Windows 10: free upgrades, and holographic working?

[Ray McCarthy]

Seems to be a lot of nonsense in BBC article and conflation of quite different things.

I doubt the visor is more than stereoscopic 3D overlay on your normal view, a sort of combo of Google glass and Occulus Rift etc. I think Marketing are hyping. Holographic is extremely unlikely.

There will be a lot of nonsense about this till it's out 6 months to a year.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/22/windows_10_good_bad_news/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/22/windows_rt_no_windows_10_upgrade/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/22/windows_10_microsoft_hololens_cortana_xbox/

Unless you are in the market for a new laptop etc, it's of no interest. The Phone features and alleged upgrades for existing phones are rearranging chairs on Titanic. Windows Phone is unlikely to be a success. Before Symbian, Windows CE (what windows phone was before 6.5) was once 20% in USA. So current 4.6% is pretty bad. That's almost entirely ex-Nokia too. MS gets nothing from Nokia deal as they only licensed IP, making most Nokia phone division staff redundant and they can't keep the name, also closing all Nokia phone factories. Nokia only sold the phone division. They make a profit on Networks. They also have some other smaller divisions too.

Microsoft have got hype and marketing and no workable strategy, except with 10 to try and win back alienated desktop users.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

98-ME-XP-Vista-7-8-10

but XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10 are four versions of NT, you also left out some NT versions since 2002 XP release. 64bit XP for Itanium, XP Media Edition (failure), XP Tablet Edition, XP 64 bit for x86-x64, Server 2003, and later server versions NT,

Win95 (3 versions), Win 98 (2 versions) and Win ME are based on Windows 3.1 and DOS. They are not NT at all. Windows 2000 is unfinished version of NT 5, XP is 5.1 and came between ME and XP in time. NT 4.0 came between Win95 and Win98, but is totally unrelated to win95 or win98. It's developed from NT3.51 with Explorer shell and GDI moved into Kernel.

Then there are all the versions of WinCE (first on Sega, then PDAs), which was renamed Windows phone. But Win Phone 6.5 and later is closer to NT and based on the Zune.

NT4.0 maybe had the most CPU versions, X86, MIPS, PPC, Alpha and 64bit Alpha.

 

[Glitch]

but XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10 are four versions of NT, you also left out some NT versions since 2002 XP release. 64bit XP for Itanium, XP Media Edition (failure), XP Tablet Edition, XP 64 bit for x86-x64, Server 2003, and later server versions NT,

Ray, you seem to like your stats and good on you for that. For me the reference was just a joke; a common perception of the consumer editions of Microsoft Windows (regardless if its correctness).

 

[Ray McCarthy]

It's annoying how many people believe it though!

 

[Rocketship 7]

The user brought the iPod's patch cord closer to the visibly intimidated Vista computer. Before the marriage was even consummated, iTunes had a knife at the user's throat just as the pc fired off a fusillade of error messages, demanding unending upgrades to Net Framework before the soundcard would sing a single note. In the terrorized brains of both devices, Microsoft and Apple met in a digital duel to the death, and the user would forever know it as The Day The Music Died.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Ha!
Ever tried setting up an iPod on Win98 back in the day? That was hard.
Nothing wrong with iTunes on XP, Vista, Win7 Win8

 

[Michael Colton]

I'm still curious about the whole Steam console/OS/computer rumors. If that will ever happen, I will be immensely curious. I have quite a lot of respect for Steam.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

How long do you think it will be before we have one of these? Hope this link works...

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=372900576203578

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Doesn't work, not sure if strange video format or the usual Facebook EVIL walled garden thing. Probably what ever it is, is on the real internet.

@Kerrybuchanan
What is it?

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

It was a laptop that rolls up until it looks like a rolled gym mat and can be carried on the shoulder. Sadly hypothetical because I don't think the roll-up technology is quite there yet, but an intriguing prospect. They are trying to say it can be everything from a touchscreen laptop through a drawing tablet to a TV. Some neat solutions. The central core detaches and houses USB ports, power cord, etc.

 

[Ursa major]

It was a laptop that rolls up until it looks like a rolled gym mat

Presumably, a properly 3D version of it would roll up into a ball...

...and die....​

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

Some screen shots of the item. It does remind me a bit of an armadillo or something....

 

[Ray McCarthy]

the roll-up technology

Can be made today using OLED screen, but pointless.
A Philips subsidiary made a roll up phone prototype. It used eInk display, so mono only and no video although could be large.

The biggest issue is power, space taken by the batteries (which can be flat just inside outer, or flexible. OLED can be made flexible for screen. But inherently the lifetime of OLED is rubbish, suited to disposable phones. An LCD screen might last 20 years (LED TVs are LCD with LED lighting), OLED maybe 2.

It's less efficient use of space than a rectangular slab.

It's actually of little value for a laptop sized device and dubious for a Tablet. The never launched but actually real MS Courier is a better route, it is two parts, like a thin paper back book and when opened had two screens. But a single screen that bends is possible, if the screen is on the OUTSIDE when folded, which is more useful. When folded the bottom part of screen can be a touch surface like on the PS Vita, it can be used either way up, with different content. Then unfolded to give a 2x size screen.

I'd like two versions, a wallet/Envelope size to replace a phone, called the Wallet. A paperback book sized version to replace a larger tablet.
Optionally a keyboard can be clipped on and make a 3rd layer when closed. Similarly a dock (with media bay on Book version) would clip on as a 4th layer.

You see "concept designs" all the time that look cool and are not practical to use, even if ever economically possible, like the Philips roll up phone, too bulky for a pocket.

There is a Russian phone with LCD on one side and eInk on the other. You can "screen shot" anything to the eInk screen (e.g. map) which is unaffected by phone going flat. When phone not in use/locked, the eInk is the time and notifications as tiny power consumption compared to OLED or LCD.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Hardly any existing Windows phone users will get Windows 10, as I suspected.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/24/not_every_lumia_will_get_windows_10/

Note that almost all existing current Windows Phones are Nokia designed. Hence other makers have mostly ceased.

"Like any upgrade to a new platform, not every phone will upgrade or support all possible Windows 10 features," Redmond's blog post cautions, "and certain features and experiences will require more advanced future hardware."
Windows Phone customers, of course, have heard all of this before. Inadequate hardware was the reason given why there was no upgrade path from Windows Phone 7 to Windows Phone 8. Instead, users of older devices were offered Windows Phone 7.8, which was really just version 7.5 with a coat of version 8 paint slapped on it.
Yet owners of Windows Phone 8 devices had reason to get their hopes up, because the message from Microsoft earlier was that all devices running the current generation of Windows Phone 8.x would be able to upgrade to Windows 10 (now that Microsoft has dropped the "Phone" branding from its mobile OS).
@_Y06_ There will be Windows 10 upgrades for all Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices And we will release new Windows 10 models in the future!
— Lumia (@Lumia) November 11, 2014
Whether that was just an overeager Microsoft marketeer jumping the gun or Redmond has had an honest change of heart regarding its upgrade plans for Windows Phone 8 isn't clear.
Nor is how many Windows 10 features a phone can fail to support and still be considered eligible for the upgrade.

The supposed Holographic headset is just a so called "3D" VR / AR headset using stereoscopic viewing made more convincing by using "Kinect" based camera technology that you can see through.
(AR = Augmented Reality, images superimposed on what you really see)
(VR = Virtual Reality, no direct vision at all)
(AV = Augmented Vision. All real world via eye controlled cameras with Zoom, ALC, Image Intensifier etc, soldiers, fighter pilots, spaceship pilots. AR data and regular text overlays and switchable to VR)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/23/hololens_more_kinect_than_glasshole/

I've described elsewhere a few years ago how to make a convincing VR or AR headset to hide the fact it's really a pair of 2D stereoscopic images and not true holographic /3D. So it's a niche product. It might compete in gaming if there is a blind to hide the real world.

True VR headset needs:

1. Tracking of Eye and head movement X and Y axis. (camera looking at eye and MEMS sensor on headband)
   
2. Tracking of Eye focus point (sense muscles or lens), really really hard. (MS Hololens won't do this)
   
3. Movement of optical distance of image or use lasers (with a laser projected image direct to eye the image is sharp no matter what distance you focus at, just as a laser video projector works at any distance without focus). (MS Hololens won't do this)
   
4. Optional superposition of real world directly for AR applications.

Latency is a problem. You need maybe better than 50ms response time.

Interesting ideas to experiment with are eye gesture GUI, such as open eyes wide or squint to control Zoom, sudden extreme eye movements to pan or scroll. Blinks to enter / leave menu mode and eye controlled menus. These would only really be of use for CAD/CAE though I think.

 

[Dave]

Its an old joke but...

Victorian iPad

 

[Ray McCarthy]

It's ruined though by someone using an after market Crayola (TM) stylus instead of a proper Monochrome compatible iChalk.