This week Microsoft had several interesting announcements at this year’s BUILD conference keynote.
1. All retail Xbox One consoles can become development kits free of charge.
a. Xbox Dev Mode is available starting today as a preview and will be finalized as a full release this summer.
2. The Hololens development kits started shipping this week, still cost $3,000 though.
a. Showed off Holoportation- Full 3D Holographic video capture and transition. Princess Leia Star Wars scene.
b. https://youtu.be/tIl7UMUxKJo
3. The cornerstone of the keynote was the Microsoft Bot Framework.
a. This tool in preview lets developers build their own chatbots into apps.
b. Chatbot- Programs that chat-based conversations between a user and an automated response system. Can be so realistic some users don’t realize they’re talking/texting with a chatbots.
c. Skype will get chatbots built in for desktop, iOS and Android and its own Skype Bot platform. Examples included booking a hotel room and arranging delivery of cupcakes.
