Windows Weekly 879: The Cockroach of CPUs

Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss Microsoft’s blockbuster earnings, Windows 11 24H2, Microsoft 365, AI, Xbox, and much more.

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MICROSOFT EARNINGS

Microsoft’s AI bet is paying off: Net income of $21.9 billion on revenues of $61.9 billion in the quarter ending March 31

• Rocket sled upwards except for two things, both hardware: Surface devices and Xbox consoles
• Intelligent Cloud was again Microsoft’s biggest business unit, with $26.7 billion in revenues, up 21 percent year-over-year (YOY) and driven primarily by Azure.
• Productivity and Business Processes delivered $19.6 billion in revenues, a gain of 12 percent YOY and driven by Office 365.
• More Personal Computing brought up the rear, with $15.6 billion in revenues, up 12 percent YOY. Windows revenues from PC makers jumped 11 percent.
• Amy Hood comment about this all happening when MSFT is investing $10+ billion per quarter on AI infrastructure and purchased Activision Blizzard (AB) for $69 is classic. This is firing on all cylinders stuff.

Related: More earnings learnings

• Intel – the deathwatch continues
• AMD – Meager revenue gains, but PC market is looking OK at least
• Google/Alphabet – Explosive revenues, but its all ADs not AI
• Amazon – A wonder of the modern age, unique physical + digital advantages
• Samsung – revenues up on strong phone, memory sales

Windows 11

Windows 11 version 24H2 will include an AI Explorer feature

• Will require NPUs/AI PCs
• Might be exclusive to Qualcomm but that would be a huge mistake, seems unlikely
• Runs in the background, captures everything you do, turns them into memories
• Search for anything you’ve done using natural language (i.e. a chatbot interface)
• Analyze and interact with everything that’s currently on screen
• This all feels vaguely squishy.

Windows Insider Program:

• Beta channel (sooner than 24H2) – improved widgets for some reason, File Explorer ”breadcrumbs” make a much-needed comeback, Show Desktop is back, baby
• Dev channel – Starting with the latest build, Microsoft has killed all the local account workarounds during Setup workarounds. Now what?

Here’s what: A new workaround. And some new questions about 24H2.

Tiny11 Builder is updated with telemetry removal. It’s happening.

Microsoft 365

Microsoft highlights new Copilot features for Microsoft 365 available now or soon – a lot of grounding in there – Also, many more languages

OneDrive for web gets offline access (including Files on Demand), but only for commercial accounts. What’s the use case here? Or is this just about the next step, to more full-featured Office web apps. (Oddly, it’s easier to use OneDrive and Microsoft 365 on ChromeOS now too.)

AI

Email evidence shows why Microsoft partnered with OpenAI

ChatGPT can now “remember” conversations. It’s sentient!

Amazon Q is GA, and it’s for developers now too.

Microsoft announces GitHub Copilot Workspace and my brain hurts. Please help.

Apple is shopping around for AI and is talking to OpenAI again

Xbox

Xbox Showcase returns on June 9, with mystery event that is obviously the next Call of Duty: Black Ops game because redacted.

Microsoft announces new Game Pass titles for early May. Guess what’s missing? You have one guess, hotshot. And seriously, haven’t we all played every Tomb Raider game already?

Microsoft’s latest indie game showcase highlights the health of an ecosystem that doesn’t have to just be about AAA games

Sea of Thieves comes to PlayStation 5

• Food for thought: Microsoft bought AB in October, has released only on AB title to Game Pass in what will soon be 7 months. Microsoft announced four cross-platform Xbox titles in February and they are all available now.

Fallout 4 next-gen update is here

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Windows is the key

After five weeks of using a MacBook Air, which I love, I finally succumbed and got third-party utilities to address the many macOS shortcomings. But the final bit (for me) is interesting: This thing wasn’t complete until I put Windows on it.

Also: We talked about this last week, I think, but you should watch the Fallout TV series.

App pick of the week: Arc browser for Windows

The Browser Company releases Arc on Windows 1.0 with no wait lists. Oh, and Arc Sync works on iPhone now too

Bonus: Microsoft open sources a version of MS-DOS no one ever used

RunAs Radio this week: SQL Server and AI with Muazma Zahid & Bob Ward

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/930

Brown liquor pick of the week: Brancoveanu XO

https://brancoveanuvinars.com/product/brancoveanu-xo