News & Reviews:   Microsoft HoloLens

This week we launched our own GadgetBook Giveaways so you can win or own a floating Bluetooth speaker with more weird, trendy and fun gadgets coming soon. However, most of the tech news this week involved the official arrival of the Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus and their subsequent deliveries or bundled launches with Celcom, Maxis (which involved interrupting a band), Digi and U Mobile along with GemFive.

Today, Microsoft Corp. has announced that the Microsoft HoloLens, the world’s first self-contained holographic computer, is now available for pre-order in Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, with devices starting to ship in late November.

Yesterday at Computex 2016, Microsoft Corp. invited its Windows 10 hardware partners to create virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented reality devices and everything in between with Windows Holographic, the platform that powers Microsoft HoloLens. In opening up Windows Holographic to partners, Microsoft shared its vision for mixed reality — a world where devices interact with each other to change the way people work, communicate, learn and play.

We've seen quite a few smart glasses, but Microsoft has gone the Augmented Reality way with the announcement of their new HoloLens headset. While no actual tech specs were revealed, the headset allows a 3D augmented reality sort of view of the real world. This includes watching news on a wall with no actual display or playing Minecraft (Holobuilder according to Microsoft) on your coffee table with no actual pieces. We've seen this with the Meta Pro smart glasses before. However, there are still no details as to Malaysia pricing or exact release dates just yet. Microsoft say that we could see it within the year though, but it remains unclear as to when exactly that might be. In addition, Microsoft are also working on the Holo Studio, which looks to be like a 3D design studio connected to a 3D printer, so you can design stuff in the HoloLens and then get it in the real world. Check out the videos in this article for a closer look.