WW 928: The Rice is Done - Edge 134's speed, Reboot Chime, Altera

Paul, Leo, and Richard get into new Windows features (thanks to the Feature Tracker), hardware shifts for Microsoft/Intel/Apple, AI moves from OpenAI/Apple/Adobe, Notion Mail, a Hawaiian drink, the National Recording Registry, rice cookers, and electronic timer tunes!

Windows 11

• Feature Tracker. Since we last talked, Microsoft has announced the following new features for Windows 11: • Semantic search can now search for Windows settings using natural language - Dev and Beta (24H2) channels, no clear stable date but guessing June • Narrator can more accurately describe images by detailing the people, objects, colours, text, and numbers in them, Snapdragon X only, same builds as above • Snipping Tool with "Text extraction" in the capture bar - This in Canary now, but it was in at least Dev previously, this could ship in stable at any time, it's an app • Recall (preview) and Click to Do (preview) head to the Release Preview channel (24H2) - Expect this in May Patch Tuesday • Narrator speech recap, Phone Link/Start integration, File Explorer Home updates, Windows Share with Edit all head to Release Preview (23H2) - Expect these in May Patch Tuesday - They were added to Beta channel (23H2) a few days earlier • Plus, Microsoft Edge is up to 9 percent faster at web rendering and we're having a fiesta • Also, the Windows 95 startup/logout chime has been inducted into the National Recording Registry

Hardware

• Surface Hub OG hits EOL this year just like Windows 10 • First major change under new Intel CEO • What's a computer? The iPad, supposedly, but we'll see • Everything's fine, but Google laid off hundreds in Pixel/Android group

AI

• Apple is making big changes so that Apple Intelligence will actually be intelligent • Adobe is going agentic too • OpenAI is creating its own social network because the world needs another social network • OpenAI announces three GPT-4.1 models - may retire GPT-4 soon - plus now o3 and o4-mini models • ChapGPT gets an image library and a memory • Claude gets Research and Google Workspace integration • Meta will start training its AI models with EU data, wink wink

Xbox and games

• Xbox app on mobile will soon let you buy games (!) and add-on content, join Game Pass, and redeem perks. Did Microsoft get a concession from Apple/Google?? COD: Modern Warfare II • (OG) and more are coming to Game Pass in the next few weeks • Xbox announces Doom: The Dark Ages • limited edition accessories Sea of Thieves • is coming to Battle.net • Sony forced to raise the price of PS5 in three locales

Tips and Picks

• Tip of the week: Think like an individual, not an enterprise • App pick of the week: Notion Mail • RunAs Radio this week: How to Not Hate PowerShell with Barbara Forbes • Brown liquor pick of the week: 12th Hawaii Distiller's Reserve

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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