Technoplanet Enterprise - Blog: May 2015

Sunday, May 3, 2015

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Friday, May 1, 2015

Windows 10: release date, price, news and features

Windows 10: what we know so far

With Windows 8 and today Windows 8.1, Microsoft tried – not entirely successfully – to deliver an operating system (OS) that could handle the needs of not only number-crunching workstations and high-end gaming rigs, but touch-controlled systems from all-in-one PCs for the family and thin-and-light notebooks down to slender tablets.

When Microsoft pulled the curtain back on Windows 10 back in September of 2014, it was clear that, with an operating system optimized for PCs, tablets and phones in unique ways, the Redmond, Wash.-based firm was onto something. Skipping the Windows 9 name entirely, Microsoft issued a public preview of the shiny new OS later that autumn, known as Windows Technical Preview (WTP).

You can try it out for yourself through Microsoft's Windows Insider Program. You'll need a Microsoft account to get it, and it's worth bearing in mind that it's not the finished product, so it will be a bit rough around the edges.

Since then (and one more major reveal event in January 2015), new features have been rolling in with each preview build update. Now, with Microsoft's huge annual developer event, Build 2015, on the horizon, we expect another deluge of Windows 10, including that elusive release date.

Cut to the chase

What is it? A complete update for Windows
When is it out? Definitely summer, but likely late July 2015
What will it cost? For Windows 7 and 8.1 users, it will be free for one year

Step into Microsoft's new Office

Back in February, shortly after a leaked video on WinBeta revealed Microsoft's Universal (now known simply as Windows) Office apps in detail, the company issued an update to the Windows 10 Technical Preview with just that. If you're not doing so already, WTP users can test out the new Word, PowerPoint and Excel Universal (or Windows) apps.

Like the whole of Windows 10, these apps are designed to work on Windows 10 laptops, tablets and phones. This update comes in advance of Office 2016, Microsoft's desktop-based version of the suite, which we expect to see debut in the second half of 2015. It's likely that Office 2016 will interact with its Windows app counterparts through OneDrive and other solutions.

And back during MWC 2015, Microsoft squeezed out a few more details surrounding the touch-centric Office 2016, namely cosmetic makeovers for Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Also, Outlook will be more deeply integrated with its sister apps than ever before. Finally, the new Insights and Tell Me features will let users search the internet from within Office and create search-based command prompts, respectively.

Today, both general users and IT pros-slash-developers can preview Office 2016 on Windows and Mac OS X. Plus, we've finally got the skinny on what the differences are between the simply-named Office for Windows 10 and Office 2016.

Windows Phone fans get a sneak peek

After much teasing leading up to an event during MWC 2015, a Technical Preview of Windows 10 for phones was released to just about every Lumia device under the sun.

Handled much in the same way as it is on desktop, the WTP for Windows 10 on phones has introduced alpha-phase features like the Project Spartan browser, the new Outlook and a much-improved camera app that borrows heavily from Nokia's camera app for its pre-Windows-buyout Lumia phones. Check out all the details here.

As for when it's coming to everyone in a final release, there have been far fewer rumors and scuttlebutt than we've seen around Windows 10 for PCs. It's assumed that Windows 10 will released simultaneously across all supported device categories, including phones, but Microsoft has yet to address that publicly.

In the meantime, we've learned quite a bit installing Windows 10 on the cheapest Windows Phone around. You can check that out right here.

Read more at: http://www.techgig.com/tech-news/editors-pick/Windows-10-release-date-price-news-and-features-30525

Facebook quietly dumped Skype

Social media can make a relationship a lot more complicated. Take, for example, Facebook and Microsoft's Skype.

Back in 2011, they were the happiest of couples, telling everybody how they were working together to make video calling in Facebook Messenger a reality.

"[Then-Microsoft CEO] Steve [Ballmer] and I are really aligned on this," Mark Zuckerberg said at the time.

Today, with the launch of video calling in Facebook Messenger for iPhone and Android, there's no longer any doubt: Facebook and Skype have broken up, and Skype seems to be the one who was dumped.

While no announcements have ever been made, we started to suspect Facebook and Skype were no longer quite so close in 2013, after Facebook introduced a voice calling option that used its own technology.

But the real rupture appears to have happened a few months back when Facebook quietly stopped using Skype for video calls made from the desktop, replacing Skype with technology that Facebook developed in-house, Facebook confirmed to Business Insider.

This change was made because Skype-powered video calls required users to install a browser plugin, while the technology that Facebook whipped up works without one - important for call performance, video quality, and for letting Facebook make changes and upgrades to video chat more quickly, according to a person familiar with the matter.

For users, the change was basically invisible. But for the Facebook and Skype partnership, announced with so much fanfare in 2011, it seems that it was officially the beginning of the end.

The demise of the Skype partnership represents the second major example of Facebook cutting ties with Microsoft recently. In December, Facebookunceremoniously stopped using Microsoft Bing to provide Web search results on its social network.

Microsoft and Facebook have a long history together - Microsoft in 2007 invested $240 million in what was at the time a promising young social networking company. Now that Facebook is a tech behemoth in its own right, it no longer needs to rely on others for technology such as search and voice calling. And keeping things in-house gives Facebook more control.

For its part, Microsoft declined to comment on the end of its Skype deal with Facebook.

Two weeks ago, in mid-April, Skype community manager Claudius Henrichs made a post to the official Skype forums, saying that "Facebook is making a number of changes to the way they connect their products with partners like Skype."

He gave a laundry list of Facebook integrations that will no longer work in Skype as of the end of April 2015, including the ability to message Facebook friends from within the Skype desktop app.

"We never like it when features have to go away like this," Henrichs wrote. Skype users will be able to use their Facebook account to find friends who have a Skype account, but it's not the same.

Skype's partnership with Facebook may have been a casualty in the social network's mission to never, ever, ever let its user base leave for even a single second.

NOW WATCH: A bunch of teens used Skype to meet and learn from kids from all over the world

5 Ways Google Search Results Will Change By 2016

Search engine results pages (SERPs), much to the irritation of search marketers who count on them, change constantly. Google is constantly making tiny, hardly-noticeable tweaks to the familiar layout of its signature creation, leading to gradual changes in user behavior and disrupting the expectations of optimizers who were counting on previous information.

Up until now, these changes have been relatively minor, even unnoticeable to most users outside the SEO community. Google removed the underlines marking the hyperlinks that made the list. The length of each entry and the numbers of entries per page have both changed over time. Various listing modifications have allowed sub-pages to be viewed in different ways based on the context of the search. But none of these changes has completely disrupted the status quo of the SERP: earn high authority, rank high, and you’ll get the most visibility.

Now, with the onslaught of new technology from wearable devices to far more sophisticated search algorithms, the SERPs are evolving faster than ever and in far more complicated ways. It’s hard to predict exactly how Google will develop these, since it intentionally cloaks its plans, but here are five changes I predict will take place by 2016:

The Knowledge Graph Will Take Over. Already, the Google Knowledge Graph has gained a ton of momentum. If you’re not sure what the Knowledge Graph is, perform a search for a movie or a famous politician. The box on the right you see with a run-down of basic information related to your query is the Knowledge Graph. It exists to answer user queries with commonly sought information, to spare users the trouble of hunting through traditional ranks and SERP entries. Right now, this information is housed in a box off to the side, but over the next two years, you can expect this presence to grow. The Knowledge Graph will collect more information on a more diverse range of subjects, appearing for far more types of user queries, and its prominence will likely grow to overtake the top entries. One day soon, I predict that any general query will be met with a massive Knowledge Graph entry, with external links only listed as a footer—meaning there’s little use trying to rank for queries related to general information or topics.
Social Results Will Be More Prominent. Now that Google has practically abandoned Google+, it seems more interested in forming close partnerships with other social media platforms. The search giant has had a deal with Facebook for years, scanning the platform for information and posts from major brands. Recently, it has forged an alliance with Twitter, allowing Google to index tweet information and withdraw it at will. In the next two years, I anticipate Google making more of these deals with more social media platforms, and integrating more social results into its SERPs. It seems likely that news-worthy or socially important queries will be met with a brief listing of popular social posts—and I expect to see these above the fold, replacing traditional top rankings with a separate “social” section.
Traditional Listings Will Sharply Decline. Partially in response to the rising importance of the Knowledge Graph and social entries, and partially just a user experience change, you can expect to see the number of listings on each of Google’s pages gradually decline. While you could once count on a reliable 10 entries per page, already you can see as few as 4 entries per page, based on the type of query you enter and the type of listings that appear near the top. New functionality will make this range fluctuate even more, though the majority of queries will have fewer entries on page one. That means higher competition and lower visibility for traditional, rank-based SEO strategies.

Microsoft demos Windows 10 apps on HoloLens, and it's stunning

Microsoft’s annual Build event, led by CEO Satya Nadella, waited until the end of Wednesday’s keynote to unveil the most stunning part of its presentation: HoloLens.

The company showed off how Windows 10 apps work seamlessly within what Microsoft calls the Windows Holographic platform. And it was impressive.

After Nadella handed the reins over to Microsoft vice president of operating systems, Joe Belfiore, to demo Windows 10, Belfiore then introduced Microsoft technical fellow Alex Kipman, who presented a series of HoloLens users on stage.

First, we got to see how the HoloLens handles an apartment layered in the holographic app panels. The customized room included holographic items, such as a virtual dog (name Fang), a robot and a holographic start menu on which he opened up a Skype call. The user then pinned the Skype call panel to a wall.

On another wall, he had a panel that opened up a video screen playing a movie. Then, by using the command “follow me,” the selected panel followed him as he walked to another part of the apartment.

The demo showed how when you travel to another part of your home wearing HoloLens, you can scale the holographic window that followed you to any size (think cinema display). According to the presenter, the feature works for a number of holographic apps within the system.

Next we were treated to a demonstration of how the HoloLens can aid the work of architectural companies like Trimble, a Microsoft partner that used the system to create holographic building models. The demo video also showed how to designers can collaborate remotely while walking through the same holographic building plans.

After that, the HoloLens was part of what might have been the most impressive demo to date: showing how medical students can study the human anatomy holographically, from organs to bones to fully formed person.

The company also showed off how the hologram can be animated to offer more detail on functions of the human body (such as a beating heart, which was stunningly demonstrated on stage).

Positioning the HoloLens in this context as a learning tool, the presenters highlighted how HoloLens can also be used to assist in learning environments around art, engineering and paleontology studies.

Finally, Microsoft illustrated how the HoloLens can be integrated with real world, mobile technologies when it brought out a robot called B15. The tiny, unassuming robot wheeled out to the center of the stage and then, at the command of its HoloLens-wearing human operator, it was suddenly overlaid a holographic robotic head and arm construct, which hovered over the physical robot.

The robot controller then opened up an array of controls around the robot’s body that manipulated its color in real-time. Then the HoloLens-wearing robot operator switched the robot into “pathfinding mode,” air tapped the stage floor in several places and showed how the robot could interpret the holographic points follow them along a specific path. And, if obstacles come up, the HoloLens wearer can then update the path on the fly, adjusting the real robot’s travel path.

In a separate announcement, 3D interactive software company Sketchfab announced an official pairing with Microsoft HoloLens to help spur the development of 3D content on the platform.

We haven’t had a chance to see if the demonstration videos shown off today are as stunning as they appear on the company’s carefully controlled presentation, but Microsoft announced that several hundred HoloLens devices would be available on site for Build attendees to try, so we’ll know soon.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

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