Leo, Paul, and Richard steer towards the performance race as they speculate about how Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite/Plus PCs will compare to Apple Silicon MacBooks. What makes a laptop truly user-friendly? System reliability, UI consistency, battery life? Plus, the recent Fallout TV series, the practicality of using winget for browser installations, and how the ARM chipset switch is revving up the PC market.

ARMed & ready

• Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon X Plus and confirms Paul's report that the Snapdragon X Elite will have three SKUs (product editions)
• All four SKUs outperform Apple M3, Intel Core Ultra 7/9, AMD Ryzen 9 7940/8945HS on most benchmarks
• Why? PC makers asked Qualcomm for familiar choices
• Previously, an X Plus-based Surface Pro 10 and an X Elite-based ThinkPad T40s leaked. Paul can now confirm from a source that Surface Laptop 6 (13 and 15-inch) and Surface Pro will all be on X (something}
• Vivaldi is bringing its browser to Windows on Arm too

Windows 11

• The April 2024 Week D preview update is here: Recommended apps and frequently used apps in Start, Widgets icon updates, Lock screen widgets improvements
• Canary: Moves off 24H2 train to build 26200, no more switch to Dev, minor changes to the Widgets board and Taskbar (no new build for Dev)
• Beta: New Widgets design with navigation bar, new account manager in Start, Gmail in Share, MSA recovery advertisement, and new Game Pass recommendation card in Settings
• Microsoft Store app downloads from the web get simpler, more sophisticated
• After yet another Quest 2 Headset price cut, and mounting problems for Apple's Vision Pro, Meta opens up Horizon OS, Microsoft is sort-of on board

Microsoft 365/Dev

• Office LTSC 2024 commercial is now available in preview
• Classic Teams rides off into the sunset on July 1
• Dropbox offers deeper Microsoft 365 integration
• GitHub sees success in 2FA push

AI

• The European Commission will not formally investigate Microsoft/OpenAI partnership
• Microsoft released a new SLM
• Microsoft gives a sneak peek of VASA-1, a crazy and scary "talking faces" AI tool
• Google copies Microsoft again, announces massive AI reorg - that has Pixel fans worried
• Adobe's generative AI image capabilities are predictably fantastic

Xbox

• Get an Xbox Mastercard in the US, if you're a tool
• Microsoft announces IGN x ID@Xbox digital showcase - indie games

Tips & Picks

• Tip of the week: Have you heard the one joke about the one time you need to use Edge?
• App pick of the week: Tiny11 Builder
• RunAs Radio this week: PowerShell 7.4 with Sydney Smith
• Brown liquor pick of the week: GlenKinchie 12

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsors:

• kolide.com/ww
• GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT - code TWIT30

Backlash against tech criticism, Ralf Groene retires, Hardcore Software

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

For full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/877

Sponsors:

• GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT - code TWIT30
• kolide.com/ww
• Melissa.com/twit

On this episode, Paul shares his thoughts on the Snapdragon X Elite chip with Leo and Richard. Windows 11 24H2, AI, NPUs, and SoCs from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm are all on the way this year. But a schedule is finally starting to emerge. And it looks like we'll soon have answers to the questions about how or why AI will matter on PCs.

Windows, AI, and the future

• Windows 11 version 24H2 - staggered release schedule as discussed last week
• Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite-based PCs in May/June - nothing but good news to date, but Paul went hands-on last week. It's the real deal.
• Intel's first-gen Core Ultra chipsets are lackluster, but now we have big promises for Arrow Lake in late 2024
• Microsoft Build 2024 is in mid-May, and now we have a session list with some nice clues. For example, Introducing the Next Generation of Windows on Arm
• Microsoft is expected to unveil 24H2 and new X Elite-based Surface PCs at Build
• Computex and other milestones, and then back-to-school and holiday selling periods

Windows 11

• Moment 5 arrives in stable with yesterday's Patch Tuesday (which is now called the General Availability channel, by the way). Of course, we still don't have all the features. In particular, waiting on Android phone as a webcam.
• IDC says PC market grew by 1.5 percent in Q1 and acts like it's the turnaround of the century
• Microsoft is manually blocking certain registry keys related to default browsers now: Apple-like non-EU belligerence or pragmatic protection of user choice? Why can't it be both?
• Beta channel (last week) - Copilot actions improvements
• New Store app update improvements performance dramatically
• The Windows 11 de-ensh*ttification experiments continue
• Does Windows 11 Enterprise solve the problem? No. So it's time to move on

Hardware

• TSMC gets some of that sweet, sweet CHIPS Act money to expand its US operations

AI

• Three AIs comparison
• Blockbuster report claims OpenAI/Microsoft, Google, and Meta stole content at scale to train AI
• Microsoft opens a new AI hub in London
• Google mulls charging for generative AI in Search
• Spotify lets user create AI playlists using text prompts now
• Brave brings Leo to iOS, so it's on all supported platforms now. And it added Leo to Brave Talk Premium too
• Google rebrands Studio Bot to Gemini in Android Studio, still in preview. This is their GitHub Copilot

Xbox

• Microsoft rolls out April updates for Xbox consoles, Xbox app on PC
• Xbox reorgs, Kareem Choudhry leaves Microsoft
• A rumored game preservation team is too obvious not to be true

Tips and Picks

• Tip of the week: Microsoft Store hosts its annual Spring Sale
• App picks of the week: Standard Notes & Beeper
• RunAs Radio this week: Securing AI with Sarah Young
• Brown liquor pick of the week: Dalwhinnie 15
  

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Sponsor:

• cachefly.com/twit