WW 899: Functional But Disturbing - Copilot agents, HP Omnibook Ultra, What's Next?

09/18/24 • 130 min

On this episode, Paul Thurrott gets a bit better at unmuting! Mikah is back once again while Leo is away, and Richard features a classic single malt scotch. Wave 2 of Microsoft 365 Copilot kicks off, including an agent builder! Lenovo's got an everything-in-one ThinkBook, HP's got a Ryzen AI 300-based Copilot+ PC, and Netflix has a new series with Bill Gates.

Windows 11

Microsoft comes clean on the schedule for Windows 11 version 24H2
First AMD Zen 5-based Copilot+ PC in here (if here means "Paul's house")
A few thoughts on where we're at with Copilot+ PCs, AI, etc
Microsoft deprecates legacy DRM in Windows
Google is bringing desktop windowing capabilities to Android

Microsoft 365 + AI/Dev

Microsoft announces "Copilot Wave 2" with new Agent Builder, Pages experience, more
Slack: Look at me, look at me! I have agents too!!
Office LTSC 2024 is now available for businesses - consumer versions in "the coming weeks"
Microsoft held its security summit with CrowdStrike, etc. There were no reports of a tarp on the floor
Apple releases annual upgrades for all its hardware platforms and not an iota of AI in sight
This is the end of an era. An era we will think back on as "the good old days"
Microsoft issues .NET 9 RC1 ahead of November release. Clear to Paul that the WPF support in this release will never be updated again, which sucks

Hardware

Intel finally has some good news: Foundry subsidiary spin-off, AWS expanded partnership, more CHIPS money
Intel also has some bad news: It lost out on the PS6 contract to AMD, which made previous gen PS chips
A Windows 11 2-in-1 (like Surface Book) in which the detachable display is a powerful, standalone Android tablet

Xbox

Microsoft lays off 650 more Gaming division employees
Microsoft realizes that some Xbox members do have friends, is bringing back Friends Requests
Microsoft concludes September with three more Game Pass titles
Bonus points: How many of these are Activision Blizzard titles?
Bonus tip: If you play Overwatch 2 on Xbox, there are now some bonus perks for Game Pass members: Six hero skins, 30 Mythic prisms to spend on Mythic unlocks, a stackable XP boost, and access to Overwatch 2 Shop cosmetics from prior seasons
Unity: Just kidding about that runtime fee, please stop harassing us now

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: How to spend your time and your money
App pick of the week: ExplorerPatcher
RunAs Radio this week: Asymmetric Encryption with Eli Holderness
Brown liquor pick of the week: Talisker 10

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

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.

Sponsors:

Windows 11

Microsoft comes clean on the schedule for Windows 11 version 24H2
First AMD Zen 5-based Copilot+ PC in here (if here means "Paul's house")
A few thoughts on where we're at with Copilot+ PCs, AI, etc
Microsoft deprecates legacy DRM in Windows
Google is bringing desktop windowing capabilities to Android

Microsoft 365 + AI/Dev

Microsoft announces "Copilot Wave 2" with new Agent Builder, Pages experience, more
Slack: Look at me, look at me! I have agents too!!
Office LTSC 2024 is now available for businesses - consumer versions in "the coming weeks"
Microsoft held its security summit with CrowdStrike, etc. There were no reports of a tarp on the floor
Apple releases annual upgrades for all its hardware platforms and not an iota of AI in sight
This is the end of an era. An era we will think back on as "the good old days"
Microsoft issues .NET 9 RC1 ahead of November release. Clear to Paul that the WPF support in this release will never be updated again, which sucks

Hardware

Intel finally has some good news: Foundry subsidiary spin-off, AWS expanded partnership, more CHIPS money
Intel also has some bad news: It lost out on the PS6 contract to AMD, which made previous gen PS chips
A Windows 11 2-in-1 (like Surface Book) in which the detachable display is a powerful, standalone Android tablet

Xbox

Microsoft lays off 650 more Gaming division employees
Microsoft realizes that some Xbox members do have friends, is bringing back Friends Requests
Microsoft concludes September with three more Game Pass titles
Bonus points: How many of these are Activision Blizzard titles?
Bonus tip: If you play Overwatch 2 on Xbox, there are now some bonus perks for Game Pass members: Six hero skins, 30 Mythic prisms to spend on Mythic unlocks, a stackable XP boost, and access to Overwatch 2 Shop cosmetics from prior seasons
Unity: Just kidding about that runtime fee, please stop harassing us now

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: How to spend your time and your money
App pick of the week: ExplorerPatcher
RunAs Radio this week: Asymmetric Encryption with Eli Holderness
Brown liquor pick of the week: Talisker 10

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

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.

Sponsors:

Previous Episode

WW 898: It's Notable When It Works - IFA Berlin 2024, PS5 Pro, Bonjourr

Paul is back from Berlin! Mikah Sargent subs in for Leo, while Richard brings a glass of Einar's whisky to the show! They talk about the latest from IFA 2024, including the state of Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. Later, tune in for intriguing updates about Parallels Desktop, Windows 10's Photos app, and Apple's lineup of (currently) AI-less devices.

IFA Part Deux

More perspective from industry insiders on where Intel, AMD and Qualcomm are at now
Why did Qualcomm launch lower-end Snapdragon X chips now?
Intel bails on 20A manufacturing process to focus on 18A - making lemonade
Intel lands a punch with Lunar Lake. Is it enough for a comeback?
Qualcomm has reportedly been trying to buy Intel's chip design business for months
Lenovo launches new PCs with Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm chips - Photo gallery
Copilot+ PC-class PCs with AMD and Intel chips come with 24H2e

Windows

Patch Tuesday arrives - 22H2/23H2 and 24H2 all get updates - same as last month's preview updates, of course
Microsoft still doesn't list 24H2 in Windows 11 Update History on the Support sit
Parallels Desktop 20 will benefit from Microsoft's Prism emulator too
Microsoft is updating Photos app in Windows 10 too
It's not just macOS Sequoia, ChromeOS is copying Windows's Snap feature too

Apple launches new devices but AI is not ready

Apple launches iPhone 16 series without AI, plus new Apple Watch and AirPods 4 also without AI... and confirms next software updates, also without AI - AI is for later, sometimes much later
This was a lackluster launch by any measure. But AI might make things more interesting in time
Dashlane recommends skipping out on Apple Passwords

Microsoft 365, AI, more

Microsoft opens up Ignite 2024 registration
Windows App set to replace various RDP apps

Xbox

Sony tips PS5 Pro for a November 7 launch at $699
Xbox Game Pass Standard launches
Netflix allegedly saw 210 million game downloads

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Lose the bookmarks, gain a (free) New tab page
Tip of the week #2: Amazon Prime Games has free games too
RunAs Radio this week: Microsoft 365 and PowerShell with Tony Redmond
Brown liquor pick of the week: Einar's Great Skua Single Malt

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

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.

Sponsors:

Next Episode

WW 900: The 8 Poles of Inaccessibility - LinkedIn AI training, Three Mile Island, Apollo's offer

Windows 11

24H2 is following a now-familiar trajectory to release. Right, it's chaos
Microsoft issues last-second updates to 22H2/23H2 and 24H2 in the Release Preview on Monday. Paul predicted these would turn into our Week D updates later in the week and that we'd get nothing on Tuesday
Dev and Beta channels got some interesting updates recently as well
The Windows App is now available on Windows, Mac, and iOS
HP announces two new flagship AI PCs, one AMD and one Intel. Plus a lower-cost 8-core Snapdragon model. This is officially a trend.
A week after providing details about the September 2024 firmware update for Surface Laptop 7, Microsoft confirmed it shipped the same update to Surface Pro 11. This has had a major negative effect on the device's instant-on capabilities

Microsoft 365, cloud, AI

Microsoft is reviving Three Mile Island and other headlines I never thought I'd write
Google formally complains about alleged Microsoft antitrust abuses in the EU
LinkedIn is training AI with your data. You can turn it off because Microsoft loves opt-out
Microsoft issues a SFI progress report and they are doing GREAT, thank you very much
Gemini comes to Workspace
Apple Intelligence will hoover 4GB of drive space on iPhones to start, more later as more features are added

More!

Qualcomm makes another offer to acquire Intel
Investment firm offers Intel a $5 billion lifeline
Arc just experienced its first major security incident and handled it really well
Raspberry Pi reports its first-ever earnings
Paul has finished updating .NETpad for Windows 11 theming support in .NET 9, will put code up in GitHub after .NET ships in stable

Xbox

A new tell-all about Blizzard, Activision, and Xbox arrives October 8
Game Pass features are coming to Xbox mobile app where they belong
Also, Game Bar Compact mode as part of September Xbox Update
New Indie Selects titles
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is available for preorder and it will look a lot better and take up a lot less disk space
Xbox Ambassador's Program is dead, Jim
Xbox spends $1 billion per year to acquire Game Pass titles
Xbox figured out how to reduce its carbon emissions. You know, besides selling fewer consoles
Sony announces 30th anniversary PS5 collection

Tips and Picks

Tip of the week: Stop paying so much for everything
App pick of the week: A week of browser-adjacent updates
RunAs Radio this week: Windows Server 2025 and Active Directory with Orin Thomas
Brown liquor pick of the week: Hatozaki 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.

Sponsors: