2013-06-27

… this is how I can summarize what I’ve seen on the launch (live streamed, towards the end of the post there is the embedded video record with speech transcript) …
and also how the first media reactions could be summarited.

First The Windows 8.1 Preview is here! [WindowsVideos YouTube channel from Microsoft, June 26, 2013]

Find out more: http://preview.windows.com

Second a video summary of the launch by a mainstream media Microsoft builds new features into Windows 8.1 [CNETTV YouTube channel, June 26, 2013]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer previews the company’s new Windows 8.1 operating system for tablets and PCs. Ballmer also highlights the return of the Start button, new Outlook functionality, Bing integration and gesture controls.

Media reactions in the first 15 hours:

Specific reactions:

Windows 8.1 Preview provides a window into the future of Windows [CNETTV YouTube channel, June 26, 2013]

We take a quick look at some of the more high-level changes coming with Windows 8.1.

Windows 8.1: The Five Most Exciting New Features [UPROXX, June 26, 2013]

… Native 3D Printer Support (!) … Boot To Desktop … SkyDrive Gets An Overhaul … Apps Get APIs … Universal Search …

Windows 8.1 hidden features [networkworld YouTube channel, June 27, 2013]

From PC World: There’s a lot to learn about Windows 8.1. We’ll show you some of the coolest hidden features you need to know about.

26 Awesome Features in the Windows 8.1 Preview [Gotta Be Mobile, June 26, 2013]

… Start Screen Backgrounds … Start Menu … Start Button … Integrated Bing Search … Revamped Windows Store … New Start Menu Settings … Lock Screen Sideshows … More Start Screen Color Options … Boot to Desktop … Internet Explorer 11 … Snapped States … Resizable Live Tiles … Help Tutorials … Xbox Music App … New Apps … Outlook RT … Fingerprint Support … Default Device Encryption … Photo Editing … Synced Apps across Devices … File Explorer … Built-in SkyDrive … Lock screen Alarms & Added Detailed Status … Better Portrait Support for Tablets … Disabling Hot Corners … Automatic App Updates …

10 New Features in Windows 8.1 Preview that saved my Surface RT [Scott Hanselmann (Microsoft), June 27, 2013]

… BEING ABLE TO USE YOUR DESKTOP WALLPAPER AS YOUR START MENU BACKGROUND … SEARCH EVERYWHERE … FREAKING OUTLOOK 2013 … SMARTER WINDOWING … WAY EASIER CUSTOMIZATION … BETTER ALL APPS VIEW … MORE COMPREHENSIVE SETTINGS … REMOVABLE DISKS IN YOUR MUSIC AND VIDEO LIBRARIES … SMARTER NOTIFICATIONS AND QUIET HOURS … THE READING LIST …

3D printing:

3D Printing with Windows 8.1 [Shan Ruk YouTube channel, June 26, 2013]

Breakout session at Build 2013 by Kris Iverson, Principal Software Design Engineer. 3D printing is a high profile and transformational technology, and Windows now includes support for 3D printers. This session provides everything you need to know to add 3D printing capability to your apps and to integrate 3D printer devices with Windows.

Read also: 3D printing with Windows [The Official Microsoft Blog, Jun 26, 2013, 11:00 AM]

Windows 8.1 will feature native support for 3D printing [VentureBeat, June 26, 2013, 9:00 AM] pre-written

Microsoft’s big 3D printing push: From retail to Windows 8.1 [VentureBeat, June 26, 2013, 10:51 AM]

Why 3D printing in Windows 8.1 is huge for Microsoft and entrepreneurs [VentureBeat, June 26, 2013, 3:53 PM]

Windows 8.1 Makes 3D Printers as Easy to Use as Inkjets [Laptopmag.com, Jun 26, 2013 01:26 PM EDT]

Windows 8.1 to natively support 3D printers [Neowin.net, June 26, 2013]

Windows 8.1 Cranks Up Support for 3D Printing [Mashable, June 26, 2013]

Microsoft adds native 3D printing support with Windows 8.1 [TNW, June 26, 2013]

Windows 8.1 to support 3D printing through native API [Engadget, Jun 26th, 2013 at 12:00 PM]

Microsoft Adds Native 3D Printer API To Windows 8.1 [WebProNews, June 26, 2013]

Bing as a platform (this is first 24 hours, as otherwise would be less, in order of relevance as per Google search):

Microsoft reveals 3D mapping, Bing voice controls [CNETTV YouTube channel, June 26, 2013]

Microsoft shows off new 3D-mapping capabilities and voice command integration for Bing at its Build conference in San Francisco. Bing VP Gurdeep Singh Pall demonstrated the features by asking voice search “who is the architect,” while looking at a museum on a map demo. The answer quickly popped up.

Read also:
- Bing at Build 2013: Weaving an Intelligent Fabric [on Search Blog by Gurdeep Singh Pall, Corporate Vice President, Bing; June 26, 2013]
- Bing will open up more of its APIs and controls via new developer platform [The Fire Hose news coverage blog by Microsoft, June 26, 2013, 11:00 AM]
- Two new Bing apps will be included in Windows 8.1 preview [The Fire Hose news coverage blog by Microsoft, June 26, 2013, 11:00 AM]
- Introducing The New Bing Developer Center and Services [Bing Dev Center Team Blog, Jun 26, 2013, 11:00 AM]

Microsoft broadens Bing beyond simple search [InfoWorld, June 27, 2013]

One Bing to Rule Them All: Microsoft Opens Up Bing for Apps [Mashable, June 26, 2013]

Bing Translator comes to Twitter‘s official Windows Phone app [Engadget, Jun 27, 2013 at 5:29 AM

Windows Phone 8 Twitter app gets translation function [Pocket-lint, June 27, 2013]

Microsoft enlists Bing to enhance Windows 8.1 apps [Computerworld, June 26, 2013 05:14 PM ET]

Microsoft Releases New Bing Windows 8.1 App: Health & Fitness [WMPoweruser, June 27, 2013]

Microsoft Details New Windows 8.1 Bing App: Food & Drink [WMPoweruser, June 27, 2013]

Microsoft Releases Windows 8.1 Preview, Unveils ‘Bing as a Platform’ [Redmond Channel Partner, June 26, 2013]

The Microsoft Build 2013 Recap: Windows 8.1, Bing and new features [The Slanted, June 26, 2013]

All other:

Windows 8.1 will finally add Retina-like display support [The Verge, June 26, 2013 12:00 pm]

Windows 8.1 focuses on small tablets – but they’re not PCs, says Ballmer [PC Pro (UK), June 26 2013 at 18:11]

Build 2013: 3D imagery coming to Windows 8.1 Maps [Softonic, June 26 2013]

Microsoft Will Bring 3D Imagery To Bing Maps For Windows 8.1, Will Launch With 100 Cities [TechCrunch, June 26, 2013]

Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 Preview Introduces A Smarter Virtual Keyboard For Touchscreens [TechCrunch, June 26, 2013]

Microsoft’s New Camera App For Windows 8.1 Lets You Take Photo Sphere-Like Panoramas [TechCrunch, June 26, 2013]

Microsoft premieres new panorama feature for Windows 8.1′s updated camera app [Digital Trends, June 26, 2013]

Windows 8.1: Meet the new and vastly improved Windows Store [Ars Technica, June 26 2013, 7:50pm CEDT]

Microsoft shows off 3D imagery, architecture trivia for Windows 8.1 Maps [Engadget, Jun 26th, 2013 at 1:38 PM]

IE 11 on Windows 8.1 preview supports HTML5 Netflix streaming right now [Engadget, Jun 26th, 2013 at 6:01 PM]

Microsoft announces Visual Studio 2013 preview: now available for download, 5,000 new APIs in Windows 8.1 [Engadget, Jun 26th, 2013 at 1:04 PM]

Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 appears with 5,000 Windows 8.1 APIs [SlashGear, June 26, 2013]

Microsoft teases touch-based Office apps for Windows 8.1 [The Verge, June 26, 2013 12:00 pm]

Microsoft teases Metro-style Office apps for Windows 8.1 [Pocket-lint, June 26, 2013]

Redesign headed to Windows 8.1′s Xbox Music app later this year [Polygon, June 26, 2013]

Windows 8.1 Preview to Get Facebook Metro App [Softpedia, June 27, 2013, 08:12 GMT]

Overall reactions (in order of relevance as per Google search):

Windows 8.1′s little changes are a huge improvement [CNNMoney blog, June 26, 2013, 4:31 PM ET]

Hands-on with Windows 8.1 Preview: Windows 8 done right [Ars Technica, June 26 2013, 6:33pm CEDT]

Windows 8.1′s Start Button Isn’t A Start Button [TechCrunch, June 26, 2013]

With Windows 8.1, Microsoft Wants To Own The Kitchen, As Well As The Living Room And The Office [TechCrunch, June 26, 2013]

Microsoft Builds a Friendlier Windows 8.1 at Developer Conference [Wired, June 26, 2013]

With Windows 8.1, Microsoft Makes Some Asked-For Fixes [All Tings Digital, JUNE 26, 2013 AT 9:00 AM PT] pre-written

Windows 8.1 Puts Microsoft On Track For A Better Year In 2014 [Forbes, June 26, 2013, 3:47PM]

Windows 8.1: It’s Getting Better And Stronger — Just Not Fast Enough [ReadWriteWeb, June 26, 2013]

With Windows 8.1, Microsoft Steps Back Toward Operating System Relevance [ReadWriteWeb, June 26, 2013]

Windows 8.1 is all improvements, little innovation [Digital Trends, June 26, 2013]

If You Hated Windows 8, Microsoft’s Attempt To Fix It Won’t Change Your Mind [Business Insider, June 26, 2013, 6:17 PM]

Windows 8.1 first look: Finally, Windows the way you want it [Computerworld, June 26, 2013, 8:55 PM EDT]

Windows 8.1 fixes problems, adds new features, but touch screen is still the focus (hands-on) [CNET, June 26, 2013, 9:00 AM PDT] pre-written

Windows RT 8.1 preview: all the additions you’d expect, but no desktop removal [The Verge, June 26, 2013, 08:30 pm]

Microsoft reveals Windows 8.1 brings back the Start button [Know Your Mobile, June 26, 2013]

Microsoft releases Windows 8.1 beta, brings back ‘start’ button [First Post, June 27, 2013]

Huge enterprise potential for Windows 8.1 seen [IT World Canada, June 26, 2013]

The one which had #1 relevance by Google search:
Review: Windows 8.1 Widens Gap With Older PCs [The Big Story of the Associated Press by Ryan Nakashima, June 27, 2013, 1:47 AM EDT]

probably because also appeared on The Washington Post, ABC News, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Indian Express, CenturyLink, and NPR just in 2 hours after AP published this review (so more news organs will republish it later, for sure)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer says the latest update to Windows is a “refined blend” of its older operating system for PCs and its new touch-enabled interface for more modern, mobile devices.

After some hands-on time with it, the update seems to me like a patch over an ever-widening chasm.

The issue is that there are over a billion personal computers that use some version of Windows as it existed until last October, when Microsoft unveiled Windows 8. All those PCs are responsive to mice and keyboards, not the touch screens and other input methods like voice and gestures that represent the future of computing. Making it easier to cross that bridge is one of the goals of Windows 8.1, a preview version of which Microsoft released Wednesday.

After spending several hours with devices running Windows 8.1, it remains unclear to me whether a touch-based environment is what traditional Windows users want to accomplish the productive tasks for which they’ve come to rely on Windows.

But Microsoft has added to 8.1 a grab bag of fun features that make the free update worthwhile.

One way Microsoft reaches into the past is by reviving the “Start” button in the operating system’s traditional “Desktop” mode. It appears as a little Windows icon at the bottom left corner of the screen.

However, other than the location and its general look, the button doesn’t do what it once did. A single tap brings you back to the “Modern” interface, instead of the traditional Start menu, which used to bring up a whole host of convenient items like recent programs and commonly used folders.

An extended press brings up a list of complex settings functions — the kind that most people would probably rather leave to their tech department if they are fortunate enough to have one.

So, instead of bringing back a familiar environment, the revived “Start” button is mainly just another way of directing you to the new one.

Another way Microsoft attempts to appease its established PC user base is by allowing people to launch their computers directly into the “Desktop” environment. But again, with no way to access programs except through the “Modern” interface, there is little cause for celebration among traditionalists.

The main changes in Windows 8.1 offer an easier way to function inside its “Modern” environment, better more integrated search results, and a hint of what’s possible in the future.

One feature that makes the new environment easier to navigate: Now, a screen called “All Apps” is just a swipe away from the “Modern” tile screen. Swiping up literally displays all the apps on the computer, not just the ones that you have made as favorites on the start screen. In the past, you had to swipe up from the bottom edge and tap another button to get there.

Unfortunately, the “All Apps” page feels like too much. An array of icons easily covers two full screens. Although you can re-organize the apps into categories or alphabetically, there are too many to make it easy to use.

It’s easier to use the search function, which can either be brought up by swiping in from the right edge, or just typing when in the “Modern” tile screen.

Entertainers get terrific new billing in Microsoft’s improved search function. Type in an artist’s name, say Lily Allen, and Windows 8.1 brings up a lively and colorful sideways-scrollable page that shows big photos, her birthdate, and a list of songs and videos followed by decent-sized renditions of websites.

Clicking on a play button alongside a song instantly plays it. You don’t have to own the song, because Microsoft throws in the feature as part of its Xbox Music service — which inserts ads unless you pay a monthly fee. You can queue up all the top songs and even add them to a playlist for listening to later.

Windows 8.1 can also run on smaller devices, including Acer’s Iconia W3, which has an 8.1-inch screen measured diagonally and works with a wireless keyboard that also acts as a stand. In the past, screens had to be about 10 inches or longer diagonally.

Some add-ins didn’t really excite me. The ability to resize the split-screen, which lets you do more than one thing at once, lacked pizazz. On the Acer and even Microsoft’s own Surface Pro, you can only split the screen in two, and only at fixed intervals. With the update, the screens can be half-and-half or roughly cover one-third or two-thirds of the screen, instead of one taking up a sliver as in Windows 8.

Another feature is a predictive text function. Windows 8.1 offers up three predictions for words you are typing on an onscreen keyboard when in certain apps like Mail. To me, the feature seemed to be more annoying than useful, even though you can select the options with sideways swipes on the space bar.

Yet another feature turned the camera into a motion detector. In one demo, Microsoft’s new “Food and Drink” app lets users swipe through a recipe with mid-air hand gestures. In practice, this often failed, sometimes turning pages in the wrong direction or not reacting at all. Still, it’s a way to struggle through a recipe if your hands are coated with sauce.

At Wednesday’s presentation, Microsoft executives previewed future Windows functions that could come in handy, including voice recognition in apps and contextual understanding of spoken questions.

For example, corporate vice president Gurdeep Singh Pall demonstrated a prototype travel planning app that not only showed 3-D overhead views of cities but gave computer-voice tours of various monuments. Speaking the question “Who is the architect?” brought up a webpage showing the answer, simply because the building that the architect designed was in view in the maps app.

“Apps are going to have eyes, they’re going to have ears, they’re going to have a mouth,” said Pall.

As of this month, Microsoft says its new Windows platform will have 100,000 apps, and the company made it clear it hopes developers make even more, incorporating some of the new tools it has made available to them.

Ballmer said in his keynote he hopes that Windows 8.1 also offers a “great path forward” for users of the millions of programs that work on older versions of Windows. By showing off a variety of enticing features of the new interface, however, it’s clear that path leads through the “Modern” world.

Windows 8.1 Preview now available [Microsoft press release, June 26, 2013]

Microsoft Corp. today announced the immediate availability of the Windows 8.1 Preview, the next update of the Windows operating system, at the company’s developer-focused Build conference. As part of the conference’s keynote speech, the company outlined the reach, design and economic opportunities for developers to build differentiated, touch-based apps for the Windows platform, including new developer tools and increased support. Company executives also highlighted new top apps coming to Windows, including Facebook, Flipboard and NFL — clear evidence of the steady app momentum for Windows, which is experiencing the fastest growth across any platform.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was joined on stage by Julie Larson-Green, corporate vice president of Windows, and other company executives to demo the Windows 8.1 Preview, focusing on key areas of personalization, search powered by Bing, increased functionality for businesses, new in-the-box apps and more.

“With Windows 8 we built a new Windows, reimagined from the chipset to the experience. It was an ambitious vision, and with Windows 8.1 we refine it,” Larson-Green said. “Windows 8.1 will support the widest range of tablets and PCs and demonstrates how responsive we can be for customers. The preview we are releasing today is an important step for partners around the world that are building the next generation of Windows devices and apps.”

Antoine Leblond, corporate vice president of Windows Program Management, also took the stage to outline how Windows 8.1 provides additional opportunity for developers to design, build and market their Windows Store apps. He reinforced the best-in-class economics — developers keep 80 percent of the revenue for the lifetime of the app once it crosses the $25,000 revenue threshold. He also highlighted new updates, including the following:

Redesigned Windows Store. The Windows Store has been completely redesigned in Windows 8.1 to reach engaged customers and connect them more effectively and quickly to the apps they want. This includes increased merchandising opportunities for apps and better discoverability based on an individual’s preferences, as well as new search controls from Bing in the user interface. App listings have a new layout with refined navigation and more related content.

More monetization opportunities. Windows 8.1 delivers new opportunities for developers to build and monetize apps and engage users. Leblond introduced Windows Store gift cards, an easy way for consumers to purchase apps, books, games and content. Customers will be able to load their Microsoft Account with stored value in their local currency and make purchases online from the Windows Store. For developers in China, the Windows Store will support Alipay, meaning local developers will have new options to generate additional revenue.

Leading experiences. Windows 8.1 offers developers a canvas to present and develop compelling app designs. Windows 8.1 apps can work together to share data, share the screen and deliver richer customer experiences across a range of devices, including new 8-inch-and-below form factors.

Beyond Windows 8.1, Microsoft showcased how developers can take advantage of tools and resources across the company to build differentiated experiences for their customers across Microsoft devices and services, including the following:

Bing as a platform. The new Bing platform builds upon the large investments Microsoft has made in the core technologies behind Bing.com to be embedded as intelligent services into Microsoft devices, Microsoft services and third-party apps that people use every day. In addition to providing the Search experience in Windows 8.1, Windows Phone, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Office, Bing Developer Services are now available that enable third-party developers to leverage Bing technology to create amazing experiences in their own services and Windows and Windows Phone applications. More information is available here.

Releases of Visual Studio 2013 Preview and .NET 4.5.1 Preview. Timed to the next wave of Windows, Visual Studio 2013 offers the ideal toolset for building rich modern applications that run on Windows 8.1. With a range of new features, Visual Studio 2013 makes it easier and faster for developers to create applications and services using modern lifecycle practices that span mobile devices and the cloud. Microsoft also announced a preview of .NET 4.5.1, enabling developers to build next-generation applications for devices and services while innovating their existing core business applications. Visual Studio 2013 and .NET 4.5.1 previews are now available for download here. More on Visual Studio can be found here.

Windows Phone developer opportunity. Microsoft today announced that shipments of Windows Phone grew six times faster than the rest of the smartphone market over the past year. Sprint also announced plans to add Windows Phone 8 to its 4G LTE network this summer with the HTC® 8XT and the Samsung ATIV S Neo™. With the release of Windows Phone 8, customers are now downloading more than 200 million apps per month and generating more than twice the daily app revenue. To help give developers the best return on their investments, the next release of Windows Phone will be designed to run the same apps that developers are building today and support the same familiar tools and skills. For a limited time, developers can register with Windows Phone Dev Center for only $19.

Courtesy of Microsoft and Intel Corp., attendees at Build received the first 8-inch Windows-based tablet, the Intel® AtomTM Z2760 processor-based Acer Iconia W3 and a Microsoft Surface Pro, with all the horsepower of the third-generation Intel® Core™ processor in a sleek tablet form factor. With new levels of  performance, battery life and versatile form factors enabled by Windows 8.1 and Intel Architecture, these devices offer developers the chance to quickly get started building Windows 8.1 apps that will scale across form factors of all sizes. Among other giveaways, attendees received 100 GB of extra SkyDrive storage for one year, making it easy to store and access their files from anywhere.

The Windows 8.1 Preview is available for download beginning today. More information is available at http://www.preview.windows.com.

Additional information from Microsoft:
- Windows at Build 2013 [Blogging Windows, June 26, 2013]
- Get started building apps on Windows 8.1 Preview [Windows App Builder, June 26, 2013]
- Windows 8.1 Preview is here [Blogging Windows, June 26, 2013]
- Windows 8.1 Preview Product Guide [June 26, 2013]
- Day one running Windows RT 8.1 Preview on Surface RT [Surface Blog, June 26, 2013]
- Kinect for Windows new generation developer kit program [Kinect for Windows Blog, June 26, 2013]
- Build 2013 and Visual Studio 2013 Preview [Somasegar's blog, June 26, 2013]
- Announcing the .NET Framework 4.5.1 Preview [.NET Framework Blog, June 26, 2013]
- Introducing IE11: The Best Way to Experience the Web on Modern Touch Devices [IEBlog, June 26, 2013 9:59 PM]
- Designing the Visual Studio 2013 User Experience [Visual Studio Blog, June 27, 2013]
- What’s new in Visual Studio 2013 Preview for authoring Windows Store XAML [Visual Studio Blog, June 27, 2013]

Microsoft’s Build 2013 Dev Conference Day 1 – Windows 8.1 Preview launch [BogenDorpher YouTube channel, June 26, 2013]

Speech transcript: Steve Ballmer, Julie Larson-Green, Antoine Leblond, and Gurdeep Singh Pall: Build 2013 Keynote [June 26, 2013]

Remarks by Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer; Julie Larson-Green, Corporate Vice President, Windows Engineering; Antoine Leblond, Corporate Vice President, Windows Program Management; and Gurdeep Singh Pall, Corporate Vice President, Information Platform & Experience Management; San Francisco, Calif., June 26, 2013

ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft Corporation, Steve Ballmer. (Cheers, applause, music.)

STEVE BALLMER: Well, thanks. It is exciting to have a chance to kick off this Build Conference here in Moscone Center in San Francisco. It’s hard to get a room in San Francisco, let alone a room for 6,000 of your favorite friends. So we really appreciate and welcome all the folks who are joining us here today in person.

We estimate we have about 60,000 people also watching live on webcasts. Frankly, we actually have quite a bit to show you today, and we’re pretty excited about it. The world is so dynamic, and the amount of incredibly interesting and exciting and valuable work that we’ll get a chance to show you today from Microsoft and from our innovation partners, hardware vendors, software developers, it’s really, really amazing.

Probably won’t show you a lot of Office 365 and Xbox and Skype because we’ve been kind of sharing that separately, but we’ve got a whole lot of Windows, a whole lot of Windows Phone to talk to you about, a whole lot of Windows Azure, and I think you’ll really get a sense on some of the amazing and cool stuff that’s coming really, really fits together very, very nicely.

I will say probably the No. 1 thing that I’m excited about, and the No. 1 thing that I’m happy to be able to do, is to welcome you back to a Build Conference so quickly after the last Build Conference. (Applause.)

And that’s not even so much about the conference, but it’s about the rapid pace of innovation. If there’s not one other message that I reach you with in my opening remarks, it’s about the transformation that we are going through as a company to move to an absolutely rapid release cycle — rapid release, rapid release.

I’ve talked externally about the transformation that we’re going through as a company who’s a software company to a company that is building software-powered devices and software-powered services. And the only way in which that transformation can possibly be driven is on a principle of rapid release.

It’s not a one-time thing. We’re certainly going to show you Windows 8.1 today. But you can think of that in a sense as the new norm for everything we do. For Windows releases, in addition to what we’re doing with devices through our partners, what we’re doing with Azure and Office 365, rapid release cadence is absolutely fundamental to what we’re doing, and, frankly, to the way we need to mobilize our ecosystem of hardware and software development partners.

So the first thing I want everybody to do, whether you actually do it physically in this room, we’ll test the Wi-Fi network, but I want everybody to take the opportunity to go download the Windows 8.1 Preview edition and the version of the Visual Studio tools that allow you to do first-class development for Windows 8.1.

Remember, we put Windows 8 systems in market just the end of last year. It was literally November when we started to see Windows 8 systems really coming to the fore. And yet, what you see and what we will show you as we demonstrate Windows 8.1 to you is you see a heck of a lot of movement, a heck of a lot of innovation, a heck of a lot of responsiveness all coming to market in a very, very rapid timeframe, and with a toolset that ought to enable all of our developers to flourish, to do great work, and help continue to fill out the portfolio of applications that are available for Windows 8.

Now, we’ve been moving quickly not just with Windows but also with our Windows Phone software and what we’re doing with our OEM partners. So in addition to the Windows 8.1 Preview, the first thing I want to have a chance to show you is the incredible range of new devices that our partners are bringing to market with Windows Phone. These are incredibly, incredibly beautiful devices.

You see here a range of new devices. These are a couple of new Nokias, the 928 and the 925, polycarbonate and polycarbonate and aluminum body. They have absolutely the finest camera technology in the market available today. They have beautiful screens. They’re thin, they’re light, they’re available on a wide range of networks, and all have come available here within the last month or two.

The software, in my mind’s eye, is beautiful. It’s beautiful, and it looks like the same software that we have on Windows tablets, Windows PCs, Windows notebooks, and even on our Xbox systems.

An additional product that I think is worthy of mention is the Nokia 521. It, too, is a beautiful product. This product will be sold outside of the United States, primarily in countries where the phone operators do not subsidize; that is, they do not reduce the price of the phone, but this phone will be sold for just over $150, which is really quite amazing for a product that’s this beautiful, this gorgeous, and at this time, an inexpensive price.

We’re also pleased to announce today in conjunction with Sprint and with Samsung and HTC that for the first time, Sprint will be making new Windows 8 Phones available on its network. The HTC 8XT and the Samsung ATIV S Neo are coming available on the Sprint network, filling out the range of options that our customers here in the United States have been looking for, a family of beautiful Windows Phones available on every network in this country and around the world. And we’re really proud of the work that our hardware partners are doing on this collection of beautiful new phones.

It’s not just about phones, though. It’s also about transformation and innovation in the fundamental hardware that we think of as the Windows device.

I’m almost not sure whether to talk about Windows devices today, Windows PCs, Windows tablets, Windows notebooks — the PC, the Windows device of today doesn’t look a lot like the PC of five years ago or 10 years ago or 15 years ago. And it’s really been in this short seven months since we launched Windows 8 and we turned on the switch with our hardware partners that we’ve seen an explosion in the range of innovative new devices that are being designed with Windows inside.

For the first time today, we’ll really spend some time showing you small tablets running Windows. You will all receive, those of you here in person, you will all get an Acer Iconia 8.1-inch Windows 8 machine. (Cheers, applause.)

Antoine Leblond will show you one here in a minute, but it’s a very small tablet. It’s a full Windows 8 device. It has full entertainment, full PC capability. It comes with Windows Office preloaded, and literally is flying off the shelves in terms of volume and appreciation. A perfect device for students, a small, very light device, and yet you can add a keyboard, you have Microsoft Office and the full range of PC applications, enabling kids to do homework and have a little entertainment at the same time.

This small tablet form factor is very important. I wouldn’t call them PCs, but there will be Windows small tablets. You’ll see it, you’ll touch it, you’ll feel it, and we’re going to see a proliferation of Windows small tablet devices here over the course of the next several months.

This is innovation that had to be unlocked. We had to do work in Windows, and our partners have had to do work in the semiconductors and in their system design to really bring the small tablet form factor to life.

Second, when we brought out Windows 8, we talked about touch, touch, touch, touch, touch, touch, and more touch. When you went into the stores last Christmas to look for a Windows 8 machine, most of them didn’t have touch.

And yet, what we’ve seen in that timeframe is a real focusing by our industry ecosystem on bringing Windows 8 touch systems to market: Windows 8 notebooks, Windows 8 touch all-in-ones, touch notebooks.

Touch is incredibly valuable in what I might refer to as a traditional PC form factors. The advantages of being able to touch your all-in-one, or even the notebook, the notebook that maybe you use all day, every day with the mouse and the keyboard powered down, writing code, the ability in a more casual moment to reach out and touch is so obvious, and yet it’s really only in the Windows family that we have a range of touch notebooks.

And you will see in what we show you here onstage, and in what you’ll see now in stores, you will see literally an outpouring of new devices that are notebook computers in every respect, and yet have touch fully integrated and accessible.

One of the things we have certainly seen in our user research is customers who have Windows 8 on touch systems are much, much happier than other Windows 8 customers, and in fact, are even much happier than our Windows 7 customers. And so really getting the ecosystem to come forth with a full product line of Windows 8 touch PCs is incredibly important.

The other category of innovation that we’re going to show you some here today, I guess I’ll call a workhorse two-in-one tablet. I don’t know whether to call it a tablet, I don’t know whether to call it a PC, because really this family of devices really does a first-class job at both of those things.

I continuously bring in and try new machines. The newest machine I’ve tried, which Antoine will demonstrate later, is this Helix device from Lenovo. It’s a Core i7 machine. It has all of the security features, PCM, encryption that anybody would ever want.

I find that I get at least a full day of work in terms of battery life. It is light. It’s about two pounds. It has built-in pen. You say, “How can this possibly be a full-day battery life with a Core i7?” Well, it’s touch, it’s pen, but it also has a keyboard with built-in battery that turns it literally into the most — oops, I should put it down more carefully in demo areas — it literally makes it the most powerful PC and the most powerful, capable, lightweight tablet that you could carry.

Should we call that a PC? Should we call that a tablet? What I call it is all Windows, all the time. And I think it really reaches out and touches a need that a lot of people feel.

How many of us have gone to a meeting with somebody who brought a tablet and then when it comes time to actually take notes, writes them down on pencil and paper, or can’t get at the spreadsheet that they really need to do their work, or try to use it terminal emulator mode, or can’t write the document really, or they take half an hour to set up and turn their tablet back into something that approximates a PC?

This new category of two-in-ones is what I think all of our developers at Microsoft will want.

A lot of times, people just want the desktop, they want a powerful PC or notebook, and yet from time to time, you want to be able to kick back with a lightweight, ink-enabled tablet, and we can go both ways with this powerful two-in-one tablet combination.

Third area that I want to highlight where we have a lot of innovation that you will see showcased here during the Build Conference is in the area of applications. It really again has only been seven months since we’ve launched Windows 8, and the number of applications that we see coming into the store is phenomenal.

But it also to me is gratifying to see that developers are doing really great work for Windows 8. Flipboard will be announcing their new applications. They’re known, of course, for very intuitive, visual design. And Mike McCue, who’s the CEO of Flipboard, says, “We aspire to not just create the best Windows application possible, but the best version of Flipboard possible.” This new range and family of Windows devices enables that kind of application innovation.

Facebook will bring an application to the Windows 8 environment. They’re very focused on mobile. That’s good. (Applause.) That’s very good.

Mike Chambers, director of engineering at Facebook, says, “Facebook has always believed in connecting everyone, everywhere, on every device. Given our strong and longstanding partnership with Microsoft, this is an exciting way to advance that vision.”

The NFL, we recently struck a deal with the NFL to bring its content and applications to a broad set of Microsoft devices, including all Windows tablets, PCs, et cetera. And today, the NFL will be announcing that their Fantasy Football experience will be available across the range of Windows 8 devices.

These join applications just announced even in the last week from Vivo, from Viclone, from Time Out, from Tesco Groceries, Disney’s new game Where’s My Mickey, and many, many more.

Within this month, I think we’ll pass the 100,000-application mark in the Windows Store. But of course, as important as those 100,000 applications are, they join a list of literally millions of applications that people use on Windows today. In our instrumented versions of Windows, with your permission, when you feed us back data, we get to see kind of the numbers of applications that we have instrumented versions. And we literally have data that shows us approximately 2 to 3 million applications in production on Windows on a daily basis.

They haven’t all been moved to the modern user interface, they’re not all in the store, but they are essential to the way all of us work and get stuff done every day. And they will move, and they will migrate, and they will continue to be the basis and the evolution for the productivity that drives all of us in our daily lives around the world.

The importance of those desktop applications was never more reinforced to us than in the course of the last six months. Since we announced and shipped Windows 8, suffice it to say we pushed boldly in Windows 8, and yet what we found was that we got a lot of feedback from users of those millions of desktop applications that said, if I was to put it in coffee terms, “Why don’t you go refine the blend here?” Let’s remix the desktop and your modern application experiences. Let’s balance them better. Let’s complete them better. Let’s make it easier to start applications the way we’re used to with the millions of desktop applications that we use to be productive every day.

So what we will show you today is a refined blend of our desktop experience and our modern user interface and application experience.

You will see that we bring back the Start button to the desktop. (Cheers, applause.)

You will see that if you want to boot to the desktop, you can boot to the desktop. (Cheers, applause.)

You will see that we have, nonetheless, enriched the Start screen and Start menu, but we have brought back the flexibility for you to see all of those many, many applications that you use every day at a simple and quick glance.

You will see that we have built into the user experience more multitasking options, so you can have more things up on the screen like you’re used to in desktop mode. You can use more screen real estate with multiple monitors. We said, “Let’s reblend the desktop and the modern experience, and let’s recognize the fact that it’s not just these hundreds of thousands of new applications that are in our store and support the modern touch user interface, but let’s also make sure that we have a great path forward for the people using the millions of desktop applications in the world.” So we have refined the blend of those two things, and we’ll show you that here later today.

The last big thing I want to highlight in terms of what we’re doing in Windows 8.1, we’re doing with Bing. We have put an incredible amount of energy, innovation, brain power into our Bing search engine. And we’ve built absolutely an unbelievable product. We have consistently improved the experience to the point where today in the United States we win blind taste tests if you compare results between Bing and Google.

We have gained market share consistently since the launch of Bing here in the United States.

But the time has come now to also use Bing in new ways, to use Bing to harness it, to help improve the fundamental usability of Windows devices and Windows applications.

So, with Windows 8.1, I would say Bing is inside. Our shell experience is powered by Bing. You’ll see that we’re opening up Bing as an application development platform for all of you as Windows developers so that you can use all of this investment we’ve put into crawling the Web and understanding entities. You can use that, see that, and build that richness into your applications running on top of Windows.

So I would say we have moved from Bing super and outside you’ll see Bing inside the whole family of Windows devices and the cool, new applications that all of you are building.

To show you some of these innovations, to demonstrate them to you, we’re going to have Julie Larson-Green, who runs our Windows group, Antoine Leblond, who runs program management and kind of design conceptualization for Windows, and Gurdeep Singh Pall, from our Bing team, come on out and show you some of the exciting innovation that I got a chance to talk to you about. I’ll rejoin you in a little bit, but welcome, Julie, and enjoy the show. (Applause, music.)

JULIE LARSON-GREEN: OKOK, thanks, Steve. So I’ve got a demo to show you, but the most exciting feature that you’ll see is the fact that we’re here in eight months with an update that shows how much more responsive our engineering has become.

Now, I remember when I was here at the developer conference for Windows 7, and we were really proud of that release. It unlocked a whole new generation of PCs called ultrabooks, and those were the best ones that were ever made at the time. They were really a breakthrough product.

And then I came back exactly three years later to unveil Windows 8. And it was about enabling another generation of PCs, tablets that can do everything.

Windows 8 was the most ambitious vision for Windows ever, one that introduced a new platform, experience, app model, and more.

So today, I’m going to show you Windows 8.1. It’s an update that refines the vision of Windows 8 and is responsive to the latest industry trends, from supporting the newest silicon to the widest range of devices at the same time we’ve been delivering continuous improvements.

We have had over 800 updates to Windows since we launched in November that address everything from performance, efficiency, to the look and feel and new features in the product. We designed 8.1 to feel natural and everything from the new mini small tablets up to large, powerful work stations. And so I’m going to give you a glance at all of those things.

Right here, I have the one that Steve was talking about, the Acer 8-inch. I’m going to go over and show you a little bit about how we’ve designed the system to work really great with these devices.

I’m going to use the one connected to the projector. Here I am with the new Start screen for the small device. Works great in portrait mode. These devices are really easy to carry around in your bag or your purse and great for reading. So we have Nook Reader right here.

But we didn’t really just stop there, we also rethought the way that you can be productive on these small devices and came up with some innovative ways to use an onscreen keyboard.

So I’m going to go to Twitter. No Internet connection; that will make it hard to tweet. And right away, you see an application that was designed or an app designed for this 8-inch portrait form factor.

So here’s the onscreen keyboard, and I’m at the Build keynote, started at 9:00. I’m going to tweet that. So as I start typing, immediately you start to see the suggestions at the top. It has B, Build, Bing as suggestions for me.

Normally, I would take my hands away from the keyboard, go to the top, press one of those, and continue typing.

With Windows 8.1, we’ve added gestures to the onscreen keyboard. So, as I slide my finger on the space bar, it selects across. I see the one that I want, I tap, and it gives me the word. (Applause.)

I can do that again. So I’m just going to slide my finger on the space bar right across and tap and the word. I’m going to type “at.”

Another way that we do gestures is on the keypad itself. So one of the things that’s most annoying about an onscreen keyboard is going to the keypad for numbers and then coming back and typing. So instead, with Windows 8.1, I can use a gesture to slide up and put in a number. So here I go with 9. Slide up — whoops, I slid the whole thing — slide up for the colon, zero, zero — and show you what I’m doing here. I’m going to press and hold on the question mark. Now I can slide in any direction to get my exclamation point or pound sign or anything else I want, and it’s just that easy. (Applause.)

So when we launched Windows 8, it was on these larger tablets, really tablets that can do everything. And it was all about making you productive and helping you get things done that you wanted to go do. Some of the things that we’ve improved in Windows 8.1 are around email, around searching, what Steve talked about before, and also with entertainment. So I’m going to take you through some of those things.

Let’s go to my email. Now, we’ve got a big update that hopefully many of you got in February for the mail client. We added all kinds of new capabilities, and we’ve been improving it ever since. What I’m going to show you here are some of the capabilities that help you really manage your inbox content and the innovations we’re putting in when we release. This isn’t in your preview build, but it will be there in the fall when we come out.

So right away, I have what’s called the power pane here on the left-hand side. It makes it very easy for me to filter and find things that are in my inbox. So I press on social, and it gives me all my social updates all at a glance. I can see everything that’s been coming from my Facebook feed or anything else that I have connected here.

I have my favorite people that I can get to really quickly or get to an individual.

I also have newsletters. If you’re like me, you’re getting many of these newsletters every day; sometimes many times a day and it fills up your inbox. So we’ve added the capability to sweep these away.

So if I go and select one of these, I’ve got LivingSocial, use the sweep command, and I can delete them all at once. I can delete all but the latest. And then as they come in, it automatically will update and set it aside

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