It was revealed at Microsoft's BUILD developers conference earlier this year that the traditional Start menu would be making a re-appearance at some point in the near feature, and although Microsoft stopped short of offering specific details, a new leak gives as an insight into what we can expect of this feature once reinstated.
Nokia, which was recently acquired by Microsoft, has long built great smartphones, particularly those of the Lumia variety. But while the market has been enticed by the sleek, funky designs and top-notch rear-facing camera technology, most have been put-off by the Windows Phone OS, which is nowhere near as evolved as, say, Android.
We cannot, it seems, help but get carried away by voice assistants, and even though Microsoft joined the party extremely late with the introduction of Cortana earlier this year, the amount of hype it has generated for the software giant will certainly do Windows Phone's cause no harm whatsoever. Having already been compared a dozen times to Google Now and Apple's Siri, Cortana has had the benefit of watching and learning from both, but while the Halo-based voice assistant has clearly borrowed from its two longer-serving rivals in many departments, Siri is now looking to Cortana for inspiration.
Now that Google has well and truly shown its hand in the smartwatch arena, all eyes are firmly on Apple and the supposed iWatch announcement that's been penciled in for October time. With all the focus on those two companies, Microsoft has flown somewhat under the radar, but new reports suggest that het software giant may have its very own smartwatch on the way with a similar October release timeframe.
Although the tech world is clearly preoccupied by the developments of Google's head-mounted Glass device, the company has several other innovative projects running simultaneously at this moment in time. Project Tango is yet another potential game-changer from the Big G, seeking to bring human-like perception of objects and space to everyday gadgets like smartphones and tablets, and far from being a pie in the sky, the first tablet peddling Tango is expected to retail from next year. As showcased on Thursday at I/O, this device has a seemingly endless list of possibilities, and being in attendance at the event, we got a chance to get up-close and personal with the forthcoming slate. Check out the video after the leap!
When Microsoft bought Nokia, many understandably thought that the latter's brief flirtation with Android would come to an end. After all, Microsoft makes its own mobile operating system and having its own hardware to run it on made perfect sense. Why compete with yourself by letting Nokia make Android phones? Right?
There's nothing worse than being out and about and finding out that your smartphone or tablet has suffered from total battery drain and will no longer function. A lack of battery power means that access to text messages, emails, navigation apps and even Facebook is no longer possible when on the move, and for a lot of you guys out there that will almost feel like life as you know it, has ended. Thankfully, Microsoft and British designer Adrien Sauvage can sympathize with that pain and have teamed up to create a pair of innovative wireless charging trousers that will ensure compatible mobile devices remain powered up.
As a part of the Windows Phone 8.1 announcement, Microsoft finally took the wraps off Cortana, it's ecosystem's very own answer to Siri and Google Now. At the time, the software maker touted it as a voice assistant encompassing the best features of Apple and Google's respective services, and such is the faith that the Windows maker has in Cortana, that versions for iOS and Android are now being prepared.
The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One may still be in relative infancy given the life cycles of previous-gen machines, but in this fast-moving culture of technology, folks are always looking ahead to what's next. While it will be a number of years before the respective successors of these two consoles manifest, though, the wait mightn't be as long as we suspected and in fact, work has perhaps already started on the PlayStation 5 and what will likely be referred to as the Xbox Two.
The Microsoft Xbox One is set to get a graphics boost that will offer around a ten percent bump on the current configuration, although it will only be effective when the Kinect sensor is not connected to the machine. The motion-detecting peripheral, which Microsoft opted to bundle in with the console for several months before recently offering a cheaper, Kinect-free solution, is not deemed essential by some avid gamers looking for a better all-round performance to better match the PlayStation's, and thus, this move actually makes a great deal of sense.
