Microsoft Corp on Friday announced that a major update to its Windows operating system is to be released globally on Oct. 17.
The release of the Windows 10 “Fall Creators Update” is to come the same day that Windows Mixed Reality headsets powered by the software hit the market, Microsoft executive vice president of operating systems Terry Myerson said in a blog post.
Unlike virtual reality gear already available, Windows headsets made by partners such as Acer Inc (宏碁), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), HP Inc and Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) will not require cameras to track user movements, Myerson said.
Photo: Reuters
Windows headsets are to be priced as low as US$299 and will need to be plugged into computers powered by the Fall Creators Update, Microsoft said.
The original version of Windows 10 debuted a little more than two years ago.
The latest version is being built into a wide array of devices that are to be on the market in time for the year-end holiday shopping season, the company said.
Microsoft has highlighted how Windows 10 will let software savants serve up creations on the full spectrum of smart devices, including the HoloLens augmented reality headgear.
“By combining our physical and digital worlds, we believe mixed reality is the next step in the evolution of human computing,” Myerson said in the blog post.
Designing Windows to make Microsoft cloud services available from competitors’ devices and moving quickly in the nascent mixed-reality market were seen as shrewd moves by the company.
To get Windows 10 adopted quickly, Microsoft decided to give it away as a free upgrade for a year after its release.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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