Microsoft announced the first major Update to Windows Holographic which has brought a plethora of new features. But most of the added features are very basic and have been added based on the demand of users received through feedback system. Microsoft also wrote that the Redmond based tech giant is interested in checking what developers are doing with the device which ranges from improving tasks like ordering dinner, to assisting pathfinding and reinventing shopping.
Multi-tasking – With this update, you can run multiple applications at the same time.
Input – You can now connect a regular Bluetooth mouse to your HoloLens device. In addition, the clicker has been fine-tuned to enable resizing and moving of holograms.
Voice – We’ve added new commands. Find out what happens when you gaze at a hologram and say “Face me!”
Edge – Edge now supports many of your feature requests such as tabs.
Photos – The Photos app has been updated to support pinning of pictures without any borders or chrome. Your walls will never look the same.
Microsoft HoloLens is powered by Windows Holographic but other OEMs can license Windows Holographic to make their own device. The Development Edition for HoloLens began shipment two months ago. The second lot of the devices are shipping now and three more waves are there in which the devices will be launched. The Consumer version is expected to launch very soon.
Check out the full documentation of Windows Holographic:
You can now run multiple flat apps, up to three at the same time. This enables endless use cases for multi-tasking in HoloLens. Have the new Feedback Hub with the list of Quests open, while exploring the new features on this flight.
We’ve added a bunch of new voice commands:
- Try looking at a hologram and rotate it by saying “Face me”
- Change its size by saying “Bigger” / “Smaller”
- Move an app by saying “Hey Cortana, move Name here.”
- We’ve made developing on HoloLens easier. You can now browse, upload, and download files through the Windows Device Portal. You can access the Documents folder, Pictures folder, and the local storage for any app you side-loaded or deployed through Visual Studio.
- The emulator now supports log-in with a Microsoft Account just like you would on a real HoloLens. You can enable this from the Additional Tools menu “>>”.
- 2D Apps now hide the holobar and cursor when watching video full screen to avoid distraction. With this, your video watching experience will be even more enjoyable on HoloLens.
- You can also pin photos without the app bar in your world .
- File picker works just like you expect them to on HoloLens.
- Updated Edge browser to map unified user experience with desktop and phone. We enabled multiple instances of your browser, custom HoloLens new tab page, tab peek, and open in new windows, along with power & performance improvements.
- Groove Music app is now on HoloLens. Visit the store to download it and try playing in the background.
- You can easily customize how apps are arranged in your world. Tryrotating your holograms in adjust mode by simply click and drag on circle in the middle vertical wireframes. You might notice holograms have tighter fitted bounding boxes to ensure maximized interaction. You can also resize all flat apps vertically (except Photos and Hologram apps).
- We’ve made a lot of input improvement in this flight. You can connect a regular Bluetooth mouse to HoloLens. The clicker has been fine tuned to enable resizing & moving holograms with a clicker. Keyboard is also running better than ever.
- Now you can take mixed reality pictures by simply pressing down the volume up + volume down simultaneously. You can also share your mixed reality captured photos & videos to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The maximum recording length of mixed reality videos has been increased to five minutes.
Photos app now streams videos from OneDrive instead of having to download the entire video before playback.
We’ve improved how your holograms will be right where you left them. You will also be presented the option to re-connect to Wi-Fi and try again if HoloLens cannot detect where they are.
The keyboard has an improved layout for entering email addresswith keys that allow you to enter the most popular email domains with a single click.
Faster app registration and auto detection of time zone during OOBE, giving you the best first user experience.
Storage sense allows you to view remaining and used disk space by the system and apps in the settings app.
We have converged Feedback App and Inside Hub into a single app Feedback Hub that will be the go-to tool for giving us feedback, which features you love, which features you could do without, or when something could be better. When you join the Insider Program, you can keep up on get latest Insider news, rate builds and go on feedback quests from Feedback Hub.
We’ve also published an updated ”’HoloLens Emulator”’ build.
About Nick
Nick is a Software Engineer. He has interest in gadgets and technical stuffs. If you are facing any problem with your Windows, feel free to ask him.