Windows Weekly 885: Open the Kokomo

Leo, Richard, and Paul discuss the Copilot+ PC countdown, Patch Tuesday, Apple’s AI initiatives, Microsoft 365, Xbox, and much more.

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C-Day: The Copilot+ PC countdown enters its final phase

Microsoft responds to the Recall drama, will make changes – The obvious outcome, and what I wrote about last week

• Security researchers high-five each other, but if you look at what changed, it’s mostly not about their complaints. The biggest change: Recall is actually going to be opt-in, not optional, which is what they said it would be at the launch.
• This is a win for users and a rare example of Microsoft scaling back from dark patterns

But … It’s getting weird

• Microsoft “pauses” rollout of 24H2 in the Release Preview
• This is clearly tied to Recall changes – 24H2 “delayed” until June 18
• Expect the day-one experience for Copilot+ PCs to include a big update during OOBE

Software

• AutoSR video game upscaling will only work on Arm-based Copilot+ PCs
• Slack is native on Arm64

The future

• Arm v. Qualcomm is still a thing, could get ugly
• Reuters confirms Qualcomm exclusivity on WOA, says AMD and Nvidia will offer WOA-based chips in 2025. And now MediaTek as well.

Windows 11

Patch Tuesday arrives

• Windows 11 gets a Taskbar fix
• Windows 11 24H2 does not get an update – delayed until next Tuesday, which is C-Day. Weird

Windows Insider

• New Dev and Beta builds – Snipping Tool Update that introduces automatic save for screen recordings, Narrator improvements, Share in Start search for some reason, Suggested replies in Phone Link
• Canary (last week): Voice access improvements
• Canary (today): New account management interface in Start, Store improvements

AI

Apple has its AI day in the sun

• Apple Intelligence is coming to Mac, iPhone, iPad – on-device AI with ChatGPT-powered cloud when needed
• Apple got right what Microsoft did not, suddenly it doesn’t look so behind
• Key takeaway here: Microsoft’s overly aggressive AI push has always felt weird, Apple’s general approach sometimes feels plodding, but it looks like they’re getting it right with AI
• Related: Apple Intelligence is, in many ways, Recall but with cloud component. And Google is working on its own version of Recall.

WTF: Microsoft is removing Custom GPT building from Copilot Plus – Unclear why

Adobe: Seriously, we’re still not training Firefly AI on your content

Opera provides a new AI benchmarking tool

DuckDuckGo AI chat will use popular AI chatbots anonymously

• Like Apple with Apple Intelligence
• This may be the wave of the future – keep our data from Big AI

Related: Nvidia market cap hit $3 trillion last week, surpassed Apple (until WWDC)

Microsoft 365/Cloud

Microsoft is killing several Outlook.com features to improve security – We’re going to see a lot of these SFI-justified changes.

Patent troll sues Microsoft for Azure infringements, seeks billions

Xbox

Xbox Game Showcase!

• Best selection of Xbox games maybe ever
• Phil Spencer agrees Xbox needs a handheld gaming console – Plus more games coming to PS, of course
• Microsoft announces three Xbox Series X|S refreshes
• But … this is disappointing. Not as good as last year’s leaked refreshes. Why?
• Related: Sony will ship a PS5 Pro this year. Not coincidentally, it’s removing the 8K logo from current PS5 packaging

Microsoft reportedly remastering OG Halo yet again, will come to PS5

Microsoft delivers the Xbox June Update

June’s first Game Pass drop came a bit late

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Operation ELOP

If you still hold a candle for Windows Phone, there’s a Finnish book called Operation ELOP that’s been translated into English for free.

App pick of the week: PC Game Pass

I’ve been playing games in Mexico. Just not Call of Duty.

Plus: Firefox 127 lets you auto-start the browser with your sign-in, like Edge does.

RunAs Radio this week: Copilot in your Intranet with Susan Hanley

https://runasradio.com/Shows/Show/936

Brown liquor pick of the week: Ballindalloch 2016 Benelux

https://www.dramtime.eu/product/ballindalloch-2016-single-cask-bourbon-barrel-31-bottled-exclusively-for-the-benelux/