Tech World

The event in San Francisco was aimed mostly at enterprise customers, and Microsoft promised an OS that will be more intuitive for the millions of workers still on Windows 7 and older OSes. Here's a rundown of some of the key points we learned Tuesday about Windows 10. The natural name would have been Windows 9, but Microsoft is eager to suggest a break with the past. "We're not building an incremental product," said Terry Myerson, head of Microsoft's Operating Systems Group. Microsoft considered the name "Windows One," he said, to match products like OneNote and OneDrive and its "One Microsoft" business strategy. But he noted the name was snagged a long time ago, by a young Bill Gates. Perhaps Microsoft didn't like the idea of being numerically one step behind Apple's OS X. (A reporter asked jokingly if subsequent versions will be named after big cats.) Whatever the reason, Windows 10 it will be. "When yo...

Microsoft is showcasing a new virtual assistant as part of an upcoming update for Windows phones. The assistant, named Cortana, tries to be chatty like Siri on Apple’s iPhones and iPads, while anticipating information you might want, like Google Now on Android devices. Cortana will warn you of conflicts when you add items to your calendar, and it will remind you to ask about the new dog your sister just got the next time you communicate with her, whether that’s by phone, chat or email. It will offer to remind you of upcoming travel by scanning your email. Microsoft says the feature is in a “beta” test mode as the company tries to improve its voice recognition capabilities. In fact, during Wednesday’s announcement, Cortana made numerous mistakes, including offering weather in Celsius when the request was for the Kelvin temperature scale. Cortana is among the new features coming to a Windows Phone update called 8.1. The company says it will be available on new phones in about a...