Windows Weekly 906: Turnip Boy Robs a Bank

With Richard offline because of travel, Leo and Paul discuss Recall, Prism, new generative AI features for Windows 11 apps, AMD Zen 5 vs Lunar Lake, Xbox, and much more.

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Earnings recap

On Halloween, the last day of October, Microsoft delayed Recall again. It was supposed to preview in October, this is the third delay. No clear reason why. December now, supposedly

Otherwise, a quiet week for Windows 11 except for this new 24H2 bug

Windows Insider Program

Related: Proton VPN is native on Windows 11 on Arm

Related: Windows Server 2025 is GA (and some are being mistakenly force-upgraded. This is what you get when you share a codebase with Windows 11, apparently)

Semi-related: Google shifts Android development cycle – Major update each Q2, minor update each Q4, monthly feature/quality updates

A tale of two chips

Paul reviewed the AMD Zen 5-based HP OmniBook Ultra, it’s awesome. Paul is also reviewing an Intel Lunar Lake laptop, and it is not awesome.

  • Early glee around Lunar Lake was misplaced
  • Laptop reviewers all report what Paul is seeing (for once), that the performance is horrific. You need to switch to “Best performance” power management mode for reasonable performance, but this hasn’t solved all the issues
  • COD: Black Ops 6. Average FPS under Zen 5 is 90 to 120 at native resolution/medium graphics, single and multi-player. Lunar Lake? 40 FPS with all graphics settings on low/very low – it is at least playable
  • Intel now says Lunar Lake is a one-off too (Meteor Lake was likewise a one-off, architecturally). It will no longer package RAM with processors because of margins. Lunar Lake rushed to market was key contributor to recent financial issues.
  • Intel mentioned that tidbit as part of its worst-ever financial loss in history

More earnings learnings

Amazon: $159 billion in revenues, $27.5 billion for AWS

Apple: $95 billion in revenues, small uptick in iPhone revenues

Microsoft 365/AI

Some curious/confusing moves with Microsoft 365 for consumers: subscribers in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand are getting Copilot Pro credits with base subscription (Word, Excel, etc.), Designer, … and the long-overdue and dreaded price increase. This must be a test for the U.S. and western Europe. Feels inevitable. (Also: “The credits will also apply to apps like Paint, Photos, and Notepad on Windows.” What? (See above)) (Also: There will allegedly be a M365 Classic option for those who don’t want AI.)

OpenAI launches ChatGPT Search. This is not the Google Search replacement you’re looking for

Xbox + videogames

It’s November, so here’s the incredible list of Activision Blizzard games now coming to Game Pass!

Microsoft introduced an AI-powered support virtual agent to Xbox because something something AI

Switch sales drop off a cliff, Nintendo will announce backwards-compatible successor before end of March

Sony launches the PS5 Pro to meh

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Windows 11 minus the MSA

Rethinking the advice for normal users – Sign in to Windows with a local account, connect to MSA and OneDrive as needed, maybe get a perpetual Office license, do all the right things to secure it … is it safe? Is it … de-enshittified?

App pick of the week: Docs in Proton Drive

It’s like Google Docs but without the Google. And with the end-to-end-encryption. And like everything else Proton makes, it keeps getting better.

RunAs Radio this week:

Software-Defined Networking using Azure Firewall with Aidan Finn

https://runasradio.com/

Brown liquor MOVIE pick of the week:

Whiskey Galore https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/whisky-galore/umc.cmc.2e5df6ix1iw5on8vga85wqgfb?at=1000l3V2&ct=justwatch_tv&itscg=30200&itsct=justwatch_tv&playableId=tvs.sbd.9001:1499743639

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