Microsoft’s CEO says Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox will become one

By Andy Boxall July 23, 2014

In an earnings call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed the company is working towards bringing all three major Microsoft software products together, creating what he calls the “Holy Grail” of operating systems.

He’s quoted as saying, “We will streamline the next version of Windows from three operating systems into one single converged operating system for screens of all sizes.”

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This is evidence that we’ll likely see this change in Windows 9, and that it will bring together Windows, Windows Phone, and the Xbox platform. Microsoft will still sell multiple versions of its operating system, but underneath, they will have more in common with each other than ever before. “In the past we had multiple teams working on multiple versions of Windows,” Nadella explained, “Now we have one team.”

The change will directly affect developers, who will only have to write a single app – which Nadella called Universal Windows Apps – which will work across the entire Microsoft software family. This is great news for us, because anything that makes it easier to develop apps, means a bigger choice of better quality apps for us. It also makes sense for Microsoft, as it’s fully aware how a healthy app ecosystem can boost a product’s success.

Nadella continued to add that under the changes, it would bring together all its software stores, and commerce, indicating a single Microsoft app store would be coming, and that only one account would be needed to access it. Again, making it easier and clearer for people to buy apps should mean more app sales.

Microsoft isn’t waiting around to make Windows one, and Nadella has promised we’ll see this new approach soon. He said a low-cost version of Windows will be out by the holiday season, with Bing services at its heart, which would be followed by Windows Pro and Windows Enterprise later. There’s no indication of when Windows Phone or the Xbox platform will be updated.

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Code in latest Windows 10 preview hints at a Surface Phone

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Recently discovered code found within the next release of Windows 10 shows that Microsoft may be ready to re-enter the mobile space. The Windows 10 Insider Preview build contains new APIs for telephony features, fueling speculations that Microsoft may be close to releasing its oft-rumored dual-screen Surface Phone smartphone.

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Windows 10’s Mail app may display an Office 365 ad for some users

A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

Windows 10 devices owners are now jumping on Reddit to complain about an advertisement showing up in the platform's built-in Mail app. As shown above, it appears as a banner hovering above the Mail, Calendar, and People buttons on the menu stating "Get Office 365." The only way to remove the banner is to close the menu altogether.
We loaded up the Mail app, listed as version 17.9126.21425.0, and didn't see the Office 365 banner. Many other Reddit members jumping into the complaint thread aren't experiencing the advertisement either. But in our case, we do have an Office 365 subscription, yet many Reddit users aren't Office subscribers and still don't see the advertisement in the latest version of Mail.
That said, Microsoft could be testing the feature with random customers. The move wouldn't be surprising given that the company advertises its baked-in Microsoft Edge browser on the taskbar and notifications panel if you're using Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or some other browser.
Advertisements on Outlook.com are understandable: It's a free online service, and Microsoft prefers you take advantage of its money-making software suite. But customers are purchasing Windows 10 along with their device, and although all first-party apps are provided free of charge, advertising on paid software degrades the experience and service. We have enough advertisements scattered all over the web.
"Windows isn't free. Either you're paying for it, or the OEM/systems integrator is paying for it," one Reddit user argues. "Why is there a need to serve ads in a product which isn't free? The money has already been made -- ads are just milking it for more."
Google's platform is different. On the internet, it's backed by an advertisement system, investments, paid services, and so on. Android and Chrome OS are free, open-source operating systems fueled by advertisements, device sales, app sales, and data collection. Advertisements on free, open-source platforms are expected, like Gmail, not on a paid copy of Windows 10.
Microsoft's push to sell Windows as a service seems to be intensifying. Just last month, the company revealed that it is testing a new Mail app feature in a preview build of Windows 10 that automatically opens links in Microsoft Edge. Forget whatever you have set in Windows 10 as your default browser: All links in Mail will be pushed to Microsoft Edge. The company says it's merely "testing" this feature.
Microsoft's in-app advertisement is an interesting turn given the company launched a campaign in 2013 targeting advertisements in Google's Gmail service. The search engine giant was accused of using an algorithm to scan Gmail messages and generate custom advertisements based on discovered keywords. Microsoft jumped on the Gmail-bashing bandwagon.
"Outlook.com believes your privacy is not for sale," Microsoft's Stefan Weitz said at the time. "We believe people should have choice and control over their private email messages, whether they are sharing banking information or pictures of their family or discussing their medical history."
That choice and control should also include locking out Microsoft's advertisements, even Microsoft Store app suggestions, on its paid operating systems.

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Microsoft ‘excited’ about its secret hardware built for artificial intelligence

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A.I.-driven hardware produced by Microsoft is on the horizon according to Harry Shum, executive vice president of the company's A.I. and Research Group. It's part of Microsoft's initiative to integrate artificial intelligence into every product and service offered by the company. Shum says these devices will be "very, very exciting."
The comment arrives after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced yet another reorganization within the company, with the result creating two new engineering teams: the Experiences & Devices group led by Rajesh Jha, and the Cloud and A.I. Platform group led by Jason Zander. Harry Shum will continue to run the current A.I. and Research group.
"When we established A.I.+R nearly two years ago, our primary goal was to accelerate the adoption of A.I. innovations from research into product, and the changes we are making today reflect our strong progress," said Nadella in an email to Microsoft employees last week. "We will continue to drive investments in A.I.+R across research and A.I. breakthroughs that are key to our long-term success."
Since the launch of Microsoft's A.I. and Research group in September 2016, around 3,000 workers have joined the original 5,000 crew before Microsoft's reorganization last week. In that time, Microsoft introduced a bot framework for adding interactive assistants and chatbots to services and tools. The company even improved its language translation technology over the last 18 months.
Additionally, the company now serves up cognitive services on its Azure platform, bringing speech recognition, vision knowledge, and other technologies into developers' hands. Meanwhile, Microsoft is taking on Salesforce by moving its A.I. technologies for business applications over to the new Cloud and A.I. Platform group to create new "dynamic" versions.
Another example is the next version of HoloLens, the company's headset that supports high-resolution augmented reality. It will be based on the company's custom Holographic Processing Unit with an integrated coprocessor to specifically handle artificial intelligence and ultimately deep neural networks. But Microsoft isn't just trying to make HoloLens smarter: the company is working on dedicated A.I. processors for a portfolio of devices.
"We have to continue to find those pieces of silicon, those chipsets that have to be developed to bring sensors to life, to connect people with each other and with their products," Panay admitted to CNBC in November.
As the network points out, Microsoft needs to catch up in the A.I. chip race given that Apple already installs its Bionic chip inside iPhones, and Huawei's Mate 10 smartphone relies on the Kirin 970 chip with a built-in neural network processing unit for A.I. acceleration. Both enable faster, on-device artificial intelligence versus devices that require the cloud to perform A.I.-based tasks.
Given that Microsoft manufactures a number of first-party devices, adding a proprietary processor to specifically handle Cortana and other A.I.-related tasks makes sense. As Panay stated in his email to employees last week, the company has a responsibility to "ensure technology’s benefits reach people more broadly across society." But these technologies must also be trustworthy for individuals and organizations alike.