Microsoft has sent out an email notice to all participants of the Windows Insider program that terms and conditions will be changing after next week’s Windows 10 event in Redmond. While no specifics were given in the email, members are encouraged to check the T&Cs page after the 21st for the new rules of engagement. It is yet another hint that the event next Tuesday is going to be huge with a lot of announcements and updates.
The Microsoft Windows 10 media event next Tuesday, January 21st, is shaping up to be a huge day for the Redmond company and now you can be a part. On the Microsoft Blog the company has posted details about how you can view the live stream of the event from Microsoft’ campus where the consumer version of the next version of Windows is expected to be announced amongst many other things.
While rumors and speculation has been floating for a few months now, the proverbial cat is out of the bag when it comes to Windows 10 upgrades for Windows Phone 8.1 users. In a Tweet yesterday, the Microsoft Lumia account stated
“There will be Windows 10 upgrades for all Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices 🙂 And we will release new Windows 10 models in the future”.
This is undoubtedly huge and every Windows Phone 8.1 owner should rejoice. In fact, every Windows Phone 6, 7 or 8 owner should rejoice because it means that the start, restart and make everyone buy new devices days may be over.
This is a great piece of news for Windows Phone owners. The site WMPoweruser has posted a Twitter conversation with Windows Phone insider Nawzil that indicates that all current Windows Phone devices will run Windows 10. This is great news for a lot of different reasons but should put everyone’s mind at rest over buying a Windows Phone today knowing that Windows 10 is due out in 2015.
Yesterday, with coverage spanning the Windows centric Interwebs, Joe Belfiore posted on the Blogging Windows site that the Windows 10 Technical Preview had reached 1 million participants. That is a significant number, especially given we are only two weeks since the announcement of the preview being available. But it is also important symbolically as Microsoft, seemingly for the first time, is properly asking for feedback on their flagship product. And even more importantly, they are actually listening to that feedback.
Ultimately that means we all win.
If it is indeed the case that Microsoft is listening to user feedback and shaping Windows 10 around that demand, there is no reason to think that this release will put the company squarely back on the map with consumers and, perhaps more importantly, their enterprise customers. It is a new and different Microsoft these days and this is another clear indicator of it.