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Under the groundbreaking agreement, signatories agreed to act through existing international forums to cooperate and promote responsible AI, identify shared risks of concern, and develop risk-based policies. These existing international forums also include future AI summits, the next of which is due to be held in South Korea.

The Bletchley Declaration focuses on safety across the whole AI lifecycle but it highlights the development of frontier AI capabilities which it says can be unusually powerful and potentially harmful. To ensure safety here, the declaration says that there should be safety testing performed through evaluations and other appropriate measures.

It goes on to read:

“We encourage all relevant actors to provide context-appropriate transparency and accountability on their plans to measure, monitor and mitigate potentially harmful capabilities and the associated effects that may emerge, in particular to prevent misuse and issues of control, and the amplification of other risks.”

One of the noticeable features of this declaration is the signatories. While China and the US are squabbling over trade restrictions on the export of certain technologies and banning the use of Huawei hardware, the two have managed to come together to agree on something for once.

With that said, another noticeable trait of the Bletchley Declaration is that it’s quite shallow and general. This is fine as a starting point but at the following AI summits it will be interesting to see if the various countries can come to agreements when the details get a bit more specific.

It has been about a year now since OpenAI kicked off the generative AI revolution. The large language models that have arrived since then are very impressive with what they can do and the world is still trying to grapple with the implications this sort of technology is having.

With this declaration, governments have acted relatively quickly to the new technology and over the coming years their stance about what is and isn’t allowed should become a lot more mature.

Source: GOV UK

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Xbox Wire states that the official name for the upcoming Grounded 1.3 update is Make it and Break It. That's appropriate since the update's Playground mode will allow its players to make their own levels, either by using the already established backyard setting or by starting completely from scratch in an empty sandbox level.

The mode will let players create buildings and furniture in the level, along with placing obstacles in the location. It will also let users spawn creatures into their custom backyard. Basically, everything in the level can be moved around, down to single blades of grass, according to the post.

The Grounded team at Obsidian has already been working on a number of different games that have been created within the new Playground mode:

During our preview, we were shown a hand-crafted Colosseum with waves upon waves of enemies to battle, and a sound-based puzzle game where players have to identify critters by the sounds that they make.

Players will also be able to share their Playground creations with other Grounded fans.

In addition to the new mode, the Make it or Break it update will add new challenges to the game's Burgle quests, along with new set pieces for base builders and more. At the moment, there's no word on when the Grounded update will be released. However, we would speculate it would be launched before the end of 2023.

In addition to this big new update for Grounded, Obsidian is working on two major new games for Microsoft: the sci-fi RPG sequel The Outer Worlds 2, and the fantasy RPG Avowed, the latter of which is due for release in 2024.

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The new 474.64 WHQL drivers are specifically for the following desktop NVIDIA GPUs:

• NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Black
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 Ti
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (192-bit)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 Ti OEM
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 740
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 730
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 720
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 710
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 645
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 640
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 635
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

You can find a lot more information about this update on NVIDIA's Security Bulletin page. The page lists the several CVE-labeled issues that the new security driver is supposed to fix. They are labeled in order of the highest to the lowest base core.

The one with the highest base score, at 8.2 (out of 10) is CVE‑2023‑31027. NVIDIA has the details of this specific issue:

NVIDIA GPU Display Driver for Windows contains a vulnerability that allows Windows users with low levels of privilege to escalate privileges when an administrator is updating GPU drivers, which may lead to escalation of privileges.

The Release Notes for this new driver can be found here. NVIDIA plans to continue releasing security updates for its desktop Kepler GPUs until September 2024.

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What you need to know

• A previously correct hardware leaker, @kopite7kimi posted possible RTX Super specs.
• The 4080 Super will have 5%, and the 4070 Ti Super will have 10% more CUDA Cores.
• We don't yet know the prices, but that will be the defining factor on if this is good news.

In a post by @kopite7kimi on X (Twitter), the previously accurate leaker gave some numbers for the RTX 4080 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super, and RTX 4070 Super. The leaker even said that in the leak, they are skeptical of the RTX 4070 Ti Super, meaning it might not actually exist. 

The NVIDIA RTX 40 series of GPUs has been chiefly a disappointment due to limited rasterization performance improvements, while the prices have gone up for most of the mid-range cards. In our AORUS GeForce 4070 Ti review, we discuss how the price to performance of NVIDIA's newest offerings isn't quite matching up.

How powerful are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX Super GPUs?

Based on the leak, let's take a look at some comparisons. The GeForce RTX 4080 Super keeps the same AD103 GPU running the same memory specs at 16GB 256-bit 22.4 GT/s GDDR6X. The only difference is having a higher CUDA Core count at 10240 vs 9728 on the base GeForce RTX 4080.

More interesting, per a comment made by the leaker in response to another X (Twitter) user, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super will potentially upgrade its memory from 12GB to 16GB and from 192-bit 192-bit 21 GT/s GDDR6X to 256-bit 22.4 GT/s GDDR6X. Also, it will move from the AD104 to the AD103 GPU and increase CUDA Cores from 7680 to 8448. All of this amounts to a substantial upgrade, but again, it is essential to note the leaker has doubts about the 4070 TI Super.

Finally, per the leak, the RTX 4070 Super will be the same as the RTX 4070 except for 7168 CUDA Cores over 5888 on the RTX 4070.

We will have to wait and see if these numbers are accurate, but again, it all comes down to the price. NVIDIA needs to take their competitors in AMD and now Intel with their Arc lines of GPUs more seriously. Now, with ARM processors with usable graphics like the Snapdragon X Elite and Intel's upcoming Meteor Lake CPUs having decent integrated graphics, NVIDIA GPUs have more competition than ever.

Do you think these leaks are accurate? Is a 5% to 10% CUDA Core improvement worth an upgrade? Let us know in the comments. 

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What you need to know

• AMD announced revenue for the third quarter of 2023 of $5.8 billion
• AMD had a gross margin of 47%, an operating income of $224 million, and a net income of $299 million.
• AMD is at 9% growth in the current Q4 of 2023 or approximately $6.1 billion which was below analyst predictions causing shares to drop after-hours.

AMD published their 3rd quarter financials for 2023 and the numbers look relatively solid however since the announcement AMD stock has dropped about 4.25% after-trading hours, likely due to a less-than-stellar 4th quarter announcement. 

The company overall looks to be doing great though as they are focusing on more sectors and expanding their portfolio but they were hit in some key areas we can look closer into. 

We delivered strong revenue and earnings growth driven by demand for our Ryzen 7000 series PC processors and record server processor sales,” said AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su. “Our data center business is on a significant growth trajectory based on the strength of our EPYC CPU portfolio and the ramp of Instinct MI300 accelerator shipments to support multiple deployments with hyperscale, enterprise and AI customers.

 

Jean Hu - AMD EVP, CFO and Treasurer

How did AMD do in Q3 2023? 

Overall it looks like AMD is doing pretty well compared to a lot of other companies that are reporting shrinking profits even as revenue grows and have been raising prices and going through lay-offs to keep their shareholders placated. Looking at some of the GAAP raw numbers. The GAAP revenue for the quarter was $5.8 billion up over $5.565 billion in Q3 2022, the GAAP gross profit was $2.747 billion up over $2.354 billion in Q3 2022. That's a 17% increase in gross profits. 

One of the negatives that were reported was a decrease of 8% in the Gaming segment revenue which they blame on less demand for their semi-custom chips which are used in devices like the Xbox Series X and PS5. 

There were a few other loss areas but none that amounted to an overall huge loss. as seen by the increase of 17% GAAP and 7% non-GAAP gross profits. 

How is AMD's financial outlook for quarter 4 2023?

We executed well in the third quarter, delivering year-over-year growth in revenue, gross margin and earnings per share. In the fourth quarter, we expect to see strong growth in Data Center and continued momentum in Client, partially offset by lower sales in the Gaming segment and additional softening of demand in the embedded markets.

 

Jean Hu - AMD EVP, CFO and Treasurer

It looks like the market is not reacting well to AMD's expectations for the company's Q4 2023 financial targets. A quick Bing search shows the company's shares have dropped quite a bit since the announcement. AMD expects the company to earn about $6.1 billion, plus or minus $300 million. If they are able to hit that target of $6.1 billion they would be at 9% year-over-year growth and 5% for sequential growth. They also expect the Non-GAAP gross margin to be around 51.5%. 

Personally, these numbers don't seem like horrible targets, but with it being the end of the year and the quarter when companies are expected to perform the best, it is understandable why Wall Street might be deciding to sell. 

I think AMD should be applauded for continuing to offer good consumer products and partner with innovative products like the Lenovo Legion Go which launched today.

Are you worried about the AMD financials for Q4? Are you surprised AMD was able to report substantial growth this quarter? Let us know in the comments. 

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According to a report by Wired Italy, the commission nicknamed the “algorithms commission,” will evaluate the risks and opportunities of applying AI in the news and publishing industries.

The choice of Amato, whose long political career includes stints as deputy, minister, prime minister, and recently president of the Constitutional Court, has raised some eyebrows. Particularly given that he just made headlines blocking referendum efforts on cannabis and end-of-life choices — not faring well for expectations of progressive policies when faced with new technologies and rapid change.

The appointment was made by Alfredo Barachini, undersecretary to Meloni, for publishing and information. It seems an unconventional pick compared to other countries like the UK, which named 41-year-old tech entrepreneur and machine learning expert Ian Hogarth to lead a similar commission.

Some have questioned whether Amato’s advanced age makes him out of touch for evaluating emerging technologies like AI. However, the more substantial concern should be whether he has relevant expertise. Age alone is a weak criticism — technology transcends generations, and many pioneers of computing were active into their later years.

The commission explores complex issues of tech and regulation and media

What matters more is direct experience with AI, algorithms, and modern publishing. On that front, Amato’s background as a legal scholar and politician raises doubts. The commission will explore complex issues at the intersection of technology, media, and regulation. Solid technical knowledge seems crucial.

The choice also reportedly surprised some in Meloni’s right-wing coalition, unused to politically left figures being handed government posts. The move could raise tensions between her Brothers of Italy party and allies like Forza Italia.

Ultimately, Amato’s qualifications to lead this commission remain uncertain. But rather than vague concerns over age, critics should focus on his rather alarming lack of direct experience with artificial intelligence or modern publishing.

In a rapidly changing digital media environment, merely being an eminent legal authority may not suffice. The government would be wise to appoint supporting members with more relevant technological and industry expertise.

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M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max

Compared to the M2, the plain-old M3 doesn’t get any additional cores, so it will rely solely on architectural improvements and clock speed bumps to increase performance—and it has 25 billion transistors, 5 billion more than M2, so there's still quite a bit of new hardware here. It’s still an 8-core CPU, split evenly between performance and efficiency cores, and a 10-core GPU (with a partially disabled 8-core GPU in some entry-level models). Integrated on-package system memory starts at 8GB and maxes out at 24GB, same as the M2.

 

The M3 Pro is a 37-billion transistor chip, which is 3 billion fewer than the M2 Pro. That makes sense once you look at the core counts; M2 Pro had eight performance cores and four efficiency cores, plus as many as 19 GPU cores. The M3 Pro still has 12 cores, but it's split evenly between six performance cores and six efficiency cores, and the GPU tops out at 18 GPU cores. Memory bandwidth is also somewhat lower than the M2 Pro, at 150GB/s instead of 200GB/s. Maximum memory capacity does increase slightly, from 32GB to 36GB, while the minimum memory capacity goes up from 16GB to 18GB.

 

I still expect The M3 Pro to be an upgrade over the M2 Pro because of the updated architectures involved, but it looks like less of an upgrade than the M3 (which keeps core counts the same) or the M3 Max (which increases them). The M2 Pro and M2 Max used the same CPU core configuration, and my best guess is that the company wanted to create more of an incentive to jump from Pro to Max for people who don't care about GPU performance.

 

	CPU P/E-cores	GPU cores	RAM options	Memory bandwidth
M3 (entry-level)	4P/4E	8	8/16/24GB	100GB/s
M3	4P/4E	10	8/16/24GB	100GB/s
M3 Pro (entry-level)	5P/6E	14	18/36GB	150GB/s
M3 Pro	6P/6E	18	18/36GB	150GB/s
M3 Max (entry-level)	10P/4E	30	36/96GB	300GB/s
M3 Max	12P/4E	40	48/64/128GB	400GB/s

 

As for the M3 Max, the 92 billion transistor count makes a huge jump from the M2 Max's 67 billion. A lot of that is accounted for by the CPU M3 Max, which includes 12 performance cores and four efficiency cores, four more performance cores than the M2 Max. The GPU also gets a little bigger, jumping from a max of 38 cores to a max of 40. Maximum memory capacity also goes up from 96GB to 128GB, and minimum memory capacity goes from 32GB to 36GB.

 

All three of the M3 processors have two different sub-variants, one "binned" version with some CPU and/or GPU cores disabled and a fully enabled version. The M3 Max supports different amounts of memory based on which version you buy; the entry-level version can come with 36 or 96GB of RAM, while the fully-enabled version starts at 48GB and can be configured with 64GB or 128GB. The entry-level version also has a slightly lower memory bandwidth of 300GB/s, compared to the fully-enabled 400GB/s. Previous Max chips always got the maximum 400GB/s no matter how they were configured, so the performance of the lower-end Max could be a little lower than its core counts suggest, particularly for graphics rendering.

 

Aside from core counts, display support is still a noteworthy differentiator. The low-end M3 still supports a total of two screens, counting the internal display, so M3 systems with built-in screens like the cheapest 14-inch MacBook Pro, the iMac, and any forthcoming M3 MacBook Airs will still only support a single external display. The M3 Pro supports a total of three displays, and the M3 Max can drive a total of five.

 

The M3 lineup also features the same number of ProRes video encoding and decoding engines, for those who use them—one in the M3 and M3 Pro, and two in the M3 Max.

 

The only member of the M3 family that Apple didn't talk about today, assuming there are no new family members coming, was the M3 Ultra. This top-end M3 chip will presumably just be two M3 Max chips strapped together, like the M1 Ultra and M2 Ultra before it. But Apple just refreshed the Mac Studio and Mac Pro with the M2 Ultra in June, so we wouldn't expect to see replacements before summer 2024 at the earliest.

 

Update, 10/31/2023: We've added additional information about each M3 chip's memory bandwidth, all possible memory configurations, and different CPU and GPU core counts for each version of each processor.

 

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The deal reinforces Atari's focus on nostalgic retro content. Digital Eclipse is renowned for critically acclaimed collections that revive classic games like Street Fighter, Mega Man, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The company's most recent project was last year's Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection.

Atari Chairman and CEO Wade Rosen said Digital Eclipse is the best in the industry at what they do and perfectly aligns with Atari's renewed focus on its heritage.

Digital Eclipse is the best in the world at what they do. They have a deep love and respect for the history of the games industry, and are renowned for developing critically acclaimed projects based on historic franchises. Digital Eclipse, along with Nightdive, are in perfect alignment with Atari's DNA and renewed purpose. I'm personally excited to see where we can push the boundaries of retro innovation together.

Digital Eclipse CEO Andrew Ayre commented that both companies are passionate about celebrating gaming history. As part of Atari, Digital Eclipse will benefit from expanded development capabilities and access to iconic IP. They will also leverage Atari's management expertise to grow their business further.

The acquisition expands Atari's internal development resources as it makes retro gaming a core part of its strategy alongside Nightdive Studios, acquired earlier this year. The company has also demonstrated its desire for re-creation with the Atari 2600+, a modern remake of the original Atari 2600 that was first released nearly 48 years ago.

In other news, Nightdive Studios announced that it would bring back Star Wars: Dark Forces, originally released by LucasArts in 1995 for the PC.

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NEW YORK—As expected, Apple has launched a newly refreshed lineup of 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros at its "Scary Fast" product event this evening, replacing not just the last-generation versions of those laptops but also the old 13-inch MacBook Pro.

 

The company is accomplishing that last goal by introducing a less-expensive $1,599 version of the 14-inch MacBook Pro that uses a regular M3 chip instead of the M3 Pro or M3 Max.

 

It isn't as fast, it starts with a skimpy 8GB of RAM of storage, it has one fewer Thunderbolt port (for a total of two), and it only supports a single external display. But at $1,599, the M3 MacBook Pro is $400 cheaper than the M2 Pro/M3 Pro version of the laptop, and it still uses the larger high-refresh-rate ProMotion display, the contrast-boosting and bloom-reducing mini LED screen technology, the MagSafe connector, the 1080p camera, 512GB of storage in the base model, the speaker system, and a full-sized HDMI port. And while Apple quotes the same "up to 22 hours of battery life" for all of the new MacBook Pro models, in the real world, the M3 should give you a bit more runtime than the M3 Pro or Max.

 

The new MacBook Pros are all available for pre-order today; the M3 and M3 Pro versions will be available starting November 7, and the M3 Max versions will be available "later in November." The 14-inch Pro with an M3 Pro chip still starts at $1,999, while the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro chip still starts at $2,499.

 

	CPU P/E-cores (max)	GPU cores (max)	Maximum RAM
M1	4P/4E	8	16GB
M2	4P/4E	10	24GB
M3	4P/4E	10	24GB
M1 Pro	8P/2E	8P/8E	32GB
M2 Pro	8P/4E	19	32GB
M3 Pro	6P/6E	18	36GB
M1 Max	8P/2E	32	64GB
M2 Max	8P/4E	38	96GB
M3 Max	12P/4E	40	128GB

 

We've gone into the M3 chip updates in greater detail in a separate post. Compared to the M2 Pro and M2 Max versions, the most important thing to know is that the M3 Pro is a small step down in core counts from the M2 Pro—the M2 Pro had eight high-performance CPU cores and four high-efficiency cores, while the M3 Pro has six of each; M3 Pro's GPU also tops out at 18 cores, down from 19 in M2 Pro. The maximum amount of RAM goes up a little, from 32GB to 36GB, and we'd still expect the updated architecture and the 3nm manufacturing process to result in a net speed gain compared to the M2 Pro. But it may not be as large as the jump that the M3 Max gets.

 

The M3 Max is a significantly larger chip than the M2 Max, going from eight performance cores and four efficiency cores to 12 performance cores and four efficiency cores. The maximum GPU core count increases from 38 to 40, and the maximum amount of RAM goes up from 96GB to 128GB. You'll pay quite a bit for that privilege, though—$300 to pay for the (required) upgrade to a fully-enabled M3 Max, and another $1,200 for the actual 128GB memory upgrade, bringing the total cost of the system to at least $4,699 before considering storage or other additions. Choosing the Max chip also gets you four external displays, up from two for the M3 Pro and one for the M3, plus a second ProRes video encoding and decoding engine.

 

All the M3 MacBook Pros support new M3 family features like hardware-accelerated ray-tracing and hardware-accelerated AV1 video decoding support.

 

Aside from specs, there are just a couple of noteworthy changes to the exterior. A new space black colour option for the M3 Pro and M3 Max versions of the laptop looks a lot like the version Apple shipped with the M2 MacBook Air but with changes to the anodization process that keep it from picking up fingerprints as easily as the black versions of the MacBook Air do. Thanks to a brief hands-on session with the system, we can confirm that the new coating gets way less fingerprint-y than the Air does, though, to my eyes, it also looked slightly less black.

 

The M3 MacBook Pro only comes in silver or space gray; the M3 Pro and M3 Max versions come in silver and space black but notspace gray. Tints of actual colour remain frustratingly absent, confined to iMacs, iPhones, and some flavors of iPad.

 

The screen on the new MacBook Pros also improves modestly, increasing the brightness of SDR content from 500 to 600 nits. Sustained and peak HDR brightness remains unchanged, at 1,000 and 1,600 nits, respectively.

 

These new MacBook Pros are coming out just 10 months after the M2 models that Apple announced in January. That's apparently because the M2 Pros were introduced a couple of months later than intended. But even if they had launched in October 2022, the M3 MacBook Pros would be getting replaced more quickly than the M2 MacBook Air, which was originally released in July 2022. Because of its still-young 3 nm manufacturing process, it's possible that the M3 isn't being made in enough volume to satisfy a new MacBook Air's worth of demand; in any case, an update in the winter or spring seems probable.

 

Listing image by Apple

 

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M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max

Compared to the M2, the plain-old M3 doesn’t get any additional cores, so it will rely solely on architectural improvements and clock speed bumps to increase performance—and it has 25 billion transistors, 5 billion more than M2, so there's still quite a bit of new hardware here. It’s still an 8-core CPU, split evenly between performance and efficiency cores, and a 10-core GPU (with a partially disabled 8-core GPU in some entry-level models). Integrated on-package system memory starts at 8GB and maxes out at 24GB, same as the M2.

 

The M3 Pro is a 37-billion transistor chip, which is 3 billion fewer than the M2 Pro. That makes sense once you look at the core counts; M2 Pro had eight performance cores and four efficiency cores, plus as many as 19 GPU cores. The M3 Pro still has 12 cores, but it's split evenly between six performance cores and six efficiency cores, and the GPU tops out at 18 GPU cores. Maximum memory capacity does increase slightly, from 32GB to 36GB.

 

I still expect The M3 Pro to be an upgrade over the M2 Pro because of the updated architectures involved, but it looks like less of an upgrade than the M3 (which keeps core counts the same) or the M3 Max (which increases them). The M2 Pro and M2 Max used the same CPU core configuration, and my best guess is that the company wanted to create more of an incentive to jump from Pro to Max for people who don't care about GPU performance.

 

As for the M3 Max, the 92 billion transistor count makes a huge jump from the M2 Max's 67 billion. A lot of that is accounted for by the CPU M3 Max, which includes 12 performance cores and four efficiency cores, four more performance cores than the M2 Max. The GPU also gets a little bigger, jumping from a max of 38 cores to a max of 40. Maximum memory capacity also goes up from 96GB to 128GB.

 

Aside from core counts, display support is still a noteworthy differentiator. The low-end M3 still supports two, counting the internal display, so lower-end systems with built-in screens like the cheapest 14-inch MacBook Pro, the iMac, and any forthcoming M3 MacBook Airs will still only support a single external display. The M3 Pro supports a total of three displays, and the M3 Max can drive a total of five.

 

The M3 lineup also features the same number of ProRes video encoding and decoding engines, for those who use them—one in the M3 and M3 Pro, and two in the M3 Max.

 

The only member of the M3 family that Apple didn't talk about today, assuming there are no new family members coming, was the M3 Ultra. This top-end M3 chip will presumably just be two M3 Max chips strapped together, like the M1 Ultra and M2 Ultra before it. But Apple just refreshed the Mac Studio and Mac Pro with the M2 Ultra in June, so we wouldn't expect to see replacements before summer 2024 at the earliest.

 

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Bloomberg reports that an unknown number of Bungie's team members were let go today. The same reported claims, via unnamed sources, that the developer has delayed the release of upcoming projects. That includes its latest Destiny 2 expansion pack, The Final Shape. Originally announced as launching on February 27, 2024, the expansion will now reportedly be pushed back to sometime in June 2024.

The same report also claims that Bungie's next major game project, the reboot of its older sci-fi shooter series Marathon, has been delayed as well. While the game didn't have an official launch date, Bloomberg reports it has been pushed back to a launch sometime in 2025. These layoffs come less than two years after Sony acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion in January 2022.

2022 has been, by all accounts, a solid year for the video and PC game industry overall. However, that has not prevented a lot of big layoffs from hitting some major game publishers and developers. That includes the massive game publisher Embracer Group, which completely shut down Saints Row creators Volition earlier this summer, among other similar moves.

Other game developer layoffs have been reported by Telltale Games, Beamdog, Team 17, Crystal Dynamics, Relic, Blackbird Interactive, and others.

Perhaps the most surprising layoff news came a few weeks ago. Epic Games, the makers of the Unreal Engine game development tools, the creators of the hit game Fortnite, and the founders of the Epic Games Store, announced that it would cut over 800 team members or about 16 percent of its workforce. It also sold off a couple of companies that it had purchased only a few years ago, including the online song store Bandcamp.

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A connected accessory is not authorised

 

Using unauthorised accessories compromises your gaming experience. For this reason, the unauthorised accessory will be blocked from use on 12/11/2023. For help returning it, check with the store it came from or contact the manufacturer.

 

To see authorized accessories, go to www.xbox.com/accessories. (0x82d60002)

A few days ago, Brook Gaming, one of the affected manufacturers, published a message on X (formerly Twitter), confirming user reports of error 0x82d60002 "A connected accessory is not authorized." Brook Gaming claims the message appears on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles with software version 10.0.25398.2266 released on October 16, 2023, rendering some of its product completely or partially unusable.

According to Windows Central, Microsoft changed its approach to licensing third-party wireless accessories to allow manufacturers develop unique gamepads, not just reskinned Xbox Wireless Controllers. Blocking controllers and other peripherals without the official "Designed for Xbox" badge may be a result of those changes.

If you have an unofficial Xbox controller or other "unauthorized" accessories (Amazon is filled to the brim with questionable-looking and dirt-cheap gamepads with USB dongles), ditching it seems like the only option. The official Xbox Wireless Controller from Microsoft is currently on sale on the Microsoft Store, allowing you can grab one in multiple colours for $54.99 and save $5. However, there are no definitive lists of soon-to-be-disabled accessories, so you will just have to wait for November 12 and see what happens to your controller, headset, or steering wheel.

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What you need to know

• Qualcomm recently announced its Snapdragon X Elite platform built on the Oryon processor with 12 cores, peaking up to 4.3GHz, while using 1/3 the power of Intel’s current best laptop CPU.
• During the Snapdragon Summit, a live benchmarking session on two differently configured reference design laptops demonstrated how powerful the chips are.
• The Snapdragon X Elite at 80w (peak) easily beats the Apple MacBook Pro 13” with an M2 processor and Razer’s Blade 15 (2023).
• The Snapdragon X Elite will be featured in Windows laptops starting mid-2024.

Qualcomm caused quite a stir last week with its long-awaited announcement of its Snapdragon X Elite platform based on its new Oryon CPU, creating what some are calling the "Apple Mac Moment" for Windows. That CPU is built by the same engineers who designed Apple’s A-series processors, which later scaled up to the M-series found in its laptops. So, perhaps it is no surprise that Oryon can beat Apple (at least where they are today).

During Qualcomm’s keynote, the company went on stage with some fancy graphs and a few handpicked benchmarks, putting it up against Intel’s best 13th-generation Core laptop CPUs and Apple’s M2 (and even M2 Max in one scenario). Of course, some questioned the numbers and claims, as even Qualcomm admitted it overachieved when it came to its original goals with Oryon.

Well, Qualcomm wasn’t lying.

In a special benchmarking session for reporters, the company walked the press through all the benchmarks, expectations (ranges), and the exact configurations of the two reference-designed laptops used. More importantly, when we turned around, there were well over 20 Oryon-powered laptops with Geekbench 6, Cinebench 24, PCMark 10, Procyon AI, and 3Dmark WildLife Extreme and Aztec Ruins (pre-commercial builds).

While the press couldn’t mess with the software, OS, and laptops, the benchmarking software was running live with as many multiple rounds as we wanted to witness. Reporters could also talk to the engineers while the benchmarks were running to ask any questions.

Snapdragon X Elite: Test configurations

(Image credit: Future)

One key point that needs to be made about Snapdragon X Elite is while it is one platform with the Oryon processor, PC OEMs can configure the chip however they want. That means, unlike Intel and AMD, who have multiple SKUs for their mobile chips, e.g., Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 along with U-, P-, H-, and HX-series, Qualcomm only has one SKU: Snapdragon X Elite. But, similar to Apple, that platform can range from low TDP (thermal design power; basically, how much wattage the chip draws) to very high, with or without fans.

To demonstrate this range (and not skew towards only the max configuration to tip the scales), Qualcomm had two configurations for benchmarking:

• Configuration A: 80W max with fan. Single thread: 4.3GHz, Multithread: 3.8GHz
• Configuration B: 23W with fan. Single thread: 4.0GHz, Multithread: 3.4GHz

Although configuration B did have a fan, the engineers told me at that TDP, it does not need one. Indeed, during the benchmarks, you never heard it come on. For configuration A, with a max TDP of 80 watts, the fan kicked in and was audible during peak performance.

This range of TDP configurations means a laptop maker can make something like a Surface Pro with no fan but still exceptional performance or go all-out with a 15” laptop huge battery, and push the TDP to the max, giving the most performance possible.

But make no mistake: Every Snapdragon X Elite laptop will perform slightly differently, and not all will hit those super-high benchmarks. Even so, as you’ll see next, the 23-watt configuration is still off-the-wall powerful compared to everything on the market in 2023.

Snapdragon X Elite: Benchmarks and results

Qualcomm reposted its earlier slide during the presentation, but it also handed out a sheet with all the expected ranges on the benchmarks, which you rarely see. Each time you run a benchmark, the score fluctuates depending on external and internal thermal conditions or any Windows background processes that may temporarily be active. So, while the highs here are 100% accurate, the lower end is also something users (and reviewers) may see later in 2024 when we run our own benchmarks.

The results are astounding and the real deal.

On PCMark 10, the results are literally off the chart compared to anything we’ve benchmarked during our laptop reviews. Both configurations hit over 13,000 on the score, whereas the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR with the brand-new AMD R9 7945HX3D, the most powerful Windows laptop we’ve tested, could only muster 9,000. Even the MSI Titan GT77, with Intel’s previous best processor, the Core i9-12900HX, could only muster 8,555.

PCMark 10 reveals the Snapdragon X Elite to be the fastest system around.(Image credit: Future)

3DMark WildLife test the iGPU and shows Qualcomm knows what it is doing.(Image credit: Future)

Aztec Ruins is another iGPU test where Snapdragon X Elite is strong.(Image credit: Future)

On Cinebench 2024, Snapdragon X Elite and Oryon really shine.(Image credit: Future)

While not the fastest on Geekbench 6, Oryon is much more efficient at 1/3 the power draw.(Image credit: Future)

On 3Dmark WildLife Extreme, which tests the integrated GPU, the max configuration Snapdragon X Elite (44.5) easily beats Apple’s M2 (40.8). The 23W config B, however, still came very close with 38.5.

On the more familiar and widely used Geekbench 6, both configurations easily beat Razer’s Blade 14 (2023) powered by the AMD R9 7940HS. The MacBook Pro 13” with M2 processor came last (compared to our best gaming laptops) with 2,658 single-thread and 10,088 multi-thread. By comparison, Qualcomm pulled off 2,940 ST, 15,130 MT, 2,780 ST, and 14,000 MT at its lower TDP configuration. Even if you factor in the lowest scores/benchmark runs of the Snapdragon X Elite, it still trounces the M2.

Snapdragon X Elite laptops running Cinebench 2024 in real-time. (Image credit: Daniel Rubino)

Cinebench 2024, which replaces Cinebench R23, hasn’t been used a lot by us yet as it’s brand new, but the new version, which is compiled to run ARM natively, still shows the Snapdragon X Elite way ahead of the competition with 132 ST and 1,220 MT for Config A. The MacBook Pro with M2 could only muster 121 ST and 572 MT and was still easily beaten by the Config B model with 122 ST and 950 MT. Likewise, the Config A beat the Razer Blade 15 (2023) and ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2023), some of the most powerful gaming PCs available.

Other tests include UL Procyon AI, which, as the name implies, benchmarks the laptop’s AI capability. This is not a test we currently run internally here, but we’ll start incorporating more as neural processing units (NPUs) become a thing in Windows PCs heading into 2024. Regardless, since the NPU was being tested and it doesn’t vary on TDP, both Config A and Config B range from 1,750 to 1,800 on that test, which will be far ahead of everyone else at 10x the performance.

Snapdragon X Elite benchmarks: All that AND less power

The critical thing to remember during all these benchmarks is that Qualcomm matches or beats the competition (as of today) at all these CPU and GPU tests, but at less power than the others, sometimes up to 70% less power than Apple or Intel.

Even against the M2 Max from Apple, which will beat the Snapdragon X Elite on most benchmarks (except single-thread), the Snapdragon X Elite still consumes 30% less power when matching Apple's single-threaded peak performance.

Snapdragon X Elite benchmarks: Apple M3 and Intel Meteor Lake

It is worth noting that by the time Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite hits store shelves, Apple’s M3 line of CPUs (which are expected to be announced this week) and Intel’s next-gen Meteor Lake laptops processors with its beefy NPU and GPU, will be the new competition.

Nonetheless, it remains to be seen if Apple can beat its M2 with a 50% increase in performance while reducing power consumption by 30%. That’s a tall order, although not impossible. Most generation jumps in CPUs are happy to get 20% processor improvements with the same or slightly less power consumption. And even if Apple gets that 50%/30% ratio, that only matches what Qualcomm is getting on its Gen 1 product.

- Here are the 9 PC makers supporting Qualcomm’s game-changing Snapdragon X Elite

But the real competition for Qualcomm here will be Intel and AMD, as most people buying laptops already know if they want Apple or Windows. While Intel and AMD are likely to show significant gains in 2024 for power and efficiency, Qualcomm, for now, appears to be walking away with the new crown of fastest and most efficient processors for Windows laptops.

Finally, I should point out that Oryon and X Elite are not due until mid-2024. That means Qualcomm has around 8 months to optimize the SoC and drivers, which suggests all these numbers could go up. Indeed, I'm willing to bet Qualcomm says as much when these laptops start coming to market.

2024 will be very exciting for mobile computing even before NVIDIA and AMD reportedly join the world of Windows ARM laptops starting in 2025.

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In an effort to consolidate MVP-style programs across Microsoft, we have decided to retire the Windows Insider MVP Program effective December 31, 2023. All our existing Windows Insider MVPs will be nominated to participate in the Microsoft MVP Program which has similar benefits and opportunities to continue networking with us and interacting with many other Microsoft MVPs globally.

For those unfamiliar, Microsoft has multiple MVP programs that recognize "technology experts and community leaders" who are passionate, enthusiastic, and positive about a specific Microsoft product, such as Windows 11. The company awards its MVPs access to engineering teams, special events, and extra perks, such as free subscriptions and other complimentary goodies.

One may describe the Windows Insider MVP as a recognition from Microsoft for promoting Windows 11 and its features for free (MVPs do not receive any monetary reward for spreading positive words). However, it also has a dark side, with MVPs losing their titles for seemingly head-scratching reasons, such as telling people how to enable specific features in Windows 11 preview builds using unconventional methods and tools or even working for rival companies.

Although Microsoft technically confirmed the upcoming end of the program, its official website does not mention any planned changes.

The end of the Windows Insider MVP program seems a bit worrying and concerning, but the Windows Insider program is here to stay. Launched in 2014, it is one of the most successful Microsoft initiatives. The company gets free testing and feedback from millions of insiders, who, in return, have open and completely legal access to prerelease versions of Windows.

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In a press release, Western Digital stated:

In completing its strategic review after fully evaluating a comprehensive range of alternatives, Western Digital has determined that to realize its full value, spinning off its Flash business is the best, executable alternative at this time. To that end, Western Digital believes the current timing for implementing a stand-alone separation strategy is advantageous in its efforts to create shareholder value as industry conditions improve.

David Goeckeler, the CEO of Western Digital, stated in the press release that the company had already set up "separate Flash and HDD product business units and separating operational capabilites over the past several years." This new plan to spin-off the Flash part of the business will, according to him, "further enable each company to drive long-term success in the years to come.”

The plan to separate Western Digital's Flash and HDD businesses is still subject to the board's approval, along with other conditions such as the availability of financing and a way to structure the spin-off so that it is tax-free. The spin-off is currently scheduled to happen sometime in the second half of 2024.

Earlier, Western Digital was in talks to merge with another Flash memory company, the Japan-based Kioxia. However, Reuters reports that those talks stalled last week, due to one of Kioxia's investors, SK Hynix, reporting expressing its opposition to the merger plan. Western Digital made no references to the Kioxia deal talks in its press release nor in its financial conference call with analysts today.

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Pichai testified in a trial that will determine whether Google acted illegally to maintain its dominance of online search and parts of search advertising. If the government wins, the company may be forced to scrap some business practices that have helped it stay on top.

In testimony Monday morning, Pichai took a couple of swipes at Microsoft's (MSFT.O) browser, Internet Explorer.

Before Google launched its Chrome browser, which competes with the Microsoft product, Pichai said, "The browser market at the time had kind of stagnated.

"They (Microsoft) were not that incented to improve the browser," he added, calling Chrome a "pretty dramatic improvement" when it was launched in 2008.

He also said that Google made it easy to change the Chrome browser if a user wanted to use a search engine that was not Google.

Pichai, who was called as a witness for Google, will likely be asked about the company's investments aimed at keeping its online search engine dominant, especially as smartphones took over, and innovation in search advertising.

The government, in cross-examination, will likely also ask about the billions of dollars paid annually to smartphone makers like Apple (AAPL.O) and wireless carriers like AT&T (T.N) to be the default in search on their devices in order to stay on top.

The clout in search makes Google a heavy hitter in the lucrative advertising market, its biggest revenue source.

Google has argued the revenue share agreements are legal and that it has invested heavily to keep its search and advertising businesses

competitive. It has also argued that if people are dissatisfied with default search engines, they can, and do, switch to another search provider.

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Table of contents:

1. Financial report
2. Windows 11 news
3. Updates are available
4. Gaming news
5. Reviews are in
6. A blast from Microsoft's past
7. Random fact about Microsoft

Q1 2024 Financial Report

On October 24, 2023, Microsoft released its latest financial report for the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal year. The company reported revenue of $56.5 billion, a 13% increase in the same period one year ago. Net income was $22.3 billion (26% up), and every part of the company, except for Xbox hardware, reported notable growth.

Shortly after the financial report, news emerged about Microsoft's Chief Marketing Officer leaving the company. Chris Capossela decided to depart from Microsoft after working there for 32 years and helping the company bring to life multiple products from Azure to Xbox. Chris is also known for the famous COMDEX demo from 1998, during which an attempt to showcase plug-and-play technology resulted in Windows 98 crashing and showing a Blue Screen of Death.

Windows 11

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.

Those following Windows 11 news know that Microsoft started a gradual Moment 4 update rollout at the end of last month. After a brief period of limited availability, the update is now available for all users. All you have to do is install KB5031455 from the Settings app or Windows Update Catalog. On November 14, 2023, the Moment 4 will become mandatory for all Windows 11 users as a part of the latest Patch Tuesday release.

Microsoft plans to ship version 23H2 shortly after the Moment 4 update, and the company is busy preparing customers and developers for the next release. Windows Driver Kit version 23H2 is now available, allowing developers get their drivers ready for the next Windows 11 feature update.

KB5031455 with the new Moment 4 features was not the only non-security update Microsoft released this week. KB5031455 for Windows 10 fixes memory leaks, touchscreen issues, printing bugs, and more. In addition, it contains a surprising new Start menu feature: stock applications now have a "System" badge. Interestingly, this change has yet to make it to the stable release of Windows 11.

Thanks to Qualcomm's newest Snapdragon X Elite platform announced this week, Windows 11 computers with ARM processors are about to become much more powerful and energy efficient. During its annual Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii, Qualcomm unveiled a new chip, promising a "massive leap forward with best-in-class CPU performance" and significant efficiency improvements. The first computers with a Snapdragon X Elite inside should hit stores in mid-2024.

However, Qualcomm will not be an exclusive chip supplier for ARM-powered Windows PCs. A new report emerged this week about NVIDIA's plans to join the party and ship its first ARM processor somewhere in 2025.

Speaking of processors, Microsoft updated the list of supported CPUs in Windows 11 once again. This time, the company restored 24 Intel Xeon processors removed in August 2023. We still do not know the reasoning behind the initial removal or why Microsoft put those CPUs back on the list. We only know that two dozens of eight-gen Xeon processors are once again listed as officially supported.

Continuing hardware and software news, a new report emerged this week about BitLocker crippling SSDs in laptops and prebuilt computers. Tests have shown that Windows 11's default storage encryption may cost you up to 45% of your SSD speeds. However, you should not worry about it if you use Windows 11 Home—BitLocker is only available (and turned on by default) on systems running Windows 11 Professional.

Windows Insider Program

• Canary Channel: 25982 with Copilot, SMB client encryption, network changes, Dev Drive improvements, and more.
• Dev Channel: 23575 with folders for the recommended section in Start menu and more.
• Beta Channel: 22635.2552 with a new System Components page in the Settings app and more.
• Release Preview Channel: 22631.2506 with only one small change for version 23H2.

As for hidden features, the only change discovered so far is a new Settings app section. It contains a toggle to make Copilot autostart whenever you sign into your account. According to the feature description, it will be particularly handy for customers with wider displays.

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.

Microsoft continues its odd experiments to ensure Edge users stay away from Chrome, the world's most popular browser. An attempt to download Google Chrome using Microsoft Edge now results in the latter asking you to take a poll and explain yourself. However, we assume Microsoft is testing this odd behavior since we could only spot it on a couple of our PCs.

Luckily, not all Edge news is negative. One of the recent Canary updates introduced new personalization tools, allowing users to create custom themes for the browser. It is by no means a groundbreaking change, but still a neat improvement to make Edge a little more personal. The browser also received a feature update in the Dev Channel, bringing users snappier interfaces and bug fixes.

From odd polls to funny news, here is Windows Phone having its last laugh from its grave: changing your browser's user agent (UA) to Windows Phone removes the recently introduced banner that blocks customers from using YouTube with AdBlockers. Remember Google waging war against YouTube clients on Windows Phone? Who is laughing now?

By the way, Windows Phone got another mention this week, this time by Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella, who admitted that killing the platform was a "strategic mistake." Sadly, that does not mean we will see Microsoft digging out Windows Phone from its grave.

A "Lumia 435" prototype with a "borderless design" that never made it to the public.

The original Surface Laptop Studio and the Surface Studio 2+ received the October 2023 firmware update with audio improvements and security patches. Later on, the same update arrived for the fifth-generation Surface Pro and its LTE configuration to fix security vulnerabilities found in Intel's chipset software.

In addition, Microsoft announced several hardware and software-related changes for its Surface devices. On the hardware side, iFixit now sells spare and replacement parts for your Surface devices, allowing you to repair a damaged or broken Surface without sending it to Microsoft. And on the software side, the new "Secured core" approach will ensure better protection and stability thanks to custom firmware and software.

On October 25, Microsoft Word marked its 40th birthday. To commemorate this tremendous milestone, Microsoft published a timeline showcasing the app's story and notable changes over the years. In addition, the company shared its vision for future Word updates, new features, and improvements.

Other notable updates include the following:

• Start11 v2 is out with new Start menu layouts, reworked and improved taskbar pins, settings backup, and other changes to please those unhappy with the stock Start menu in Windows 10 or 11.
• Vivaldi 6.4 with improvements for pop-out videos (picture-in-picture), calendar templates, and bug fixes.
• Skype Insider 8.106 with a new calling and camera experience on mobile, a better Bing integration, and multiple fixes. Two days later, the app received another update with even more changes.
• A new calendar view in Outlook to let users check out declined events. Microsoft will roll out the feature next month.

And here are the drivers released this week to improve your PC experience:

• Intel Arc Beta 31.0.101.4900 with optimizations for Alan Wake 2, Cities Skylines 2, WRC, and Ghostrunner 2. The driver contains notable performance uplifts, so install the driver to ensure maximum performance in the mentioned games.
• NVIDIA 545.92 WHQL with Alan Wake 2 support and DLSS 3 for Ghostrunner 2.

To finish the section covering software updates, here is the latest Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly, delivering you the latest information about upcoming productivity features, such as reminder improvements in Outlook for Mac and Private Line in Teams.

On the gaming side

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

This week, Microsoft announced several changes among its gaming executive ranks. Phil Spencer is now CEO of Microsoft Gaming; Matt Booty is President of Game Content and Studios; and Sarah Bond, a former CVP of Xbox, now has the title of President of Xbox. These changes come off the heels of the recently closed Activision-Blizzard acquisition.

During the recent Xbox Partner Preview showcase event, Microsoft revealed multiple new gameplay trailers, giving gamers closer looks at Alan Wake 2, Robocop: Rogue City, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, IKARO: WIll Not Die, Still Wakes the Deep, and more. In addition, Microsoft's Turn 10 Studios revealed details about Forza Motorsport's first free content update and some of the upcoming fixes. According to developers, the update will arrive on Xbox and PC in mid-November 2023.

Even though mobile games are not the most popular choice among PC gamers, Google continues investing in the segment. According to the company, more than 3,000 Android games now work on Windows 10 and 11, and gamers will soon be able to play them using Xbox or PlayStation controllers.

This week, Microsoft also released a few software updates to improve your gaming experience on consoles and PC. The October 2023 update is now available on the Xbox One and Xbox Series console families with keyboard-to-controller mapping and easier Clipchamp imports. A big feature update is coming soon to PC gamers too. Microsoft pushed a new Xbox App update preview with a dedicated UI for handheld devices and various cosmetic reworks to improve your experience.

Following the update to our "The Most Anticipated Games" article covering future Xbox releases, we updated the same story featuring upcoming PC releases.

Deals and freebies

The Epic Games Store is giving away The Evil Within 2 and Tandem: A Tale of Shadows. If that is not enough for you, here is our weekly "Weekend PC Games Deals" series covering Halloween scares, Fallout sales, legendary bundles, and more discounts.

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.

Windows 7, one of the most beloved operating systems produced by Microsoft, went six feet under in January 2023 after almost 14 years in service. To commemorate Windows 7's birthday (it was released on October 22), we published a look-back article detailing the launch of the OS 14 years ago.

And here is another article, this time about the MSX PC platform celebrating its 40th birthday. For those unfamiliar, the MSX PC was a Japan-made PC platform that eventually evolved into a big video game platform.

Random fact about Microsoft

And here is a randomly selected piece of trivia about the company, Windows, and other Microsoft-made things.

Almost every Windows user knows what is Blue Screen of Death or BSOD. Enthusiasts and Windows Insiders are also aware of the so-called Green Screen of Death, the same thing but on Windows preview builds. Did you know there was once a Red Screen of Death? Microsoft implemented RSOD in early Longhorn builds to indicate more serious mistakes or bugs taking down the operating system. However, the final product, Windows Vista, went to the public with the standard Blue Screen of Death, something the OS adopters would witness many, many times.

Behold the sinister-looking Red Screen of Death, courtesy of FlyTech Videos:

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A few days ago, Qualcomm officially announced its next Arm-based PC CPU, the Snapdragon X Elite. The company's latest effort to take some CPU market share away from Intel and AMD in the Windows PC market seems to have the backing of most of the major Windows PC OEMs as well. That includes Microsoft, which will use the new Qualcomm chip in at least one of its upcoming Surface PC products.

Ironically, this news came just a few days after the 11th anniversary of the launch of Microsoft's first Surface PC product, the Surface RT. That 10.6 tablet came with Microsoft's Windows RT OS that was made to be used with Arm CPUs. In this case, however, the Surface RT had a chip made by NVIDIA, the Nvidia Tegra 3. In yet another bit of irony, unconfirmed rumors hit the interwebs this week that NVIDIA, along with AMD, are making new Arm-based CPUs for launch sometime in 2025.

The Surface RT was first announced back in June 2012 by Microsoft during a press event in Los Angeles. The reveal was kept top secret by the company. Rumors about the company launching a tablet device only began hitting the internet a few days before the official reveal.

In the months between the June press event and the actual launch of the Surface RT in October, Microsoft slowly built up what turned out to be a huge marketing campaign for the tablet. In late August, street painters in New York City started painting ads for the Surface on buildings. They also revealed the marketing tag line "Click in". It was a reference to clicking in the tablet's optional Touch Cover. Other similar street ads began showing up in other cities like Los Angeles and Chicago.

The aspect of the Surface RT connecting with its Touch and Type Cover was a major aspect of the first TV commercial for the product. It is perhaps one of the most memorable TV ads ever for a Microsoft product, with an incredibly well-done choreographed clip of dancers clicking and unclicking on the covers for the Surface RT. That TV spot, by the way, was Jon M. Chu, who went on to direct films like Crazy Rich Asians, In The Heights, and the upcoming film adaptation of the musical Wicked.

Even with all that marketing and promotion, the initial critical reactions to the first Surface RT were mixed. Our own review of the Surface RT, from former writer Brad Sams, praised the hardware of the tablet, but the Windows RT OS is "where it falls short".

Despite initial units of the Surface RT selling out soon after preorders began on October 16, 2012, the device was ultimately a sales failure. In July 2013, Microsoft took a one-time $900 million charge in its financial numbers due to "Surface RT inventory adjustments." It also heavily cut the price of the tablet which did result in a brief burst of increased sales for the product.

Even with the poor sales of the Surface RT, Microsoft went ahead and launched its direct successor, the Surface 2, in the fall of 2013 with an NVIDIA Tegra 4 chip and Windows 8.1 RT. It was also not a sales success. The company had originally planned to announce another Windows RT device, the Surface Mini, in May 2014 that ran on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chip. However, that tablet was canceled just days before its official reveal.

It would be several years before Microsoft used an Arm-based processor inside a Surface Windows PC product. That happened in 2019 with the launch of the Surface Pro X. Since then, Microsoft has dipped its toes in making Arm-based Surface PCs, but has mostly stuck with Intel CPUs. This week's reveal of the Snapdragon X Elite CPU could be a turning point, however, and we could see more Surface products with Arm processors in the future.

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What a week it has been when it comes to news in the world of Windows, PCs, and gaming. Windows Phone got its revenge against YouTube, Microsoft's CEO admitted it was a mistake to end Windows Phone, and Qualcomm unveiled a processor that could revolutionize Windows computing. On top of that, Microsoft leadership discussed features that we'll see in Windows 12.

Windows Phone gets revenge on YouTube

(Image credit: Daniel Rubino)

Windows Phone is dead, but it's the Halloween season so some haunting from a dead mobile ecosystem feels appropriate. Windows Phone always had a mixed history with YouTube. Google sabotaged Windows Phone in many ways including an arbitrary block of the YouTube app for Windows Phone made by Microsoft.

Well, the joke is on Google, as setting your browser's user-agent to Windows Phone will bypass Google's anti-ad-block features. See Google, Windows Phone really is king.

Will Google block this workaround? The company certainly could. But considering uBlock Origin still works and is much more popular than switching a user agent string to Windows Phone, there's a good chance Google won't do anything to block Windows Phone's revenge. There's also a chance that Google has forgotten about Windows Phone. Everyone else has.

Nadella admits Windows Phone mistake

(Image credit: Microsoft | Windows Central)

Two Windows Phone stories in one week?! What is this, 2013? Recently, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sat down with Mathias Dpfner at Axel Springer's Berlin headquarters. There, the Microsoft executive talked about a variety of topics, including OpenAI, Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard, and more. But one topic stuck out, at least to us. Nadella admitted that killing of Windows Phone was a mistake. Microsoft leaders have said as much before, but it's always nice to hear.

"The decision I think a lot of people talk about — and one of the most difficult decisions I made when I became CEO — was our exit of what I'll call the mobile phone as defined then," said Nadella.

"In retrospect, I think there could have been ways we could have made it work by perhaps reinventing the category of computing between PCs, tablets, and phones."

I'd like to remind Nadella that Microsoft tried to reinvent the category of computing between PCs, tablets, and phones with the Surface Duo. The company then failed to update the device and abandoned it. Time is a flat circle.

Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite

(Image credit: Qualcomm)

After months of teasing and reports, Qualcomm finally announced its Snapdragon X Elite processor. If the chip lives up to Qualcomm's promises and the immense hype that it's garnered, Windows 11 on ARM PCs will have an excellent 2024.

Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon X Elite has better single-threaded scores than Apple's M2 Max and Intel's Core i9-13980HX, all while using 30% to 70% less power, respectively.

The Snapdragon X Elite is the result of Qualcomm's Nuvia acquisition. Former Apple engineers founded Nuvia and have been hard at work on the new processor for Qualcomm. The chip is built on a 4nm process, has 12 cores, and hits up to 3.8GHz on single and dual-core and has a boost speed of up to 4.3GHz. The Adreno GPU that accompanies the Snapdragon X Elite can handle up to 4.6 TFLOPs.

Our Editor-in-Chief Daniel Rubino was at Snapdragon Summit to see the new chip unveiled. Rubino also sat down with Qualcomm's Keder Kondap to chat about the Snapdragon X Elite.

The Snapdragon X Elite wasn't the only Windows on ARM news this week. Blackmagic Design announced that DaVinci Resolve, a popular video editing tool for professionals and casual creators, will soon natively support PCs running Qualcomm's Snapdragon Elite X platform.

Microsoft also spoke at Snapdragon Summit, but that's worth a section of its own.

Microsoft teases Windows 12 features

(Image credit: Future)

Microsoft had two executives appear on stage during Snapdragon Summit. CEO Satya Nadella and CVP Windows + Devices Pavan Davuluri discussed the future of Windows, the Snapdragon X Elite, and NPUs. While neither specifically mentioned Windows 12, both executives talked about features that will be in the next version of Windows.

Nadella focused on AI integration with Windows and emphasized the importance of Copilot going forward. Microsoft has a form of Copilot available across several apps and services, including Windows 11.

Hybrid computing was also a focus of Nadella. In the future we'll likely see PCs share the processing workload through the cloud. For example, a PC would process some functions locally and offload more intensive workloads to a more powerful system.

Our Senior Editor Zac Bowden broke down all the relevant comments and how they relate to Windows 12.

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We have written articles in the past year about some of Microsoft's different product launches, like how its first real hardware device was an add-in card for the Apple II, or its not-so-smartwatch platform, SPOT. However, many people may not be aware that Microsoft had a small involvement in a movement to create a standardized PC platform that evolved into a huge video game platform in Japan.

The platform is called MSX, and on October 21, 1983, just over 40 years ago, the first such PC that used the platform went on sale in Japan, the Mitsubishi ML-8000. The launch price for the PC was 59,800 yen or close to $400.

The story of the MSX platform began in Japan several years prior to the launch of that first PC. Kazuhiko Nishi, formed ASCII Corporation in 1978 to publish computer games. He also met with then-22-year-old Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates that same year. The two became fast friends, which led to ASCII becoming the agent of Microsoft in Japan.

Wired reports that, according to Nishi, he was a factor in one of Gates' biggest early decisions at Microsoft:

Nishi was at Microsoft when an invitation arrived from IBM to provide an operating system for a new personal computer. His enthusiasm for the project persuaded Gates to enter a bid. "If I hadn't been there," Nishi says, "ms- DOS would never have happened."

Nishi had big ambitions to create a new PC standard, similar to how VHS hardware became the standard for video tapes. That led to ASCII and Microsoft co-creating the 8-bit MSX standard, which other PC makers could follow in making their own computers.

Many people believe the acronym MSX stands for "MicroSoft eXtended BASIC" which is the programming language that the platform used. Microsoft also developed a version of MS-DOS, called MSX-DOS, for those PCs. Even with that name and software, Microsoft's hands-on involvement in the rise of the MSX platform was reported to be pretty minimal beyond that.

By the way, others believe MSX stands for "Machines with Software eXchangeability" and still others believe it stands for "Matsushita-Sony". It's unlikely this debate will be settled anytime soon.

The first MSX PCs had a 3.58 MHz Zilog Z80 CPU, along with a Texas Instruments TMS9918 graphics chip with 16 KB of dedicated VRAM. After the launch of the first MSX PC in Japan, other makers joined in like Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, and others.

Soon PCs that used the MSX platform dominated sales in Japan. They also sold well in other markets, like South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, and the Netherlands. However, the platform never took off in the US and other major markets. That prevented MSX from becoming the major platform for PCs which the IBM PC eventually became.

Having said that, the MSX platform's success in Japan led to a number of game publishers releasing some classic titles for those PCs in that country. This week, Xbox Wire has an article on that aspect of the platform. It states:

The MSX quickly earned its reputation as a gaming paradise. Classic titles like Metal Gear, Gradius, and Castlevania found a home on the platform, captivating gamers with their innovative gameplay and unforgettable soundtracks. It was on the MSX that the legendary Konami Code was born, a secret sequence of button presses that would become iconic in the world of gaming.

The MSX platform died out in the early 1990s as the rise of the IBM PC firmly took hold worldwide. However, it still has a cult following, and there are even new games that are made that support MSX. Also, websites like MSX.org have lots of info and resources about the platform. One wonders how the PC industry would have changed if the MSX platform had taken hold in the US like it did in Japan.

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