{"id":157764,"date":"2015-10-06T17:49:18","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T17:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=157764"},"modified":"2015-10-06T17:49:18","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T17:49:18","slug":"microsoft-launches-windows-laptop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=157764","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft launches Windows laptop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Microsoft has launched a laptop dubbed the Surface Book, as part of a suite of new Windows 10 products.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It also showed off two new smartphones, an updated Surface tablet and a new fitness band.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Much is riding on the launches as chief executive Satya Nadella sets out to prove Microsoft can compete with its rivals.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Analysts said the new laptop may help revive the ailing PC market.<br \/>\nThe laptop, Microsoft&#8217;s first, was the highlight of a tranche of new products shown off at an event in New York.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is designed to take on Apple&#8217;s Macbook, with Microsoft directly comparing the products.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It said that, just as its Surface tablet was a hybrid between a tablet and a laptop, so the Surface Book would &#8220;reinvent categories&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Analysts seemed impressed.<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8220;It is a highly innovative, flagship device that will act as a much-needed halo product for Windows 10 and the broader PC market and proves that innovation in personal computing is not just confined to Apple&#8217;s Cupertino campus,&#8221; said Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The device, which weighs 1.6lbs (0.7 kilograms) and is 7.7mm thick, comes with a touchscreen that can be separated from the keyboard. It will be available at the end of October for $1,499 (\u00a3984).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Microsoft also showed off two new smartphones &#8211; the 5.2in Lumia 950 ($549) and the slightly larger Lumia 950 XL ($649) both of which will be available in November.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Features include a 20 megapixel camera, a dedicated camera button, the ability to capture 4K video and 32 gigabytes of storage.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A cheaper Lumia 550 will be available in December, priced $139.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr Wood said Microsoft still had a &#8220;mountain to climb&#8221; to regain relevance in the smartphone market.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;These new Lumia devices tick all the boxes in terms of specifications and features but they are unlikely to be enough to lure customers away from the iPhone or Android-powered rivals,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Microsoft also showed off its much-anticipated upgraded tablet &#8211; the Surface Pro 4 which will be released at the en of October, priced at $899.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is thinner, with new screen technology, a more ergonomic keyboard cover and various other upgrades.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr Wood described it as &#8220;an impressive update&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Also on show was an updated fitness band, dubbed Band 2.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The wearable comes with a improved curved design and 11 sensors including a barometer to track elevation. It is linked to virtual assistant Cortana and the Microsoft Health platform, which will provide users with feedback on their fitness.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It will aggregate anonymised data from Band owners so that users can compare their performance with people of a similar age, weight and fitness.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Priced at $249, it will be available at the end of October.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr Wood said that the band showed that Microsoft remained &#8220;committed to the wearables category&#8221; but that the device was more &#8220;functional than fashionable&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Microsoft also revealed that it would be making a version of its virtual reality headset, HoloLens available to developers at the beginning of next year at a price of $3,000.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It demonstrated a game that has been developed internally, codenamed Project X-ray, which it dubbed &#8220;mixed reality gaming&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The game featured a robot invasion that can be &#8220;customised to your living room&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Windows 10 began rolling out 10 weeks ago and is, according to Microsoft&#8217;s vice president Terry Myerson, now running on 110 million devices.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/85939163_9225f26c-3d64-4c3a-b23f-27ad479d4004.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-157765\" src=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/85939163_9225f26c-3d64-4c3a-b23f-27ad479d4004.jpg\" alt=\"_85939163_9225f26c-3d64-4c3a-b23f-27ad479d4004\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" srcset=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/85939163_9225f26c-3d64-4c3a-b23f-27ad479d4004.jpg 624w, https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/85939163_9225f26c-3d64-4c3a-b23f-27ad479d4004-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;With the future of Microsoft and its new subscription-based business model depending heavily on Windows 10, Microsoft must be encouraged by how many devices have been updated so far,&#8221; said Mr Wood.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Windows 10 also seems to be getting a far more positive reception from consumers than the ill-fated Windows 8. The challenge now is to build on this positive momentum, particularly in the area of apps where Microsoft has a huge gap versus rivals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8211;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft has launched a laptop dubbed the Surface Book, as part of a suite of new Windows 10 products. It also showed off two new smartphones, an updated Surface tablet and a new fitness band. Much is riding on the launches as chief executive Satya Nadella sets out to prove Microsoft can compete with its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":157766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-157764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-akwasi-osei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/157766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}