News: Technology News

Google is investing €600 million to build a third data center in the Netherlands

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 17:30:02 +0000

Google is investing €600 million (approx. $640 million) in a new data center in Winschoten, Groningen, Netherlands. The site will utilize the waste heat it produces for any future heating networks in the district and also feature solar panels on the roof. Currently, Google already has two data centers in the Netherlands—one in Eemshaven, which opened in 2018, and one in Middenmeer, which opened in 2020.

The new data center is part of Google's ongoing expansion in the country. One of its unique traits is its sustainability-related features. Google has pledged to run all of its data centers and campuses on carbon-free energy (CFE) by 2030, and the new Winschoten facility will be no exception.

Google hasn't yet announced a timeline for constructing and opening the Winschoten data center. However, it is expected to create many new jobs in the region, both during construction and once the facility is up and running.

Apart from the expansion in the Netherlands, Google is also expanding its data centers globally. The company recently gained a permit for another data center in Dallas, Oregon.

Other companies such as AWS and Microsoft have expanded their data center infrastructure globally. For instance, AWS has added over 87 locations worldwide and expanded into new regions such as the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, India, and Thailand in the last year. In India, AWS plans to invest $4.4 billion by 2030 as the country plans to increase its cloud computing capacity from 565 megawatts to 2.5 gigawatts.

The expansion of data centers is primarily driven by a surge in digital transformation initiatives as well as the use of generative AI as companies strive to modernize their IT infrastructure. The majority of growing needs come from hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google as they are currently at the forefront of expanding their cloud as well as AI-related services.

Via Reuters

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Apple’s next product event happens on May 7, and it’s probably iPads

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 17:28:41 +0000

Reports point to a new OLED iPad Pro with M3 and a big-screened iPad Air.

Apple

Apple is going to announce some new things on Tuesday, May 7, at 10 am Eastern, according to an invitation the company sent out to members of the press (and posted to its website) this morning.

The name Apple has given the event (“Let Loose”) doesn’t tell us much about what the company might announce, but the art does: It’s a hand holding an Apple Pencil, which almost certainly means the event will be iPad-focused.

Apple has reportedly been on the cusp of releasing new iPads since late March, and the rumor mill has already delivered most of the key details. The headliner is likely to be a pair of new iPad Pros with M3 chips, OLED displays, slightly larger screens, and refined designs. Riding shotgun will be a refreshed 10.9-inch iPad Air with an M2 chip, plus a brand-new 12.9-inch Air meant to give large-screened iPad fans an option that doesn’t cost as much as the iPad Pro.

Reports also indicate that the new iPads will come with updated Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard accessories. We could see updates for Apple’s other iPads—the 9th-gen iPad and iPad mini are over 2 years old, and the 10th-gen iPad came out in late 2022—but current rumors suggest that this event will only focus on the high-end models.

It’s not uncommon for Apple to hold spring product events, though they typically happen in March or April. This May event is happening barely a month before Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, where the company is expected to announce next-generation operating systems with a focus on generative AI-powered features. Apple announced new MacBook Airs in March, but it did so via press release without holding any kind of event.

The new iPads would be Apple’s first in well over a year—the company didn’t announce a single new tablet through the entirety of 2023, the first year without an iPad since the original tablet was announced back in 2010.

Apple could also announce other non-iPad products at the event. Desktop Macs like the Mac Mini and Mac Studio could all use an M3 update, though rumors suggest that Apple could skip straight from the M2 to the M4 for the Mini in particular.

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A mysterious Google product with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and LTE connectivity spotted on FCC

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 06:52:53 +0000

Recently, the alleged mid-range smartphone Pixel 8a, which is expected to launch this May at the Google I/O 2024 event was spotted on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) listing. Now, according to the latest report, a new 'wireless device' from Google has popped up on the FCC, leaving us all guessing at the moment.

A new Google product, known only as a 'Wireless Device' with the model number G4SKY, has made its way through the FCC. Usually, when a phone stops by at FCC, it is listed as 'Phone'. Now, this mysterious Google device is listed as nothing but just a 'wireless device', a phrase that has been used for devices including the Pixel Watch, Nest Hubs, and speakers.

Now coming back to the mysterious device, it comes equipped with LTE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity and also supports VoIP over LTE, giving us hints that you will be able to make or take voice calls using this device.

According to the FCC listing of the Google product (via 9To5Google) with model number G4SKY, the instructions have the same steps to view the FCC E-label lineup precisely as the Pixel Watch, "Regulatory information, certification, and compliance marks can be found with the following steps from the Home screen: Settings > System > Regulatory Information."

An appearance on FCC suggests an imminent launch, and while the Pixel Watch 3 is expected to launch alongside the Pixel 9 smartphone lineup in the fall, this is likely not the Pixel Watch 3 for a few different reasons. First, the last line of the FCC listing says "the device has two batteries," and second, this device does support ultra wide-band (UWB) or 5G connectivity.

If we were to guess, the lack of 5G eliminates the possibility of the mysterious device with model number G4SKY being the Pixel Watch 3, and also since it has two batteries as per the listing, it could be an altogether new device that Google has in store as a surprise for us.

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Dell explains how to check if your Windows 11 computer is 'AI-Enabled'

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 20:42:58 +0000

If you recently bought a new Windows PC and are now wondering whether it qualifies as an "AI PC" or "AI-enabled" computer, Dell has the answers you need. The company published a support page with detailed explanations of what makes a Windows computer "AI-enabled."

According to Dell, dedicated hardware and software for processing AI-based tasks more efficiently make your computer "AI-enabled." Although traditional computers can also work with AI, specialized hardware accelerators optimize the process and make it consume less energy. That "specialized hardware" is called NPU or Neural Processing Unit:

NPUs are optimized to handle the complex computations required by deep learning algorithms. This optimization makes NPUs incredibly efficient at processing AI tasks, such as natural language processing, image analysis, and more. The NPU is integrated into the CPU, and one measure of NPU performance is Tera Operations per Second (TOPs).

Windows 11 requires a dedicated NPU for processing Windows Studio Effects, which include background blur, eye contact correction, auto framing, and voice focus. However, thanks to recent Windows 11 improvements, voice focus will soon be available on all systems. You will also need an NPU for the upcoming next-gen Windows 11 features, such as the rumored AI Explorer.

In terms of efficiency, Dell says its computers powered by Intel's latest Core Ultra processors save up to 38% more battery during Zoom calls by offloading auto-framing, background blur, and eye-tracking from CPU to NPU.

NPU in Windows 11's Task Manager. Image credit: Dell

Dedicated Neural Processing Units can be found in computers powered by some of Intel's 14th-generation processors, AMD's Ryzen 7000 and 8000 Series, and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8cx Gen2 or Snapdragon X Elite and newer. To check if your computer has one, launch Task Manager and go to the Performance tab. Supported PCs have "NPU 0" next to CPU, memory, storage, network, and GPU.

Alternatively, go to Device Manager and look for Intel AI Boost (on Intel systems) or AMD IPU Device (on AMD systems). If you do not see those devices, you may need to download drivers from the manufacturer's website. PCs with Qualcomm chips have their NPU drivers pre-installed and available via Windows Update.

Image credit: Dell

You can find more info about "AI-enabled" PCs on Dell's official website (via @teroalhonen). Interestingly, Intel recently released a similar thing, confirming that a computer qualifies as an "AI PC" if it has an NPU and Copilot with its dedicated physical key.

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Apple reportedly plans M4 Mac mini for late 2024 or early 2025, skipping the M3

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 20:40:30 +0000

But this would be a faster turnaround time than we saw for the M3 or the M2.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman thinks that Apple's M4 chips for Macs are coming sooner rather than later—possibly as early as "late this year," per a report from earlier this month. Now Gurman says Apple could completely skip the M3 generation for some Macs, most notably the Mac mini.

To be clear, Gurman doesn't have specific insider information confirming that Apple is planning to skip the M3 mini. But based on Apple's alleged late-2024-into-early-2025 timeline for the M4 mini, he believes that it's "probably safe to say" that there's not enough space on the calendar for an M3 mini to be released between now and then.

This wouldn't be the first time an Apple Silicon Mac had skipped a chip generation—the 24-inch iMac was never updated with the M2, instead jumping directly from the M1 to the M3. The Mac Pro also skipped the M1 series, leapfrogging from Intel chips to the M2.

But if the M4 does come out by the end of 2024, it would be a much faster turnaround than we've seen for other Apple Silicon chips so far. Roughly a year and a half passed between the introduction of the first M1 Macs in late 2020 and the first M2 Macs in the summer of 2022; about the same amount of time passed between mid-2022 and the late-2023 introduction of the first M3 Macs. If Apple holds to a more typical 18-month gap between the first M3 Macs and the first M4 Macs, there's still plenty of time for an M3-based Mac mini refresh to be released.

Apple last updated the Mac mini in January of 2022, replacing the M1 model with an M2 version and introducing a new variant with an M2 Pro chip that included more Thunderbolt ports, better external display support, and better CPU and GPU performance. Most of Apple's desktops—both Mac minis, as well as the Mac Studio and Mac Pro—are still using Apple's M2 chips, while all of the laptops and the iMac have gotten an M3 refresh at this point.

Gurman's previous reporting on the M4 suggests that it will be an "AI-focused" chip series, which probably means that it will beef up the processors' Neural Engine to power the on-device generative AI features that are expected to come with iOS 18 and Apple's other major operating system updates this year. Apple already has a head start on the PC ecosystem in this respect—all of the M-series chips and A-series chips going all the way back to 2017's A11 Bionic have included a version of the Neural Engine. Intel and AMD's processors have only begun to include similar neural processing units (NPUs) within the last year or so.

Gurman hasn't reported on the M4 series' specifications, but he has said it will include at least three performance tiers: a base model codenamed "Donan," a midrange version codenamed "Brava," and a high-end model codenamed "Hidra." It remains to be seen which of these chips would replace the Pro, Max, and Ultra processors in current-generation M2 and M3 Macs.

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Manor Lords hits 3 million Steam wishlists before its PC and Microsoft PC Game Pass launch

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 20:39:32 +0000

One of the most anticipated games that's coming to Valve's Steam service is Manor Lords. The game doesn't even go on sale until Thursday, April 26, but it's already hit a major milestone.

PC Gamer reports that Manor Lords has now been wishlisted on Steam three million times. It hit that number over the weekend after reaching the two million mark in January. Today's report says that the game gained 500,000 new wishlists on Steam in just the last seven days.

That is a tremendous amount of interest in this upcoming medieval-themed city builder. It's even more impressive when you learn that the development team for Manor Lords, Slavic Magic, is actually just one person, Greg Styczeń.

The game itself, which was first announced in 2020, has been gaining steam (no pun intended) from its growing fan base over the last few months. The game is currently at the top of Steam's wishlists charts, ahead of games like Hades II, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and Frostpunk 2. With three million wishlist placements, Manor Lords will likely be a massive sales hit on April 26 as well.

There's another factor as well. Microsoft will make Manor Lords a Day One release for its PC Game Pass service, which is priced at $9.99 a month or for just $1 a month for the first month for new users. It's also included in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription (also only for PC) at $16.99 a month.

Here's a brief description:

Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building, large-scale tactical battles, and complex economic and social simulations. Rule your lands as a medieval lord -- the seasons pass, the weather changes, and cities rise and fall.

With its high Steam wishlist numbers, combined with Microsoft's Day One launch on PC Game Pass, Manor Lords has the potential to be another major indie game similar to how Palworld became a huge surprise hit. We will see what happens in just a few days from now.

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After 48 years, Zilog is killing the classic standalone Z80 microprocessor chip

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 20:33:54 +0000

Z80 powered game consoles, ZX Spectrum, Pac-Man, and a 1970s PC standard based on CP/M.

A cropped portion of a ca. 1980 ad for the Microsoft Z80 SoftCard, which allowed Apple II users to run the CP/M operating system.

Microsoft

Last week, chip manufacturer Zilog announced that after 48 years on the market, its line of standalone DIP (dual inline package) Z80 CPUs is coming to an end, ceasing sales on June 14, 2024. The 8-bit Z80 architecture debuted in 1976 and powered a small-business-PC revolution in conjunction with CP/M, also serving as the heart of the Nintendo Game Boy, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the Radio Shack TRS-80, the Pac-Man arcade game, and the TI-83 graphing calculator in various forms.

In a letter to customers dated April 15, 2024, Zilog wrote, "Please be advised that our Wafer Foundry Manufacturer will be discontinuing support for the Z80 product and other product lines. Refer to the attached list of the Z84C00 Z80 products affected."

Designers typically use the Z84C00 chips because of familiarity with the Z80 architecture or to allow legacy system upgrades without needing significant system redesigns. And while many other embedded chip architectures have superseded these Z80 chips in speed, processing power, and capability, they remained go-to solutions for decades in products that didn't need any extra horsepower.

Zilog will continue to manufacture the eZ80 microcontroller family, which was introduced in 2001 as a faster version of the Z80 series and comes in different physical package configurations (pin layouts).

Powering a microcomputer revolution

The 8-bit Z80 microprocessor was designed in 1974 by Federico Faggin as a binary-compatible, improved version of the Intel 8080 with a higher clock speed, a built-in DRAM refresh controller, and an extended instruction set. It was extensively used in desktop computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, arcade video game machines, and embedded systems, and it became a cornerstone of several gaming consoles, like the Sega Master System.

The Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 (1977), which used the Zilog Z80.

SSPL/Getty Images

During the mid-late 1970s, the Z80 became a popular CPU for S-100 bus machines, which were early personal computers with a 100-pin modular bus system that allowed swapping cards to build systems based on parts from various manufacturers. Digital Research targeted the Z80 as a key platform for its CP/M operating system, and the association between Z80 and CP/M stuck, powering dozens of small business computers until the mid-1980s, when IBM PC clones running Microsoft's MS-DOS became the new industry standard.

Interestingly, Microsoft's first hardware product, the Z80 SoftCard for the Apple II in 1980, added the famous Zilog CPU to the classic personal computer and allowed users to run CP/M on that machine. In 1982, Bill Gates claimed that SoftCard installations represented the largest single user base of CP/M machines.

Last call in June 2024

Zilog is notably discontinuing several Z84C00 chips that are still available in classic 40-pin DIP packages resembling the classic Z80 CPU chips of the 1970s. (These standalone chips include a CPU and nothing else, unlike a microcontroller, which can include RAM and other accessory devices.) The DIP design features two rows of 20 pins with a plastic package in between that contains the actual embedded silicon chip, resembling the classic Z80 CPU chips of the 1970s.

After June 14, Zilog will stop taking orders, manufacture whatever orders are available if they are sufficient in quantity, then ship the last runs of the chips to resellers like Mouser Electronics and Digikey.

A classic dual inline package (DIP) version of the Z80 from the 1970s. It features two rows of 20 pins in a ceramic package.

Benj Edwards

The discontinuation list provided by Zilog in its letter includes 13 products from the Z84C00 series, which are chips in the Z80 family that run at clock speeds from 6 to 20 MHz and maintain compatibility with the original Z80 architecture. Here's the full list of part numbers that will be discontinued:

Z84C0006VEG
Z84C0006PEG
Z84C0010PEG
Z84C0008AEG
Z84C0020VEG
Z84C0008PEG
Z84C0010AEG
Z84C0008VEG
Z84C0010VEG
Z84C0010VEG00TR
Z84C0020AEG
Z84C0020PEG
Z84C0006AEG

So while the Z80 architecture will stick around in eZ80 form, it appears that this is the last call for newly manufactured standalone 8-bit Z80 CPU chips in the classic DIP form factor. We reached out to Zilog for clarification about its plans for the future of the Z80 platform but did not receive a response by press time.

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NexusMods blames "the popularity of the Fallout TV series" for its heavy site traffic issues

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 20:30:10 +0000

The live-action TV series adaptation of Bethesda Softworks' Fallout game franchise from Amazon Prime Video began a genuine hit with both critics and audiences when all eight episodes of the first season dropped earlier this month. The series quickly got picked up for a second season last week.

One of the consequences of the success of the Fallout show is a renewed interest in the many games in the series. We have already reported that concurrent player counts for the PC games in the franchise have been hitting much higher numbers on Steam. Indeed, one game, Fallout 76, reached an all-time high number Sunday of 73,368 online players at once on Valve's service, according to SteamDB.

Along with those higher player numbers online, it looks like many of them are looking to keep playing those games with third-party mods. One of the leading game mod hosting sites is NexusMods. This weekend, the site announced it was experiencing such a high degree of extra traffic that it is causing them to make some adjustments.

In a post on the NexusMods status page on Friday, April 19, the site's team put the blame on their current situation on the success of the Fallout TV show. It stated:

We are experiencing much more traffic than usual due to the popularity of the Fallout TV series. We have deployed extra resources where possible and we are monitoring the uptime and performance across the network. We have staff on call at all times to deal with any problems.

Please do be aware that this extra traffic could cause a degraded experience across the website and our applications.

An updated message on Sunday, April 21, added:

We are still experiencing heavy load on the website and the CDN. We have added more resource to the website and re-routed some file downloads to try and keep things moving.

We continue to monitor the situation.

The NexusMods status page currently says that the site is "continuing to investigate this issue" when it comes to its current heavy traffic. So, if you use the site, you will likely run into some degraded performance until things settle down.

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Meet QDEL, the backlight-less display tech that could replace OLED in premium TVs

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 20:28:22 +0000

Interested in gadgets with premium displays? QDEL should be on your radar.

What comes after OLED?

With OLED-equipped TVs, monitors, and other gadgets slowly becoming more readily available at lower prices, attention is turning to what the next landmark consumer display tech will be.

Micro LED often features in such discussions, but the tech is not expected to start hitting consumer devices until the 2030s. Display makers are also playing with other futuristic ideas, like transparent and foldable screens. But when it comes to technology that could seriously address top user concerns—like image quality, price, and longevity—quantum dots seem the most pertinent at the moment.

Quantum dots are already moving in the premium display category, particularly through QD-OLED TVs and monitors. The next step could be QDEL, short for "quantum dot electroluminescent," also known as NanoLED, screens. Not to be confused with the QLED (quantum light emitting diode) tech already available in TVs, QDEL displays don't have a backlight. Instead, the quantum dots are the light source. The expected result is displays with wider color spaces than today's QD-OLEDs (quantum dot OLEDs) that are also brighter, more affordable, and resistant to burn-in.

It seems like QDEL is being eyed as one of the most potentially influential developments for consumer displays over the next two years.

If you’re into high-end display tech, QDEL should be on your radar.

What is QDEL?

You may know QDEL as NanoLED because that's what Nanosys, a quantum dot supplier developing the technology, calls it. QDEL has gone by other names, such as QLED—before Samsung claimed that acronym for LCD-LED TVs that use quantum dots. You may also see QDEL referred to as QD-EL, QD-LED, or EL-QD. As the alphabet soup suggests, there are still some things to finalize with this tech. This article will mostly use the term QDEL, with occasional references to NanoLED.

If none of those names sound familiar, it's probably because you can't buy any QDEL products yet. Suppliers suggest that could change in the next few years; Nanosys is targeting 2026 for commercial availability.

That timeline seems pretty ambitious, though, considering the limited number of prototypes we've seen and the limitations still facing QDEL (more on that below). But even if we don't see QDEL for a while, there are reasons to keep an eye on the tech.

David Hsieh, senior research director for displays at research firm Omdia, told me via email that when it comes to consumer gadgets, he expects QDEL will most impact TVs, PC displays, and the automotive industry. If commercialized and mass-produced, QDEL can have a cost-to-performance ratio better than that of OLED, but it would still struggle to compete with LCD-LED on a cost basis.

A 2023 whitepaper (PDF) from Nanosys and manufacturing partner Sharp Display describes an inkjet printing manufacturing process that is applicable to QDEL monitors and TVs. The photolithography process is reportedly harder because quantum dots get damaged in the process, but it can expand QDEL applications to include tablets, laptops, smartphones, wearables, and AR/VR products. Jeff Yurek, Nanosys' VP of marketing, confirmed to me via email that Nanosys expects to see QDEL products made with photolithography come to market first.

The backlight-free wonder

Today's OLED screens use OLED material as their light source, with QD-OLED specifically applying quantum dots to convert the light into color. In QLED, the light source is a white backlight; QDEL displays apply electricity directly to quantum dots, which then generate light.

Comparing the basic designs of QLED (left), QD-OLED (middle), and QDEL/NanoLED (right).

Ishida et. al/Information Display

QDEL uses a layer of quantum dots sandwiched between an anode and cathode to facilitates the flow of electricity into the quantum dots.

A diagram of a QDEL/NanoLED display (the "NanoLED Emitters" are the quantum dots).

Nanosys

QDEL displays have pixels made of a red quantum dot subpixel, green quantum dot subpixel, and—differing from today's QLED and QD-OLED displays—blue quantum dot subpixel. QDEL displays use the same quantum dot cores that QD-OLED and QLED products use, Nanosys' Yurek told me, adding, "The functionalization of the outer layer of the [quantum dots] needs to be changed to make it compatible with each display architecture, but the cores that do the heavy lifting are pretty much the same across all of these."

Because QDEL pixels make their own light and can therefore turn off completely, QDEL displays can deliver the same deep blacks and rich contrast that made OLED popular. But with the use of direct-view quantum dots, stakeholders are claiming the potential for wider color gamuts than we've seen in consumer displays before. With fewer layers and parts, there are also implications for QDEL product pricing, longevity, and even thinness.

QDEL in action

You can't buy anything with a QDEL screen right now, but companies have demonstrated prototypes over the past few years. The latest update on the anticipated technology came during the CES trade show in January, when Sharp Display demoed two prototypes to a small number of attendees. One screen was 12.3 inches and 1920×720. The other prototype represented the first time we've seen QDEL scaled to a size that would be appropriate for products like monitors. However, we don't know the resolution of that 30-inch prototype.

Sharp Display ready to make self-emissive quantum dot displays.

One of the greatest advancements of these recent prototypes compared to previously demoed QDEL examples is that they were manufactured at atmospheric pressure rather than requiring a vacuum chamber. As CNET reported, this is "a big step toward cost-effective manufacturing."

QDEL advantages

The fact that quantum dots are already being successfully applied to LCD-LED and OLED screens is encouraging for future QDEL products. QDEL stakeholders claim that the tech could bring efficiencies like lower power consumption and higher brightness than OLED. (Research using a prototype device has recorded quantum dot light-emitting diodes reaching 614,000 nits. Of course, those aren't the type of results you should expect to see in a real-life consumer product.)

Because of these expected benefits, some display enthusiasts predict that QDEL will one day replace OLED and other premium display panel technologies for high-end consumer devices.

There's also hope that QDEL could eventually last longer than OLED, especially since QDEL doesn't rely on organic materials that can cause burn-in. Currently, though, researchers are still working on ensuring that blue and green quantum dot materials can last long enough to make a viable consumer gadget without using cadmium. As it stands, QDEL displays would become noticeably dimmer more quickly than today's OLED displays.

But optimists believe QDEL display lifetimes could one day be on par with LCD-LEDs and outlast OLEDs. Nanosys believes blue quantum dot materials can be developed to last longer than blue OLEDs due to challenges in achieving high efficiency and a long lifetime with blue OLED "at the correct wavelength or color," Yurek explained.

He continued:

Short wavelength light like blue is high-energy... The energy required to produce the deep, short-wavelength blue required by video standards like DCI-P3 is high enough to damage the material used to make the light. This is one of the key reasons that blue OLED lifetimes are shorter than the other colors.

Still, quantum dot emission layer lifetime is perhaps the main bottleneck in QDEL commercialization, Hsieh said, adding:

Cadmium-free blue QDs' lifetimes have historically been substantially too short to make commercially viable displays. Nanosys-reported data in 2021 was around 10,000 hours, at least two magnitudes (100x) less than minimally required. However, QD [emission layer] material lifetimes have been improving rapidly in recent years and some leading companies will announce 'breakthrough” results soon.

Yurek said that there should be announcements on related developments at the SID Display Week conference in May.

What about Micro LED?

Micro LED has many of the benefits of OLED, including individually emissive pixels for theoretically infinite contrast. And like QDEL, Micro LED shouldn't be as susceptible to burn-in as OLED and can get brighter than OLED.

Micro LED is kind of here today. If you have six figures to spend on a TV, you can get a huge Micro LED set from the likes of Samsung or C Seed. Manufacturing challenges in scaling the tech down to common TV sizes in a reliable, affordable fashion have made it unattainable for most, though.

Yurek said that it should eventually be possible to manufacture QDEL cheaper than Micro LED, as well as OLEDs and LCD-LEDs. But until we see this in action, we'll have to take that with a grain of salt.

QDEL is purportedly manufacturable using the same machines and facilities currently used to make LED displays. Additionally, while QDEL and Micro LED both rely on crystalline inorganic semiconductor materials, those materials are processed differently when making a QDEL versus a Micro LED display, with the latter featuring distinct challenges.

We're decently far from knowing what image quality will look like in actual QDEL products and how much tech brands will end up investing to bring QDEL to favorable products. But display experts I spoke with are expecting similar image quality to Micro LEDs, plus more colors. According to Eric Virey, principal displays analyst at Yole Intelligence, QDEL should also bring enhanced "color purity" compared to OLED.

Both Micro LED and QDEL consumer products should be brighter than OLEDs, but Virey thinks the brightness advantage will ultimately go to Micro LED products since they "can be driven very hard without damaging them."

Some suspect QDEL might be more immediately impactful than Micro LED because of the delays that Micro LED has encountered in seeing adoption in a mainstream product. For example, in March, Mark Gurman cited anonymous sources in Bloomberg saying that Apple had given up on making an Apple Watch and potentially other gadgets with Micro LED due to price and complexity. This was after investing years and what Virey estimated was billions into the effort. Gurman's report said that Apple would continue relying on OLED for its smartwatches and would potentially look into new partners for going down the Micro LED road again.

By contrast, though, Samsung in September reiterated its focus on Micro LED as the future of premium TVs.

It's feasible that after some years, QDEL, Micro LED, and OLED will all be readily available. In this scenario, Yole's Virey sees all three being potentially competitive for laptops and tablets. QDEL could beat out OLED for premium TVs, as could Micro LED if costs ever came down, Virey said, adding that TVs are probably the "priority target" for QDEL applications. But potential advancements to OLED, like those around brightness or burn-in risk, could improve the tech's competitiveness in consumer devices.

Virey thinks QDEL will have a somewhat easier path to delivering its expected image quality benefits to consumer displays at a reasonable cost than Micro LED. He expects an exciting, tight race "over the next couple of years," though.

OLED should continue to dominate smartphones, due to the need for high pixel density, which would be a challenge to achieve with QDEL because of its printing process, according to Virey. He added that this process is "good enough for TVs, possibly laptops and tablets, but it’s challenging to improve it to smartphone levels." Smartphones are "by far the most difficult application" for Micro LED due to cost restrictions, Virey said.

Interestingly, when the dust clears, Yurek thinks QDEL will be considered the new king of premium displays:

I also expect both Micro LED and NanoLED to be positioned as more premium than OLED, given higher potential brightness and durability. All three technologies deliver great experiences, though. So manufacturing and cost will be the key differences. NanoLED promises to be easier to make than either OLED or MicroLED. This is why I think NanoLED will be the ultimate display technology in the long term.

Omdia's Hsieh is less confident about shoppers having both Micro LED and QDEL as options for premium displays. "At this stage, it is still hard to say if Micro LED and QDEL will coexist or not. It will have to be justified by QDEL’s production scale and cost after it enters the commercialization stage... by 2025 to 2026," he said.

To make Micro LED displays, Micro LED chips are grown epitaxially on semiconductor wafers. Through a pick-and-place process, thousands of Micro LED chips are transferred to a substrate. Doing this in a way that's reliable, fast, and comparably priced to the manufacturing processes of other display types has proven challenging, and these obstacles have limited Micro LED availability for years.

QDEL displays, meanwhile, could be made using the same photolithography process that facilities already use for making various electronic devices and flat-panel displays, including LCD-LEDs. That also means it should be simple enough to make QDEL displays that scale up to the largest consumer TVs available today.

Yurek explained:

QDs [quantum dots] for NanoLED are solution-processed. Being able to produce semiconductors at huge scale in chemical processing equipment enables us to fabricate precise optical emitters at extremely low-cost compared to fabs. We once calculated it would take 50 square-meters of wafer area to produce 1 gram of QDs if we used traditional semiconductor manufacturing.

Those QDs in solution can then be functionalized into inks or photoresists for patterning on displays by inkjet printing or photolithography. The goal is to be able to do this in standard atmosphere without needing to put the whole display inside a vacuum (as you must for highly sensitive OLEDs).

That said, there remain challenges in figuring out how to optimize and scale the manufacturing process for QDEL, whether it's photolithography or inkjet printing.

QDEL availability

"We are targeting 2026 for commercial readiness on the materials side in our public roadmaps. When consumers get their hands on the technology depends on the brands and specific products they want to launch," Nanosys' Yurek told me.

That's encouraging, but it doesn't give a firm timeline for when one might actually be able to buy a QDEL TV, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the commercial readiness date pushed back. Even if Nanosys were ready to sell to other brands, there are a lot of other pieces that have to fall into place before people can buy a product with direct-view quantum dots. And early products may not meet expectations, as is sometimes the case with emerging tech.

So what comes after OLED? There are several ideas—including just more and better OLED. But the jury, which includes researchers and commercial firms in R&D, tech brands, and ultimately users, is still out. And it will be years before a decision is reached.

While we wait, it's easy for those of us interested in exceptional image quality at more attainable prices to root for QDEL.

Source

Paul's Tech News - April 21, 2024 [Video]

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 02:55:43 +0000

Paul's Hardware (1.48 million subscribers)

April 21, 2024

Video length: 12m 47s

0:00 Welcome to Paul’s Tech News - April 21, 2024

1:30 RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 Could Launch in Q4, or Even Q3 2024

4:36 Der8auer uncovers Lamptron’s Shady Business

6:14 Microsoft’s VASA-1 can deepfake a person with one photo and one audio track

7:21 Breakneck pace of AI advancement difficult to grasp, vaguely ominous TECH BRIEFS

10:04 New Boston Dynamics Atlas Robot, can’t tell if cool or scary

10:35 “DiskMantler” Hard drive destroyer vibrates HDDs to death in 90 seconds

11:18 High-end AMD RDNA 2 GPUs almost gone, but there are other good deals

YouTube Source

Radxa X2L: Low-cost x86 SBC with RP2040 [Video]

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 02:44:56 +0000

ExplainingComputers (1.01 million subscribers)

21 April, 2024

Video length: 17m 07s

Radxa X2L J4125 single board computer review and demo, including a test of its RP2040 microcontroller. And yes, this an SBC with an Intel microprocessor and in effect an onboard Raspberry Pi Pico!

You can learn more about the Radxa X2L on its website here: https://radxa.com/products/x/x2l

The X2L featured in this video was purchased from AllNet here: https://shop.allnetchina.cn/products/...

I have playlist of videos about the Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040 microcontroller) here: • Raspberry Pi Pico

And my latest review of Linux Mint is here: • Linux Mint 21: The Best Distro. Better.

All ExplainingComputers SBC reviews can be accessed from this page: https://www.explainingcomputers.com/s...

More videos on SBCs and wider computing and related topics can be found at: / @explainingcomputers

You may also like my ExplainingTheFuture channel at: / @explainingthefuture

Chapters:

00:42 Unboxing

03:31 Specifications

07:17 Guess the OS (Performance tests)

13:45 RP2040 (test)

15:36 Wrap, inc more test results!

YouTube Source

What Is 5G Home Internet? Here’s Everything You Need to Know

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 18:19:38 +0000

Carriers are starting to offer home internet packages that rely on 5G cellular data service. We’ll help you decide if it’s right for you.

Sick of slow, expensive, or unreliable internet service? You probably are. Internet service providers (ISPs) came second to last in a study of customer satisfaction by industry in the US last year. For most folks, internet service comes into the house via cable, and choices are limited. But with mobile carriers rolling out fast, low-latency 5G networks, that is changing.

For some people, 5G home internet could be a viable alternative to traditional broadband. Carriers are starting to offer 5G home internet packages as they look to recoup the costs of upgraded networks, and that could finally mean some real competition for ISPs. If you’re wondering what 5G home internet is, how it compares to broadband, and whether it might be for you, we have all the answers you seek.

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more.

What Does 5G Mean?

5G is a global wireless standard, and it stands for fifth generation. Mobile carriers have been rolling out the fifth generation of cellular networks over the past few years. Compared with the previous generation (4G), 5G opens up unused radio frequencies at the high end of the spectrum. You can read our guide to 5G to learn more, but in simple terms, 5G is faster, has lower latency, and can handle more connected devices.

What Is 5G Home Internet?

5G home internet is an alternative to traditional broadband. Instead of running a cable into your home to connect to the internet, you connect to the 5G cellular network wirelessly with a fixed receiver inside or outside your home. You will use a SIM card and have a service contract, just like you do for your phone. You'll still need a modem and router to convert the incoming signal into Wi-Fi and spread it around your home.

What About 4G Home Internet?

Some carriers already offer 4G LTE home internet, and some offer a mix of 4G and 5G. Both work the same way and require a receiver, but 5G allows faster speeds and lower latency. Theoretical speeds go beyond 10 Gbps with 1 millisecond of latency, but real-world performance around 1 Gbps is more common. A gigabit is enough for 5G to compete with broadband. 4G LTE typically maxes out at 100 Mbps but is often slower in the real world.

Is 5G Home Internet Better Than Broadband?

The short answer is no. The longer answer is that it depends. If you have fiber optic cable to your house, you can enjoy super fast wired internet, but if you rely on copper cable, your internet speed will be limited. The proximity of an exchange and internet demand in your area will also impact the speeds you get. Some folks lack a cable connection, but remote areas typically don’t have great 5G coverage. If you have solid 5G coverage in your area but internet service is poor or expensive, 5G home internet might be a better choice.

What Are the Advantages of 5G Home Internet?

5G home internet has a few advantages over wired broadband, but there are three big ones:

Since there is no need for a physical cable, installation of 5G home internet tends to be much easier, and you can likely set it up yourself without an engineer visit.
If you have good 5G coverage in your area, you can likely enjoy fast speeds, certainly much faster than old copper cables can provide.
5G home internet service might be cheaper than wired internet. Some carriers offer discounts and incentives to add 5G home internet service to your existing mobile plan.

What Are the Disadvantages?

There are pros and cons to everything. Here are some of the possible cons of 5G home internet:

Coverage is limited and is likely to be best in cities. If you don’t have good 5G coverage in your area, 5G home internet is not for you.
You will need a receiver with a good line of sight to a 5G cell site or tower for the best results. This may mean attaching an antenna to the outside of your home because 5G signals are not very good at penetrating through walls and can be prone to interference.
As 5G adoption grows and networks expand, you may find your 5G home internet service is impacted. When 5G networks get busier, your home internet may slow down or suffer interruptions.

Can I Get 5G Home Internet?

It depends on where you live and what 5G coverage is like in your area. This coverage map from nPerf allows you to select by carrier to see coverage and download speeds. You can also check with your preferred carrier (most have coverage maps on their websites), but most only offer 5G home internet service in specific areas (big cities for now).

Who Offers 5G Home Internet?

There are several options for folks looking to get 5G home internet service, but make sure you read the small print. Most carriers offer a blend of 4G LTE and 5G. You are likely to get the best deals from carriers you take multiple services from, so if you already have cell service, your carrier will likely offer a discount on home internet. Here’s an alphabetical list of US options to start with, but new services are rolling out all the time:

If you’re in the UK, here are your options:

Is 5G Home Internet Expensive?

5G home internet prices are not hugely different from wired internet service. It may even be cheaper for some folks. 5G home internet plans start from as little as $15 a month (Starry), but most cost between $30 a month and $80 a month, depending on the speed and service you want. Many carriers offer discounts for existing customers and other incentives. Because they are keen to attract new customers, many 5G home internet services offer unlimited data, no fixed contracts, and no equipment fees. Just make sure you understand all of the conditions before you sign up.

Source

The future of AI gadgets is just phones

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 18:15:16 +0000

Inside my illuminating and incredibly dumb quest to create an AI wearable from phones I had lying about.

At any given time, there are between five and eight phones on my desk. And by “my desk,” I mean any combination of tables and countertops throughout my house. So when I watched the Humane AI Pin reviews start pouring in last week, I did what any logical person would do: grab the closest phone and try to turn it into my own AI wearable.

Humane would like you to believe that its AI Pin represents consumer tech at its most cutting edge. The reviews and the guts of the pin say otherwise: it uses a Snapdragon processor from four years ago and seems to run a custom version of Android 12.

“It’s a midrange Android phone!” I declared at our next team meeting, waving around a midrange Android phone for effect. “You could just download Gemini and stick this to your shirt!” Simple. Trivial. Give me 10 minutes, and I’ll have a more powerful AI gadget whipped up, I said.

Hardware is hard, y’all.

Ideally, I wanted an outward-facing camera and a decent voice assistant I could use hands-free. An iPhone in a shirt pocket was an intriguing solution but a nonstarter because a) none of my shirts have pockets, and b) Siri is just not that smart. Thus, my earliest prototype was a Motorola Razr Plus clamped to the neckline of my shirt. This, unsurprisingly, did not work but for reasons I did not anticipate.

First off, you can’t download Gemini from the Play Store on a folding phone. That was news to me. But even once I’d sideloaded it and set it as the default assistant, I ran into another barrier: it’s really hard to use a voice assistant from the cover screen of a flip phone. The Razr wants you to flip the phone open before you can do anything aside from get its attention with “Hey Google.”

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Running Gemini in Chrome on the cover screen actually got me closer to what I was looking for. But trying to tap buttons on the screen to trigger the assistant wasn’t working very well, and neither was operating Google Lens out of the corner of my eye. Also, Gemini misread “recycle” on a tube of toothpaste as “becicle,” which it confidently told me was an old-timey word for eyeglasses. It is not!

Prototype two was the same Razr flip phone running ChatGPT in conversation mode on the cover screen. This meant the app was constantly running and always listening, so it wasn’t practical. But I gave it a shot anyway, and it was a strange experience talking to an AI chatbot that I couldn’t see.

ChatGPT is a decent conversationalist, but we ran out of things to talk about pretty quickly once I’d exhausted my chatbot go-to’s: dinner recipes and plant care tips. I want an AI that can do things for me, not just brainstorm stir-fry ingredients.

I ditched the foldable concept and picked up a Pixel 8 and a Pixel Watch 2 instead. I set up Gemini as the default assistant on the phone and figured that would somehow apply to the watch, too. Wrong. I had one more card to play, though: a good old pair of wireless earbuds. Life on the cutting edge of technology, baby.

Honestly, earbuds might be the AI wearable of the future.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

You know what, though? It kind of worked. I had to leave Gemini open and running on my phone since Google doesn’t fully support Gemini Assistant on headphones. But I took a picture of a Blue Apron recipe I was making for dinner, told Gemini to remember it, and left my phone on the counter. As I moved around the kitchen, I asked Gemini questions I’d normally have to peek back at the recipe to answer like “How long do I roast the vegetables for?” and “How do I prep the fish?” It gave me the right answers every time.

What was more impressive is that I could ask it tangential questions. It helped me use pantry ingredients to recreate a seasoning mix I didn’t have on hand. I asked why the recipe might have me divide the sauce into two portions, and it gave me a plausible answer. And it did something the Humane pin can’t do yet: set a timer.

It wasn’t perfect. First, I had to unplug the Google Home puck sitting on the counter because it kept trying to butt in. Gemini also told me that it couldn’t play an album on Spotify, something that that Google Home speaker has been doing for the better part of a decade. The watch came in handy for that, at least.

What started as a goofy stunt has convinced me of two things: I really do think we’re going to use AI to get more things done in the future, and also, the future of AI gadgets is just phones. It’s phones!

I love a gadget, but guys, I lived through the era of camera companies trying to convince us that we all needed to carry a compact camera and our phones everywhere. Phones won. Phones already come with powerful processors, decent heat dissipation, and sophisticated wireless connectivity. An AI gadget that operates independently from your phone has to figure all of that out.

And you know what looks a lot less doofy than a pin with a laser on your chest? Earbuds. People willingly wear them throughout the day right now. And the doofy factor definitely matters when it comes to wearables. I’m having a hard time seeing how a separate gadget can beat the humble phone plus a pair of earbuds or something like the Meta Ray Bans. Maybe there’s room in our lives and our pockets for dedicated AI hardware — the gadget lover in me is all for it. But I think it’s more likely that we have all of the ingredients we need to make good AI hardware right in front of us.

Source

Surface Pro X and Surface Studio 2 get new firmware with security and stability fixes

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 18:09:11 +0000

More Surface devices are getting the April 2024 firmware update. After pushing day-one updates for the Surface Laptop 6 for Business and the Surface Pro 10 for Business, Microsoft released new firmware for the Intel-based Surface Laptop 4. Now, owners of the Surface Pro X Wi-Fi and the second-generation Surface Studio can download the latest fixes and improvements.

What is new in the April 2024 firmware update for the Surface Pro X?

Addresses potential security vulnerability and improves system stability.

Extends device security certificate authority.

Here is the list of new drivers:

Driver Version	Windows Device Manager
10.703.140.0	Surface UEFI - Firmware
1.0.2020.0	Qualcomm(R) Bluetooth Radio Driver - Bluetooth
1.0.2020.0	Qualcomm(R) Bluetooth UART Transport Driver - Bluetooth

Here is extra information about the release:

Supported Configurations	Surface Pro X Wi-Fi
Supported Windows Versions	Windows 11 version 22H2 and newer
How to get the update	Windows Update
Additional Steps	The update does not require extra steps before or after installation
Known Issues	The update does not contain any known issues

Surface Pro X Wi-Fi will continue receiving firmware updates for over three more years. Microsoft plans to end its support on October 5, 2027.

What is new in the April 2024 firmware update for the Surface Studio 2?

Note that the update is not applicable to the Surface Studio 2+.

This update addresses a potential security vulnerability related to Intel® Security Advisories INTEL-SA-00923

Here is the list of new drivers:

Windows Update Name	Windows Device Manager
Intel - System - 2334.5.1.0	Intel(R) Management Engine Interface #1 - System devices
Intel - Software Component - 1.70.101.0	Intel - Software Component - 1.70.101.0
Surface - Firmware - 11.8.95.4551	Surface ME - Firmware
Surface - Firmware - 536.902.768.0	Surface UEFI - Firmware

Here is extra information about the release:

Supported Configurations	Surface Studio 2
Supported Windows Versions	Windows 10 version 21H2 and newer Windows 11 version 21H2 and newer
How to get the update	Windows Update Surface Support website (manual installation)
Update Size	630MB (manual installation only)
Additional Steps	The update does not require extra steps before or after installation
Known Issues	The update does not contain any known issues

Surface Studio 2 is reaching its end of life later this year. According to the official documentation, the computer will be out of support by October 2, 2024.

Source

Microsoft Weekly: even more Windows 11 ads, Start menu updates and Windows 10 MSA prompts

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 08:12:39 +0000

In this episode of Microsoft Weekly, we look at even more ads in Windows 11, fresh preview builds, leaked AI PCs, system requirements for the rumored AI Explorer, gaming news, app updates, and many more.

Table of contents:

Windows 10 and 11 news
Windows Insider Program
Updates are available
Gaming news
Great deals to check
A blast from Microsoft's past

Windows 11 and 10

Here we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And of course, you may find a word or two about older but still supported versions.

Microsoft and AMD announced new Windows 11 AI PCs with new Ryzen 8000 PRO chips. Made for commercial customers, these PCs offer a built-in NPU and the Microsoft Pluton security processor to protect credentials, identities, personal data, encryption keys, and other information.

Later this year, PC manufacturers will launch their AI PCs with Snapdragon X Elite processors inside. Some of those models have already leaked, such as the alleged Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Snapdragon Edition.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Snapdragon Edition and other ARM-powered AI PCs will allegedly have at least one exclusive feature that differentiates them from other computers with Intel and AMD chips. Enthusiasts discovered that code inside Windows 11 version 24H2 mentions hardware requirements for the rumored AI Explorer. According to the finding, you will need a computer with a Snapdragon X Elite processor, a dedicated NPU, at least 16GB of RAM, and a minimum of 225GB of total disk space.

By the way, we will learn more about the Snapdragon X Elite processor next week. Qualcomm published a short teaser promising to reveal some information about its next-gen PC chip on April 24.

Do you remember that mysterious Microsoft Edge update pushing the unknown Copilot app to all Windows 10 and 11 PCs? We finally have more details about that. Microsoft published a new note in the official documentation, confirming that the thing was a mistake and that 8KB Copilot app does not transmit any data to Microsoft.

This week, a YouTuber made it possible to run thousands of apps that were previously not compatible with Windows 95. He achieved the seemingly impossible by porting the .NET Framework to Windows 95.

Speaking of apps on more modern Windows versions, it is now easier to download stuff from the Microsoft Store. The app received a major performance upgrade and better algorithms to improve discoverability.

If you mistakenly installed Windows 10 or 11 Home instead of Pro, you can fix the hiccup without re-installing everything. Did you know that a single registry tweak can switch SKUs? You can learn more about it here. Just keep in mind that you still need a matching SKU license key for activation.

Finally, users noticed that the recently discovered Windows 11 system requirements bypass trick also works on non-LTSC versions of Windows 11 version 24H2.

Windows Insider Program

Here is what Microsoft Released this week for testing in the Windows Insider Program:

	Windows 11	Windows 10
Canary Channel	Build 26200 with some general changes and fixes	Not Applicable
Dev Channel	Build 26100.2	Not Applicable
Beta Channel	Build 22635.3500 with the new "Account Manager," widget improvements, and more.	Not Applicable
Release Preview Channel	Nothing in the Release Preview Channel this week	Build 19045.4353 with various minor changes

Build 19045.4353 for Windows 10, which was released in the Release Preview Channel this week, brings a change that some users will find annoying, to say the least. Microsoft plans to add special banners targeting customers with local accounts to prompt them to sign in with a Microsoft Account instead.

Some odd stuff could also be found in this week's Beta build. For some reason, Microsoft decided to hide the "Sign Out" and "Switch User" buttons behind a Microsoft 365 upsell. Now, in build 22635.3500, switching users or signing out requires opening an additional submenu on the new "Account Manager" flyout.

Fortunately, build 22635.3500 is not all negative: Microsoft made the recently spotted new Start menu layout notably better, plus fixed the bug with broken context menus. By the way, we published a recap of five cool features coming soon to Windows 11, so check it out in case you missed some of the announcements.

Finally, some insiders also received an update for the Windows Photos app. It now features a dedicated Designer button, which lets you quickly transfer a picture into the service for quick edits.

Updates are available

This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties.

This week, another executive left Microsoft, namely the Surface division. Ralf Groene, the former head of Industrial Design at Microsoft, announced his immediate departure from the company. This is another big shift in the company following Panos Panay's departure a few months ago.

Microsoft released Edge 124 in the Stable Channel. The latest feature update packs multiple changes for business customers, patches for security vulnerabilities, and general fixes that benefit all users, including regular ones.

Microsoft has announced the end of support date for Office 2016 and Office 2019. Those productivity apps will reach their end of life on October 14, 2025. Besides apps, Microsoft will stop supporting related productivity servers, such as Exchange Server and Skype for Business Server.

Speaking of Office, Microsoft 365 Insiders on Windows can try out a new feature that makes it easier to write and annotate with a stylus. The latest update adds handwriting straightening in OneNote for Windows. In addition, Microsoft released OneNote for those who own Apple Vision Pro.

Now, here is some creepy stuff: Microsoft unveiled its newest AI framework for generating lifelike talking faces using only one picture and one audio clip. However, the company understands how serious of a problem the thing could be, so it is not going to release it to the general public any time soon. But if you want to see Mona Lisa rap, check it out below. We are just not sure where Microsoft sourced a sample of Mona Lisa speaking.

Microsoft also released a bunch of firmware updates for its Surface computers. The Surface Pro 10 for Business and the Surface Laptop 6 for Business got quite a big update with day-one patches to improve your user experience. Also, the Surface Laptop 4 with Intel chips got fixes for USB-C charging and display output.

On the third-party side, Logitech released a new update for the Options+ app, which now features the so-called Logi AI Prompt Builder for custom ChatGPT prompts. The tool is available on all supported Logitech accessories, but there is now also a special edition mouse with a dedicated ChatGPT key. Yes, Microsoft is not the only one pushing gimmicky buttons on your devices.

WinToys, a neat app for tweaking and optimizing Windows, has been updated to version 1.3. The latest release adds a few useful features, such as the ability to detect processes that keep on waking up your PC, a shortcut to the memory diagnostic feature, and more.

The list of browsers natively optimized for Windows on ARM is growing. Following the release of Chrome for ARM, Vivaldi is updating its browser as well. However, the ARM64-native version is currently available in a snapshot, which means it will take some time before landing in the stable channel.

Finally, Mozilla released Firefox 125 in the Release Channel, delivering its customers improved AV1 video streaming, the ability to highlight PDF documents, and more.

Other notable updates include the following:

And here are the newest drivers released this week:

Intel Arc 31.0.101.5444 non-WHQL with significant performance improvements for DirectX11-based games and fixes for known issues.
Nvidia 552.22 WHQL with the official support for Manor Lords and No Rest for the Wicked.

Finally, here is the latest recap of new features coming soon to Microsoft 365 apps.

On the gaming side

Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts and more.

Microsoft announced a new home for Xbox Insider release notes. Now, details for each preview update are available on the official Xbox Support website instead of the Xbox Wire blog.

Xbox Insiders in the Beta and Delta Ring can now play more cloud games using mice and keyboards. This week, Microsoft announced that House Flipper, Cities: Skylines, Norco, Quake, Quake 2, Terraria, and other games now support traditional PC inputs when played using Xbox Cloud Gaming.

In addition, Microsoft revealed that Xbox Mastercard, a credit card made in partnership with Barclays, is now available to all United States residents. Previously, it was only available to Xbox Insiders.

Just a few weeks before the release of Sea of Thieves on PlayStation 5, Rare revealed that over 40 million people had played the game on Xbox and Windows PCs. You can play Sea of Thieves on PC and Xbox via the Game Pass subscription, which is getting more games, such as Manor Lords, Harold Halibut, and more.

Microsoft Flight Simulator City Update 6 delivers upgraded visuals of Southwest Germany, namely Mannheim, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Esslingen, and Kehl in Germany, as well as the French city of Strasbourg.

Nvidia GeForce NOW now lets you play six more games. The latest additions include Kill It With Fire 2, The Crew Motorfest, No Rest for the Wicked, Evil West, Lightyear, and Tomb Raider I-III Remastered. At the same time, the service is ditching League of Legends.

A blast from Microsoft's past

John Callaham's weekly "Look back" series provides throwbacks into the past, detailing the company's products, partnerships, mishaps, and successes from years ago.

25 years ago, Microsoft unveiled the IntelliMouse Explorer mouse. What is so special about a mouse that will soon turn three decades old? This week's look-back article from John commemorates the first mouse with an optical sensor that was made for the home PC market. The thing was not cheap, though. It would set you back $74.95 in 1995, which roughly translates to $150 in today's money. But hey, you gotta pay for revolutionary new technology.

In addition, here is a story of how Microsoft once nearly fired a software engineer who implemented native ZIP support in Windows many years ago.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Source

Microsoft fixes USB-C charging and display issues in Surface Laptop 4

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 18:25:29 +0000

The April 2024 firmware update is now available for the Surface Laptop 4 with Intel processors. The latest release fixes bugs with USB-C charging and display output, improves audio stability, and patches potential security vulnerabilities. Here are the details.

What is new in the April 2024 firmware update for the Surface Laptop 4?

Addresses the issue that prevents charging when system is connected via USB-C and goes into hibernation.

Resolves scenario that lead to display issues when the device is connected to Surface Dock 2.

Addresses potential security vulnerability and improves system stability.

Improves audio stability and reliability .

Here is the list of new drivers:

Windows Update Name	Windows Device Manager
Intel Corporation - Bluetooth - 23.30.0.3	Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth - Bluetooth
Intel - net - 23.30.0.6	Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz - Network adapters
Surface - Extension - 6.16.8.0	Surface Dock 2 Firmware Update - Extensions
Realtek Semiconductor Corp. - MEDIA - 6.0.9561.5	Realtek High Definition Audio(SST) - Sound, video and game controller
Surface - Firmware - 8.300.139.0	Surface System Aggregator - Firmware

Here is extra information about the release:

Supported Configurations	Surface Laptop 4 with Intel processors
Supported Windows Versions	Windows 10 version 21H2 and newer Windows 11 version 21H2 and newer
How to get the update	Windows Update Surface Support website (manual installation)
Update Size	547MB (manual installation only)
Additional Steps	The update does not require extra steps before or after installation. Surface firmware updates are non-uninstallable, so back up important data before installing.
Known Issues	The update does not contain any known issues

The fourth-generation Surface Laptop (both Intel and AMD configurations) has a six-year lifecycle. Released on April 15, 2021, the computer will reach its end of support on April 15, 2027. Its predecessor, the Surface Laptop 3, is going out of support in July of this year.

Source

Microsoft News Roundup: Xbox takes over PlayStation Store, Fallout tops charts, and Microsoft's project Stargate

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 18:23:28 +0000

You can catch up on all the biggest news right here.

Some strange things are happening in the worlds of Microsoft, Windows, and Xbox. The PlayStation Store charts are full of Microsoft-owned games, Fallout games that are almost a decade old have skyrocketed in popularity, and Microsoft and OpenAI are reportedly working on an AI project called "Stargate." In context, all of those stories make sense, but if you've only had a chance to glance at the headlines, some of them would seem quite odd. Luckily, we're here to run through the biggest stories of the week and make everything make sense.

Xbox takes over PlayStation Store

Microsoft games outnumbered Sony titles in the top charts of the PlayStation Store this week.

(Image credit: Jennifer Locke | Windows Central)

In a headline no one would have expected 10 years ago, Microsoft took over the PlayStation Store this week. No, Microsoft did not hack the PlayStation Store or buy Sony. The tech giant did, however, claim several of the top spots in the PlayStation Store. Perhaps most notably, Microsoft-owned titles held more top-25 spots than Sony's collective works.

Microsoft has invested billions of dollars into gaming over recent years, including acquisitions of Activision Blizzard and Bethesda. Between franchises acquired through those purchases and other popular titles, it's not shocking to see the PlayStation Store top charts full of Microsoft-owned games. In many ways, this week served as an example of why Microsoft invested so much money acquiring companies and investing in Xbox games on different platforms.

Fallout resurgence

The Fallout TV show caused a surge in players for several Fallout games.

(Image credit: Bethesda Softworks)

The Fallout TV show on Prime Video premiered this week, causing a surge of interest in the franchise. Every Fallout game saw player counts soar on Steam and several entries from the franchise became best sellers on Steam and GOG.

At its high point in terms of player count, Fallout 4 had 472,000 concurrent players, but that was nine years ago. The game's player count sat between 18,000 and 20,000 before the launch of the Fallout TV show. But with the surge in interest in the franchise, Fallout 4's player count spiked to 53,000 concurrent players.

Other games, including Fallout 76 and Fallout 3 saw similar spikes. Even Fallout: New Vegas more than tripled its player count.

The Fallout TV show earned rave reviews for its first season. "Fallout represents some of the best of what game-to-TV adaptions can offer, carrying forward the look, action, and ideas of the iconic franchise while providing multiple viewpoints in a season that'll leave fans and newcomers alike wanting more," said our Samuel Tolbert in his Fallout TV series Season 1 review.

The franchise also likely saw interest rise due to a franchise-wide sale that's going on right now. The Fallout games are also on Xbox Game Pass, meaning anyone who already has the gaming subscription can hop in and try them at no additional cost after seeing the show (or just in general).

Microsoft, OpenAI, and Stargate

Microsoft and OpenAI will reportedly invest up to $100 billion into an AI project known as Stargate.

(Image credit: Microsoft, OpenAI | MIcrosoft Image Creator)

With all the talk of TV shows, I wouldn't blame you for thinking Stargate being in the news is good for fans of the incredible sci-fi series. Sadly, Microsoft and OpenAI are not funding a Stargate TV series. Instead, the two tech giants are reportedly investing over $100 billion in a new AI project.

Microsoft and OpenAI have worked together to build a data center to meet the ever-growing demand for AI, according to recent reports. By 2028, the project could cost up to $100 billion and allow Microsoft and OpenAI to rely less on NVIDIA.

According to a report by The Next Platform:

"The first thing to note about the rumored "Stargate" system that Microsoft is planning to build to support the computational needs of its large language model partner, OpenAI, is that the people doing the talking – reportedly OpenAI chief executive officer Sam Altman – are talking about a data center, not a supercomputer. And that is because the data center – and perhaps multiple data centers within a region with perhaps as many as 1 million XPU computational devices – will be the supercomputer."

The Stargate project will provide more computational power for Microsoft and OpenAI, assuming reports of plans prove accurate. No word yet on if the datacenter will be in Cheyenne Mountain.

More PCs can upgrade to Windows 11

After over two years of waiting, some PCs can now upgrade to Windows 11.

(Image credit: Future)

More PCs can now upgrade to Windows 11, following a move by Microsoft that took several years to happen. The move does not represent a change in Microsoft policy regarding the minimum requirements of Windows 11. While more PCs can now upgrade to Microsoft's latest operating system, it is because the company lifted a compatibility hold.

Some systems have been blocked from upgrading to Windows 11 for over two years due to an issue related to Intel Smart Sound Technology when running on an 11th Gen Intel Core processor and Windows 11. That issue has since been resolved, paving the way to remove the compatibility hold.

Reviews and editorials

The well-reviewed XPS 16 was just one of many devices our experts looked at recently.

(Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central)

We don't just write about the biggest gadgets and games; we go hands-on with all the devices and titles you want to know about. Recently, our team reviewed the Dell XPS 16, an incredible SSD, and a five-port 240W charging hub. We also took a close look at the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and shared some editorials on the hottest topics in tech.

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Qualcomm is teasing us with a video about some kind of Snapdragon X reveal on April 24

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 03:11:37 +0000

Qualcomm has already revealed some info about the upcoming Qualcomm X Elite processor that's designed for Windows 11 PCs. However, there may be more to reveal soon. The company has released a teaser video for some kind of major Snapdragon X reveal next week.

On both its X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram Snapdragon accounts, Qualcomm has posted this 15-second teaser video that's clearly related to some kind of announcement concerning the Snapdragon X series. Both posts state that the reveal will happen sometime on Wednesday, April 24.

Exactly what the teaser video is referring to is still something of a mystery. Many online are speculating that these social media post may be preparing us for a release date announcement for the new Windows 11 notebooks that will have the ARM-based Snapdragon X Elite processor on board.

Qualcomm has already announced back in October 2023 that the Snapdragon X Elite will be available in notebooks made by Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, HONOR, Lenovo, Microsoft, Samsung, and Xiaomi sometime in 2024. Earlier this week, render images of an alleged Snapdragon X Elite notebook, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 14, hit the internet.

However, it's also possible that Qualcomm is teasing us about an upcoming new processor in the Snapdragon X series family. Earlier this month, more unconfirmed rumors hit the internet that Qualcomm was working on the Snapdragon X Plus, a somewhat less powerful chip compared to the Elite processor.

Of course, it's also possible that neither one of these things is what Qualcomm is teasing us about with this brief but intriguing video. Thankfully, we have less than a week before we find out what the processor company has in mind. We will report on the Qualcomm Snapdragon X news on April 24.

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A quick look back at the reveal of the Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 25 years ago today

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 18:39:28 +0000

There are only a few days in the history of computing where one can safely say everything changed for a certain kind of product. On April 19, 1999, that indeed happened with PC mice. That's the date, 25 years ago today, that Microsoft first revealed its latest mouse, the IntelliMouse Explorer.

Just in case you might be unfamiliar with why the IntelliMouse Explorer is so important in the development of PC accessories, the IntelliMouse Explorer was the first one made for the home PC market with an optical sensor. While it was not the first mouse product with that kind of technology, the IntelliMouse Explorer was certainly the first that had an optical sensor instead of the normal embedded mouse ball that was made for a mass-market audience.

Microsoft, of course, had been designing and making PC mouse products for a long time beforehand. The first Microsoft Mouse was sold in May 1983. It also announced the first product in its Intellimouse lineup in July 1996, That mouse was one of the first to include a scroll wheel, and that quickly became a standard feature in future mice from other accessory makers.

However, the scroll wheel addition was just a prelude to what Microsoft wanted to put into the IntelliMouse Explorer. The optical sensor technology that was used was first developed by Agilent Technologies, which at the time was a subsidiary of HP, before it was spun off into its own company in 1999.

Microsoft called its version of the optical sensor technology IntelliEye. Here is how it described the hardware that was put in the first IntelliMouse Explorer from its press release:

IntelliEye uses an optical sensor to capture high-resolution digital snapshots at the rate of 1,500 images per second. A built-in digital signal processor compares those images and translates changes into on-screen pointer movements. This technique, called image correlation processing, executes 18 million instructions per second (MIPS) and results in smoother, more precise pointer movement. Current mice execute only about 1.5 MIPS, making a mouse featuring Microsoft IntelliEye about 12 times smarter than ordinary mice.

Of course, putting in an optical sensor instead of using the older technology of a physical mouse ball inside most PC mice products was a massive change. People didn't have to worry about the ball getting dirty or breaking down. The Intellieye optical sensor in the IntelliMouse Explorer solved a lot of problems for most PC mouse owners. In addition, the IntelliMouse Explorer included a small light in the back of the mouse to emphasize that this was a very different product.

In addition to the optical sensor, the IntelliMouse Explorer also had two extra buttons, besides its two main buttons and the scroll wheel. These two extra buttons on the left side were specifically designed for being used with web browsers, defaulting with forward and back functions, They could also be remapped to be used for other PC features like printing, copying text, and more.

Microsoft sold the IntelliMouse Explorer later in 1999 for the price of $74.95 (about $150 in today's dollars). It also sold the original Intellmouse design with the IntelliEye sensor for $54.95. It didn't take long for the older trackball mice products sold by other companies to quietly become obsolete and no longer sold.

Microsoft continued to release new IntelliMouse and Intellimouse Explorer mouse products over the next few years. That included the release of IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 in 2006. It used the original IntelliMouse Explorer design but included a much faster 9,000 fps sensor, along with other features made specifically for PC games.

After a break of over a decade, the company brought back the IntellMouse brand with the Microsoft Classic IntelliMouse in 2017, followed by the Microsoft Pro IntelliMouse in 2019.

Those would be the last products in the IntelliMouse lineup. As you may be aware, Microsoft decided to no longer make or sell its mice and keyboard accessories in 2023. However, earlier this year Incase announced it had gotten the rights to make and sell a number of Microsoft-designed PC accessories. including mice products. Perhaps Incase will include the Intellimouse as one of those revived products one day.

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Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is out in 2024, promises an even grander medieval RPG

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 07:26:32 +0000

Last week, Warhorse Studios teased it has a special game announcement for today, and just as many expected (and confirming leaks) it turned out to be a Kingdom Come: Deliverance sequel. Simply titled Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, the title is slated to continue the story of Henry as he ventures into new frontiers involving kingdoms in this medieval RPG.

As the announcement trailer shows off below, the game looks to be improving on the original experience in every aspect, from the combat and visuals to the expansiveness of the world. The studio says the title will feature a much bigger scope with a much more "epic" storyline compared to the first game.

"What we are making now is what it was supposed to be in the beginning, but we weren’t able to do it because we didn’t have enough resources and experiences and all that stuff," says Warhorse Creative Director Daniel Vavra. "We have proven the concept works so now we can take it to another level, which is what we always wanted."

According to the developer, the focus on realism in this medieval world, building up Henry's skills, as well as first-person combat leaning on authenticity will be core points in the sequel as well. CryEngine is back as the toolset powering the game.

For those looking to get a taste of the setting of the sequel, which will mainly be set in the silver mining city of Kuttenberg and surrounding country sides, here's how Warhorse describes it:

Kingdom of Bohemia, Early 15th Century: chaos has befallen the kingdom. As invaders pillage this ungoverned land, sowing fear and terror, Henry of Skalitz seeks revenge for his murdered family. Now a trusted member of the rightful king’s allies, Henry is sent to escort Sir Hans Capon on a diplomatic mission. After they are ambushed and nearly killed, the two young men embark on a series of perilous adventures, putting their skills, character and friendship to the ultimate test.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is out sometime in 2024 across PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.

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Fallout games continue seeing big player jumps after the TV series’ success

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 07:24:02 +0000

Being on deep discount doesn't hurt, either.

Long-time Fallout fans are used to long waits between titles, and, depending on their preferences, inconsistent results. But when Amazon's Fallout series showed up on Prime and absolutely nailed it, it spurred a lot of players to crack open their libraries and commence some post-apocalyptic replaying. And maybe first-time playing, too.

Fallout 76, the online multiplayer title that is the most recent full release, saw perhaps the biggest delta. The game hit its all-time peak of 43,887 simultaneous players on Wednesday, April 17, according to SteamCharts, roughly one week after the Amazon series' debut. For the year leading up to that peak, Fallout 76 had hovered around 7,000-10,000 players through most of 2024, and then jumped after the series' debut. Of course, that number only counts PC players, and only those on Steam; the game, which launched simultaneously on consoles, and is available on Microsoft's Game Pass, likely has many more players.

SteamDB, another Steam stats tracker, suggested on X (formerly Twitter) that the Fallout game series as a whole had more than doubled its concurrent player count by April 14.

On April 14, the most recent Fallout games were surging in

player counts, and it has continued since.

SteamDB/X

More recent titles seem to have preference, though almost the entire run of Fallout games saw renewed interest over the past week. Fallout 3 - Game of the Year Edition from 2008 saw a 118% gain in Steam players, rising from an average of nearly 1,350 to a peak of about 7,300. The original isometric Fallout from October 10, 1997, (did you catch that Easter egg?) saw a higher spike relative to its quiet existence. It had averaged less than 200 simultaneous players until this month, when at one point nearly 3,000 players started clicking everywhere on their screen. Similar notable bumps occurred with Fallout 4, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 2, and even Fallout Tactics, though that was more like 30-ish players rising to just over 40.

Fallout 76 in the midst of its moment.

SteamCharts
Fallout 3 GOTY is adding lots of players to its brown-green DC.

SteamCharts
Preston Garvey has so many more people to alert to settlements in need of help in Fallout 4.

SteamCharts
Fallout: New Vegas got a notable bump, too, and hopefully some of them are discovering the useful mods for

that beloved but showing-its-age title.

SteamCharts

It certainly helps that most of the major Fallout titles are on deep sale on Steam at the moment, including a Franchise Bundle that gives you pretty much every PC game in the series.

While this makes a certain amount of sense for any video game series pushed to a much wider audience, I think the Fallout series in particular contains the elements that both burnish the games' memories in players' minds and also invite some "Where did this all come from?" curiosity. A more robust review of the series' first season is likely to appear on Ars soon. But as a fan of the series since its inception, I was impressed, eager to see more, and, yes, tempted to dig in for one more outing as a Vault Dweller.

The show does a good job of making the wasteland's factions seem complex, messy, and interesting. There are references galore to specific creatures, items, technologies, weapons, and esoterica that remind players of the great discoveries the series offers at its best. Most of all, the show captures, for me, the tone and flavor of the series, both in its first two ultra-arch, often-bizarre CRPG outings and through the Bethesda titles that were more straightforward but offered far more spectacle, combat, and just pure space to dig around in. For each player, there are Fallout titles that evoke their favorite aspects of the series, and the TV series seemed to me to touch on most of them.

This post was edited at 2:51 p.m. Eastern to fix a link to a franchise bundle

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Team Fortress 2 gets big 64-bit update, 16 years after release

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 07:21:04 +0000

Team Fortress 2, also called TF2 by many, has been ported to 64-bit by Steam after 16 years of release. This update also brings major performance improvements.

Team Fortress 2 is among the most liked multiplayer game out there. Released way back in 2007, along with the original Portal game, TF2 has stood the test of time.

Not only it’s famous, but it still remains among the highest played games on Steam as per Valve.

The reason is simple. It’s funny, easy, cartoonish, massively deep and has a lot of variety, both in gameplay and maps. Not to forget loads of user generated content like maps that one can play.

One more interesting thing about TF2 is, unlike other games which are pay to win, TF2 remains free of such things.

The only optional things one can pay for is cosmetics like hats and other stuff. This alone has a huge market and earns Valve millions. Otherwise, the game is pretty balanced, irrespective of how much money one puts into it.

However, a big problem with TF2 is that while it’s liked by many, it hasn’t received as many major updates as required. The game has remained massively buggy, its public servers are filled with bots and the performance issues are big too.

However, in January this year, news came out that Valve is testing a 64-bit version of TF2. Looks like that update is finally out for everyone.

TF2 Gets Updated To 64-bit Mode

In an official update release announcement, Valve has announced the availability of the 64-bit mode for the TF2. The short but important announcement says:

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

Added 64-bit support for Windows/Linux client and server

Should include performance improvements for most users

Bugs can be reported here: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Source-1-Games/issues

Fixed an exploit related to uploading invalid custom decals that would crash other clients

Firstly. It might come as a surprise to many that, one of the most played multiplayer games in the world, was only available in 32-bit version. So a support for a 64-bit mode is much welcome. Especially in this day and age.

Second, the improvements in performance is said to be massive. Some users on Reddit reported to that improvements are going to be somewhere around 18-24%. Which is not small to say the least. In fact, someone tested the pre-release update on Linux and got around 28% increase in FPS.

Performance Improvements

How does the performance increase happen though. Well known user mastercoms on TeamFortress.tv has a detailed answer for those who want to read. Those want to watch a video explaining things can also watch Tyler McVicker’s video on YouTube.

The idea is simple. This update brings many important and long overdue changes to the TF2 game as a whole and those changes result in a significant improvement in the performance of the game.

In our own quick tests, we found the newly updated 64-bit version of TF2 to be quite quick and good. Both in UI and game performance. Our preliminary tests made us felt that we are gaming on a different PC, or a different game altogether. Though more testing is required to be sure about it.

Another thing is, the new TF2 update doesn’t seem to break mods – HUDs for example, most things except some are expected to continue to work as they should without any issues.

Though some users are reporting that their AVs are flagging some files of the updated version. Some are reporting issues starting the game. All these are likely to be fixed soon.

Conclusion

Team Fortress 2 has received so little updates that it’s been a frustrating experience for its players. The TF2 community right now will take whatever improvements that Valve is give to them.

But a big performance improvement in the name of support for 64-bit is something they required but never expected Valve to deliver on them.

So this update is a much welcome move from Valve. It shows that they have not completely forgotten it and users are going to like it too.

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The future of the Xbox looks a lot like a PC

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 17:55:54 +0000

Microsoft’s gaming chief has been dropping a lot of hints about the future of Xbox recently.

When I reviewed the Xbox Series X nearly four years ago, I called the console a “next-gen PC.” Not only did the Xbox look like a PC with its boxy, rectangular, tower-like case but it also felt like one thanks to hardware upgrades that allowed it to run games with a variety of PC-like graphical modes. Now, as we approach the next generation of Xbox, it looks like Microsoft is about to close the gap between Xbox and PC even further.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has teased some potentially massive Xbox platform changes in recent weeks. At the same time, leaked internal memos have revealed an increased focus inside Microsoft on Xbox game preservation and forward compatibility. When you put all the breadcrumbs together, it feels like we’re about to see Microsoft combine all the good parts of Windows and Xbox for its next-generation console.

Spencer recently said in an interview with Polygon that the Xbox team is thinking about how to open up its ecosystem and embrace PC stores like the Epic Games Store and Itch.io. It’s a radical rethinking of the Xbox console model, and Spencer doesn’t usually tease things like this unless it’s something Microsoft is seriously considering.

To be able to open up the Xbox to PC stores and embrace a more open model, several things need to happen that I get the sense are in motion inside Microsoft. First and foremost, it will need to make the console capable of running PC games.

That doesn’t mean Xbox owners will suddenly be booting into a Windows desktop with a Start menu and pop-up ads for Bing, but it could mean that a future Xbox console would lean more toward the PC side of game development. Microsoft has been trying to bridge this development gap for years, with projects like GameCore, a method that makes it easier for developers to package up games that use both Xbox and PC services and run as container-based apps.

While Microsoft has promised “the biggest technical leap ever in a generation” for its next Xbox console, the company has also set up a new team dedicated to preserving existing Xbox games. “We are building on our strong history of delivering backwards compatibility to our players, and we remain committed to bringing forward the amazing library of Xbox games for future generations of players to enjoy,” Xbox president Sarah Bond wrote recently in a leaked internal memo.

This feels like a team being set up to transition away from the idea of Xbox and PC games being two separate things, while also ensuring that existing games continue to run on future consoles that adopt this new way of operating. It would open up the Xbox to run a lot more games and make it easier on developers.

Microsoft opening up its Xbox console to rival PC stores comes with some risks and rewards, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Two years ago, Microsoft said it was committed to opening up its Xbox platform to the app store principles it put in place for its Windows app store, which allows developers to use alternative systems for in-app payments. “We will build our next-generation game store based on these new principles,” said Microsoft president Brad Smith at the time.

If Microsoft does go down this road, opening up the Xbox platform will dramatically shift the economics of Xbox console hardware. Microsoft typically sells its Xbox consoles at a loss that it recoups through sales of games. If rival PC stores are on an Xbox, then subsidizing hardware gets far more complicated and could lead to more expensive consoles.

Spencer admitted in an interview with Polygon recently that subsidizing hardware is “more challenging in today’s world” of pricey components and a lack of overall console market growth. “So I think, what are the barriers? What are the things that create friction in today’s world for creators and players? And how can we be part of opening up that model?” asked Spencer.

Opening up the underlying model of Xbox to be more PC-like could also enable third-party Xbox consoles in the future. That doesn’t mean Microsoft will walk away from Xbox hardware, but if it’s doing lots of software work to open up its platform and make it easier for developers to build games, then why not extend that to even more hardware?

All of these potential Xbox platform changes will also apply to handhelds, and I think this is a big part of Microsoft’s overall thinking here. Valve has shown that the Steam Deck is a viable console, years after it tried and failed to make Xbox-like Steam Machines a reality. The Steam Deck is powered by a custom Linux OS that utilizes Proton, a compatibility layer for Windows games to run on Linux. Proton has been key to making Steam Deck a success because, without it, developers would have to do a lot more work to port their games to Linux.

Microsoft is rumored to be working on an Xbox handheld, and while I’m not expecting the traditional next-generation Xbox console to run on Arm-based chips, I think they make a lot more sense in an Xbox handheld form factor. For an Xbox handheld to be successful, it will have to leverage the strengths of Windows and Xbox in a smart combination.

On The Vergecast, I recently discussed my ideal for an Xbox handheld. It would run Windows at its core but never expose this to you so it looks and feels like an Xbox console, but if you want to run Steam games or Xbox games, you can. Microsoft has the ability to run the Xbox OS on Windows and has experimented with doing exactly that in the past.

The Steam Deck might have only sold a few million units so far, but it represents the biggest threat to Xbox consoles and Windows-based PC gaming ever. Valve has managed to create a console-like experience for PC games, and it has access to all of the best Xbox- and PlayStation-exclusive games through its Steam store.

Microsoft’s response to the Steam Deck has been muted so far, but the company has formed a new Xbox Experiences and Platforms team that will help improve the Windows experience on handhelds.

“I want to be able to boot into the Xbox app in a full screen, but in a compact mode,” said Spencer recently, discussing handhelds in a Polygon interview. “Like I want it to feel like the dash of my Xbox when I turn on the television. [Except I want it] on those devices.”

If Microsoft can pull off merging Xbox and Windows together, it might truly achieve its “Xbox everywhere” vision — the idea that every screen is an Xbox.

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Surface Pro 10 and Laptop 6 for Business get first firmware update with many improvements

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 17:54:41 +0000

The recently released Surface Pro 10 for Business and Surface Laptop 6 for Business received their first firmware updates with camera, battery, network, display, audio, and power management improvements.

What is new in the April 2024 firmware update for Surface Pro 10 for Business?

The first update is available for Surface Pro 10 for Business running Windows 10, Version 22H2 or greater.

This update improves user experience and device stability in the following areas:

Camera and Windows Studio Effects

Battery and charging

Thermal and power management

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Display

Audio

NFC

Here is extra information about the release:

Supported Configurations	Surface Pro 10 for Business
Supported Windows Versions	Windows 10 version 22H2 and newer Windows 11 version 22H2 and newer
How to get the update	Windows Update Surface Support website (manual installation)
Update Size	734MB (manual installation only)
Additional Steps	The update does not require extra steps before or after installation
Known Issues	The update does not contain any known issues

What is new in the April 2024 firmware update for Surface Laptop 6 for Business?

The first update is available for Surface Laptop 6 for Business running Windows 10, Version 22H2 or greater.

This update improves user experience and device stability in the following areas:

Camera and Windows Studio Effects

Battery and charging

Thermal and power management

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Display

Audio

Here is extra information about the release:

Supported Configurations	Surface Laptop 6 for Business
Supported Windows Versions	Windows 10 version 22H2 and newer Windows 11 version 23H2 and newer
How to get the update	Windows Update Surface Support website (manual installation)
Update Size	682MB (manual installation only)
Additional Steps	The update does not require extra steps before or after installation
Known Issues	The update does not contain any known issues

The Surface Pro 10 for Business and the Surface Laptop 6 for Business have six-year lifecycles. Microsoft will be releasing firmware updates for those computers until April 2030.

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The first renders of a Windows 11 laptop with the Snapdragon X Elite CPU may have leaked

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 17:23:56 +0000

There is a lot of anticipation in Windows circles about the upcoming arrival of new Windows 11 notebooks that will have Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Elite CPUs which were officially announced in October 2023. Today, a reliable Windows leaker posted renders of what may be one of the first Windows 11 notebooks with these new Arm-based chips.

"WalkingCat" posted the renders on his X (formerly Twitter) account today, with the label "Yoga Slim 7 14(.5) 2024 Snapdragon Edition". These renders show a number of views of this alleged upcoming laptop from Lenovo.

The renders show what looks like a pretty thin and light laptop. A couple of the images show Windows 11 running the Copilot AI digital assistant, and the keyboard does include the recently introduced Copilot button. Based on the name that "WalkingCat" provided, we can assume this notebook has a 14.5-inch display. Aside from that, no other hardware specs were revealed.

As with all unconfirmed reports like this, take these alleged leaked renders, even from a source that has reliably offered other leaks in the past that were later confirmed, with a grain of salt.

When the Snapdragon X Elite CPU was first announced by Qualcomm, it also revealed that a number of major Windows PC makers would release notebooks with the chip in 2024, Besides Lenovo, the list included Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, HONOR, Microsoft, Samsung, and Xiaomi.

The Snapdragon X Elite CPUs will include 12 high-performance cores and a maximum clock speed of 3.8GHz, along with an integrated Adreno GPU and an AI-themed neural processing unit. They will also have support for 5G modems and Wi-Fi 7 hardware. A recent claim from Qualcomm says that these notebooks should be able to run most PC games without the need for developers to make any extra optimizations.

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