Richard and Paul are live in Puerto Vallarta. We discuss major changes in how Microsoft charges for AI, Windows 11, AI, Xbox and gaming, and much more.
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Microsoft, Google make major changes to how they deliver office productivity AI functionality
With this, the AI business model has changed yet again. It will keep changing.
All in all, an incredible week of change, but also one I (Paul) asked for last year in I Will Not Pay for AI
Nothing changed with ….
- Google consumer AI – you still pay for Gemini Advanced
- Microsoft commercial AI – you still pay for Microsoft 365 Copilot
Windows
PC market grew just 1.3 percent in 2024. I’m sure 2025 will be WAY better
Windows 11 version 24H2 is now broadly available
Windows Insider
- Microsoft brings AI-powered Windows Search to Dev channel – Copilot+ PC is the minimum.
- Windows 11 version 24H2 Release Preview channel update ahead of preview update and then Patch Tuesday in February: Improved Taskbar previews, Windows Studio Effects icon in system tray, Shared items in File Explorer home page/new Shared tab, 6 GHz support for mobile hotspot, non-admins can finally change the time zone, weird Windows Backup change (standard Taskbar on restore on new PC), many fixes.
- Last week, new Canary build with Administrator protection (basically the Recall Windows Hello behavior for every admin action)
- Last week, two builds – new Beta (23H2) build with widgets extensibility, top cards in Settings app, changes to Home view in Settings app for commercial users, improved text scaling in File Explorer, the Windows Backup change noted above more. Also a new Release Preview (23H2) build with Shared tab in File Explorer, Windows Share to apps with local files, OneDrive continuity, improved Taskbar previews, Windows Studio Effects icon, new Magnifier app keyboard shortcuts – PLUS a new Windows 10 preview build with new Outlook auto-install to replace Mail and Calendar – it will be coming to stable in February
Semi-related but important: Microsoft made a subtle yet massive way to how MSA sign-ins work on the web.
AI
Microsoft and OpenAI change their relationship subtly, OpenAI can now use other cloud infrastructure
- Or is the start of something major?
FTC warns on Big Tech + AI startups, no one cares
OpenAI announces two new feature for ChatGPT – Custom instructions and tasks (from last week)
Xbox and gaming
Microsoft Edge Game Assist is now available in stable, but you have to enable it first
Xbox Game Pass gets a ton of new titles for the second half of January
Don’t forget: Xbox Developer Direct is Thursday (January 23)
Nintendo finally offers a tease of the larger Switch 2, more in May
Tips and picks
Tip of the week: It’s time to figure out an AI strategy
For you, as an individual. My high-level advice: Go free for as long as you can and experiment with everything.
App pick of the week: Opera
The Opera sidebar is getting interesting and offers a mobile-like experience for online services that can reduce tab usage (and thus memory/resource usage, a huge problem with browsers). Plus, check out this fun promotion.
RunAs Radio this week: SQL 2025 and Fabric SQL with Anna Hoffman
https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/968
Brown liquor pick of the week: Flecha Azul Extra Anejo
https://flechatequila.com/extra-anejo