The day-one keynote of Microsoft's Build developer conference is nearly upon us. Microsoft will focus on Windows 8.1, which will scale back some of the radical changes that came with Windows 8 and return Microsoft's customers to somewhat more familiar territory.
Microsoft executives will also highlight a raft of new features--everything from a wider selection of tile sizes to the ability to personalize the Start screen. The conference will also likely offer plenty of sessions for developers to create applications that take advantage of the new features.
Microsoft is also expected to talk about its app store for Windows, something that it's been working to beef up since Windows 8 debuted. And the company may discuss the integration with other Microsoft products, such as its Xbox video game console.
Update 1:50: That is the end of Microsoft's Build keynote speech
Update 1:49: Ballmer ends by saying, "The Future of windows is very very bright"
Update 1:48: "We appreciate your taking the time to join us, we appreciate all the energy into studying and learning and innovating on our platform. I want you to leave with one thought. The future of Windows is very very bright. Thank you," Ballmer says, exiting.
Update 1:47: Ballmer says the company's tried to improve its range, from working in Office to playing games, while using its various services to back all those products, all the while having an experience that feels familiar.
Update 1:46: Ballmer is back for a wrap up speech.
Update 1:45: The creators of Project Spark are currently taking betas for the software that will run on Windows 8.1. And now w'ere seeing a quick demo reel of games that are being made for Project Spark
Update 1:44: joinprojectspark.com is where developers can register
Update 1:43: They just sent the game over to the Xbox One to play it, and the game is running just fine. But they're going to tweak the game real quick on a tablet. So they're changing the enemy's artificial intelligence to alter its behavior, including how and when it can jump. They're also tweaking the camera angle so it's fixed a certain way, effectively developing a game with the built-in toolkit. They also just tweaked the game to work on touch devices.
Update 1:42: This game-creation tool looks pretty awesome
Update 1:42: We're seeing a quick demo of how you can use this to create a game setting, which is populating rocks, cactus-looking things, and other environmental features
Update 1:41: Spark coming to XBox One, XBox 360, and Windows 8
Update 1:40: Rusty McLellan and Dave McCarthy who Ballmer says will "wet our whistle" one more time.
Update 1:39: This is Project Spark, a game the company showed off at E3 and basically lets players build their own games.
Update 1:38: Before ending Ballmer says one more thing will be shown
Update 1:37: They're also gonna talk Office 365
Update 1:36: And all this continues tomorrow with a different set of subjects, Ballmer says. That starts off with what's happening in the cloud backend with Windows Azure.
Update 1:35: "We really have paid some attention to this notion to the desktop and modern applications, and how people mix and match their environments, and have made some pretty transformative changes," he says. Also building in Bing has let the company do "exciting new types of applications."
Update 1:33: Balmer rounding out everything shown this morning
Update 1:31: Ballmer is back on stage
Update 1:30: Then he uses voice search again to add it to his notebook, where it's filed away.
Update 1:29: Singh Pall demoing some of the 3D imagery, which can be "a canvas for a whole lot of interesting things," he says, using the demo of a foreign country map as a way to find out more about an area by saying "who is the architect?" in voice search. It pulls up Santiago Calatrava, who made the museum that was on the map.
Update 1:28: The demo app pulls things like photos from Bing, you can also add Streetside views for maps, along with oceanographic views and launches into a robotic, spoken voice that's explaining a local area from text Bing pulled up into the Web.
Update 1:27: App is giving an automatic voice and video tour of the city of Valencia
Update 1:26: They've created a demo app to show some of this off. Singh Pall breaks out a Windows Phone and uses the voice search to add "Spain" to his list called vacation ideas. This is a road trip companion app on the phone and the desktop, where Spain just popped up on both.
Update 1:25: Singh Pall says Bing as a platform is available to developers.
Update 1:23: Singh Pall going over some of the things in Windows that have brought Bing into the fold. Things like searching the store, and integrating Web search into Office. Same thing goes for the Xbox 360, and more recently with the Xbox One.
Update 1:22: Singh Pall says the company's had a vision to pull together various bits of information and make them useful to people.
Update 1:20: "Understanding user intent" is a big issue for both MS and Google
Update 1:19: And the topic is Bing. 17.4% share in the U.S. and gaining month over month. Yahoo uses it, Facebook uses it, and even Apple's Siri Bings, Singh Pall says
Update 1:18: Pall is the VP of Bing
Update 1:17: That's it for Leblond's demo. He just gave us a quick wrap on his talk. Next up is Microsoft's Gurdeep Singh Pall.
Update 1:16: Julie's back with the Surface Pro, in case you forgot about that. And all the developers are getting a Surface Pro
Update 1:15: And we go on: Dell XPS 10 tablet, which is also less than $400. Lastly, there's the Dell XPS 18, which is a large tablet that can also be docked.
Update 1:14: Acer Aspire P5 notebook, which is less than $400.
Update 1:13: Acer Aspire P3, which is 0.4 inches thick and also has a wireless detachable keyboard that doubles as a cover.
Update 1:12: Next up: Lenovo Thinkpad Helix, the one Ballmer mentioned in his opener. Has bios encryption, NFC, USB 3.0. It's also got a detachable keyboard.
Update 1:11: Leblond's breaking out various Windows 8 devices. First up, the Samsung Ativ 13-inch screen
Update 1:10: This is using new realtime streaming APIs that will send a live video feed to the other tablet.
Update 1:09: Leblond shows off a Lego Mindstorm rover that's hooked up to a tablet. He's using another Windows 8.1 tablet that's working over Wi-Fi.
Update 1:09: Leblond shows off a demo program that lets you view and manipulate a 3D object, and print directly to a MakerBot Replicator 2.
Update 1:08: "3D printing is super hot right now, and Windows 8.1 is the only platform to support it natively," he says.
Update 1:07: Also new in WIndows 8.1: 3D printing support.
Update 1:06: These demos work on current Direct X 11 cards Leblond notes, as well as Xbox One.
Update 1:05: Leblond moves onto the fun stuff now: games and Direct X
Update 1:04: Leblond showing us a demo of how Windows 8.1 now scales resolution when hooked up to multiple monitors. Each monitor now has its own scaling factor, which gets a very large round of applause.
Update 1:03: Other changes: bigger screenshots for apps, richer ratings and reviews, but also related apps and similar apps from that same studio, which Leblond says should help people discover apps and sell more stuff on the store.
Update 1:02: People like lists as ways to discover apps, Leblond says, so the company's curated a bunch of them and made them easier to find. There's a "picks for you" list that's personalized. Built by Bing's recommendation engine, which culls apps you've downloaded, things your friends have downloaded, things you've looked at, etc.
Update 1:02: Leblond opens up the Windows store app, but first notes that apps get updated automatically so that the update icon just isn't there anymore.
Update 1:01: In-app purchase now works for items and consumables, along with in-app gifting. There's also promotion for apps in Bing.
Update 1:00: Onto the Windows Store
Update 12:59: We've got a demo running of a native app, and a browser -- side by side, both of which are running this graphics demo of a spinning Windows logo.
Update 12: 58: Now onto Web video platforms, including MPEG Dash and Web GL, both of which are supported now. This works in the browser and in native apps.
Update 12:58: WebGL and MPEG Dash coming to W8.1
Update 12:57: Leblond switches to a different version of the SuperNova app which lets users zoom into the photo in the demo software that will fetch the high-resolution version of a space picture.
Update 12:56: Leblond's showing us some code for a demo app called "SuperNova" that pulls down space photos and puts them in a gallery.
Update 12:55: Leblond says Visual Studio 2013 developer preview hit today, and is filled with "a lot" of new stuff. To show it off we're seeing a code demo.
Update 12:55: 5,000 new APIs for developers, and "a lot of new surface area," Leblond says.
Update 12:54: Leblond notes that existing apps will run better on 8.1, which is why the upgrade is free.
Update 12:54: That's it for Larson-Green's Windows 8.1 demo. Now Microsoft's Antoine Leblond is up to give us a look at some of the changes under the hood.
Update 12:53: Larson-Green opens up PowerPoint.
Update 12:53: Moving onto Microsoft Office
Update 12:52: Some other desktop tweaks: snapping two windows side by side, something they've had around since Windows 7. But now you can adjust the split, as well as open up new tabs in window partitions you set up on the screen. That gets some claps. "If you're a developer you're probably also using multimon," she says. That's been improved too. Now you can have 8 monitors setup, and resize the windows on each screen. These all get blended too, she adds.
Update 12: 51: Larson-Green moves onto TV, showing a video playing off the Xbox One.
Update 12:51: New app: Bing Food & Drink, it's a recipe, shopping list, and meal planner that's tied into Bing for searching. It has a hands free mode that uses the camera to track motion and advance through recipes, which probably gets the biggest applause of the morning.
Update 12:50: Bing Food and Drink displayed
Update 12:48: "Every app in the box is either updated or new from Windows 8.0"
Update 12:45: We're in the SkyDrive app which has a bunch of Office docs on there right now, but can also be a data dump for your other files.
Update 12:44: Julie shows off swiping up to go from Start screen to apps list, audience claps.
Update 12:42: Jensen Harris calls Julie on Skype, Julie answers from the lockscreen.
Update 12:40: Larson-Green just demoed a neat feature that can find music tracks from a Web page, then turn them into a playlist. That gets a round of applause.
Upadate 12:39: The smart search brings results from "everywhere" on your computer, as well as the Web and your SkyDrive.
Update 12:37: New search charm can search through context. This is "one box that does it all," Larson-Green says, calling it a modern command line. 20M searches were done in one month using the tool, she adds.
Update 12:35: Now we're seeing some other keyboard software tech, like holding on a letter to get a radial dial of alternate characters, which also gets some applause.
Update 12:33: Windows 8.1 soft keyboard gets gestures - similar to Swype and SwiftKey, but not full word-writing.
Update 12:32: Audience loves it and applauds
Update 12:31: Larson-Green really rushing through this demo. Showing us that the Windows 8.1 Twitter app has suggestions for words as you type, and that the keyboard now has gestures. So she slides her finger to pick a word without typing the rest of it, and it pops up.
Update 12:29: Demo starts off on a tablet. Larson-Green showing us the start screen, launching the Nook app before exiting out of it incredibly quickly. Now she's launching Twitter.
Update 12:25: Microsoft's Julie Larson-Green is up on stage showing us Windows 8.1 stuff.
Update 12:24: Last but not least from Ballmer's intro. Bing. He notes that the experience has been improved, and that Bing "winds blind taste tests when you compare us against Google." The time has come to also use Bing in new ways, Ballmer says.
Update 12:23: Windows Start button appears in screenshot behind Ballmer as he compares Windows 8 to refining a coffee blend'
Update 12:22: "Within this month" Ballmer says the company will hit 100,000 applications on Windows 8.
Update 12:22: Ballmer talking Windows 8 apps
Update 12:21: Ballmer says that Windows 8+Touch customers are much happier than Windows 8 without touch customers.
Update 12:20: "Touch is incredibly valuable," Ballmer says, pointing out that "it's so obvious, and it's really only in the Windows family that we have a range of touch notebooks."
Update 12:20: Acer Iconia 8.1 inch giveaway to attendees
Update 12:18: Now onto the entire ecosystem: tablets, notebooks, all-in-ones and 2-in-1 tablets the company dubs the "workhorse." The Windows device of today doesn't look like it did 5 years ago, Ballmer says.
Update 12:16: Ativ is Samsung's Windows line, as Galaxy is their Android line
Update 12:15: Ballmer notes it's the same basic look and feel on the software as you get on Windows, so it's familiar. He's holding up one of the Nokia sets that will be sold for $150, even in foreign markets where it's unsubsidized. Also new: HTC Windows Phone 8XT, and the Samsung ATIV S Neo, both coming to Sprint's network.
Update 12:13: Showing off new Nokia Lumia 928, 925 and 521. Ballmer talking up the screens, cameras, and thickness. All of them are from the last month or two, he notes.
Update 12:12: Ballmer says the company's been moving fast on Windows and the Windows Phone software, so along with the Windows 8.1 preview, today we're seeing "the incredible range of new devices" from Microsoft's partners. "These are incredibly, incredibly beautiful devices," Ballmer says.
Update 12:10: "We're going to show you WIndows 8.1 today"
Update 12:08: Windows, Windows Azure we will get today
Update 12:08: Ballmer says "Not going to show you a lot of Office 365, Skype, or Xbox Live"
Update 12:07: 60K people are watching all over
Update 12:06: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
Update 12:05: ARGH! Got a late start!
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