Cortana

Cortana, Which was introduced in Windows 8.1 by Microsoft can be described much as a personal digital assistant, or even a Microsoft’s personal dital assistant. It is available on all the platforms on which Windows 10 will be available like PC, Tablet and Mobiles.


According to Microsoft Cortana works by learning user’s preferences to provide relevant recommendations (much like Google provides you results in Google Search) But Cortana is an inbuilt feature of Windows 10 and provides you information faster like Weather in your local area, Latest News about your favourite topics and reminds you about your important reminders. Also it can send messages, track your flights and answer questions.

Cortana can integrate with third-party apps via a new API introduced by Microsoft at their 2014 Build conference. For instance, users can say "Foursquare...checkin" and the personal assistant launches the Foursquare app and brings up locations around you to choose for checking in.

You think its difficult and will take more steps to do all this then you only need to say ‘Hey, Cortana’ and it will wake up automatically to take requestor by keyboard.

Verdict
Cortana seems very good feature and as Apple have Siri, Google have Google Now with different cards, Microsoft came up with the best of them Cortana!! Its a Thumbs up feature and that’s why I personally like to describe it first.


Project Spartan

Spartan is a Browser being added to Windows 10 , No it will not replace the Internet explorer. Spartan browser is much much faster than Internet Explorer and with good UI and features. It blends the power of Cortana with browsing and provides a new and unique browsing experience.

According to Microsoft, Advanced features include the ability to annotate by keyboard or pen directly on the webpage and easily share with friends, a reading view that is distraction free, displaying the article in a simplified layout for a great reading experience for Web articles online and offline, and the integration of Cortana for finding and doing things online faster.

Lets see how it works

Imagine you are reading a article and find a word you do not understand or a unfamiliar landmark, Right click on it and Cortona will find the relevant information about it and shows them in side bar. More than simply searching for a word, Cortana uses the context of the page to better understand what to search for; so, if you click on Washington while reading about the US presidents, it knows you want information about George Washington and not the state of Washington.

If you open up a restaurant website or a retail outlet, Cortana will bounce around in the address bar to let you know that it has useful information. In this case, it brings up the hours of operation, menu, reviews, a map to the store and even photos. All this information pops up in the right side of the browser after clicking on Cortana, and lets you view the content without leaving the page you are on.

Cortana can query in real-time as well; for example, if you want to know the weather outside, simply type 'weather' in the URL bar and the answer will be displayed without ever having to go to a website.

At first, Cortana in the web browser seems a bit odd but once you understand how the digital personal assistant works, you begin to understand how it could soon become an invaluable part of the browsing experience. In short, Cortana is working in the background to bring contextually aware information to the forefront right when you need it.

Verdict
Once you get used to Cortana in the browser, it is genuinely hard to go back to browsing without the personal assistant. The additional information layer that Cortana provides is not only useful, but it is provided right when you need it and exactly how you would expect it. While Cortana may at first have seemed like an odd addition for the browser, this could very well end up being Spartan's killer feature.



Universal applications


Windows 10 offer a consistent, touch-first experience across phone, tablet and PC with new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook. Designed from the ground up to run on Windows, you can easily create and edit Word documents, annotate slides in real-time with new inking features or easily present PowerPoint presentations, and with new touch-first controls in Excel you can create or update spreadsheets without a keyboard or mouse. The next version of the Office desktop suite is also currently in development, more on this in the coming months. 


Lets see how it works

Windows 10 offers innovative new experience applications, consistent across the device continuum, for Photos, Videos, Music, Maps, People & Messaging, and Mail & Calendar. These built-in apps have an updated design that look and feel the same from app to app and device to device.  Content is stored and synced through OneDrive, enabling you to start something on one device and continue it on another.


Xbox Live and the new Xbox App, Xbox Wire bring new game experiences to Windows 10. Xbox on Windows 10 lets gamers access the best of the expansive Xbox Live gaming network on both Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One. Players can capture, edit and share their greatest gaming moments with Game DVR, and play new games with friends across devices. Games developed for DirectX 12 in Windows 10 will see improvements in speed, efficiency and graphics capability. Players will also be able to play games on their PC, streamed directly from their Xbox One consoles to their Windows 10 tablets or PCs, within their home.
Read more on Xbox Wire


Continuum Mode

On 2in1 devices, Windows 10 will move easily between keyboard/mouse and touch/tablet as it detects the transition and conveniently switches to the new mode.



Microsoft Hololens



Windows 10 is the world’s first holographic computing platform – complete with a set of APIs that enable developers to create holographic experiences in the real world. With Windows 10, holograms are Windows universal apps and Windows universal apps can work as holograms, making it possible to place three-dimensional holograms in the world around you to communicate, create and explore in a manner that is far more personal and human.

Microsoft HoloLens allows you to view holograms in high definition and hear them in surround sound, even if they are behind you. And with advanced sensors, Microsoft HoloLens can see what you are looking at and understand what you are communicating with your hands and voice.
However its a Hardware much like a Virtual reality headsets or a Oculus rift type, which shows information in real surroundings and lets users interact with them with hands and voice.