s mini display port. As regular as clockwork, we lose five minutes every morning to signing out and then in again once the Philips is connected, simply to re-scale the icons on the desktop. Annoying, and surely not that difficult for Microsoft to fix?

THE PEN AND ONENOTE: THE PARTNERSHIP THAT MAKES THE PRODUCT?

Prod the pen's purple top button once, and your Pro 3 will launch a full-screen note, regardless of whether the machine's asleep or awake. It's intended to allow you to get sudden ideas down quickly, and that's precisely what it does. Double-tap the same purple button, and it will give you the option to lasso a section of the screen for storing away into OneNote. Smart, and genuinely useful.
Live with the SP3 for a bit, and the combination of the pen and OneNote feel as much a part of the everyday experience as the keyboard and kickstand. And you begin to appreciate that OneNote 2013 isn't that shoddy an application. It's great for taking and organising just about anything you throw at it, and the keyword search works a treat.
OneNote's only hitch, in our humble opinion, is its tight integration with Outlook 2013 for task management. If Microsoft really wants to own the productivity game (and it does), it needs a task manager that can sync to the cloud and every other mobile platform.
If you're still a desktop Outlook addict (there are some still out there… right?), you'll adore OneNote. But if you spend your days in one of the thousands of Android or iOS task managers, you'll find OneNote a bind. There are Microsoft-made OneNote apps for Android and iOS, sure, but they're no match for their Evernote equivalents.
Out of the box, your Surface Pro 3 will come with a small pen holder that's meant to attach to the Type Cover. Bluntly, it doesn't work.
After three or four days, we almost lost the pen after the tab holder detached itself without our noticing; the sticky part just isn't sticky enough to stay attached to the Type Cover, and a normal knock will send it flying.
We've taken to carrying the Surface pen around in a laptop case or shirt pocket. That guarantees that it will eventually go missing. Given how important the pen is to life with an SP3, Microsoft needs to come up with a more permanent, attractive solution - and fast
We’d also advise that you find a reliable local stockist of AAAA batteries before you invest in an SP3; the Surface pen is powered by a single AAAA, and we chewed through the power of the battery that came in the box in about four weeks (so let’s make that 12 batteries a year).

BATTERY LIFE: GREAT - AS LONG AS YOU’RE US…

Budget laptops are forgiven if they suffer from poor battery life. You know that you’re compromising by spending the bare minimum, and most cheap 15in lappies aren’t really built for an entire day away from a charging point.
The Surface Pro 3 has no such excuses. Its entire appeal rests on its flexibility - one minute hammering through a PhotoShop file at your desk, the next reading a Nook book on the morning commute. For the whole concept to stack up, you mustn’t feel nervous when taking it out for a day on the road.
Microsoft claims up to nine hours from the Pro 3’s lithium-ion battery ‘while browsing the web’, with careful warnings that your mileage may vary depending on your habits (and it's fair for Microsoft to hedge its bets here: a device as powerful as the Surface can indulge in some heavyweight, juice-sapping work).
Our i5, 128GB model is good for a working day, although we confess that we’ve yet to deliberately run it to red line.
In one day last week, it was unplugged from charge at 7am, then pounded at a conference from 9.30am to 4pm, before taking care of email and transcription duties on the 30-minute train ride home. By the time we re-attached it to a charger at 5.30pm, it was showing 30%. We’d call that good, by any standards.
But then, we’ve read enough forum posts from users suffering from disappointing SP3 battery life to feel blessed. What a forum post can’t tell you, of course, is what use the poster is putting the Surface to. What we can say is that heavy use - particularly video streaming - has a very visible effect on the SP3’s battery drain.
By the way, brownie points go to Microsoft for the design of the power supply. Too many 11-13in laptops come with leads and blocks that weigh more than the thing they power - the Pro 3’s is compact and light, and even includes a USB charging port in the power block.

PROBLEMS: YEP, THERE ARE SOME

Since its launch in the US in late June, users began reporting problems with their Pro 3s waking from sleep, staying awake and suddenly freezing. There have been several firmware releases aimed at squishing the bugs (one of which takes a nail-gnawing 15-20 minutes to install).
But we’ve experienced none of the sleep or wake issues (bar one freeze that forced a hard shutdown - an update shortly after appears to have fixed it).
However, we did fall foul of one of the other commonly reported issues: flaky wireless. The latest update (July 16) claims to have sorted it for good. That claim looks to be accurate: our SP3 will now happily tether to our HTC One M8 (impossible before the update), and connect to the 2.4GHz wireless in Stuff Towers without constantly dropping.
There’s one other SP3 problem that Microsoft cannot fix alone (although with Windows 8.1 Update 2 coming down the tracks, they could sure as hell help).
The high dpi screen demands that developers update their software so that it renders correctly - and as it stands today, some significant developers have yet to catch up.
Until very recently, even Google Chrome looked awful at hi-dpi (the latest Chrome beta solves most of the issues). Dashlane, a popular password manager, displays as a boil-washed version of itself. Evernote desktop is usable, but ruined by miniature icons and smaller-than-needs-be text.
Developers are getting there, but we understand the Catch 22 from their point of view - it takes time and effort to make the software work well with high dpi displays, but the market for high-end PCs with displays that go beyond Full HD is hardly thriving.

Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Verdic

The Surface Pro 3 is excellent.
There, we said it. And with a straight face.
At last, Microsoft has delivered on the promise of the tablet-cum-laptop hybrid. It proves Microsoft's argument that there's space in the world for a design that's more productive than an iPad or Galaxy Note, but easier to hump around than a traditional laptop.
Would we buy one? Yes. We’d avoid the 64GB and 512GB models (you’ll either have no space left in a week, or regret paying the high price after a month). But put a 128GB or 256GB on the counter, and we'd tap in a PIN code without a moment's hesitation.
It would be daft not to point to the fact that the Windows Store still hasn’t reached the heights of the Play Store or iTunes, but that's an issue that's at least somewhat mitigated by the fast that Pro lets you install practically any piece of PC software on the desktop side of the two-faced OS.
Price still has to come into it. The i5 / 128GB SP3 £1000 asking price (with the Type Cover included) would buy an awful lot of Windows laptop, or a similarly-specced 13in Macbook Air with £100 change to spare.
But the Pro 3’s different enough to undermine absolutist comparisons: a chunk of that £1000 is going on ‘unusual’, and we think that for many it will justify itself on that basis. And if you insist on like-for-likes, the fact is that the Pro 3 is as quick and capable as either a Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 or a Macbook Air.
At last, there’s a Surface that’s right.

Android and iOS users, take note: Windows Phone is a real contender



Only a year ago, buying a Windows phone was a declaration of insanity.
You were throwing cash at a platform that imposed too many compromises - in the user experience, in the choice of available apps, and in the platform's laggardly disregard for the cloud. In the process, you were rejecting two rivals that were demonstrably superior.
But that was 12 long months ago.
In a few weeks, Microsoft releases Windows Phone 8.1, an update that essentially contains little but tweaks - but tweaks that are intensive enough to add up to much more than a meagre point release. In our week with the Developer Preview, we’ve realised that this update may yet rescue Windows Phone from its fate as a repent-at-leisure mistake, turning it into a credible alternative to its Google and Apple rivals.

SAY HELLO TO A PRETTIER, MORE FLEXIBLE START SCREEN

Back in the early days of Windows Phone 8, the fly-in Live Tiles that are the signature of the OS drew praise and criticism in equal measure - praise for their novelty and potential, and criticism for their inflexibility and occasionally sluggish performance.
In one update, WP8.1 remedies both flaws. The animations are now lightning fast and ultra-smooth, and you can customise the Live Tile interface to your heart’s content.
In fact, we reckon the new features may even seduce Android aficionados, renowned for their addiction to fiddling. Although Windows Phone has only two ‘home’ screens (Start and All Apps), you can now lose hours of your life to re-sizing and arranging the Start tiles to precisely fit your daily needs.
And if you want to take things to a logical extreme, there’s a new option to fit another column of tiles on the Start screen (you’ll need to activate it first in Settings - it’s set to Off by default), and the tiles themselves have new re-sizing options (so you can fit six across the width of a Lumia 1020’s screen).
And if that wasn’t thrilling enough, Microsoft’s native app tiles are now transparent, with your chosen wallpaper showing in the background. Couple that with the long-standing ability to change the accent colour and switch between dark and light backgrounds (the latter of which will chew through battery faster), and the options are enough to keep all but the most ardent tweaker happy.
The only thing that has us slightly baffled is why the Nokia apps bundled into Windows Phone (Here Maps, Here Drive+, MixRadio etc) lack the transparency of the native Microsoft apps - we’ll hope that’s sorted by the time of the full and final release in the summer.

CORTANA: THE PA THAT READS YOUR MIND

The Big New Feature in 8.1 is a merger of the best features from iOS and Android. Cortana is a personal assistant that aims to learn about you and your habits, and adapt its answers accordingly, with results improving over time. Microsoft claims that Cortana is the result of a research effort that began back in 2009, and makes use on the company’s rich well of enterprise and search data (not to mention the Halo license).
And on the whole, it works well - at least it does, once you discover how to activate it. We had to change our Lumia 1020’s Region and Language settings to United States and reboot before the Cortana icon would appear in the apps menu.
Prod the Cortana icon for the first time, and you’re launched into a set-up routine that lets you tune the service according to your interests and daily routine - as such, it’s similar to Google Now, with options for sports, headline news, places to eat, the weather and a trip planner.
The similarity to Now continues with the landing page that greets you once you’ve finished the set-up - a stack of information that includes news updates, your appointments and maps for any imminent journeys.
Tap the microphone icon to the bottom right of the landing page, and you’re into Cortana’s voice assistant. Since it’s officially US-only for now, we had to temper any verdict on its performance with the knowledge that it may stumble on our plummy English tones. But even with that caveat, it seemed as accurate as Google’s voice recognition (which is high praise indeed). And oddly, it appeared happier recognising the UK English pronunciation of mobile (‘mow-bile’) than the American (‘moh-bil’). Go figure.
Microsoft is clearly bullish about Cortana’s capabilities. If you tap your Lumia’s search button, it launches straight into voice recognition, which then slides into the Cortana landing page if you scroll upward (compare this to Google Now, which launches into the landing page first).
Expect Cortana to land on your UK Windows Phone in late 2014, by which time - if rumours are true - there will also be a Cortana Notebook online that let’s you control how much information is shared with the program.

AT LAST - WINDOWS PHONE GETS NOTIFICATIONS

You can stop holding your breath, Dear World: 8.1 brings a notifications screen to Windows Phone. And just in case you’re worried that Microsoft has invented some kind of unique twist on a well-established system, you can relax - 8.1’s new Action Centre borrows happily and heavily from iOS and Android.
You access the Action Centre by swiping down from the top of the screen (sound familiar?), to be greeted by notifications sorted and stacked by type (novel, ay?). You only need to swipe to get rid of them, although curiously, you can’t banish individual alerts - you either swipe away all of your Facebook notifications, or none at all.
You’ll find four quick settings buttons atop the notifications screen that would look at home on any Android handset, along with a shortcut to all of your settings. By default, the four quick links are set to WiFi, Bluetooth, Airplane Mode and Rotation Lock, but you can change them to your heart’s content in Settings.
So there’s nothing new or crazy in the long-overdue debut of notifications on Windows mobile, but that’s absolutely fine by us. During our week with 8.1, we found everything where we expected it to be, and working as it should. For a platform that has sometimes refused to do either of those things, we couldn’t ask for any more.

An impossible fight for Windows Phone? Not at all.
Microsoft could do with a reward for its bravery. For all of its failings, the non-phone Windows 8 at least tried to meet the challenge set by the proliferation of devices and screen sizes head on - albeit with the risky strategy of gluing touch and desktop interfaces together. And despite resulting falls in PC sales and several failed attempts to usurp the iPad with the Surface, Microsoft has stuck to Windows 8, convinced that its solution would pay off in time.
In the case of the recent update to Windows 8.1, Microsoft's latest tweaks haven’t cured all of the ills - the new dabs of glue joining touch and desktop are too obvious (and with, in some cases, seriously illogical results).
But Windows Phone 8.1, due for final release this summer, has no need for glue - it can focus on refining one experience, with the singular aim of dislodging iOS and Android. And while 10% market share in the UK may not sound like the Wapwing of victory, it’s enough to take Windows Phone from obscure irrelevance to interesting underdog.
Even better, Microsoft's £4.6bn buy-out of Nokia means that it has control over its mobile hardware in a way it never enjoyed with laptops or desktop PCs. Windows Phone OS can be tuned to suit its hardware and vice versa, a benefit that Apple has exploited for years - and there’s a range of new Lumia smartphones arriving at around the same time as the 8.1 update to reinforce the point.

UNIVERSAL SEARCH: BETTER THAN ITS DESKTOP EQUIVALENT

If you’ve recently updated Windows 8.1 on your PC, you’ll recognise Universal Search immediately.
Windows Phone 8.1 Universal Search uses your location
Run a query, and you can swipe between the Bing-powered results across five tabs - Web, Local, Images, Video and Phone. The results are accurate, look great, and the layout is eminently sensible and quick to access (compare this to the desktop Windows 8 version, where the horizontal scrolling of results is something of a barrier).
Quite how useful you find it day to day will naturally depend on your habits - as we found over weeks with 8.1’s desktop equivalent, there’s usually a quicker way to access a contact, for example, by pinning them to your Start screen. But if you’re the type who fires off high volumes of random queries, Universal Search is a useful second home.
The only slight foible we could find was the short delay before results appeared as you swipe between the screens - it’s not long enough to be off-putting, but noticeable enough to make you wonder why Microsoft didn’t choose to have the tabbed results load in the background, while you scanned the first screen.

GOOGLE SYNC: THE CALENDAR’S BACK…

As a result of a wrangle between Google and Microsoft over Exchange Active Sync (EAS), Windows 8 users with Google Apps for Business accounts have been unable to sync their Google Calendars with the default Windows Calendar app since March 2013.
The good news is that 8.1 ends their misery - add a Google Apps account in Settings, and your Windows Phone will happily start syncing both your GMail and Google Calendars.

IMPROVED DATA AND BATTERY CONTROLS

You’ll find one new screen to join an older partner in Windows Phone 8.1 settings - Data Sense, meet Storage Sense. The former's a welcome addition to Windows mobile, to the point where it’s easy to overlook it in a review (‘what do you mean it wasn't there before?’).

As with Notifications, Microsoft has kept to the basics and presented them well: Storage Sense shows how much space you’ve used (both on internal and external storage), while letting you switch storage locations for music, photos, apps and downloads. Data Sense lets you cap your data usage, both with a hard limiter, and also through restricting background data. Simple, unoriginal, but very effective.

How to get the Windows Phone 8.1 update now
We’ll safely assume you have a Windows Phone device (or you’re about to buy one). If so, and if you’d like the 8.1 update for free, head on over to the Windows Phone App Studio, and login using your Microsoft account.
Once that’s done, go to the Store on your Windows Phone, and search for ‘Preview for Developers’. Install it, then find and open the Preview app on your device. Again, login using your Microsoft credentials.
Now head back to Settings, find Phone Update, and check for updates - lo and behold, Windows Phone 8.1 should begin to download. Job done.

WHAT DID MICROSOFT MISS?

Although Windows Phone 8.1 is a real leap forward, there are still aspects of the OS in need of polish.
For example, Live Tiles can look a mess - a flashing wall of animations, none of which make much sense. Combine the wrong set, and you end up with a screenful of bad advertising, none of which you particularly recognise or want to tap. Android widgets, at their best, are still a superior life form (not least because many actually facilitate actions, more than giving information).
Then there’s the Windows Phone Settings screen, which is still a headache: too many entries, with no categorisation and often baffling decisions as to what gets filed where. If Microsoft are happy enough to borrow from the best of iOS and Android, this looks like the next logical place to run the photocopier.
Lastly, Windows Phone’s multitasking could be easier to use; although it’s quick enough to access with a long press of the Back button, you only see one app pane at a time. Compare that to stock Android, where you can see up to four, and scroll quickly through them (or even better, the nine-pane set-up in the latest cut of HTC’s Sense).

Windows Phone 8.1 verdict



Windows Phone 8.1 may only be an evolution of Microsoft’s mobile OS, but there’s enough spit and polish in this update to make it a serious alternative to Android and iOS.

Cortana shows real promise, and Universal Search is an addition you can imagine using every day. But ironically, it’s the fluffier aspects of 8.1 that may win Windows Phone new friends - the endlessly adaptable Start screen, the new tile transparencies, and the refinements to the animations.

Our only reservation, for now, remains the breadth and quality of apps available in the Windows Store. Yes, it's now filled to the point where most of the mainstream apps are represented - but there still isn’t the depth of choice and consistently high quality that you’ll find in the Play Store or iTunes App Store.

But we’re at a point where the strengths are beginning to outweigh the weaknesses; 8.1 means that Windows Phone is ready for prime time.