Microsoft to Brand “Redstone 2” as Windows 10 Creators Update

Microsoft to Brand "Redstone 2" as Windows 10 Creators Update

In a strange and somewhat unexpected development, Microsoft revealed today that the next major update for Windows 10 will be branded as the Creators Update. And yes, it will focus on creative tasks, plus 3D and VR/mixed reality scenarios.

As Leo Laporte said during our live coverage on TWiT this morning, it was an interesting “left turn” for the company. Previous Windows releases have been very broad, with new features for mainstream users and power users alike. But this one seems to be very focused on what can only be called a niche market.

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That said, there will of course be new features in the Creators Update that apply to all users. And here’s what we know so far:

3D. Starting with Windows—but coming to Office and presumably other products too—Microsoft is integrating platform-3D capabilities, and creating an end-to-end 3D workflow. So where the original release of Windows 10 included a 3D output app, for 3D printing, the Creators Update will close the loop and provide apps like Paint 3D that will let you create/build 3D content.

windows10-vr-devices-partners-no-price-003-1024x575

Windows Holographic and VR. It is somewhat interesting to me that Windows Holographic wasn’t a bigger story at today’s event, but Microsoft did announce that VR is also coming to Windows 10, and it will do so at much lower price points than ever before. The five biggest PC makers—Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer, and ASUS—will all sell VR headsets for Windows PCs and at new, low price points starting at just $300. “These accessories will be the first and only with inside-out, six-degrees of freedom,” Microsoft says. “Unlike every other virtual reality headset in the market today, there will be zero need for a separate room and complicated setup.”

4K gaming and game broadcasting. Gaming on Windows 10 is up 500 percent year-over-year, Microsoft says, and it’s only going to get better with eSports tournament support, and new game broadcasting capabilities.

hero-mypeople-image-1-1024x576

Windows MyPeople. In an idea taken directly from the original release of Windows phone, Microsoft will let you integrate your most-often-accessed contacts directly into the taskbar using a new feature called Windows MyPeople. “You can pin your favorite contacts to the Windows taskbar and easily drag and drop any document, photo or video right on top of the contact for easy sharing,” Microsoft explains. “You can receive unique notifications, Shoulder Taps, and easily view and open emails, IMs, shared documents and more, all in one place. The Windows MyPeople experience is also integrated across universal Windows apps for easy sharing.” Smart. Overdue, but smart.

There’s more, of course, but it’s going to be a busy day with lots to do, so I’ll highlight these and other new Creators Update features in more depth in the near future.

 

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Conversation 39 comments

  • 5611

    26 October, 2016 - 10:54 am

    <p>One thing which I noticed in the video was a new Groove music creator app. That looks to be very interesting.</p>
    <p>I can also see the MyPeople stuff making its way to Windows 10 Mobile.</p>

    • 5501

      Premium Member
      27 October, 2016 - 10:36 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#22604">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/WP7Mango">WP7Mango</a><a href="#22604">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Yeah, I’m curious about the Music Maker app as well.&nbsp; Although I use a bunch of other more full-featured DAWs, like Sonar, Pro Tools, etc., I’m always curious to see how much functionality they can pack into entry-level music production apps such as this and GarageBand and still make it easy to use.&nbsp; I used to use GarageBand when I had a Mac mini, but I sold my mini a while ago.&nbsp; I always wondered when something like this was going to come to Windows.</p>

  • 2428

    Premium Member
    26 October, 2016 - 11:14 am

    <p>Most critical thing to fix in Windows 10, Paint…said no one, ever!</p>

    • 5611

      26 October, 2016 - 1:40 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#22620">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/madthinus">madthinus</a><a href="#22620">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>To be fair, this isn’t about fixing Paint. This is basically a completely new app which will replace Paint, and I can see why they’ve done it.</p>

  • 442

    26 October, 2016 - 11:42 am

    <p>Nothing I’m too excited about.&nbsp; 3D was so 2014…</p>

    • 5611

      26 October, 2016 - 1:37 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#22644">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/Narg">Narg</a><a href="#22644">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Right, because our world stopped being 3D after 2014 and we now live on a flat earth…</p>

      • 442

        26 October, 2016 - 4:00 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#22738">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/WP7Mango">WP7Mango</a><a href="#22738">:</a></em></blockquote>
        <p>What?&nbsp; You didn’t get the memo?</p>

  • 6750

    26 October, 2016 - 12:22 pm

    <p>3D coming to Office….</p>
    <p>In what sense? 3D spreadsheets?</p>

    • 5530

      26 October, 2016 - 1:09 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#22682">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/ozaz">ozaz</a><a href="#22682">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>they demoed using a rotating/zooming/morphiing 3d model in a powerpoint slideshow, the transitions did all the work. It was quite nice</p>

  • 5394

    26 October, 2016 - 12:24 pm

    <p>Creativity should cover media like photos, movies, music, and apps. They seem to stop short of their objectives. Their offerings from the Anniversary update wasn’t good enough.</p>
    <p>Windows users are essentially niche users. We all use it differently. You know what they say… "Jack of all trades, Master of none". That’s how Windows feels like. They are unable to master one task by honing it to perfection. I welcome their attempt, but it will likely be of limited consequence if they got it wrong. Let’s see how it turns out.</p>

    • 314

      26 October, 2016 - 1:09 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#22684">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/glenn8878">glenn8878</a><a href="#22684">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Business creativity, not consumer creativity. Their business customers are where they make all their money from. Consumers dont give a crap about Windows, its a legacy product and we’ve all moved on to iOS and Android.</p>

      • 5611

        26 October, 2016 - 1:41 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#22721">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/Dan">Dan</a><a href="#22721">:</a></em></blockquote>
        <p>Speak for yourself. Unless&nbsp;they only use a phone, consumers haven’t moved on from Windows.</p>

  • 5530

    26 October, 2016 - 12:55 pm

    <p>Eh, the 3D stuff isn’t for me. I mean, the only part of the 3D announcement was the integration into powerpoint. Yeah, <em>that</em> got me interested.</p>
    <p>I can’t help but to think that MyPeople is going to be doomed. Messaging apps and services want you to use <em>their</em> app and see <em>their</em> brand the way <em>they</em> want it, which is why some of these services&nbsp;don’t even bother making a UWP app in the first place, they just make you go to their site through a browser, or they do a web wrapper which works well enough&nbsp;and call it a day (looking at Slack and WhatsApp).&nbsp;We already know some of this from our experience with Windows Phone. And really, given the current momentum of the UWP platform, I have a difficult time imagining which apps will take advantage of this feature other than Microsoft’s own portfolio.</p>
    <p>I know this is not all because they dropped a LOT of other stuff in their sizzle video, so there’s still more to come that I might be excited about.</p>
    <p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/xBF3KyN.png&quot; /></p>
    <p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/TnSEqh5.png&quot; /></p>
    <p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/UOCnYlI.png&quot; /></p>
    <p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/iP9gaWE.png&quot; /></p>

    • 5611

      26 October, 2016 - 1:49 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#22709">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/FalseAgent">FalseAgent</a><a href="#22709">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>I’m not so sure I agree with you.&nbsp;The problem with how Windows Phone integrated these services was that the individual brands were&nbsp;hidden. In this MyPeople implementation, the brands are still present front and centre, so I think it may work out just fine.</p>
      <p>For me, 3D is a big deal. I do a lot of 3D design work and also a lot of model making crafts, so anything which makes working with 3D easier is&nbsp;very welcome.</p>
      <p>As for other new features, yes the new Groove music maker app got my attention too! :-)</p>

  • 3272

    Premium Member
    26 October, 2016 - 5:31 pm

    <p>So no one wants to point out that this was supposed to be the update that focused on Mobile and mobile features. That’s one hell of a change of direction and if that doesn’t tell you all you need to know, nothing will.</p>

  • 7207

    26 October, 2016 - 9:20 pm

    <p>I may be wrong but "Windows 10 Creators Update" sounds like someone is having delusions of gradure……..</p>

  • 486

    Premium Member
    26 October, 2016 - 10:30 pm

    <p>What does "inside-out, six-degrees of freedom" mean?</p>

  • 1753

    Premium Member
    27 October, 2016 - 2:59 am

    <p>Niche market? That is what was said when the Mac and Windows 1.0 came out (and 2.0). On the PC, Windows was just a graphical shell for launching existing DOS programs full screen (they could be windowed with 3.0). There was a calculator and a clock, but that was about it (and in 1.0, you couldn’t even overlap windows).</p>
    <p>People laughed and said it would never catch on… At the moment VR is clunky, not very friendly and expensive, people can’t see the practical uses, yet.</p>
    <p>Back in the early 90s a colleague and I came up with an idea for a virtual development environment, where teams didn’t even need to be in the same building, but could "appear" in virtual meeting rooms and intereact with each other and look at code blocks in 3D and 3D debugging (literally pulling bits of code out to study them, changing colours to show how often that piece of code is used etc.). That was long before the Internet and virtual reality were "things".</p>
    <p>We might find the idea of a virtual reality interface, paired with clunky headsets as "quaint" today, just as we thought WIMP environments were quaint and described their developers, back in the mid 80s. Times change and maybe in a couple of generations, the VR environment will make total sense and we will look back on WIMP environments in the same was we look back as MS-DOS and CP/M today…</p>

  • 397

    29 October, 2016 - 4:09 pm

    <p>I see MyPeople as a problem in Enterprise.&nbsp; Too easy to mistakenly drop a&nbsp;confidential document onto the wrong recipient.&nbsp; When it’s gone, it’s delivered. Total nightmare.</p>

  • 1775

    01 November, 2016 - 11:49 am

    <p>&gt;…creating an end-to-end 3D workflow.</p>
    <p>So they say "flat" is the new thing in UIs, yet now 3D becomes part of the platform. Oookay.</p>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>

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