Microsoft has announced that there will be a press event on January 21st at its Redmond HQ to talk about Windows 10's progress.
In contrast to press events from companies such as Apple and Samsung, where just the date of the event is announced and, if you're lucky, a cryptic clue about the content of the conference, Microsoft is being very up-front about this event's purpose.
In a blog post, Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc states that, "On Wednesday, January 21st – we will be holding an event here on Microsoft’s Redmond campus where we will talk about the next chapter of Windows 10. You’ll hear directly from senior leaders from the Operating Systems Group including Terry Myerson, Joe Belfiore and Phil Spencer who will talk about the Windows 10 consumer experience".
It doesn’t get much clearer than that, and there's another fat clue in the announcement. We've already had the Windows 10 Technical Preview, and that word "consumer" at the end tells us that it's now Consumer Preview time – the more polished work-in-progress version of a Windows OS.
Like the Technical Preview, the Consumer preview should be free to download and install onto a spare machine or as a virtual machine. The Consumer Preview should be more complete than the Technical Preview was, and will hopefully include killer features such as the Continuum concept, where a Windows 10 hybrid tablet switches seamlessly between Desktop and full-screen apps when you dock and undock it.
Don't worry if you can't make it to Redmond for the event – there'll be a webcast on the day where Satya Nadella will also be speaking.