Gadgetory

well the top five I'm your host I is actor Microsoft build developer conferences in the history books a Microsoft showed up all kinds of things including the hololens a computer that you wear in your head that shows augmented reality now over the years the company has gotten a lot of flack by people saying that Microsoft is behind the times and is always trying to catch up however today we're gonna take a look at the top five times Microsoft was ahead of the curve at number 5 is Rover and Bob and cliffy now before you start throwing garbage at the screen because I mentioned cliffy let's talk about it way back when Microsoft introduced Microsoft Bob a new operating system designed to make computing easier it also introduced a virtual assistant in Bob it was Rover a little dog the same kind of assistant appeared in Microsoft Office with clipping yes it was universally hated but arguably these pesky little guys are the ancestors of Siri Google now and Cortana number four is the ultra-mobile PC or um PC it was introduced by Microsoft and Intel back in 2006 at the time the idea was to build a computer small enough they could carry it around everywhere the only problem with these things was battery life not so great touch screens and they really weren't ultra mobile oh and they were expensive so I guess the UMPC had a lot of problems fast-forward to today where people are regularly using pocket-friendly computers to do a number of tasks that used to require a real computer we just calm cell phones now Microsoft hasn't given up hope though at build Microsoft showed you could dock a phone running Windows 10 and have a desktop like experience number three one of my favorites spot watches they were introduced way back in 2004 now in case you don't remember these you'd buy a special watch from a company like fossil or swatch they could just play data like news weather and stocks Microsoft used FM radio to send data wirelessly to your wrist you have to pay a yearly fee of up to 60 bucks or so they were even plans to use spot which stood for smart personal object technology it appliances like coffee makers the spot service was shut down in 2012 I guess if we want risk notifications now we'll have to look an Android wear pebble Apple oh and the Microsoft pin at number two is the Xbox and online gaming when Microsoft decided to build its own game console the company put an Ethernet port on the back according to an in-depth feature to polygon the inclusion the port was very controversial because dial-up was still around this is around the year 1999 so broadband wasn't as prevalent as it is now however we know how this whole thing panned out online console gaming on the Xbox wouldn't work as well without a broadband connection the other half of the equation is Xbox Live a wafer game was to play against other Xbox Live members without the Xbox we probably wouldn't have such connected consoles and at number one is the tablet way back in 2001 Microsoft introduced the tablet PC it was a full-fledged computer that had a number of form factors including the slate each of the tablets had a touchscreen although you'd usually have to interact with it using an included stylus it ran a specialized version of Windows called Windows XP tablet PC Edition some of the machines were a little bulky and the pen interface didn't exactly work well compared to using a mouse tablet PCs weren't really successful that is until 2010 with eating adduction the Apple iPad which led to a whole new slew of Android and Windows tablets over time timing is everything in life Microsoft has executed some really wild ideas over the years virtual personal assistants smartwatches tablets Microsoft tried it she has to bit too early if you think I was too hard on Microsoft or too lenient let me know I'm that I as on Twitter for more top fives like this check out top 5.2 Netcom thank you for watching