Microsoft Corp on Wednesday made a pitch to developers to stay with the US tech giant, saying it remains a force in future technologies such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality.
Chief executive Satya Nadella highlighted Microsoft’s advances with its HoloLens augmented-reality goggles, its Cortana virtual assistant and its progress in cloud computing.
This means Microsoft is a force to be reckoned with even though it has lagged rivals like Apple Inc and Google in powering mobile devices, Nadella said.
“For us, mobile first is not about the mobility of any single device, it is the mobility of the human experience across all the devices and all the computing in our lives,” Nadella told the San Francisco gathering.
“Cloud is not a single destination, cloud is a new form of computing that in fact enables that mobility of experience across all our devices,” he said.
WINDOWS 10
The company said its Windows 10 operating system — which can be tied together a range of devices including PCs, phones and tablets — now has about 270 million users.
“Windows 10 is off to an amazing start,” said Nadella, calling it the “fastest ever” adoption of the Windows operating system.
The 270 million represents new computers and devices with Windows 10 installed as well as upgrades of existing gadgets.
Microsoft has set a goal of having the operating system in use in more than 1 billion devices by 2018, which would put it on a par with Apple, which said this year it has 1 billion active devices running iOS.
XBOX UPDATE
Microsoft said it would introduce an update of the operating system in the coming months that would make Windows 10 available for its Xbox One game console and enable various devices to use the Microsoft digital assistant known as Cortana, an artificial-intelligence tool.
The Windows update is also to step up use of biometrics for authentication, allowing users to log into computers and their applications with their fingerprints, improving security by moving away from passwords.
Microsoft began its first shipments of its augmented-reality headgear, HoloLens, staking its place in what is expected to be an emerging computing platform.
HoloLens is being delivered to application developers, with Microsoft opting for augmented reality rather than virtual reality in devices such as the Oculus Rift from Facebook Inc.
At the conference, the US tech giant showed some of the possibilities for HoloLens — such as giving users a view of Mars that up to now could only be seen by space vehicles and an inside view of the brain by medical specialists aiming to deal with a tumor.
Aiming to encourage new applications for the device, Microsoft said that developers can create a “new mixed reality” with holograms to enable users to see and experience things in new ways.
The developer editions are to be available for US$3,000 for app makers and other Microsoft partners.
One of the partners is NASA, which uses HoloLens to help users move about as if they were on Mars and figure out where they want the Rover vehicle to go.
MEDICAL DEMONSTRATION
Pamela Davis, dean of the Case Western Reserve University medical school, led a demonstration showing how holographic images of the body and its organs, including the brain, can be used to train doctors.
With the goggles and Windows 10, Microsoft said it was “extending the Windows experience to holograms and allowing developers to begin helping build the future of holographic computing.”
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
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Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day