Windows 10, HoloLens and 8 other cool products Microsoft showed on Jan 21

Last night, Microsoft showcased the consumer-centric features of Windows 10, which will be released later in the year. The company had already shown the 'business-centric' features of the OS late last year. Previously, the company had even released a technical preview of the OS, which is meant for people who have signed up for its Windows Insider program.

Next week, the company will release a new build of the Windows 10 technical preview, which will contain new bits and some of the features it showcased at the event. The event not only focused on Windows 10, but also a new breed of hardware that Microsoft has created for it. Here is a recap of everything cool and important that Microsoft announced at the event.

Microsoft HoloLens

The HoloLens comes first because without doubt it was the most innovative and arguably ground-breaking announcement that was made at the event. If you have seen a science fiction movie or a TV show like a Star Trek or even the recent Iron Man movies, then the HoloLens will feel familiar. The HoloLens in a way replicates virtual reality concepts that we have seen in Sci-Fi films like the Star Trek HoloDeck, or the gesture interface in Minority Report.

It's a Windows based wearable, which has been designed to run a new breed of Windows apps based on the new Holographic application programming language (API). Essentially, it spawns a new type of holographic computing, which has not been seen before, at least in the consumer space. The HoloLens acts like a bridge between the real world and the virtual world.

The HoloLens has a new type of processor, which is being called the Holographic Processing unit (HPU), a suite of sensors  that help detect the real world and gestures of the user and even something that's being called Holographic Sound. Microsoft showed a new type of Skype app designed for the HoloLens, and also a new Holo Studio app, which helps users build virtual objects or even prototype things virtually. These objects can also be 3D printed as the company showed with a demo of a quad-copter.

As impressive this is, Microsoft is also working with NASA, where the scientists working on the Mars Rover mission can virtually simulate the planet. The company also has developed a version of the Minecraft game for the wearable. The HoloLens is expected to be a consumer-facing release by the time Windows 10 is released later in the year.

Windows 10 is free

Yes, hell has finally frozen over. Windows for the longest time has been an expensive upgrade that no one bothers about. With Windows 10 those days are over. Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 users. Even Windows Phone 8.1 users will be upgraded to Windows 10 for free. In the modern world this may not sound like a big deal considering Apple offers OS X and iOS for free and Google does the same with Android, but for Microsoft this is a big change. Windows, for the last 3 decades has been a big cash cow for the company. At the event, Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO announced that the company is now thinking about Windows as a service. How this will be implemented is not known yet.

Windows 10 for mobile

Windows 10 is coming to all Windows Phone 8.1 devices. Microsoft will release the preview for Windows 10 for mobile sometime in February, which could be just before Mobile World Congress. The company is also promising flagship Windows 10 based smartphones, something that has not happened in a long time. The last true flagship phones that were the Lumia 930 and the HTC One (M8) for Windows.

Xbox for Windows and Windows for Xbox

The sub-head says it all. Microsoft is adding a Xbox app for Windows, which will be a part of all Windows devices. On the flip-side, the Xbox One console will be upgraded to Windows 10. Windows PC users and Xbox One gamers will be able to play the same games online provided if the game is available on both the platforms. Like the PlayStation 4, Microsoft is also adding game streaming to the Xbox One and Windows. This will allow users to stream games on their Windows device directly from their Xbox One console remotely.

Lastly, Microsoft showed off DirectX 12, which promises vastly superior graphics performance on current hardware. In games that depend more on CPU processing, Microsoft claims Direct X 12 will offer up to 50 per cent improvement in performance. Direct X 12 has also been developed for mobile and promises better graphics with frugal battery usage. It will likely take on Apple's Metal API head on.

Project Spartan

Project Spartan is Microsoft's new browser, which will come with Windows 10. It has been developed for both mobile and the desktop. It has a new rendering engine, a new cleaner user interface, a reading mode and even a reading list. There is support for digital inking and annotations and also it is probably the only web browser with a virtual assistant built-in. Microsoft has improved its Cortana assistant a lot and it is embedded in the Spartan browser. The big deal is that Spartan marks the end of the line for Internet Explorer. Spartan will replace the polarising Internet Explorer, which has been a part of Windows since Windows 95.

Microsoft Surface Hub

The new Surface Hub is an 84-inch computer with a full suite of sensors, cameras and internal processing hardware. Its 84-inch screen can act like a whiteboard and supports a custom version of Microsoft OneNote, which works with a digital pen. Microsoft is pitching the Surface Hub as an collaborative tool for meetings and white boarding. It also comes preloaded with Skype for Business, which is a not too subtle hint at the productivity play of the product.

Intelligent Cortana

Cortana was announced last year at Microsoft's BUILD developer conference. It is Microsoft's digital assistant much in the mould of Google Now and Siri, but it integrates features from both and adds a level of user customisation. Now, Cortana is a part of Windows 10 and hence it comes to the PC. Microsoft has made it wildly more intelligent and context-aware. It can also tap into your local documents in addition to files stored on OneDrive. Microsoft has also integrated it into the Windows 10 maps app. It tracks everything that it thinks its user is interested in or things it has been manually taught to track.

New Office apps for touch

In the last few months we saw Microsoft make Office free for iOS and Android users and also release new improved versions of it. That meant that Windows Phone users arguably were using the worst version of Office. But now that will change. Microsoft has created new Office apps - Word, Excel, Outlook and Powerpoint, which have been designed for touch from the ground up. These apps have all the formatting options that power users expect and they share a design language with their desktop cousins. Importantly, in Outlook, Microsoft has even added the word engine, which means one can type with all the aids that one gets on Word. The new Office apps can also wirelessly print documents.

Continuum

Back in September 2014, at its first Windows 10 event Microsoft talked about a feature called Continuum, which has been designed to eliminate the jarring difference between the modern Windows UI and the old desktop explorer. Continuum automatically detects whether the user has a touchscreen or is dependent on a keyboard and mouse. Accordingly, it either shows the explorer or the modern UI. This will be one of the first features that will be part of the new Windows 10 technical preview builds. In addition, Microsoft also showed a way for keyboard and mouse users to expand the new 'Start Screen' so that people who like the Windows 8.1 UI can revert to the modern UI even when using a desktop.

Retooled Charms

The Charms menu has been retooled in Windows 10. Instead of just showing a few controls for search, sharing and settings, now the Charms bar is full of notifications and sharing options. The search option has now been shifted to the taskbar and it integrates Cortana. Apart from this, Microsoft has unified the settings menu and the control panel. Previously both menu's duplicated many functions and this caused a lot of confusion amongst users.