The tech world is familiar with Microsoft’s mysterious Windows 10 browser codenamed Spartan mostly through a series of rumors. Now a new leak has offered certain details such as the inclusion of Cortana as well as stylus support. But these are just two of the many interesting features the company plans to add.
In terms of looks, the browser which should be giving Internet Explorer the boot, is supposed to be pretty minimalistic. It’s said to be cleaner than Google Chrome too, with a tabbed interface above the address bar. This is accompanied by options to go back, forward and refresh. Microsoft has kept its appearance simple mainly because Windows 10 bundled with Spartan is meant to be cross platform.
Microsoft has built Spartan as a single browser for desktops, tablets and smartphones. The Verge reports that it will be released as an app in Windows Store to enable it to be updated conveniently. A previous report about the tech giant continuing to include Internet Explorer in Windows 10 may be true after all, although the decision is thought to have been made for legacy compatibility reasons.
The Cortana digital assistant is apparently going to be implemented in order to deliver information about hotel bookings, tracking packages, flights and so on from right within the address bar. For example, if you use it to keeps tabs on a particular flight, typing the name of the airlines in the URL bar will pull up the status display of the flight you tracked.
Windows 10 users will be able to annotate web pages with a stylus and send these across co-workers or friends. Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud locker service will store the notes and annotations on a copy of a web page which can be accessed by any browser from any platform. Since these will be shared, several people will be allowed to doodle on the content and share edits.
You can keep your eyes peeled for the Spartan browser at the January 21 event during which Microsoft is anticipated to unveiled Windows 10.