Microsoft pushes 'mixed reality' features with Windows 10 update

The software upgrade, its fourth update, will be offeredfrom Oct. 17 to existing customers of Windows 10 running on morethan 500 million devices, the company said.

Microsoft also announced plans by computer andvirtual-reality headset makers to introduce new hardware forbusinesses, consumers and video gamers to take advantage ofso-called "mixed reality" features in the October softwarerelease.

"We're enabling you to immerse yourself in a new reality -mixed reality," Terry Myerson, Microsoft's executive vicepresident in charge of Windows, said in a speech at the IFAconsumer electronics fair in Berlin.

Mixed reality is the term Microsoft uses to describesoftware that covers both augmented and virtual reality.

Microsoft's push comes as the U.S. tech giants - Microsoft,Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook, along with China's Baidu - increasingly battleto make augmented reality, together with artificial intelligenceand cloud-based services, into the next computer platform.

Macquarie analyst Ben Schachter said in a research note thisweek that, unlike virtual reality which requires special gogglesto view, augmented reality works on smartphones and otherexisting devices, making it vastly more accessible.

He predictedfar-reaching impacts in gaming and entertainment, as well ascommunications, manufacturing, fitness, health and retail.

Microsoft, which has largely remade itself into a supplierof cloud services delivered via the internet, has moved to a roughly six-month release cycle for feature updates of Windowsfrom its three-year release cycle for disk-based versions of itsoperating system software.

Devices from Lenovo, HP

The company also announced a range of devices from keyhardware partners ready to take advantage of mixed realityfeatures in the Windows 10 update available in mid-October fromvendors including Lenovo, HP Inc, Dell, Acer, Asus and Fujitsu.

Microsoft's new software release shrinks the laboriousset-up of VR headsets for users to around 10 minutes, down fromtwo to three hours now and helps cut the costs of headsets, in astep towards making such technology more mainstream, they said.

Other new Windows 10 features include a refreshed Photos appand the capacity to save files up to the cloud using Microsoft'sOneDrive service, without consuming local storage space. Win10will also offer "Game Mode", which allows video gamers to devotethe full processing power of their computers to what they areplaying, as if it was an Xbox game console, the company said.