Devindra has been writing about the way technology intersects with our lives for nearly 20 years. He started the Amherst Student's first technology column, worked in IT support for many (many) years, and eventually moved to Brooklyn to cover New York's tech scene in 2009.
This week, Microsoft started rolling out the Windows 11 2024 update, but it quickly became clear that the company was far more eager to unveil new features for its Copilot AI and Copilot + AI PCs. In this episode, Devindra and Cherlynn chat about Microsoft 's current AI priorities, and what it means for people with older PCs. Also, we discuss the death of HoloLens and Microsoft giving up on AR as Meta, Apple and even Snap build for an augmented reality future.
So that's our first topic. We'll talk about a couple other things too, including HoloLens 2 and basically the entire HoloLens family dying. As always, folks, if you're enjoying the show, subscribe to us on iTunes or your podcatcher of choice, leave us a review on iTunes. That's always appreciated. Drop us an email at [email protected].
But the entire like presentation for Microsoft is we love Copilot plus AI PC systems. Did that feel weird to you?I mean, I know that there was this the main post that you filed was like at the end where you said, Oh, by the way, there are these Windows 11 updates as well coming. And I think it didn't feel weird to me, I guess, because I was like, yeah, of course they're all in on Copilot and everything is about AI.
That's when they announced the co pilot plus. PC initiative. And that was these custom, not custom, but these like systems that had a certain level of quality, right? So they launched with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X elite and X pro chips. But basically there was a minimum standard of 16 gigabytes of RAM, right?
So that's kind of useful. We're kind of getting a sense of what Microsoft wants to do with these new NPU powered features in the photos app, you can also super resolution photos, which is something you could do in Adobe stuff and Lightroom and other apps Pixelmator does that on the Mac too, but. So hackers can't like directly access it. Windows Hello biometrics is necessary by default. And also, Oh, the feature is not turned on by default. You have to turn it on. And these all came from complaints from everybody. I also asked Microsoft specifically, so what did you learn from this whole mistake, like this whole situation, which is they announced recall and they were like, this is one of the coolest things you can ever do.
excuse for not giving the administrator full access to that, you know, to whatever that database is. So there's just things that they're thinking of that they didn't think of before. And that's a shame, but they're saying like that basically this whole fiasco they're taking into consideration. I don't quite know if I trust them yet, but how do you feel about their turnaround IAnd I re I realize it's more than just allow people to opt in.
That's a lab feature. And also think deeper. Which is the ability to just give it a task and have it process a little longer to maybe get you some more helpful advice. These are all Copilot Labs features, these are like extra experimental if you think about the old Google Labs stuff. And right now only people paying for Copilot Pro subscriptions, so those are the 20 a month thing.
It's just like Microsoft selling it to people who are paying, meaning they're selling it to people who are fans, who are less likely to question is, you know, curious, in my opinion.
It feels like Copilot is your new computing interface in a way. And that's also probably why they're a little more excited about it rather than A Windows update, even though the Windows update is pretty big according to Microsoft, it is a full OS reconstruction. So it is not just like a minor step up.
We've got Apple with the redesigned Siri, which is still in classic Apple style, not actually here yet, right? Apple intelligence, slow to the party. And Amazon will see in a bit, gave us kind of, a teaser at what AI on it's going to look like. And it's much more of the same, but here's what you said got me to thinking, right?
Now we're kind of seeing more of that, but also at the same time, like the basic copilot search is not super useful to me, I would rather search the internet and get actual results from, and go look at those results rather than have this. Machine feed information back to me and me not under, like it playing a game of telephone and us not knowing if that information is actually accurate.
So they'll, they can fix it. To your point though, like Bing AI, Bing search is pretty useless still. I think we're going to get to this later in the episode too. But I think Google search, Is also getting worse and worse. I've seen this online for a very long time, right? Yeah. With the ads placements up top, with the shopping modules up top, with the top stories and the discover boxes up top, it used to be helpful.
Look, I think summarize is could be one of the easiest, like the best things that I can do if it's accurate and reliable. And I think For a lot of people who've been trying out the Apple intelligence stuff on betas, they found notification summaries to be quite accurate and super helpful. Yeah. There are tools that are going to be helpful.Yeah. I mean, it's all about how we use this information. Yeah, notifications.
How can it be the basis of all these new interactions that are going to be a big part of windows and they're just like, this is a learning experience. I think people will understand if we make mistakes, that's not. It's not how computers should work, folks. Like I don't, you don't want to calculate or to have a learning experience as you're trying to, you don't calculate a critical figure for you.
Glasses. So that was the story going around. He just did not make that team a really good environment. So if you lose the guy who's like leading that technology, that's one thing, but also if you have Facebook, if you have meta, who's willing to spend tens of billions of dollars to really get ahead and Apple, who's clearly thought harder about vision pro than I think Microsoft has about HoloLens when it comes to making a consumer product.
Felt to me for a while that Microsoft won in that category, even if it was very niche. And like you said, the defense category is somewhere where they can probably make a lot of money out of, but I, it's sad to see that just as it's getting, you know, to a point where the race seems to be properly heating up that like Microsoft's no, we're good.No, thank you. Yeah, we're it's a little, it seems like you guys are far ahead of us right now. So we're just tapping out.
So yeah, just a shame to see and Let us know what you folks think I mean I feel like maybe just because I'm a 90s PC kid who grew up on Windows like I have an affinity for old Windows I think about the way it works a lot If you have thoughts about Microsoft's new trajectory Drop us an email at podcastsandgadget.All right, let's move on to some other news.
Yay. I guess we needed another one. And up until then, the HD eight will cost, I think closer to 50, I forget if it's 55, but like somewhere in that ballpark. Anyway, what did jump out at me when I saw the press release was A, this is not the Amazon Hardaware event we've been waiting to happen in October, right?
Just to recap, like last week Samsung had the its FE event where it said it was bringing Galaxy AI to all, right? Samsung hammered home the point that with its new Galaxy Tab S10 series, that now you've got Galaxy AI on a phone, a tablet, and a watch. It's, you know, Samsung. It's, quote, bringing its AI to all, I guess, form factors.
It's that. Tablets are just screens, like giant screens with glass, and they will be destroyed by your kids. The kids version of the E Fire HD puts them in a nice protective case. They have this guarantee from Amazon, so you feel a little better about it. I still have not done this for my kids. And I think For me, that's where Amazon's Hardaware is still intriguing. And to be clear, no new Kindle has yet been announced this year season slash whatever. So we could still be waiting to see stuff from Amazon. And I wonder what would happen if they decided to stuff AI into a Kindle. Like I have no clue.It's mainly the ink technology that keeps Kindles the price that they are. They occasionally go down, but they, those do not have super fast processors.
So depending on your view of humanity, you don't even need AI for that. You just need you just need a Dom to basically build your entire life. Let's move on to some other news. How about that?I did not, but please explain to me. I mean, I saw it floating around and I kind of have the TLDR, but I'd love to hear your details.TLDR is that Sonos released an app overhaul earlier this year. It was supposed to be a big redesign for them and it was a disaster. It was buggy. It crashed a lot.
So, the quota here is our priority since its release has been and continues to be fixing the app. There were missteps and we first went in, went deep to understand how we got here and then moved to convert those learnings into action. I love when everybody said, anybody says learnings, by the way. Such wonderful corporate speak.
The actual synchronization stuff is great. But just kind of a mess. I feel like they should discount some of these things. Be aware of the ARC whatever the new headphones are too. That was kind of the thing they were rebuilding the app for. AndSo check out our review of that whole thing. Yeah, Sonos is still keeping it real, I guess, trying to fix all these mistakes. You have something you want to mention from Google, Cherlynn. Yeah, just areally quick bunch of news from Google.
So anyway Google also updated its Chrome Plus Chromebook Plus Slate of products this week. Go to Engadget. com for all the details. Nate covered it for us, but yeah, I mean, as we continue to see all the big companies fight it out over AI it's nice to, you know, I guess, see what else is being put out there.That's something.
So we have that information too. I'm sure once Meta is ready to do like true AR stuff, this is going to be something that they do. I also think, and I think I learned this later in life is that I'm probably a little face blind. I used to think I was just bad at remembering people.
Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows Update Google Search Copilot Windows 11
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Shawn Mendes' Smoldering Twitter ComebackWhy, why, why would you post that picture, Shawn?
Read more »
Laughter and Humor 101Why we laugh, why we don’t, and why it matters
Read more »
Engadget Podcast: Reviewing the iPhone 16 and Apple Watch Series 10Devindra has been writing about the way technology intersects with our lives for nearly 20 years. He started the Amherst Student's first technology column, worked in IT support for many (many) years, and eventually moved to Brooklyn to cover New York's tech scene in 2009.
Read more »
Why Ole Miss Beats the South Carolina Gamecocks | Locked On Ole Miss PodcastWill this be the game we see Ulysses Bentley IV play a larger role at running back?
Read more »
Why Razorback Fans Hate A&M | Locked on Razorbacks PodcastLong history against former SWC opponent, but riding current losing streaks getting annoying.
Read more »
Apple halts iPadOS 18 update for M4 iPad Pro after bricking reportsPranav is a senior editor at Engadget responsible for handling news coverage during west coast hours.
Read more »