Terry Myerson, Microsoft. Image Credit: Reuters
By tech2 News Staff / 28 Feb 2017 , 12:36
Microsoft has been working on the next update to its operating system Windows 10, ever since the announcement last year at the launch of Microsoft Surface Studio. The next version of Windows as previously reported is dubbed as Microsoft Creators Update. This update comes right after the launch of Anniversary Update in August last year.
But interestingly, the company shared some details about the version that will come after Creators Update. The second update has not been given an official name but it is being labelled as “Second Update in 2017” as reported by Forbes. The details were revealed when noted developer Rafael Rivera took a screenshot of the upgrade timelines during the announcement made by Microsoft during Ignite Australia earlier this month.
Windows 10 release lifecycle, cadence pic.twitter.com/NxSB9wE2PY
There were no official details on the features that will come with the second update, but we can expect the radical redesign of the UI termed as “Project NEON” to come with the second update. One important thing that the report hinted at was the arrival of ‘Windows Cloud’.
Windows Cloud is pegged to compete with Chrome OS where it will be preloaded on devices without any cost. It will spiritually succeed Windows RT as it will only run Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps. Another report pointed out that the OS will run win32 apps but only if those apps were sourced from Windows Store.
In addition to Windows Cloud, the second update will come with a suspected ‘People Bar’ that was delayed from Creators update according to Thurrott. One thing to note is that the Creators update will come with a new feature which will allow Samsung users to unlock Windows 10 devices using Samsung Flow.
For anyone who cares, here's the full concept image that was in the background of #Microsoft's "Sneak Peak" of #Windows10#ProjectNEON
Microsoft also rolled out updates for it UWP Mail and Calendar apps where the Mail app will finally get the Focused Inbox feature that is already present on its iOS and Android apps. Mail app gains another feature that will allow users to ‘mention’ other email users. The feature works like ‘tagging’ or ‘mention’ works on other platforms like Facebook where you use ‘@’ symbol in an email and tag a name.
Once you tag a person, their name is highlighted in the message in blue helping them quickly see that they have been asked to take some action in the email according to the set context. Tagging automatically adds the person in the ‘To’ field if they have not already been added.
Calendar app gains coloured categories which will allow the users to quickly categorise events in a number of colours. Microsoft has also added ‘Interesting Calendars’ to the app which allows users to easily and quickly import calendars that take the data from Bing. Some examples of these calendars can be to keep a tab on your favourite TV shows, sports teams or movies.
The company will expand features from different regions and interest groups to this feature. Last but not the least, the app gains the ability to show you details about your travel reservations and package delivery details from the overview area.
This will help people quickly check the details of the travel reservation or delivery details without hunting for the email in the focused inbox or the other inbox, enabling users to quickly check in for lights or change hotels or rental car reservations from the calendar app.
