Microsoft has led many of the innovations we have today.  Many of our current technologies came at the hand of the media giant. Adding to that is one of their newest inventions to go with their new product Windows 10.  Its name: Microsoft’s Hololens. This invention brings the computer to the real world making the Iron Man type of hologram computer technology a real thing. Using a headset that is completely wireless it scans your environment and turns your world into your computer, beautifully integrating the technological aspect into your everyday life. The technology can do things like projecting recipes in the kitchen in front of you, seeing projects and work in a whole new way to help visualize what you want, bringing people to you with live interactions, even eliminating the entire need for a TV by being able to pin one onto your wall with just the flick of a finger and having it instantly there to watch what you want to.  An unnamed source from PC World who is ‘familiar with the hardware’ says, “Hololens will use Intel’s forthcoming Cherry Trail chipset.” Microsoft has really outpaced all of their previous efforts into this; and, while there is no specific date as to when it will be released, it is expected to come out somewhere in December, 2015. The speculation as to cost ranges from prices of anywhere between a few hundred dollars to around $1200.

With this technology, Microsoft is also trying to compete with other rivals like the Oculus Rift by implementing games into its user face such as Minecraft, for example.  This was even which was even shown in the teaser they released which can be viewed here: http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us. While they have many other applications, the Hololens will have very good competition in the gaming aspect as Oculus Rift is a Virtual Reality headset, or VR for short. Although it isn’t commercially available, it has shown very promising play with developmental kits being given out for some to try and test.  Many programmers report that the Oculus Rift performs particularly well.

In short, the technological revolution is coming at the hands of this Hololens headset and other competitors that promise to integrate a virtual platform to our computer use.  This hands free platform, where people will be immersed in the computer environment, may seem like something from Hollywood.  But in fact, that technology could be readily marketed for this upcoming holiday season.

FSA Connection Questions

1. In the article, the author is trying to convey about Hololens?
2. In the piece, what does VR mean what?
3. What is the main idea?
4. What two sentences best summarize this piece?
5. What is the connotation of the word applications in the story?