The collaboration will further the development of advanced security, artificial intelligence and Cortana, mixed reality, and also gaming. Thanks to Project Evo, future devices will completely utilize Microsoft and Intel innovations. This includes:
- Far-field speech communications so you can ask Cortana a question or play a song from across the room.
- The latest security capabilities to protect devices from malware and hacking threats, advances in biometric authentication with Windows Hello, sophisticated insights from Microsoft’s Intelligent Security Graph, additional world-class security intelligence, and analytics from Intel.
- Mixed reality experiences for everyone through affordable PCs and head mounted displays (HMDs) that blend the physical and virtual realities in ways that no other platform can.
- Gaming innovations like eSports, game broadcasting, and support for 4K, High Dynamic Range (HDR), Wide Color Gamut (WCG), spatial audio, and Xbox controllers with native Bluetooth.
Microsoft´s Mixed reality push
Microsoft is also putting a lot of effort into mixed reality. Furthermore, the company aims to make it a mainstream feature in the coming year.
Mixed reality blends people, places, and objects to create rather exciting new experiences across the physical and virtual worlds. Microsoft is leveraging the fact that Windows is the only platform that has a unified mixed reality experience, complete with head-mounted display (HMD) support.
Here’s how Microsoft hopes to achieve the mainstream acceptance:
- We submitted Microsoft HoloLens for government approval in China, and we look forward to making it available to developers and commercial customers in China in the first half of 2017.
- We shared the specifications that we co-developed with Intel for PCs that will power the first headsets capable of mixed reality. HMDs from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo will be available next year.
- Joining those partners, 3Glasses, the leading China-based hardware developer for HMDs, will bring the Windows 10 experience to their S1 device in the first half of 2017, reaching more than 5 million monthly active customers in China.
- Customers will gain access to amazing mixed reality content. This includes:
- More than 20,000 universal Windows apps in the catalog
- 3D objects from the web using Microsoft Edge to drag and drop into their physical world
- Immersive WebVR content via Microsoft Edge
- 360 degree videos available for the first time in the Movies & TV app
- Finally, HMD developer kits will become available to developers at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 desktop experience
The company also provided another major announcement at the Windows Hardware Engineering Community event (WinHEC) in Shenzhen, China. It has developed a fully functional ARM version of Windows 10, providing a full Windows 10 desktop experience.
Microsoft demoed the new technology by running Adobe Photoshop, the 3D game World of Tanks Blitz and Microsoft Office. This was done on a completely functional build of Windows 10 Enterprise.
However, the company didn’t provide details about the exact hardware used, and if it used a real mobile device or another custom designed testing machine. Still, this is a clear statement that it is definitely willing to bring the full desktop experience to ARM hardware.