The Build 2016 Developer Conference was the brightest technological event of the past week. There Microsoft showed the world what it is working on and how it sees the future of technology. New version of Windows 10, Skype updates, bots as the basis of the web and HoloLens. All this is undoubtedly interesting, but among the announcements of the company, Windows Ink stands out - a set of products for all users who still prefer pen and paper.
More information about the great importance of this technology for the entire high-tech industry was told in the article published by WinBeta by Max Slater-Robins "Microsoft is really gunning for the iPad Pro with Windows Ink". Of course, the point of view outlined in this note is only one of the possible. In addition, to date, nothing definite about the convenience of Windows Ink is impossible to say, you can only make certain assumptions.
Windows Ink is a set of products for Surface Pro and for any other stylus-supported tablets that provide a set of functions that can be very useful for creative people.
Microsoft notes that with Windows Ink the stylus is in the center. The company announced Ink Workspace - a set of applications that allow you to use the stylus as effectively as possible for various tasks. For example, among these applications there is also a program for taking notes, which, using intellectual technology, is able to recognize words such as "tomorrow" and based on the understood text to carry out certain actions.
First of all, the stylus and its features are interesting for artists and designers. But the circle of users of the stylus is not limited to representatives of creative professions. After all, there are a lot of people who still prefer pen and paper to digital input. Thus, a new development of Microsoft can like very much, almost every user. Those users who have the opportunity to enter by hand seems important, can start looking seriously at Surface tablets.
It should be noted that the new iPad Pro from Apple, which were recently presented by the company, are focused primarily on the same audience - users who constantly and intensively work with the tablet.
iPad Pro - a tablet with 12.9-inch screen running the operating system iOS supports an additional accessory - the stylus Apple Pencil. Like the Surface Pen, this stylus can be used to enter notes and draw pictures. Apple strives to focus the attention of the public on this opportunity and even conducted an advertising campaign showing the work of artists on the iPad.
But Microsoft with its Ink technology has managed to do something previously unseen. The workspace that can be activated in Windows 10 has a ruler that can be dragged by a finger while drawing with the stylus Pen. In addition, the company offers other tools that artists will find very useful in their work.
As is typical of Microsoft technologies, this functionality can be embedded in third-party applications, such as Adobe Photoshop. To do this, it is enough, as the company itself reported, only "two lines of code" (it remains unclear whether there are really only two lines of code or these words were some exaggeration of the ease of integration of new functionality into third-party applications).
Microsoft has changed its approach, and now the company is trying to attract as many users to use its software. Even those who are not Windows users. Suffice it to say that all the basic applications of the Microsoft Office package can be launched on the same iPad Pro.
It turns out a bit strange situation - Microsoft simultaneously and strengthens the position of the iPad Pro and competes with it.
Ink technology will attract the attention of people of creative professions to the Windows platform. It turns out that using OneNote on iPad is certainly a great solution, but it's even better to use Surface.
Surface is becoming more attractive device, especially if you compare it with the iPad. After all, the version of Photoshop, which is the most popular product of Adobe, which is available to iOS users, is characterized by limited functionality. Surface, thanks to Windows 10, allows you to run the full version of this software product.
iOS is an unusually popular operating system, because it is under its control that the iPhone works. But it prevents the success of the iPad Pro. Unlike Windows 10, only Apple-approved applications can be installed on the iPad Pro, which is somewhat inconvenient for those users who use third-party proprietary applications, and there are quite a few such applications.
The openness of the Windows platform and Microsoft's willingness to share their inventions and software can become a real advantage of Surface Pro in the eyes of those people who will compare it with the iPad. After all, Surface supports all the software that the user can presumably need. In the meantime, the iPad supports only the latest and brightest software, but this does not mean that each user needs just such a set of programs.
Those tasks for which you can only use Surface Pro will require the user to have an iPad Pro and a MacBook Pro. This is not the only and in many cases insufficient, but for a number of users a very significant argument in favor of Surface.
When Surface was first introduced, many doubted its prospects. But now it becomes clear that Microsoft has managed to create an excellent device with a remarkable set of software. And all this thanks to the universal platform Universal Windows Platform, which is getting better every day.
Despite the numerous advantages of Windows 10 and the inevitability of switching to it, Windows 7 remains the most popular operating system for PCs. Of course, the inevitability of this is not absolute, and users have alternatives in the form of OS X and numerous versions of Linux. And not every user will find the expanded possibilities of using the stylus so a significant advantage.
Will Windows Ink become a significant argument in favor of Surface Pro for artists and designers?
The article is based on materials .
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