Microsoft Build 2016: The latest Windows 10, HoloLens, and Xbox news – The Verge

This is what Microsoft HoloLens is really like

2016-04-01T08:01:02-04:00

There was a fish in the bathtub. That was one of the first things we saw in the hotel room after we put on Microsoft's developer-ready version of HoloLens, the augmented reality headset it believes will transform the way we learn, work, and play.

We had the chance to use HoloLens for a couple of hours earlier this week in San Francisco, where Microsoft was hosting its annual developers conference. The $3,000 headset just started shipping to Microsoft developers and commercial customers, though it's not yet widely available to consumers. For now, Microsoft still sees this primarily as a device for business or educational use, with some gamin …

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Microsoft’s ambitions are huge and surprising, because they have to be

2016-03-30T17:49:32-04:00

The one giant of the American tech industry that's transforming faster and more violently than all the others is Microsoft. Today's Build 2016 event was a marathon two-hour affair, but it was almost completely devoid of incremental or iterative improvements. Dead-end projects like Windows Phone didn't even get a mention. Everything Microsoft showed was about addressing the next big change in how we interact with technology, whether that comes in the form of virtual and augmented reality, the development of more natural inputs like handwriting and conversation, or the eyebrow-raising concept of AI bots talking to other AI bots. It was an even …

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Microsoft Build: the 10 most important announcements

2016-03-30T15:06:11-04:00

Every year, Microsoft holds a developer event called "Build." And recently, those events have gone from snoozers to exciting showcases. Microsoft has a winner with Windows 10 (as long as you ignore the phones), a robust personal assistant in Cortana (that works just fine on a laptop), and a wild holographic future to plan with HoloLens. It's a lot to take in, and at this year's Build Microsoft we got updates on all of it. And a few surprises.

Going in, we weren't totally sure what would be coming next for Windows 10, but it turns out there's a lot that Microsoft has planned. It's not just that there are new apps, there are also new bots, wh …

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Microsoft’s Bot Framework will help everyone build their own chatbot

2016-03-30T13:45:23-04:00

The future is going to be full of people talking to chatbots, says Microsoft, and it wants to help you build one. Today at the Build developer conference, the company unveiled what it calls the Microsoft Bot Framework - a set of tools that will let anyone create a bot that they (and their customers) can chat to, in the hope that these programs might replace web and app interfaces.

To demonstrate this system, Microsoft assembled a chatbot on stage for Domino's, showing how a conversational interface could replace the standard online ordering forms (e.g. selecting from a drop down menu to choose your pizza toppings). This is vision of chatbot …

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Microsoft knows we will lose in robot war, argues for coexistence

2016-03-30T13:44:24-04:00

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, a respected leader of one of the world's largest and most important technology companies, speaks as if humanity lives on the cusp of science-fiction. At today's Microsoft Build press conference, Nadella said of the not-so-distant-future, "It's not going to be about man versus machine, it's going to be about man with machines." The line addresses a sincere concern held by esteemed scientists like Stephen Hawking that artificial intelligence could one day eliminate human life.

Nadella points to Microsoft's own artificially intelligent assistant Cortana as a positive example of our early coexistence with AI. The to …

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Skype is getting Cortana and crazy bot messaging

2016-03-30T13:30:09-04:00

You'll soon be able to use Skype to books trips, shop, and plan your schedule, just by chatting with Cortana. During its Build conference, Microsoft demoed how Skype users will soon be able to start a chat with Cortana and get things done just by having a conversation.

"Cortana is brokering the conversation with a third-party bot," says Lilian Rincon, Skype's program manager. Essentially, Skype will know which company or service you want to talk to, bring a new bot into your chat to help out, and then get rid of the bot when you're done.

Bots launch in Skype today

The new features are strongly reminiscent of what Facebook is doing with Mess …

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Microsoft extends Cortana with Outlook integration, third-party app support

2016-03-30T13:16:16-04:00

Microsoft today announced a number of new features for its virtual personal assistant Cortana. The company is extending Cortana's abilities with greater integration into the Outlook email and calendar apps, as well as smarter recognition of specific time and activity requests. Other new features include the ability to reply to text messages from an Android phone on a Windows PC and smart tasks, such as automatically submitting expenses based on incoming email.

Developers will be able to integrate Cortana into their apps, so you can perform actions with voice commands and other automated functions. Cortana is also getting integrated into Sky …

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Microsoft’s wild vision for the future puts conversations at the heart of computing

2016-03-30T13:11:07-04:00

Microsoft's AI chatbot Tay may have grabbed headlines last week when it went rogue on Twitter, but Microsoft has far bigger plans for its bots. At the Build developer conference, CEO Satya Nadella unveiled the company's grand vision of "conversation as a platform" - making bots that understand natural language the next big way to use computers.

"[It's] a simple concept that's very powerful in its impact," said Nadella, adding, "We think this can have as profound an impact as the previous platform shifts have had." By this, he means that conversations could follow the graphical user interface, the mouse, and touch screens, as the next big wa …

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Microsoft HoloLens development kits are shipping today

2016-03-30T12:56:17-04:00

Microsoft has officially announced that its HoloLens development kits are shipping today, and a new example project will be available for buyers. Microsoft opened preorders for the $3,000 kits last month to qualified developers in the US and Canada, who will be able to develop and deploy extremely realistic holograms on the self-contained platform. They'll also be able to play with the Galaxy Explorer Project, which visualizes planets and shows off the HoloLens' features.

Microsoft first announced HoloLens in January of 2015 and offered hands-on demos of the headset at that year's Build, and it's been opening up the headset to more and more …

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Microsoft will combine the Windows 10 and Xbox One app stores

2016-03-30T12:44:51-04:00

Microsoft is bringing together its Windows and Xbox app stores. This summer, with the release of Windows 10's Anniversary update, the two stores will be combined into one, creating "a single unified store across devices," says Xbox lead Phil Spencer.

With universal apps, Microsoft only needs a single store

It's a natural next step for Windows 10. Microsoft has been planning all along to have apps that run across everything from the desktop to the phone to the Xbox - if that's going to be the case, there's no reason it should separate Xbox apps out into their own store.

Universal apps launch on the Xbox this summer, alongside the update. Mic …

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