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By some accounts, they disagreed about nearly everything during that first meeting, but by the following year they struck a partnership. Working from their dorm rooms, they built a search engine that used links to determine the importance of individual pages on the World Wide Web. They called this search engine Backrub.

Soon after, Backrub was renamed Google (phew). The name was a play on the mathematical expression for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros and aptly reflected Larry and Sergey's mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Over the next few years, Google caught the attention of not only the academic community, but Silicon Valley investors as well. In August 1998, Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote Larry and Sergey a check for $100,000, and Google Inc. was officially born. With this investment, the newly incorporated team made the upgrade from the dorms to their first office: a garage in suburban Menlo Park, California, owned by Susan Wojcicki (employee #16 and former CEO of YouTube). Clunky desktop computers, a ping pong table, and bright blue carpet set the scene for those early days and late nights. (The tradition of keeping things colorful continues to this day.)

Even in the beginning, things were unconventional: from Google’s initial server (made of Lego) to the first “Doodle” in 1998: a stick figure in the logo announcing to site visitors that the entire staff was playing hooky at the Burning Man Festival. “Don't be evil” captured the spirit of our intentionally unconventional methods. In the years that followed, the company expanded rapidly — hiring engineers, building a sales team, and introducing the first company dog, Yoshka. Google outgrew the garage and eventually moved to its current headquarters (a.k.a.“The Googleplex”) in Mountain View, California. The spirit of doing things differently made the move. So did Yoshka.

The relentless search for better answers continues to be at the core of everything we do. Today, Google makes hundreds of products used by billions of people across the globe, from YouTube and Android to Gmail and, of course, Google Search. Although we’ve ditched the Lego servers and added just a few more company dogs, our passion for building technology for everyone has stayed with us — from the dorm room, to the garage, and to this very day.

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An email shared by Dr. Windows says starting October 16, 2023, data from photos saved in your Gallery and in your albums will each count separately against your total Microsoft storage quota. This will result in the same photos taking up twice the storage.

For those unaware, Gallery is where all images uploaded to OneDrive end up. However, users also get an optional Albums feature, which may be used to create custom collections of photos and images on the site.

For what it’s worth, Microsoft says in the email it is giving customers a one-year storage boost to address the upcoming change that may affect their storage quotas. The email does not specify the size of the storage boost or whether it will be the same for all customers or calculated on an individual basis. However, the extra storage will expire one year after it has been assigned to an account.

Although Microsoft didn’t elaborate on this in the email, assigning photos independent storage in albums and the gallery might allow users to keep photos in albums even if they delete them from the gallery and vice versa.

Microsoft may have more changes in store for OneDrive. A recent report shared a teaser poster for upcoming OneDrive-related announcements on October 3rd. The company might be planning to give the service an AI makeover since that's what it has been focusing on lately

Microsoft's Power Platform Conference will be held in Las Vegas from October 3rd to 5th. It is possible that the October 3rd date could be referring to the conference.

(Via Ghacks)

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The News tab was first launched in 2019 as a dedicated section for news articles and headlines within the Facebook app. Its removal in Europe follows Meta's announcement in July that it would no longer pay U.S. publishers to supply content for Facebook News.

According to Meta, news currently makes up less than 3% of global content users see in their Facebook feeds. After the European rollout in December, the News tab will only remain available in the U.S. and Australia.

The changes affecting the Facebook News feature will not otherwise impact Meta's products and services in these countries. People will still be able to view links to news articles on Facebook.

European news publishers will continue to have access to their Facebook accounts and Pages, where they can post links to their stories and direct people to their websites in the way any other individual or organization can.

While news articles will still appear in users' main feeds, UK, France and Germany publishers will lose direct access to the News tab. Meta says it will honor all existing deals with publishers through December but will not sign any new deals or develop new news products for those markets going forward.

The decision comes after Facebook and Instagram blocked news content and links in Canada. The new Online News Act requires that social media companies make monetary deals with news organizations to distribute links from those news outlets on online services.

The move, on the other hand, comes amid increasing regulatory scrutiny in Europe over Meta's data privacy practices. Also, Meta will reportedly offer an ad-free paid subscription in the region.

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According to data sourced from HD-Tecnologia and VideoCardZ, the RX 7800 XT demonstrates on average 0.5% higher performance compared to the RTX 4070 across a range of game titles tested. Without ray tracing enabled, this lead extends to 6.9%. However, with ray tracing, the RTX 4070 claws back a 11.6% advantage.

The RX 7700 XT exhibits an even more commanding lead over the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, delivering 16% faster speeds on average across the benchmarked games. With ray tracing disabled, this jumps to nearly 16% higher performance. The RTX 4060 Ti only pulls ahead by 5.4% when restricting tests to ray tracing workloads.

Additional leaked 3DMark benchmarks reinforce AMD's dominance in rasterization workloads. The RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT outpace their NVIDIA counterparts in Fire Strike, Time Spy, and Time Spy Extreme. Only in the ray tracing-focused Port Royal test does the RTX 4070 top the RX 7800 XT's score.

In case you missed it, AMD is pricing the RX 7800 XT 16GB at $499, $100 below the RTX 4070 12GB. And the RX 7700 XT 16GB is priced at $449, $50 less than the RX 7800 XT.

In terms of other key specifications, RX 7800 XT features 19.5 Gbps memory and corresponding 624 GB/s, compared to the 6800 (XT)'s 16Gbps and 512 GB/s bandwidth. It has 64MB of Infinity (L3) cache. On the other hand, the RX 7700 XT features 18Gbps memory and 432 GB/s of memory bandwidth. In terms of the Infinity Cache, the 7700 XT has 48MB.

The official reviews will confirm whether these leaked benchmarks translate into real-world gaming experiences when the RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT launch on September 6.

Sources and Images: HD-Tecnologia and VideoCardZ

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Dona Sarkar, who is perhaps best known to Neowin readers for her previous leadership of the Windows Insider Program, announced today on her LinkedIn page, that she is now heading up a new "AI and Copilot Extensibility Dev Program" at Microsoft.

In her post, Sarkar stated:

I started writing code in 1998 (!) and over the past 25 years (!!) I have seen the magical things that being a developer can do. Over the past year'ish, my team and I have been getting skilled up in all things Generative AI and getting hands-on in code again. I’ve LOVED this and realized there has never been a more exciting time to be a developer…so I'm headed back to my dev roots.

Sarkar stated she would report to Microsoft's office of its Chief Technology Office and all of Copilot's owners to help create this new program. She says it will be designed to help third-party developers access and expand Copilot services so they can use their own data to create AI-based products.

She added that developers will be "seeing *a lot* of tutorials, blogs, videos, code samples, skilling stuff, and experimental content from me in the upcoming weeks". The plan is to have an official launch of the program at Microsoft's Ignite conference, which will happen on November 15.

Sarkar was the head of Microsoft's Windows Insider Program for over three years until her departure in 2019 to head up the advocacy and evangelism program for the Microsoft Power Platform. In 2021, she took on another new position, this time as Director of Tech for Microsoft Accessibility.

In her LinkedIn post today, Sarkar stated:

While I am INCREDIBLY excited about this new opportunity, I'm also very sad. I have LOVED my 2.5 years in Accessibility. I have never learned so much about the human impact of tech before and you KNOW I will forever focus on making sure that people with disabilities, neurodiversity and mental health have equitable access to tech.

In the meantime, developers with interest in extending Copilot services can check out this poll that will give Sarkar more info on how to handle her AI developer strategy.

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It is likely to be the biggest of three funds launched by the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, also known as the Big Fund.

Its target of 300 billion yuan ($41 billion) outdoes similar funds in 2014 and 2019, which according to government reports, raised 138.7 billion yuan and 200 billion yuan respectively.

One main area of investment will be equipment for chip manufacturing, said one of the two people and a third person familiar with the matter.

President Xi Jinping has long stressed the need for China to achieve self-sufficiency in semiconductors. That need has become all the more pressing after Washington imposed a series of export control measures over the last couple of years, citing fears that Beijing could use advanced chips to boost its military capabilities.

In October, the U.S. rolled out a sweeping sanctions package that cut China's access to advanced chipmaking equipment and U.S. allies Japan and the Netherlands have taken similar steps.

The new fund was approved by Chinese authorities in recent months, two of the people said.

China's finance ministry is planning to contribute 60 billion yuan, said one person. Other contributors could not be immediately learned.

All the sources declined to be identified as the discussions were confidential.

The State Council Information Office, which handles media queries on behalf of the government, the finance ministry and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The Big Fund also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The fundraising process will likely take months and it was not immediately clear when the third fund will be launched or if further changes will be made to the plan, said the first two sources.

Backers of the Big Fund's previous two funds include the finance ministry and deep-pocketed state-owned entities such as China Development Bank Capital, China National Tobacco Corporation and China Telecom.

Over the years, the Big Fund has provided financing to China's two biggest chip foundries, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (0981.HK) and Hua Hong Semiconductor (688347.SS), as well as to Yangtze Memory Technologies, a maker of flash memory and a number of smaller companies and funds.

Despite those investments, China's chip industry has struggled to play a leading role in the global supply chain, especially for advanced chips.

INVESTMENT MANAGERS

The Big Fund is considering hiring at least two institutions to invest the new fund's capital, said the three people.

Several senior officials and former officials at SINO-IC Capital, the sole manager for the Big Fund's first two funds, have been under investigation by China's anti-graft authority since 2021.

Even so, SINO-IC Capital is expected to remain one of the managers for the third fund, said two of the people.

SINO-IC Capital did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chinese officials have also reached out to China Aerospace Investment, the investment arm of state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, to discuss being one of the managers, said two of the people.

China Aerospace Investment did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

($1 = 7.2901 Chinese yuan)

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Meanwhile, over on the Team Blue camp, things haven't been any good, like at all. Users have reported different kinds of issues like extremely slow load times, texture corruptions, and more, essentially making the game unplayable. In the worst-case scenario, the game isn't even launching for some.

Today, Intel has released its Windows beta driver for Arc which tackles some of these issues like slow loading times and texture issues. The company notes that the driver package size has been increased to ~685MB from the typical ~635MB. This additional 50MB might be due to how the driver is now handling pre-cached and pre-compiled shaders which will help to reduce the loading times. This should also help in those situations where the game even fails to launch due to failure in compiling shaders.

The full release notes for Intel Arc beta driver version 31.0.101.4672 are given below:

• Graphics Driver package has temporarily increased to significantly reduce the Starfield* game load duration.
• Several Starfield* game instability and visual artifacts have been fixed in this driver. High Preset and below is recommended to improve stability.
• Efforts in progress to further improve overall gaming experience of Starfield* for Intel® Arc™ users in future driver updates.

GAMING HIGHLIGHTS: Intel® Game On Driver support on Intel® Arc™ A-series Graphics for:

• SYNCED*

FIXED ISSUES:

Intel® Arc™ Graphics Products:

• Starfield* (DX12) Game load duration is significantly reduced.
• Starfield* (DX12) may experience instability and application crash while launching and during gameplay.
• Starfield* (DX12) may exhibit texture corruptions and scene flickers during gameplay.

KNOWN ISSUES:

Intel® Arc™ Graphics Products:

• Starfield* (DX12) may experience application instability in some areas of the game.
• Starfield* (DX12) may exhibit corruption when using Dynamic Resolution Scaling. A workaround is to change the Render Resolution Scale slider value.
• Starfield* (DX12) may exhibit texture flickering on light sources during gameplay.
• Starfield* (DX12) may exhibit low texture details on certain objects in the game.
• UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection* (DX12) may exhibit texture corruption on characters.
• Halo Infinite* (DX12) campaign may experience an application crash on some system configurations.
• Dead by Daylight* (DX11) may experience an application crash during gameplay.
• Topaz Video AI* may experience errors when using some models for video enhancement.
• Adobe After Effects* may experience an application crash during render operations.
• Device fan may ramp up frequently on certain Intel® Arc™ Graphics products.

Intel® Iris™ X e MAX Graphics Products:

• Driver installation may not complete successfully on certain notebook systems with both Intel® Iris™ Xe + Iris™ Xe MAX devices. A system reboot and re-installation of the graphics driver may be required for successful installation.

INTEL® ARC™ CONTROL KNOWN ISSUES:

• Using Arc Control Studio capture with certain games may incorrectly generate multiple video files.
• The “Connector” type in the Display page may incorrectly show DP* when using an HDMI* display connection.
• May observe “stream has already ended” pop-up after the power events with Capture/Highlights/Broadcast toggle on.
• Performance Graphs may scale incorrectly after waking up from sleep.

To download the new Arc 31.0.101.4672 beta driver, head over to this page on Intel's official website.

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If you're anything like our team of writers, you've spent the entire past week reading about Starfield or enjoying early access to the game. You've probably forgotten to do some things, like water your plants or go to your day job. My guess is you also missed some news stories while exploring the cosmos. Luckily, I am here to help you catch up on the biggest stories from the past week.

Starfield

(Image credit: Windows Central)

Starfield is one of the most anticipated games of the year, and some lucky folks can already play it. Early access for the game launched on September 1, 2023. Reviewers also had the chance to explore the expansive universe of Starfield.

To be honest, summarizing Starfield in a few paragraphs doesn't do it justice. I'll leave you with a snippet from our Managing Editor Jez Corden and point you toward his Starfield review:

"Reviewing Starfield was a mission. It's unnecessary to emphasize how big it is. Bethesda's new IP spans a large quadrant of our Milky Way galaxy, with hundreds of star systems and planets loaded with potential gameplay. Starfield pushes its Creation Engine to the absolute limit, and cracks of age are indeed beginning to show. While aspects of Starfield's design could've used more iteration, it's one of Bethesda's most impressive cinematic titles. With incredible writing, its slow-burn stories snowball into immense moments, and tight RPG/FPS combat thrills in spaceship battles, grounded firefights, and zero-G death ballets — Starfield is a landmark experience with a bright future ahead of it."

Gothic Pokémon?

Pokémon is one of the most popular franchises in the world. With decades of new games and an ever-expanding list of creatures, Pokémon stands in a league of its own in many ways. While there are other games within the same genre, you could argue that the Pokémon IP is so popular that you can't directly compete with it. Instead, some companies create games with similar elements that have some key differences. That's the case with The Thaumaturge, a game that's set to come out later this year.

The Thaumaturge is an RPG that play testers compared to a dark, gritty, and gorier version of Pokémon. That may be just the game older Pokémon fans want. The game's protagonist has a gift of taming ethereal creatures. It features turn-based combat, which is part of the reason testers compared the game to Pokémon.

Lenovo Legion Go

(Image credit: Windows Central)

When Valve launched the Steam Deck, the company sparked interest in the handheld gaming console. Since then, several companies have unveiled their own portable PCs, with Lenovo being the latest. The Legion Go runs on an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor, which is the same chip seen in some other handhelds like the ROG Ally.

What stands out is that the Legion Go has a pair of detachable controllers. The Legion Go can also charge up to 70% in just 30 minutes, thanks to Super Rapid Charge support.

Windows 11 is at the heart of the Legion Go, which allows the device to play games from Steam, Battle.net, Epic Games Store, Xbox Game Pass, and more.

Bye bye WordPad

(Image credit: Windows Central)

WordPad has been around since the days of Windows 95, but it will soon go away. Microsoft hasn't updated the app since Windows 8, but the company has continued to include WordPad in Windows. WordPad will be deprecated and removed from Windows in future releases of the OS

"WordPad is no longer being updated and will be removed in a future release of Windows. We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like .txt," said Microsoft.

The company did not specify when WordPad would be removed, but it will likely happen by the release of the next major version of Windows, which is expected in 2024.

Samsung gives second life to TVs

(Image credit: Future)

Samsung wants you to be able to stream games on just about any device, at least that's what it seems like. The company announced that it will add game streaming apps to its 2020 smart TV. While the older televisions won't receive the entire Samsung Gaming Hub, they'll receive standalone game streaming apps.

Samsung didn't specify which apps are on the way to its 2020 TVs, but presumably Xbox Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA GeForce Now are on the list.

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However, beneath the surface, there are indications that Google may be facing a Shorts problem on YouTube.

The rise and fall of YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts was introduced as a way for anyone to connect with a new audience using just a smartphone and the Shorts camera in the YouTube app. This was a clear move to compete with the growing popularity of TikTok, a platform dominated by short, engaging videos.

One issue Google faces is the challenge of maintaining content quality on Shorts. Unlike YouTube's traditional long-form content, Shorts are designed to be quickly consumed, making it harder for creators to produce high-quality, informative content in just a few seconds. This raises concerns about the overall content quality of the platform.

Monetization struggles

For content creators, monetization is a crucial aspect of their work. Despite YouTube Shorts' popularity among users, they often yield lower earnings for creators compared to longer videos, and this is due to several key factors.

Firstly, ad revenue plays a significant role in a creator's earnings on YouTube. The platform generates revenue through advertisements displayed on videos. However, short videos generally feature fewer ads, and these ads tend to be shorter themselves. This leads to a reduction in ad revenue for creators since there are fewer opportunities for advertisements to be displayed during a short video.

Secondly, YouTube's algorithm is designed to reward creators who produce longer videos that can hold viewers' attention for extended periods. Longer watch times result in higher engagement rates, and this, in turn, translates to better earnings for creators. In contrast, short videos often have lower engagement rates, as they are intended for quick viewing. This reduced engagement can negatively impact a creator's earnings, as YouTube's algorithm tends to favor longer, engaging content.

Additionally, the popularity of YouTube Shorts has led to increased competition among creators for ad revenue. With many content producers vying for the same audience, there's a surplus of short videos available on the platform. This high competition can lead to advertisers paying less for ads on short videos compared to longer ones, where the competition for ad space is less intense.

As Shorts' popularity grows, Google faces challenges related to copyright infringement and moderation. Short videos are more challenging to moderate, making it easier for inappropriate or copyrighted content to slip through the cracks, potentially harming both users and creators.

Now you: What do you think about YouTube Shorts?

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Table of contents:

1. Windows 11 (and 10), Edge, and other news
2. Updates are available
3. On the gaming side
4. Reviews are in
5. A blast from Microsoft's past
6. Random fact about Microsoft

Windows 11, Windows 10, Edge, and other news

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.

Let us start this week's Microsoft Weekly with Windows 10, the previous-gen operating system overshadowed by Windows 11's new features and controversies. As it turned out, Microsoft is not over with adding new features to Windows 10 (despite saying it would not do so). Users discovered that the latest non-security update paired with recent OneDrive preview updates introduces a new button on the File Explorer's ribbon. When opening Documents, Pictures, Videos, or Music, Windows 10 allows users to back up important files in OneDrive with a single click.

Microsoft has yet to announce the change, but those willing to try it right now can check out our article detailing how to get it working. It is worth noting that the lack of new features is not a problem for most Windows users. According to the latest Statcounter report, almost 72% of Windows PCs still run Windows 10.

Speaking of OneDrive, another thing that slipped under the radar is changes in Microsoft's cloud storage plans for business customers. Microsoft previously offered two storage plans: Plan 1 with up to 1TB ($5/mo per user) and Plan 2 with unlimited storage ($10/mo per user if the business qualified). Microsoft ditched the former somewhere in mid-July, leaving only the 1TB option. When asked for a comment, a Microsoft spokesperson revealed that the decision was made "in response to customer demand" and to "streamline the purchasing process."

The change marks the end of Microsoft offering unlimited OneDrive storage. In November 2015, the company ditched the perk for regular customers, citing "customer abuse" and blaming irresponsible Office 365 subscribers for uploading terabytes worth of data PC backups to OneDrive. In a nutshell, Microsoft was solving the problem it created.

After a round of less-than-exciting news, Edge users finally got what they have been asking Microsoft for quite a while. Alongside the Microsoft Edge 117 Beta release, the company announced the deprecation of several features in its browser. To improve the experience and simplify its browser, Microsoft is deprecating Kids Mode, Math Solver, and a few more niche features. As for more useful features, the company has quietly added a neat capability that lets you copy the current frame from a video.

Until recently, Microsoft has been trying to keep Microsoft Edge users from switching to other browsers by limiting access to some of its services from Chrome, Firefox, etc. However, Microsoft is now willing to lower its walls and let Chrome users access Bing Chat. In addition, the company launched Bing Chat on Edge Mobile.

Speaking of Bing Chat, Windows insiders in the Dev and Canary Channel now have access to Bing Chat Enterprise via the recently announced Windows Copilot feature. Bing Chat Enterprise works like its regular consumer-oriented counterpart with extra security measures to protect personal and corporate data.

Also, the service received better responses for map directions and live traffic updates. Bing Chat now can show visual directions and routers, making navigation easier and more convenient. And perhaps, in the future, you will be able to wear a backpack powered by Bing Chat—Microsoft has filed a patent application for a smart backpack with artificial intelligence. Quirky!

Microsoft has also issued a notification, warning Windows 11 21H2 users about the upcoming end of support. The initial Windows 11 release will reach its end of life in October 2023, which means customers must prepare for a forced upgrade to version 22H2 or 23H2.

Every Windows 11 version has a two-year lifecycle, and the upcoming end of support for version 21H2 means the operating system will soon turn two. Still, despite being available for quite a while, Windows 11 is not breaking any record in terms of user adoption. Statcounter's latest report claims the OS has only 23% of the global market. Things are more positive on the gaming side—Valve says almost 40% of all Steam users now run Windows 11.

Windows Insider Program

Windows Insiders got plenty of builds to test this week. Here is what is new:

• Canary Channel: 25941 with Dynamic refresh rate improvements, a reworked cast flyout, and fixes.
• Dev Channel: 23536 with fixes for the taskbar, Task Manager, various crashes, and more.
• Beta Channel: 22631/21.2265 with 3D Emoji and fixes.
• Server vNext: 25941

The updated Windows Insider builds also bring notable improvements for two stock apps: Snipping Tool and Notepad. Windows 11's built-in screenshot utility now features an improved capture bar, allowing you to switch between screenshots and screen recording without opening the app. Also, you can record your screen with your voice and mute the microphone when recording. As for Notepad, it now automatically saves your sessions, so you can close it with no extra prompts.

Updates are available (or not)

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.

The original Surface Duo has the honor of opening this section with what is probably its final firmware update. Microsoft has released the August 2023 update for the first and second-gen Surface Duo, bringing uninspiring Android security patches to those still rocking these dual-screen smartphones. Note that August 2023 seems to be the final firmware update for the original Surface Duo since the company plans to end its support on September 10, 2023.

Skype for Business in Teams Rooms is another thing Microsoft will soon discontinue. The company has published a blog post detailing the upcoming end of support for Skype for Business connections in Teams Rooms.

A new report emerged this week detailing a nasty security vulnerability in Skype for mobile devices. As it turned out, it is "trivially easy" to modify a link to obtain the receiver's IP address without them even clicking that link. Besides, there is no need to use some shady website or meticulously crafter malware website—a slightly modified link to Google or any other harmless website is enough to figure out the needed data. Microsoft is already aware of the problem and plans to address it in a future update.

Other notable updates released this week include the following:

• PowerToys received a new tool and various improvements in version 0.73. The new utility lets you crop the current application into a smaller window or create a thumbnail.
• Firefox 117 is now available in the Release channel with credit card autofill improvements, YouTube fixes, better keyboard navigation support on macOS, and more.
• Vivaldi also received a feature update, and it is a big one. Version 6.2 revamps the browser's code for a much faster user interface and reduced memory usage. It also improves address field suggestions, adds native geolocation service on macOS, and makes it easier to purge your browsing history with a single click.
• The Microsoft 365 app received a host of improvements across devices. It now features integrations with Microsoft Designer and Clipchamp, new widgets on mobile devices, a clipper on Android, and more.
• Microsoft 365 Insiders can also try a new Insert Table option that allows creating connected PowerBI Dataset tables in Excel. Another new feature available for preview is a like button for comments in PowerPoint.
• The new Microsoft Teams will add new ways for employees to communicate with different groups. This will make it easier for users to switch between chats with other groups within their organization.

Now let's talk about a few things from the Microsoft world going six feet under. For starters, Microsoft has announced the retirement of Visual Studio for Mac. The company said it would continue issuing security updates for the latest release for one more year, after which the IDE will become legacy software available only to Visual Studio subscribers. Microsoft recommends users move to VS Code or opt for Windows-based virtual machines (local or in the cloud).

Also, in a somewhat surprising move, Microsoft said it would soon remove WordPad, a thirty-year-old piece of software, from its operating system. This rich text editor is now deprecated, meaning users should not expect any meaningful updates or new features. And while it is still available, those using WordPad better start looking for free or premium alternatives. To commemorate WordPad, one of Windows' forgotten apps, John Callaham published a look-back article detailing the story of this text editor.

Finally, Microsoft has issued a reminder about the deprecation of Transport Layer Security Protocol 1.0 and 1.1. These old standards are not safe and should not be used by anybody. However, those relying on TLS 1.0 and 1.1 still can install them as optional components.

And here are the latest drivers released this week:

• AMD Radeon Software 23.8.2 with optimizations for Starfield. AMD claims the latest release improves performance by up to 16% when compared with the previous version.

On the gaming side

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

Lets start this section with hardware news: the recently announced Xbox Series S in black and 1TB SSD is now available. Besides looking neat, the console doubles the storage, making it a perfect entry-level console to play modern games that often exceed the 100GB threshold.

Speaking of 100GB+ games, Starfield, Bethesda Softworks' long-anticipated RPG, is launching next week (it is already available if you have purchased the most expensive edition). On September 5, 2023, the game will arrive on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Xbox Game Pass. Many gamers want to check out the game without investing too much money or raising the black flag (which is already possible). Therefore, many look for Xbox and PC Game Pass, Microsoft's gaming subscription that lets you get 14-day access for only $1 (Starfield will be available there on day 1). Sadly, Microsoft decided to pull a sneaky on gamers and removed the $1 trial without warning.

From now on, the only option to taste Starfield without spending $69.99 is to subscribe to PC Game Pass for $9.99/mo or Xbox Game Pass for $10.99 (there is also Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $16.99).

With the Starfield release upon us, Bethesda fans are starting to look forward to another long-anticipated title, The Elders Scrolls VI, announced five years ago at E3 2018 alongside the ill-fated Fallout 76. One of Bethesda's executives reassured gamers that the studio is working on The Elders Scroll VI. Still, you should not expect to hear from it any time soon—despite having a team working on TES VI, the studio's primary focus is Starfield, and it will remain so for a while.

Paradox and Colossal Order are gearing up to launch Cities: Skylines 2 on October 24, 2023 (it will also be available on PC and Xbox Game Pass on day 1). In the latest development entry, developers revealed details about the people living in players' cities and various aspects affecting their happiness, activities, life choices, and more. Besides, Cities: Skyline's most popular social media, Chiprer, is returning, letting you see how people react to your city-building strategies and informing you about the need to make a specific adjustment.

In addition to new Windows 11 preview builds, Microsoft released a new feature for Xbox Insiders. The latest preview update lets you upload your game captures to OneDrive automatically. It is now available for those with access to the Alpha and Alpha-Skip Ahead rings. However, as of right now, the feature can only upload 1080p videos without support for 4K and/or HDR videos. Microsoft says those options will be available later.

Last week, Microsoft announced its plans to sell Ubisoft rights to stream Activision-Blizzard games from the cloud. The decision was made to satisfy the UK's CMA concerns that the Microsoft-ABK merger would give the software giant too much of a competitive edge on the cloud gaming market.

This week, Microsoft President Brad Smith revealed in an interview that the company tried its best to come up with a solution to get the green light from the CMA. With the latest Microsoft-Ubisoft deal, the company feels it has done all it can to address the issues, and now the ball is on the regulators' side.

Another thing Microsoft has to settle is a dispute with the European Commission and its formal investigation into the company's effort to bundle Teams into other services. To comply with the watchdog, Microsoft revealed it would unbundle Teams from Microsoft 365 in Europe.

Deals and freebies

Those looking to play something new without spending much can check out the latest deals and freebies available across the platforms. This week's Deals with Gold include discounts on Battlefield, Borderlands, Far Cry, Ace Combat 7, Dead by Daylight, Resident Evil, and more.

The Epic Game Store is giving away Cave Story+, a 2D platformer made by one person in 2004. You can now grab its upgraded variant from 2011 with new content, remastered graphics and audio, and more.

If you want more, check out this week's Weekend PC Game Deals full of Sony hits, strategy games, bundles, etc.

Reviews are in

We also published a couple of reviews this week. One covers the Windows 11 23H2 update, a big release full of great features and long-expected changes. Check it out here, and be sure to let us know what you think about the upcoming release.

The second review from Steven Parker, Neowin's co-founder, covers a portable 144Hz display with decent specs and an attractive price tag. If you are in the market for such things or just curious about what $150 can get you, check out the review here.

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.

On August 24, 2001, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 6.0. The sixth version of the infamous and once most popular browser was highly controversial. On its 22nd anniversary, John Callaham remembered the good-old IE6 and security issues plaguing the browser for five years before its successor. The security security problems were so severe that the US government had to issue an advisory asking PC users not to use the browser without "protection" (sorry for the innuendo).

In the modern world, where each mainstream browser gets a "major" update every four weeks, reading about a browser not getting big updates for five years feels slightly surreal.

Another look-back article from John covers Microsoft's XNA Game Studio launched 17 years ago, on August 30, 2006. It was a spiritual predecessor to the ID@Xbox program created to make it easier for developers to develop games for Windows, Xbox, and Windows Mobile devices (long before the Windows Phone era).

Random fact about Microsoft

And here is a randomly selected (or maybe not-so-randomly) piece of trivia about the company, Windows, and other Microsoft-made things.

Did you know that security issues were not IE6's only problem? The browser had poor compatibility with web standards, particularly CSS, forcing web developers (including Neowin) to spend a lot of resources on implementing various workarounds and hacks to ensure their websites displayed properly. Although there was nothing good in Internet Explorer 6's bad compatibility and security, its flaws ultimately paved the way for proper standardization across the web, platforms, and browsers.

Nowadays, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, and others work together on multiple projects to improve interoperability and compatibility in Safari, Edge, Chrome, and Firefox.

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What is new in the Surface Laptop 4 (Intel) August 2023 firmware update?

• Addresses security vulnerability.

• Resolves charging over USB-C issue.

   

Here is the list of new drivers:

Note that you cannot undo or roll back Surface firmware updates, so we recommend backing up important data before installing available updates. Better safe than sorry.

Here is extra information about the release:

Interestingly, this is the second August 2023 firmware for the Surface Laptop 4 with Intel processor. A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft released a new set of drivers to improve Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. You can learn more about the update in our dedicated article.

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Because the game hasn't been "officially" released, Starfield is not showing up on Steam's most-played list. However, the independent SteamDB site was able to get the data from Steam's services, and it shows that Starfield has had as many as 234,502 players online at once for its first two days.

At the time of this writing, Starfield is the fifth most played game on Steam at the moment, again according to SteamDB. We expect that those concurrent player numbers to jump much higher on the evening of September 5, which is went players of the Standard $70 version of Starfield can begin playing.

The game is also at the top of Steam's sales charts at the moment and has been in the top 100 list in terms of sales for the past 12 weeks.

While it was expected that Starfield would get a big launch on Steam, the key is whether or not it will keep a large number of players online sometime after September 5. Bethesda will likely be happy if the game retains the number of players that another single-player RPG has done recently.

We are of course talking about Baldur's Gate 3, which launched a month ago and had over 800,000 concurrent players at its peak on Steam. Right now, the game continues to be popular on Valve's service. It is not only the third best-selling game on Steam (behind Starfield and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive), but it is also the third most-played game on Steam right now.

While it has lost a lot of its concurrent player base since the launch, there are still well over 480,000 Baldur's Gate 3 Steam players online at once. That would certainly be a good position for Starfield to be in a month after its launch.

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However, a player prepared a mod for DLSS from day one. This new mod for the Starfield enables DLSS in place of AMD's FSR, offering improved image quality for Nvidia GPU owners.

Created by modder PureDark, the 'Starfield Upscaler' mod allows players to activate DLSS in the graphics settings instead of AMD FSR. To install it, users must extract the files into their Starfield directory and add the required DLL file.

With the mod enabled, pressing End in-game brings up a menu to tweak DLSS settings. The mod essentially unlocks DLSS support that is not natively included in Starfield.

AMD is the exclusive partner for Starfield, which explains the default integration of their FSR 2.0 upscaler. However, if Bethesda wishes, AMD's gaming marketing head, Frank Azor, has expressed openness to officially adding DLSS support in a future update.

Meanwhile, the Starfield Upscaler mod claims to provide a way for the roughly 75% of PC gamers with Nvidia cards to take advantage of their hardware's specialized AI upscaling. According to the PC Gamer, this mod works flawlessly with no blocked achievements, making it an easy upgrade for Nvidia users wanting a visual boost.

In other news, AMD announced its third version of FSR graphics tech at Gamescom 2023. FSR 3 Frame Generation will reportedly give PC and console games a huge frame rate boost and will be added to Forspoken and Immortals of Aveum via patches in September. It is worth noting that Starfield supports the older FSR 2 for now.

Source: Nexus Mods via PC Gamer

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OC3D.net states there have been online reports of Intel Arc owners not being able to launch the game at all, while other have reported long load times. Still others have stated they have gotten the game to start running, only to crash several minutes later.

Our own check online for Starfield issues with Intel Arc GPUs has uncovered similar reports of the game crashing. That includes this X (formerly Twitter) post from Gabe Gilliam, who says he got the game to run with "seizure inducing flashing of broken shaders" before it crashed.

Just before the game's Early Access launch on Thursday evening, the Intel Graphics X account posted a message stating that the team was aware of these issues, and added, "We are working to improve the experience for the game's general release next week."

Starfield's developer Bethesda Game Studios announced earlier this year a partnership with AMD to have the game work well on its Ryzen CPUs and Radeon GPUs. Some people speculated that the deal included a ban on the game using NVIDIA's DLSS technology for its GeForce GPUs. However, AMD stated last week that was not the case and that Bethesda can put in that technology with AMD's full support.

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We have confirmed this to be the case ourselves, with none of the settings menus (Display, Interface, Accessibility, etc.) having any mention of changing FOV across all versions of the game.

Being a Bethesda title though, PC players have already taken it upon themselves to add the functionality to their games. As a Nexus mod page by creator Hellstorm102 shows (comparison shots below), creating a fresh config file in My Documents and adding a couple of lines will allow players to set any custom FOV. Other than for those looking to have a wider view as a benefit, this can also help those who suffer from motion sickness when playing games.

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To change the field of view, follow the directions below. However, keep in mind that extremely high FOV numbers can present issues like the camera clipping into clothing or objects nearby. Moreover, considering this expands the amount of real estate the game has to show the player at all times, a performance hit is to the expected.

1. Head to Windows' Documents folder, then My Games, and locate Starfield folder inside it. If this folder is not there, you probably haven't launched the game yet for it to be created.
2. While inside the \Documents\My Games\Starfield folder, create a new text file and name it StarfieldCustom.ini
3. Inside this file, add the following lines of text and save:

[Camera]
fFPWorldFOV=90.0000
fTPWorldFOV=90.0000

Change the numbers following the "=" sign to set the desired FOV. The given text above will set the FOV to 90. This should work across Steam and Microsoft Store (PC Game Pass) versions of the title.

Plenty of space for an FOV slider in the future, hopefully

The lack of FOV sliders mostly affects PC players due to how close they are usually to the display, with many developers nowadays including the handy feature in their ports. While not as commonplace as on PC, even some console games now have FOV sliders in settings menus to accommodate players. What's interesting is that Bethesda Game Studios' previous game, Fallout 76, currently has an FOV slider built into its menu, which makes its absence from Starfield a baffling one.

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The ad-free options would only be available in the European Union (EU) and is likely a response to regulatory scrutiny and privacy concerns in the region. Sources familiar with Meta's plans said that users who pay for Facebook and Instagram subscriptions would not see any ads within the apps.

Meta will continue to offer free versions of Facebook and Instagram with ads in the EU, it said. It is unclear how much the paid versions of the apps would cost or when the company might launch them.

The move highlights how tech companies like Meta may need to redesign products to comply with new regulations, especially in Europe. Laws like the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Digital Markets Act limit how companies can use personal data for advertising.

Offering an ad-free paid option could help Meta address some of the regulatory concerns about its current business model, which relies on analyzing user data to target ads. However, it's uncertain how many users would actually pay for a subscription.

It is worth noting that Threads is not yet available in the EU due to the regulator's privacy concerns. Moreover, Meta took some action to prevent EU users from accessing its app via VPNs in July. The social media giant has not said when it plans to launch Threads in the EU, but the app may be available in the region later this year, especially with ad-free subscription.

Meta earns most of its revenue from selling targeted ads. European Union accounts for around 10% of the company's ad business, making it the second most lucrative region after North America.

Source: New York Times (paywalled)

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With RDNA 2 (RX 6000), AMD went with a narrower memory bus while adding large quantities of on-board L3 cache, dubbed Infinity Cache, to compensate for the lowered memory bandwidth. Though this meant that these GPUs struggled slightly in memory-intense tasks like high-resolution gaming, Radeon actually came out on top in power efficiency, a much-needed victory in that department in a very long time. For example, the RX 6900 XT was able to outdo the RTX 3090 while the 6800 XT was more efficient than the RTX 3080. (Interestingly, it's Nvidia who has taken a very similar approach this time with a large amount of L2 cache.)

Sadly though, AMD's new RX 7000 cards have gone back to a wider memory bus design and this, along with architectural deficiencies, means that Nvidia is once again back on top as the power efficiency king.

Interestingly though, it looks like this was a conscious decision on AMD's part to sort of ignore power draw as the company's Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Graphics Business Unit, Scott Herkelman, feels that not many gamers actually care about power consumption when it comes to desktop gaming.

In a recent interview with Club386, Herkelman revealed this when asked about the weaker energy efficiency of the upcoming RX 7700 XT compared to the RTX 4070:

Q) Energy efficiency also appears weaker than Nvidia on paper – RTX 4070, for example, has a 200W TGP, compared to 245W for RX 7700 XT. Is this an area of concern?

Scott Herkelman: We have a company initiative in driving good performance per watt across our portfolio of products. We look at perf per watt on every chart when bringing all chips to market. In notebooks, it matters greatly. In desktop, however, it matters, but not to everyone. There are some people who are really concerned about power, others don’t care as much.

However, Herkelman does acknowledge the benefits of a more efficient design and states that power efficiency is a priority for the company.

We definitely want to make a better perf-per-watt chip. A better chip makes the overall board more affordable, which enables us to do different things with the pricing and hopefully supply additional performance to the gamer. It’s also good for the environment and your own electricity bill.

Power is definitely a prime initiative. You’ll see us over time get better and better at it. We need to catch up.

Finally, Scott Herkelman also acknowledged the idle power consumption struggles AMD has been having with its 7000 series, adding that it may take some more time to fully resolve all such issues:

There are still bugs that we need to fix. Idle power is one of them. We believe there is a driver fix for it. It’s a wonky one, actually. We do see some inconsistencies with idle power that shouldn’t be there, and we’re working with our partners to maybe help with that. It will be cleaned up, but it might take a bit more time.

AMD has been trying to fix power draw issues on these cards for a while now. The first driver with a known fix was released last year in December. In the meantime, the Radeon division has been trying to fix idle power draw as well but with limited success, as these fixes have been delivered in bits and pieces mostly.

Source: Club386

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In the change notes for the patch on Steam, Larian notes that there's some small additional story content in this update. That includes a new epilogue scene for the character of Karlach, and more small moments featuring that same character have been added to the game's first and second acts. Larian says it is working on adding new epilogues for other members of the game's cast of characters.

There are also a number of performance improvements in the second patch, and the storage sizes of the game's save files have been reduced. There's also a new feature specifically for co-op players:

Withers has heard tales of Tavs, having requested the presence of their friends for an afternoon of adventuring, wanting to return to the lifestyle of a solo adventurer without their friends in tow. Therefore, he has come up with a solution. Introducing Withers’ Wardrobe of Wayward Friends! With this woodworked wonder, you can now dismiss co-op party members and bring your companions back into the fold. Withers’ solution only extends to custom Tavs, however - so no throwing Gale into a cupboard (although we’re sure it’s comfy in there).

There have also been a number of UI changes in this build, and of course, there are some bug fixes as well.

This update for the PC version comes just a few days before Baldur's Gate 3 is due to be released for the PS5 console. The game is also coming to Microsoft's Xbox Series X and S consoles later in 2023, but the game's co-op split-screen support won't be included for Xbox Series S players. It's possible that support could be added sometime after the Xbox version's launch.

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Samsung's press release stated this new process doubles the amount of memory in the same package as the current 16Gb modules, which the company started mass-producing back in May 2023. The company added:

Previously, DDR5 128GB DRAM modules manufactured using 16Gb DRAM required the Through Silicon Via (TSV) process. However, by using Samsung’s 32Gb DRAM, the 128GB module can now be produced without using the TSV process, while reducing power consumption by approximately 10% compared to 128GB modules with 16Gb DRAM. This technological breakthrough makes the product the optimal solution for enterprises that emphasize power efficiency, such as data centers.

Samsung added that this new development will lead the way for the creation of DRAM modules that will be as high as 1TB sometime in the future. The company plans to provide the new 32Gb DRAM products to data centers, along with other companies that "require applications like AI and next-generation computing."

Mass production of the new 32Gb DDR5 DRAM is scheduled to begin sometime before the end of 2023. Samsung did not reveal a price point for these new products.

The company also noted that it made its first DRAM memory product in 1983. At that time it was a 64-kilobit (Kb) DRAM module that was on the cutting edge of computing. Samsung points out that in 2023, with the launch of its 32Gb DDR5 DRAM product, it has increased its memory capacity "by a factor of 500,000 over the last 40 years."

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