Joe Belfiore, who leads Windows’ design, conducted a long demo introducing Cortana and a number of other new aspects of Windows 10, including universal apps, Microsoft-speak for its effort to let developers write one app that runs on multiple device categories, from smartphones and tablets to PCs and 2-in-1s.
Windows 10 will have a core set of universal apps common to all devices running Windows 10, Belfiore said, which will range from a photo editor and mapping app to a music player that taps Microsoft’s OneDrive and a new browser, code named Spartan.
That browser, which had been leaked earlier, sports a new rendering engine, but Belfiore did not specify its origin, meaning that it’s still unknown whether Spartan relies on Microsoft’s own Trident, the foundation of Internet Explorer (IE), or if Spartan will allow extensions, as rumoured. Cortana will also be built into Spartan for natural-language queries.
IE will continue to be packaged in Windows 10, presumably for legacy support reasons, although Microsoft will stress Spartan as the OS’s go-to browser.
“We’re going change the way people use PCs,” promised Belfiore.
Not right away, though. What Belfiore showed won’t be available, even in the preview, for some time. “These will be coming to Insiders over the next few months… three, four, five months,” said Belfiore.
A next preview will appear shortly: Myerson said a new build would ship “in the next week” for PCs, while the first preview of Windows 10 for smartphones would show up next month.
Holograms
Possibly the biggest surprise from the Windows 10 consumer preview unveiling was the addition of 3D computing features using holograms and augmented reality.
It’s actually three technologies that will work together: Windows Holographic, which will enable 3D imaging in all future builds of Windows 10. Windows HoloLens, a headset for viewing and interacting with 3D images. And finally, the HoloStudio application will let you make your own holograms.
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