On this spicy episode of Windows Weekly, Paul, Leo, and Richard try to pronounce "Sudo," watch an expensive Copilot ad, marvel at big Arm revenues, discuss the latest in internet browser news, and debate the FTC's motivations as they go after Microsoft once again!
Windows 11
- Big changes in Insider, with Canary and Dev moving to the same 24H2 builds
- Windows 11 is going to get its AI moment this year
- With the announcement of 24H2, does that mean nothing big mid-year as rumors suggested?
- Patch Tuesday arrives. Copilot moves to the right of the system tray after 10 seconds of testing
- Brave ships its browser on Arm in stable
- Windows will likely get an AI game upscaling feature
AI/Antitrust
- Report: Azure is allegedly 2/3rds the size of AWS by revenue, thanks to AI
- Microsoft Bing and Edge avoid the EU DMA
- Google Gemini officially replaces Bard
- Grammarly lays off 230 to focus on AI
- Mozilla scales back dramatically, will focus on AI in Firefox
- Arc Sync comes to Arc on Mac only
Cloud/server/dev
- Google One surpasses 100 million users. New AI tier is coming to take on Copilot Pro
- Arm revenues are in. Look at those margins!
- Notion acquires Skiff. Ladies and gentlemen, the Notion Office is coming
- .NET 9 Preview 1 arrives. Are annual updates too much?
Xbox
- Xbox says it will come clean on its strategy
- The FTC claims that Xbox layoffs violate the terms of its Activision Blizzard acquisition promises
- Microsoft tells the court that the FTC is wrong on multiple levels
- There's a new Xbox system update
- Sony doesn't meet its quarterly PS5 sales target, will miss its annual target, and the PS5 is falling off a cliff
- Disney invests $1.5 billion in Epic Games. "F U, Apple!"
- Flight Simulator jumps the Minecraft Shark
Tips and Picks
- Tip of the Week: Microsoft PC Manager - Avoid at all costs
- App Picks of the Week: DuckDuckGo browser, Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Devices for Windows
- RunAs Radio this week: Maximizing Metadata with Emily Manicini
- Brown liquor pick of the week: Starward Pedro Ximenez Cask
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
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The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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One year of Copilot, Arc's Act II, Mozilla Monitor Plus
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/867
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Microsoft announced Tuesday that it earned a net income of $21.9 billion on revenues of $62 billion in the quarter ending December 31, 2023. Those figures are up 33 percent and 18 percent, respectively, year-over-year (YOY)
Intelligent Cloud: Azure, AI
- Microsoft's biggest business unit delivered $25.9 billion in revenue, up 20 percent YOY and driven primarily by its Azure cloud platform
- Azure revenues were up 30 percent in the quarter, 6 points of which Microsoft attributed to "AI services"
Productivity and Business Processes: Microsoft 365
- $19.2 billion in revenues, with growth of 13 percent YOY
- Office Commercial revenues were up 15 percent
More Personal Computing: Xbox, Windows
- Revenues of $16.9 billion, up 19 percent YOY
- Gaming revenues surged 49 percent (44 points from Activision Blizzard)
- Xbox hardware revenues inched up by 3 percent
- Windows revenues from PC makers grew 11 percent in the quarter
Windows
- Canary: Voice Clarity comes to more PCs, and Microsoft previews new/old Windows Setup first-run experience
- Dev: Minor bug fixes only
- Beta: Snap Layout suggestions, new settings in Widgets, and you can now revert to stable (!!)
Microsoft 365
- Teams goes down for the count
AI
- Microsoft adds deepfake guardrails to Designer AI. So, this wasn't there before now?
- FTC is investigating Microsoft/OpenAI and other Big Tech AI partnerships
Xbox
- Microsoft can finally bring Xbox Cloud Gaming to the iPhone (and Fortnite is coming back to the iPhone in the EU)
- 1900 layoffs at Activision Blizzard, Zenimax, and Xbox
Tips and Picks
- Tip of the week: Upgrade to passkeys
- App pick of the week: Insync
- RunAs Radio this week: Software Licensing with Mary Jo Foley
- Brown liquor pick of the week: Dailuaine 16
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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In this episode of Windows Weekly, Leo, Paul, and Richard cover Microsoft's recent hack, new Windows Insider updates, Copilot Pro's image creativity, various browsers, education's compatibility with generative AI, Halo Infinite's slowdown, Notion's calendar service, and Japanese whisky.
Microsoft was hacked
- A Russia-backed hacker group infiltrated a legacy system and gained access to executive emails
- This is triggering an escalation in Microsoft's security makeover either way
Windows 11
- Beta channel: USB 80 Gbps/USB4 v2 support, bug fixes
- Dev channel: Teams (commercial) meeting integration in Start, new mobile device management interface
- New Surface event rumored for March. Possibly two waves of Pro and Laptop releases
- Microsoft Bing and Edge are obviously not dominant platforms, and will not be subject to EU DMA
- Microsoft Mesh is here for all your legless meeting needs
AI
- Microsoft hits $3 trillion market cap on the strength of its AI moves
- Paul used Copilot Pro and you're never going to believe what happened next
- Microsoft is bringing more AI to education. And so is Google
- Would you pay for an AI-infused Alexa?
Web browsers, oh my
- Chrome is updated with new AI features
- Firefox version 122 is out
- Brave will simplify fingerprint protection. What is fingerprint protection?
- Opera will pay a brand ambassador $10,000 to spend a month on a deserted Icelandic island
Xbox
- Microsoft reveals several new games for 2024, key among them an Indiana Jones title
- 343 slows down Halo Infinite updates dramatically. Is this just about Halo or a hint at a looming new trend?
Tips and Picks
- Tip of the week: Is it even possible to prevent online tracking?
- App pick of the week: Arc browser
- RunAs Radio this week: AI for IT with Gil Pekelman
- Brown liquor pick of the week: Hibiki Harmony
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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Outlook, privacy, and the terribleness of Big Tech
- New Outlook Decried as a "Surveillance Tool for Targeted Advertising
- One perspective: How terrible are other companies like Google and Meta?
- But also, how terrible are Windows 11, Teams, Microsoft Edge, etc?
- Supreme Court refuses to hear Epic v. Apple appeals
- So, Epic wins on one important count, being able to communicate to their own customers
- But Apple is still being terrible because it can be. Will the EU finally take care of this?
- Google unlinking its services in the EU, Apple removing pulse ox from Watch in the US, Google comes clean on Incognito, and Microsoft Cloud lets EU customers keep data locally, it just keeps coming
Copilot all the things
- Richard correctly predicted that 2024 would be the year that Microsoft stopped talking about AI and started implementing AI. But who could have predicted THIS in the first two weeks (!) of the year?
- Copilot Pro for consumers, Copilot for Microsoft 365 for all commercial customers with no baseline, Copilot on mobile, Copilot in Microsoft 365 mobile, Copilot GPT Builder on the way
- But there's a real vulnerability for Microsoft and its AI aims here - Too soon, too little may be a mistake
- Microsoft and Vodafone, sitting in a tree
- Plus: No Copilot AI (SLM) on the Galaxy S24 family? Interesting. Is Google trying to undermine that partnership and bring Samsung back into the fold?
Windows 11
- PC sales for 2023: Good news, bad news. OK, it's just bad news
- They're doing it again: After almost literally no testing, Microsoft launches new Weather experience on the lock screen and makes it the default
- Store app install notifications are in stable now too
- Dev: USB 80 Gbps support, auto-start Copilot on 27-inch+ displays, Windows Share (as below) improvements, fixes
- Beta: More Windows Share improvements (WhatsApp, Gmail, X, Facebook, and LinkedIn URL sharing), Weather experience on Lock, Microsoft Store with instant arcade games and app install notifications
- Release Preview: New KB update gives us our second near-final peek at Moment 5, with more "Ink Everywhere," eye control system support, 7-ZIP support improvements, other fixes
- Microsoft will reportedly bring back the Windows Insider Program's Beta Channel for Windows 10 because they were just kidding about that whole "no new features" thing
- Dev Home comes to Windows 10
Xbox
- January's Game Pass titles, still no Activision Blizzard
- Xbox fixes Baldur's Gate save bug
- Ubisoft mixes up its Ubisoft+ subscriptions
Tips & Picks
- Tip of the week: Maybe this is the year of NextDNS
- App pick of the week: Brave
- RunAs Radio this week: Copilots for Power Platform with April Dunnam
- Brown liquor pick of the week: Writer's Tears
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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It's CES, so let's observe a moment of silence for all the stupid #*$% our colleagues are covering right now! But there is some wheat in the chaff, of course
- Intel announces 14th Gen Core desktop and mobile chips. But wasn't Meteor Lake was mobile only?
- PC makers announce a lot of Meteor Lake PCs: Acer, Acer again, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, more, plus the MSI Claw mobile gaming handheld and the first ASUS NUC!
- Paul's been using an HP Spectre x360 14 for the past month, what's the AI stuff really like?
- It's not just Intel: NVIDIA goes nuts on AI and AMD has new AI-powered CPUs
- Google announces improvements across the Android ecosystem - Quick Share
- Amazon adopts Matter Casting - and now we have too many of these things - what about Microsoft?
- Thread will finally fix networking and thus Matter
Windows 11
- Microsoft announces a Copilot new key for Windows keyboards - settle down, everyone
- Beta channel (last Thursday): Bug fixes - after the Dev/Canary updates of last Wednesday
- Quick Windows 11 Field Guide update - 160 pages of new 23H2 content in two months, now 1058 pages long, so download the latest version
- Microsoft is reportedly looking to add AI writing assistance to Notepad. For some reason
Microsoft 365
- Awesome! Microsoft PC hardware to be sold now by Incase
- Almost four years later, it looks like Microsoft will finally make Teams (free) an actual Teams client
- Apple tries to stamp down the CES hype, announces Apple Vision Pro launch date
AI
- OpenAI responds to the NYT and... yikes. Did AI write this? It admits that ChatGPT does what the NYT claimed
- Has met with "dozens" of news orgs but can only cite four actual partnerships, and licensing costs are confidential
- Emphatically cites the fair use argument, which is an open discussion and not clear-cut
- Offers an opt-out for news publishers, but only since August, so after it used all the NYT content
- Says the NYT is not telling the full story. Right, it's telling its side of the story. Just like OpenAI
- Interesting details about negotiations between the two
- Seeks constructive partnership in a final olive leaf
- EU is investigating the Microsoft/OpenAI partnership, following U.S. FTC and UK CMA
- Pennsylvania adopts OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise
- OpenAI launches GPT Store for ChatGPT Plus, Team and Enterprise users
- Now we know which Microsoft executive is sort of on the OpenAI board
- Duolingo lays off staff because AI is so good
Xbox
- Microsoft could be bringing Xbox exclusives to PlayStation
- Microsoft is bringing back the Xbox Developer_Direct event on January 18
- Minecraft Legends, RIP
- Big changes to GeForce Now: New Xbox titles, day passes, more
- Layoffs at Twitch
- After its failed coup of the userbase, Unity lays off 25 percent of its workforce
Tips and Picks
- Tip of the week: We need to talk about password managers
- App pick of the week: Alternative web browsers
- RunAs Radio this week: Hardening Active Directory with Jerry Devore
- Brown liquor pick of the week: Bearface Triple Oak
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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Microsoft finally kills Windows Mixed Reality
- Just in time for Christmas, Microsoft revealed that its long-dead WMR platform is now officially dead
Windows 11
- Moment 5 is allegedly coming in February
- Microsoft quietly reissues Windows 11 version 23H2 installation media
- Microsoft kills install from web capabilities in Windows App Installer (MSIX)
- Dev (today): Richer weather experience on Lock, more Voice access improvements
- Canary (today): Same Voice access changes, no more WordPad or People in a clean install, Steps Recorder deprecated, new Energy Saver icon in the system tray, Nearby Sharing can name your PC
Surface
- New Surface Pro 6 and Laptop 6 are expected in Spring 2024 with Intel and Qualcomm chipsets.
- Microsoft's first "real" AI PCs. FU, Surface Laptop Studio 2 buyers!
Microsoft 365
- Something to consider for 2024: Have Microsoft's core platforms gotten too complex? And when/if this will drive away customers?
- Standalone Copilot app launches on Android ... and then, days later, on iPhone and iPad - And it offers a ChatGPT4 mode, interestingly
AI
- New York Times sues Microsoft, OpenAI for massive copyright infringement
- GitHub Copilot Chat is now GA. Requires $10/month GitHub Copilot sub, but it may be the single best example of how AI can improve our lives so far
Xbox
- New Xbox Game Pass titles for early January: Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Resident Evil 2 remake, more
- Does something smell better around here? Bobby Kotick has left the building
- PlayStation: Just kidding, you can keep your stupid Discovery shows
- Meta Quest 2 gets a permanent price cut
- Steam no longer supports Windows 7 or 8.1
Tips and Picks
- Tip of the week: Properly secure your Microsoft account
- App pick of the week: MSEdgeRedirect
- Bonus pick: MediaSorter
- RunAs Radio this week: Doing More with Less in 2024 with Erin Chapple
- Brown liquor pick of the week: Elijah Craig Small Batch
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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Looking back at Windows Weekly's best moments from 2023
- Welcoming Richard aboard, and setting the table for an AI-filled year
- "I have been a good Bing" and other chatbot awkwardness
- Leo's Parallels 18 for Mac demonstration
- UK CMA blocks the Activision Blizzard deal, and it makes no sense
- Build 2023 was a great showing for Steven Pathiche, but a strange showing for Panos Panay
- Microsoft beats the Federal Trade Commission in court, inching a step closer to their acquisition
- Discord chat with Sean, a sign language interpreter and CODA!
- Panos Pany leaves Microsoft, but did he jump or get pushed?
- Giant Xbox leak reveals new console refreshes, a controller, and a roadmap for the future
- Impressions from the AI September event, including the sweeping Copilot rebrand.
- Activision Blizzard is finally acquired after much struggle
- A token Thurrant about OneDrive and its near-endless push to back up Paul's folders
- A classic beer pick from the one and only Mary Jo Foley!
Host: Leo Laporte
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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On the last episode of 2023, Richard Campbell, Paul Thurrott, and Leo Laporte are joined by a lovely guest to look back (and look ahead) on Microsoft's progress and accomplishments. Between a Teams milestone, Meteor Lake chipset's release, AI music creation in Copilot, Bobby Kotick's upcoming exit, and Microsoft's Countdown Sale, there's plenty of news left to digest at the end of this eventful year! Happy holidays, dozers!
Windows 11/Microsoft 365
- Microsoft will FINALLY fix the dumbest File Explorer bug of all - no, not that File Explorer bug
- Microsoft is suddenly deprecating tons of Windows features
- Windows Insider: Windows 11 Beta build 22635.2915 is the last Insider build of 2023. Nothing major: Voice access supports multiple displays, Windows 365 Boot and Windows 365 Switch from last week's Dev build, Notepad update with Notepad an "Edit with Notepad" item in the File Explorer context menu, and a character count display
- Microsoft Teams now has 320 million users, 2,000 apps in the Teams store, and over 145,000 custom line-of-business (LOB) apps built by enterprises
AI
- Microsoft partners with Suno to bring music creation to Copilot - OH AND THERE ARE PLUG-INS THERE NOW TOO
- A few insider notes about this generation of Intel chips
- Intel's Core Ultra chipset is coming to Chromebooks too
Look back/Look Ahead
- What's left to say Copilots? There are lots (at least announced) and even more are coming
- Is 2024 going to be the year of the AI PC? Or is this just another fad/bubble
- "Windows 12" or whatever the vNext is called: Huzzah!
- Ready or not, the new Outlook for Windows and new Teams are coming
- How will Activision Blizzard impact Xbox?
Antitrust
- Activision Blizzard settles 2021 class action lawsuit that triggered the acquisition by Microsoft
- Bobby Kotick on the outs Dec 29
- In wake of antitrust loss, Google also settles Play Store suit, will pay $700 million to victims
- Adobe bails on Figma. Just kidding!
Xbox
- Leak shows that Sony is very worried about Xbox now
- Sony has sold 50 million PS5s, has outsold Xbox 3-to-1 in 2023
- Google extends Stadia controller conversion timeline
Tips and picks
- Tip of the week: Microsoft's Countdown sale brings big discounts to Xbox, Surface, more
- App pick of the week: MediaSorter
- RunAs Radio this week: Azure Arc Guest Configuration with Jodi Boone
- Enterprise pick of the week: Directions on Microsoft's got some (free) resources worth checking out
- Brown liquor pick of the week: The Spirit of Scotland 46 & Monkey Shoulder
- Beer pick of the week: Back Home Beer Yalda Queen
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Guest: Mary Jo Foley
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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Grab your favorite whisky and join Paul, Richard, and Leo as they meander through a delightfully geeky/tipsy conversation spanning Windows updates, AI advancements, Big Tech antitrust issues, and more!
Windows 11
- The final Patch Tuesday of 2023 arrives
- Copilot now opens on the display where you click its Taskbar icon (or it will, thanks to CFR)
- Copilot now appears in Alt + Tab (but not in Task view/WINKEY + Tab), oddly (Same deal)
- Account notifications in Start and Settings (disable this nonsense in Settings > Privacy & security > General)
- For Windows 10 users, Copilot is now available to everyone in preview with the Patch Tuesday update (CFR, need to manually download it). No Windows integration settings yet. A few other changes on Windows 10 too
- Canary/Dev (Thursday): Copilot undocked mode, Widgets changes, Windows 365 Boot and Switch changes, Windows Share improvements (WhatsApp integration, curious), character count in Notepad (how cute)
- Beta channel (Friday): Windows Share and Windows Store improvements
- Dev channel (today): Transitioning Windows Speech Recognition (WSR) to voice access because WSR is being deprecated
- Also Canary: New Windows Protected Print Mode
- Clipchamp quietly added four new features recently, and you're never going to believe what happens next
- AMD unveils Ryzen 8040 series mobile CPUs with a new NPU on select models
- Intel's Meteor Lake is coming in hot
Antitrust
- UK CMA and US FTC are both investigating Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI
- After failing to reach a settlement, Google loses Epic antitrust trial
- Why it has so far done much better against Google than it has against Apple?
- Apple to be punished for App Store business practices in the EU
- Apple likely to open up NFC chipset in iPhone in response to EU concerns
AI
- Microsoft reaches agreement with AFL/CIO on AI
- Google Releases Gemini Pro to enterprises and developers
- Google releases Gemini-powered NotebookLM in the U.S. Keep on steroids, basically
Xbox
- An ad-supported Xbox Game Pass offering is likely on the way
- Xbox Cloud Gaming is now on Meta Quest 2, Quest 3, and Quest Pro
- Balder's Gate 3 lands on Xbox Series X|S
- Microsoft reveals two new games at The Game Awards
- E3, which has been dead for years, is now officially dead
- The next Digital Eclipse interactive documentary looks about as amazing as the first
Tips and Picks
- Tip of the week: Get your Xbox Year in Review
- App pick of the week: Fences 5
- RunAs Radio this week: SysAdmin Gifts with Joey Snow & Rick Claus
- Brown liquor pick of the week: Balvenie Double Wood 12
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly
Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com
The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.
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