Windows Weekly 989: Deer Hate MSDN

Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss Week D, what happened to Windows 12, hardware price hikes, a new Cory Doctorow book, Xbox and games, and much more.

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Windows

Week D is here with a preview of July’s Patch Tuesday

• Point-in-time restore is now generally available in Windows 11, sort of
• Quieter widgets, which is nice, plus, Screen tint, Windows Update improvements, more
• Tied to this, sort of, something wonderful is happening to the Windows 11 Field Guide

Windows Insider Program

• Five new builds, plus some 26H2 news (and still no news about what 26H1 becomes, see below…)
• Mostly minor fit-and-finish improvements

So … what about Windows 12?

• Discussed Friday in the answer to the first question in Ask Paul
• The history is interesting, and Copilot+ PC was what Paul originally thought Windows 12 would be.
• But now we’re talking agentic capabilities that will handle local/cloud/hybrid orchestration per last week’s discussion and maybe that will be it.

Hardware

• We knew that Surface Laptop and Surface Pro would come in 8 GB configurations. But they’re available now with just 256 GB of storage and the prices are $950 and $850 and up, respectively. Plus all the usual Surface limitations, like one color choice. (16 GB is $1150 and $1050, respectively, so $300 more.)
• Once again, it’s time to just get a Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x for $850. It has 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage and is awesome.
• Related: Tim Cook just admitted that Apple will raise hardware prices because of component crisis. If this is hitting Apple hard, the rest of the industry is screwed.

AI

Cory Doctorow’s new book is out and let’s just say his new neologism isn’t as catchy as enshittification

• Reverse centaur (groan)
• Surprisingly centrist view on the pros and cons of AI
• Highlights the Microsoft financial shenanigans I point out every quarter: Microsoft “invests” $10 billion of “tokens” in OpenAI, but there’s no volume discount and Microsoft books the transaction as $10 billion in AI revenues as OpenAI simply uses its infrastructure. It gave $10 billion to OpenAI so that it could spend $10 billion on Azure.
• Will review soon

Google Home Speaker is the Gemini speaker and it’s now shipping to first customers as Google discontinues Nest Audio and Nest Mini speakers. Can we trust this company with hardware? And why are there no Apple or Google home theater setups?

Adobe brings its creative agent to Firefly and the biggest apps in Creative Cloud

XBOX and gaming

No movement yet on the massive changes we expect in XBOX soon

• Discussed possible outcomes in the 🎮 What man could want them now? question in Friday’s Ask Paul

Microsoft has “dozens” of gaming IP-based movies and TV shows in the works

XBOX Insiders can now test updates to Gamertags, Game Hub, and Wish List

Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 are being ported to modern PS consoles. Sadly, not remakes or remasters.

GTA VI will cost $79.99 and up – Arrives in November, can preorder on June 25

SteamMachine to cost $1049 and up, and that’s with no controller

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: How to save $100 a month

This isn’t exactly new information or a new idea, but I finally took a sledgehammer to the subscription services I pay for and more is on the way.

App pick of the week: iA Writer

One of my favorite Markdown editors supports authorship on Windows now and an integrated Search/Outline view on Mac, iPad, and iPad. And as noted previously, you can buy the desktop versions directly from iA now too.

RunAs Radio this week: Securing Developers with Tanya Janca

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/1042

Brown liquor pick of the week: Glen Breton Rare 10

https://glenbreton.com/product/glen-breton-rare-10-year-old-single-malt-whisky/