Office for Windows 10 free on phones and small tablets, Office 2016 on the way

Besides Windows 10 the platform, we're learning a lot more about the new apps that we're going to be getting with it, like touch-friendly Office. Today, Microsoft has elaborated a little more on the new version for Windows 10 and confirmed that it will be installed for free on all Windows 10 phones and "small tablets." This is particularly good news considering it's been the small tablets that have been getting free Office 365subscriptions, but have screens too small to really put the software to work.

In a post on the Office blog, Julia White, general manager for the Office Product Management team says:

"These new Office apps will be pre-installed for free on phones and small tablets running Windows 10, and available to download from the Windows Store for other devices. The Office universal apps will be available with the Windows 10 Technical Preview in the coming weeks and general availability is on track for later this year."

That's the other good news. We'll be able to play around with the new apps for the first time really soon. The site also shows off Excel and OneNote, which Microsoft did not during the event. Anyone who's ever looked at Office for iPad will see some familiarity, but since those apps are pretty fantastic, we're not complaining.

White also brings news of the next, full fat version of Microsoft Office. Launching later this year, Office 2016 will be detailed further in the future.

But the big deal for mobile users is free Office. No mention of an Office 365 subscription which is required on other mobile platforms to get the most out of the apps. Office, touch-friendly, and ready to rock with Windows 10.

Source: Office Blog

Image & News Courtesy Windows Central

The Microsoft Surface Hub gets its own video showing off its huge screen [update: website too!]

The newly revealed Microsoft Surface Hub, shown off as part of the company's Windows 10 press eventtoday, is the subject of a new video that shows how the device, with its huge 84-inch 4K Windows 10display, can be used in an office setting.

The video show how the Microsoft Surface Hub allows office workers to collaborate with each other by using a pen to draw on its display, using the screen as a virtual whiteboard. It also shows how it can be used to display Excel documents on a large canvas. along with the ability to take content created on the Microsoft Surface Hub and copy it on a tablet, smartphone or other PC. Microsoft says that there will be custom versions of Skype for Business and OneNote made for the Surface Hub. There will also be a 55-inch version sold.

There are still a ton of unanswered questions about this product, such as what hardware specs it has, a price point and a release date. However, we certainly want to know more about the Microsoft Surface Hub and hopefully we will get that info in the weeks and months to come. Stay tuned as we will continue to post information from the Windows 10 press event.

Update: Microsoft has also dropped a website with more details on the Surface Hub here.

Source: Windows (YouTube) Windows Central

DirectX 12 will indeed be exclusive to Windows 10

A new report from Microsoft's Windows 10 press event today confirms that the upcoming DirectX 12 graphics API will only be for Windows 10 users. In other words, Windows 7 and 8 PC owners will have to take advantage of Microsoft's offer of a free upgrade to Windows 10 for one year to get the benefits of DirectX 12.

That's not all. According to Rock Paper Shotgun's report, Windows 10 PC owners will also have to get new graphics cards, currently unreleased, inside their rig in order to gain all of the features that will be included in DirectX 12, although a number of current graphics cards will still be able to use some of its improvements.

The Xbox One game streaming feature that was demoed today will also only work with game controllers on the PC side. In other words, gamers with just a keyboard and mouse won't be able to play games streamed from Microsoft's console. Finally, we can expect to see more Xbox One games that will be also support Windows 10 besides Fable Legends, which was also demoed today. Let's hope one of them is Halo 5: Guardians.

Image & News courtesy Windows Central

Dropbox finally drops an official Windows Phone app, goes universal

There's some good news for cloud storage users. After a long, long wait, Dropbox has launched an official app for Windows Phone today. Dropbox originally announced that they were working on the app back in November as part of a new partnership with Microsoft.

Skype is built into Windows 10 for Phone and has an updatable Messaging app

Today, Microsoft unleashed a salvo of news regarding Windows 10. Whether it was news for the desktop OS, gaming or something about holograms, there was something for everyone. After the main event, the press spent a good five hours in private tours of Microsoft's new announcements. Although video was not allowed, there was plenty of nitty-gritty that they revealed. First up, Skype.

Microsoft demoed how the Messaging app on Windows 10 for ­phone lets users switch between Skype messaging or SMS. This change is a total throwback to the early Windows Phone days with the Messaging Hub, and it's a welcome return. However, what about the Skype app—do you still need it for Windows 10 on the phone?

No, you don't. You can still install if you want to, but Skype is native to the Windows 10 OS.

The keyboard for Windows 10 on Phone has a virtual precision pointing stick

File this under subtle but cool. Windows 10 for phone has a new addition to the keyboard: a precision pointing stick, akin to the famous red nub on Lenovo keyboards.

Positioned on the lower left of the keyboard and in blue (likely the Accent color), the virtual pointing stick has one function: let you navigate with ease and precision on the screen. Yup, instead of the old problem of using your chubby finger to move the caret to edit text, you can optionally use this nub to move it around.

Although not worthy of a full announcement, it is neat additions like this that has us excited for Windows 10 next month on our phones.

Image & News Courtesy Windows Central

Cortana has a slightly new look for Windows 10 for phone

One of the clean things about Cortana is its look which is amazingly dynamic,not built into the OS.
This means that the page layout can be changed by Microsoft on the backend at anytime. Going ahead, Microsoft is still playing with how Cortana is organized , its dead space and general layout based on the user feedback.

The two images posted above by Windows Central reveal the neat changes coming in Windows 10 for phones. We can see the Cortana icon is now center instead of the upper left along with some other minor changes,

We should also be aware of the fact that none of this is final. Microsoft expects to change things based on user feedback, but this is at least one look they are considering. And not forgetting to mention that the voice dictation in every instance can be used where there is a text box in Windows 10 for phones. The microphone in the upper left area of the keyboard shows how this will work (in combo with that new pointer stick).

Image Courtesy Windows Central

Windows 10 for phone and PC settings are stark and simple

The settings area on Windows PC and Windows Phone needs to be simple and easy to navigate.

Windows 10 completely revamps Settings once again, but this time it also comes to the phone. Indeed, settings on Windows Phone is a bit of a mess with a seemingly endless unorganized list.


We dont know if Windows 10 has finally fixed this but we need to agree that it looks dead simple.

Lumia Camera 5.0 is coming to all current Windows Phones through Windows 10

As we are currently learning more and more on Microsoft's vision to "Universalize" the Lumia Camera app code for Windows 10, we can confirm that this is the case.

Microsoft is taking the Lumia code as the base for the new camera app, including its faster load times and putting it right into Windows 10 for phones.

This is a good news for HTC and Samsung devices too as they will soon get this cool manual controls and a new simpler UI found in Lumia camera 5.0. It should be coming up as a part of preview next month.

This also means that Windows 10 tablets and PCs can use the same app of course.

Finally there was one big change to the demo we saw tonight. Previously, when you tapped the little photo icon in the upper left corner, it launched the photo history instead of the formal photosapp on Windows Phone.

Stay tuned for more info

Image Courtesy Windows Central

All current Windows Phones can get Windows 10, flagship 'later this summer'

With Windows 10 for phones around the corner, at least in a preview, the question still on many people's minds is 'What about my phone?'

The issue is both simple and complicated. Let's break it down.

Short Answer

Yes, all current Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 devices can get Windows 10 as an upgrade. Sure, there could be some restrictions (mostly the camera), but the Lumia 530 and Lumia 635 are just as likely to get this update as the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 930.

Microsoft was certainly showing off all of their current phones with Windows 10 today and boasting about this fact.

Even for the Windows 10 preview program, all of those phones should be able to get the upgrade. Microsoft has said this for a while now, so this isn't even news. However, I can state that as of today, they are still sticking to that message.

Longer Answer

Carriers. You know how they are. They still play a role in which phones get updated and which do not so they still have some power here. However, since Microsoft has a preview program (both for early builds and one for later builds), people have options.

Flagship and release

As mentioned earlier, Microsoft was hitting the message hard that a flagship Lumia phone is on the horizon. Ifi Majid, director of product marketing for Microsoft Mobile Devices, mentioned that such a phone (and updates for current phones) were likely "later this summer".

For some time, I have noted that I do not expect a flagship until summer time, aligning with a proper Windows 10 release, and this is still the case. I'll have more on this maybe tomorrow as to my thoughts about how and why on this timing. For now, I'd plan on that timeframe.

News & Image Courtesy Windows Central

Hike messenger for Windows Phone gets new stickers, faster uploads and more in latest update

Hike messenger for Windows Phone has being bumped to version 2.9.2.0 in the latest update. It has got a number of features like faster uploads, faster app launching , new stickers etc.

Here's a list of all that's new in version 2.9.2.0, according to the changelog:

• Lighter Than Ever: We put on a lot of weight last year, so we hired a trainer and went on a strict diet! We're super happy to announce we are now under 10 MB in size!
• 3 New Sticker Categories: We are working overtime at bringing the full Sticker Shop to you. In the meantime get the latest 3 popular sticker packs - College, Marathi and Festivals.
• Quick Upload: We've added a little hike magic to bring lightning fast uploading of photos & videos especially over 2G networks and in low network areas!
• Send Uncompressed Images: You have taken the best photo or selfie ever and it's time to share it with your friends. What happens after you send that awesome photo? Image gets compressed, the quality drops significantly. There goes your killer photo. Good thing is that this will never happen again! Now choose to send uncompressed original quality or compressed images.
• Shared Media: Quickly access all the media shared centrally in one place.
• Turn Off Notification of Friends Joining hike
• Download Settings: Now use data smartly by choosing when to download media depending on the network & media type

The built in India messaging app is gaining good traction off late in the country and elsewehere . Thanks to its offers like privacy mode, theme pack, sending messages to offline contacts and more.

Download the Hike messenger from here

Image courtesy Windows Central

Highlights from Windows 10 keynote briefing are now available online

Microsoft has yet to post the entire keynote presentation from Wednesday's Windows 10 consumer briefing to its Youtube channel, the company has however uploaded a brief video going over the highlights of the almost 2 hour event.

You can check out a replay of the full Windows 10 keynote event here.

Also below is the video of Microsoft's Xbox channel on Youtube where Spencer's full 18 minute presentation from the Windows 10 event, where he talked about the all new DirectX 12.