Microsoft Build 2015 live blog | CNET
Want CNET to notify you of price drops and the latest stories?
No, thank you
Accept

Microsoft Build 2015 live blog

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is delivering a live keynote presentation from the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, where he will have to sell developers on the future of Windows.

  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 4:53:05 PM
    We're onto a more consumer-friendly subject now: Office. Nadella is back.
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 4:54:26 PM
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 4:54:52 PM
    Rob Lefferts, GM of Office Extensibility, joins Nadella onstage now. He's talking about DocuSign and the ability to integrate apps into Office.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 4:55:17 PM
    The theme here is that Office is less a collection of products you buy and more a platform of services developers can build on top of and integrate into.
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 4:55:20 PM
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 4:56:29 PM
    Lefferts is showing an SAP server add-in to connect sales data into Excel directly, all running (for free, mind you) on an Apple iPad tablet. The new Microsoft on display.
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 4:57:42 PM
    I took a look at early builds of Office 2016 last week -- we should be seeing those previews on Windows 10 before the end of the month.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 4:57:49 PM
    Lefferts is now showing how Outlook works with Salesforce and LinkedIn "add-ins," the term Microsoft is using for linking services into Office apps.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 4:58:59 PM
    Microsoft is partnering with ride-hailing service Uber to bring an add-in to Outlook, which can remind you when to get a car and auto-fill your destination and current location to help you order rides.
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 5:00:07 PM
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 5:00:20 PM
    Microsoft has a number of Apple devices onstage, further hammering home the idea that Nadella's version of Windows means products and services that move across devices, no matter who makes them or what core software runs them.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 5:02:06 PM
    Lefferts is talking about the Office application programming interface, or API. It's interesting to see Nadella switch gears from speeches on broad-stroke vision to in-the-weeds API discussions.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 5:03:15 PM
    "Something funny going on?" Nadella asks. The crowd is cracking up at the notifications going off in the corner of the screens.
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 5:03:30 PM
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 5:50:51 PM
    The current builds of Project Spartan on Windows 10 are in a bit of a rough state, with much of the promised functionality missing. Ditto for build on phones. here's hoping the latest build of Microsoft Edge are a little closer to ready for prime time.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 5:51:51 PM
    Edge is being built as a universal Windows app, meaning it can work across all devices. It's also got Cortana built in, which opens up the possibility that Cortana could come to iOS or Android if an Edge app becomes available on those platforms.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 5:53:09 PM
    Microsoft has a bold "New Tab" interface that looks a bit like the Yahoo homepage, filled with news and sports updates and other little widget-like objects.
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 5:54:02 PM
    I get a ton of use out of the Reddit Enhancement Suite, so seeing it in Microsoft Edge is... awesome.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 5:54:54 PM
    Microsoft took the Chrome extension and implemented natively into Edge, so it's there all the time.
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 5:55:25 PM
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 5:56:18 PM
    Belfiroe is now onto Continuum, a feature that will help apps identify which type of device you're using and modify the universal Windows app appropriately.
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 5:57:10 PM
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 5:57:12 PM
    Belfiore also giving a more in-depth look at the Windows 10 user interface on tablet, which we haven't seen a lot of.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 5:58:29 PM
    Belfiore opened up numerous apps on his tablet and is showing how Continuum switches them to PC-style apps when you dock the device.
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 5:59:24 PM
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:00:26 PM
    Belfiore now onto Continuum for phones, but says there is no new hardware to show it off on so he's using a simulation. That means no Lumia flagship it sounds like it.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:01:57 PM
    Belfiore plugs a Windows Phone into a PC monitor and the PowerPoint app treats it like a PC "because it is in fact the same code that you would see for PowerPoint on a PC."
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 6:03:28 PM
    Continuum on Phones feels like the last step in this universal operating system vision Microsoft is pushing for with Windows 10. You could potentially carry one device -- a phone, or a phablet -- and just pair it with a keyboard and mouse when you need to do a bit of spreadsheet wrangling.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:03:48 PM
    "With Continuum for phones, we believe any phone can be your PC," Belfiore says. An ambitious proposition, to be sure.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:04:25 PM
    "In mobile-first countries, individuals could be as productive with the phone that they're buying as if it were a PC." --Belfiore
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:04:52 PM
    This capability will require new devices that can drive dual-screen, Belfiore adds, which are not released yet.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:05:30 PM
    Onstage now is Alex Kipman, the father of the Kinect motion camera and the head of Windows Holographic and HoloLens.
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 6:07:14 PM
    Looks like we're getting another taste of HoloLens. At night I still dream of chasing those holographic sheep, so consider my interest piqued.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:07:21 PM
    "We have been humbled by the outpouring of enthusiasm," Kipman says of HoloLens.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:07:53 PM
    Microsoft is announcing the Windows Holographic platform. A HoloLens user joins Kipman onstage now.
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 6:07:55 PM
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:09:17 PM
    "This is life with holograms," Kipman says, showing a living room setup covered in virtual screens and 3D objects, included a dog named Fang.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:09:45 PM
    HoloLens turns your living room into a desktop.
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 6:09:50 PM
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:11:12 PM
    With the words "follow me," the HoloLens user gets a movie-playing screen to join him as he walks. You can place it on any wall and scale its size.
  • Nate Ralph 4/29/2015 6:12:04 PM
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:12:23 PM
    "This mixed reality grants us permission to reinvent productivity." Kipman is one heck of an evangelist.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:14:50 PM
    We're getting a video showing the applications of the HoloLens in architecture.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:17:02 PM
    We're getting another live HoloLens demo with a member of Case Western's Cleveland Clinic.
  • Nick Statt 4/29/2015 6:17:55 PM
    There's a virtual man onstage being turned into layers of skin, muscle and bone in a live HoloLens demo. The future of anatomy class?
Powered by Platform for Live Reporting, Events, and Social Engagement