WEBVTT - What is Microsoft up to Today? 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.680 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.440 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer at 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.119 how Stuff Works in I Love all Things Tech, and 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.480 we are continuing our catch up episodes with Microsoft from 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:26.200 the listener Rob who asked that we follow up, and 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:27.960 we're going to talk about what the company has been 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:31.520 doing since. One thing I did not talk about in 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:36.000 the last episode was Microsoft's work in mixed reality. Mixed 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:39.000 reality is sort of a broad category of technologies that 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.640 merge the real world and the digital world in various ways, 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:45.600 and it's kind of like a spectrum. So if you 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.440 have a system that mostly relies on the real world 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.480 and it has a very light touch with digital information, 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:55.040 we would call that more of an augmented reality solution. 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.000 You're augmenting the experience of being in the real world 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:01.120 with some digital information. If you have one where most 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:04.880 of the information a user will encounter comes from a computer, 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.800 that would be virtual reality. The term mixed reality started 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:10.560 to pop up when it became clear that there's a 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.600 gradient between these extremes, and sometimes it's hard to classify 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:18.880 a particular piece of technology as being augmented versus virtual 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:23.240 or anything else, so we use mixed reality instead. Anyway. 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:26.200 We first heard about Microsoft's work in this field in 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:31.160 twenty with the introduction of the Windows Holographic later known 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:35.920 as the Windows Mixed Reality and the Hollow Lens. This 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:38.520 had the code name of Project Baraboo back when it 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.280 was in development, and a lead developer on the technology 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.280 was a guy named Alex Kipman, who had first proposed 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:48.360 ideas that would become intrinsic in the Hollow Lens platform 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.360 way back in two thousand seven or so. He worked 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.680 on the technology that would become the Connect. And while 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:58.080 the Connect, which was an Xbox peripheral, never really cut 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.200 on in a big way with gamers, the technology itself 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:05.680 was really impressive. It could sense depth through its camera systems, 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:07.760 one of which was an infrared camera. It had this 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:11.560 projector that would shoot out infrared dots, and by the 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:17.160 deformation of the the UH infrared spectrum, like seeing how 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:19.639 close or far away it was, it could determine how 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.640 how deep the scene was and thus if you started 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:26.920 walking toward it, then the Connect would detect that you 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.000 were actually approaching it. So it used this to uh 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.200 learn about just your controls, were to implement just your 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.240 control so you would program just your controls in your game, 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.680 and then through moving in front of this connect device 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:43.120 of the user could actually command his or her Xbox 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:45.560 and it could do some pretty cool stuff when paired 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:49.560 with the right software and hardware. Hackers loved the connect 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:51.600 because it let them do all sorts of stuff, like 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.239 they could make a three D scanner, so you could 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:56.720 put a real three dimensional object within view of the 0:02:56.720 --> 0:03:01.440 connects camera, slowly rotate the object and scan the entire thing, 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.480 and then you would get a virtual representation of that object. 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:07.079 Paired with a three D printer, you could actually make 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.360 copies of stuff, or you can make a action figure 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.079 of yourself if you really wanted to. Or you could 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:15.880 use the connect to give robots a source of optical 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:19.840 information helping with robotic vision. There were tons of different 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:23.480 potential applications for the connect Sadly, most of them did 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.440 not involve the Xbox, and since the connect was marketed 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:29.640 as a console peripheral and not a device meant for 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:33.560 makers and hackers, the company eventually withdrew all support for 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:36.920 the hardware, but Kitman's worked with the company would continue, 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.960 and he had been working seriously on the holographic goggles 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:43.160 that would evolve into the Hollow Lens for at least 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:47.200 five years. The vision Kitman has of augmented reality is 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:51.200 a truly transformative one. So imagine a device that allows 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:54.600 you to interact with the digital world through your interactions 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:58.720 in the physical world. You could potentially turn any surface 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.440 in the physical world into a computer display or an interface. 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.240 You can control software with gestures or with voice. You 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.440 can transform the world around you with digital overlays that 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.680 only you can see through your holographic goggles, which is 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:16.880 pretty phenomenal. The Hollow Lens demo video included doing things 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.599 like snapping a virtual video display to a physical wall. 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.960 So imagine you put on a headset, you know, special 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:27.280 hollow goggles, and in this headset you can see this 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:29.760 virtual screen. It's floating in front of you, and you 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.400 can resize the screen however you like, so it takes 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:34.320 up as much or as little of your field of 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.520 view as you like. And you position the virtual screen 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:41.919 within the physical room that you are occupying, so you 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:46.000 can still see the room because you're looking through goggles, right, 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.040 You're not looking at a headset that has a closed 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.200 off section. Now you're still looking at the world around you, 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:55.680 but this pair of goggles can also generate images itself, 0:04:56.080 --> 0:05:00.760 creating things that appear to be in your room but aren't. 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:04.599 Like that video screen. So you choose to place the 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:06.960 screen on a wall in front of you. Right, you're 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:09.680 looking at a blank wall. You put this virtual screen 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:13.080 on that wall. It locks into place, and you look 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:15.080 away to something else, like to your right or to 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:17.880 your left. The screen stays put. It stays where you 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:21.280 locked it in the physical location. So it's acting like 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.040 it's a physical television screen that's been mounted to the 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:28.440 wall and maintains persistence even when it's not inside your 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:31.200 frame of you. So if you started playing a video 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:33.800 on that screen and then you are to look away, 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:37.200 the video continues just as it would on a physical television, 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:39.279 and if you glance back at the wall, you would 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.760 see the video still playing out on that virtual screen. Now, 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:45.480 let's say you want to lie down and you decide 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:47.080 for the heck of it that you're gonna move the 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:50.160 screen from the wall to your ceiling, so you lock 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:52.440 it into place into your ceiling overhead. So now you're 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:55.000 laying on your back and you're watching the video playing 0:05:55.000 --> 0:06:00.000 out directly above you. That's a simple implementation of augmented reality, 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.760 which is pretty trivial in the grand scheme of things, 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.160 but it gives you an idea of what was possible. 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:10.200 Other applications could be much more serious. Imagine putting on 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:12.680 a pair of these goggles and looking at a complicated 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:16.360 piece of machinery that has broken down, and the goggles, 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.200 which have external cameras on them so it can see 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:22.880 what you are seeing, can process all the information that 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.520 they're taking in. They can identify the machinery based on 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:30.080 the shape and the configuration. They know what the problem 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:32.440 is because they can see if there's a missing piece 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.880 or whatever that might be, and then it can display 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:39.279 instructions on top of your field of view to guide 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.120 you step by step on how to remove or replace 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.600 pieces and what you need to avoid doing. It highlights 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:48.000 the relevant parts of the machine for every step. So 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.400 let's say that there's a particular gear that you need 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:53.680 to remove. It actually creates a highlight on top of 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.000 the physical gear you're looking at, so that way you know, oh, 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:58.960 this is the piece I need to take off next. 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.360 It's kind of like an expert guide you the entire time. 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.400 The implementation for augmented reality I would love to see 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:09.160 would involve having the chance to view an area as 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.720 if it were a different era of history. So imagine 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:15.760 that you are walking down the streets of London and 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:18.040 then you take a virtual look at what the city 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:20.760 would have looked like back in the time of Henry 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:24.360 the Eighth or Oliver Cromwell. But then, I'm a history geek, 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.160 so that's not necessarily something that everybody wants. It's just 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.000 the version that I always think about. The Hollow Lens 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:34.480 had three different processing units. You had your typical CPU, 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.600 your central processing unit. You had your graphics processing unit 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:41.520 or GPU, but then you also had the HPU or 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:45.520 holographic processing unit. The original Hollow Lens got a lot 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:49.000 of positive press coverage, but it never came out for consumers. 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:53.040 Microsoft had determined the device was important, but wanted to 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:57.920 keep refining it before trying to enter a consumer marketplace 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:00.600 with it, because users would need the vice to be 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:04.200 incredibly intuitive so that they could learn how to use 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:07.200 it and interact with it in a seamless way, and 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:09.320 it would need a lot of content as well, you know, 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.880 stuff to do. Once you bought it without applications, it 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.520 would just be a nifty piece of hardware, a very 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:17.880 expensive one, and you would just put it on your 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:20.720 head and that would be it. So instead, Microsoft chose 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:24.520 to focus primarily on enterprise uses of the Hollow Lens, 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.640 which created a much more narrowly focused set of parameters 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:31.440 for the goggles, and that meant developers didn't have to 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:33.920 worry about all the crazy stuff that happens out in 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.040 the wide world in general. They could concentrate on specific 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:41.360 use cases, like in manufacturing or in medicine. If you 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:45.920 reduce your variables, it becomes way easier to develop software applications. 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:50.200 As it turns out, but Microsoft is reportedly working on 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:53.360 the successor to the Hollow lens. Reports have leaked that 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.640 the Hollow lens too, will have a better battery life 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.920 and improved features, as well as being lighter and cheaper 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:04.080 than the original Hollow lens. I'm recording this episode in June, 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:06.800 and later this year the company is likely to give 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:10.000 more details about the successor of the Hollow lens. The 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:14.840 code name for it is the Sydney, like the Australian city. 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:17.720 I know that it's gonna be less expensive than the 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.480 original Hollow lens, at least according to all the rumors. 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:23.680 But I suspect it's still not going to be marketed 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.080 to the average consumer just yet. I think it's still 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:29.640 going to be an enterprise level device, not something that 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:32.240 the average person would go out and buy. And while 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.800 the Hollow Lens was not offered up to consumers, Microsoft 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:39.720 did partner with a lot of hardware manufacturers to provide 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.560 the platform for mixed reality applications, which was that Windows 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:47.200 Mixed Reality originally called Windows Holographic. It's part of the 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:51.200 Windows TIN operating system, and it's compatible with head mounted displays, 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.040 so you can go out and buy one of a 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:58.080 half dozen or so headsets that run on Windows Mixed Reality. 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.400 Those headsets range and price from about two hundred dollars 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:05.080 to about five dollars, and they require a connection to 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.360 a PC that's running Windows tents, So the Hollow Lens 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.720 itself is its own computer. You don't need a separate 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.520 computer to run the Hollow lens, which is why it's 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:18.560 incredibly expensive. The developer kit version of the Hollow Lens 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:23.079 cost about three thousand dollars, but the headsets that you 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:25.720 can go out and buy those would be tethered to 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:29.800 a PC, which limits their usefulness because you can't just 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:32.760 go out into the world wearing these things and have 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:36.160 an augmented experience everywhere you go. I've got a lot 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.400 more to say about what Microsoft has been up to 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:40.520 over the last few years, but first let's take a 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:50.680 quick break to thank our sponsor. So while we're on 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.240 the subject of mixed reality, I should also mention that 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:56.600 Microsoft has backed off of plans that it had made 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:01.040 to create VR support on the Xbox platform. Back in sixteen, 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:05.480 Phil Spencer, the chief of Microsoft's Xbox division, had said 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:09.880 that the code named Project Scorpio Xbox platform would end 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:13.520 up supporting high end virtual reality experiences similar to what 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:17.400 you could get with a PC. Since then, Microsoft has 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:20.360 seemed to kind of reconsider this, and I don't really 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.720 blame the company, because virtual reality has not taken off 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:26.560 in the consumer space like people thought that it might. 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:29.560 Part of that is probably due to a very high 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.439 cost of entry into the platform, because you have to 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:34.840 have a pretty good PC, and then you have to 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:37.520 have the headset, and then there's all the applications or 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:41.000 software for it. It gets really expensive, really fast. Another 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:43.199 good reason might be that there's there's a lack of 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:47.520 compelling content and experiences out there. Now. There are several 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:51.319 developers who have created really fun or really interesting VR 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.520 games and other applications, but there's not a very large 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.320 library that is convincing enough to enough people to buy 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:03.600 into the tech anology. Mike Nichols, the chief marketing officer 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:06.480 of Gaming, said in a two thousand eighteen interview that 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:11.200 the company has no plans specific to Xbox consoles in 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:15.920 virtual reality or mixed reality, so we're looking at pure 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:18.760 PC experience for that sort of stuff. Now. I'm recording 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:22.439 this episode a little less than a month after E Threeen, 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.880 the big video game industry event that happens every June 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:29.840 in Los Angeles, California, and during that event, Microsoft announced 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:33.000 a few things about its future in the world of gaming, 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:36.760 specifically console gaming. It sounds like the next generation of 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.760 Xbox will have at least a couple of different versions 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:43.880 upon launch. Phil Spencer referred to consoles in the plural, 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:49.000 and other company communications seem to indicate that the successor 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:52.360 to the Xbox One will likely have more than one version, 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.280 so there might be an entry level and then maybe 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.119 a more expensive one with more bells and whistles on it. 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:01.200 It may, but it's not. It's not definitive. But it 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:05.079 may support backwards compatibility, which is something Microsoft has been 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.360 trying to do with its various consoles. That means that 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.120 you should be able to run older Xbox games on 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.760 the new hardware, which may mean that the new hardware 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:18.599 will have similar chip architecture to the existing consoles, or 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.160 it could mean that it will run a virtual console 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:26.360 to emulate the older hardware. Microsoft also hinted at a 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:31.200 future video game streaming service. This service would let you 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:34.480 access video games over a device running a thin client, 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:38.880 meaning the device itself is not doing the heavy lifting. Instead, 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:43.200 Microsoft's computers would run all the games and stream the 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:46.600 experience to you. So technically, I mean, from a very 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:49.079 high level, what is going on is when you press 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:51.719 a button on your controller or your mouth or your 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.920 phone or whatever it may be, the command shoots through 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:59.200 the Internet, gets to Microsoft's hardware that then executes that command, 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.640 and then that shoots the results back to you. So 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:05.200 let's say you're playing a game where a is jump, 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:07.520 you press a the command goes through the Internet to 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:11.439 the machine, the machine executes the command to jump, The 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:13.760 result gets shot back to you, and you see your 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:17.600 little character jump, hopefully with very little latency, or else 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:20.760 you're gonna feel like there's something lagging every time you play. 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.400 This is not the first time anyone's tried to do this. 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:27.040 Lots of companies have tried this, but very few have 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.360 managed to make it succeed. On Live, which is no 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:33.000 longer a thing. Tried to do this years ago. But 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:36.120 Microsoft's goal is to create a streaming experience that will 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:38.200 let you play a video game on a lot of 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.560 different potential platforms without having to worry about having the 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.840 latest hardware to run the game. So you could potentially 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:47.680 run this on a PC, on a console, maybe even 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:52.240 on a phone. So Microsoft might not jump head first 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.000 back into the mobile market, but it may make a 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:59.400 service that runs on smartphone platforms and brings console style 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:03.280 gaming two phones. Something else Microsoft has been backing away 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:07.600 from is supporting the Windows seven build of its operating system. 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:10.880 Windows seven launched in July two thousand nine, so we're 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:14.600 coming up on its ninth anniversary. Microsoft has committed to 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:19.560 providing extended support for the operating system until twenty twenty, 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:23.640 but the company recently announced that Microsoft staffers would no 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:28.600 longer be answering Microsoft Community forum questions about Windows seven. 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.040 And you might think, Hey, that operating system is nine 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:35.640 years old. Why should we expect Microsoft to spend time 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:40.760 answering questions about an antiquated operating system. Well, first, the 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:45.400 company's commitment to supporting the OS until January would be 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.160 one reason. If you say you're gonna do something, you 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:52.120 should probably do it. But another is that Windows seven 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:56.040 is still a very popular operating system. In fact, according 0:15:56.080 --> 0:16:00.720 to stat Counter in May, Windows seven an accounted for 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:06.320 nearly forty percent of all Windows based machines worldwide. Windows ten, 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:10.040 which is the current operating system from Microsoft, makes up 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:15.720 So in other words, Windows seven, just two versions back, 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.720 is on almost as many machines as the current operating 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:24.040 system as for Windows eight, which is sandwiched between Windows 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:27.400 seven and Windows ten, it only makes up a little 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:30.320 less than eight percent of the market share of all 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:34.800 Windows machines. And I'll remind you there is no Windows nine. 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.400 They went from eight to ten. So with Windows seven 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.880 being second place only to Windows ten and still having 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:44.160 a year and a half left of support on its 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:48.360 agreement with Microsoft, or Microsoft's agreement with the public. I 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:52.280 should say it seems premature to me to pull staffers 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:55.600 from answering questions about the platform. If you know that 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.440 almost half of your users are still on Windows seven 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:02.240 and that you've said you're going to continue supporting until 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:06.200 twenty I think it's a little weird to pull staffers 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:09.400 from answering those questions. On While I'm on the subject, Yep, 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:12.960 there are still people out there running Windows XP as 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:16.760 their operating system. Windows XP came out in two thousand 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:20.760 one and its last service pack was released in two 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:24.000 thousand eight, so that was a decade ago. Stat Counter 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:27.480 estimates that nearly three percent of all Windows machines out 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:30.560 there are running Windows XP, which sounds like it's a 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:33.560 small amount, but when you think three percent of all 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:37.119 the Windows machines out there and there are millions of them, 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:39.399 that's a lot. It's amazing to me that there are 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.760 still people running Windows XP. Recently, Microsoft announced that it 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.320 intended to acquire the company get hub. So what is 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:50.840 get hub. Well, it's a hosting service for get g 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.840 I T, which is probably not that helpful if you're 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:57.080 not familiar with what get is. So here goes get 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:00.960 is a way to keep track of changes in files 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:04.280 in an effort to make collaboration and coordination not become 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:08.000 nightmare fuel because if you've got a team of developers 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:11.760 working on code, then you've got people making changes to 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:15.360 this code and you need to track that. But digital 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.120 files are really tricksy because you can make copies of them, 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:20.879 and then you can end up with conflicting versions, or 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:23.040 you might find that some changes you made in one 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.399 version are breaking the code somewhere. So maybe something that 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:29.840 was working in a previous build is no longer working, 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.520 and you may need to work backward and find a 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:35.560 version of the software that was working just fine before 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:39.000 you implemented changes, and then see what happened so that 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:41.360 you can try to repair it or maybe build out 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.920 the new code without breaking the older stuff. Now, keeping 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:47.960 track of these different versions is incredibly important, but it's 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:52.080 also time consuming it's not much fun. So get is 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.920 a system that does the tracking on behalf of developers, 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:58.560 and it's frequently used to manage source code, although not 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:02.960 exclusively anyway. Get hub is a hosting service with the 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.439 functionality of get, along with some other additional features like 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.800 access control, so you can make certain that only people 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:13.560 who are authorized to access a particular type of code 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:17.000 can do that. The service has millions of users, some 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:19.920 of whom are working on open source projects on public 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:24.960 project pages, so anyone can go in there and see 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.960 the source code and make changes to it and that way. 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:30.480 You know, again, tracking those changes is very important, So 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:34.600 you know what has happened. Microsoft's announcement prompted a mixed 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:38.200 reaction from developers, which is to be expected. Some worry 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:40.280 that Microsoft is going to change things up in a 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:43.720 way that will discourage open source code development. Others see 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.119 it as a positive event and that Microsoft will bring 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:49.920 support and development to the hub as a whole. Nat Friedman, 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:52.760 who will head up get hub under the Microsoft deal, 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:55.440 has said that the company intends to operate get hub 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:57.960 as its own entity, helping it do what it does 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:01.359 on an even larger scale, and possible lee actually using 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:03.440 get hub as something of a model for the rest 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.760 of Microsoft rather than the other way around. Microsoft has 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:10.520 also been working on uh more serious moves into the 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:14.399 world of artificial intelligence. AI has been a big area 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:16.760 of research and development for more than a decade, but 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:19.480 we're starting to see a growing number of implementations and 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:22.520 stuff that the average person actually has a chance of 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:26.200 encountering in day to day life. Because for years, AI 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:31.120 applications were largely the realm of research labs and industrial applications. 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:33.960 It wasn't something that the average consumer typically would encounter. 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:37.600 But today we see AI, or at least aspects of 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:42.440 AI narrow AI incorporated into stuff like thermostats, personal assistants 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:45.960 like Siri or Alexa, and car systems, among other things. 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:50.800 So in twenty sixteen, Microsoft created an Artificial Intelligence and 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:54.239 Research Group, employing around five thousand people in fields like 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:57.720 computer science and engineering to work on AI developments and 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:03.439 practical applications like their own AI assistant, also known as Cortana. Today, 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.600 more than eight thousand people work in that same area 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.800 at Microsoft and investors investors are are watching with interest 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:15.919 because AI could help transform Microsoft yet again. More on 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.359 how that could happen in just a second, but first 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:28.800 let's take another quick break to thank our sponsor. So 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:33.000 Microsoft is incorporating AI into products like Office three sixty five, 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:36.200 which is the cloud based suite of productivity software the 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:39.920 company offers. There's a feature called inc analysis, which can 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:42.760 look at handwritten notes in something like a power point 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:46.399 presentation and interpret it, converting it into text. Or you 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:49.159 could use the Stylus input device to write in the 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:52.240 margins of a virtual document and the AI could interpret 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:55.040 those notes and incorporate them into the document itself, or 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:59.480 possibly even make the change using natural language processing, which 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:03.719 is a very simple phrase that describes the fiendishly complicated 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:07.120 task of teaching computers what we mean when we speak plainly. 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:11.359 Microsoft uses this to analyze information and an effort to 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:14.760 create greater value for users, though this can also get 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:17.640 a little creepy at times. It's similar to what companies 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:20.440 like Google and Apple are doing, and that these companies 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:24.239 are creating AI processes that can analyze your work and 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:27.600 your email messages in an effort to proactively make things 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:30.480 easier for you. So and a simple example might be. 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:33.439 Let's say you purchase tickets to go to a sporting event, 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:36.479 and you buy them online. You get an email about it. 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:41.280 The AI identifies the email. It identifies that the email 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:45.600 is about these this sporting event. It looks at the ticket, 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:48.240 It knows when the sporting event happens, it knows where 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:50.840 it happens. It knows where that is in relation to 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:53.280 where you are because you're holding some sort of device 0:22:53.400 --> 0:22:57.520 that has your GPS coordinates as part of it. There's 0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:01.320 a location element to this, and so on the day 0:23:01.440 --> 0:23:03.600 of the sporting event, you get a notification and it 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:06.800