Ask Paul: June 21 (Premium)

Happy Friday! And welcome to the Copilot+ PC angst edition of Ask Paul, which is, of course, understandable. I feel your pain, and I definitely feel your uncertainty.

Wi-Fi woes

wright_is asks:

With the massive Wi-Fi security issue patched in Windows this month, most of the industry has ben quiet on it, as they all too focused on the AI features and the Recall debacle, that a real, serious issue slipped under the radar? Effectively, an attacker within Wi-Fi range can get full access to a PC, bypassing the firewall and it doesn’t even need the user to be logged onto the PC or active, they get full admin access to the device.

I’ve seen many stories about it, but we didn’t write about it here because it’s been sort of a non-event. As is so often the case, I’m not a fan of the types of headlines I’ve seen for this story–Update Your Windows PC Now to Avoid This Terrifying Wi-Fi Vulnerability, New Wi-Fi Takeover Attack—All Windows Users Warned To Update Now, etc.–because most of the people who read those were already up-to-date and patched. But, yes, the vulnerability is real, and serious, and it impacts a wide range of recent Windows versions, supported and not. Here’s the Microsoft Security Response Center notification for anyone interested.

(And not to be an ass about it, but related to my complaints about the way that some security researchers used Recall as a moment for self-promotion rather than responsibly reporting whatever issues they found to Microsoft directly, Microsoft in this case “recognizes the efforts of those in the security community who help us protect customers through coordinated vulnerability disclosure” and then names names. You know, in case you want to know what being responsible looks like: Unlike Recall, this was a real issue that would have impacted many millions of people had security researchers and Microsoft not done the right thing. Moving on.)

In case it’s not obvious, Microsoft patched this vulnerability 10 days ago on Patch Tuesday, and looking just at Windows 11, that fix arrived as part of KB5039212. It’s a mandatory update, etc. And that means that most of the user base was probably patched by the time the vulnerability was publicized. Which, again, is how responsible security works. I suspect most users are simply protected.

Anyway, if you use Windows and don’t screw around with the Windows Update settings, you’re good. If you’re not, dear God, check for updates and reboot as prompted.

As for Microsoft’s public posture on this, I think they handled this one correctly, unlike the corporate hack, which is an ongoing scandal handled irresponsibly, and the Recall drama, which was nonsense. In those cases, Microsoft miscommunicated the situation, but here, it did the right thing: Patch it, deploy the fix, describe the problem in a Knowledge Base article, and not draw any unnecessary attention to it.

All that said, I’m sure I wouldn’t have to look too hard to find someone on Twitter writing, “This is why I use Linux.” 🙂

Update Windows, guys.

Under review

beckerrt asks:

Any update on the Windows on ARM laptop review situation? Are you still expecting review units from HP and Lenovo? Looking forward to your thoughts on these, as some of the other reviews have been all over the place.

I am still expecting review laptops from HP and Lenovo, and, of course, my Surface Laptop is sitting in a box in Pennsylvania, waiting for me to fly home. Which happens a week from tomorrow, on June 29.

But HP and Lenovo have both somehow managed to drop the ball on this one, and it’s disappointing and frustrating. Not just for the obvious reasons, but because I know the people involved personally, in one case a guy I’ve been friends with for 25 years. And they’ve both screwed me over, not maliciously, but thoughtlessly. Without getting into the details, I’m not trying to embarrass anyone here, neither company has shipped a laptop here yet, and not one of my friends in either company thought to tell me or appeared to even know a thing when prompted. I finally emailed both parties yesterday, as I’ve been waiting like a puppy all week. And the responses from both are deeply depressing in that they didn’t seem to have any idea what the F was happening. It’s unfortunate.

So we’ll see. I may or may not get one or both before or after this trip.

And that’s probably more than I should even say. It’s just troubling.

A bridge too fAR

TallGuySE asks:

I very much understand your outlook on the Apple Vision Pro. But is there any interest in AR/Spacial Computing as the tech progresses and costs come down? Things like the interactive displays in Minority Report, or regularish glasses that would project directions or information on what you’re looking at. Or is the tech too far off to consider at this point?

AR, MR, XR, whatever has always been this thing that’s not quite there for all kinds of reasons. There is a magical quality to it when it’s done right, and Apple’s recent discussion about rooting virtual objects (what Microsoft has called holograms) in real space is one of those things. When a virtual object appears to be interacting with the real world realistically, like a ball bouncing on a surface, it fools your mind, meaning it seems real. And it’s incredible.

But the Vision Pro is undermined by the facehugger-like monstrosity you have to strap to your head, and that’s an issue for most of the current solutions. In time, we’ll see glasses, contact lenses, and the embedded solutions that enable this kind of thing more seamlessly. And maybe then it will make sense. It doesn’t in its current forms.

But there are very real benefits to this type of thing. And you can see that even on a 2D phone or tablet or whatever. As long ago as when Nokia was an ongoing concern in the Windows Phone space, they had an app where you would hold up the phone, see the real world in front of you through the device’s camera, and it overlayed the names of the businesses or whatever you were looking at. I have used the example of being in a museum and looking at a giant dinosaur skeleton, and then holding up a phone/tablet and seeing what it really looked like through its screen. And so on.

Those kinds of things are interesting and useful, but the more seamless day-to-day stuff that could come in the future is perhaps even more interesting. For example, Amazon Prime Video has a feature (that Apple is about to copy) called X-Ray that will show you the names of actors on-screen in real-time. Or you’re watching a live sports event and could see stats or other scores in space in front of you. Or you’re driving, and the navigation is more immersive in the vehicle and not tied to a tiny screen. In the same way that Windows on Arm only works when it’s boring, AR/MR/XR whatever only makes sense when it’s just there. And doesn’t require a contraption. I guess it’s like AI, when you think about it: Not so much a standalone solution, as just part of everything.

These things take time. But this one is a real slow boil.

Yes, but what does it do?

helix2301 asks:

Paul I understand the hardware of it but what is the advantage of copilot plus pc if I’m going to get all features anyway. I don’t understand besides arm based processor n npu windows itself is not changing there still giving all features to all users eventually

Well, you’re not going to get all the features, for starters.

From a Windows 11 perspective, there are 24H2 features that everyone gets. But there are also Copilot+ PC features that literally require a Copilot+ PC. Granted, it’s a short list of in-box functionality: Recall (now delayed), Cocreator in Paint, Live Captions with real-time translation subtitles, and Windows Studio Effects (which will work on non-Copilot+ PCs with an NPU).

But it’s not just that. (Thank God.)

Many third-party apps, especially those in the creator space, will work on normal PCs, of course, but will work better on Copilot+ PCs because of NPU integration, and that divide will grow. Copilot+ PCs are Ultrabook-class PCs, but they play more games, at better performance and quality, than similar x86 PCs, which is rather astonishing. They have much better battery life and, one hopes, better reliability (though we’ll see on that one).

In time, Intel and AMD chips will support the Copilot+ PC specs and will get those features. And in time, those things will just be PCs, and I suspect this brand will disappear. But that’s years away. For now, Copilot+ PCs do have differentiators. Which may or may not matter to you, depending on your needs. But you won’t be getting all that on your current PC. In many cases, probably ever.

Forgive me I just don’t understand selling point like on Apple you have to have m1 to get bunch of new features in new macOS but Microsoft not doing that. The selling point of buying m1 was faster n better native apps. please explain I want one these new copilot plus pc but I’m not understanding the selling point

When Apple switched to Apple Silicon, it was promoting the same thing it promoted when it switched to Intel: Better performance per watt when compared to the previous platform. This resulted in better performance overall, but especially when developers updated their apps to be native on the new platform, and better battery life. Today, the Mac is in a great place because of its transition to Arm-based Apple Silicon chips. But Apple never really promoted the NPU bit all that hard. It will do so now, thanks to the AI boom.

When Microsoft transitioned Windows to Arm, first in 2012 with Windows RT and then in 2017 with Windows (10) on Arm (now Windows 11 on Arm), the needs were similar to what Apple experienced. PCs, like Macs, were powerful, but they were inefficient, and that was a problem because the mainstream computing platform had shifted to mobile, mostly with phones, and users naturally wanted to see some of the same benefits they got there, like instant on, thin form factors with no fans, great battery life, and so on.

Microsoft had lofty goals for Windows RT, but in the end, it fumbled the ball by shipping a carbon copy of Windows 8, with a desktop interface, but without any desktop app compatibility. The issue then was that the Arm chips of the day weren’t powerful enough to emulate x86 code, and so Microsoft prevented users from running desktop apps that didn’t come with the system. (The situation was so dire that it left Outlook out of the bundled Office 2013 suite because it ran so many background processes, cutting hours off the battery life.) We all have theories about what Windows RT (and 8) could have been, but three things are high on my list: Give it an extra year of development and make it all-touch/no desktop, force the Office team to make native touch-first Office apps, and integrate/improve the Windows Phone app platform instead of making a completely different platform. (This later happened with Windows 10/Mobile 10. Too late.)

With the failure of Windows RT in mind, Microsoft had/has different goals for Windows on Arm. Originally, it was all mobile-focused, but this time with 5G connectivity, and the theme was Always-Connected PC. But Arm chips had evolved to the point where they could run x86 (and then x64) apps in emulation, and that meant that Windows on Arm could just be Windows. You know, if they ever got the performance right, something that has only now happened with Snapdragon X. The problem is that AI happened, too, and consumed Microsoft. So now Copilot+ PCs are promoted mostly on AI, which is nonsense: The big deal here is still the mobile-like attributes: Performance per watt, battery life uptime/efficiency, literal performance, silent/near-silent operation, and so on. (The 5G requirement was dropped to keep prices in check, but that will happen.)

The difference between the Apple and Microsoft ecosystems is stark: When Apple makes a shift, its developers follow. When Microsoft makes a shift, they do not. And this has been a problem for decades: App platforms like Metro/UWP/whatever had/have pros and cons, but had developers just embraced UWP/whatever, it would be a different world, one in which apps just compile for Arm and run natively with no effort. But developers don’t care what Microsoft does, so these transitions are more painful. In this case, x86/x64 emulation has to work, as many apps will never transition to Arm. Microsoft (and its users) don’t have the luxury we see on the Apple side of the fence.

Anyway. Microsoft is selling Copilot+ PCs/Snapdragon X/WOA on AI because we’re in that AI hype cycle. The efficiencies we get from Arm are far more important, but they’re (somewhat) tempered by developers not bringing apps over. It’s finally happening now, but not like it did with Apple. Two different worlds.

Tech documentaries

iantrem asks:

You’ve recommended a number of technology books in the past that have covered the development of software – I’m finally about to start “Showstoppers”, the story behind Windows NT for example. Do you have any recommendations for documentaries that cover a similar subject? There are a couple of good examples – the Xbox series from last year being one, and a while back Microsoft did an in-house “story of Visual Studio” but this covered the 20+ years, I’m looking for a more focussed view. The Honeypot channel on YouTube have some good stuff, do you know of others?

This would have been easier to answer at home, as I have a few on my NAS that are likely of interest. But off the top of my head, the oral histories on the Computer History Museum YouTube channel are often incredible: I strongly recommend the Dave Cutler (part one and part two) episodes, and Chuck Peddle. And YouTube, in general: I find a lot there, including Triumph of the Nerds (from the 1990s, out of date and so California-centric, but interesting). Viva Amiga. The Commodore Wars. The Commodore Story: Changing the World 8-Bits at a Time. Atari: Game Over. I’ll try to revisit this, I feel like I’m forgetting some.

Trade-offs

ianceicys asks:

Paul, thinking about tradeoffs, think about all of the effort that Microsoft expended on the Activision merger, effort expended on Quantum Computing, efforts expanded on Azure Orbital, effort expended to bolt AI into Windows Copilot+PCs, effor expended to build and run the sorta profitable(?) surface business, effort expended in regards to Windows on ARM with Qualcomm, and recently the effort expended and still being expended to build Recall, it’s been noted the iPhone alone at Apple is bigger than all of Microsoft, Apple makes the trade-off for their efforts to be expended in a laser focused fashion, in any of the examples above what would you have traded Microsoft to expend their energy towards instead, better power management, better security, a next generation WPF?

I’m not sure what “effort” went into building Recall, honestly: I met a guy who claimed to have created it, and it felt more like a homegrown project to me, not some corporate strategy. And though we naturally want to compare it with the past–WinFS, the failed database file system from Longhorn, perhaps, or the visually similar Timeline from Windows 10–I think this was just someone with an idea that was inspired by what AI can do, and it’s honestly a good idea that’s been hugely misunderstood. It’s just inferencing from information instead of literally searching for meta-data that was never going to exist, file names, or file contents. It’s a thing that never would have happened had ChatGPT 4 and then this whole AI thing not happened. It feels like something a Googler would have been in their 20 percent time 20 years ago.

But these things–Activision Blizzard, Azure whatever, Quantum computing, Windows on Arm, and so on–all happen in isolation. When they’re big enough, like Activision or AI, the CEO and senior leadership team become involved, obviously. But most of the time, no. And there’s rarely any cohesive strategy across Microsoft’s three divisions, let alone the many teams inside them. We think of Microsoft as, well, Microsoft, this one company. But it’s a thousand little fiefdoms. And they don’t act in concert all that much.

From a high level, there was a directive to make products and services make sense in the cloud-first Microsoft of the past decade. And when you look at consumer-type businesses, that’s how we get Office/Microsoft 365 and Xbox Game Pass. It’s why Windows is such an afterthought: It just doesn’t fit into that mold, though Windows as a Service is one outcome of it trying to fit in. (And though that idea was ludicrous, it’s actually worked out, which is hilarious.)

Today, from a high level, it’s all about AI. So much so that it’s even driving the cloud work. And here, we see the same types of pushes. AI in Windows. AI in Windows apps. AI in Office/Microsoft 365. And we’ll see it in Xbox: I’m sure a big push with a coming Arm/NPU-based generation of consoles will be APIs/SDKs that help game makers create titles in which the worlds are generated on the fly with AI, and can be different every time.

But the AI push is also unique in that it was a literal bet-the-company decision, and Nadella made it clear to employees that they would be on-board or they could just leave. This is what should have happened with Office and Windows 8/RT, as noted elsewhere, but that version of Microsoft was still the vestiges of past Microsoft, and Office was so successful it could do its own thing. That would never happen today.

Anyway, AI is everywhere in Microsoft’s products and services, and it’s only going to get more widespread. But it’s still mostly all disconnected. When you think about something like Recall, neat, it’s a Windows feature because that where that guy (or whomever) was. But you could see this as an Office feature, right? Something that uses the Microsoft Graph. And thus a Copilot for Microsoft 365 feature. In another timeline, that might have been the case.

You didn’t quite put it this way, but I often see responses to some event at Microsoft that take the form of, “they should have done x instead” or, “when will they do y”? For example (exaggerated), if I write a story about Microsoft fixing a security problem in Windows, someone might respond with, “Yeah, but when are they going to add offline mode to the new Outlook?” These things are disconnected but people hear “Microsoft” and think of it as this single entity. But the push for AI in Windows has nothing to do with Quantum computing has nothing to do with Azure whatever has nothing to do with an Xbox game. These are basically separate companies with their own budgets and goals.

I’m not sure I have opinions about how this should work differently. Microsoft is so big, it’s like the NT source code in that no one person can really understand it all. I do wish adults were running Windows. That these fictional adults would respect the platform and its users. That they would resist a push from upstairs to better monetize each user via enshittification. That kind of thing. You can see the knee-jerk in everything they do, from Copilot+ PC and how they’ve pissed off all their partners in this mad rush to … do AI at all costs. For some reason. Guys, come on. This is all so short term: AI will just be everywhere. Maybe do it right.

Windows 11 on Arm drivers

hastin asks:

What’s the driver situation like on Windows on ARM and these new Snapdragon PCs? Have you found any accessories that don’t work correctly yet?

I don’t have a Snapdragon X-based PC yet, as noted above, so I can’t really chime in on that. But the overall driver situation is excellent, especially when compared to the past. While drivers are indeed one of those remaining things we don’t just get for free on Windows 11 on Arm–in the sense that you can’t use existing x86/x64 drivers–mainstream devices of all kinds will just work with no hiccups or concerns. As we move further to the edge case, of course, there will be some compatibility issues. But these PCs target mainstream users, and edge cases will keep x64 PCs around. It’s all good.

Related to this, Microsoft has some interesting information in its recently updated Windows Arm-based PC FAQ. For example, it notes that most printers will just work with Windows on Arm, including those that support the Mopria printing standard Mopria. You can check to see if a printer is Mopria certified at mopria.org. “Printers from large printer manufacturers like HP and Xerox have released Printer Support Apps, companion printing apps designed to enhance the Windows print experience,” Microsoft says.

I’m looking forward to actually testing this for myself, of course.

It’s just Windows

MartinusV2 asks:

How different under the hood is Windows on ARM compared to Windows x86? I think I’ve heard or read that Microsoft did a special kernel for the Snapdragon X Elite.

Well. 🙂

When Microsoft announced Recall at the Copilot+ PC event in May, I knew instantly it was going to be controversial. But when it said that it “completely rearchitected” Windows 11 with a new kernel for this platform, I laughed out loud.

Sure it did.

This is no different than any other Windows port from a technical perspective: Arm as a platform has specific strengths and weaknesses, Windows has a mix of code, some of which is x86 assembly language. And it all needs to not just work on Arm, but work efficiently. This work has been ongoing for a decade. What Snapdragon X adds is a different architecture, derived from its Nuvia acquisition, that was originally optimized specifically for PC workloads. It has a much improved x64 emulator. It benefits from many years of improvements from Microsoft. But … and all-new kernel or whatever? No. It’s just optimized for the platform. As it has to be.

But don’t take that as a negative. I think the big deal here is that we are finally seeing an optimized Windows on Arm that includes advances on both sides of the hardware and software divide. In this sense, it’s finally coming together.

I hope on ARM, it doesn’t have a swap file and that the OS is more intelligent in using m.2 drives unlike the regular Windows that I suspect that it writes all the time on disk.

I checked with Raphael to be sure, but I already knew the answer: Of course it has a swap file, it’s just Windows. That’s kind of the point: A different platform doing things differently would not be Windows. And we know how those types of things went in the past.

And about the reliability on x86, is it because we have Intel and AMD with CPUs that works differently and thus causing all the weird troubles we have right now since Microsoft must be compatible with both architecture? Would that not make the same thing on ARM side if nVidia or others entering the market?

If you asked people what the primary point of Windows was compared to its predecessor, MS-DOS, most would tell you that it’s obviously the GUI. And that’s true to a degree, but I think it’s as important that Windows abstracts the hardware from the apps that run in Windows. In the MS-DOS days, apps were on their own when it came to supporting devices like printers, with WordPerfect being the poster child for that as it promoted how many printers it supported. But that type of thing should come from the OS so it can benefit all apps. And that’s what Microsoft did with Windows.

If you think about the issues I raised in Please Standby(Premium), the takeaways are all over the place. On some level, I appreciate that people on the site and on social media tried to solve the problem, but that’s sort of beside the point because it’s not solvable, not really; we’ve been dealing with power management issues in Windows since we’ve had power management in Windows. Plus, this was a one-off, and only one of three separate power management issues I’ve had on this trip on three PCs (two Intel-based, but different generation processors, one AMD). There’s no solving this. I’ve been at this too long to think otherwise.

Some like to point the blame at just one thing: Windows, most likely, the easy target. HP, perhaps, because it’s screwing with how power management works. The chipset maker, Intel, in this case. And so on. On that note, I do think the central problem is Intel, frankly, because Intel is terrible. But whatever. I have no doubt that Windows plays a role in this reliability problem too. And maybe HP, frankly. It’s a house of cards.

But consider this. If power management is one of those things like printer drivers that are just handled by Windows, why on earth would HP screw with it? And that’s actually not that hard to understand: Aside from just wanting to differentiate, which companies do with custom printer software or networking software, and all kinds of other things, this is an implicit acknowledgement by HP that Microsoft (and perhaps Intel) just isn’t handling this well. And so they’ve taken it on themselves to bypass Windows to try and make it better. Maybe this is necessary because the chips are so bad. Maybe it’s all Windows. It’s probably both. Maybe everyone is trying too hard. I don’t know.

Anyway. For Arm to succeed in the Windows space, it has to handle this level of the stack the same way x86 Windows does. It just has to. It’s Windows. For everything to work, not just apps but lower level services and system functions, it has to be Windows.

And so one naturally wonders. Would using a Snapdragon X PC “solve” the problem I experienced? Not the specific problem, but the general problem? It’s impossible to know, in some ways, and as with my ever-growing suspicions about Meteor Lake, we need time with multiple PCs to gain an educated opinion. It will evolve.

But I still think Arm solves the reliability problem to some degree. Not because what happened to that laptop “can’t” happen with Arm, but because Arm is so efficient compared to x86 that we won’t need to go down that rabbit hole to begin with. Assuming Windows has been updated well enough to accommodate the performance and efficiency nuances of Arm reliably, and I hope it has, even Microsoft should be able to deliver stable, well-working power management. And that means companies like HP won’t even have to think about screwing around with this thing that just doesn’t work well. The foundation is so strong it won’t be needed.

You know, hopefully. But we’re going to find out. Look forward to the first “hot bagging” Arm PC story.

Future proof

spacecamel asks:

Since a lot of people are looking at buying new PCs with the new chips, what is your recommendation in terms of RAMs and SSD size that would future-proof us the best?

When I updated the Windows 11 Field Guide for 23H2, I updated my RAM recommendation for mainstream users from 8 GB to 16 GB, and I have been very happy to see most mainstream laptops shipping with 16 GB of RAM this past year. It’s the right number for most people. For most readers of this site, that means you’re looking at 32 GB from a future-proofing perspective.

SSD is a bit tougher. I could just about get by with a 256 GB SSD personally, but it’s clear that most people store more things locally than I do, and so that’s probably too low for most. I think 512 GB is a more reasonable minimum, but 1 TB is even better. 2 TB for you guys, for gamers, or anyone else doing a lot of local work with content.

The problem is, now we have these Copilot+ PCs, and they throw a potential wrench in these numbers. If you think you’ll use Recall, you basically need to double those numbers to 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage, minimum. Which is why I canceled my original Surface Laptop pre-order and went with a model with that exact configuration.

To those who say, “but, I’m never going to use Recall, I don’t trust it, or Microsoft, or whatever,” I will simply respond with, this is about future-proofing, not about meeting your needs today. If you do get a Copilot+ PC, double the RAM and storage from what you would usually get. Better still, wait for Gen 2. I mean, we have to worry about a significant jump in capabilities, don’t we? If there isn’t one, great. But … It’s a worry. First-generation anything is always suspect.

Also, do you have a recommendation on which of the slight variants on the ARM chips? Any thing else you consider important with the new PCs that we should consider?

Because the PC world is sitting on several decades of x86 code, and much of it isn’t going anywhere, you have to get the best chip you can get because of the emulation needs: The higher-end Snapdragon X chips have additional cores, burst mode capabilities, and better graphics, and you’ll want that. As noted elsewhere, this isn’t the Apple ecosystem. We don’t live in an Arm-only world and we won’t for a long time, if ever. Regardless, it’s early days and pretending otherwise will hurt you.

When it’s time to upgrade, you gotta spend the money. This isn’t the way I normally do things, and I struggled with this issue with the MacBook Air and then again with the Surface Laptop (after first trying to come in low on the price). I hadn’t spent that kind of money on a PC in many years. And now I’ve done it twice in just a few months. But this is the new reality. It will calm down as Arm evolves and expands in the PC space.

It’s like a Mac mini, but with your soul intact

gdborek asks:

Can the snapdragon developer kit be used as a desktop pc instead of for development? I need to replace one of my desktops. A replacement dell would cost about $900 anyway, so I was thinking of just getting the snapdragon developer kit instead.

You sure can. And it seems like a great deal for the price: I’m going to get one as soon as I can too.

That said, get on the wait-list ASAP: Qualcomm just emailed me yesterday to tell me that it has seen an “overwhelming response” to the Dev Kit, and the first shipments will be “available in the coming weeks.” I was expecting this to happen by now.

Come on, Qualcomm. Take my money.

We’re all developers

lenh51 asks:

Have you installed the developer version of iOS yet?

I just did. I installed the developer beta of iPadOS 18 first, earlier this week, I guess. And then macOS Sequoia after removing a few utilities, so I could get a semi-pure experience (I considered a wipe and clean install.) But I did just upgrade on the iPhone as well.

As a reader, I feel that your biggest complaint about iOS has been the lack of flexibility for placing icons on the home screens. So, if you have installed the beta, does it allow enough flexibility. Even if you haven’t tried it yet, do you think from what you’ve read that it will fix the problem for you? Thanks.

Right now, the icon placement feature is really buggy and inconsistent, and I assume that will improve. Almost every time you move on icon, all the other icons move around on their own, screwing up the layout. And home screen folders don’t support this feature, which is just goofy. Also, it’s weird–and this one is iPad specific–that I can have 8 icons side-by-side in the Dock but only 4 on the home screen. It looks bad.

This all raises an interesting point about whether this “need” we’ve had to put icons where we want them was all that important. I’m going to write about my Apple beta experiences separately, so I don’t want to undermine that. But between widgets, which helped us push app icons lower on the home screen, and the basic reality that iOS is just an app launcher anyway, a shell, it’s not clear if this was such a big deal. We’ll see.

I will have more on this soon.