Much of what is being revealed during Build 2014 isn’t a major surprise — rumors have a way of playing spoiler in the case of many big shows these days. Not to mention, if you looked carefully into the sessions listing for the show, you may have noticed some clues about what would be discussed during the big keynote opening.
One of those is the Internet of Things — an area that is thought of as non-computer products, though that isn’t an entirely correct view. The fact is, we’re talking about non-traditional computer devices, but these products still have a chip and the ability to connect to the network.
While the possibility of a full-on competition against the recently unveiled Android Wear didn’t occur, the company did discuss its fascination with the latest Intel chips and the ability to power all sorts of devices — running x86 from a miniscule platform. To demonstrate this, Microsoft showed a rather large keyboard that utilized Azure to allow for programming and debugging.
This was mostly a proof-of-concept, with no big smartwatch reveal. But it pointed at one of the directions that Windows is heading in the future — a keyboard today, but tomorrow you’ll be pre-heating your oven from a phone or tablet. That is both fascinating and potentially scary, given the possibility for things to go terribly wrong.
Further reading: Microsoft
