Microsoft encourages kids to code with Minecraft

During the second day of Microsoft’s annual developers' conference, they made an interesting announcement regarding Minecraft – the extremely popular sandbox game they bought for $2.5 billion last year. To encourage young people to get involved with computer science, they have added the ability to create Minecraft mods with Java into Visual Studio.

(A Minecraft mod – if you didn't already know – is a user created extension to the game. There are a diverse amount of mods available to download from the internet which do everything from add new bizarre blocks, to creating beautiful biomes.)

iOS and Android apps are coming to Windows Phone

Microsoft apps in 2013

The Windows store on both Windows Phone and Windows 8/10 devices has always been underpopulated compared to the app stores of Apple and Google. Microsoft is hoping to change that today with the announcement of four new ways to make it easier for developers to make Windows apps.

The first way is by registering their website with the Windows store. This then makes the website available in the store for users to download. When the website’s app is launched, it looks and feels just like a Windows app.

Secondly, Win32 apps and .NET programs are going to be able to be bought to the Windows Store. Microsoft announced Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Premier Elements will be coming later this year.

Thirdly, Android, Java, and C++ apps are now supported in the Windows Store. With only a few modifications to code, they will be able to work seamlessly on Windows devices.

And finally, Objective C programmed apps (which is the programming language used to make iOS applications) will also work with both Windows 10 and Windows Phone. Developers can even quickly integrate the Object C apps with XBOX achievements. According to Microsoft, the Candy Crush Windows Phone app is already an example of an Objective C app.

With the promise of 1 billion Windows 10 users by 2018 – plus these new, easy ways to make apps for Windows – I can imagine many thousands more Windows apps arriving very soon.

Peter Kay's Car Share review

In the driving seat: Peter Kay in 'Car Share'

Peter Kay's new BBC 1 comedy, 'Car Share', premiered during April. The six-part sitcom has been in the works for many years now and tells the story of two supermarket employees: John (Peter Kay) and Kayleigh (Sian Gibson). They met each other when they were paired together in their work's car share scheme so almost all of the series is set in John's Fiat. Other series's set wholly in a car include Rob Brydon's 'Marion and Goeff' and 'Carpool' on Dave. 'Car Share' is a welcomed addition to the car comedy category.

The series is very amusing and heartwarming as the character's friendship grow. Comedies with simple settings, like Car Share, rely on well-written, humorous dialogue. The four writers of the show have thankfully done a great job; despite the whole show being set in a car, the two characters don't drive you mad.

From adults using children's crossings, to death, dogging and dating, the two characters discuss an array of typical topics that many will find relatable and humorous.

After no TV work from Peter Kay for over a decade, I was expecting more from 'Car Share' however it is an entertaining light watch if you've got time to kill. The show is sadly no where near the same level as Kay's previous work such as Phoenix Nights and Max and Paddy's Road To Nowhere. 

'Car Share' was debuted on BBC iPlayer between April 24th - 28th and was then broadcast weekly on BBC 1 from the following week.

10 years since the first YouTube video was uploaded

On Valentines Day 2005, three former PayPal employees set about creating a new website called YouTube. The website allowed both individuals and corporations alike to upload, view, and share videos of different formats whether they be vlogs, shorts, TV clips or music videos. The first YouTube video, called 'Me at the zoo' was uploaded on April 23rd 2005 and it is still available to watch today:



YouTube became so popular, Google purchased it for $1.65 billion in 2006 and by 2007 it was estimated that YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet did in 2000!

YouTube in 2005

10 years on, YouTube is rated the 4th most visited website in the US and UK. They has recently released an app exclusively for children called 'YouTube Kids', the video player is compatible with 4K 3D video, everyone from politicians and celebrities to lonely teenagers living in back-bedrooms upload a total of 300 hours of content to YouTube every minute, and YouTube Music Key (launched late 2014) allows users use YouTube like a music streaming service. It hasn't been a completely smooth journey to where it is today though. YouTube is banned in multiple countries for both political and logistical reasons, controversial content uploaded by users have made them subject to numerous government inquiries, and similar services such as Vimeo have launched offering content creators appealing alternatives.

So can YouTube flourish for another 10 years? I hope so. Unlike some other Google products, YouTube seems to always be getting new features and design upgrades. Also many teens would struggle to survive without the a breed of celebrity called 'YouTubers' (such as Caset Neistat, Zoella and Syndicate). The developers of YouTube also have a good sense of humor which the internet appreciates.

However, Facebook has been working hard on their video player over the past few months and they were happy to report today that videos on their website are getting over 4 billion daily views. This was the number YouTube was at only 3 years ago. However, I predict Facebook still has a long way to go until it reaches YouTube's level of success with compelling content.

The world wouldn't be the place it is today without YouTube. It is a valuable service for so many storytellers, creators, musicians, celebrities, politicians and businesses around the world and it is the number one place for online videos - for now anyway.

Facebook launches Messenger.com... It's Facebook Messenger without Facebook

messenger.com

Last week Facebook showed off a bunch of new apps developed by third parties which worked in line with Facebook messenger. These apps allowed messenger users to send each other GIFs, sounds, and other types of media which was impossible to do previously.

Today, Facebook has launched messenger.com which gives users a sleek, clean interface for users to message each other with on a computer without needing to use the Facebook website. The website closely resembles the Facebook Messenger iPad app and has many of the same basic functionalities.

To send a thumbs up, users can click and hold depending on how large you want it to be, users can send pictures from their documents folders, and they have access to all the sticker packs that they have downloaded on messenger on their smartphone. The calling and video calling capabilities are even included.

Developers have already turned messenger.com into a Mac app. Fingers crossed that a Facebook messenger Chrome extention is in the works too which can be used without a browser (like Google Hangouts).

For users who use Facebook messenger to communicate but don’t like to be distracted by creepy Teletubbies videos, friends’ mundane first world problems, and advertisements; messenger.com is the perfect platform. However, I find myself constantly wanting to check other notifications - not just messages - so I need to revert back to using the traditional Facebook website.

OneDrive adds subtle new features for better photo experience

New photo album feature in Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft’s service for securely saving your pictures, videos, Office documents, and other files in the cloud, OneDrive, has recently added some subtle new features which lay the foundations for a significantly better photo experience.

For years now, users of OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) have been able to automatically backup their phone’s camera roll to the platform and even manually save photos from their other devices on there. Once the photos are safely stored in the cloud, users are able to share them via a link – however that’s about it.

Meanwhile, Google has a similar service, which does the same, built into Google+. And, once photos are uploaded: magic happens. Google+ photos automatically recognises faces and locations, suggests what filter would look best on individual photos, makes similar photos into animated GIFs, creates photo stories, and automatically enhances every picture. From what was announced at the Windows 10 event during January and from what has been added to OneDrive recently, it looks like things are finally about to improve for OneDrive users… Maybe even to a Google+ standard.

In the recent OneDrive update, every photo added to an album is also displayed under the ‘photos’ menu in reverse chronological order so you can easily find recent snaps. These photos are displayed in a crisp, clean, edge-to-edge page.

Also, any photos uploaded to OneDrive can now be added to a photo album which automatically applies tags to pictures depending on what’s in the frame. The tags, so far, are things like #people, #screenshot, #text which make pictures easier to find photos via search. To search photos you can either use the search bar in OneDrive, or even Bing.

Although this seems like only a baby step as it is unlikely that the new features will be noticed by anyone who doesn’t use OneDrive a lot, it is a step in the right direction for OneDrive. Users have their fingers crossed for better sharing functionality, people tagging, and better editing/enhancing functions to come soon.

What to expect in the next version of Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office is the software package which provides people around the world with the most popular word processor, spreadsheet software, presentation software, and email client.

Some of the features that are going to be included in the next version of Office (probably to be named Office 2016) were announced at Microsoft’s Windows 10 event during January.

The new version of PowerPoint on Windows Phone

Although Microsoft Office is currently available on Windows Phone, it lacks functionality and can be very slow; Microsoft hopes to change that with an updated version of the Microsoft Office apps. The update will allow you to do anything on your smartphone that you can do on your computer as the tabs ‘review’, ‘file’ and ‘format’ are available amongst others. The mobile user interface - which they gave the press and developers a sneak peek of in January - even looked like the familiar Microsoft Office 2013. Office for mobile will also support cloud printing.

On mobile, you will be able to view and edit Microsoft Word documents either in a page view – which shows how the document will look when printed, or a mobile view - which optimises the document so it is easier to view on smartphones.

Outlook in Office 2016

Word in Office 2016

PowerPoint will include sophisticated new animations and be able to wirelessly cast to screens. Outlook Mail has had a full redesign as well and Word is integrated for rich email formatting. Like what you can currently do on the Gmail app or the Apple Mail app, Outlook now lets you slide right on emails to flag them or slide them left to delete.

Apart from the mobile version and the desktop version, the next version of Office will also have a touch optimised version for tablets and convertibles. This looks very similar to the version of Office available for iPad.

Sadly, Microsoft doesn’t seem have a problem with a PC having two versions of Office installed; one for desktop and one for touch. I suppose they’ve done it for years like that with OneNote on Windows 8 which comes included both in Microsoft Office and also as Windows Store app.

Overall, Microsoft looks like it is continuing to do what it does best by maintaining Office’s status as the best software package for your office needs however they need to address the issue of multiple versions of the same software on one device.

What to expect in Windows 10

Microsoft’s event in January played host to a number of announcements including the Surface Hub and the HoloLens. However, the primary purpose of the event, and the announcement which took up the most time, was showing off new features which are due to arrive in Windows 10.

Windows 10 was first announced at a tiny event last September and since then 1.7 million Windows insiders have downloaded the technical preview and given feedback to Microsoft on it. Some of the features included so far in Windows 10 include:

• A new action centre when you slide in from the right which includes a list of notifications and quick settings (such as Wi-Fi, aeroplane mode, and a button to switch between desktop and tablet mode).

• A new settings menu which combines the Windows 8 settings app and control panel which could only be accessed on desktop mode.

• A new way of app switching when you slide in from the left which is now more ‘elegant and natural’.

Windows 10 action centre

It was Joe Belfiore, the man responsible for the design and software product definition of Windows services, who came on stage to announce the new Windows 10 features. Before he did, he stressed that what he would be showing was an ‘early build’ thus is prone to glitches.

Belfiore first talked about the new search bar which sits comfortably next to the iconic start button in the bottom left corner of the display. It has Cortana, Microsoft’s digital assistant, built in – which was previously exclusive to Windows Phone – and it can be operated hands-free like by shouting ‘Hey Cortana’.

To demonstrate Cortana’s new capabilities, Belfiore had a cringe-worthy conversation with her where he showed how it could track flights, display weather forecasts, push calendar notifications, speak the latest sports results, and even attempt to do impersonations. All of the data that Cortana learns about the user is stored in what Microsoft is calling ‘the notebook’. Users can go here and review what Cortana has learnt about them. This proves that Microsoft is being transparent about the data they collect about their users.

Joe Belfiore in front of the improved photos app

The terrible Windows 8 photos app has finally been significantly updated with a new, slicker, and simpler user interface and a handful of new features. Photos automatically uploaded to OneDrive are now auto-enhanced and duplicates are hidden – capabilities which are extremely familiar to people who currently use Google Plus Photos. The new photos app also automatically files photos into albums depending on where they were taken, when they were taken and who is in them. In the header of the albums include a list of people who are tagged and the name of the album so you can share it on the Internet – once again, functionality which is familiar to people who have been using Google Plus Photo Stories. (All the photo features can be turned off in settings if you don’t want them.)

Belfiore then briefly touched upon a redesign to the People app and the Music app. The new Music app allows you to store your whole music album in OneDrive and then stream it from any of your devices - just like what you can currently do on Google Music.

Windows 10 on a desktop PC

The new lightweight Internet browser which was rumoured last week was officially announced. ‘Project Spartan’ has a new engine which is better built for the current internet (unlike Internet Explorer which is running into an increasing amount of compatibility issues as the web develops). The new browser has ‘three significant new features’ one of which is the ability to draw on pages using a stylus or your finger, click to add comments to the page and share the page with friends via OneNote. The page’s current content is saved however the links remain working. The second feature is a new reading mode which standardises web pages so you can consume content in a clean environment and open PDF documents in the browser instead of having to download them. Reading lists are now synced and offline so you can read when not connected to the Internet. The third, and probably biggest new feature, is Cortana built directly into the search bar.

Windows 10 on
a smartphone

Regarding games, the XBOX app has been improved greatly and you can now stream XBOX One games through your Windows 10 device – something which Microsoft has been promising for years.

The most surprising announcement of the day wasn’t actually about any new software features, it was that Windows 10 will be a completely free upgrade for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 users in the first year. This terrific news was met by light applause. Microsoft said that devices will be updated until they literally can’t take it anymore which sadly might already be the case for Windows RT as no plans have been released to update those devices to Windows 10.

Windows 10 is predicted for release in late 2015. Until then, technical previews will be available to Windows insider users until spring and then Microsoft will add the finishing touches to the OS before it becomes available for the millions of people currently using Windows 7 or above.

Microsoft's new augmented reality goggles: HoloLens

Recently, Microsoft has been lagging behind companies such as Apple and Google when it comes to innovation however, at their Windows 10 event during January, that all changed when they announced a holographic headset called Microsoft HoloLens.

Microsoft HoloLens

HoloLens looks like something which has been plucked straight out of a futuristic sci-fi movie. Once a user puts the headset on, it spatially maps the world around them so they can look through HD lenses into an augmented reality world. In this digital world, they can play games (Minecraft was demonstrated in Microsoft’s announcement), make Skype calls, overlay designs on reality, and much more. All of these scenarios allow the user to move around and look at the holograms in 3D like they were really there. This is never-seen-before, exciting new technology isn’t something you would usually expect from Microsoft.

Microsoft says that the HoloLens includes a high-end CPU but that they needed to invent a new processor especially for this device because there isn’t currently one available that would have done the job well enough. This decision seems to have paid off because there has been almost no lag at all in the test demos.

HoloLens runs a special version of Windows 10 called Windows Holographic and Microsoft claims that Windows 10 apps can be adapted so that they work with the headset.

The user interface on Windows Holographic

Although Microsoft says HoloLens will ‘transform you living room into a surreal gaming environment’, the main demonstration of Windows Holographic featured an employee using HoloStudio – a Microsoft design studio which they said lets you ‘build 3D… in 3D’ – to construct a quad-copter out of various different shapes. Once the holographic app was launched, a 3D toolbox appeared which was full of different shapes with different holographic textures and paints. Users can summon these different items in two different ways: either by voice or by staring at what you need – HoloLens understands both. The words ‘tap and gaze, and tap again’ were repeated constantly during this demo emphasising how simple HoloLens is to use. Then, to put the icing on the cake, they announced that products built in HoloStudio could be 3D printed within minutes.

The outro to this unorthodox yet intriguing announcement was a video featuring Scientists explaining how, by this summer, they will be using HoloLens to both control Mars rovers and to immerse themselves in the Martian landscape.

Microsoft announces the Surface Hub: an 84-inch 4K touchscreen whiteboard

The new Microsoft Surface Hub

At Microsoft’s even in January, the technology giant announced that they were entering a whole new product category which appears to be a blend of a television and an interactive whiteboard. It is called the Microsoft Surface Hub.

This is not a product aimed at consumers; Microsoft isn’t even attempting to market it that way. Instead, businesses and organisations are the target market of this unique device which features a 4K display, dual cameras, microphones, and inbuilt Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC.

Like many of the Surface products, the Surface Hub comes with a stylus which, once picked up, automatically turns the screen white so it can be drawn on. The notes are then automatically saved to OneNote.

Skype for business plus other useful business tools are built-in. During the unveiling event of the device, Microsoft employees staged a conference call where notes were made and a virtual 3D model was toyed with. Once the call had ended, all the information used during the call – including the notes and diagrams - were then sent to the people involved automatically and the apps closed down so the device was ready for the next meeting. The Surface Hub looks like the ultimate conferencing tool.

Users can cast to the Surface Hub from their Windows Phone or Windows 10 PC either wirelessly or with a wire. This is ideal for PowerPoint presentations, showing off charts in spreadsheets, and even simply watching videos.

The Surface Hub is running Windows 10 however the apps have been optimised for such a large screen. This means that you can multitask and run two apps side-by-side.



The Surface Hub comes in two sizes: 55-inch and 84-inch. And, although there is no price point yet – it is highly likely that this thing isn’t going to be cheap. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said at the January Microsoft event: “We want to move from people needing Windows, to choosing Windows and loving Windows”. He hopes this will be a step in the right direction for Microsoft instead of a repeat of the $8000 PixelSense (Surface) table they announced in 2008 everyone has forgotten about (apart from Hawaii Five-0).

A disastrous flop: the Microsoft PixelSense in Hawaii Five-0 - a TV program sponsored by Microsoft