14 DAY TRIAL // Many of the improvements that we see in the testing versions of Windows 10 are mostly based on consumer feedback, Microsoft guarantees, but at the same time, the company is also working to implement its very own features in the operating system.
Unsurprisingly, some of the new tools that are now available in Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9860 are based on features that were originally implemented in Windows Phone 8.1, obviously adapted for the desktop and sometime featuring less customization options.
This is the case of the notification center, which is finally unlocked in build 9860, but also of the new Battery Sense and Data Sense options, which debut for the first time on the desktop with this release.
Microsoft hinted that more Windows Phone-based features are scheduled to arrive on the desktop, including a PC version of personal assistant Cortana that’s exclusively available on WP 8.1.
Battery Sense and Data Sense
These two tools come with almost the same configuration options as on Windows Phone 8.1, but on a desktop computer, they obviously make little sense.
As you can see in the gallery below, most of their features do not work, as both Battery Sense and Data Sense are developed for mobile devices to keep track of battery usage and data plans, respectively.
Of course, Microsoft expects some of the testers to also install Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9860 on their tablets, so this is most likely the reason why it decided to roll them out so soon.
Both are implemented in the PC settings screen of Windows 10, so you should be able to easily access them with just a few clicks, but needless to say, they’re pretty much useless on a PC.
More Windows Phone features on their way
There’s no doubt that the biggest addition to Windows 10 is the introduction of personal assistant Cortana, which for the time being is only available for Windows Phone 8.1 users.
References to Cortana have already been spotted in the original testing build of Windows 10 Preview, but the personal assistant isn’t yet ready for users. All features are locked right now, but we’re hearing that Microsoft could make it available for a number of testers at a later time.
Windows 10 is expected to make its public debut in spring 2015, so a preview version of Cortana should be unveiled sometime in the next few months. Sources say that it continues to be available internally, but only to a small number of people, as Microsoft is afraid that information regarding development work could leak on the web.
