Those of you who caught our CES preview earlier this week will know that last night was the Microsoft CES Press Conference. Known for their big ideas this time of the year the conference was the stage for all the biggest announcements in the Windows line of future technology. How fitting that last night was also the final episode of the current Gadget Show series too.
The press conference began with a run down of Microsoft’s previous CES conferences which then moved quickly into discussions on the new Windows Phone. The particular points of interest included fully integrated voice commands and contact groups.
Microsoft then went into an explanation on the Nokia Lumia 710 which is scheduled for release on Wednesday 11th January in the US with the Lumia 800 scheduled for release in a few months time. At the same time Microsoft also unveiled the Nokia Lumia 900 and the HTC Titan II which are the newest Windows Phones to date. In fact the Titan will come with a 16 megapixel camera and a large 4.7 inch OLED display.
On the PC front they revealed that 1.3 billion Windows machines are currently in worldwide circulation before they demoed Windows 8. This was present with the tagline ‘Windows reimagined’ and is designed to work with touch input as well as with the standard keyboard and mouse. Microsoft also included a new ‘picture password’ use to unlock a system as well as the new tiled interface to coincide with the Xbox 360 and the Windows Phone OS. The new operating system will also include full screen applications but listing of what will be available was pretty scarce.
Off the back of the new application information Microsoft also showed off what they have in mind with the Windows Store which is due to be released worldwide in February. Available in every language Windows is available this will included shared data, full screen realisation and semantic zoom. In contrast to ordinary graphical zoom, semantic zoom does not only change parameters of a graphical representation, but modifies the selection and structure of the data to be displayed. The developer build for Windows 8 will also be release in February and all Windows 7 PC’s will be ready for the change over on day one.
Microsoft closed out their presentation with an update on the Xbox 360 which they revealed has over 66 million current users with 40 million Xbox Live subscribers. Microsoft also announced that over 18 million Kinect units had been shipped to date.
Demo’s were shown of the new video apps available on Xbox Live including partnerships with Comcast and New Corp which will show Fox shows in the US like Fringe and Family Guy as well as content from IGN. Kinect integration was also shown on TV shows, allowing people to interact with their favourite programs. Kinect was also announced for Windows with a 1st February release and is already supported by over 200 companies.
It’ll be interesting to see which pieces will be released on the same day here in the UK but as this shows, the year ahead is due to be very interesting indeed as Microsoft try to close the gap on their interactive competitors. There has been a lot of talk that desktop computers will slowly make way for tablet based hardware and Microsoft doesn’t want to miss the train.
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