Windows Weekly 912: Unicornification

Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss the top stories of 2024, Windows 11, Arm v. Qualcomm, Microsoft 365 Copilot craziness, AI, Xbox, and much more.

Stream this episode and subscribe

Enjoy Windows Weekly on YouTube

2024 – An early peek at the top stories of the year

1. Intel’s downfall follows years of mistakes and anticompetitive behavior – Related: AMD focuses on datacenter, the PC rebound that wasn’t
2. They did it: Microsoft and Qualcomm finally deliver the Windows on Arm we always wanted
3. Antitrust finally takes on Big Tech and scores some nice wins – You have to think Microsoft enjoys being part of the conversation again
4. AI because of course but … what was the real impact? And why it already looks different than it did in January. Related: AI is costing Microsoft a lot, when do shareholders push back? Also, the different approaches taken by OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Amazon
5. Recall is recalled again and again in controversy and then launches to yawns
6. Microsoft acquires Activision for $89 billion and then does almost nothing with it – Everyone seems to hate the new strategy – At least we had layoffs and subscription price increases! Game Pass is a hard pass for many
7. Windows 11 makes chaos look calm, 24H2 is somehow even worse than usual
8. Sonos shits the bed, may never come back from it
9. Microsoft gets serious about security. Again. No, really. This time they’re serious. – Related, the Microsoft hack it never talks about, Crowdstrike (”the incident”)
10. Passkeys get portable – 2025 will be even better

Oddly, my top article of 2024 was apparently my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review, closely followed by my Pixel 8 Pro review.

Windows

BLOCKBUSTER: Microsoft deprecates a Windows 11 feature no one knows about it and you’re not going to believe what happens next. OK, maybe it’s believable.

Windows Insider Program

• Today: Dev channel with new AMD/Intel Copilot+ features – Live captions and real-time translation in many more languages, formal Recall enable/disable
• New Dev and Beta builds this past Monday, but just minor updates

Arm v. Qualcomm is in the courtroom in front of a jury as we speak – How did we get here? And what do we think will happen?

iA Writer 2.0 will supposedly address the performance issues with the original Mac app port. But … not so much

Related: ChromeOS adds a non-destructive Safety Reset feature. But Windows has had something like this for years, and there’s an even less destructive new tool in 24H2 too.

Related: Vision Pro production was halted, Windows Mixed Reality and Hololens are dead or on life support, so naturally Google is going for it with Android XR

Microsoft 365

More crazy machinations with Copilot, this time impacting businesses

• First, Microsoft tells businesses to uninstall Copilot app and remap the Copilot key on PCs (!)
• Then, we find out why: Microsoft is replacing the Microsoft 365 app with the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, which is nearly identical but has a new icon and offers enterprise protection capabilities
• This news was lost in the Ignite tsunami, mostly because Microsoft totally glossed over it

AI

Grammarly acquires Coda to make a Notion killer

Google moves quickly with Veo 2, Imagen 3 updates, Whisk

Broadcom is now worth $1 trillion thanks to AI

DEV: GitHub Copilot is now free in Visual Studio Code!

Xbox

Microsoft Store countdown sale brings massive discounts on PC and Xbox games

Microsoft brings more PC games to the Xbox app on Windows

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: More wrap-ups

• Best and worst hardware of 2024
• My favorite books and audiobooks of 2024 – Yes, Hardcore Software is the top pick
• Plus: Stephanie and I put in a marathon 25+ hour weekend and published the first preview of our Eternal Spring book.

App pick of the week: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

The latest Xbox blockbuster title is humongous—111 GB on PC!—and it has heady system requirements. It’s worth the effort. It’s on Xbox Series X}S, PC (Xbox and Steam), PC Game Pass, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and Cloud Gaming.

RunAs Radio this week: Real-Time Intelligence in Microsoft Fabric with Yitzhak Kesselman

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/963

Brown liquor pick of the week: Mithuna Indian Single Malt

https://www.pauljohnsinglemalt.com/#mithuna