Microsoft jumps into augmented reality with HoloLens!

The company's Windows 10 event brings an unexpected entry into the burgeoning field already staked out by Google Glass and Oculus Rift.

Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled a device called HoloLens, marking its entry into the increasingly popular field of augmented reality.

Similar to virtual reality, AR technology incorporates apps and services into the real world. The best-known devices in those areas are Google Glass, which lets people see images and text layered into their field of vision, and the more immersive Oculus Rift, a virtual reality device.

Microsoft is promising more with its new hologram programing. Alex Kipman, the man behind Microsoft's Kinect device, called the HoloLens the "first fully untethered holographic computer."

"We're dreaming beyond virtual worlds, beyond screens, beyond pixels and beyond today's digital borders," he said at the company's Windows 10 event. "We're dreaming of holograms."

The device will be available within the same time frame as Windows 10, which is expected later this year. The company did not give a specific price for the HoloLens, but CEO Satya Nadella said he wants both customers and enterprises to use it so pricing will reflect that.

Microsoft hopes it can inspire customers to want its products, rather than feeling like they have to use them.

Pulling that off will be no easy feat, but it's critical to Microsoft's future. The company is aggressively simplifying its entire platform under Nadella's "one Windows" vision, which promises to make the upcoming Windows 10 run across desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones. To make this work, Microsoft is readying a significant change to how it and its developer community will deliver, manage and build next-generation software for every device -- with one store, and one way for consumers to download and access programs across screens.

The HoloLens would be another device for Microsoft's hardware network. It has see-through lenses, spatial sound, and motion sensors to capture information about the environment, according to Kipman. A holographic processing unit allows the device to understand gestures, voice and the environment around you in real time.

Microsoft hopes that already existing augmented and virtual reality companies, like Ocuclus VR, Magic Leap and Google Glass, will use Microsoft's hologram programing for their own devices.

"This is the next generation of computing," Kipman said. "This is the next-generation PC."

The company boasts many uses for its augmented reality tech. HoloStudio is the program that lets users create holograms. A demo shows how a user can design a quadcopter within the program and then use a 3D printer to create the actual aircraft.

Microsoft said it is also working with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to bring holograms to scientific research. The agency expects to be "controlling rovers on Mars" with the HoloLens by July.

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Google Translate gets smarter with language detection, Word Lens!

Star Trek's universal translator is here, and it's on your phone. Google is updating its Translate app on Wednesday, and, as rumored, the new version includes automatic language detection in conversation mode, so having a conversation between two people who don't speak the same language is actually possible.

Once you've selected the two languages being spoken, Google Translate can now tell which one is being spoken at any moment. With no need to manually toggle them, conversations can be more natural.

SEE ALSO: The real-world test on Microsoft Skype Translator Preview

The update to Google Translate also integrates Word Lens, which instantaneously translates written text. Previous versions required the user to take a picture of text and mark which words they wanted translated; Word Lens means you only need to hold the phone up so the text is visible onscreen, and the app will translate the words before your eyes.

Even better, Word Lens will work without an Internet connection. The visual translations work in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. For other languages, you'll still need to take a pic first.

The new features are coming to both the iOS and Android versions of Google Translate.

Between Google Translate and Microsoft's real-time Skype translator, the barrier of language is rapidly disappearing thanks to technology. It may not solve all the world's problems, but at least travel and tourism will get a little easier for many.

Pakistani Entrepreneur To Display Less Expensive Smart Home Technology At CES Las Vegas 2015

Salman Qureshi, a Karachi based US entrepreneur, will display a less expensive smart home technology at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015 to be held in Las Vegas next week. He will participate in the Show Stopper event of the massively popular CES to exhibit his product in front of more than 1,000 journalists.

The product called ‘Umbrela’ is an integrated automated smart home system which uses existing wiring at homes and does not depend on Wi-Fi, custom wiring, batteries or smart phone based automation applications.

The system uses a Qualcom technology called Homeplug which connects to home Internet router, plugs into an electrical outlet and lets electrical wiring to stream broadband. The 7-inch touch screen interface module learns your lifestyle and activates sensors, lights and even music streaming devices automatically.

Salman Qureshi got the idea when his desired smart-home features were too expensive to add to his newly built home three years ago in St. Norbert. He started working on the idea along with two engineers from his former workplace – Monteris. The plan was to make DIY plug-and-play hardware which can be sold to consumer directly without charging any monthly fee like other services do especially on security features.

While talking about his firm, Qureshi said, “So far the company has been funded by the founders ourselves. We wanted to get the technology to the point where we could go to investors and show them the product as opposed to a drawing on the back of a napkin of a hard-to-describe technology.”

The firm plans to launch a crowd-funding campaign early this year and will start shipping the units in the last quarter of 2015. They have already secured a provisional patent while Chinese manufacturing and supply chain are in place too.

About Salman Qureshi:

Salman Qureshi arrived in Winnipeg from Karachi, Pakistan, to be admitted in Grade 12 at West Kildonan Collegiate. He, then, went to the University of Manitoba to complete his Mechanical Engineering degree. After graduation, he got a job at Bristol Aerospace and worked on defense and space projects. While working at Bristol, the company helped him get an MBA degree. In 2003, Monteris, a then startup, recruited him. His 10 years’ experience at Monteris Medical was an excellent training ground for launching his own startup.

Meet the Nokia 215; The Low Priced Facebook Phone That Entertains!

Nokia has had quite the track record recently when it comes to making budget friendly phones, the Nokia X series managed to rock the market and while Nokia doesn’t have the durability of the Nokia 3310 anymore, it seems that their new phone is targeting the consumer with thin pockets while also providing them the opportunity to enjoy social media and many other entertainment options on the move.

The Nokia 215 is a simple $29 (without taxes and subsidies) phone that offers a lengthy battery life to last you for nearly 30 days, the durability of a slightly weaker Nokia 3310 and with the integration of Facebook and Facebook Messenger, you can be sure that you never miss a buzz while on the move with instant notifications!

This phone also comes bundled with Twitter pre-installed for those who are more vocal than those of us who like to lurk our timelines, this will allow you to tweet as you go and see your time line on a easy to use, light client.

As well as Bing Search the phone has MSN Weather. So that’s at least two Microsoft brands it can push before digitally impressionable eyeballs. Whether that translates into any long time brand loyalty and/or subsequent upgrades to Lumia smartphones remains to be seen.

Additionally the phone has stuff that is sure to entice a buyer, these are features that really aren’t present in phones in the similar price bracket; features like a flashlight, MP3 player (50 hour playback), FM Radio (45 hour playback), dual-SIM, durable and having a variety of colors to choose from. SLAM is a new way to share that makes sharing files between two SLAM capable devices is as simple as bringing them close together.

The phone has an amazing stand-by time of 29 days (on single SIM) while the dual SIM variant offers 21 days. If you are one for talking and wish to make the most of your call packages, the 20 hour talktime will be sure to let you stay hooked on the phone to your hearts content.

This is indeed a phone that is sure to entice a lot of people who are looking for a secondary phone to carry with them or for a person who is looking to buy a phone with select features but doesn’t want to break the bank.

The phone has certainly managed to wow me and for the price I am sure that this thing will be on top for quite some time for the low price range consumer, if Nokia throws in WhatsApp integration then you can bet that this thing will fly off the shelves!

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Samsung announces its thinnest laptop yet!

We hope you like super skinny laptops, because you're going to be seeing a hell of a lot more of them in 2015. Samsung just took the veil off its new ATIV Book 9 Ultrabook, which comes in at just 0.45 inch thick and 2.09 pounds. That's insanely compact for a 12.2-inch machine and indeed, it's the thinnest and lightest notebook Samsung has released yet. (Given Sammy's history with razor-thin laptops, that's saying a lot.) Like so many other slim machines that have come out lately, the Book 9 uses one of Intel's new Core M processors, which were designed specifically to allow for skinnier designs.

Even more than its svelte profile, though, the real star of the show might actually be the display. Not only is the 2,560 x 1,440 resolution high for a machine this size, but Samsung also included an "outdoor mode" that takes the brightness from an already-impressive 350 nits all the way up to 700. The only concession seems to be that it's a non-touch panel -- kind of a necessity, though, if you wanna build a machine this thin.

Assuming you do in fact keep the brightness at a more moderate level most of the time, the battery life should be pretty long -- up to 10.5 hours, according to Samsung. In addition, the Book 9 has an Ultra Power Saving Mode similar to Samsung's smartphones, which allows desperate users to squeeze out an extra hour of run-time by automatically shutting down all non-essential services running on the machine. Also, like many other Core M laptops, the Book 9 is fanless, which should mean it runs pretty quietly. Does that also mean it runs cool? We'll see, but if our early impressions of Core M are any indication, it's unlikely to overheat. The Book 9 will go on sale sometime in Q1 of 2015, and will be available in two configurations: a $1,200 model with 4GB of memory and a 128GB solid-state drive, and a $1,400 unit with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.