Microsoft, who have become as much of a software provider as a hardware company in the mobile space, are reportedly working on a private beta program for Office. This time, they’ll concentrate on Android, after making a successful splash on iOS earlier this year.
Apple has CarPlay, Google has the Android Open Automotive Alliance, and now Microsoft has Windows in the Car, its own take on piping smartphone content from your Windows Phone directly to the dashboard. Quietly demonstrated at Build 2014 this past week, in concept form at least, Windows in the Car pares back the standard Windows Phone interface to suit center console touchscreens and safer use while on the move thanks to features like Cortana.
When you have a product like Kinect, so closely associated with gaming, how do you convince everybody else that they should be installing a motion-tracking camera in the home? Microsoft is looking to smart home technology and health, among other things, to do just that with Kinect for Windows v2, though a stealthy spread through Cortana and smartphones may be just as vital. We caught up with Microsoft’s Michael Mott, general manager of Xbox applications and developer relations, to find out how virtual assistants and home automation could make Kinect-tech the next must-have.
Windows Phone 8.1's most memorable feature may be Cortana, its Halo-themed personal digital assistant, but the chatty Siri-rival isn’t the only change Microsoft has brought with the new version. Greater customization potential, better control over settings, and improved integration of Skype and third-party services are all incoming. We spent some hands-on time with Windows Phone 8.1 to find out what's special.
It’s not every day that you see an internet-based 3D engine pushing a game to virtual reality with one line of code. That’s what’s been demoed this week as HTML5 loomed over the crowd at Microsoft’s BUILD 2014 developers convention. It’s just one line of code with the Babylon.js 3D engine and a game is converted from 2D to fully Oculus Rift-ready.
Flipboard is one of the lingering app omissions for Windows Phone, the news-reader app still limited to iOS and Android smartphones, but Microsoft brought along the latest version to Build 2014 to show it at least hadn't fallen off the radar. Unfortunately, while it's working - at least sufficiently for a brief demo on-stage - you still won't be able to find it in the Windows Phone Store.
If there's been a theme online over the past couple of years, it's the rise of web service hacks and privacy blunders, and Microsoft is hoping to help developers keep their users safer with a push for SSL. Currently, getting an SSL certificate - which allows the browser to authenticate what it's showing with the legitimate company behind it - costs money, but as of today Microsoft is offering free SSL security for Azure developers.
This week at BUILD 2014, representatives of Microsoft’s cloud computing technology Azure spoke up on the launch and continued serving of Titanfall. The game’s sessions are all hosted on the cloud - over 100,000 Azure virtual machines were being used on launch day. Also hosted in the cloud - as the entire game is there, as it were - is matchmaking, now hitting its second version, live today.
It's not just the Lumia 930 and Lumia 630/635 that Nokia has for Build 2014 this week, but a cute new speaker, the MD12, which reverberates sound through any surface it's placed on. Announced by Nokia CEO Stephen Elop - who promptly mocked its name - the MD-12 hooks up via Bluetooth. Update: Live photos after the cut!
America, do not fall in love with the orange rear of the Nokia Lumia 930. The Finnish firm's new high-end Windows Phone may like to flaunt its baboon-like backside, far brighter than the sober black or white rear panels on Verizon's Lumia Icon, but for fans of color there's no point in holding your breath for a US release.
![Nokia Lumia 630 dual-SIM hands-on [Update: 635 too!]](https://c.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/nokia_lumia_630_635_hands-on_sg_5-820x420.jpg)
Nokia has a track-record with affordable Windows Phones. The new Nokia Lumia 630 - and its Lumia 635 sibling - follow on from the best-selling Lumia 520, only running Windows Phone 8.1 out of the box and thus benefiting from new features like the Cortana virtual assistant. Best of all, unlike many affordable Nokia of old, they're actually headed to the US market. We grabbed some hands-on time post-launch at Build 2014.
With the Nokia Lumia 930, the company is bringing the device otherwise known as the Lumia Icon to the international market. Here the device won’t just be headed for Verizon, instead moving outward. Onstage at BUILD 2014, Stephen Elop made clear that the Icon would "continue to be [their] focus in the USA."
