Microsoft’s opening-day Build keynote is happening now, get your liveblog here!
It’s technically called “Build Windows.” But this year, the biggest news coming out of Microsoft’s annual developer conference might not have much to do with Windows at all. Sure, we’re expecting a software update, for which we’ve already seen copious leaks. But what about Windows Phone? Is version 8.1 on the way? Maybe we’ll even hear about Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to Siri. And hey, what of Nokia? Is this acquisition gonna ever close or what? Lastly, can we see some new hardware? Might we catch a glimpse of some new phones ahead of tonight’s Nokia shindig? Your guess is as good as ours, which means you’ll want to follow our liveblog as we give you the blow-by-blow.
April 2, 2014 11:30:00 AM EDT
Hi folks and good morning from sunny San Francisco!
I’ll be your liveblogger today, joined by senior mobile editor Brad Molen on photos (we are expecting some Windows Phone news, after all).
We’ll get going in a few minutes. It looks like some folks are still getting seated. As for us? Just chilling. We’re seated front and center. Pulsing dance music in the background. Purple lights. The usual for an 8:30am keynote.
In the meantime, what do you guys think we’re going to hear about today? Tweet me your thoughts at @danawollman
Obviously, it’s “Build Windows” so we can assume that rumored update is on the way. But what else could Microsoft have to talk about for two-plus hours?
Some Cortana, perhaps? A little sneak peek of whatever’s coming at tonight’s Nokia event?
That dance soundtrack? We’re now hearing that “Too Close” song. You know, the one you heard in that Internet Explorer. Over and over and over…
It’s basically “The Microsoft Song” at this point.
And here we go!
Microsoft’s Terry Myseron, EVP of the Operating Systems Group, is on stage.
“What’s the right way to kick off this conference?”
“I considered coming out chanting ‘developers, developers, developers!’”
Dude knows how to warm up a crowd of programmers.
“So who’s here with us today? This is an incredibly impressive and diverse group.”
And by diversity, of course, we mean diversity of applications. Web services. All the stuff the devs in this room have built.
“Let’s kick off Build 2014.”
Yes, let’s.
We’re seeing a video now. “The fastest-growing smartphone OS.”
Get ready for some Windows Phone news, y’all! (Toldja!)
Video’s over, lights are on, and Joe Belfiore, CVP of the Operating Systems Group, takes the stage to big, big applause.
Windows Phone 8.1 and the Windows 8.1 Update both coming today.
First up: Windows Phone 8.1.
“We set out to create an experience inspired by people. One that gets you closer to the people and things that matter most in your life.”
“We believe Windows Phone is the world’s most personal smartphone.”
New Windows Phone partners announced today: Prestigio and Micromax.
Not exactly huge names but if you look at the slide, major players like HTC, Samsung, LG, Lenovo and Huawei were already on board.
Belfiore is double-fisting, if you will: holding a phone in each hand, one by Prestigio and one by Micromax.
Shame we can’t get a closer look from where we are in this big auditorium. Maybe later today or this week?
But hey, who needs hardware when you have brand-new software? Let’s get to it.
Belfiore is starting out with ways Microsoft has made Windows Phone “more personal.”
It’s the new Action Center for notifications.
Yep, you may have seen this before in leaks and yes, it looks a little like… Android.
Just swipe your finger down from the top of the screen and you’ll see notifications for email, Facebook, et cetera, along with quick settings for airplane mode, Bluetooth and others.
It’s accessible wherever you are in the UI, as you’d expect.
Now we’re talking about personalizing the lock screen.
A new set of APIs for the lock screen allow for more interactive experiences.
Though Microsoft doesn’t appear to be releasing these APIs to devs just yet.
Here’s an example: a demo called “Diagonal.” Shows your time, etc. with — yep — a kind of diagonal animation.
It looks pretty cool, I must say.
Make sure you’re checking out the photos Brad is posting here in the liveblog — a picture says a thousand words, don’tcha know.
Now let’s talk about Live Tiles.
There’s now a high-density options where you can go three tiles across.
Also, you can choose a background for the Start Screen.
Belfiore is showing what it’s like to select a photo and crop it before making it the background.
The effect is cool: it’s the same photo spread across a grid of tiles.
And we’re really not used to seeing Windows Phone like this. Think all the tiles have to be bright solid colors? Think again.
Now it’s time for another video.
So far we’re seeing glimpses of flowers, robots, feet, scenery, a Rubik’s cube.
“Now I’m learning about you.”
Ooh, this looks like Cortana.
“Hi. I’m Cortana.”
She’s got kind of a husky voice. Not Scarlett Johansson husky, but deeper than Siri’s voice.
“Some things I resemble: a donut, a hula hoop, a halo…”
Jokes aside, you should know this, first and foremost: Cortana is powered by Bing.
That’s where she gets her smarts.
Cortana lives in a Live Tile. That’s one way to get to her.
But she also fully replaces the search function in Windows Phone.
So if you touch the search button, there she is.
“She looks a little excited to see me here on stage.” Belfiore says.
(Oh?)
Here’s what she can do: make calls, send texts, take notes, give reminders, make appointments. Set an alarm. Do searches. Everything you’d expect, right?
Cortana can work with third-party apps too.
In fact, Microsoft’s been working with select app makers to build in Cortana.
Noticed Facebook in there, Hulu Plus…
Cortana also has a notebook.
“A transparent way of putting the user in control of their relationship with Cortana.”
So, you can log your interests there. You wanna know about traffic, you care about the NCAA tournament, traffic updates.
The more Cortana asks about you, the more she learns. So, she gets smarter over time.
Cortana can also make suggestions as to which contacts should be part of your Inner Circle.
Also, Cortana will work with your quiet hours, but can still let people from your Inner Cirlce get through to you any time of day. Your girlfriend, for instance? She should be able to reach you any time of day. (Yes, I believe that.)
So where do these suggestions show up? From the bottom of the screen.
That long list of Cortana updates is similar to Google Now. You know, just with a Windows Phone aesthetic.
Cortana asks lots of questions as a way of getting to know you? Should she track that flight she found in your email? Yes or no? That’s how you teach her.
Now we’re getting a demo of voice commands. “Wake me up at 7am tomorrow.” “Your alarm is set for 7am.”
The point being, you can speak to her using normal-person language.
Another example: “What’s on my calendar for Saturday?”
Man, Joe Belfiore’s supposed to read all the “Game of Thrones” books in one day. Ambitious, man.
Cortana just added an appointment an added “sound good?” at the end. Human-ish.
Also, she let Joe know that he was supposed to do something else at the same time, so yes, she’s very aware of double-bookings.
Now, a demo of maps and recommendations: “Show me the best Mexican restaurants in Palo Alto.” Cortana comes back with four-star restaurants.
And she has Yelp to thank for some of that data.
“Which ones take reservations?” “Here are the ones with four stars that take reservations?”
Like other voice assistants (Dragon Assistant, etc.) she remembers the last question so that everything makes sense in context.
Just got one bug, though: Joe said “call the second one” and Cortana seemed a bit confused.
Joe’s staying calm, reminding us it’s beta software. (We know.)
More demos! “How did the Seattle Mariners do yesterday?”
Took Cortana two tries, but she got it: Mariners beat the Angels.
Just so ya know.
Those bugs aside, Cortana seems to work well — and it seems to work as you’d expect.
Time for web searches. “How many calories in a banana?”
(The answers’s 105.) The bigger deal is that you can then add that to your diet tracker. Helpful if you use the Bing Health & Fitness app.
“What’s the weather in Las Vegas?”
“How about in Celsius?” “Here’s that temperature in Celsius.”
“How about in Kelvin?” Big laughs here.
But Cortana converted it to Celsius… twice.
So maybe Cortana isn’t quite as nerdy as her makers.
“What’s the story of the next Halo game?” “I’m quite certain you don’t have proper security clearance for that information.”
Confirmed: Cortana has some sassy easter eggs.
Looking forward to finding more of those later.
Now we’re getting a demo of reminders. “Remind me when I get home to cook dinner for my wife.”
“Ordinarily she would recognize when I get home.”
“Next time I speak to my sister, remind me to ask her about her new puppy.”
“Since this is a phone, I might talk to my sister on the phone or have a chat string or have an email chain.” Basically, next time you use the phone to talk to her, you’ll get a reminder to ask her about the puppy.
(As if you need a reminder to ask about puppies.)
Now we’re seeing a demo of how you can use Cortana to initiate a Skype call. Not surprising, right? Given that Microsoft owns Skype…?
Basically, it works just the way you’d expect.
What you might not expect: Hulu Plus integration (though we hinted at it before).
So, you can verbally tell Cortana to add a show to your queue, and boom, she does it. Useful.
We also hinted at Facebook integration earlier. “Facebook, what’s up with Terry Myerson?” Jumps to Terry’s profile page.
Question for the crowd: did Terry Myserson really write “LMFAO” on his Facebook page, or is that just a dummy account?
Another easter egg: “Do you like Jimmy Fallon?” “Thank you Jimmy Fallon…” She liked that recent TV plug she did.
OK, folks. Time to change gears. Belfiore is about to talk about businesses now. Ready. Set. Go.
Nick Hedderman, Senior Product Manager for Windows, is on stage.
“Windows Phone has always been the right choice for business. We’re respecting existing IT investments.”
Fake scenario: trying to recruit Joe for a new position at Microsoft. Top-secret stuff. He’s using a new Lumia. His device is enrolled into the new position. (Just go with it, OK?)
Windows Phone 8.1 supports enterprise VPN.
Seems like a fairly big thing IT managers would want, non?
Additionally, WIndows Phone 8.1 now supports s/mime encryption.
When you send a message from your phone, you can decide if you want to encrypt a message, which you might do for a confidential message, but not, say, a message to your spouse.
Back to Joe’s hypothetical new confidential role at Microsoft: if he gets a confidential attachment in an email, the option to save it is grayed out. He cannot save a local copy.
IT can go into “Workplace” and delete a relationship. Do that, all the corporate apps are suddenly removed from the device. Not just apps, but documents, the VPN. All gone, very quickly.
You can do this remotely too, but we saw a local demo because it made more sense, visually speaking, to go into the settings on the big screen.
Switching gears again. Time to look at the Windows Store on Windows Phone 8.1.
First of all, when you open the store, it now lands on a new page full of featured apps.
Pan left and you’ll see personalized suggestions, similar to the experience on Windows 8.1.
Other ways of sorting: categories and lists like top paid, top free, new + rising.
As with Windows 8.1, the idea is to showcase more apps, and get users downloading more of them.
Switching gears a lot right now — hold onto your horses. Now seeing a calendar demo.
Users asked for additional calendar views. What we’re seeing now is a week view.
Can of course go back to daily views.
Battery Saver, Data Sense and Storage Sense improved. New here: Wi-Fi Sense.
Wi-Fi Sense is meant to help users take advantage of good Wi-Fi networks. Meaning, MIcrosoft has some data on which networks are free, reliable.
Windows Phone will automatically accept the terms of use, making it easier to breeze through portal screens.
That includes automatically supplying an email address, by the way.
What about when friends come to your house and want to get on your WiFi?
There’s a way to securely share your WiFi passwords with Outlook.com contacts, Facebook friends, Skype contacts.
So they can sign in without getting access to all the resources on your network; just your internet connection. And you don’t have to verbally tell them your password.
(Presumably, this is for folks who don’t already have a guest network set up on their router.)
We’re seeing an incoming call now, by the way. And yes, there’s a reminder for Joe to ask his sister about the puppy. The notification is above the call options (speaker, mute, hold, et cetera).
But the reason we’re seeing this is to see a demo of how to move from phone calls to Skype. In other words, still on the connectivity thing.
AIVAnet 