What’s All the Fuss About?
Microsoft Home Hub
What is it?
Microsoft’s grand vision to turn your Windows computer into your home’s control centre, letting you perform actions – such as playing your favourite music and turning lights on and off – just by talking to it. It’s the company’s answer to the ‘home automation’ craze that is sweeping technology companies. See that bandwagon over there? Microsoft wants to jump on it.
How does it work?
Differently to other products. Amazon’s Echo (pictured below) is a cylindrical speaker with no screen (we called it a “talking can” in our review, Issue 487). Google Home is slightly smaller, but again has no screen. Both are devices that are intended to sit on your coffee table or mantlepiece, awaiting your commands.
But Home Hub (unrelated to BT’S Home Hub router) is software, and so doesn’t require new hardware. According to rumours it will connect all your Windows devices – laptops, PCS and phones – using Cortana, Microsoft’s voice-controlled personal assistant that debuted in Windows 10. And it has one big advantage over the devices from Google and Amazon: a screen.
What difference does that make?
It means you should be able to do much more with Home Hub than with its rivals. This ties in with Microsoft’s aim of Home Hub being used as a shared service by all the family. For example, it will show your calendar events across several devices – an option the screen-less devices from Amazon and Google lack. These will be displayed on a ‘Welcome Screen’, which also contains to-do lists and sticky notes. So you could leave an on-screen message for your husband or wife – a shopping list perhaps – replacing the Post-it note on your fridge door.
Does this Welcome Screen replace my desktop?
No, it sits ‘above’ it. Beneath it is your normal PC, with ac access to the taskbar, Action Ce Center, Start menu and so on.
Ca Can I still have a pe personal account?
Ye Yes – you just need to prove yo your identity using Windows He Hello, which recognises your fa face. Once you sign out you’ll st still be able to see the family ac account. Microsoft wants to ma make it easier to switch be between your personal and fa family accounts by removing th the password for the latter, so th that it remains always active.
So you never need to sign into Home Hub?
That’s right. This makes it faster for everyone in a household to see shared information, such as documents, apps and bookmarks. Cortana sits idle on Home Hub until it detects movement nearby, or you give it a command, such as ‘turn on the lights’ or ‘tell me the weather forecast’.
Can I try Home Hub now?
No, it’s not available yet. In fact, it’s not even been confirmed by Microsoft.
So how do we know all this?
Through unknown sources speaking to the website Windows Central. They gave the site enough information for it to recreate what the Welcome Screen could look like (see screenshot above). The report contains so much detail that it seems highly likely to be accurate.
According to these sources, early Home Hub features will appear in the Windows 10 Creators Update, due to arrive before the end of March, with the bulk following in further updates planned for late 2017 and early 2018. So until then you’ll have to leave shopping lists the old-fashioned way.