To be clear -- that blue screen is my lame attempt at humor, not something that actually showed up at the keynote.
Cortana does something called "people reminders." You can set reminders for future phone calls to remind you to bring up specific topics when you call someone. The example is asking a sibling about their new puppy. Good for people who are really bad at casual chit chat?
Cortana takes app-specific requests such as putting something specific on your Hulu queue or seeing what a buddy is doing on Facebook.
They played a quick Jimmy Fallon sketch in which Siri hears about Cortana and says "Oh it's on, b*tch." Because they're both female voices, you see.
Windows Phone 8.1 supports S/MIME which allows users to send and receive signed and encrypted emails on their phone.
Windows phone has added a couple of other features for business users, including the encryption.
The store has been slightly redesigned with beefed up "partner engagement." Appealing to big app developers is key for Windows Phone if Microsoft wants to keep the platform competitive.
WiFi Sense knows who your Facebook friends and other contacts are. Turn it on and when a friend visits your house, they can hop on your WiFi network without you having to share your personal password.
New feature: shape writing! Drag a finger across the on-screen keyboard from letter to letter without lifting it up and it figures out what words you're trying to spell.
Very Swype, that feature. Good for those of us with clumsy thumbs.
"There's not better TV experience out there than XBox," says Terry Myerson. XBox is being used on 80 million TVs around the world and the average user is using it 5 hours a day.
Xbox is one of the platforms included in the Universal Apps development tool.
Talking about the Kinect: "It's a whole new way of interacting with the computer. You have the feeling that this is the future," says Myerson.
He's announcing the Kinect V2 for Windows. Improvements to skeletal tracking, facial tracking, gesture recognition and it works better in low light.
Two cheaper Lumia phones: The Nokia Lumia 630 and 635.
Some of the features Elop is touting: build-in fitness tracking features, dual SIM card support for people who use their devices for work and personal, Cortana, radio with playlists and the maps app.
Lumia 630 starts at $159 and is available in May.
New Microsoft CEO Nadella is finally taking the stage, a couple hours into this keynote.
He's taking a cue from Google's Larry Page and going straight into a Q&A session with developers. Only, these questions were picked and filmed ahead of time so there are no surprises.
Nadella lays out his argument for developing for Windows in response to a question from an Android developer. Windows has a "challenger mindset" and plans to innovate in multiple dimensions.
Next question:
"What is Microsoft doing to compete against Google and Apple in the tablet space?"
The answer is not exactly shocking. Promises of great hardware and great software and tablets at every price point. Windows will continue to innovate with Surface, striving to make it the most productive tablet available. "The key thing we look at is what is the role of the tablet in a users' device family?"
The pre-recorded softball questions are setting Natella up perfectly to give his best the Windows sales pitch. Next: "What's the vision for Microsoft going forward?"
Now he's bantering with Cortana and asking it to cue up the exit music. It ended exactly on time, which is impressive.
