2:53 PM
Project Spartan is Microsoft's new way to browse
At Microsoft's event today in Redmond, the company unveiled a new concept Web browser it calls Project Spartan. Joe Belfiore, VP of the operating systems group, gave a brief tour of some of the new features and how it would work on all Windows devices.
He started by talking about an all new rendering engine and by showing off real-time annotation features that let him use his finger to draw directly on a Web page to call out certain areas for someone else. He noted that the comments would all be saved to the cloud via OneDrive so you can share your comments with collaborators.
Spartan also has a reading mode, similar to Apple's Safari, that formats articles in a way that's easier to read. It also has a reading list, another favorite of other modern browsers. Content in the reading list will save offline and syncs to your account using Spartan on other devices like phones and tablets.
Cortana will be built right into Spartan. The assistant will pop into Spartan at the right moment to be helpful in both simple situations and in other nuanced ways. For example, Belfiore demonstrated how Cortana autofills a search for the airline Delta with Belfiore's wife's flight information pulled from his other apps.
After spending years as the world's top browser maker with Internet Explorer, other browsers such as Google Chrome have made inroads into the market. Even though Internet Explorer still holds more than half of all users, Microsoft unveiling a new browser eliminates the challenge of redesigning Internet Explorer to work across multiple devices. Also, creating a single browsing experience for Windows computers, tablets and phones helps promote Microsoft's new unified experience.
Microsoft wouldn't say when Project Spartan would be released, but pointed out many of the technologies announced today will come out at different times later this year.
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