Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition can be pre-ordered for $3000, ships March 30

Microsoft back in October, last year announced that the Hololens Developing Kit will be available in Q1 2016 for $3000 (Rs. 2 lakhs), and as promised the Redmond giant has started taking orders for the HoloLens Development editions for developers.

Developers who have already applied and are accepted for the program will start receiving invitations to purchase HoloLens. The augmented reality headset will begin shipping on March 30 to the U.S and Canada. Other interested, developers can apply at hololens.com/developmentedition.

Microsoft also revealed new information about the hardware as well as details about its in-built apps and games. The Development Kit comes bundled with a Bluetooth 4.1 Clicker to interact with the holograms. This accessory enable users to manipulate object and trigger commands. Also included in the box are replacement noise pieces.

Microsoft says that the HoloLens requires you to have a PC running Windows 10 and Visual Studio.

Hardware-wise, the HoloLens Development kit includes Intel 32-bit processor w/ custom-built Microsoft Holographic Processing Unit (HPU), 2GB RAM, 64GB storage, 2-megapixel camera (720p), 4 x microphones, WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1.

It also houses a range of sensor that include an ambient sensor, 4 x environment understanding camera and an inertial measurement unit. The HoloLens dosen't weigh more than 579g and promises two to three hours of battery life when in use, and two weeks on standby on a single charge.

Microsoft HoloLens also comes with an assortment of games and apps. There are a total a seven of them, three of which are games - Fragments, Young Coker and RoboRaid, (more details here) and the rest four apps - HolStudio (allows you to make use of hand gestures, voice commands to create 3D objects), Skype (lets you communicate with others as if both the parties were in the same room), HoloTour (offers a 360-degree panoramic view of various places) and Actiongram (available later this year). The apps and games are aimed at enhancing the HoloLens experience and getting you started with the augmented reality world.

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Microsoft shut downs Project Astoria

Microsoft is shutting down Project Astoria, a set of bridge tools that allowed Android developers to bring their apps to Windows. The Project Astoria had been struggling for quite some time, and was also put on hold.

The Project Astoria was announced at Microsoft's 2015 Build conference alongside Project Islanwood (porting iOS apps to Windows), Project Centennial (used to port existing Win32 and .NET apps to universal Windows 10 app) and  Project Westminster (used for porting web apps). Microsoft says that it's still proceeding with the other three projects, as they will be enough resources for developers to port their apps to Windows 10 platform.

The news comes a day after Microsoft's acquisition of Xamarin, a cross-platformed application development company that creates software tools for making mobile apps for iOS, Android and Windows platforms.Xarmain's software tools allows developers to write code in C# and have it run as native code on the Android, iOS, Windows mobile platforms.

Microsoft also says that it will offer further details on the Bridges, Xamarin and Universal Windows Platform at it Build Developer Conference that will take place on March 30 - April 1.

Here's Microsoft's official statement: "We also announced the Windows Bridge for Android (project �Astoria�) at Build last year, and some of you have asked about its status. We received a lot of feedback that having two Bridge technologies to bring code from mobile operating systems to Windows was unnecessary, and the choice between them could be confusing. We have carefully considered this feedback and decided that we would focus our efforts on the Windows Bridge for iOS and make it the single Bridge option for bringing mobile code to all Windows 10 devices, including Xbox and PCs. For those developers who spent time investigating the Android Bridge, we strongly encourage you to take a look at the iOS Bridge and Xamarin as great solutions" 

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