Windows 10 Update Targets Gadget Lovers
Microsoft has detailed the next major update for Windows 10. Dubbed the "Creators Update," its emphasis is on 3D and virtual reality.
While Windows 10 gets regular small updates, it also has the occasional major update. The next of these will come sometime next spring. Rather than bring minor tweaks and fixes, these major updates are based around entirely new features to the system.
The update includes a revised version of the longstanding Paint app, with the emphasis on 3D. As well as creating 3D designs, users will be able to turn photographs into 3D and edit them.
Update Pushing Hardware
If you're wondering what the point of that is, it's because Microsoft wants to promote virtual and augmented reality hardware such as its own "HoloLens." It believes making it easier to produce 3D material rather than just consume it will help get more people to invest in the hardware. With that in mind, it's also announced its own virtual reality system will be available to manufacturers, with headsets starting at $299. (Source: digitaltrends.com)
For those without hardware, it will be possible to share designs on Facebook or turn them into items for the game Minecraft.
The only real update for more ordinary Windows use is a tool called Windows People. In effect, it turns part of the taskbar into a space for communicating with friends and family. Users will be able to click straight in this space for online chats and can drag and drop files to share them, in both cases without needing to open up separate applications.
Microsoft Launches $3,000 PC
There's also a couple of new hardware products on the way. There's a desktop computer named Surface Studio which comes as an all-in one unit (similar to iMacs) with a 28 inch touchscreen and an eye-watering $2,999 price tag.
There's also a gadget called the Surface Dial which is a circular touchpad that lets Surface device users select from a rotating menu. It'll cost $100 but comes free with the Studio software. (Source: theverge.com)
What's Your Opinion?
Are the 3D features of any interest to you? Has Microsoft put too much emphasis on high-priced gadgetry with this update? Are there any simpler or more common features you'd like to have seen added or improved in Windows 10 instead?
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Comments
Surface Studio
I did see a video on the Surface Studio via YouTube (link). I have to say it looks very impressive but it also looks like something produced by Apple - not that it's a bad thing, but it looks like Microsoft is really trying hard once again to mimic what Apple is doing.
With that said I don't think it will help with Microsoft's bottom line. First, I don't see that type of hardware being used for the regular average Joe. Secondly, I believe the PC industry is dead. To be clear, the PC is itself not dead; however, everything related to the PC is dead, especially advertising and innovation. I can attest to that since about 95% of my advertising income based on the PC industry has all but vanished. Everything is now mobile-based.
Another take on the Surface
https://stratechery.com/2016/surface-studio-nintendo-switch-and-the-potential-of-niche/
Their target is not the average Joe at all. Their target is those people - like me - who spend our entire days looking at large screens and creating content and art. Yes, the vast majority of people need nothing more than a phone and/or tablet now, especially since they can cast to their TV's. But creative people (you know, the ones making all that content that people consume on their mobile devices) will be using desktops/laptops for a long, long time. And a price tag of $3,000 for something that perfectly fits my needs doesn't even make me blink. I think that is exactly the niche Microsoft is going for.
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On an slightly related topic, my wife is a teacher. The fact that so few families (especially those who are poor) have laptops at home anymore is affecting student adoption of technology at school, which is largely laptop-based. Kids have to be on laptops to learn to type, to create presentations, to access school district resources and - significantly - to take year-end, standardized tests. Not to mention the long-range goal of being able to use a laptop in their future jobs.
So kids who used to show up knowing their way around Windows are now clueless, leaving it to elementary teachers (who are woefully non-technical in general) to instruct them...and the kids have no way to practice at home. Touch screens will certainly help this issue, I guess, to a certain extent.
Surface at $3,000
I seem to recall another major national corporation that served the "niche" crowd and finally stumbled itself right out of the computer business - IBM. This is once again a case of sell to the ultimate buyer and make a very large per-unit profit, or sell to the volumke buyers and make even more profit in total. You seem to think there are enough of the creative types who WOULD PURCHASE at this price to warrent having a product at this price. You fail to think globally. At this level of pricing,Microsoft would soon run out of customers to support the salews force required to sell the Surface. It should be understood that there would NOT be sales in the 10's of millions of units for this device.
So, what would prompt this international company to offer such a product for sale?
In answer to your second position, I believe what you meant were kids who know their way around a desktop are somehow clueless because the laptop doesn't have a separate keyboard? It seems that most of the software available for desktops is available for laptops as well and I'm not sure what you are in fear of. Will tablets take over the classroom? In many areas, the public systems and the private systems have removed any doubt and HAVE INSTALLED IPADS, not Surface, not Windows RT, not a UNIX system, not laptops (which can be too bulky for elementary students to handle). Perhaps what your underlying message was is that we must somehow provide these "so few families (especially those who are poor) " with some FREE equipment? Sort of like the "free" college that Clinton proposes? Pay for it out of taxpayer funds so no one really knows who check covered what expense? But for "student adoption of technology at school", please let's leave up to the local school boards who know whether their students will even NEED technology in the future. Plumbers might like to play games on it, but it really isn't part of their jobs, is it?
Sorry that I forgot the rules of commenting
Wow. A lot of conclusions jumped to when I simply raised a point that was related to Dennis saying "everything is mobile based." I was just saying that kids who only use phones or tablets at home have difficulty when they must use laptops at school. I didn't realize I was "taking a position" that required every school district in America to bend to my (apparently) Socialist will. But then, this is the internet. I forgot that commenters are supposed to have an agenda and can't simply discuss ideas like reasonable people.
Oh, no!
I have come to fear and dread these updates. I lost Cortana in the Anniversary Update and spent days trying to fix it with no success. I finally gave up. I wonder what nightmares await in the next update.
Gadgets?
I couldn't care less about gadgets. Why doesn't Microsoft make a separate update for gadget lovers instead of forcing everyone to put this stuff on their computers? I don't even like Cortana. I have completely turned Cortana off and have stopped edge from opening also.
No, no, no.
I have done the same. This "gadget update" should be optional. I wonder how many computers will be trashed by this update.
Win 10 "Creator's Update"
I do not think Gadgets, 3D editing software, or software to support Virtual Reality hardware should be part of the Windows 10 Operating System. This is application software and should be offered in the Windows Store where application software belongs. If they include it in the OS, users should be able to uninstall those elements they don't want. Windows 10 already has a fairly large number of apps that are of dubious value including Cortana, which I view as a Microsoft invasion of the user's privacy. Some of the apps can be uninstalled, but not Cortana's constant compilation of personal data relayed to Microsoft.