Microsoft bots want to empower our digital future

Microsoft believes that intelligent bots and personal digital assistants will allow us to do more things in the future and is looking to integrate them at the core of Microsoft’s services going forward. 

“It is not man vs machine, it is man with machine,” explained Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the Microsoft Build 2016 keynote. 

Creating a new “Microsoft Bot framework” for developers to be able to add bots to any part of the Windows universe, Microsoft is hoping that companies will build bots for it to help users to get more from Microsoft devices. 

Using Cortana at the heart of the experience, the company demoed a new version of Skype at its developer conference that will use a number of bots to help you get things done. 

It will be one of the first apps from Microsoft to get intelligent bots that are designed to aid users by giving them more information. 

In the demo, Lilian Rincon, a senior exec at Skype, showed how Cortana was able to see that she had an upcoming conference and suggest a hotel that she regularly stays at, before calling in a Westin Hotel bot to help book the room. The Westin Hotel bot was then able to book a room by seeing that she was already having a conversation about the room already with Cortana.

The new bot feature will be available in all versions of the Skype app today for people to try out.

Other examples for bots include a Domino’s Pizza bot that would automatically order you a pizza when you ask it to, or a bot that will be able to tell you what objects are in a picture.  

The idea is for these bots to be able to understand natural language, so rather than having to use specific commands, the bot can interpret the words used, identifying things like times, people and locations, to take appropriate actions. That sort of intelligence is something that we already see in Cortana, Google and Siri, but Microsoft wants to push these services in new directions.

Microsoft isn’t the first company to use bots to help you get things done, but is the first to approach the bot world on such a large scale. 

Communications tool Slack, that is challenging Skype in the workplace, has offered “intelligent” bots for some time allowing you to integrate other services into the chat windows.

Microsoft has said that the framework will be open and that bots will work with “conversation canvases” like Slack. 

Cortana will soon make suggestions throughout your day

Cortana has come a long way since it debuted nearly two years ago. As time goes by, Microsoft’s virtual assistant keeps getting smarter, with features like helping you scan emails to keep track of deadlines. It’s also expanded its reach to Android and iOS, the two most popular mobile platforms in the world. Now, via the upcoming Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Cortana will start making proactive suggestions to help you throughout your day.

For example, it can offer to order lunch or arrange a taxi pick-up for you, using information from personal calendars. Cortana’s also going to be able to automatically add receipts to your expense reports, as well as use a combination of geolocation and historical data to bring up details about the places you’ve been to in the past. Marcus Ash, a member of Microsoft’s Cortana team, demoed this during the Build 2016 keynote by asking the virtual assistant: “What toy store did I go to last year at Build?”

Cortana will be available on your lockscreen, too, letting you access its features without having to unlock your desktop or laptop. And now Microsoft’s making it easy to find apps that work well with its smart assistant, thanks to a section in the Windows Store dubbed Cortana Collection.

Developing…

Get all the news from today’s Microsoft Build keynote right here, and follow along with our liveblog!

Microsoft’s AI strategy is more than just Cortana

With the Tay fiasco fresh in our minds, Microsoft has unveiled its “conversations as a platform” strategy at its annual developer conference Build to get devs to create AI bots that work with Cortana. The idea is to make it easy to do things like shop, order services, look up your flight or schedule meetings by just chatting with the virtual assistant.

CEO Satya Nadella said, “it’s about taking the power of human language and applying it more pervasively to all of our computing.” He continued that Microsoft needs to infuse intelligence into its products and services.”

He pointed out that the platform will be composed of three factors: Humans that actually have the conversations, the digital personal assistant like Cortana and the bots that are the new applications. Nadella said that all of three of these interact in a variety of ways. for example, Cortana will not only listen to you, but could also chat with the bots on your behalf to offer up context-based suggestions.

It won’t be corralled in the Window’s world. “It has to be about you, not a single device. That’s how we’re building out Cortana,” Nadella said. The personal assistant will work on and evolve on iOS and Android as well as Windows.

During a demo Lillian Rincon, principal group manager Skype showed off Cortana booking a trip based upon the context of an earlier conversation and Rincon’s earlier trips. It even surfaced her friend in the area to hang out with. All of this was done seamlessly during a conversation.

The Skype beta with AI integration if available today.

Microsoft announced the Bot Frame to get developers working with Cortana and Skype, Slack and other messaging systems. “We want every developer to build experts for Cortana. We all developers to build bots,” Nadella said onstage.

Blind Microsoft developer Saquib Sheikh built an app that tells him what’s going on around him. The app can general the age and gender of those around him, identify objects and read text outloud. It’s impressive and shows off the possibilities available from AI beyond just ordering a pizza.

The new framework and other developer tools are available today.

Tech companies have been aggressively pursuing AI. Google’s DeepMind battled a Go world champion, while Facebook’s M (in limited release) helped folks shop and book flights. Microsoft has been working on artificial intelligence for years, now it’s hoping developers will come along for the ride.

Developing

Get all the news from today’s Microsoft Build keynote right here, and follow along with our liveblog!

Skype gets HoloLens support and help from Cortana

Microsoft isn’t just content to work on a universal Skype app — it has much bigger plans in store. It’s developing a version of Skype for HoloLens that, as you’d expect, lets you chat and collaborate with friends using the augmented reality headset. Its exact functionality isn’t clear yet, but the allure is clear: you can hold a hands-free video chat while you’re walking around the room. Needless to say, that’s helpful if you’re working on a group project or have your hands full with other tasks. Don’t worry if you can’t drop $3,000 on a HoloLens unit to try it out, though, as there’s plenty coming for regular users.

The team is bringing artificial intelligence to Skype in a big way. You’ll have access to the Cortana personal assistant on Android, iOS and Windows, to begin with. It’s much like Facebook’s M and other conversational helpers: you can ask her to send directions, order food, or even connect to other bots (such as, say, customer service). Support for chat bots is being woven into Skype itself, on that note, so companies can serve you through AI messaging when it’s convenient. You should have access to bots in Skype today, and there’s a bot developer kit to help programmers get started.

Get all the news from today’s Microsoft Build keynote right here!

Free Windows 10 Anniversary Update coming summer

Microsoft has announced it will be releasing an “Anniversary Update” this summer bringing a number of new features to Windows 10 giving new life to the operating system just 8 months after it was first released. 

Boasting over 270 millions users using over 500 difference device designs, Microsoft has promised a number of new features for the new update that was previously dubbed Redstone, but used it’s Build developer conference in San Francisco to highlight Windows Ink, it’s in built software for the Pen found on the Surface 4. 

Windows 10 will now get a dedicated ink apps workspace accessible from the desktop or lock screen that will let you get to your “pen friendly” apps quickly.

The main focus of the new features will try and better integrate the pen with everyday use of the device including your fingers. 

That includes everything from using the pen with a ruler controlled by multi-touch, as well as, being able to use it on a map in Bing to determine distances for example. 

Giving more power to the pen, a number of apps across the platform will also get new Windows Ink tools and capabilities including users now being able to edit documents in Word by crossing things out with Windows Ink. 

The company also confirmed that Windows Hello that will allow users to unlock devices, apps, and protected sites on Microsoft Edge without a password using their fingerprint as well as suggesting that Cortana would get more features in the new update. 

The Anniversary Update will also be rolling out to Xbox One bringing a universal store, Cortana to the Xbox One, and much requested features, according to Microsoft, like background music on the console. Microsoft says that more details will come at E3 in June. 

The update will be free to all Windows 10 users later this year. 

Cortana is coming to Xbox One, as is background music

Microsoft has taken to the stage at Build 2016, revealing some detail about what to expect in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update and the future for Xbox One. 

There’s a collection of enhancements coming to the Xbox, and while Microsoft spent a fair amount of time talking about the addition of a dev mode to the Xbox One, the mention of Cortana on Xbox was a passing reference. 

Cortana on Xbox One isn’t actually new. It was hidden in a preview late in 2015 and discovered by gamers, but it now looks as though Microsoft is ready to bring the feature to the Xbox One. 

Microsoft described Cortana as a “personal gaming assistant”, able to help you find new games, challenges and to provide tips and tricks.

Little else was said about Cortana, but it appears to part of the Anniversary Update heading to Windows 10 in the summer.

There was also talk of bringing other features, including background music and a single unified store, although no more was revealed.

Microsoft has promised that more features will be announced at E3 in June.

‘Minecraft’ on mobile to get mods and command blocks

On the desktop, command blocks are useful tools for experienced Minecraft players. Enter a forward slash in the chat window and you can enter some pseudo-programming to teleport, change the weather and more. They’re not available in the Pocket Edition, a separate version for phones and tablets, but that will soon change. In an interview with CNET, Minecraft lead developer Jens Bergensten confirmed that command blocks are coming to both the mobile and Windows 10 versions of the game.

Microsoft has also confirmed that mods will be coming to the mobile, Windows 10 and console games. It should provide feature parity — more so than before, at least — to each platform and open up its advanced tools to a broader group of players. That’s important as Microsoft pushes into the classroom. The company is working on an Education Edition, based on MinecraftEdu, that’ll be out later this summer. Some schools will use it to teach coding, so it makes sense to offer command blocks in the regular versions of Minecraft, where students can then practice at home.

Source: CNET

Live from Microsoft’s Build 2016 keynote!

It’s time once again for Build, Microsoft’s annual developer conference, where the company lays out its plan for the year ahead. Since Windows 10 is already out there in the wild — where it’s enjoying quite a bit of popularity — we don’t expect too big of an update on the OS front. Still, we’ll probably see a few additional features; perhaps richer Live Tiles, greater Cortana integration and even more of those universal apps (Skype, anyone?). It seems especially likely that we’ll hear more about how Windows 10 apps will work on the Xbox One. On top of that, we’re expecting more Office and productivity suite news and fingers crossed that we’ll get an update on Windows Phone too. Last, but certainly not least, we’ll definitely get to see more of HoloLens, Microsoft’s AR headset that’s set to head out to developers later this week. To get the full rundown of what will be announced at the keynote, tune in to our liveblog right here at 11:30 am ET / 8:30 am PT.

Dear Veronica: Will VR work with monocular vision?

Welcome back to the show, everyone! We’re all getting pretty excited about the VR headsets coming to market this year, and a good portion of those users will be wearing glasses.

But what about those of us without great depth perception due to monocular vision? Jessica Conditt, Engadget Senior Editor, joins us again to set us straight! She’s tested all the major headsets, and has some pointers for her fellow four-eyed gamers.

As always, keep sending those questions in using the hashtag #DearVeronica! Subscribe in iTunes, RSS or YouTube!

Windows 10’s Anniversary Update arrives this summer

Just because Microsoft is less focused on monolithic Windows releases doesn’t mean it’s forgetting to deliver big upgrades. The company has used Build 2016 to announce an Anniversary Update for Windows 10 that brings some hefty improvements. For one, it brings Windows Hello’s biometric authentication to all kinds of apps, including the Edge browser — you can sign into a website with your fingerprint. Pen support also gets its due with a sticky note app, a sketchpad and virtual drawing tools like a ruler and a stencil. The upgrade brings more advanced gestures and pen input, a Linux command line shell, smarter Cortana commands (such as sending files to colleagues) and unification between the Windows 10 and Xbox One app stores. The Anniversary Update arrives this summer, so it shouldn’t be too long before you can give its features a try.

Get all the news from today’s Microsoft Build keynote right here, and follow along with our liveblog!

Free for everyone running #Windows10: the Anniversary Update arrives this summer. #Build2016 pic.twitter.com/pTbtutRNvy

— Windows (@Windows) March 30, 2016