WW 876: Solder On - Snapdragon X Elite impressions, KB5036893 update, CHIPS & Science Act

04/10/24 • 163 min

On this episode, Paul shares his thoughts on the Snapdragon X Elite chip with Leo and Richard. Windows 11 24H2, AI, NPUs, and SoCs from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm are all on the way this year. But a schedule is finally starting to emerge. And it looks like we'll soon have answers to the questions about how or why AI will matter on PCs.

Windows, AI, and the future

Windows 11 version 24H2 - staggered release schedule as discussed last week
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite-based PCs in May/June - nothing but good news to date, but Paul went hands-on last week. It's the real deal.
Intel's first-gen Core Ultra chipsets are lackluster, but now we have big promises for Arrow Lake in late 2024
Microsoft Build 2024 is in mid-May, and now we have a session list with some nice clues. For example, Introducing the Next Generation of Windows on Arm
Microsoft is expected to unveil 24H2 and new X Elite-based Surface PCs at Build
Computex and other milestones, and then back-to-school and holiday selling periods

Windows 11

Moment 5 arrives in stable with yesterday's Patch Tuesday (which is now called the General Availability channel, by the way). Of course, we still don't have all the features. In particular, waiting on Android phone as a webcam.
IDC says PC market grew by 1.5 percent in Q1 and acts like it's the turnaround of the century
Microsoft is manually blocking certain registry keys related to default browsers now: Apple-like non-EU belligerence or pragmatic protection of user choice? Why can't it be both?
Beta channel (last week) - Copilot actions improvements
New Store app update improvements performance dramatically
The Windows 11 de-ensh*ttification experiments continue
Does Windows 11 Enterprise solve the problem? No. So it's time to move on

Hardware

TSMC gets some of that sweet, sweet CHIPS Act money to expand its US operations

Three AIs comparison
Blockbuster report claims OpenAI/Microsoft, Google, and Meta stole content at scale to train AI
Microsoft opens a new AI hub in London
Google mulls charging for generative AI in Search
Spotify lets user create AI playlists using text prompts now
Brave brings Leo to iOS, so it's on all supported platforms now. And it added Leo to Brave Talk Premium too
Google rebrands Studio Bot to Gemini in Android Studio, still in preview. This is their GitHub Copilot

Xbox

Microsoft rolls out April updates for Xbox consoles, Xbox app on PC
Xbox reorgs, Kareem Choudhry leaves Microsoft
A rumored game preservation team is too obvious not to be true

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Microsoft Store hosts its annual Spring Sale
App picks of the week: Standard Notes & Beeper
RunAs Radio this week: Securing AI with Sarah Young
Brown liquor pick of the week: Dalwhinnie 15

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.

Sponsor:

cachefly.com/twit

Windows, AI, and the future

Windows 11 version 24H2 - staggered release schedule as discussed last week
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite-based PCs in May/June - nothing but good news to date, but Paul went hands-on last week. It's the real deal.
Intel's first-gen Core Ultra chipsets are lackluster, but now we have big promises for Arrow Lake in late 2024
Microsoft Build 2024 is in mid-May, and now we have a session list with some nice clues. For example, Introducing the Next Generation of Windows on Arm
Microsoft is expected to unveil 24H2 and new X Elite-based Surface PCs at Build
Computex and other milestones, and then back-to-school and holiday selling periods

Windows 11

Moment 5 arrives in stable with yesterday's Patch Tuesday (which is now called the General Availability channel, by the way). Of course, we still don't have all the features. In particular, waiting on Android phone as a webcam.
IDC says PC market grew by 1.5 percent in Q1 and acts like it's the turnaround of the century
Microsoft is manually blocking certain registry keys related to default browsers now: Apple-like non-EU belligerence or pragmatic protection of user choice? Why can't it be both?
Beta channel (last week) - Copilot actions improvements
New Store app update improvements performance dramatically
The Windows 11 de-ensh*ttification experiments continue
Does Windows 11 Enterprise solve the problem? No. So it's time to move on

Hardware

TSMC gets some of that sweet, sweet CHIPS Act money to expand its US operations

Three AIs comparison
Blockbuster report claims OpenAI/Microsoft, Google, and Meta stole content at scale to train AI
Microsoft opens a new AI hub in London
Google mulls charging for generative AI in Search
Spotify lets user create AI playlists using text prompts now
Brave brings Leo to iOS, so it's on all supported platforms now. And it added Leo to Brave Talk Premium too
Google rebrands Studio Bot to Gemini in Android Studio, still in preview. This is their GitHub Copilot

Xbox

Microsoft rolls out April updates for Xbox consoles, Xbox app on PC
Xbox reorgs, Kareem Choudhry leaves Microsoft
A rumored game preservation team is too obvious not to be true

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Microsoft Store hosts its annual Spring Sale
App picks of the week: Standard Notes & Beeper
RunAs Radio this week: Securing AI with Sarah Young
Brown liquor pick of the week: Dalwhinnie 15

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.

Sponsor:

cachefly.com/twit

Previous Episode

WW 875: A Lot of Neil Diamond - Grounding Copilot, Intel Foundry's losses, Andres Freund's heroic save

Windows 11 version 24H2 is coming and you're not going to believe what happens next... and then again 6 months later

Microsoft reveals Windows 10 Extended Security Updates pricing
Paul reinstalled Windows 10 after three years on Windows 11. There's some good and some bad
Multiple sources have revealed a staggered release schedule for Windows 11 version 24H2

Insider Builds

Canary/Dev - Widgets improvements head out to more people
Canary/Dev (today) - New build today with minor changes, bug fixes (24H2 RTM-ish?). Canary/Dev switch is ending soon
Microsoft is moving Photos app to Windows App SDK (from UWP, presumably). Paul has theories
Microsoft will move the Widgets button in Windows 11 if you put the Start button on the left
Dropbox comes to the Microsoft Store in Windows 11. It only took 12 years

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is getting many new features by the end of April
Copilot for Microsoft 365 picks up priority ChatGPT-4 Turbo and no more conversation limits
You can use ChatGPT without an account now, asterisk, asterisk
Amazon concludes its $4 billion investment in Anthropic
Opera is bringing local LLMs to Opera One web browser
Google: Just kidding, non-Pro Pixel 8 will get Gemini Nano too, and you can suck on the performance issues
Is Intel circling the drain?

Antitrust

The EU is predictably investigating Apple, Google, Meta, and Amazon—for not complying with the DMA.
Notably absent from that list? Microsoft. Which is unique among Big Tech in that it is being reasonable with DMA compliance and antitrust in general
Microsoft debundles Teams from Office. Too little too late?

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 Basic picks up some new features
A random Microsoft engineer found a backdoor lurking in a Linux utility and might have saved the world
LinkedIn isn't just getting games, it's getting TikTok-style videos too
.NET 7 EOL is coming. Is the .NET support schedule too aggressive?

Xbox

A MASSIVE LIST OF ACTIVISION GAMES ARE COMING TO GAME PASS! Just kidding, you're getting Shadow of the Tomb Raider, jerks
Xbox is getting an AI-powered support agent. Huh. Kind of like a personal assistant then. If only they had a name for this thing
Phil Spencer says he's open to rival games stores on Xbox
Take-Two is buying (most of) Gearbox for $460 million. A Grand Theft Auto and Duke Nukem cross-over is inevitable
Rumored white Xbox Series X emerges. White and discless? YOU'RE white and discless!

Tips & Picks