The Redmond software giant might not be sleeping any more.

Over the past week or so Microsoft has released a number of hardware and software innovations that have received – on average – favorable reviews in the technical and popular press.

Our neighbors who work for the company must be feeling exhausted from all the work needed to make this happen. We hope they also are feeling euphoric.

From a new operating system that ties together a number of tech devices to several of those devices themselves, the company, whose software runs on most of the world’s computers, is showing that it can innovate with the best of them.

That’s good news for Microsoft – and for the rest of us, too.

It’s no secret that Microsoft, along with Boeing and its aircraft production lines, is a major economic driver for this region. The thousands of its well-paid employees pump millions of dollars into the local economy, which, in turn, go on to fill the pockets of thousands more people.

As with everything hardware and software, no one really knows who will be adopting what of Microsoft’s new offerings. But it’s pretty obvious that what’s on the company’s plate is pretty enticing. It very well could be the taste of the future.

– Craig Groshart, Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter