Top 5 announcements from Microsoft Ignite 2022

Satya Nadella on stage at Microsoft Ignite 2022 Source: Daniel Rubino/Windows Central

Microsoft's Ignite conferences are typically filled developer news virtually Azure, development platforms, and more. Nonetheless, Microsoft ever manages to sprinkle in some large announcements for the consumer crowd as well.

This year, Microsoft didn't disappoint, revealing some big news for Border, Office, Cortana, and much more. With that in mind, hither are some of our pinnacle picks for the biggest news from Ignite 2022 that you lot should pay attention to.

The new Microsoft Edge has a release engagement

Satya Nadella on stage at Microsoft Ignite 2022 Source: Daniel Rubino/Windows Cardinal

The new Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge is near ready for its official debut. In testing for months at this betoken, Microsoft has added a ton of new features to its plate. Now, you have January 15, 2022, to look forward to as the app'southward official launch.

The new Border replaces Microsoft's previous iteration of the browser, supplanting its original engine for Chromium. The result is a browser that stays in sync with the Chromium development branch, while retaining Microsoft's own features like password and history syncing across Edge platforms, the new Collections experience, and a robust gear up of privacy features. Business users also get access to Microsoft Search direct in the address bar, merging spider web searches with searches for files in their company's network.

The new Edge's release candidate is now available to download. Microsoft all the same has some work to do on bringing Fluent Design and inking to the new Edge if it hopes to stay in line with the onetime Edge. Notwithstanding, Jan volition be an exciting time for Edge users who haven't tried the beta version however. Oh, and there's a new logo.

Cortana's AI smarts coming to Outlook

Cortana email management iOS Source: Windows Primal

If you ever thought to yourself, "homo, Outlook could use a dash more Cortana," then you're in for a treat. Microsoft revealed that it'due south bringing some new AI integration to Outlook that should help you be more productive.

At a basic level, Cortana at present has the ability to read your emails aloud, which should come in handy when you're on the move. Cortana now automatically manages your calendar, giving you a daily brief at the beginning of each twenty-four hours that offers a quick look at your schedule. Your contacts can besides electronic mail or mention Cortana directly to prepare upward meetings.

Finally, Microsoft says it also continues to piece of work on the natural conversational features information technology revealed earlier in 2022 for Cortana. That characteristic should launch in the coming months, with Microsoft also working on bringing Cortana to Teams.

Cortana underwent a massive shift this year, moving from a full general voice assistant to the backbone of Microsoft'south AI efforts. These new integrations with Outlook highlight merely some of what the company has in listen for the banana.

New Office Mobile app for iOS and Android

Microsoft Office app in App Store Source: Daniel Rubino/Windows Central

Microsoft has a new Office app for Android and iOS in the works. Bachelor to test now in preview, the app brings together some of Microsoft's most popular Office apps in i infinite.

You tin can open up and edit Excel, Word, and PowerPoint documents right within the new Office mobile app without having to install split apps for each. What's cooler, the app also allows for snapping a film of a physical certificate to plow it into an editable file. That includes turning printed tables into Excel docs.

The 'Human being of Steel' gets stored on a tiny slice of glass

Source: Microsoft

In an announcement that surely caught everyone in attendance off guard, Microsoft revealed that it worked with Warner Bros. to store and recall the entire 1978 Superman picture show on a piece of glass.

Warner Bros. approached Microsoft looking for ways to preserve its vast collection of movies and Goggle box shows on a medium that could potentially last centuries, through natural and homo-made disasters. The consequence is a piece of glass, about the size of a coaster, that is encoded with data using a laser.

"A laser encodes data in glass by creating layers of three-dimensional nanoscale gratings and deformations at various depths and angles," Microsoft said in a web log mail. "Machine learning algorithms read the information back by decoding images and patterns that are created as polarized light shines through the glass."

The consequence is a media-storage medium that can survive with its data intact for hundreds of years. Even so, Microsoft also sees this as a way to drive down the costs of long-term deject storage.

Corking stuff.

Whiteboard comes to the web and Teams

Microsoft Whiteboard on iPhone XS Max Source: Dan Thorp-Lancaster/Windows Central

If yous're a big fan of Microsoft Whiteboard, the company'due south squad collaboration app for brainstorming, you lot tin at present apply it in more places. Microsoft announced that Whiteboard is now available on the web, as well equally through Microsoft Teams.

The web version of Whiteboard isn't packed with every feature bachelor in its other iterations, but it should be a viable pick for getting some work done on the get.

The Teams integration is potentially more interesting, allowing Whiteboards to be shared with others in Teams, where you tin so start working on a board together in meetings. Once your meeting is finished, the whiteboard remains available for anyone in the meeting to reference.

This is all in addition to some other interesting new features headed to Teams, including closer integration with To Do and Planner.

And more!

Those were just some of our picks for the biggest news to come out of Microsoft Ignite 2022's opening keynote. However, in that location'south besides some interesting stuff apropos natural language processing in Excel, the alpha launch of WinUI three.0, and OneNote 2022 averting death.

What was your favorite nugget to come out of Ignite 2022? Allow us know in the comments.

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An internet connection will soon be required when setting up Windows 11 Pro

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An cyberspace connection will before long be required when setting up Windows 11 Pro

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