The Brave New World of Windows 10

Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled a slew of new features and capabilities coming in Windows 10: the convergence of the desktop and mobile; the advent of the killer universal app; more power and features for personal digital assistant Cortana, which will be on mobile as well as desktops and laptops; improvements to maps; a new browser, code-named "Project Spartan"; a strong emphasis on gaming; and holographic computing.Windows 10 will be offered as a free upgrade to owners of devices running Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 for one year after it's released.

A new build of Windows 10 will be released to Windows Insiders next week, and "after the Seahawks win the Super Bowl, we will be releasing our first build of Windows 10 on phones. Super Bowl 2015 will be held Feb. 1.

"What is most notable is that we were shown five Microsoft platforms today, and they're all moving towards this single universal app direction, and that's a positive for developers, even though the process of tailoring it for those platforms is still a bit unknown".

It's a Holo New World

Perhaps the most dazzling announcement pertained to holographic computing.

Windows 10 "will be our best enterprise platform ever, simplifying management and deployment for IT and working seamlessly with existing enterprise applications," Myerson said.

Security will be beefed up: The hardware component "will protect against techniques used in the latest series of attacks," he pledged.

The universal app approach lets developers target devices ranging from maker boards to Xbox One to PCs to laptops to tablets to smartphones with one platform and one app store, Myerson pointed out. "We're making it as seamless as possible for developers to reach a large customer base."

Further, Windows 10 will be offered as a service, he disclosed, so "the question 'what version are you running?' will cease to make sense." That will make things even easier for devs.

Microsoft also is integrating IP messaging systems, particularly Skype, into its messaging app.

Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint will be incorporated into Windows 10 for mobile devices, and will work exactly as they do on PCs.