The event starts at 11:30AM ET / 8:30AM PT

Mar 30, 2016 10:03 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft’s Build 2016 developer conference kicks off today, and the Redmond-based software giant is expected to unveil its latest plans regarding the most important products, including Windows, Windows 10 Mobile, Xbox, and HoloLens.

The event kicks off at 11:30AM ET / 8:30AM PT, and a live streaming will be offered as well, with the Day 1 conference to host the biggest announcements as usual.

Unfortunately for attendees, there will be no hardware giveaways this year, but Microsoft will probably find a way to show its appreciation for those who spent more than $2,000 (€1,770) on a ticket to attend the show.

What to expect

There are way too many rumors regarding the news that Microsoft might announce at this year’s edition of Build, and the company itself fueled the speculation with several teasers pointing to something very exciting for Windows users.

Without a doubt, the Redstone update for Windows 10 will be one of the key points of discussion, as Microsoft is likely to share more information on the work it’s doing on the features projected to be included in this release. Extensions will certainly be brought in the spotlight, and so will some other features of the update, including Cortana and the built-in apps, which have received major updates since the last event in October.

Windows 10 Mobile could also get its own share of news, but given the fact that the upgrade for Windows Phone devices has only recently started, the company is unlikely to talk too much about its mobile platform for the moment.

Xbox and HoloLens will also take the stage at the show, and Microsoft will discuss its plans for the two devices, including offering a hands-on experience with the holographic device.

Without a doubt, there’ll be some more geeky talk about Xamarin, Ubuntu integration in Windows 10, but also regarding recent acquisitions such as SwiftKey.

We’ll be live-blogging the event here and detailing the key announcements in dedicated articles, so keep an eye on Softpedia today to find out the latest from Microsoft’s Build 2016 conference.

That's a wrap!

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Saqib and Nadella are now on stage.

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"This is just the beginning!"

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Microsoft employee Saqib created an incredible app that detect faces, and tell you the gender or age or that person.

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"One developer truly inspired me this last year."

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Back to Nadella now.

Cornelia shows us a Twitter pulse demo of the mood around nominees for the election.

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We're seeing a demo of the speech-to-text recognition.

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Cornelia Carapcea is now on stage talking about the new APIs made available for your bots.

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All these awesome tools are available today.

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With these tools you don't even know how to code to improve your bot.

Some great new tools right there for building a brain for your bot.

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Lili Cheng is now on stage to give us a sneak peek at tools to build a bot's brain.

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"It's easier to connect the bot to all sorts of services."

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Dan shows us how easy is to build a bot that can order pizza.

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Dan Driscoll is now on stage introducing the Microsoft Bot Framework.

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Introducing Cortana Intelligence Suite for developers!

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Nadella is back on stage now. "Microsoft wants every developer to be able to build bots as new apps for every service."

Microsoft introduces Skype for HoloLens. Demo video!

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Skype SDK now available.

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Skype video bots is a thing now!

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Skype and Cortana will make our conversations more productive and fun.

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Cortana will save you a lot of time and effort.

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Cortana integration with Skype is pretty awesome.

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Lilian Ricon shows us a demo of the new features coming to Skype.

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Nadella: 3 billion voice calls happen every day!

Nadella talks about Skype, Microsoft's cross-platform VoIP client. There are over 300 million users of Skype per month.

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Back to Nadella now.

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We can't help but notice that Microsoft demos Cortana for Android.

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Small, yet very handy improvements are coming to Cortana.

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New notifications for text messages are coming soon.

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Marcus Ash is on stage to give us a demo of the new Cortana features which will be introduced in the upcoming Windows 10 Anniversary Update.

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"Cortana is answering 1 million voice questions per day."

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"Cortana will be available on all of your devices, across all of your applications."

"Cortana is becoming smarter every day."

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"Bots are like new applications."

Nadella talks about AI bots, and what we should expect from the years to come.

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Nadella: We need to build technology so that more people can use technology.

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He talks about man vs. machines.

Nadella: We can teach computers to learn human language.

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He summarizes everything that was announced today.

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Nadella is back on stage now.

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HoloLens start shipping today, March 30, 2016!

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Teachers can use HoloLens to teach students think like a doctor even if they are far away.

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Welcome to the class of the future!

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Case Western Reserve University is using HoloLens to help studens learn complex systems in the body.

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More and more new companies around the world are using Microsoft HoloLens for their amazing projects.

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We're watching a demo of the Galaxy Explorer app for HoloLens.

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HoloLens is a Windows 10 device.

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Alex Kipman is now on stage to talk about Microsoft HoloLens.

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We are now watching the "power of DirectX 12" video demo!

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Cortana will become your personal gaming assistant.

Xbox One Dev Mode preview will be available starting today!

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Ashely Speicher is now on stage to show us a demo of the Xbox Dev Kit.

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Announcing Xbox Dev Kit.

The Witcher 2 running as a modern Windows app.

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We're now watching a demo of Age of Empires HD Edition on Windows 10.

Amazing new technologies are coming soon to Windows 10, making it the best ever gaming platform.

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Windows aims to be an open development ecosystem.

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Phil Spencer is now on stage talking about how Windows is the best platform for gaming developers.

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Turn 10 Studios is the creator of the Forza Motorsport franchise.

Turn 10 Studios talks about creating games for both Xbox and Windows PCs.

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Terry now talks about gaming, holographic computers.

There's no better time to be a Windows developer.

Back to Terry now.

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You'll be able to run an Android emulator alongside a Windows one.

Windows is home for multi-platform developers.

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Sage 2000 will be coming to Windows 10 Store this summer!

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Introducing Desktop App Convertor. We're seeing a demo now.

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Bash coming to Windows 10.

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It looks like Kevin Gallo likes Emacs very much.

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We're now seeing a demo of the Ubuntu bash on top of Windows 10.

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Microsoft announces Canonical partnership to bring the Ubuntu bash to Windows 10.

Bash shell is coming to Windows!

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Introducing Visual Studio Update 2.

Kevin Gallo gives us a demo so you can see how easy is to work with the Windows Ink platform.

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Kevin Gallo: We want Windows to be the place where you can build your apps. A home for developers!

Please welcome Kevin Gallo.

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We're now watching a video about at the electronic flight bag.

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Lots of new apps are coming to the Windows Store soon.

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Introducing Universal Apps for Windows 10.

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Terry Myerson is back on stage now.

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Pen Input, Ink, and Recognition! Amazing stuff right here from Microsoft.

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The power of the pen and PC coming together.

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We are looking at the Maps app now.

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Sticky notes to offer easy communication.

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Make some noise if you use sticky notes in your life :-)

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We're now going to see a demo of the upcoming Windows 10 anniversary update.

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With the Windows 10 anniversary update your computer will be more secure than ever.

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Xbox One can be turned into a dev kit.

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Windows 10 anniversary update coming for free this summer!

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Windows 10 is actively used by over 270 million users across the globe.

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Terry Myerson is now on stage talking about new devices and technologies.

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Windows wants to become the ultimate dev box!

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You'll also be able to create new categories of applications.

New categories of Windows devices will be unveiled.

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The event will take place between March 30 and April 1, during which Microsoft will unveil many new things.

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Satya Nadella talks about technology and how it can change our lives.

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Microsoft is about to unveil some new technologies that will freak out Windows users.

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Satya Nadella is on stage now, talking about developers.

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And we are live from Microsoft's Build 2016 event.

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Here we go people. The keynote for Build 2016 begins now!

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Keynote coming up..!

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Come back later today as we'll be live-blogging the first day of the Build 2016 developer conference. The event starts at 11:30AM ET / 8:30AM PT.

Here are the event's starting hours for different regions across the world:  

United Kingdom – 16:30
India – 21:00
Brazil (Brasilia) – 12:30
Netherlands – 17:30
Italy – 17:30
Poland – 17:30
France – 17:30
Germany – 17:30
Spain – 17:30
Pakistan – 20:30
Bangladesh – 21:30
New York – 11:30
China – 23:30
Australia (Canberra) – 01:30
Japan – 00:30
Canada (Ottawa) – 11:30
Mexico (Mexico City) – 10:30
Bulgaria – 18:30
Romania – 18:30
New Zealand (Wellington) – 03:30
Russia (Moscow) – 18:30
Dubai – 19:30
Thailand – 23:30

Photo Gallery (148 Images)

Microsoft's Build 2016 kicks off today
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